Most disappointing game dragon age 2? WTF?

@Tahnit said:

Dragonage 2 had its issues but on the whole it was an enjoyable bioware rpg.

Nope, sorry. Was Dragon Age: Origins the greatest RPG ever? No, but it was a great one. Naturally many people, myself included, had high expectations of Dragon Age 2. Instead of greatness, we got a mediocre story, coupled with mediocre characters (see Anders, Varic was cool though). Simplified skills and magic, no item sets...no wait, there was one unique set for each class...one. And finally, identical dungeons. Long story short, Dragon Age 2 was the biggest disappointment of 2011.

Frankly, it wasn't only a big disappointment it was also completely forgettable. I was surprised when i saw that it came out in 2011.

Brink did have something to live up to, Quake Wars which I loved. My biggest complaint with Brink is that it's completely broken on AMD cards or at least was for a long time. Haven't tried it for a while.

@TheDudeOfGaming: I really do get the feeling that Bioware had many good ideas, but they were put under a lot of pressure by EA to churn this thing out quickly. There are some good ideas here that couldn't fully pan out because of the short dev cycle.

@cbk486: I agree dude, DA2 isn't a bad game. But compared to Origins it kinda is. And it's unavoidable, being that it's a sequel to a great game, people will compare it to the first game, in which case DA2 will, for most people, come up short. I'm guessing that if i hadn't played Origins first i would have a better impression of Dragon Age 2. In the end, all we can do is hope that BioWare will go back to being it's old self. And that Dragon Age 3 will surpass both games. Unlikely, but I can hope. Also, you changed your avatar while i was writing this, I'm kinda freaked out now.

@TheDudeOfGaming said:

Also, you changed your avatar while i was writing this, I'm kinda freaked out now.

@TheDudeOfGaming: I am always watching you.

Brink didn't have a name to uphold.

If you listen to the podcast they explain why they feel that way. I also agree with them. DA:O was one of my favourite games of the last decade, if not all time, and to have it followed up by that steaming POS... sigh...

I can see it being the most disappointing, when coming to it from the expectations of the first game, but it was far from a bad game. It was actually a really good game, it was just not as good as the first. It did a lot of things better than the first game, the snappy dialogue between characters in your party helped to develop each very well, and the combat very felt satisfying and made me feel like a deadly rouge or a powerful mage. It also did a lot of things worse than the first, seen one dungeon, seen them all, and the story got pretty silly, especially close to the end. So yes, it was pretty disappointing, but it wasn't even close to being a bad game.

If I lived in the Dragon Age world, and I saw my half dozen friends on the other side of the fence get turned into clouds of red mist, you know what I wouldn't do?

Jump over the fence to join the fray.

When the other half dozen soldiers in front of me jump the fence and get effortlessly turned into mists of red, I wouldn't jump the fence.

And if I was stupid enough to jump the fence and get turned into red mist, I sure hope the group behind me wouldn't be that brainlessly stupid.

If Square made a sequel to Final Fantasy Tactics and made it a third person, music based dance game based in Ivalice, it'd be no different than the transition from Dragon Age 1 to 2. I don't think it would have garnered the hate (or sales) if it was called Dragon Age: Hawke's Retribution, or something.

The direction of Dragon Age II started disappointing me from the moment they announced that multiple player races/origins were being tossed out in favor of a dullard fantasy equivalent to Commander Shepard.

@Deleth said:

@Abyssfull said:

@Branthog said:

@Jimbo said:

@Prodstep said:

Also fuck Anders seriously, what a shit character holy hell.

Well said.

But, could also be said of nearly every DA2 character.

I'm all for hatin' on everything to do with DA2, but the characters were still up to the same high BioWare standards. Sure, DA2 Anders sucked, but characters like Varric and Merril were brilliant, with likeable and highly characteristic personalities. Varric in particular is one of the best new characters of the year, I think; it's a shame the Bomb crew forgot about him under all the other rubbish that plagued DA2. Maybe they wouldn't of placed him in the top 3, but it sucks that they didn't at least acknowledge him.

What the heck? The characters were all damn awful and unlikeable. Just to point out a few of the most obvious ones:

1. We have Anders, an character who stands out most for constantly whining about all kind of stuff. Aside from being ungrateful, unreliable and way over the top he's also plain annoying. I could go to incredible lenghts to point out all the things I didn't like about him, but that would take to much space.

2. Then there's Merril. Who's supposed to be the "nice virgin girl from next door" and who's also a friggind bloodmage. She goes from "oh how cute kittens" to omnicidal maniac trying to bring elder gods into the Dragon Age 2 world. She doesn't listen to anyone, she doesn't really care for anyone besides herself and only after everything went horrible wrong and other people had to pay the price for her he even considers that she might be wrong.

3. Which brings me to Fenris, who's supposed to be "dark and troubled" with such a sad past. In truth everything about him screamed "HIPSTER EMO" and I wanted to strangle him after a few minutes. His constant whining and bitching doesn't really help...

4. Then there's Isabella, who seems to be on a quest to catch ever STD there is and who outright cheats on you right in front of you implying that she does it all the time even after a certain point when we finally found out "what a horrible past she had and that she only behaves like that because of her terrible past and actually she doesn't want to act like that at all" and so on...

5. Then we have Aveline and Varrick. Ok there isn't so much one could hold against them, but neither are they really outstanding. They look way better since you only have the previous four to compare them to...

1. Anders, sure, as I already stated earlier, was a tit and I particularly repulsive when put against who he used to be during Awakening.

2. Merril's awesome because of how weird and left-field it is that she's a clumsy, mumbling neurotic who also happens to use Blood Magic. I mean you're criticising her for being something a little different? Would you of rather she was simply just what you initially described: a nice virgin girl from next door who only talks about how cute kittens are? I mean c'mon. ''She doesn't listen to anyone'' ? What does that even mean? Obviously she cares about your character if you strike a romance with her, and the whole sticking to her ideals thing shouldn't be seen as a criticism, but a nod to how she is still her own character. And she justifies as to why she's adamant to fix the mirror as well, it's understandable that she'd want to keep something of her race's heritage in the now. Also the part I'm sure you referring to involving her clan, that can all be avoided if you make the right dialogue choices.

Again, I really like Merril exactly because of how there's 2 very different sides to her and she isn't so plain-cut and one-dimensional. I also thought she was really funny because of the whole 'fish out of water' awkward archetype she plays with, too.

3. Y'know what? Sure, I can give you that. Fenris was kind of annoying with the white-hair, talking about ''his soul'' and the over-abundance of melancholy he was dripped in. But he did still have a pretty solid character story all the same.

4. @Jimbo gave a good summation as to why she too is pretty alright. She piles on the slutty exterior pretty thick, but it's there for a reason. Also like Merril, I thought she was pretty funny.

5. You can't say much about Aveline and Varric because there's nothing obtuse to complain about. They're both two of the best characters in the game in fact; Aveline because of how she strives to be a very powerful female warrior (I mean she's your tank!) but wasn't made to have a doll-face and for like 98% of the game wears full body armour. Her character arc revolving around Donnic was simply adorable, too. Very stern and no-nonsense and is a great advocate for the ''strong women'' concept we have on GB.

Varric, well Varric's Varric! Voiced by the smooth, sultry tones of Brian Bloom, Varric plays the cool comic-relief very well I think. The parts where he exaggerates the story were hilarious, and while he doesn't have as much depth like other characters, he still works really well for what is required of him: to play as the witty Dwarf always with a great one-liner to throw around.

You also missed out Sebastian, who I'm sure you'd also hate given your consistent track-record. But of course that what it all comes down: personal preference. And hey, that's fine that you don't like 'em so much, but calling them awful just seems unfounded. They all have some relative depth to them and they make good use of BioWare's traditionally snappy character dialogue. I'll even go as far as to say that Aveline, Merril and Varric are three of my favourite characters from BioWare - full stop. And I'm of the majority who thinks Dragon Age 2 was an egregious disappointment. I did complete it twice, mind you... there are still parts which I enjoyed, like the characters, and the combat, too, actually; minus the part where enemies just literally ''appear'', which is fucking inane, I strongly believe that DA2's combat is essentially Origins just with a lot more flair and style.

But don't get me wrong, I am far from a BioWare apologist and will gladly admit that DA2 is a blemish on the brilliance of Dragon Age: Origins. That doesn't mean that DA2 is an out-and-out travesty on gaming, though, and the characters are one such aspect that I think are worth defending.

@Tahnit said:

How the hell is dragon age 2 considered most disappointing game? Did the bombsquad guys forget a game called BRINK?! Seriously that game was completely broken from day 1. Dragonage 2 had its issues but on the whole it was an enjoyable bioware rpg. Brink on the other hand was a broken complete mess of a game. The single player AI was a joke, the multiplayer was unbalanced and not very much fun, and the game had numerous issues on the pc.

Seriously guys wtf?

The problem with Brink is that no one gave a crap about it from the beginning. Dragon Age was a press and user darling that seemed to be a great evolution in many ways of the old Baldurs Gate games. Dragon Age 2 threw away all of that good will to become a mediocre action game. I remember waiting in line at PAX to play the pre-release demo and left feeling supremely disappointed.

Yep. It was.

Wait... I haven't finished the game yet, but I do know how it ends and I know a lot about the Anders arc... and I can't really see why people are so down on him. The biggest issue I see is the retconning his character and story arc from Awakening takes. As a character, he's a dick, but his motivations make that at least understandable.

I've found ever character I've met in the game to be immensely interesting up until Fenris. Aveline and Varric make strong cases for video game characters of the year. I'd honestly give it to Aveline.

And as to the main topic, don't forget, their justification was pretty solid. Dragon Age 2 was Bioware's first misstep. Ever. Yes, I'm including Sonic: Dark Brotherhood. It was bound to happen eventually with a Bioware under EA. They rushed it out the door and went for a mass market appeal. The latter issue was fine with a game like Mass Effect 2 because it (arguably, I suppose) fixed most everything that was wrong with the game in the process. Dragon Age was a game developed for a specific crowd of people: enthusiasts of the best days of computer role-playing games. What they did with it, from a gameplay perspective, is the definition of fixing what wasn't broken.

Only idiots thought Brink would be good...

I actually thought Duke Nukem would be the most disappointing game of the year, not because people didn't expect it to be bad, but because I don't think people expected it to be quite as bad as it was, and people were hyped to the moon over it. 14 years in the making, expectations were all over the place, I think people were thinking it would be at least passable and not as bad as it turned out to be.

@AndrewB said:

Wait... I haven't finished the game yet, but I do know how it ends and I know a lot about the Anders arc... and I can't really see why people are so down on him. The biggest issue I see is the retconning his character and story arc from Awakening takes. As a character, he's a dick, but his motivations make that at least understandable.

I've found ever character I've met in the game to be immensely interesting up until Fenris. Aveline and Varric make strong cases for video game characters of the year. I'd honestly give it to Aveline.

And as to the main topic, don't forget, their justification was pretty solid. Dragon Age 2 was Bioware's first misstep. Ever. Yes, I'm including Sonic: Dark Brotherhood. It was bound to happen eventually with a Bioware under EA. They rushed it out the door and went for a mass market appeal. The latter issue was fine with a game like Mass Effect 2 because it (arguably, I suppose) fixed most everything that was wrong with the game in the process. Dragon Age was a game developed for a specific crowd of people: enthusiasts of the best days of computer role-playing games. What they did with it, from a gameplay perspective, is the definition of fixing what wasn't broken.

The retconning is an issue because they made him into a less interesting character. Suddenly instead of being sexually agnostic, he's just into you regardless of your sex for gameplay purposes. He's not a rogue wizard on the run, he's just full of indignant rage. He also comes off like an unthinking asshole, unlike the previous game where he was a fickle ally. Why make his character less interesting? He went from being a great character to an archetype. Just idiotic on Bioware's part.

@SuperCycle said:

I actually thought Duke Nukem would be the most disappointing game of the year, not because people didn't expect it to be bad, but because I don't think people expected it to be quite as bad as it was, and people were hyped to the moon over it. 14 years in the making, expectations were all over the place, I think people were thinking it would be at least passable and not as bad as it turned out to be.

It's hard to hold any expectations for a game that's been in development that long. How could I possibly be disappointed when I'm braced for a total disaster?

DA2 was the biggest disappointment of the year for me 100% I loved DAO and played through it twice. DA2 lost me before Act 2. I have not been able to go back.

To put it into perspective. I played 86 hours of DAO and only 32 of DA2.

Dragon age 2 isn't a bad game it's just no where near what you expect out of Bioware. You expect this to come from some small rpg makers without a name to them not Bioware.

@Hailinel: Well I don't think people were actually braced for total disaster, I think everyone knew it would be bad, but I think people held onto such a nostalgia for that game that they had hoped it would have been better than it was. I just think that game was hyped more and people thought it would have been better than it was. It was such a letdown that it didn't even live up to my most minimal anticipations.

@Irvandus said:

Dragon age 2 isn't a bad game it's just no where near what you expect out of Bioware. You expect this to come from some small rpg makers without a name to them not Bioware.

Disagree. It is a bad game. Even worse so because of what I expect from Bioware.

@SuperCycle said:

@Hailinel: Well I don't think people were actually braced for total disaster, I think everyone knew it would be bad, but I think people held onto such a nostalgia for that game that they had hoped it would have been better than it was. I just think that game was hyped more and people thought it would have been better than it was. It was such a letdown that it didn't even live up to my most minimal anticipations.

Anyone with a realistic grasp of the situation would know that DNF was not going to turn out well. It took fourteen years to make; that the game was actually able to be put into a playable state as a complete game after all that wasted time and money is a triumph in itself, but that doesn't meant that people had reason to believe that the end result would be a good game. I went in with expectations lowered to the point that I was surprised at how (comparatively) well it actually turned out. To say I was in any way disappointed by the end result would be a falsehood. By comparison, Bioware took one of my favorite RPGs of this generation and, in the process of making a sequel, completely shit the bed and failed my every expectation.

@AndrewB said:

Wait... I haven't finished the game yet, but I do know how it ends and I know a lot about the Anders arc... and I can't really see why people are so down on him. The biggest issue I see is the retconning his character and story arc from Awakening takes. As a character, he's a dick, but his motivations make that at least understandable.

I've found ever character I've met in the game to be immensely interesting up until Fenris. Aveline and Varric make strong cases for video game characters of the year. I'd honestly give it to Aveline.

And as to the main topic, don't forget, their justification was pretty solid. Dragon Age 2 was Bioware's first misstep. Ever. Yes, I'm including Sonic: Dark Brotherhood. It was bound to happen eventually with a Bioware under EA. They rushed it out the door and went for a mass market appeal. The latter issue was fine with a game like Mass Effect 2 because it (arguably, I suppose) fixed most everything that was wrong with the game in the process. Dragon Age was a game developed for a specific crowd of people: enthusiasts of the best days of computer role-playing games. What they did with it, from a gameplay perspective, is the definition of fixing what wasn't broken.

On paper, it does look like an understandable trajectory for how Anders as a character would progress. It was established during Awakening that he did despise the chantry and so forth, and thought mages were caged like prisoners. But the way Anders is presented makes him appear like a super whiny asshole and, for me, didn't have the same charming, rogue-like qualities about him. A lot of it can be chalked up to his voice actor. Greg Ellis was perfect as Anders, but I think they opted for a different VA because Greg also voices Cullen, and it appears that he may play a larger role down the line, wherein Anders can die... but then again with that said, many of the characters in Origins could die as well and we all know what that potential outcome is worth in the grand scheme of things...

@Hailinel: Again, I wasn't arguing that anyone had any expectations of Duke Nukem being good, but there is a factor that comes into play with a game like that, one that has had a huge mystery surrounding it for all these years, it being cancelled and reborn, and cancelled again. Switching developers and all the hype that went into it near the end. It was such a beast of hype train after 14 years that it couldn't have possibly lived up to anyone's expectations. That being said, there was still an aura of mystery around it, maybe it wouldn't be that bad, Maybe it could be passable, maybe the nostalgia will bring it to a whole new audience. Sadly is was a train wreak, and although Dragon Age 2 failed to meet your every expectation, Duke Nukem failed to meet even my lowest of expectations.

@SuperCycle said:

@Hailinel: Again, I wasn't arguing that anyone had any expectations of Duke Nukem being good, but there is a factor that comes into play with a game like that, one that has had a huge mystery surrounding it for all these years, it being cancelled and reborn, and cancelled again. Switching developers and all the hype that went into it near the end. It was such a beast of hype train after 14 years that it couldn't have possibly lived up to anyone's expectations. That being said, there was still an aura of mystery around it, maybe it wouldn't be that bad, Maybe it could be passable, maybe the nostalgia will bring it to a whole new audience. Sadly is was a train wreak, and although Dragon Age 2 failed to meet your every expectation, Duke Nukem failed to meet even my lowest of expectations.

Hype does not equal expectation. Just because you hype a game to high heaven doesn't mean that I'm bound to feel any expectation regarding quality.

@Hailinel: Umm... I'm pretty sure that Hype is the process of inflating expectations, whether you buy into the hype or not, hype still is pretty much another word for building up expectations. Also, are you ignoring what I am trying to tell you? I continually say that people expected Duke Nukem to be a bad game. I just think that the amount of disappointment people had for DA2 pales in comparison to the amount the disappointment that people should have had for Duke Nukem Forever. I'm not saying you weren't disappointed with Dragon Age 2, but with the amount of time that had passed for Duke Nukem and the whole mystery surrounding that game it should have been a far biggest disappointment.

@Tahnit: Dragon Age Origins was an INCREDIBLE game that PROVED that the genre most thought was dead save for obscure PC titles still carried weight. Then Dragon Age 2 went from superb to mediocre, trying to action things up and resulting in less satisfying combat, a complete abandoning of the original story and the player's character, a unique but often poorly received art style, and a HUGE amount of recycling assets in a really sloppy, lazy way.

Brink wasn't supposed to be amazing, and wasn't the sequel to a game that was GOTY worthy. It had a big name backing it, Bethesda, but Splash Damage doesn't exactly have a golden history. Or, much of a history at all.

Mass Effect 2 is the only game that has disappointed me more than Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age: Origins is still my favorite game, period. Dragon Age 2 completely failed to capture that magic. The only reason it wasn't a bigger disappointment for me than Mass Effect 2 was because it didn't abandon almost EVERYTHING that made the original so awesome and stand out from all the rest of the industry. It was just a rushed half sequel from one of the best studios in the business. It wasn't awful, no. But the award had nothing to do with the quality of the game. I though Mass Effect 2 was a great game, but I was SERIOUSLY disappointed because it was barely a sequel to one of my favorite games of all time, messing up all of my favorite bits from the original.

@kidman: it's been a year, calm your self jesus.

@SuperCycle said:

@Hailinel: Umm... I'm pretty sure that Hype is the process of inflating expectations, whether you buy into the hype or not, hype still is pretty much another word for building up expectations. Also, are you ignoring what I am trying to tell you? I continually say that people expected Duke Nukem to be a bad game. I just think that the amount of disappointment people had for DA2 pales in comparison to the amount the disappointment that people should have had for Duke Nukem Forever. I'm not saying you weren't disappointed with Dragon Age 2, but with the amount of time that had passed for Duke Nukem and the whole mystery surrounding that game it should have been a far biggest disappointment.

No. You're ignoring the fact that my expectations were in no way inflated, nor were the expectations of a lot of other people.

@Hailinel: Okay, this is it. I'm finished after this post. I'm sorry, and we could go back and forth like this all night, but I've got to get ready for a New Years Party, and I'm taking up to much time. When you say that it is a fact that your expectations were in no way inflated I suspect that that's more of a hindsight being 20/20 type thing. Also when did we start speaking for a lot of other people? How many is a lot of other people, and why can't they speak for themselves? Anyways, I appreciate that you care enough about the Dragon Age universe that you feel so hurt that it didn't meet everyone of your expectations, but I tend to think that a game that's been hyped for 14 years has a lot more to live up to and is a much bigger disappointment when it doesn't even live up to the most minimal of those expectations.

Happy New Years though. Be safe.

I think you need to sit down for a bit and cool down.....getting upset over video game awards is pretty silly.

@SuperCycle said:

@Hailinel: Okay, this is it. I'm finished after this post. I'm sorry, and we could go back and forth like this all night, but I've got to get ready for a New Years Party, and I'm taking up to much time. When you say that it is a fact that your expectations were in no way inflated I suspect that that's more of a hindsight being 20/20 type thing. Also when did we start speaking for a lot of other people? How many is a lot of other people, and why can't they speak for themselves? Anyways, I appreciate that you care enough about the Dragon Age universe that you feel so hurt that it didn't meet everyone of your expectations, but I tend to think that a game that's been hyped for 14 years has a lot more to live up to and is a much bigger disappointment when it doesn't even live up to the most minimal of those expectations.

Happy New Years though. Be safe.

Nope. I went in with very, very low expectations, if any at all. I had nothing in the way of expectations regarding the game. You can project all you like, but that's the truth. There's no hindsight involved.

This basically sums up what was wrong with Dragon Age 2:

@Tahnit said:

How the hell is dragon age 2 considered most disappointing game? Did the bombsquad guys forget a game called BRINK?! Seriously that game was completely broken from day 1. Dragonage 2 had its issues but on the whole it was an enjoyable bioware rpg. Brink on the other hand was a broken complete mess of a game. The single player AI was a joke, the multiplayer was unbalanced and not very much fun, and the game had numerous issues on the pc.

Seriously guys wtf?

Nobody expected anything from Brink so it's not a disappointment. But yeah I don't get it either I thought Dragon Age 2 wasn't that bad

@MysteriousBob said:

@Tahnit said:

How the hell is dragon age 2 considered most disappointing game?

Its 'most disappointing' not 'worst'. Nobody had any expectations for Brink.

...except me and many many MANY others. I did. The lead-up was terrific and everyone that had checked the game out at preview events said it was pretty damn great. Beyond that, it's Splash Damage going back to what made Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory so damn good.

I was thoroughly disappointed by Brink, but SOLELY because of the massive amount of lag in the netcode. That shit broke the game completely. Had that netcode not been fucked, I would still be playing Brink.

@Abyssfull said:

@AndrewB said:

Wait... I haven't finished the game yet, but I do know how it ends and I know a lot about the Anders arc... and I can't really see why people are so down on him. The biggest issue I see is the retconning his character and story arc from Awakening takes. As a character, he's a dick, but his motivations make that at least understandable.

I've found ever character I've met in the game to be immensely interesting up until Fenris. Aveline and Varric make strong cases for video game characters of the year. I'd honestly give it to Aveline.

And as to the main topic, don't forget, their justification was pretty solid. Dragon Age 2 was Bioware's first misstep. Ever. Yes, I'm including Sonic: Dark Brotherhood. It was bound to happen eventually with a Bioware under EA. They rushed it out the door and went for a mass market appeal. The latter issue was fine with a game like Mass Effect 2 because it (arguably, I suppose) fixed most everything that was wrong with the game in the process. Dragon Age was a game developed for a specific crowd of people: enthusiasts of the best days of computer role-playing games. What they did with it, from a gameplay perspective, is the definition of fixing what wasn't broken.

On paper, it does look like an understandable trajectory for how Anders as a character would progress. It was established during Awakening that he did despise the chantry and so forth, and thought mages were caged like prisoners. But the way Anders is presented makes him appear like a super whiny asshole and, for me, didn't have the same charming, rogue-like qualities about him. A lot of it can be chalked up to his voice actor. Greg Ellis was perfect as Anders, but I think they opted for a different VA because Greg also voices Cullen, and it appears that he may play a larger role down the line, wherein Anders can die... but then again with that said, many of the characters in Origins could die as well and we all know what that potential outcome is worth in the grand scheme of things...

I'd agree a lot of it has to do with the voice actor and/or how he was told to act. It would probably be a little easier to swallow the dramatic swing of character if everything else about him hadn't been changed as well, including his voice. I also feel like the old voice actor (Greg Ellis) would have done it a whole lot less broodingly. But even though I feel the shift in Anders' tone should have been less dramatic and more gradual (given the relatively short time between his time with the Grey Warden and the events in Kirkwall), I do feel like it, too, is justified. It's Anders realizing how messed up the world is and how he needs to get serious if he's going to change it.

But I'll have to actually finish the game before I can say for sure if that conveyance is done properly. Still working on that...

Going from Mass Effect 2 and Dragon Age 1 to Dragon Age 2 is such huge dip in quality that it's definitely "deserving" of the award.

I thoroughly enjoyed dragon age 1; what can I expect from DA2 ?

Eh, I frelling love playing DA2. I sank 601 hours and 14 different playthroughs into the game and continue to do so, so long as Bioware keep putting out great DLC for it. Do I think it's flawed? Yes, especially with regards to choice impact/continuation from DA:O. The rehashing of the same dungeons irked me, but t'was never a huge deal. Did I find it disappointing? No, not really though, I can understand, with those that think so, especially coming from such a high point as Origins was. I struggle to pinpoint why I like the game so much. I think it's party members, party banter, rivalry/friendship system, the ability to mould a unique personality for Hawke (and then using that to justify the choices you make in the game) and other miscellaneous bits of the game just keep me enthralled with it.

@ThePencil said:

so long as Bioware keep putting out great DLC for it.

Great DLC? I must have missed those.

@MysteriousBob said:

@Tahnit said:

How the hell is dragon age 2 considered most disappointing game?

Its 'most disappointing' not 'worst'. Nobody had any expectations for Brink. How can you be disappointed by Brink when you didn't care from day 1?

Lol Brink...

@ThePencil said:

so long as Bioware keep putting out great DLC for it.

Great DLC? I must have missed those.

Even as someone who put that game on his GOTY list and likes it more than he probably should (and I do), there is no way that Dragon Age II is not one of the most disappointing games in a long time.

@JoeyRavn

@ThePencil said:

so long as Bioware keep putting out great DLC for it.

Great DLC? I must have missed those.

Hmm, I should really have prefaced that with 'IMO' shouldn't I? Ach well, I really did enjoy 'Legacy' and 'Mark of the Assasin'.

@TheDudeOfGaming: Yeah. Because Arcanum is Fallout with an incredibly jacked character progression system and no real interesting characters to speak of, with combat that is kind of awful regardless if its turn based or real time and a soundtrack that is literally all strings all the time. I've made my opinion on that game quite clear, and while I in no way think it is an awful game, it's one that I don't especially like. I'll hand it to Troika though, Temple of Elemental Evil and what I've played of Vampire the Masquerade are much better. OPINIONS.

@ThePencil said:

Eh, I frelling love playing DA2. I sank 601 hours and 14 different playthroughs into the game and continue to do so, so long as Bioware keep putting out great DLC for it. Do I think it's flawed? Yes, especially with regards to choice impact/continuation from DA:O. The rehashing of the same dungeons irked me, but t'was never a huge deal. Did I find it disappointing? No, not really though, I can understand, with those that think so, especially coming from such a high point as Origins was. I struggle to pinpoint why I like the game so much. I think it's party members, party banter, rivalry/friendship system, the ability to mould a unique personality for Hawke (and then using that to justify the choices you make in the game) and other miscellaneous bits of the game just keep me enthralled with it.

I'm with you dude. I loved Dragon Age 2 for the same reasons. The characters, setting and story were pretty good and I liked that it took place in one city which was a nice concept even if it wasn't executed as well as it could have been.

Dragon Age was an amazing RPG. DA2 was... not. Everything, from the story to the characters to the world you explored, was a downgrade from DA to DA2. I'd say that's disappointing. Of course, I was really disappointed by Brink too, and I think you could make a case for both games winning the award.

@ArbitraryWater said:

@TheDudeOfGaming: Yeah. Because Arcanum is Fallout with an incredibly jacked character progression system and no real interesting characters to speak of, with combat that is kind of awful regardless if its turn based or real time and a soundtrack that is literally all strings all the time. I've made my opinion on that game quite clear, and while I in no way think it is an awful game, it's one that I don't especially like.

You forgot how awful the ui is.