118 replies to this topic

[Tacohead]

I recently finally purchased Dragon Age: Awakenings and just finished it this weekend. My renewed interest in this wonderful world lead me to Bioware's Dragon Age 2 site where I discovered a new preorder promotion that contained the familiar Apple logo in the bottom right-hand corner:

http://dragonage.bioware.com/da2/info/

The Apple logo can't be found anywhere else though so I did some more digging and found the following statement from Bioware's Chris Priestly on the Bioware forums:

http://social.biowar...index/5701620/1

Obviously this isn't a total shock since Dragon Age: Origins, Awakenings, and all the DLC made it to the Mac but it's nice to know it's certain now because you never know. I'm guessing EA just hasn't bothered updating the rest of the site with the Apple logo.  

So now the questions are Cider or Native and when? My guess is Cider and within a month of the March 8th PC release. Dragon Age 1 ran well for me under Cider so I can live with it being Cider as long as it affords it the opportunity to be released close to the PC and console versions.

Anybody else excited about this?

-PN

[Janichsan]

Tacohead, on 16 January 2011 - 07:44 PM, said:

Anybody else excited about this?

When it's Cider - no, I'm not.

[ikir]

I can't wait to play Dragon Age 2. Dragon Age runs incredible well for me even if it is Ciderized so i'm in!!!

[Cougar]

Dragon Age 2 looks like Mass Effect with dragons. Not excited.

[Jan]

I'm really excited. Dragon Age runs really well on my iMac. But where's that rumored Mass Effect 2 port?

[Sneaky Snake]

Cougar, on 17 January 2011 - 03:52 AM, said:

Dragon Age 2 looks like Mass Effect with dragons. Not excited.

It's not. All they did was change to one main character like mass effect. Pretty much all other gameplay mechanics are remaining the same as the first one

[Tacohead]

Sneaky Snake, on 17 January 2011 - 10:16 AM, said:

It's not. All they did was change to one main character like mass effect. Pretty much all other gameplay mechanics are remaining the same as the first one

Aren't they making the combat more action-orientated or something? I'm a bit concerned about that although admittedly I haven't really read much about it so I'm no authority on it. However since Bioware games occupy more slots than anybody else in my top ten rpgs of all-time I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

-PN

[Cougar]

Sneaky Snake, on 17 January 2011 - 10:16 AM, said:

It's not. All they did was change to one main character like mass effect. Pretty much all other gameplay mechanics are remaining the same as the first one

Everything I've read seems to me that they've gone for a more action oriented approach. ("Every time you press a button, something awesome happens.") I liked ME1/2 just fine, but for different reasons than DA.

Also, there is no more isometric camera.

[Tacohead]

Cougar, on 17 January 2011 - 10:46 AM, said:

Also, there is no more isometric camera.

Nooooo! I didn't know that! I actually played DA mostly in 1st-person view but that isometric view sure came in handy sometimes. What's the explanation for that?

-PN

[Cougar]

Tacohead, on 17 January 2011 - 11:17 AM, said:

Nooooo! I didn't know that! I actually played DA mostly in 1st-person view but that isometric view sure came in handy sometimes. What's the explanation for that?

-PN

Console-centric design. Or, in PR-speak, as Kotaku explains:

Quote

The bigger change, however, is that the game will no longer support an overhead tactical view on any platform. This was an art and combat-design decision, the BioWare rep told me today. Support for that Baldur's Gate-style view forced the artists to design rooms and scenes that didn't have important things on their ceilings and skies — which top-down players wouldn't see. It also forced the designers into an awkward spot where they had to accommodate top-down turn-taking players and behind-the-back action-first players. By catering to the more reckless of those playing styles, the designers were forced to make the game's difficulty fairly low. Making all players play from some sort of from-the-rear camera view alleviates that. But! PC gamers, your version will include a special option to zoom the camera out, just not up. Console gamers won't get that.

As one commenter points out, those skies and ceilings better be damn impressive.

[Wumpus]

Cool, I only recently got the original DA, but looking forward to this one too.

[Sneaky Snake]

Various Quotes from the most recent DA2 preview on IGN

IGN said:

I've seen a lot of people voice concerns about the combat being "dumbed down" to be more like an action game. In truth, combat works largely the same...

We haven't seen much of the PC version, but I was told that you will still be able to pause with the space bar and issue commands via the action bar. The biggest change is that the attack animations are sped up and much flashier than before, making battle scenes more visually interesting and visceral...

As with any role-playing game, when you earn experience points in Dragon Age II you will gain levels. If you've played Dragon Age: Origins you should feel right at home here – the attributes and abilities system makes a return...

And his conclusion:

IGN said:

The more I play Dragon Age II the more I realize that this is still very much a Dragon Age game. Unlike the Mass Effect series, no major RPG features like loot or inventory have been pulled for the sequel and instead everything has been refined.

The guy whose played the game for hours isn't to concerned about it being a Mass Effect clone. Bioware is better then that

[Cougar]

They may not have removed features, but there is no denying that they are going for a more action-oriented game. I remain skeptical.

[Sargiel]

As long as Bioware are involved I'm sure it will be a fun game Although I'd definitely need a new Mac to play it I'm excited!

[bismarrvk]

This is an exciting news! Wonderful! I have enjoyed DAO  very very very much!

[Tacohead]

More good news. Apparently DA 2 will be released on a hybrid Mac/PC DVD. That's both versions on the same DVD. Somebody on the Bioware forums confirmed this with an EA Customer Service rep. Plus check out the bottom of this EA Store order page:

http://eastore.ea.co...s=1295452435874

I would say this almost certainly means Cider but if that's something that bothers you then you get the PC version for your bootcamp partition as well!

-PN

P.S. With this being EA and all I'm a bit skeptical about the hybrid, simultaneous part until we hear something official but it does appear legit.

Edit: Umm clicking the "Pre-Order Now" button leads to a dropdown menu for selecting which platform. Naturally there's no choice for "Mac". Silly EA.

Edited by Tacohead, 19 January 2011 - 10:22 AM.

[ltcommander.data]

This is one area that I can support the use of Cider. If using Cider means that a game can synchronize development cycles and simultaneously release the PC and Mac version as a hybrid disc where they otherwise wouldn't have then Cider is worthwhile. But, if the Mac release is going to be months after the PC release, then the port might as well be a native one. Hopefully this hybrid PC/Mac release means that the DLC and patches will be kept in sync too.

[Janichsan]

I just finished the Dragon Age 2 demo (under Windows, of course). The good news: the game runs roughly as good on my 13" MBP (with a Nividia 9400M) as the predecessor, despite looking somewhat better.

The bad news: I don't like the combat. Not at all.

You can barely zoom out and can hardly get an overview over the battlefield. There's barely any real tactical planning possible. Don't even think of properly aiming an area of effect attack on slightly longer distance. What's worse: the hectic and sometimes erratic camera and the frantic movements of the character (I played a rogue who jumped at times over the battlefield like Yoda in Star Wars Ep. 2) make the fights simply muddled and confusing.

Dammit, Bioware, what have you done??

Other observations: the conversation system is a carbon copy of Mass Effect's. Everything else (character stats, skill trees, Codex, etc) seems to be more or less in place (the inventory is disabled in the demo, so I can't really comment on that), but completely redesigned – unfortunately, in a very consolised way and, again, very much alike Mass Effect. The corresponding screens in DA:O had far more style.

I pre-ordered the game (for Windows), but I have to say that the demo did not really convince me.

[Mister Mumbles]

I've only played the PS3 demo, but that alone told me how much more they catered the game towards console gamers. It felt more like a hack'n'slash game than anything else. I'm still going to wait on reviews, but I may pass on it.

Dragon Age Origins was an enjoyable game, but I still think people praised it too highly. It didn't help that the cider 'port' was a bit crash-prone (something akin to memory leaks). Finally beat it earlier this week, since I told myself that I bought it and I should at least beat it once. I'll still take turn-based RPGs over such any day...

[Eric5h5]

I've only played a bit of Dragon Age Origins, but it's not really compelling me (good thing it was $14).  I don't really understand the need to make real-time combat in an RPG...it doesn't make the game "more exciting" or anything, just less interesting.  There are plenty of action games already; why bother?  Oh well, at least Avadon is coming out soon...I'd much rather play an indie game with actual fun turn-based gameplay than millions of dollars of glitz and annoying gameplay.  (Of course, even better would be millions of dollars of glitz and actual gameplay....)

--Eric