But seriously, while they are waaaay better than the earlier pre-release shots, they really don't look better than DAO. Especially the character textures (the background textures are about on par though)
Really? Those screenshots don't look better than this?
You've got to be kidding me.
In Spoit's defense that's a really shitty screenshot of DA:O.
But seriously, while they are waaaay better than the earlier pre-release shots, they really don't look better than DAO. Especially the character textures (the background textures are about on par though)
Really? Those screenshots don't look better than this?
You've got to be kidding me.
In Spoit's defense that's a really shitty screenshot of DA:O.
Yeah, that's a pretty horrible angle too, not to mention location, but I tried to duplicate it anyway.
Yeah, that's why despite some of the background textures being rather bleh in the shots posted earlier, I was only complaining about the object textures
Hawke and Co. go to Kirkwall to meet an uncle who has their family fortune.
They are stopped at the gates by the city guard, told that no more people are allowed entry, it's too crowded.
After weeks of being outside, they finally locate their uncle.
The uncle has gambled away the family fortune--but he manages to get them inside by essentially selling them into indentured servitude for a year to mercenary group.
A year passes. The Blight is ended. You are eking out a living in the slums of Kirkwall, taking odd jobs here and there to build up money:
>Aveline asks you to stop a raid on a caravan, as she has joined the City Guard
>Another guardsmen asks you to hunt down nobles who conspired against the Warden Commander in Amaranthine
"As [your] name becomes known amongst the locals, [you] stumbles into a chance meeting with Varric", younger brother of Bartrand, a dwarven explorer. With the darkspawn retreating, he is leading an expedition into the Deep Roads, and Hawke wants to join. Varric can guarantee a spot, in exchange for some money.
You meet Anders because he has a map of the Deep Roads from the Grey Wardens. He agrees to give it to you if you help him rescue a friend who has been captured by templars.
You break into Kirkwall's Chantry at night, only to find this friend has been made Tranquil. Upon seeing the templars who did this "Anders goes crazy. His eyes glow blue, his voice booms, and his powers increase."
After the battle, Anders says that he is possessed by a spirit of Justice. (Apparently, he lies to you at first, because GI doesn't even hint at Vengeance.)
The Ritual
Before going on the expedition, you remember the promise you made. You head to Sundermount.
Immediately upon arriving, you are confronted by the Dalish. You show them the amulet, they take you to the Keeper.
The Keeper says you have to go to the top of Sundermount to an altar to perform a secret ritual.
With you goes Merrill. For mysterious reasons, she chooses to go with you back to Kirkwall after she's done with the ritual. First, you must do the Ritual.
Apparently the Ritual is a twist, but they don't say what. They say that your Hawke might be a completely different person at this point, and that would spoil the surprise. (Verbatim: "Needless to say, the amulet hides a dark secret, leading to one of Dragon Age II's first exciting plot twists. I'd tell you more, but by this point in the game, your Hawke may be a totally different person than mine, and I wouldn't want to ruin the surprise.")
Merrill leaves her people, and becomes an outcast.
Here's some more stuff I didn't find too pertinent, but I guess there's no harm in detail:
They describe Carver as antagonistic. They just say Bethany is your sister.
They describe Merrill as awkward.
You save Wesley and Aveline from darkspawn.
Wesley attempts to apprehend Bethany (this Hawke was a warrior or rogue), but Aveline is cool-headed and asks him to back off.
Flemeth not only saves you, but ensures you safe passage across the Waking Sea to the Free Marches, in exchange for delivering the amulet.
"...every time I leveled up and gained a new ability, I felt like it genuinely changed the way I approached battles. Some abilities felt useless or buried in Dragon Age: Origins. In Dragon Age II, I found myself using everything at my disposal."
They say the upper-right and lower-right conversation choices are better defined as positive or negative reactions, not really Paragon or Renegade or good and evil.
Middle choice is sarcastic (we knew that), which led to Hawke asking Flemeth if she can teach him to be a dragon like a smart-ass. For those riveted to their seats at my entertaining summation, she says no. He also jokes later that Kirkwall "isn't brown enough for me".
The map marks what locations in Kirkwall have quests for you.
There's a screenshot of a qunari (a new one, I hadn't seen it before), and it says that Kirkwall is now home to a group of stranded qunari. (Already knew that, too.)
The game cuts without loading to Varric and Cassandra talking. Which is nice.
Impressive Skills for Each class
Warrior:
Giant's Reach: This passive ability allows your regular swings with two-handed weapons to hit multiple enemies.
Scythe: This awesome charge attack sends you hurtling toward enemies. For regular opponents, it's a great opener, and weak foes will instantly explode into a puff of blood.
Rogue:
Evade: This stylish backflip makes any enemy trying to kill you retarget. When upgraded, it also has the potential to stun opponents.
Pinning Shot: Archery-focused rogues need to keep their distance, which is why they'll want this great skill to push enemies back or stick them in place.
Mage:
Winter's Grasp: This spell slows down enemy attacks and movements allowing you to avoid powerful swipes by bigger creatures.
Walking Bomb: This fan favorite from Origins causes damage over time. If an enemy is killed while still under the effect, it causes them to explode and injure other baddies in the area.
Bolding mine, because I like the way that sounds.
edit: separated the story stuff from the gameplay stuff with additional spoiler boxes.
But seriously, while they are waaaay better than the earlier pre-release shots, they really don't look better than DAO. Especially the character textures (the background textures are about on par though)
Really? Those screenshots don't look better than this?
You've got to be kidding me.
In Spoit's defense that's a really shitty screenshot of DA:O.
Yeah, that's a pretty horrible angle too, not to mention location, but I tried to duplicate it anyway.
It also doesn't count when you deliberately turn down the settings and then complain about it looking bad. I got rid of the texture mod anyway, since it took up too much memory for having too little effect
Regardless of mods or intentionally bad screenshots, I have no idea how anyone can say Dragon Age 2 doesn't look significantly better. Have you looked at old Isabella recently?
In fact, I think that is the same fucking sword as this one I took a quick pic of
I've been seeing quite alot of reused assets lately. I guess I can't blame them but it is a tad disappointing, if only because I've played this game so damn much
edit: And no I wouldn't say that the game looks that much better. Character models were pretty good in DA:O, and they look better in DA2, but the environments look pretty same-y to me. Same-y as in graphical quality.
No it wasn't, especially once someone modded away some of the more horrible looking faces. Default human noble parents are absolutely hideous, but thats not the engine's fault.
edit: And no I wouldn't say that the game looks that much better. Character models were pretty good in DA:O, and they look better in DA2, but the environments look pretty same-y to me. Same-y as in graphical quality.
The character models were not very good. Everyone had to fit the same skeleton and use the same animations so everyone has linebacker shoulders and masculine hips. And everyone stands like an ape so their thumbs don't clip into their armor if they're wearing heavy armor. It doesn't help that everyone uses the exact same interchangeable body models and there is one model for every kind of armor in the game (save for robes, for which there are two) and every single piece of armor is just a reskin.
The ape-like movement is pretty bad. Probably the #1 reason I've never played a mage is because they had a poor general appearance and moving around in combat just looked insanely bad.
Not from what they've released, but we'll see in a couple weeks either way
How do you type with your eyes closed? Because I haven't seen a single screen shot of DAII that didn't look better then DAO.
Spoit always says games he enjoyed playing have better graphics than games he didn't/doesn't think he will. Case in point, Alpha Protocol graphics> Mass Effect 2 graphics or Dragon Age origins > Mass Effect 2.
Not from what they've released, but we'll see in a couple weeks either way
How do you type with your eyes closed? Because I haven't seen a single screen shot of DAII that didn't look better then DAO.
Spoit always says games he enjoyed playing have better graphics than games he didn't/doesn't think he will. Case in point, Alpha Protocol graphics> Mass Effect 2 graphics or Dragon Age origins > Mass Effect 2.
No, I just say that about Mass Effect 2
And I didn't say AP's graphics were better, I said that it's textures (at least on the PC) were. I mean, even with how poorly ME2 takes AA, at least it doesn't make the conversation choices disappear when you enable it.
There was something about Dragon Age's environments that just seemed so bland. I know that Ferelden hs meant to have been designed with practicality in mind but I just found the environments so visually boring that I stopped caring. Also there was too much blue, which was really odd. Places like the Circle Tower to nighttime at the Party Camp had a bit of a blue tint and that sort of bothered me. I haven't really seen enough of Dragon Age 2 to say anything about its graphics though.
Also the blood. I really doubt anyone anywhere likes the blood. Maybe it's some visual symbolism, but I don't want enemies just exploding into puffs of blood like Blackjack's preview describes some to.
I'm pretty sure the blood was a deliberate choice on the part of the developers. Considering how they've talked about it before. And I still think it's less silly than FO3's enemies exploding into gibs everywhere when they die
The blood was part of the DARK FANTASY motif that they stole from every fantasy setting ever
I mean if you want to go actual dark fantasy you need to consult George RR Martin and have people begging for their lives with their guts spilling across the mud whilst their daughters and wives are being raped by pox-ridden madmen or some shit that only appeals to people who wear army boots voluntarily.
That being said DA was a priddy fun game and I hope DA2 is equally fun when I buy it several months in so I don't have to deal with launch-day bullshit again
EDIT The Spirits Within was the most dogshit CGI fuckfest and was put to shame by the worst episode of Reboot
Which reminds me, yet a fucking gin that I need to continue reading ASOIAF. Got through first two books and am only a hundred pages or so into the 3rd.
Now that series is truly dark fantasy.
I hated Spirits Within, but nowadays it seems like Sqween really just wants to make movies, and they kinda should maybe possibly try it again.
Oghulk on
0
MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
edited February 2011
I'll tell you people all I want out of Dragon Age 2 or, failing that, any following installment in the Dragon Age franchise:
All-female Dalish mounted calvalry unit.
I just want to be able to refer to a group of characters as "holla-back girls."
Posts
In Spoit's defense that's a really shitty screenshot of DA:O.
That's like. awful computer specs or something.
Yeah, that's a pretty horrible angle too, not to mention location, but I tried to duplicate it anyway.
Linked since it's more than 400kb, and I don't want accusations of bullshots because of downsampling increasing IQ
http://www.abload.de/img/screenshot201102161759n7wt.jpg
I mean the engine's graphics of objects and environments that are fairly far away are usually awful.
But up close the resolution and graphics of very close environments are usually pretty damn good (e.g. Human Noble Origin story).
Bolding mine, because I like the way that sounds.
edit: separated the story stuff from the gameplay stuff with additional spoiler boxes.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
It doesn't count if you're using mods.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
Also that info from game informer sounds cool.
Oh goddamit. :oops:
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
In fact, I think that is the same fucking sword as this one I took a quick pic of
I've been seeing quite alot of reused assets lately. I guess I can't blame them but it is a tad disappointing, if only because I've played this game so damn much
edit: And no I wouldn't say that the game looks that much better. Character models were pretty good in DA:O, and they look better in DA2, but the environments look pretty same-y to me. Same-y as in graphical quality.
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
3DS: 1607-3034-6970
um
Yeah no resemblance at all
No it wasn't, especially once someone modded away some of the more horrible looking faces. Default human noble parents are absolutely hideous, but thats not the engine's fault.
We get the demo in six days.
The character models were not very good. Everyone had to fit the same skeleton and use the same animations so everyone has linebacker shoulders and masculine hips. And everyone stands like an ape so their thumbs don't clip into their armor if they're wearing heavy armor. It doesn't help that everyone uses the exact same interchangeable body models and there is one model for every kind of armor in the game (save for robes, for which there are two) and every single piece of armor is just a reskin.
And the faces range from pretty good to Cammen.
How do you type with your eyes closed? Because I haven't seen a single screen shot of DAII that didn't look better then DAO.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Spoit always says games he enjoyed playing have better graphics than games he didn't/doesn't think he will. Case in point, Alpha Protocol graphics> Mass Effect 2 graphics or Dragon Age origins > Mass Effect 2.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
I mean it says something when I want to see the characters and shit in those cinematics more so than I want to see/do the gameplay/combat.
No, I just say that about Mass Effect 2
And I didn't say AP's graphics were better, I said that it's textures (at least on the PC) were. I mean, even with how poorly ME2 takes AA, at least it doesn't make the conversation choices disappear when you enable it.
Also the blood. I really doubt anyone anywhere likes the blood. Maybe it's some visual symbolism, but I don't want enemies just exploding into puffs of blood like Blackjack's preview describes some to.
Steam: CavilatRest
Steam: CavilatRest
I mean if you want to go actual dark fantasy you need to consult George RR Martin and have people begging for their lives with their guts spilling across the mud whilst their daughters and wives are being raped by pox-ridden madmen or some shit that only appeals to people who wear army boots voluntarily.
That being said DA was a priddy fun game and I hope DA2 is equally fun when I buy it several months in so I don't have to deal with launch-day bullshit again
EDIT The Spirits Within was the most dogshit CGI fuckfest and was put to shame by the worst episode of Reboot
I like ASoIaF, and I never wear boots.
Shitty Tumblr:lighthouse1138.tumblr.com
Now that series is truly dark fantasy.
I hated Spirits Within, but nowadays it seems like Sqween really just wants to make movies, and they kinda should maybe possibly try it again.
All-female Dalish mounted calvalry unit.
I just want to be able to refer to a group of characters as "holla-back girls."
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
I love it when I read it
But I always have to motivate myself to start
oh yea
woo demo soon and such
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRQzl5u5oeQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BlDtbXW3o4