658 replies to this topic

[Choo Choo]

And also is it just me, or do these Darkspawn look somewhat less intimidating than their predecessors?

It's not just you. They look silly, and not very scary at all. Hopefully they'll change that before release.

Trailers are rarely a good indication of what a game is like, though. Remember the DA:O trailers, with all the silly eye-glowing and the Grey Warden motto that I don't even think you get to hear in the game?

[vilkacis]

SH: All previews so far say you start out overpowered but lose the endgame abilities pretty soon. So no, that fight is not supposed to be even remotely difficult.

[Yovaneth]

The Dalish are going to have ... wait for it ... Welsh accents. Now that's odd. The Welsh accent has to be about the friendliest accent around, but the Dalish are a hard, rough people. Cannot wait to see this, lol.

Depends which bit of Wales you're in. The North Coast is a very hard, harsh accent and in the Marches you'd be hard-pushed to distinguish Welsh from English. The rural areas (Think: Cambrian Mountains) and the south-west have the softest accents. I'd accept a mountain accent before a coastal accent because it makes more sense. Let's see how much of a ---- (pick your own word)-up the Canadians can make of that choice.

-Y-

[Archmage Silver]

News:
Dragon Age II: Gameplay Footage (Article, Videos) @ Grey Wardens

Depends which bit of Wales you're in. The North Coast is a very hard, harsh accent and in the Marches you'd be hard-pushed to distinguish Welsh from English. The rural areas (Think: Cambrian Mountains) and the south-west have the softest accents. I'd accept a mountain accent before a coastal accent because it makes more sense. Let's see how much of a ---- (pick your own word)-up the Canadians can make of that choice.

-Y-

It'd certainly fit elves to have a softer accent where possible, although I'm not familiar enough with the various accents to decide which one is the most suitable. I trust BioWare to not mess it up though. Here's what Gaider said:

At any rate, there's a range of Welsh accents right from those found in Cornwall to those found in rural parts that some folks like to make fun of. We're not going for anything comedic, so there's no need to panic. Unless you enjoy panicking, of course. Then by all means, panic.

[Darziak]

Well I suppose I can offer my voice for dalish now.

[Archmage Silver]

Speaking of voice actors, do we have any likely candidates with a natural Welsh accent from previous BioWare games, or any games for that matter?

[Archmage Silver]

Well, here's something regarding VAs... Varric's voice actor is Brian Bloom.

[Archmage Silver]

Here's the first Dragon Age II DLC bonus item: Staff of Parthalan

Magic has always run strongly within the Hawke bloodline. The tales passed down from one generation to the next tell of an ancestor named Parthalan, a mage who long ago helped to unite Ferelden under the rule of King Calenhad. Parthalan eventually vanished into legend, fleeing the persecution of the Chantry, but his legacy remains in the hands of his family ? along with his hope that one day, mages would achieve the freedom that King Calenhad intended to bring to all men.

Personally I haven't got the email with the item code yet, but apparently it's going to take them a while to get all the emails sent, and there's reportedly another wave of emails coming later this month. (The newsletter sign-up was previously discussed on page 5.)

Recap: Sign up for the newsletter at the official site, check this link to see if you're set to receive the Dragon Age newsletter - if not, change the status to "yes". You should now receive the email this month.

Staff of Parlathan = the staff-sword from the trailer (and incidentally also the inflatable staff-swords we were giving away at the cons)

REDEEMING YOUR CODE NOW IS OK! We do not expect you to have to hang on to the email until launch.

However, it might only appear on your list of DLC here on social closer to DA2 launch. Unless you got an error when redeeming, the item is there and we'll roll that out on to your list of content as soon as we can so you can confirm.

The code is redeemed on an account here on social. If you have more than 1 account on social then first login to the one you want the staff for - the code has 1 use only, and once redeemed on one account it will not be usable on another.

Particularly important for console players - If you have more than 1 social account, ensure your gamertag or psn account name is correctly linked to the account you are redeeming the code against (social shows the gamertag/psn account name at the top of the redeem page).

And for those still waiting for the item - as Chris mentioned, it may still take a few days to send the email to everyone, please be patient and give it a few more days.

[Darziak]

Well I thought that would've been in the game anyway.

It seems Hawke has changed to a different stance on the main site.

[Bluenose]

I don't think this has been posted before.

Preview from bit-tech. Rather confused by some of it; they think you can only be human (yes, we know), and only one of three classes - warrior, rogue and wizard (which they seem to think is less than before). And it's brown.

Edited by Bluenose, 05 October 2010 - 09:16 AM.

[Archmage Silver]

...Dragon Age 2 still looks as brown and uninvitingly bleak as the inside of a public toilet.

...the game looked a bit poo...

All we saw was lots of brown...

...endless expanses of brown textures.

Hahahah...

...his classes are limited to only the generic 'Warrior', 'Wizard' or 'Rogue'...

Ahahahaha, as if there were more classes in Origins from the get-go. RTFM!

What disappointed us most about our time looking at Dragon Age 2 though was the news that players won't be able to import their character from the previous game. Savegame, yes. Character, no. Carrying over your progress from Dragon Age: Origins will create some changes in the world, but likely nothing dramatic. That's slightly disappointing for those of us who slogged through Origins' underwhelming end-game purely so they could carry the savegame over.

In other words, he didn't get the game. At all.

The journey, not the destination...

At any rate, thanks for the link Bluenose. (Unintentional) comic relief is always welcome in the oh-so-serious business of game reviewing.

[vilkacis]

...His opinion differs from yours, so he didn't "get" it. Right.

Personally, I was starting to find the "journey" pretty unimpressive by the time the 400th identical Hurrlock, Durrlock or Derplock shuffled on screen, and when the endgame is full of the same bloody orcs you've been slaughtering since the second dungeon, it most certainly qualifies as a slog.

[Archmage Silver]

...His opinion differs from yours, so he didn't "get" it. Right.

Yeah, same as you.

[WeeRLegion]

Actually I can't quite entirely disagree with the brown comments... .p
All the screenshots thus far seem to be set in a certain dry and desertish landscape, which does match the description. So here's to hoping the game will have more to offer, cause dirt is boring as hell. xp

I'm also a little disappointed with the general direction the graphics have gone. Armours in particular. They're more generic and less authentic than DAO. There's a reason spikes and sharp corners are historically mostly just put on weapons... o-o

[Archmage Silver]

News:
4 Page Mike Laidlaw Interview @ NowGamer

Actually I can't quite entirely disagree with the brown comments... .p
All the screenshots thus far seem to be set in a certain dry and desertish landscape, which does match the description. So here's to hoping the game will have more to offer, cause dirt is boring as hell. xp

I'm also a little disappointed with the general direction the graphics have gone. Armours in particular. They're more generic and less authentic than DAO. There's a reason spikes and sharp corners are historically mostly just put on weapons... o-o

The devs have made comments to the effect that the characters will be the main focus of the game more than in Origins, so they're trying to keep the environment simple enough as for it to not stand out more than the characters themselves. That's not to say it will be bland, just not as busy as in Origins. As for the variation - Kirkwall is a coastal city, just a short distance from Planasene Forest. And that's just for starters.

Map of Thedas [Warning: 6680x5010 Image - Slow Load Probable]

[WeeRLegion]

I really hope that isn't dev lingo for 'let's get it out, quick and brown!'... .p

[Archmage Silver]

I certainly hope not. Here's to hoping it's not really Dragon Effect 2+!

[Archmage Silver]

Dragon Age II podcast's 4th episode (with David Gaider) is now available.

Previous Episodes:
Episode 3
Episode 2
Episode 1

[EvaineDian]

Not that it matters, but I'm actually starting to look forward to this.

I played DA:O only once right when it came out and I remember I posted here that I wasn't very thrilled by parts of the main plot (I think the quests in the Deep Roads, the Brecilian Forest and the Mage Tower were too generic) and the side quests and overall gave it a mediocre rating at best, but I fell in love with almost all of the companions. I played neither any of the DLCs nor Awakening when it came out, I just wasn't interested, but I kept reading fanfiction, because somehow I have a soft spot for the setting.

Two weeks ago, I decided to give DA:O, Awakening and the DLCs another go, and what can I say, I'm hooked. My review was unfair - I like it much, much more this time around. I even read all the codex entries and paid more attention to all the little details about Ferelden, Orlais etc. - I think they've created an interesting lore with lots of potential for great storytelling. I still think they could have come up with more interesting main quests and area design for DA:O. Awakening was a step in the right direction, in a way - the areas look much nicer and I loved that they took one of the highlights of DA:O (making decisions that actually matter!) and took it even further. But their best feature are still the characters, damn, do they have a knack for banters!

From what I've seen of DA2, it's going to be very different, but I'd rather hold off on judging it until I've actually played it (more than once ). I haven't played Mass Effect, so I don't know if I'll like the new reply system. I've played other games with a framed narrative and it wasn't my favourite way of telling a story, but we'll see how it goes. If DA2 doesn't suck, all the better. If it sucks, well, that doesn't mean they won't ever make a good game again, does it?

Edited by EvaineDian, 10 October 2010 - 09:38 AM.

[Yovaneth]

It'd certainly fit elves to have a softer accent where possible, although I'm not familiar enough with the various accents to decide which one is the most suitable. I trust BioWare to not mess it up though. Here's what Gaider said:

At any rate, there's a range of Welsh accents right from those found in Cornwall to those found in rural parts that some folks like to make fun of. We're not going for anything comedic, so there's no need to panic. Unless you enjoy panicking, of course. Then by all means, panic.

David Gaider's brownie point rating has just taken a very serious nosedive in my book. In fact, it's now less than zero. That remark tells me two things:

1. He doesn't have a clue about UK geography and is too lazy to look it up
2. It's debatable whether Bioware can be trusted to not mess it up.

The Cornish sound nothing like the Welsh - Cornwall is the other side of a large stretch of water from Wales (the Bristol Channel). I'm beginning to suspect he's talking about West Country accents (Sam Gamgee in LotR - a poor imitation but recognisable for what it was supposed to be) and not Welsh ones.

I can afford to be slightly disdainful - I have an RL Welsh name and very obvious traces of a West Country accent!!!

-Y-