I've been playing Dragon Age II and I'm enjoying it, but not nearly as much as I enjoyed Dragon Age Origins. This one feels rushed and I don't like not being able to put different armour on the companions.

The combat spawns are very annoying and the combat in general feels more hack and slash with less strategy...

Hehe, well executed. Although calling Dragon Age filler kind of stings. I think it was much better than Oblivion. But Morrowind and Dragon Age are both on my top 5 favorite games ever.

(rest of the list: Quake, Civ 4, and Mass Effect 2).

>> ^Zyrxil:

I hope they put some of the RPG back in. In many ways, ME2 being good was almost a fluke. The characters were good enough to carry gameplay that was too simplistic and storytelling that didn't flow very well.


Unfortunately that's unlikely, considering they are also 'streamlining' Dragon Age 2. i.e. ripping out RPG elements and making it actioney.

>> ^Gallowflak:

Sounds more like Robin Sachs to me. Good luck to them though - a 40K MMO has been in high-demand for a very long time.


Yep, unmistakable. I really dug Sachs' character Zaeed in Mass Effect 2, definitely my favourite of the game. Also noticed a few in Dragon Age when I later played that through, great to see him getting a lot of work now!

>> ^Kreegath:
This is actually one of the few computer games I've played, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. However, wasn't Leliana a redhead?


Yeah, the Leliana in this particular video was modded.

I love how much he taunts Bioware about vehicle sections. I disagree about Bioware == good writing, I mean he did play Dragon Age didn't he? It's more accurate to say Bioware == a good writer or two, and they can only work on one game at a time.

>> ^xxovercastxx:
I still enjoyed ME2, I just found it rather light. I wanted ME2 to be Mass Effect Extreme, not Diet Mass Effect.
I was surprised to find out people had such problems driving the MAKO. I had a blast with that thing. I loved that you could land on any planet and drive around, I just wish more of those planets had something on them to discover. To me, they "fixed" planetary exploration completely backwards: they removed the fun part (exploring) and featured the boring part (there's nothing on any of the planets). If you didn't like the handling of the MAKO, that's a separate issue, IMO. I would have been fine with a completely new vehicle so long as the exploration was still an option.


I've heard that the MAKO was really tough to control on the consoles, where the MAKO followed the turret, while on the PC you can move the MAKO and turret independently. I do agree the MAKO was fun, though the things you encountered were a bit bland and generic. This mineral scanning thing is terrible, why not have the onboard AI EDI do in a microsecond what takes you minutes. Instead of ditching the MAKO thye should have just improved the variety of planetary exploration.
I also hate that they removed the weapon statistics and that there are only something like 20 different weapons. Also you can't customize your squad's armor anymore. I wish they wouldn't have simplified this game so much to please the console generation.
Still I'm having fun with it, but I doubt I'll buy the third one.

Last thing I really can't stand how game review sites always praise overhyped games to death. Just look at the metacritic site. A third of the ratings are a perfect 10 and another third 9+. Same thing with Dragon Age
Are there any honest review sites?

>> ^mentality:
>> ^cybrbeast:
Wow, so true. I played this game for 6 or 7 hours and it really becomes stale and boring.
I'm starting to feel more and more like Yahtzee in that most large and usually highly acclaimed games are becoming large disappointments. Dragon Age was barf to me (Torchlight was more entertaining). Currently playing Mass Effect 2 which seems of much lower quality than 1.
My only memorable games of recent time were Fallout 3, Dead Space (though I didn't complete it), Dirt 2, Prototype (also didn't complete), bit of GTA IV.

And the click LMB and kill a bajillion enemies in Torchlight with no actual plot didn't become stale and boring for you? Weird. At least Borderlands has multiplayer.


You're right that's a bit bizarre. But I didn't say I loved Torchlight, only that it was more entertaining than DAO. I really liked the setting and atmosphere in Torchlight for a while. However I also didn't finish Torchlight.
Concerning Borderlands, first-off it has bad FPS mechanics, for example when trying to shoot enemies you encounter a lot of invisible walls through which your bullets can't pass. All the moving around between and after missions wasn't much fun. Your inventory was too small. And while they tried to implement it the weapon comparison system was shite. Also the UI was as is almost always the case badly ported to PC.

>> ^Abel_Prisc:
Wow, I didn't realize I'd be of a minority on the sift who absolutely loved Mass Effect 2. I have a love affair with Bioware, and think that the Mass Effect universe is so refreshingly original and creative (not to say it's not influenced by other sci-fi brands in some ways, but what sci-fi DOESN'T borrow from other properties?), and I was fine with the fact that they stripped down the RPG mechanics of the first one.


I don't know if we're still a minority, but no... you're not alone on that one. Dragon Age nearly topped my top spot (Half-Life) for best gaming experience I've had, and I too really like the ME series.

>> ^cybrbeast:
I'm starting to feel more and more like Yahtzee in that most large and usually highly acclaimed games are becoming large disappointments. Dragon Age was barf to me (Torchlight was more entertaining).

I thought Yatzhee liked Dragon Age. Sure, he's going to nitpick any game, but he said he wanted to play more of it regardless.

>> ^cybrbeast:
Wow, so true. I played this game for 6 or 7 hours and it really becomes stale and boring.
I'm starting to feel more and more like Yahtzee in that most large and usually highly acclaimed games are becoming large disappointments. Dragon Age was barf to me (Torchlight was more entertaining). Currently playing Mass Effect 2 which seems of much lower quality than 1.
My only memorable games of recent time were Fallout 3, Dead Space (though I didn't complete it), Dirt 2, Prototype (also didn't complete), bit of GTA IV.


And the *click LMB* and kill a bajillion enemies in Torchlight with no actual plot didn't become stale and boring for you? Weird. At least Borderlands has multiplayer.

Wow, so true. I played this game for 6 or 7 hours and it really becomes stale and boring.
I'm starting to feel more and more like Yahtzee in that most large and usually highly acclaimed games are becoming large disappointments. Dragon Age was barf to me (Torchlight was more entertaining). Currently playing Mass Effect 2 which seems of much lower quality than 1.
My only memorable games of recent time were Fallout 3, Dead Space (though I didn't complete it), Dirt 2, Prototype (also didn't complete), bit of GTA IV.

Dragon Age:Origins is a bit like that. But still kinda watered down.

And yes thank you Razor1911.

>> ^rebuilder:
Looks like more of the same - huge budget, realdoll romance, script constructed by gluing together the top 20 hackneyed scifi clichés of all time. Can't say about the gameplay of course, but it sucked in the original, don't expect it to be significantly different now. The only way I've ever liked combat in RPGs is if it's done as it was in Baldur's gate etc - giving you the ability to really micromanage your party members. Don't see that happening here.

Well, I don't think the space genre is that great, but that trailer seemed quite epic to me. Also, Dragon Age: Origins was one of the 5 best games I've ever played. Wish I had time to play this.

Yup, that's me. I enjoyed KOTOR1. I never played Dragon's Origin, but I wanted a free sampler. The problem I have is lack of free time so I am picky on what to play.


In reply to this comment by Drax:
Hey Ant, I'm assuming you're the same Ant from BluesNews (though as we both know, there are many many ants in the world). I can heartily recommend Mass Effect 1 to you. If you like shooters and RPG's it's a hybrid of both, with a realllllllly good story and universe setting. Did you play Knights of the Old Republic? It's most similar to that in terms of game mechanics, like the party system, the dialogue, etc. It has character classes, and a really cool system where you choose a branching 'history' of your character that effects the game's plot. Just like Dragon Age's origins segments, but instead of playing out the prequel part you choose it through a branching tree structure of choices.

It was made for consoles first, but the PC version was developed on it's own.. it's not actually a port, it just came out later, and actually has several improvements to the combat system over the console version. I'm a major PC gamer, the only reason I have a PS-3 is because it gets good games that never make it to PC.

Anyways, if you have any questions concerning the game let me know. I'm very anti-spoiler when talking about games, books, movies etc. The fact that I'm going out of my way to recommend it should hint at the game's quality.