Alright, just finished reading the DA2 article in my GI mag. WARNING! I am going to be posting some of the things that really stand out. (To me anyway) So if you don't want to know, skip my post.
1) We will be able to import our DA
games into DA2.
2) We will see Flemeth at some point.
3) Pissing off party members won't always be a bad thing. "They won't necessarily leave. They may still join you, but they're going to try to show you up, and that may influence battle in a different way."
4) We're getting the ME2 conversation wheel, but this time instead of having some dialogue be a particular color the center of the wheel will show a symbol to show what kind of reply it is. (The article uses the examples of them being something like aggressive or sarcastic)
5) The way the story unfolds will be very different compared to the past Bioware games. "Dragon Age II has a framed narrative structure, which means that the exploits of Hawke occured in the past, but are being retold in the present." "Narrators with unique insights into the events in question tell the tale of his past adventures."
6) We may get to see some of the DA
events at the start from a different perspective. "Dragon Age II begins as the events of Origins are still taking place, so you may see some familiar events from a different angle."
7) Because of the game spanning a decade, we get to see the consequences of our actions sooner, rather than in a little text at the end of the game.
8) The PC version's combat system remains mostly the same. "The PC version implements the same strategic approach afforded by a mouse-and-keyboard control scheme." "Rather than try to mimic the PC experience on consoles, Dragon Age II has a battle system more tailored to the strengths of the PS3 and 360."
The Elite Elite wrote...
I have a year subscription to the mag. (Most of the time when the month's mag gets to my house I think "This was just a waste of money subscribing to this thing because I don't care about 99% of these games" but once in a while like this month it is totally worth the subscription) So I believe you'll have to wait a bit before this one hits news stands. @Tiuwaz, no I don't recall seeing anything about the length of DA2 in the article.
Nice summery. Only thing I read a bit differently is that they didn't
exactly say that you can import your DA
game, just that your
decisions would carry over, even if you play on a different system.
Well, one of the exact quotes is "You may be controlling a different character in Dragon Age II, but the choices your Grey Warden made in Origins are still imported from your save and reflected in the world." So it sounds like, to me anyway, that you'll be able to import saves from Origins like you can import ME1 saves to ME2. Just now you'll also be able to import saves from one platform to another. (Though I'm curious how they'll pull that one off)
The Elite Elite wrote...
From reading that section of the article they seem to say that the PC version is pretty much the same, while the console versions have been upgraded to have the action feel faster and more responsive than Origins did.
Edit: Woah, lots of posts past what I was replying to. Alright I'll try to answer what I can.
PC combat is going to remain pretty much the way it currently is. It's the console versions that are being upgraded.
It doesn't talk about the conversation system in great detail. Just says "Dragon Age II uses a conversation system similar to Mass Effect's, where players select paraphrased versions of the dialogue from a wheel. An icon in the middle of the wheel even illustrates the line's basic intent (like aggressive or sarcastice), so you can focus more on the interaction rather than reading and analyzing your dialogue choices."
It made no mention of the dialogue system with party members.
The Elite Elite wrote...
ThomasAndrew wrote...
The Elite Elite wrote...
From reading that section of the article they seem to say that the PC version is pretty much the same, while the console versions have been upgraded to have the action feel faster and more responsive than Origins did.
Edit: Woah, lots of posts past what I was replying to. Alright I'll try to answer what I can.
PC combat is going to remain pretty much the way it currently is. It's the console versions that are being upgraded.
It doesn't talk about the conversation system in great detail. Just says "Dragon Age II uses a conversation system similar to Mass Effect's, where players select paraphrased versions of the dialogue from a wheel. An icon in the middle of the wheel even illustrates the line's basic intent (like aggressive or sarcastice), so you can focus more on the interaction rather than reading and analyzing your dialogue choices."
It made no mention of the dialogue system with party members. Thanks though, I hope the articale is copy pasted somewhere or there is scans.
So the 10 page artical had nothing about the combat changes. Meh.
All it really said was that the PC version will have the same ability to "examine the battlefield closely, make decisions from a top-down view, and direct your party like a general." They say they got to play the Xbox 360 version and they can "confirm that it is faster, more responsive, and more fluid than before. As soon as you press a button, something happens. As a warrior, Hawke threw down special strikes and used a new dash move to slash through darkspawn with ease. It isn't on the Dynasty Warriors side of the spectrum, but with obvious improvements to the targeting system and animations, playing Dragon Age II with a controller finally feels natural."
It's not terrible, just a bit distracting when I remember how great ME2 looked.
