This is pretty sad they're doing this 4 months out when the game is still pre-alpha. It's supposed to be out as of March. I smell some desperation here, the game has had some pretty shaky previews and early fan reactions to Bioware statements haven't been encouraging. They seem to be taking a "lets make Dragon Effect: Sparta" edition approach to this game and it's very discouraging. Watching the leaked combat previews the other day was awful, the rogue was literally zipping around the screen like some shitty God of War clone. Graphically the game appears to have taken several steps backwards, they said that they didn't like the originals bland fantasy setting so they redid it in......an even blander fantasy setting with lots of solid color textures and craggy mountains.

I don't know how they took a financially successful RPG and somehow inferred that the customer base wants this instead but I hope they clue in before they potentially damage this franchise.

"loads of content" my ass. The digital collector's edition of Dragon Age contained exactly 11 dollars worth of extra content, which was for sale separately, and they charged 15 bucks extra for it.

Fuck you, EA.

Creston

They're doing the same thing but the difference is that this time if you don't preorder, you probably won't get the Shale equivalent.

The thing I can't stand the most is that this game is so early in development and they are already cutting things out for DLC.

I understand it when you get ideas AFTER you complete the game or its near gold and you make a DLC out of it. But to do it from the beginning just screams rip off merchants.

DLC nonsense aside, I will probably pass on this game, as all the information released indicates it'll be even more consolized than DA:Origins.

What a shame, Bioware is truly gone, all that's left is EA.

I shudder to imagine what an expensive mess The Old Republic will turn out to be.

optaboy wrote on Oct 15, 2010, 10:58:
The thing I can't stand the most is that this game is so early in development and they are already cutting things out for DLC.

Dude, the scary thing is that this game comes out in March 2011. It's not early in development, if anything it's quite late in development. They need to have builds ready for PC Q/A and console certification in 3 months. Hell one of their dev months is December, a notoriously difficult time for anyone to get anything done. They said publicly that they aren't even at the alpha stage yet somehow. They took an abbreviated development cycle with this game and I have no clue how they will manage to hit their release date without totally screwing the pooch on quality or length. This game will have to be delayed otherwise it's going to be seriously pared down from what people expect. Go look up the little video footage there is, it looks terrible, like b-grade quality shit.

People seem to be quite weary about this and I don't blame them. I loved Dragon Age but everything Bioware says on their forums seems to indicate that they don't understand what people liked about it in the first place. Every time I hear something it's invariably a feature removal or something negative. They need to let their community manager do his job and tell David Gaider to shut the fuck up already. He has more posts than the damned CM himself does. When someone criticized a feature change, he actually said "How do you know the narrator of the story didn't plan it that way on purpose?". Seriously.

What a shame, Bioware is truly gone, all that's left is EA.

As much as I would like to blame EA, they aren't the ones responsible. It's long time Bioware people who are saying that this is all for the better user experience and blah blah blah people never read all of the great dialogue I wrote etc.

This comment was edited on Oct 15, 2010, 11:14.

I seriously doubt that David Gaider, of all people, is the one pushing for the game to become Dragon Age : God of War Edition...

But yeah, with how soon they're gonna release this, I have a feeling it'll be a pretty linear 15 hour "RPG".

We'll see, I guess.

Creston

All it really needed was the original Dragon Age with better class leveling and differentiation. Instead they seem to go the otherway and have even less differences between characters since we're all now playing the same human character.

Seriously what is the point in doing a rush job when your original game did so well precisely because you took the time to make it right.

Retards. Wish Black isle was still around...

Wow, they've really spurred some hate for this game. There's a lack of real info on the PC version and video, so I'm unsure as of now. If you believe Bioware developers on their forum the game plays exactly the same, they just made it so abilities launch as soon as you click the icon, which sounds fine.

Just remember everyone, NOTHING'S going to change just because they're now owned by EA. It'll still be the same old Bioware. The same M.O. It'll all be alright. These aren't the droids you're looking for.



Creston

I seriously doubt that David Gaider, of all people, is the one pushing for the game to become Dragon Age : God of War Edition...

Go read his forum posts about the games "streamlining". I think he's fully on board with the "push button, awesome happens" development shift (thats an actual quote btw).

If you believe Bioware developers on their forum the game plays exactly the same, they just made it so abilities launch as soon as you click the icon, which sounds fine.

That's not true at all. It's not just about the combat. That's not what people are really upset about anyways since they claimed that you can choose between the two systems. If you believe the Bioware developers they have vastly changed many aspects of the game. They started out saying everything was the same, now they've shifted to "ok well we did streamline this...and this....and this....".

There's a lack of real info on the PC version and video, so I'm unsure as of now.

We're basically 3 months of dev time away from release and we're not seeing shit all on the game, it's very worrisome. Dragon Age had (shitty) previews a full year ahead of it's release.

This comment was edited on Oct 15, 2010, 11:33.

I would prefer them not do a sequel at all compared to everything I've seen of DA2.

Verno wrote on Oct 15, 2010, 11:26:

I seriously doubt that David Gaider, of all people, is the one pushing for the game to become Dragon Age : God of War Edition...

Go read his forum posts about the games "streamlining". I think he's fully on board with the "push button, awesome happens" development shift (thats an actual quote btw).

I'm sure he's on board, because what else can he really do? He's a WRITER. This is being pushed by EA who feel so sorry for all the console players who thought the first one was way too difficult, and so Bioware has to make it far easier and far more mainstream.

It's not David Gaider who is PUSHING these changes. He knows how much the PC players enjoyed all the humor and awesome dialogue in the original game. He was a frequent participant in the 100+ page quotes thread.

To be honest, the "push button and stuff happens" thing doesn't really bother me. I'm not a huge fan of the whole "use one power, then wait around for 10 seconds before you can use another" like in ME2. It's just artificially slowing things down. I'm fine with it being faster.

I just hope the writing and the story don't get shafted because the average console player never fucking reads anything...

Creston

Creston wrote on Oct 15, 2010, 11:16:
I seriously doubt that David Gaider, of all people, is the one pushing for the game to become Dragon Age : God of War Edition...

But yeah, with how soon they're gonna release this, I have a feeling it'll be a pretty linear 15 hour "RPG".

We'll see, I guess.

Creston

Eh considering Gaider's generally a condescending douche in regards to criticism of DA2's design decisions, I'm sure he's fully on board. Dragon Effect 2: The Mass Age here we come! bleh

This is being pushed by EA who feel so sorry for all the console players who thought the first one was way too difficult, and so Bioware has to make it far easier and far more mainstream.

I don't see anything to suggest EA is doing anything of the sort, just seems like convenient scapegoat scenario. People don't want to think that Bioware themselves could be responsible for this and yet look at the "streamlining" of Mass Effect 2 which was all Bioware. I doubt that's even what console players care about in the first place. Where are you inferring this from? All I remember seeing console players bitch about was the port quality itself and some of them felt conned into buying it based on highly misleading marketing. It was still a successful game that reviewed fairly well on consoles and is generally thought of positively.

Regardless, overhauling the combat system isn't even what people are terribly concerned with as it could have standed for improvement anyways. Everything else seems to be suffering too and I doubt it has anything to do with console users, especially considering people from the dev team commented on how they were jealous of Mass Effect's gameplay and wanted to recreate that "experience".

Verno wrote on Oct 15, 2010, 12:02:

This is being pushed by EA who feel so sorry for all the console players who thought the first one was way too difficult, and so Bioware has to make it far easier and far more mainstream.

I don't see anything to suggest EA is doing anything of the sort, just seems like convenient scapegoat scenario. People don't want to think that Bioware themselves could be responsible for this and yet look at the "streamlining" of Mass Effect 2 which was all Bioware. I doubt that's even what console players care about in the first place. Where are you inferring this from? All I remember seeing console players bitch about was the port quality itself and some of them felt conned into buying it based on highly misleading marketing. It was still a successful game that reviewed fairly well on consoles and is generally thought of positively.

Regardless, overhauling the combat system isn't even what people are terribly concerned with as it could have standed for improvement anyways. Everything else seems to be suffering too and I doubt it has anything to do with console users, especially considering people from the dev team commented on how they were jealous of Mass Effect's gameplay and wanted to recreate that "experience".

It could be Bioware, sure. Even so, the Bioware of old, who made BG, wouldn't have given a shit about combat being too difficult. As to where I'm inferring it from, do you remember the horde of threads about how difficult the game was just after it came out? And the three patches that nerfed the difficulty ever single time. The majority of those were the console version owners who were complaining.

And if it was the PC guys who were complaining, Bio/EA wouldn't change it. But the majority got sold on console, ergo, if they find it too difficult, let's nerf it and make the next one easier.

But eh, everything we're saying here is conjecture anyways.

I love ME2, so I'm not that worried about the streamlining of certain things. I missed the Mako (the Hammerhead is better), and I'm not happy about inventory just vanishing, but I think that in most other areas, ME2 is a better game than ME1. (apart from the story, but it's hard to make the second one just as epic as the first one, storywise.)

Creston

This is a pretty lame business tactic. I don't have a problem with cutting out content and making it only available for people who buy new (as was the case for DAO), but now you have to either pre-order or buy the collector's edition? Lame.

Verno wrote on Oct 15, 2010, 10:49:
T They seem to be taking a "lets make Dragon Effect: Anime Sparta" edition approach to this game and it's very discouraging.

Fixed.

When I first saw the trailer and then saw the first combat gameplay the only thoughts that invaded my mind was:

They got anime in my DA! What the fuck am I watching?!

Bioware is heading for a very rude awakening when this game comes out, pretty much like DICE is having that awakening with the reception of MoH. I think DA:O2 may receive a similar review reception as MoH, the game just looks dreadful and appears to play worse than it looks.

Creston wrote on Oct 15, 2010, 12:29:
It could be Bioware, sure. Even so, the Bioware of old, who made BG, wouldn't have given a shit about combat being too difficult.

That was a long time ago, even if everyone from the company at that time was still there today there's no guarantee that things wouldn't have changed. In fact many of the people publicly pushing streamlining scenarios and whatnot are old hat Bioware employees anyway. It's not just the combat though. Remember when you would take your character from the first game into the second one? Not anymore. Their version of roleplaying is turning into Final Fantasy. No more playing as other races. Simplified dialogue system with less variety and choice. The list goes on.

As to where I'm inferring it from, do you remember the horde of threads about how difficult the game was just after it came out? And the three patches that nerfed the difficulty ever single time. The majority of those were the console version owners who were complaining.

I remember everyone bitching about the difficulty, not just console users. It was knee-jerk stupidity based on the fact that people hadn't learned how to exploit mages yet. I don't really see how console users are to blame for the various changes between 1-2 though, Bioware themselves has explained their reasons already and it didn't have anything to do with that. Dragon Age sold a lot of PC copies by the way, EA will definitely be watching and listening to feedback.

q[I love ME2, so I'm not that worried about the streamlining of certain things. I missed the Mako (the Hammerhead is better), and I'm not happy about inventory just vanishing, but I think that in most other areas, ME2 is a better game than ME1. (apart from the story, but it's hard to make the second one just as epic as the first one, storywise.)

I can't say that I loved it but it was a good game in spite of the feature streamlining, not necessarily because of it. The combat was heavily improved but suffered from simplicity at the same time. The controls were still clunky as hell despite having a unified "DO EVERYTHING" button. I think the narrative was awful even for sci-fi trope.

I just love that the entire point of the first game was to build your own character, begin the epic story in a new world, create your own origin....................and now they're all about tossing all that to the side and having you play a pre-defined character.

I wasn't dying to play this game (I did enjoy DA, but I have a lot of issues - none of which they seem to be working on in this "sequel,") but forcing a pre-order, forcing a two-month pre-release pre-order, just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

They better figure out a way to amaze me in the next eight weeks or so or I will make a promise to EAware to specifically not purchase the game.
DA is still the successor to BA, right? Right? Lulz.
Glad that the pre-cut DLC is ready to go three months ahead of release! ,
Ray