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The Official "What Are You Playing Now?" Thread


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Going through Dragon Age II at the moment...but it's unfortunately a chore to me. The game just isn't nearly as good as DAO...or Baldur's Gate, or any of the Gold Box D&D games.

 

Otherwise, will be going through Beyond Good and Evil and the Tomb Radier from XBLA (the later was on sale for $7.50 last week) and some Battlefield BC2 multiplayer.

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Going through Dragon Age II at the moment...but it's unfortunately a chore to me. The game just isn't nearly as good as DAO...or Baldur's Gate, or any of the Gold Box D&D games.

 

Otherwise, will be going through Beyond Good and Evil and the Tomb Radier from XBLA (the later was on sale for $7.50 last week) and some Battlefield BC2 multiplayer.

What makes it not as good? From what I've seen they took it more in a Mass Effect direction

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Going through Dragon Age II at the moment...but it's unfortunately a chore to me. The game just isn't nearly as good as DAO...or Baldur's Gate, or any of the Gold Box D&D games.

 

Otherwise, will be going through Beyond Good and Evil and the Tomb Radier from XBLA (the later was on sale for $7.50 last week) and some Battlefield BC2 multiplayer.

Elder Scrolls - Skyline will probably blow all former RPGs out of the water. That's unfortunate to hear you don't like DA II, because I have been looking forward to that game for awhile.

 

The game I'm currently playing right now is Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I also just played through Batman: Arkham Asylum for the third time and am excited for it's sequel this year.

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Unfortunately, I gave up video games for Lent, so Im not playing anything at the moment. But when Lent is over I want to try Homefront out

Years ago I gave up Lent for Lent, It's been so easy I have been able to stick with it for years! :corndance

 

I actually threw in Devil May Cry on the PS2 last night just for the hell of it. I loved that game when it game out. I am looking forward to Homefront, can't wait to see if it stacks up.

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Going through Dragon Age II at the moment...but it's unfortunately a chore to me. The game just isn't nearly as good as DAO...or Baldur's Gate, or any of the Gold Box D&D games.

 

Otherwise, will be going through Beyond Good and Evil and the Tomb Radier from XBLA (the later was on sale for $7.50 last week) and some Battlefield BC2 multiplayer.

What makes it not as good? From what I've seen they took it more in a Mass Effect direction

 

Sorry I didn't reply sooner.

 

If you're an action fan over Strategy/RPG fan, then you'll probably love the changes in the combat engine, as it now rewards button spammers over planning/executing attacks and using special abilities.

 

Story-wise, it's surprisingly linear and claustrophobic. DAO was, despite having a certain penultimate battle, very open-ended on how you went about your business. That's not entirely the case with DA2, as you're tracked (whether you realize it or not) through much of the game. Even with ME2, despite the scripted beginning, middle chapter, and penultimate/ultimate battle, you were given an incredible amount of flexibility in which to scavenge/pillage/kill/romance.

 

Another gripe is how the game constantly reuses the same dungeon over an over again for multiple 'cave explorations'. Additionally, you'll be going to the same drab bar, the same drab port, the same drab upper-crust neighborhood to complete your missions, so the environments get stale fast.

 

Additionally, you don't outfit your NPC characters any longer--instead, there are one or two minor updates you can procure to their existing armor or weapons (when applicable), and your personal/hero character is the only one that can custom outfit completely. This is especially bad if you're going down a certain moral 'track' in the game, as the tanks that accompany you are both moral white knights and anything that you do against that strains friendship. So unless you're a tank yourself, you're left with using what kits are available for the rogues and/or mages, which are no tanks.

 

NPCs can't receive specialized training any longer. While they have a character-specific level-up track, it pales in comparison (save for one of the tanks) to what the available 'advanced' classes offered in DAO.

 

Armor/weapons don't have details/story any longer, and jewelry, with very few exceptions, just shows up as 'ring', 'amulet', etc.

 

I don't know how much was EA "streamlining" the game in an (unsuccessful per sales data so far) attempt to broaden appeal, and how much was the dev team being rushed to get the game out the door--I figure the truth is somewhere in between.

 

Long story short, they skewed the game heavily towards hack/slash action and away from strategy, the story is rather linear when all is said and done, they reused assets heavily, failed to detail existing assets as necessary, and took 75% of the NPC customization out of your hands.

 

In summation: If you're down with what amounts to a heavy-handed hack-n-slash sprinkled with RPG elements, then DA2 is just for you. If you were expected more DAO strategy goodness, then you may be disappointed as I am.

 

Hope that helps. And don't get me wrong--I love me some Mass Effect 2, but DA is not a series that needed to be 'streamlined' IMO.

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Going through Dragon Age II at the moment...but it's unfortunately a chore to me. The game just isn't nearly as good as DAO...or Baldur's Gate, or any of the Gold Box D&D games.

 

Otherwise, will be going through Beyond Good and Evil and the Tomb Radier from XBLA (the later was on sale for $7.50 last week) and some Battlefield BC2 multiplayer.

What makes it not as good? From what I've seen they took it more in a Mass Effect direction

 

Sorry I didn't reply sooner.

 

If you're an action fan over Strategy/RPG fan, then you'll probably love the changes in the combat engine, as it now rewards button spammers over planning/executing attacks and using special abilities.

 

Story-wise, it's surprisingly linear and claustrophobic. DAO was, despite having a certain penultimate battle, very open-ended on how you went about your business. That's not entirely the case with DA2, as you're tracked (whether you realize it or not) through much of the game. Even with ME2, despite the scripted beginning, middle chapter, and penultimate/ultimate battle, you were given an incredible amount of flexibility in which to scavenge/pillage/kill/romance.

 

Another gripe is how the game constantly reuses the same dungeon over an over again for multiple 'cave explorations'. Additionally, you'll be going to the same drab bar, the same drab port, the same drab upper-crust neighborhood to complete your missions, so the environments get stale fast.

 

Additionally, you don't outfit your NPC characters any longer--instead, there are one or two minor updates you can procure to their existing armor or weapons (when applicable), and your personal/hero character is the only one that can custom outfit completely. This is especially bad if you're going down a certain moral 'track' in the game, as the tanks that accompany you are both moral white knights and anything that you do against that strains friendship. So unless you're a tank yourself, you're left with using what kits are available for the rogues and/or mages, which are no tanks.

 

NPCs can't receive specialized training any longer. While they have a character-specific level-up track, it pales in comparison (save for one of the tanks) to what the available 'advanced' classes offered in DAO.

 

Armor/weapons don't have details/story any longer, and jewelry, with very few exceptions, just shows up as 'ring', 'amulet', etc.

 

I don't know how much was EA "streamlining" the game in an (unsuccessful per sales data so far) attempt to broaden appeal, and how much was the dev team being rushed to get the game out the door--I figure the truth is somewhere in between.

 

Long story short, they skewed the game heavily towards hack/slash action and away from strategy, the story is rather linear when all is said and done, they reused assets heavily, failed to detail existing assets as necessary, and took 75% of the NPC customization out of your hands.

 

In summation: If you're down with what amounts to a heavy-handed hack-n-slash sprinkled with RPG elements, then DA2 is just for you. If you were expected more DAO strategy goodness, then you may be disappointed as I am.

 

Hope that helps. And don't get me wrong--I love me some Mass Effect 2, but DA is not a series that needed to be 'streamlined' IMO.

Sounds a bit different than the first one. Though not horribly so. Off hand I'm guessing you got them on PC? I had my run on PS3 and it did not focus as hard on tactical positioning as the PC version. And overall I'm game for either strats or hack and slash, as long as its good to itself.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Nothing

 

Damn PSN Network has been down too long, now when they gonna get this sh_t straight.

Yeah, its really making me mad now. Down since Wed with no ETA. Thanks to what Sony called 'an outside intrusion' I really would like the fingers cut off of the damned hacker who pulled this crap

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