Does anyone know anything about the story from previews. Specifically, do I need to play Awakenings to get this? I just couldn’t be arsed, and well, I will if I need to, but if I don’t I’ll just skip it. Alternatively someone could just spoiler tag the key plot points.
I liked the original Dragon age quite a bit, but I’m a bit worried about the second game.
Bad:
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I don’t like the new graphical style. The graphics themselves aren’t much worse than the first game, but the art style is much worse. The new darkspawn look silly instead scary, and they are too clean for what they are. Humanoid graphics are a lot better than the darkspawn thankfully.
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Dragon Age combat did seem clunky at times, especially with characters moving from place to place during combat, but I don’t like the the new combat style at all. There’s no weight behind most of the attack moves, and the combat is way too fast. If the health bars weren’t going down, you’d hardly notice any damage being done. The demo is locked on normal difficulty, so hopefully nightmare will be more entertaining.
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I hate the dialogue wheel with a passion. Based on the demo, it’s turning out exactly like I feared. There’s only a few choices, and the choices fit perfectly within a couple of well defined personality types. The choices might as well read “polite guy,” “sarcastic guy,” and “aggressive guy.” Even the voice acting is different for each archetype, so it seems like your characters personality changes if you mix and match options. I feel like they’ve intended most people to stick with one dialogue type through the entire game, and I hate it more than anything else about the game.
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I don’t like the voice for the female Hawke. Mass Effect had the opposite situation, as the female Shephard was a lot better than the male one.
Good:
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I love the idea of the game running over a 10 year period, where you can see the effects your actions have on the game world. I always liked the extended epilogues in games like fallout, and being able to see it in game would be even better. I hope it’ll be more than just a line of dialogue here and there though.
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I like being able to import your decisions from the original dragon age. I hope it’ll be more than just a one line dialogue change though. If I have Bhelen instead of Harrowmont as the dwarf king for example, I want it to be visible in how the dwarves live.
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The rivalry system seems interesting. While it was very easy to keep everyone at 100 approval in Dragon Age Origins with gifts, it still felt like you had to keep everyone happy. Being able to disagree with someone while still forming a relationship with them sounds like fun. I wonder if you can have a romance with a rival?
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The attribute and the talent systems seem to have plenty of choices to make. I’m glad they didn’t go the ME2 way with it.
To be honest, the longer I play games (esp. RPGs), the more I start considering “extensive talent trees” to be less of a selling point. There always seems to be just a handful of combinations that work really well with a whole slew of ones you can sort of slog through the game with, and then completely unworkable ones depending on how poorly made the game is. Offering me a giant talent tree choice (or for that matter, armor with too many stat modifiers) is the surest way for me to completely break immersion in your game and go to the wiki to see if there are any talents that are known to just plain not work. Half the time it’s a no-brainer to latch onto the one mechanic anyway (i.e. “I’m a mage, dump points in int!”) so it may as well not even exist. Yes, it has certain purposes for multi-classing and prestige classing, but by and large it’s too extensive sometimes.
They can work, I think WoW’s new talent trees are close to the perfect model, just enough choice to not have too much choice.
If you would have asked me a year ago I probably would have never thought I’d say this, but I really think that sometimes LESS talent choices and LESS armor customization is a good thing. Yes, even in RPG-land.
I will definitely get this, but I’m on the fence on buying the PC or PS3 version. Played DA:O on both and preferred the controls and graphics of the PC version, but I understand that they made great improvements on DA2 for the console.
The upside for the console is that I don’t have to spend hours on end in my cold computer room and can sit comfy on the couch.
Can you connect your PC to your TV? I have the best of both worlds in my house. Main PC for in your face action, and an HTPC hooked up to my big screen for comfy couch gaming 
As usual the PC version will feature way better graphics. So far:
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Standard improvements - 1080p or higher resolution, much better AA and AF.
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SSAO which looks great. Adds a lot of depth to otherwise flat looking geometry.
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Overall more and improved soft shadows. I’ve seen this on side by sides with the console. The place where I noticed it most in the fast paced demo is the beginning areas where the clouds racing by above cast awesome shadows on the ground. This effect wasn’t present on the consoles. Also you could tell the shadows cast by enemies where hard edged instead softer/more realistic.
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HIGH RESOLUTION TEXTURES! Man, I’ve been begging Bio for this. ME2 featured the same low rez textures of the console version of the game, with only a few exceptions. This had a detrimental effect on the PC because of the myriad close up shots during cutscenes, and the fact that PC’s run at a much higher resolution than consoles. For DA2 we’re getting a whole slew of higher resolution textures on PC. This is one of the biggest graphical differences going from console to PC for this game.
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Post processing effects in the form of a much nicer blur effect and a new depth of field effect, as well as soft particle effects.
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Finally we get some tessellation for geometric displacement and more organic looking terrain. Love this stuff. Gone are the days of flat textures and geometry representing the floor. Instead the geometry juts out naturally to represent cobble stone, tiles etc. Also, polygonal looking outdoor terrain that looks so… video gamey, can look a lot smoother and natural. Very nice effect.
So on the graphics end, even though they have improved the console versions a LOT from DA:O. It’s just not going to come close to the PC version, yet again. Bravo Bio!
As for the gameplay, they “improved it” on the consoles by making it a button masher. Essentially it plays more like an action game. You press a button and your character strikes with his weapon. But the tactical gameplay that you probably liked on the PC is still not on par. And it’s on full effect on the PC - minus the tactical camera.
But the number one reason to get it on PC is the mods!
Man, it looks like for all it’s improvements, DA2 is till a very abstract, lonely game. They’ve shown parts of the city like a market place, and it’s like 5 guys hanging around a large area. Same thing happened in DA:O, but the environment improvement mods turned sparsely populated areas into bustling towns and cities with various characters and objects creating painting a much more interesting picture. One that felt more “alive”. Not to mention the extra quests, the never fixed bugs, the new abilities and spells, the new areas!
Just like the Elderscrolls games, this game is just best on PC from any angle you look at it.
Well, DA2 would also carry over your decision from Awakening so that they take part in the backdrop of the story in DA2. If you don’t play it, some decision will be assumed.
The baseline story is:
You are alive and well - even if you sacrificed yourself in DA:O (and that is never explained). You become a Warden commander in the old Warden keep of “Vigil’s Keep” and are forced to deal with an unexpected situation.
Even though the archdemon is slain the darkspawn are not retreating back underground, and what might be worse - there appear to be some intelligent darkspawn about. The whole thing takes place in Amerenthine the old Howe estate which includes a small city, the keep, forests and marshes.
Eventually you find out that there are two factions within the darkspawn warring with each other. One is lead by something called the “Mother” and the other by the “architect” an intelligent dark spawn.
Your task at first is to find new recruits to become Grey wardens up until the Darkspawn decide to attack. There’s a possibility that you will lose either the city of Amerithine or the keep before you can take the fight to the “Mother”.
You also find out that the Architect’s plan is to “awaken” the darkspawn, and free them from their enslavement to the archdemons. Essentially he wants to stop the cycle, but in doing so, create a new, free race of creatures.
I’m looking into connecting the PC to my TV, but I’m afraid my system might not be up to spec. Also, keyboard and mouse control doesn’t work really well for me on the couch, I prefer using the controller.
It’s a tough choice, as I do prefer the better graphics and controls of the keyboard/mouse combo for these types of game, but I’m not sure if I can sit behind a screen for 10 hours on end (as is only to be expected to happen with DA).
I’m not sure if they are including controller support in DA2. They didn’t in DA:O, but most modern games do include gamepad support. I haven’t heard an official word on it yet.
suspicious do Wardens get trenchcoats and super-shiny sunglasses ? 
Anyone else watch the 30 minute gameplay video with the producer of DA2 on Gamespot?
Just finished watching it and a couple of things I liked:
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Apparently each companion has at least on ability tree that is particular to them. It’s based on their particular backstory, who they are, etc. This is in addition to the standard trees for their class. IMHO, this is great! Yet another reason to keep trying out new companions. In DA:O the base classes were pretty much the same, and so where your companions. A two-handed warrior is a the same as the next, and so on. But in DA2 companions bring their personality and unique abilities straight to the battle field.
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Different enemies fall into various archetypes which dictate their tactics in battle. Learning how to react to different archetypes as the ebb and flow of the battle develops is the key to being good in combat.
I’m debating whether or not to do another run through of DA before DA2 comes out. We’ll see.
Something kinda funny that was pointed out to me on another site was that Bethany’s breasts change size between the first “legendary” telling and the second “truthful” telling.
Yep. Cheeky dwarf. Can’t wait to meet him.
I don’t think I could ever finish an entire playthrough of DA:O before the 8th unless I quit my job first Besides after 4 1/2 playthroughs, I think I’m done with that game.
However, I only played through awakening once. I might start it up again.
It’s one of the perks of being a grad student Plenty of free time. That said, I’m going to put the difficulty down to normal so that I can rush through, I think.
That’s a lot of playthroughs, though. I seem to recall your posting about a nightmare playthrough in one of the other threads. What were your other characters? I played a Human Noble Warrior when the game first came out and a Human Mage Arcane Warrior a couple months ago. Both of those were goody two-shoes, so I’m thinking of doing a more self-centered Rogue solo playthrough this time.
I’ve completed DA about 3 times with about 4-5 more where I ran out of steam partway through.
If you’re doing a Rogue nothing beats the dwarven origins. Both are pretty interesting to playthrough and both have tons of flavour text when you return to Orzammar.
The Dalish elf is boring and doesn’t really have any long running impact on your game. The City Elf is slightly better but still doesn’t beat the dwarf starts.
Agreed, having played many characters (though only one all the way to the end. I got alt-itis. It’s a serious condition) the dwarven origins are the best. I also liked Human Noble, but it’s more of a humoristic/deconstructive one that throws every last fantasy cliché in your face for laughs, and it’s also the one that has the least impact on the rest of the game (the worst offender there is Dalish Elf. Not only is it boring as hell, the only thing it changes in the game is that there’s one named Darkspawn in one encounter. You kill it, recognize him, weep a bit, done).
Also, if you play your cards right you can get out of the Dwarf Noble origin with way more petty cash than any other. Later, a merchant gives you great deals (not to mention a free magic shield), which is nice since Dragon Age is one of the very few RPGs out there where money remains valuable right until the end.
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Are you sure? You can get 40 gold if you sell out the other women in the City Elf origin. I think you can only get about 30 out of Dwarf Noble (though it’s been a while since I played it.
Edit: I checked the wiki… I didn’t realize that while you do get to keep the 40 gold, you won’t be able to actually use it until late in the game.
I wouldn’t go that far (I just checked and my last character finished Origins with 400 gold left over) but it does handle money better than most.
About a month ago I bought Dragon Age Origins and all it’s dlc in one package from steam.
I’ve played the game a bit, and I kind of enjoy it. I find combat a bit fiddly and am still in the process of getting used to it.
I am wondering when the DLC kicks in/will I know about it, is it possible to make mistakes that cause me to miss big chunks of gameplay (as was a pitfall of playing Fallout 3).
I recently completed a mission in some forest area. I had to get something from a woman and her mother. (witches). I had a side mission to pick up some stuff left by some guy and take it to his family. I also had to pick up some stuff for some guy’s dog. I did that last one, but I have no idea how to get to the place where the family is to give them the stuff left in the forest by the guy. I think it’s in the place where the game began (the magical cathedral type place), but I can’t seem to get back there. This is an example of something I fear I’ve ballsed up somehow.
Sorry for the lack of names of people and things. I am not at home to check.
And now to the point of this rambling post in the context of this thread - If I continue to more or less enjoy this game as I have done so far, I will probably get Dragon Age 2.
Don’t worry too much about it. You don’t need to give the medaillon back way later in the game. In fact, this game lets you pick up stuff and then take so long before you need it, that you easily forget about it. It happened many times that I was talking to a person who promptly thanked me. After checking, it turned out that I had rescued her daughter weeks ago…
The lady you need to bring the stuff to lives in Redcliffe. Her name is Jetta, and she is chilling out in the Chantry. 
OMG I am soo excited. Though I haven’t checked out the demo at all.
I probably played through the whole story about 6 times. My favorite was noble human chick (rogue). But mostly because I could bang Alistair. I enjoyed my romances with all of the other folks, but I could never get Leliana to hook up with me. LAME. So I am only missing two badges… 1) hook up with Leliana, and 2) experience all romances across game play. Oh well.
So as far as your decisions in DA:0, and DA:A affecting game play in DA2… does that mean if you import a character? Do I need to do a new playthrough of DA:O and DA:A with my favorite character? So I can import them? I have erased most of my playthroughs, so should I do one as a rogue, one as a mage, etc… or what?
ETA: My husband almost wept when he found out there was a new Dragon Age game coming out. Poor guy!
You erased your playthroughs!? :eek:
I wouldn’t worry about it too much. If the Mass Effect series is anything to go by, the changes based on imported characters will be minimal.