http://www.gametrailers.com/user-movie/dragon-age-2-gameplay/350241
Looks horrible. Seems like they dumbed the gameplay down to the level of Dynasty Warriors. I guess this is why they were able to confidently set the release date for the sequel so soon after the first.
It does look horrible, but keep in mind that it's the console version. They promised to keep the PC version's combat feeling "tactical". I hope they can deliver...
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/56446/Dragon-Age-2-Interview-Has-PC-Players-Scratching-Their-Heads
On the PC, however, we are still working with the camera to keep the key elements of the tactical experience there. I was actually playtesting some new camera code when Victor found me, in fact, so I can give you the latest news on that front."
Here's an idea, lets piss and moan like a little girl about a 30 second video of a game that is not even out yet. God, go outside or something.
Here's an idea. Lets piss and moan like a little girl about a single forum post. God, go outside or something.
(Yes, I am fully aware of the irony and hypocrisy contained within this post, but it needed to be done.)
I don't really understand why they'd take a game that played like a traditional CRPG and decide the sequel would be better as a hack&slash. If it was a spinoff title I wouldn't give it a second thought, but when I see Dragon Age 2 on the cover I kind of expect gameplay mostly resembling the first. It certainly doesn't help the impression people have of console games vs. PC games when you see crap like this. Consoles can't handle CRPGs so we'll turn it into...an action game?!
Hmm....I must admit that is a little concerning. I read the article that Annatar posted as well that talks about a tactical camera view, but it's not really that reassuring. I can't imagine the PC and console versions are going to be all that different and if they are then that's not necessarily a good thing either.....as trying to create 2 types of games at once usually results in them ending up kind of half assed.
Hopefully this won't end up like Deus Ex 2 where the series got destroyed by a desire to simplify it for consoles. But time will tell I guess.
Remember Fallout? Now look how good F3 was sold and what an enormous fanbase it has
Ironically I really think Fallout would have been better as a RPG shooter without the turn based/action point elements. I kind of felt like they tried to mesh two extremely different styles of combat and ended up failing at both.
Strictly speaking, Dragon Age was already pretty different on PC and consoles. The UI was completely redone, consoles only had room for a few things "hotkeyed", and even the combat mechanics were different (generally easier on consoles due to less control - for example, friendly fire from AoEs wasn't a worry on consoles).
In fact, if you think about it, Dragon Age was already half-way to being "Action RPG"-ish on the console. You were already encouraged to play in the third person view (which you could on the PC as well). The only thing that kept it from being an Action RPG in that sense was that the combination of cooldown on the abilities, stamina/stamina regen, and animation length still made a lot of the attacks "auto-attacks" and you'd periodically hit an ability. The only thing needed to turn DA into an Action RPG is tweaking cooldown, make faster animations for the specials, and make sure you have enough stamina and regen to keep it up more smoothly. None of it is really drastic.
Of course, we'll have to wait and see how it ends up feeling on the PC..
Yeah DA is better suited as an action game for consoles, as long as they keep it seperate for PC.
Interesting points, although I'd say that the fact that you were encouraged to frequently pause the game to issue orders and that you were controlling 3 people at once were what really made it not an action RPG, or at least not any more then say Baldur's gate was. The frequency of auto attacks and cooldowns on power/power usage were pretty much required to handle multiple party members at once without feeling overwhelmed.
The video they showed though really looked more like God of War then Diablo or a similar action RPG. But of course the video producers often cherry pick their action scenes and they may have made it look more action-y then it was.
True enough, however on the console that was also more difficult and some things were outright impossible. On PC you could zoom out and drag-select all your guys and move them as one click. On the console, you could only direct control one person. There was no mouse-based movement, you had to manually navigate. This was also possible on the PC version, but I imagine most people zoomed out and used mouse clicks for movement orders.
So again, the console version of DA was more like an action RPG than the PC version was. As long as they keep these things in the PC version, it should hopefully turn out okay.
I'll kind of disagree on that.. it's more God of War-ish due to the camera angle and having direct control rather than mouseclicks, but action-RPGs on consoles depend on the combo system, every weapon has a "moves" list that you execute by chaining button presses. In DA/DA2, you might have different attacks that make sense to be chained (like a knockdown followed by an attack that does extra to knocked down enemies), but the execution is still with one keypress, you won't need to X-X-A-Y-B-rotate thumbstick to execute a shield bash.
It is true that they're trying to make DA2 combat more action-y, but if they make sure to keep tactical pause (which they said they would) and the other tactical controls like zooming, mouse-click orders, ability to manually control companions, etc then the more action-y combat might just stay tactical enough. We will have to see.
I'm not sure what this is. I need to see the PC version.
I wasn't very impressed with Dragon Age 1 from a Bioware fan's perspective. Mass Effect was just leagues ahead of the game.
Hopefully we on the PC can choose between the Action RPG and the Tactical RPG. I don't mind tactical RPG's like DA1 was, but I do prefer good hack 'n' slash action in my RPG's due to better stress relief from that kind of gameplay. If I want tactical and strategic thinking in my gameplay, I play one of my many RTS games. It doesn't hurt that today's RTS games have pretty, pretty explosions and gory death effects.
I think alot of RPG fans and developers need to go try Demons Souls on PS3. After playing that game, standard RPG combat on PC or console just seems redundant and actually boring.
Well I was thinking about more how he seems to be running around making wide arcing slashes that hit lots of people at once and seem to (unless it's my imagination) knock them back a bit so you can follow up with another attack. When I play games like God of War I suck at using combo moves like X-X-Y. I mostly just run around making broad attacks on as many people as possible at once and it looks a lot like the gameplay video.
Interesting point about the different interface for the console. The question then might become which interface is the game truly optimized to work with. DoA 1 seems to have been optimized to work with the PC, which gave a suboptimal experience to console players (I certainly heard many criticize console play). It's unlikely that they will be able to find a system that's completely satisfying to both users, particularly if one tries to be more of an action game and the other more of a RPG.
I wouldn't be worried about how the final game will turn out based on that vid. The "Game-play" isn't even there. Hell it's pre-alpha. The guy never moves or attacks and there's probably a good reason for that, like the animations might not be done, or the coding for something might not be there. I wouldn't call anything in that video "game-play" though.
Honestly since they've already confirmed the pulled back over the top "Baldur's Gate View" won't be in DA:2 I'm not even all that excited for it. They took a great Baldur's Gate inspired game-play mechanic, took it out, and turned the game into Fable done "Dragon Age" style. It's going to be a far departure from Dragon Age: Origins. Knowing that alone has killed part of the interest for me. They better show some really impressive or interesting mechanics between now and the time DA:2 is released or it will be something that I'll wait until it hits the bargain bin to get.
Videos not working for me... Only thing to date on DA2 that I dont like is how the darkspawn look, but really that doesn't matter if the game is still fun. But now I'm starting to worry... Time will tell.
These attacks existed in DA:O, though. I guess the difference is whether or not the short video was showing special attacks that had AoE damage, or if all normal sword swings damage multiple targets. And DA:O also had AoE knockback attacks that allowed you to hit the target while they were getting up.
Hope too... tactical view ( top view ) was critical for my mage... She can be in a other room, casting a cold storm, followed by a electric storm ( combined result is the century storm )... without top view, it will be impossible to target place in a easy way...
Have never play DAO 1 on console... so, i have a question... how in the hell is it possible on a console to play a mage ? Same with the extended bar on PC, i have not enough room for all spell... the 10 hot key are not enough for store all possible combo spell...
About the mod tool not being given directly, i understand why.... with DAO 1, modders have create for free a lot of content for the game who have a lot more game value that the expensive DLC...
"While we likely won't pull as far up as we did in DA:O" .... i hate when i read something like this... have always think that the next version need to be better that the previous one... but it become a trend in the game industry, each new version become more bad, surviving on the reputation earned from the previous release...
Right, I mean I seriously doubt every attack that your doing is a big sweeping sword attack that pushes everyone back like it is in a pure action game. That was just the vibe that I got out of the video where it reminded me of that. Ultimately it's not about whether your attack hit multiple people but whether the game plays out as a tactical game where you pause and consider your commands or as an action game where you run around hacking things like crazy in real time. Both can be fun, though I'd much rather see Dragon Age as a tactical game because there are already plenty of run around hacking things like crazy games. The worst option though is if they try to be both at once, because then they are likely end up with 2 mediocre things instead of one good one.
No disagreement there! Or rather, I'd prefer to see Dragon Age as a tactical game on the PC. On console, I don't care 'cause I play it on PC
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