Dragon Age 2

[MrBrown]

So, why is Anders voiced by a different voice actor when the the guy from Awakening is still in Dragon Age 2?

 

According to Gaider, this was because of circumstances out of Bio's control.

[Volourn]

"First time I've heard a reason for the repeating interiors that makes sense. Because the dev's excuses sure don't. "

 

Actually, whether you like it or not, their 'excuses' make sense. It was a length of time plain and simple and they had to make tough chocies of either less overall content like quests or more varied areas. It's really not complicated.

[entrerix]

a small good game is better than a big average game.

 

sometimes a big size can make an average game better, but you're really taking a gamble with that type of thinking.

[Volourn]

I'm not arguing. I loved the repetive areas myself. One of major hates of DA2. But, their excuse makes sense which is what was argued.

[GhostofAnakin]

I don't know why Aveline gets so much hate. Apart from her Jay Leno-like chin, she's one of the better written and voiced characters, IMO. Overall though, I preferred the female party members from Origins more.

[Tale]

Who hates Aveline? I thought she was great.

[GreasyDogMeat]

Who hates Aveline? I thought she was great.

Her reaction to me

taking her into the veil completely killed it for me. The relationship took a total nose dive from 'I kind of like you' to 'I hope you die at some point in the future'. Only Varrick stayed loyal, which helped cement him as my favorite character in DA2.

 

 

"First time I've heard a reason for the repeating interiors that makes sense. Because the dev's excuses sure don't. "

 

Actually, whether you like it or not, their 'excuses' make sense. It was a length of time plain and simple and they had to make tough chocies of either less overall content like quests or more varied areas. It's really not complicated.

Oh, but it is. I've pointed it out before but plenty of companies, like Obsidian, have managed to create numerous environments with very short dev cycles. There is no excuse for not hiring another mapper or two to create extra interiors. I think they either honestly believed that gamer's didn't care (what you didn't get the complaints about ME 1 or DA 1?) or they were trying to be cheap and save a few bucks. I have no problem with companies wanting to make money but, seriously, they should have some extra change laying around to spend on their game development with all the profits they've made from their other games & mass DLC. Also, if they honestly had to cut so many corners to produce this game they either shouldn't have created it in the first place, demanded more time for development or released it as a budget game.

 

While I focus on this problem a lot, it is just one (particularly irritating) symptom of a rushed game. The quest breaking bugs, button mashing, extremely limited scope (ONE TOWN?) and odd story twists in chapter 3 really killed the game for me. The repeating interiors, to me, stand out as the biggest 'we're a AAA developer but we're going to put as little effort into this project as possible' issue with the game.

Edited May 10, 2011 by GreasyDogMeat

[Tale]

Who hates Aveline? I thought she was great.

Her reaction to me

taking her into the veil completely killed it for me. The relationship took a total nose dive from 'I kind of like you' to 'I hope you die at some point in the future'. Only Varrick stayed loyal, which helped cement him as my favorite character in DA2.

 

Literally everyone can betray you there except for Justice. Only people who don't betray are the ones who are paired with the same demon as someone else who did.

[Gorth]

I think they either honestly believed that gamer's didn't care (what you didn't get the complaints about ME 1 or DA 1?) or they were trying to be cheap and save a few bucks. I have no problem with companies wanting to make money but, seriously, they should have some extra change laying around to spend on their game development with all the profits they've made from their other games & mass DLC.

It isn't always just about money, but sometimes also about time. Anybody working in software development knows that you can only throw so many resources at a project, once you pass the "sweet spot", additional resources are pretty much wasted and wont help you meet a deadline.

 

I haven't played the game, but it sounds ultimately like a deadline issue to me, grab a dungeon that works, replicate it and change the scripting depending on context. Artists can be notoriously fickle when it comes to working to deadlines (I'm looking at you Kaftan), or the asset pipepline simply was the slowest link in the development cycle. Could platform restrictions play any role in the selection process of what goes into the game or not? Maybe resources simply got diverted to other projects with expected greater return of investment per man-hour? Maybe they expected people would be too busy pressing the awesome button and watch the gore fly?

 

Could be a number of reasons for why they didn't throw more man-hours/money at it.

[Nepenthe]

I think they either honestly believed that gamer's didn't care (what you didn't get the complaints about ME 1 or DA 1?) or they were trying to be cheap and save a few bucks. I have no problem with companies wanting to make money but, seriously, they should have some extra change laying around to spend on their game development with all the profits they've made from their other games & mass DLC.

It isn't always just about money, but sometimes also about time. Anybody working in software development knows that you can only throw so many resources at a project, once you pass the "sweet spot", additional resources are pretty much wasted and wont help you meet a deadline.

 

I haven't played the game, but it sounds ultimately like a deadline issue to me, grab a dungeon that works, replicate it and change the scripting depending on context. Artists can be notoriously fickle when it comes to working to deadlines (I'm looking at you Kaftan), or the asset pipepline simply was the slowest link in the development cycle. Could platform restrictions play any role in the selection process of what goes into the game or not? Maybe resources simply got diverted to other projects with expected greater return of investment per man-hour? Maybe they expected people would be too busy pressing the awesome button and watch the gore fly?

 

Could be a number of reasons for why they didn't throw more man-hours/money at it.

I've said it before, but I think that everything about this game screams that it was wholly built on the concept of recycling areas to cut down on the man hours. The whole time-skipping narrative is just another excuse to recycle areas. I'm also suspecting that they were for some reason locked to using just one disc (ironic, considering that due to the nature of the game, 2 discs would've been a lot less problematic than with ME2) and the new engine and fully-voiced PCs resulted in disc space being at a premium.

 

I've also posited before that it would have been "forced" on them by the spiraling DAO budget, only to be shot down by people with no understanding of budgeting or ROI.

[MrBrown]

Next patch coming soon:

 

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/300/index/7426658

[WorstUsernameEver]

Not that there was any need for confirmation since you all already guessed it but Dragon Age III is in development.

[Nepenthe]

This should fix the import bugs, which are kind of nasty if you care about the story aspects.

 

I have to say, Bio have REALLY stepped up the customer interaction on their support forums for DA2, I hope it's not just damage control for a messed-up release but actually something that they will keep going with in the future. Because, they kind of need it, and have needed it since BG2, at least.

 

Edit: the fact that they are hiring environment artists after DA2 is absolutely hilarious. :D

Edited May 20, 2011 by Nepenthe

[Tale]

They had good customer interaction with DAO and prior to DA2. The lead systems designers of each were very interactive and informative.

[Volourn]

"Edit: the fact that they are hiring environment artists after DA2 is absolutely hilarious. :D

"

 

Not really. A company the sie of BIO is probably hiring people all the time. I bet after DA1 theyw ere hiring environment artists too. *shrug*

 

 

P.S. that's a tweet not an official announcement. I have little doubt DA3 is coming but let's hope up calling it 'official' or 'confirmed' yet.

[WorstUsernameEver]

P.S. that's a tweet not an official announcement. I have little doubt DA3 is coming but let's hope up calling it 'official' or 'confirmed' yet.

 

It's a tweet from a Bioware employee hiring for Dragon Age 3. It's in development, there's no doubt about that. I guess the project could still be canceled, but come on? No need to act skeptical because it's a tweet. Plenty of games have been leaked in even more hilarious ways (see the New Vegas DLC).

[Volourn]

It's a tweet. It's not real. A BIO employee on the BIO boards even said that the tweet doesn't matter since it's a tweet about POSSIBLE future games that hired employees MAY work on.

 

Until BIO officially announces it on their site or the owners say it iis not official. The dcos had a 5 page inetrview out today and they never proclaimed DA3 at all.

 

Not official... yet.

 

 

Period.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Not official... yet.

 

Way to twist my words? I never said it was an official announcement. Of course before Bio doesn't announce it, it's not official. But it's a solid confirmation that the game is indeed in development and different from an educated guess or a rumor.

[Nepenthe]

They had good customer interaction with DAO and prior to DA2. The lead systems designers of each were very interactive and informative.

IMO Not regarding individual bugs etc. It seems like they have one QA guy specifically tasked to talk to communicate between the forums and the team, which is a major step forward.

 

Sure, they talked a lot about different aspects of the game, but the support forums languished.

[Tale]

Support forums, maybe. But Georg Zoeller was very up front and responsive about systems bugs, such as the dexterity one. Went so far as to create an unofficial fix for it prior to the official one.

[entrerix]

kinda feels like the first bit of pr for the new game.

 

the next one will have better levels, we promise! look before we even announce the game we are telling you we won't make boring and repetitive areas again!

 

don't get me wrong, im glad, its just funny.

[Nepenthe]

kinda feels like the first bit of pr for the new game.

 

the next one will have better levels, we promise! look before we even announce the game we are telling you we won't make boring and repetitive areas again!

 

don't get me wrong, im glad, its just funny.

This was my general take and impression, as well.

[entrerix]

great minds and all that

[Volourn]

They've been doing 'PR' for DA3 for a while. Has everyone forgotten the 'rumour' about DA3 going MP? l0lz

[Niten_Ryu]

Multiplayer component is nearly certain as EA CEO said they want that in all games. Multiplayer component could mean just co-op (or something like semi-persistent worlds as in NWN series). Pure deathmatch for all games is unlikely.