Dragon Age 2 Incoming. - Part 1

[Upset Spideyfan]

I'm sorry to let you down?

Stop being so ****ing polite.

 

[El Bastardo]

Why do you have to be so demanding?

It hurts me that I've hurt you.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

 

[El Bastardo]

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

 

[El Bastardo]

Oh, and there's [blackout]Leliana[/blackout].

 

[El Bastardo]

There we go. Finished. My Post-Campaign save clocks just over 55 hours.

 

[El Bastardo]

Spoiler

Ironically, only the Morrigan romancing Warden got closure from Witch Hunt. The rest just up and vanished.

Now that I'm reading spoilers, I wanted to point out that this is untrue.

Spoiler

My Warden is Queen of Ferelden, and still around, according to Bodahn, Alistair, and Teagan.

 

[Benstamania]

Your Warden is a LIE!

 

[El Bastardo]

Your mom is a lie.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Now that I'm reading spoilers, I wanted to point out that this is untrue.

Spoiler

My Warden is Queen of Ferelden, and still around, according to Bodahn, Alistair, and Teagan.

[BLACKOUT]At the end don't Leliana and Cassandra imply that the Warden has gone missing too just like Hawke regardless of whatever you did in Origins?[/BLACKOUT]

 

[El Bastardo]

Oh, yeah, that's true. Worth mentioning that's a few years after the [blackout]Alistair[/blackout] cameo, too.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

Spoiler

I'm a little iffy on casting the Warden into the void so to speak. If they've got a plan for the character then great, but if its just to remove them from the picture its a bit lame. I speak moreso for the Warden's that didn't go through the mirror with Morrigan at the end, since a lot of them had "endings" otherwise.

Again though if its actually building up to some kind of payoff then sure.

Hawke is less problematic since we can more or less assume he/she is relaxing somewhere with love interest.

 

[GhostPoet]

I hate that Kirkwall has only one cave anywhere in its vicinity. I hate that cave map so goddamn much it gives me heartburn. BioWare's already repeating 90% of the maps because you're running around Kirkwall 90% of the time, and that's fine. I'm fine with that because it makes sense; the city's not gonna change overnight, and the few changes that do appear between the acts (along with their accompanying plot changes) are enough to make the city feel fresh at the start of each act. But every single cave having the exact same layout with different doors closed or opened and different starting and ending points was a chuckle-worthy oddity in Act I, a minor annoyance in Act II, and an eyeroll-worthy bore in Act III for me. Ditto for warehouses, mansions, alleys, and Darktown passages. That's far and away my biggest complaint with the game.

Which, when you think about it, is actually pretty high praise for the game overall.

you can thank console gaming for that one.

 

[El Bastardo]

What does console gaming have to do with anything?

 

[Soapy]

As I recall, Dragon Age: Origins was on console and didn't have that problem. If anything, you can thank the short development time.

 

[Why Are You Crouching Spock?]

Dragon Age was built for the pc and ported to console.
Dragon Age 2 was built with the console in mind.

 

[Upset Spideyfan]

you can thank console gaming for that one.

 

[Benstamania]

But didn't you hear? ME2 was the first not BioWare BioWare game! It started this vile action rpg trend!!!

 

[Speedball]

I just learned I chose the wrong Origins save file

Spoiler

When the Qunari are attacking and the Wardens show up, I see Bethany and Alistair, and I'm like WTF?! Alistair should be dead. I then learn from Alistair that the Warden from Origins died to end the Blight. I beat the game twice with one character, once where Alistair sacraficed himself and the Warden went on to do Awakening (which I had intended to chose) and one where the Warden died. Apparently it saved with the death.

 

[El Bastardo]

As I recall, Dragon Age: Origins was on console and didn't have that problem. If anything, you can thank the short development time.

Just under two years is a short development time?

Gosh, Mass Effect 3 is going to suck too!

 

[Soapy]

Just under two years is a short development time?

Gosh, Mass Effect 3 is going to suck too!

Not even close to two years, but whatever I'll go with it.

Two years isn't an insignificant amount of time, but the first game was in the oven for much, much longer.

And I'm not going to pretend I understand the particulars of how games are made, but as Upset Spideyfan points out, Mass Effect 2 is primarily a console game. Which looks way better than either Dragon Age, and also has a much wider variety of environments than DAII. So I don't see how anyone can possibly blame it on consoles.

 

[El Bastardo]

DAO took something like six years of planning and development, yes, because they never had the funding to create it.

DAO was also finished in March of 2009, when it was outsourced to whoever did the console port. According to Gaider and Laidlaw, development of DA2 began shortly thereafter.

DA2 was released March 8, 2011. That isn't a two year difference? Huh. I must need to learn how to do math again.

 

[Soapy]

Dragon Age was finished in October of '09 when it went gold.

 

[Drz]

[BLACKOUT]At the end don't Leliana and Cassandra imply that the Warden has gone missing too just like Hawke regardless of whatever you did in Origins?[/BLACKOUT]

Spoiler

I'm curious too because my main Warden is the King! I think Gaider answered and said that Warden Gone = Warden not reachable anymore.

 

[El Bastardo]

Dragon Age was finished in October of '09 when it went gold.

Incorrect. Check your sources. It went gold when it was ready for release across the board. The game was finished in March, when it was sent to the company that ported to console.

Or do you think the company who did the port did it instantaneously, or they just added the pieces from the PC version that were fed to them bits and pieces since nothing was finished, by your reasoning, until October?