Learn About the Makings of Dragon Age 2

But I loved the combat in DA:O....

Only three months until this is out, but Origins still feels like it just came out. 

...did he say 'murlocs'? 

" ...did he say 'murlocs'?  "

Hey guys, remember how the entire point of Dragon Age as a franchise was to be a revival of hardcore CRPGs like Baldur's Gate, with tactical combat, point-and-click controls, deep character creation systems, expansive worlds to explore and a forgoing of technical polish in favour of intelligent and multi-faceted storylines and quests which allow for real choice and consequence?  Remember how awesome it was to see Dragon Age leading what could have been a veritable Renaissance of the Western RPG, returning it to its pen and paper-based roots?
 
Because I think BioWare forgot.

Looks... great. 
 
Still I'm wondering of how good will be the plot and background of the world. The first one felt very bland.  

"You don't want combat to feel like a chess game" 
 
Says who, guy? I completely want that for Dragon Age. Did they only listen to the ADD kids who didn't like the combat, and not the people who did?

I found the combat fine on PC as, if you're smart, you have the ability to pull out, RTS style, and control everything that is going on with your team of fighters, mages and rogues. 
 
I've also played and completed the Xbox 360 version and found it a completely different experience. 
I found that it's much more time consuming to control your whole team, and this leads me to just control my own character. Leading to a much more "Chess-like" feel, that I constantly repeat the same attacks over and over again. 
And because it's easier on the Xbox 360, for obvious reasons, it's a lot less interesting and ultimately long periods of the game on the 360 platform tended to lead me to boredom. 
 
EDIT: I can have fun for hours on PC and just be in battles the whole time. 

This game better have some fucking ragdoll in it or I'm not buying it. 

" "You don't want combat to feel like a chess game"  Says who, guy? I completely want that for Dragon Age. Did they only listen to the ADD kids who didn't like the combat, and not the people who did? "

This is just developer BS. They dumbed down DA:O for console gameplay, no way around it... but it probably will still be a good game. 

" @zoner said:

" "You don't want combat to feel like a chess game"  Says who, guy? I completely want that for Dragon Age. Did they only listen to the ADD kids who didn't like the combat, and not the people who did? "

The combat in Dragon Age 1 was very dated and very repetitive. How is pressing the same button combinations over and over again fun at all?  "

" Yes, its an ARPG now! Maybe I will like this one... "

" @lucas_kelly said:

" @zoner said:

" "You don't want combat to feel like a chess game"  Says who, guy? I completely want that for Dragon Age. Did they only listen to the ADD kids who didn't like the combat, and not the people who did? "

The combat in Dragon Age 1 was very dated and very repetitive. How is pressing the same button combinations over and over again fun at all?  "

 By that logic how is clicking LT and holding down RT over and over again fun at all?     "

/like. 
But let's just hope it still has the DragonAge feel.

" This is just developer BS. They dumbed down DA:O for console gameplay, no way around it... but it probably will still be a good game.  "

i dunno... hawke looks pretty stupid. 1 shoulder pad! i hate that. wear two shoulder pads damnit! i dunno.

Can't wait for this, to put it simple? Bioware like Valve is one of those few developers i put absolute faith in, they havn't let me down yet and though Mass Effect 2 was a little less RPG than what i would have liked i still enjoyed the experience.

Nothing was wrong with the combat in DOA. Nothing was impersonal about the story in DOA. People's situations were profoundly effected by their interactions with your character in DOA. The first game sold because it was a classic RPG that felt like a chess game. That's what made it something unique that people wanted. You say you're taking the basic concepts, and making them feel new. What does that mean? It sounds like you may as well have said dumbing down. This is not going to be a chess game. This is not going to be strategic. But it's going to feel new. You say that you're not making something that goes against the good parts of DOA. But, by definition, it seems as though you already have.

" i dunno... hawke looks pretty stupid. 1 shoulder pad! i hate that. wear two shoulder pads damnit! i dunno. "

Those ten seconds of gameplay looked awesome.

" @DG991 said:

" This is just developer BS. They dumbed down DA:O for console gameplay, no way around it... but it probably will still be a good game.  "

I'm not so sure. From what I could tell from the brief clip of combat it simply looked faster thats all. It still had the powers and he was clearly using the mouse to target them not clicking to slash. I could wrong, but I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. It is Bioware after all.    What I would really like is for Bioware to put out some sort of demo. That way the people who keep bitching will ether shut up or will have more valid arguments since they actually played it. "  

" Nothing was wrong with the combat in DOA. Nothing was impersonal about the story in DOA. People's situations were profoundly effected by their interactions with your character in DOA. The first game sold because it was a classic RPG that felt like a chess game. That's what made it something unique that people wanted. You say you're taking the basic concepts, and making them feel new. What does that mean? It sounds like you may as well have said dumbing down. This is not going to be a chess game. This is not going to be strategic. But it's going to feel new. You say that you're not making something that goes against the good parts of DOA. But, by definition, it seems as though you already have. "

I should play my copy of Dragon Age: Origins. 
 
Hahaha, yeah right..

Holy shit, dudes (dudettes, rather) cosplaying in dragon age origins armor sets, that's fantastic haha. 
 
It really does look neat and sounds great on paper. Apparently was great at the showing? Cool stuff all around.

Well he sure said it, 'it's almost hard to communicate how much this game still feels like Origins despite feeling completely different.'
 
Dev gameplay walkthrough would probably do the trick.

There is no way I'll buy this without a demo. The stereotypically 'badass' shit that turned up in the marketing near the release of Origins seems to now pervade the whole design ethos. 'Our lycanthrope character licking his own blood' in all the art etc. 
 
I'm still prepared for this to be a good game but man, I personally feel for the first time in a long line of bioware games that I need to try this out before I buy it. 
 
Don't get me wrong, there's a hell of a lot of stereotype in all bioware games and I have held that against them in the past but not much, so far, of this kind. We'll see I guess.

Man, I'm not skeptical at all.  Even if they do change the combat from the strategic combat I loved from DA:O, I'm sure it will still make it into my top 20 games, as BioWare games always fucking deliver.

Too bad for the I wanna an old school RPG with dices ... but I dont care Im in no matter what Bioware does so oviously cant wait for the game ..... I want nowwwwww!!!!!!! hehehe :)

I still can't believe how bad this game looks, especially for such a late generation game. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed Origins (even though it was terribly ugly and ran like a slideshow) but I was really hoping that they would elevate the graphics to current AAA-game standards.
 
I hope they give it a bit of a face lift before release (particularly the lighting model and ground textures).

This is going to be great. Need to find a way to get out of work for the whole of March.

So they shaved off the edges. To create Fable 3 again.

I never see people complain about the The Witcher 2 doing essentially the same thing.

Looks okay, but it's not the "tactical chess game" that I want in a Dragon Age game.  I want that strategy element that works best on the PC, not an actiony-ME2 type game set in a fantasy world.  I'm not going to say it's going to be a bad game, but it's shaping up to be not the type of game I am looking for.  I had enough of that in the last Fable.

DRAGONS!

People are crying because they're afraid of new things.  The combat in Dragon Age Origins wasn't bad but it did drag out.  A lot.  When you really get into what's going on with the story, but every single minor fucking battle in the game has to be executed with pausing and precision (provided you are playing on anything above easy) it slows things down a lot.  The combat is the reason I can't get through the game a second time.

I remember a quote from BioWare in the summer stating that Dragon Age was the most successful title they had ever put out.  If most successful means most sold I have to wonder why they are taking it down the road of Mass Effect 2, a game less successful according to them.

 I want tactical chess...I liked pondering my moves and taking time and pausing the game.   Also, how the fuck are these spam guys writing stuff.  Ban their goddamn accounts or something

" needs multiplayer "

" Hey guys, remember how the entire point of Dragon Age as a franchise was to be a revival of hardcore CRPGs like Baldur's Gate, with tactical combat, point-and-click controls, deep character creation systems, expansive worlds to explore and a forgoing of technical polish in favour of intelligent and multi-faceted storylines and quests which allow for real choice and consequence?  Remember how awesome it was to see Dragon Age leading what could have been a veritable Renaissance of the Western RPG, returning it to its pen and paper-based roots? 
 
Because I think BioWare forgot. "

sweet

i just beat the first one and need to get the expansion they make them to fast

This is gonna be really bad, and I'm gonna laugh when people complain how bad it is.

dis is not liek DA:O...i want diserolls and shit...

" @AlisterCat said:

" I WANT combat that is like dice rolls. That's the point. I don't want responsive combat, Dragon Age is not Dynasty Warriors. "

A happy medium is possible though, Two Worlds 2 actually manages to do it quite well. "

Hm the combat is a gamble but it could work, not sure how i feel about magic being real time though... i can understand melee or archery since there wasnt much strategy involved but the magic.... hm i don't think they will pull it off.

Yeah, I don't know. A lot of Dragon Age 2 sounds so different that they might as well just started a separate franchise at that point instead of trying to call it "Dragon Age". Then again, it sounds like they want to be for RPGs what Halo was for shooters, which means vast simplification and a complete abandonment of the sort of PC RPG that Dragon Age Origins secretly was. Rest in peace, I guess.

Dragon Age Origins is to Mass Effect as Dragon Age 2 is to Mass Effect 2.
 
As soon as he started talking about taking the core rpg elements and shaving off the rest that what I instantly thought of. 
 
For me playing on higher difficulties in the first game really had you use your party in a strategic manner especially to get by on bigger battles. This just seems more like Mass Effect 2 where your team mates might as well not be there at all as your a wholly sufficient killing machine.
 
I'm curious to see what the character/stat sheets looks like. If there are any. 
 
Anyway, this is a Bioware game and regardless of the supposed mechanics I still love a good RPG and I'm willing to take whatever the developers feel like they need to do to the game.

" Am I crazy for being sad that even Bioware is giving up on the RPG format? "