LucidMagic.net
Other => General Gaming => Topic started by: Soul Sojourner on February 23, 2011, 05:52:57 AM
-
I guess Bioware is trying to get 1 million people to download the Dragon Age II demo before March 1st, and if it is successful, two in-game items that will not otherwise be available will be unlocked for the entire community. Also, for playing and completing the demo you also get a unique weapon in the full game later on. I'm going to be doing it on my 360. I preordered the game so I'm anticipating it's release on March 8th.
Here's more information on the demo and the items.
http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/demo/
-
Yeah I saw that crap. What the hell is that. "We'll only unlock special content if you show us you love us." Fuck them.
On a related note the new Dragon Age II Gameplay Video (http://www.gamespot.com/shows/now-playing/) is so fucking boring it makes me want to pour molten lava into my eyes and ears.
Did anyone even bother playing Dragon Age?
Also, what happened to all the blood in DA II?
Whatever, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Brink, and Diablo III are my next three games.
-420
-
Dragon Age was a good game. I liked it quite a bit actually. Wasn't phenomenal, but it was still an awesome game and I got my fun out of it.
Nothing compared to Mass Effect, of course.
I am downloading the Dragon Age 2 demo now, actually. I want my unlockables! I don't care too much about the books, but I want that weapon. =D
I should be getting at least 6 unlockables so far, just from preordering when I did and also from having their newsletter or some shit.
I guess there's other ones, too, from some facebook game and an arcade game I think. lol
420 wants them all.
-
Did you see this one?
Unlock the Ring of Whispers (http://www.epicweapons.com/da-row-offer.php)
You have to buy $15 worth of something, I'm just not sure what.
-420
-
Dragon Age Origins was awesome. Too bad it wasn't longer and too bad there was only one expansion. I pre-ordered DA2 last month. I'm not bothering with the demo, because like I said, I already pre-ordered the game.
-
I'm playing the demo, pretty good game tbh. Makes me regret not playing the first one.
-
I'm playing the demo, pretty good game tbh. Makes me regret not playing the first one.
You didn't play the first one?! :O
What's the matter with you??? :P
-
Diablo III are my next three games.
-420
Have fun with micro-transactions...fuck I hate Bob Kotick.
Also, they've probably broken the game up just like Starcraft 2; fuck no I'm not paying $120 (~$40 * 3 campaign x-pacs) for a full game.
I've become a real Blizzard hater this past year, freaking bullshit what they've done to their titles...
-
You didn't play the first one?! :O
What's the matter with you??? :P
Just never got it. :/ But I'm totally getting Skyrim on the day its released! Shit looks sick!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbmBYT8Dwf4&hd=1
Just bought Oblivion for PC to replay it lol. Anyone have Steam on here?
-
Have fun with micro-transactions...fuck I hate Bob Kotick.
Also, they've probably broken the game up just like Starcraft 2; fuck no I'm not paying $120 (~$40 * 3 campaign x-pacs) for a full game.
I've become a real Blizzard hater this past year, freaking bullshit what they've done to their titles...
I'm confused, SC2 has no expansions (yet), SC1 had one, D2 had one, D1 had one. And those expansions were all roughly half the price of the original game. Once again, you lost me Khad.
-420
EDIT: Oh and can you give me a rough estimate of how much you have spent on WoW with the price of the game, expansions, and monthly subscription?
-
EDIT: Oh and can you give me a rough estimate of how much you have spent on WoW with the price of the game, expansions, and monthly subscription?
Burn!
That's *way* more than I lost on Hellgate London!
-Throbblefoot
-
My sister played the first dragon age and I got a look at it. Like Fallout 3 its better to wait for all the extra dlc to made available in a bigger package for less money since it's single player. I still have not played the first let alone bought it. Don't think i will now except from a discount bin since I've been told about all the cool parts of the game. Though I have to give props to Bioware for not handing over the sequel to Obsidian.
-
I've become a real Blizzard hater this past year, freaking bullshit what they've done to their titles...
Guess you've only recently noticed that Blizzard is all about milking their franchises.
-
Anyone on Epileptic Gaming? what's the deal?
-
Guess you've only recently noticed that Blizzard is all about milking their franchises.
Oh I've always known a company is in it for the money. But when, at the last minute, you take the COMPLETE Starcraft 2 game and break it into 3 completely separate parts; that still require the first campaign....ya...F.U.C.K. Y.O.U. is all I have to say.
And it's not really Blizzard doing it; SC2 was fine until Bob Kotick decided it was better to sell a $40 game for $120. If anyone needs to get hit by a Shock Bus it's him...
-
Also, what happened to all the blood in DA II?
What 'lack of blood' are you referring to exactly? Every blood all over everything in DA II, same as DA:O. I played the demo and in the options there's still a checkbox for persistent gore, allowing blood to remain spattered on things for some time. There's plenty of blood splattering to be had.
On the note of TES V... I am also highly anticipating this release.
I'm also excited about Koei's new Dynasty Warriors 7. They must have listened to their customers because a lot of the mistakes they made in 6 have been undone in 7. They also brought back some characters I'm excited about as well as introduced some new ones. Can't wait to see what it will be like. Admittedly disappointed about Lu Bu's new appearance, though.
@Mo Back to Dragon Age II, on the note of not playing the demo, I think you should. I agree with you, I'm not much of a demo player myself, and wouldn't have bothered if it weren't for the weapon, but I found it to be worth it. The demo is free and it was super short, only lasting about an hour and that was with me not constantly playing it. Then I get the weapon out of beating it while logged in. I guess if you don't care about the weapon and don't feel like waiting for the download (only about 2 gb) I can see it.
I did get a little insight by playing the demo though. They changed both their dialogue and menu (the screen with all the codex entries, journal, inventory, etc.) screens to be just like those from Mass Effect. I am not sure how I feel about it though. I definitely like the new dialogue menu improvements better than before. Mass Effect had an excellent dialogue menu. However, I liked how the first dragon age had a unique menu screen. Don't get me wrong, I like the Menu Screen in Mass Effect and all, but I feel that it's too similar. I liked it having it's own unique menu better, even if this one is good. Just my opinion.
-
What 'lack of blood' are you referring to exactly? Every blood all over everything in DA II, same as DA:O. I played the demo and in the options there's still a checkbox for persistent gore, allowing blood to remain spattered on things for some time. There's plenty of blood splattering to be had.
Maybe it was the gameplay videos that were released but, while there was a lot of blood from defeated enemies (when they died) I didn't see any blood splatter on the PCs. Maybe it was just a setting that wasn't enabled in the gameplay footage as you suggest.
Oh I've always known a company is in it for the money. But when, at the last minute, you take the COMPLETE Starcraft 2 game and break it into 3 completely separate parts; that still require the first campaign....ya...F.U.C.K. Y.O.U. is all I have to say.
And it's not really Blizzard doing it; SC2 was fine until Bob Kotick decided it was better to sell a $40 game for $120. If anyone needs to get hit by a Shock Bus it's him...
Again, I must stress that the original StarCraft game wasn't "complete" without the Brood Wars expansion. And even with the expansion the storyline was left wide open. It doesn't surprise me that Blizzard is trying to milk the storyline for all its worth. SC2 isn't an incomplete game, it is a game designed to have expansions, like WoW. That is Blizzard's business model and it seems to be working for them.
-420
-
Only reason I say SC2 is incomplete is because SC1 you got all 3 faction campaigns, now you got to purchase each faction's campaign.
As for DA2 seems to be a bit of a mixed review, half say it's better than DA; other half say it's been "commercialized" (aka dumbed down). In the end if it doesn't have multiplayer I really don't care how great it is :P
-
In the end if it doesn't have multiplayer I really don't care how great it is :P
That's funny. Multiplayer is the only thing I *don't* care about. Actually, I would rather not have any multiplayer so they focus on making single player that much better.
But I don't see any multiplayer in DA 2, it's an rpg, not an mmorpg. So I doubt there will be.
I forgot to mention that combat changed a little as well. Now you press a button (or key) to attack. Kind of like hack n' slash, except you don't have a secondary attack and there's no combos. You still use whatever powers you possess through the radial menu or through the six hotkeys.
-
That's funny. Multiplayer is the only thing I *don't* care about. Actually, I would rather not have any multiplayer so they focus on making single player that much better.
But I don't see any multiplayer in DA 2, it's an rpg, not an mmorpg. So I doubt there will be.
I see all these games coming out with special content if you preorder through specific stores. What the fuck is the point if it is only a single player game? Just to make the game easier to beat? I admit I preordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution from Best Buy just so I get access to a special sniper rifle and I also preordered Fallout: New Vegas for the unique grenade rifle (which isn't recognized by ANY of the explosive perks btw. WTF?!). But those were rare exceptions.
However, I just preordered 2 copies of Brink (http://brinkthegame.com/), so Throbblefoot and I will be playing a multiplayer FPS objective based team game with special Fallout 3 gear/tattoos!
Brink Preorder Packages (http://www.splashdamage.com/content/brink-pre-order-packages-and-north-american-retailers-revealed)
Keep in mind that both Throbblefoot and I have been playing Enemy Territory and Enemy Territory: Quake Wars since they came out so you can join us or die!
-420
-
Now I remember why I always jumped when Throbble showed up....she scurz mah.
-
I see all these games coming out with special content if you preorder through specific stores. What the fuck is the point if it is only a single player game? Just to make the game easier to beat? I admit I preordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution from Best Buy just so I get access to a special sniper rifle and I also preordered Fallout: New Vegas for the unique grenade rifle (which isn't recognized by ANY of the explosive perks btw. WTF?!). But those were rare exceptions.
You could easily say the same for multiplayer items:
"What the fuck is the point if it is a multiplayer game? Just to make other players easier to beat?"
Unless the item is purely cosmetic (eye candy), it's generally always to make something easier to beat. Whether it be another player or the game itself, it just depends on what the person cares more about. Some people don't care for competition, other people love it.
However, in my experience, in most multiplayer games the special content isn't made to give you much, or any, advantage over other players. Which in my opinion makes an item rather useless unless it's for cosmetic purposes.
If it is simply for cosmetic purposes, whether it be to impress other players or just because you personally enjoy it, it generally only serves to please the eye. The only difference in a single player cosmetic item versus a multiplayer cosmetic item is the inability to impress other players with the item. Although there are some rarer cases that you are still able to (Example: In Dragon Age you can show off your characters online to other people/players which also shows off many of your items). Generally however, unless an item is purely for cosmetics, you often gain some degree of advantage or at the very least a head start in a single player game. That is most likely because of there being no competition and therefore no worries of creating an unfair advantage between one player and another. There are exceptions though, some multiplayer games do have special content that does give you a considerable advantage, but in my experience those are few and far between. From what I've seen in the past many special multiplayer items that have some advantage typically only have a slight advantage and the rest is cosmetic, and often these items are soon outdone by better "stock" multiplayer items that you get after a rank up or some form of promotion.
Most of the multiplayer games that I have run across that have multiple special items with considerable advantages typically use those special items as a method to make more money. Remember GunZ? It's an excellent example of this. Ijji runs a North American version of GunZ which is free to play, but they have various items that will give you an advantage over other players, most of them temporary, which can add up to quite a bit of money if you were to use them frequently, well over the cost that buying the game would have been were there box copies initially available for sale.
I like some multiplayer and competition once in awhile, but in all honesty I'm more of a single player kind of guy and I like to play casually. I don't like all that fast-paced constant-action hyper-tension eyes-popping-out-of-the-head shit all the time. Once in awhile, sure, but I don't get worked up over games all that often and I don't typically like to. I prefer to be relaxed and casual, and that's just me I guess, but I would definitely take single player special content over multiplayer special content generally all of the time, and especially cosmetic stuff. Just my opinion.
-
when Throbble showed up....she scurz mah.
And now you fear my awesome FPS style!
-Throbblefoot
-
Frames Per Second??? o.O
:p
-
Frames Per Second??? o.O
:p
No silly: Fake Poop Shooter. Duh.
-420
-
It is the 8th! Woohoo! Now I just gotta wait for them to ship it since I ordered it online. :(
Newegg, yes!
-
It is the 8th! Woohoo! Now I just gotta wait for them to ship it since I ordered it online. :(
Newegg, yes!
lol why are you still living in the stone age of physical media?? I pre-loaded my digital download last night :):)
-
lol why are you still living in the stone age of physical media?? I pre-loaded my digital download last night :):)
Hilarious!
-420
-
lol why are you still living in the stone age of physical media?? I pre-loaded my digital download last night :):)
Uhh, 360 dude. I didn't buy the PC version for the first one, so I decided not to for the sequel.
-
Uhh, 360 dude. I didn't buy the PC version for the first one, so I decided not to for the sequel.
Uhh...360 version over PC version? Lucky for you I work at a hospital so I'm sure I'll find a good head doctor to recommend for you :)
-
Playing on Nightmare difficulty. Pretty hard so far lol I've been wiped 5 times on the first few battles heheh. My game crashed (wtf?) after that first Ogre battle, which took me a few tries to beat now I have to do it again. Man it's harder than the first game, enemies AI seems smarter and they send in waves from all sides so your mage gets ganged rapped from behind a lot.
Luckily I like a challenge.
-
Uhh...360 version over PC version? Lucky for you I work at a hospital so I'm sure I'll find a good head doctor to recommend for you :)
Well, at least on the 360 I get achievements! Woohoo!
You don't care?
I know, it's okay, you'll be alright. Just lay down for awhile, you'll be fine.
-
Well, at least on the 360 I get achievements! Woohoo!
You don't care?
I know, it's okay, you'll be alright. Just lay down for awhile, you'll be fine.
There are achievements on PC too.
-
There are achievements on PC too.
Which in no way affect your gamerscore.
-
How do you like it so far? Better or worse than the first.
Well, I guess my pre-order got completely assfucked. Some shit about the vendor having an inventory issue (which is why it was taking so long) and they couldn't find an alternative source. So I'm just supposed to be satisfied with getting a refund and buying the original game when I was supposed to be getting the signature edition and extra pre-order goodies. They're giving me a $10 gift card in addition to the refund, but even with that it would cost me more to buy the version of the game I was supposed to get and still not get the extra shit I should have gotten for pre-ordering. Plus they're giving me that extra $10 as a gift card so I have to spend it there rather than giving me the extra $10 on my refund so I can buy the signature edition elsewhere (which I won't).
I know I've been pretty loyal to Newegg for some time now, but this is the second incident in a month... at least this time I'm not out any money. Last time I was out shipping costs and ended up with nothing.
Anyway, I'm kind of feeling pretty "fuck it" right now, so I don't think I'll even bother buying it again. EA pisses me off anyway.
-
Ouch that sucks. Umm better or worse? I haven't played long enough to make that call yet. If you read critic and user reviews it's a pretty universal opinion that DA2 falls short of DAO. Biggest complaint is the Mass Effectification of DA, an opinion I share. They changed a lot of the mechanics making it more action less tactical, they also dumbed down the skills and made NPCs armor none customizable. All changes for the worse. Game play is still fun. Loot sucks, almost not even worth the time to look into crates, chest and mob loot, it's all useless.
Last complaint is the main character is waaaaay less customizable than in DAO where you had a whole different first few hours of game play depending on race/class choice. Here it's only human rogue/wiz/war all the same story.
Nightmare mode is decently challenging so far, I recommend that mode, otherwise it may be too easy.
-
Ouch that sucks. Umm better or worse? I haven't played long enough to make that call yet. If you read critic and user reviews it's a pretty universal opinion that DA2 falls short of DAO. Biggest complaint is the Mass Effectification of DA, an opinion I share. They changed a lot of the mechanics making it more action less tactical, they also dumbed down the skills and made NPCs armor none customizable. All changes for the worse. Game play is still fun. Loot sucks, almost not even worth the time to look into crates, chest and mob loot, it's all useless.
Last complaint is the main character is waaaaay less customizable than in DAO where you had a whole different first few hours of game play depending on race/class choice. Here it's only human rogue/wiz/war all the same story.
Nightmare mode is decently challenging so far, I recommend that mode, otherwise it may be too easy.
Yeah, that's what I've heard so far too. Some people saying it's been pretty "consolized." "Mass Effectification" yeah, that's about my thoughts after playing the demo. I like what they did with the dialogue, but not the menu.
Yeah, it sucks that I'm not getting it but maybe it's for the better. I figured I could be done with DA 2 before spring came, but it's not looking like that would have happened anyway. Snow is melting and I got a lot a shit to do this summer, which means I gotta stop playing video games so much so I can get shit done.
-
Sounds like Newegg can't get their shit together. So far I've had pretty good luck ordering from Best Buy online but their store here in San Francisco sucks. I was in there last month and the employees there had never heard of pre-ordering a game even though I've pre-ordered games from there in the past. D'oh?!
Anyway, you have to wait a few days after the release date but you do get the special pre-order bonus so at least their web site knows what the fuck they are doing.
-420
-
Hmm ok so DA2 is a love hate relationship. Lots good about the game but lots of points that are sooo annoying it hurts. I'll just mention annoying parts now cause I'm annoyed by them presently.
1) Enemy reinforcements. Prior to game release the devs mentioned that they would change up battles by sending in new combatants to spice things up. Well spicing things up is well and good but they pull this "trick" in EVERY freaking fight. It gets old soooo freaking fast. To make matters worse, most of the time the reinforcements just appear literally out of thin air, normally right on top of you. Tough to plan a fight when your enemies can phase in.
2) Nightmare difficulty is WAYYY harder than Hard. Hard is too easy but in Nightmare I'm wiped 5 times per battle. That's freaking annoying. The AoE friendly fire is insane on Nightmare (doesn't exist on Hard). If any other character gets anywhere near a two handed fighter on Nightmare they'll be 1 shot killed by just about any attack. The AoE dmg is so bad that there definitely should be AI that instructs NPCs not to use AoE attacks if there's an ally near by, but that would suck cause 80% of skills are AoE.
3) Enemy rogues and mages are stupidly overpowered. On Nightmare at least. They have dumb amounts of HP and can easily one shot kill ally squishies. A rogue's backstab is unblockable and it recharges very fast, basically an auto hit for very high dmg. Mage AoE spells on NM is just about an insta kill for anyone near it. Every mage is like an Elminster or something, that's just dumb.
4) Worst of all. There are only a handful of maps that are re-used like crazy. Makes Hellgate: London's areas seem fresh and exciting and thats' a bad thing.
That's it for now. The story is very good and combat is otherwise very well paced. The game overall is very good but compared to DAO which had no faults save for being too short, this is a step backwards in many ways.
-
I haven't played DA:O or DA II but I had a feeling that BioWare was fucking up. A friend of mine who is strictly a console gamer loves the Mass Effect series (which I also have not played) but I just feel like BioWare switched to consoles and I have no desire to play a ported console game on my PC.
BTW, has anyone played Jade Empire? I was thinking about getting it because it's really cheap now and I'm looking for something new in a RPG.
-420
-
I haven't played DA:O or DA II but I had a feeling that BioWare was fucking up. A friend of mine who is strictly a console gamer loves the Mass Effect series (which I also have not played) but I just feel like BioWare switched to consoles and I have no desire to play a ported console game on my PC.
BTW, has anyone played Jade Empire? I was thinking about getting it because it's really cheap now and I'm looking for something new in a RPG.
-420
I've got it for xbox and I like it.
-
Got DA II out last weekend, was a nice game.
On a sidenote ME 3 got announced and will be out most likely at the end of 2011
-
Finished DA:2
Verdict: Very disappointed. In fact I don't think I've yelled at a video game as much as this one.
-
On a sidenote ME 3 got announced and will be out most likely at the end of 2011
That is an exciting prospect indeed. Although I am wary, to be honest, because I am afraid that they will fuck up what should be a good game. I sincerely hope that this is not the case, because ME is a excellent [soon-to-be-trilogy] thus far, and so I hope the third installment does not disappoint. Also, I want more Seth Green, so those fuckers better keep him as the voice actor for Joker.
As for the topic, "very disappointed" is actually music to my ears. I feel even better about not receiving the game in the end, and feel that this result is better knowing that the game would not have been worth it in the first place. It is only disappointing in that I now worry for future Bioware titles.
-
That is an exciting prospect indeed. Although I am wary, to be honest, because I am afraid that they will fuck up what should be a good game. I sincerely hope that this is not the case, because ME is a excellent [soon-to-be-trilogy] thus far, and so I hope the third installment does not disappoint. Also, I want more Seth Green, so those fuckers better keep him as the voice actor for Joker.
As for the topic, "very disappointed" is actually music to my ears. I feel even better about not receiving the game in the end, and feel that this result is better knowing that the game would not have been worth it in the first place. It is only disappointing in that I now worry for future Bioware titles.
Definitely worry for the future, I blame EA. So you actually never received it in the end? You got refunded?
-
I now have GameFly, so I can rent this piece of shit if I want to see for myself and not worry about wasting any money on it. (well, if time is money, not as *much* money) :P
If I ever get to it... other games are more important, obviously.