Creston wrote on Apr 8, 2011, 10:40:

This is partly down to the overblown reaction of media outlets such as Fox News when news of sex scenes in games hit the mainstream, but it's also evidence of a certain level of prudishness on the part of triple-A developers and publishers in particular.

Actually, it's likely neither of those two. If they show partial nudity in a game, it immediately gets an AO rating from the ESRB, which means none of the major chains will carry it.

So if we're looking for anything to blame, I'd start with the ESRB?

Creston

Overon wrote on Mar 15, 2011, 17:42:
You can watch the first 15 minutes of the game and you will see that's is a console styled first person shooter with a implausible plot:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-15-homefront-review

The plot is an insult to anyone who knows the very basics of North Koreas's situation. North Korea taking over the world, please. They can't feed their people because of the sanctions and their lack of resources.

Creston wrote on Mar 14, 2011, 11:24:
And again, all for the sake of preventing retailers from breaking a street date, because God forbid someone would get to play your SINGLE PLAYER RPG a few days early (THE HORROR! OMGWTFBBQ!!!!), EA and Bioware have invited a shitstorm of controversy on themselves, and have again shafted legitimate users for whom the game won't unlock because of their stupid Release Control system.

So, good job all around, by both parties.

Creston

Suddenly_Dead wrote on Mar 12, 2011, 14:24:

wtf_man wrote on Mar 12, 2011, 14:17:
This short article pretty much explains my sentiments:
DA2-The Decline of the classic RPG

And when you are done with that... you can play Dragon Age 3, here:
Dragon Age 3

He's right about the dialogue. Hawke is Shepard: not your own character. That's an annoying departure from DA:O's style.

wtf_man wrote on Mar 12, 2011, 13:38:

PropheT wrote on Mar 12, 2011, 13:22:
That simple, really, but people seem so hung up on what the first game was that they aren't even willing to look at this one as its own beast.

That's because they went BACKWARDS (As far as CRPGs are concerned).

If the first game would have started out like a "Medieval Mass Effect"... the second game would be more accepted.

Also... when a company known for RPGs sells and labels a game as an "RPG"... we expect a fricken "RPG"... not a "Action/Adventure game with some RPG elements".

BioWare has sold out to the console crowd, just like every other big name developer. They used to make good PC games... now they are strating to crank out consolized garbage.

This is probably mainly due to EA... and Bioware will end up like Origin. UO was Origin's last big successful title... SW:TOR may be Bioware's (as far as the PC is concerned).

Mashiki Amiketo wrote on Mar 11, 2011, 20:06:
It wasn't a glitch, not a chance. I think they realized that trying to hang the ToS and EULA was jack shit where he lives. Because EULA's are illegal and unenforceable unless the documents are disclosed beforehand, and open to signing by both parties.

In otherwords, he paid for a product and they attempted to stop him from getting it for an extra 72hrs, violating his local commerce laws.

Talisorn wrote on Mar 11, 2011, 14:33:
Can you imagine the shitstorm if Valve did this blocking access to Steam? Bad precisent,EA!

sauron wrote on Mar 9, 2011, 08:05:

nin wrote on Mar 8, 2011, 09:51:

Dragon Age 2 release

I dare say, good chap, is this excrement fresh?

This made me lol at my desk this morning.


I'm not sure how Bioware managed to release DA, DA:O and DA2 in such a short space of time. The cynical side of me suspects it has something to do with the sounds of cash registers ringing.

I think they forgot that when trying to balance the interests of the dev team versus the marketing/sales team, the former is always the one to go with.

Anonymous wrote on Mar 8, 2011, 12:19:
I don't know about the rest of you, but games short of flight simulators simply aren't as complex as the author seems to think.

I think he suffers from a severe form of Noobitus and has always been a casual gamer.

Seriously. Do any of you ever suffer from being so inept as to find the learning curve of a video game too much? WTF game is there, short of a flight simulator, that is actually hard to learn to play?!!!!!!!!!

This guy is a CASUAL GAMER who clearly LACKS INTELLIGENCE. CHILDREN are better at learning to play games than this guy.

NOW if this guy says his lack of time isn't adequate to *get into a game*, or tends to FORGET WHERE HE IS in a game, OK, but it seems more like this guy is just retarded.

Prez wrote on Mar 5, 2011, 23:48:
Technology so advanced, we had to remove the tactical view!

What a bad decision.

Cutter wrote on Feb 23, 2011, 14:02:
One massive point he overlooks is that all these hotfixes and constant changes aren't just about balance - because it will never be achieved - but keeping people on their toes and grinding. Got the gear for the spec of the month? Oh dead, it's changed now, time to go out and grind new gear for a new spec. It's why I could never be bothered with all the minutia.

wolve wrote on Feb 22, 2011, 15:37:
Can't say I'm surprised at all by details of the PC version. Sounds like the typical issues with a PC port of console game. I ordered the X360 version and UPS should be delivering my copy later today.

The DLC announcement pisses me off too. Whatever happened to EA releasing day 1 DLC for "free" with new games (a la ME2)? That's what they should have done here. Oh well, I'm passing on the DLC unless it's on sale for cheap and I end up loving the game.

entr0py wrote on Feb 22, 2011, 14:39:

Fion wrote on Feb 22, 2011, 12:56:
I personally thought DA:O was their best game since Baldur's Gate 1/2 and even as good as those two. So I don't know if I'll enjoy it or not. I'm not as much a fan of 'action rpgs' which seem to be everywhere these days as I am a traditional rpg fan. So we'll see.

Fortunately it's not at all an action RPG. Mostly that impression was just an overreaction by people watching early console footage and making broad assumptions.

The combat is largely the same as the last game. A recent developer livecast gave a really good picture of this, In a difficult battle he was quickly switching between party members to use abilities, repositions them, and keep them from dying with health potions. It looked fairly difficult, and was so fast paced that he had to do a lot of pausing to issue commands. Then you learn it was early in the game and on normal difficulty.

http://greywardens.com/2011/02/dragon-age-2-live-dev-chat-recap-finished/

nin wrote on Feb 8, 2011, 10:33:
I could have sworn there was a Games For Windows release of it, but everything I look up now says otherwise...

Cutter wrote on Feb 3, 2011, 13:16:
Spot on, Joe and well said. If the automotive industry was anything like the game industry it would have gone under long ago. Consumers are entitled to a reasonable expectation that a product will perform as intended. So when we consistently run into shoddy, overpriced products that occur becuase of shoddy developers and publishers, yes, we tend to get somehwat 'miffed'. It's the only industry in the world that seems it can consistently get away with that. That needs to change and has for a long time now.

Elessar wrote on Feb 3, 2011, 15:02:
Over the past few weeks I've seen devs get raked over the coals here over the lack of PC demos. But a dev outright cancels a game and we see "Welp, that's a shame." Too funny.

Jerykk wrote on Feb 2, 2011, 23:58:

3, did you even play Dragon Age: Origins?

Obviously. I played through DAO (unpatched) as a rogue. It was impossible to beat the game without making heavy use of tactics. The later patches nerfed a lot of things and made the game significantly easier, so it may have been possible to play through in real-time post-patch. I imagine playing as a mage would have made the game easier too. In any case, DAO was clearly designed to be played from the tactical view, otherwise it would have been a much easier game to begin with.

1 is kinda lame but because your character is a human, point 2 is useless, as the only origins for humans were Noble and Mage, so it was entirely based on your class. Admittedly, the Dragon Age 2 tutorial section will likely not be as different between mage and non-mage.

Each race had two origin stories in DAO. I think the elves may have had three. In any case, choices are never pointless in an RPG. The whole point of an RPG is to play the role of your choosing. Being able to choose your character's origin helps you define your role.

Jerykk wrote on Feb 2, 2011, 15:16:

I don't think changing the art direction and...making your characters attack a little faster is dumbing down. Oh maybe they took out that one camera angle, but that's just something annoying.

List of dumbed down things in DA2:

1) You no longer get to choose your race.
2) You no longer get to choose your origin.
3) Combat is being designed to play in real-time, negating the need for tactics or strategy.
4) Dialogue tree has been replaced with dialogue wheel, complete with paraphrased dialogue options and icons showing the tone of each response. This removes the need for reading comprehension or even basic literacy, as players can just refer to the icons when picking a response.
5) Apparently the party banter (one of the best parts of DAO) is gone and replaced with a limited, context-sensitive system ala ME2.

Jerykk wrote on Feb 2, 2011, 12:16:

Indeed. As long as they don't go backwards or dumb down the game any more than the first, I'll be happy.

I take it you haven't actually read anything about DA2 yet..?