Dragon Age 2

[Maria Caliban]

It's not a question of whether a writer is proud of his/her work and so on and so forth. It's a very simple issue of - does a single writer in a multi-writer project (that involves more than writing) saying "I like her and she should have a big role in the second game" mean that it is a good decision? No, not if other factors indicate that the character wasn't that special.

 

 

What are these 'other factors?'

 

If writers, who are hired simply to create the plot and characters, can't be trusted with the plot and characters, who should be?

Should it be the executive producer? Shareholders? Should they simply have all characters designed by market testing?

 

You're acting as though Sheryl Chee burst into a writers' meeting swinging a shotgun around and forced the rest of the BioWare crew to accept Isabella. They liked her work on the first game. She's enthusiastic about a character and wants her to be a companion on the second game. If they think her characters are good, the smart thing would be to let her come up with characters. If they think her characters are bad, they should get rid of her and find a writer who can create and flesh out good characters.

 

Yes, if every other writer hated the character, I could see your point, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Rather, the other writers also like her and forum members also like her. Amazingly, when you let skilled people who are enthusiastic about their work do their work, you get good work.

 

What you're saying is confusing it and getting it back to front - even in a book, a writer loving his/her character is fine, but if that blinds him/her and gets in the way of judging the role the character should play then no. So it's not really a criterion here.

 

Yes it is. An author says 'I love this character and want to tell a story about them.' They then write out a story about them. Who is it that decides they love that character 'too much?' Sure, an editor or agent can pass on a book, but once an agent takes in a client, they don't go 'Change this 60-year-old, hard-bitten war vet into a 16 moody but sexy teenage girl because I've decided that's what's hot.'

Edited October 28, 2010 by Maria Caliban

[Maria Caliban]

Still not seeing any reason why writing for games should be different.

 

Don't worry, you're in good company, the vast majority of video games writers don't get it either. Still, the difference between narrating a story and making the player interact with it should be pretty clear. It is to me, at least.

 

The 'vast majority' of games do not have half a dozen full time writers who are involved in every step of the process. The majority of games don't appear to have any full time writers. For example, the 'writer' of Halo was the director of cinematics.

 

I'd like to think that if the 'vast majority' of games had a full time writer, we wouldn't have so many variations on the brown haired space marine.

[Oner]

Nice screenies, and despite how Conan it's gotten I'm starting to think that they have a point in that it does give the game a stronger look.

Fixed.

[entrerix]

its like 75% conan and 25% anime. which is a ratio i approve of. so long as the writing falls more into the former "pulp", and less into the latter "garbage" (cowboy bebop et all aside)

Edited October 28, 2010 by entrerix

[Maria Caliban]

Okay, I am not happy.

 

Until Jan 1st, you should be able to order the regular version of Dragon Age 2 ($49.99) and get a free upgrade to the Signature Edition version. Retailers have responded by removing the regular version and only offering the $59.99 Signature Edition.

 

I am now attempting to find a retailer who isn't doing this.

 

Edit: EA Games isn't selling the normal PC edition either. Only the (59.99) regular XBox and PS3 versions, and the (59.99) Signature PC, XBox, and PS3 versions. It seems this entire thing is just a move to get PC gamers to pay the console price of 59.99 for the 'free upgrade.'

Edited October 28, 2010 by Maria Caliban

[Tale]

Okay, I am not happy.

 

Until Jan 1st, you should be able to order the regular version of Dragon Age 2 ($49.99) and get a free upgrade to the Signature Edition version. Retailers have responded by removing the regular version and only offering the $59.99 Signature Edition.

 

I am now attempting to find a retailer who isn't doing this.

Are you talking about the PC? Because that's the normal price for console games.

[ShadySands]

Okay, I am not happy.

 

Until Jan 1st, you should be able to order the regular version of Dragon Age 2 ($49.99) and get a free upgrade to the Signature Edition version. Retailers have responded by removing the regular version and only offering the $59.99 Signature Edition.

 

I am now attempting to find a retailer who isn't doing this.

 

Edit: EA Games isn't selling the normal PC edition either. Only the (59.99) regular XBox and PS3 versions, and the (59.99) Signature PC, XBox, and PS3 versions. It seems this entire thing is just a move to get PC gamers to pay the console price of 59.99 for the 'free upgrade.'

 

Impulse and Best Buy still have it for 50 bucks.

[entrerix]

something tells me retailers will be scolded for such shenanigannery. If im going to preorder I'm going to do it in january after some more previews and hands on impressions are released so we know if the game is as bad as it looks. i was able to preorder dragon age 1 for $37 on amazon, hopefully I can do it again for part 2 between now and january 11.

[HoonDing]

I'll just wait for the GOTY edition this time, so I get all the inevitable DLCs & expansions.

 

The Witcher 2 comes out in the same month, anyway, and that's a much bigger blimp on my radar.

[Labadal]

I will probably do the same for this game.

[Meshugger]

I'll just wait for the GOTY edition this time, so I get all the inevitable DLCs & expansions.

 

The Witcher 2 comes out in the same month, anyway, and that's a much bigger blimp on my radar.

 

Oooh, i hope the reviewers have an all "which one is more necrogrimdarker than the other"-contest.

[entrerix]

I'm not totally giving up hope yet even though the game looks terrible right now. I'm going to wait at least until more of the game is shown than just some stupid hacknslashing in a 10 minute falsely narrated prologue...

[Maria Caliban]

Okay, I am not happy.

 

Until Jan 1st, you should be able to order the regular version of Dragon Age 2 ($49.99) and get a free upgrade to the Signature Edition version. Retailers have responded by removing the regular version and only offering the $59.99 Signature Edition.

 

I am now attempting to find a retailer who isn't doing this.

Are you talking about the PC? Because that's the normal price for console games.

 

Yes, I'm talking about the PC. Several stores had the normal edition for $49.99. Now you can only buy the Signature Edition for $59.99

 

Impulse and Best Buy still have it for 50 bucks.

 

Thank you.

Edited October 28, 2010 by Maria Caliban

[Slowtrain]

In this new fearless age of DLC, there's no point to pre-ordering a game or even buying it right away.

 

Just buy it down the road with all the dlc included, plus patches, etc, for 1/2 price. Much better deal.

[Gorth]

The Witcher 2 comes out in the same month, anyway, and that's a much bigger blimp on my radar.

The Witcher gave me way more fun for my money/time investment than DA, but what I've seen so far from TW2 doesn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy. As for DA2, I've switched to the wait and see when the complete GOTY and all that jazz in one box at half price comes out camp.

[Nepenthe]

Okay, I am not happy.

 

Until Jan 1st, you should be able to order the regular version of Dragon Age 2 ($49.99) and get a free upgrade to the Signature Edition version. Retailers have responded by removing the regular version and only offering the $59.99 Signature Edition.

 

I am now attempting to find a retailer who isn't doing this.

 

Edit: EA Games isn't selling the normal PC edition either. Only the (59.99) regular XBox and PS3 versions, and the (59.99) Signature PC, XBox, and PS3 versions. It seems this entire thing is just a move to get PC gamers to pay the console price of 59.99 for the 'free upgrade.'

 

That's interesting, generally the US/FIN prices translate $=

[HoonDing]

At long last, some long-awaited "non-exaggerated" gameplay (en fran

Edited October 29, 2010 by virumor

[sorophx]

looks just like Origins. anyway, I'm skeptical about this whole exaggerated/non-exaggerated thing, I don't think playing through most instances twice is a good game mechanic

[Nepenthe]

looks just like Origins. anyway, I'm skeptical about this whole exaggerated/non-exaggerated thing, I don't think playing through most instances twice is a good game mechanic

 

I was under the impression that it was a one-off happening near the beginning of the game. If you have better info, please share.

[WorstUsernameEver]

...so where's the gameplay? I'm seeing lots of dialogues and Hawke running in circles..

[Humanoid]

Running in circles qualifies as gameplay unless it's caused by an improperly calibrated joystick.

 

 

 

- move stick to the upper left position and press button 1 -

- move stick to the lower right position and press button 2 -

[WorstUsernameEver]

Running in circles qualifies as gameplay unless it's caused by an improperly calibrated joystick.

 

 

 

- move stick to the upper left position and press button 1 -

- move stick to the lower right position and press button 2 -

 

It also qualifies as extremely boring and useless gameplay footage though.

[sorophx]

I was under the impression that it was a one-off happening near the beginning of the game. If you have better info, please share.

this thread gave me the impression that the whole game is built around two people telling the same story from two different points of view, so I figured it's gonna be happening throughout the whole game.

Edited October 29, 2010 by sorophx

[Humanoid]

Running around randomly would be less boring if Bioware finally discovered a way to implement jumping.

 

 

 

 

 

But in all seriousness, I do hope that the player in that video was just messing around and that the gameplay for bosses doesn't involve meleeing a little, running away to heal/regen and repeating. I got irritated by the first ogre battle in Origins for more or less that.

 

 

 

Aside, the joystick this was mainly me recently playing F-117A Stealth Fighter 2.0 - a game which does involve large periods of doing nothing while still being oddly compelling. Perhaps that's Bioware's holy grail...

Edited October 29, 2010 by Humanoid

[Guest Slinky]

I was under the impression that it was a one-off happening near the beginning of the game. If you have better info, please share.

this thread gave me the impression that the whole game is built around two people telling the same story from two different points of view, so I figured it's gonna be happening throughout the whole game.

While I still can't figure out what the hell was bio doing all those years doing DA and come up with the game they did, I don't think they would even consider that. It would get REALLY old, REALLY fast.

Edited October 29, 2010 by Slinky