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Dragon Age 2


Gorth

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Maybe that stagnation is what opened the door for a WRPG to sell so well there?

:huh:

 

He just said that because of his own bias towards the archetypes that are prevalent to the culture, like tsundere Morrigan (the irony :lol:)

Edited by Orogun01
I'd say the answer to that question is kind of like the answer to "who's the sucker in this poker game?"*

 

*If you can't tell, it's you. ;)

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Claudia Black sure has a knack for portraying tsundere characters.

 

we felt compelled to google "tsundere."

 

...

 

dorks.

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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  • 4 weeks later...
Mark of the Assassin came out earlier this week. Did anyone get a chance to play it? I'm too busy watching SC2 tournaments. >_<

I was planning on giving it a go (while sipping some Auchentoshan Three Wood), but I'm about to crash so hard that plan is postponed until tomorrow.

You're a cheery wee bugger, Nep. Have I ever said that?

ahyes.gifReapercussionsahyes.gif

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I think after the dust has settled from Skyrim I'll reinstall Origins, it dawned on me the other day that as much as I enjoyed DA2 I never completed it, and I can barely remember any of the characters, even though Origins falls short in quite a few areas, it's going to be remembered much longer than DA2.

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Claudia Black sure has a knack for portraying tsundere characters.

 

we felt compelled to google "tsundere."

 

...

 

dorks.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Better just visit TVtropes :lol:

 

BioWare has several examples:

 

Bastila from Knights of the Old Republic is cold, rude, and contemptuous of the player for the first half of the game. She does warm up, gradually, only to freeze solid again as soon as she realizes what is happening.

Nathyrra from Neverwinter Nights Hordes of the Underdark is a milder example, being almost friendly (if a bit distant and businesslike) when you first meet her, though things don't really move along until certain events crack her shell.

Morrigan from Dragon Age fits the type A profile rather well, initially presenting a cold, at times almost evil disinterest in people and mocking the main character's acts of kindness or affection, believing such feelings are a weakness. If the character continues to pursue her, however, she gradually warms up to him, becoming at times genuinely affectionate, only to fall back into old habits and push him away, terrified of the unfamiliar feelings of attachment and need her love for him has brought about.

Velanna, the human-hating Dalish Elf of "Awakening" is essentially Morrigan, only much more hostile and spiteful. However she seems to expose a more flustered side occasionally when Nathaniel Howe compliments or teases her.

Silk Fox in Jade Empire is rather rude and contemptuous with regard to the player during their initial encounters (during their first encounter, she tries to kill him/her due to mistaking him/her for a mook); but her dialogue during the culminating romance scene is literally "come over here and kiss me before I remember who I am supposed to be." (That particular line was actually there because of Silk Fox actually being Rebellious Princess Sun Lian, but given her earlier dialogue it has a double meaning)

Jack in Mass Effect 2 is one of the biggest Heroic Sociopaths you can recruit and is spoken of fearfully by the prison warden you pick her up from. However if Shepard chooses to help her deal with her past and Male Shepard convinces her that he's not interested in merely sex, she reveals that she hides a deeply vulnerable side that's been wounded one too many times and a need for closure.

Aveline in Dragon Age 2 can come off as rather cold and harsh to some of the Party Members, especially Hawke and Isabela. The real kicker is that she isn't a love interest.

Let's play Alpha Protocol

My misadventures on youtube.

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I thought the DLC was quite good, they mix up things nicely between "levels" so it's not all "kill moar stuff in endless tunnels!" like Legacy (which I admittedly enjoyed as well). There's a short stealth section which I thought was quite fun and, as with Legacy, your companions are quite active and both (in addition to Tallis) have small specific mini-quests, which are a neat touch.

 

Without crossing into spoiler territory, this one has a lot of recurring characters, so I assume that either the VO was done while they were doing the main game or they're working on a bigger expansion (or they splurged for everybody to come back for just this and/or they were already in the booth for TOR, but...). There's tons of fairly heavy-handed foreshadowing here, which makes me think "expansion coming".

You're a cheery wee bugger, Nep. Have I ever said that?

ahyes.gifReapercussionsahyes.gif

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Bioware really has to stop making this LARPING bull**** DLC stuff and get back making manly moody dungeon romps.

But..lovestarved Larpers are BW No.1 demographic.

I'd say the answer to that question is kind of like the answer to "who's the sucker in this poker game?"*

 

*If you can't tell, it's you. ;)

village_idiot.gif

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Bioware really has to stop making this LARPING bull**** DLC stuff and get back making manly moody dungeon romps.

Didn't hear anyone scream in ecstasy when they did just that with Legacy.

You're a cheery wee bugger, Nep. Have I ever said that?

ahyes.gifReapercussionsahyes.gif

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Claudia Black sure has a knack for portraying tsundere characters.

 

we felt compelled to google "tsundere."

 

...

 

dorks.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Better just visit TVtropes :lol:

 

BioWare has several examples:

 

Bastila from Knights of the Old Republic is cold, rude, and contemptuous of the player for the first half of the game. She does warm up, gradually, only to freeze solid again as soon as she realizes what is happening.

Nathyrra from Neverwinter Nights Hordes of the Underdark is a milder example, being almost friendly (if a bit distant and businesslike) when you first meet her, though things don't really move along until certain events crack her shell.

Morrigan from Dragon Age fits the type A profile rather well, initially presenting a cold, at times almost evil disinterest in people and mocking the main character's acts of kindness or affection, believing such feelings are a weakness. If the character continues to pursue her, however, she gradually warms up to him, becoming at times genuinely affectionate, only to fall back into old habits and push him away, terrified of the unfamiliar feelings of attachment and need her love for him has brought about.

Velanna, the human-hating Dalish Elf of "Awakening" is essentially Morrigan, only much more hostile and spiteful. However she seems to expose a more flustered side occasionally when Nathaniel Howe compliments or teases her.

Silk Fox in Jade Empire is rather rude and contemptuous with regard to the player during their initial encounters (during their first encounter, she tries to kill him/her due to mistaking him/her for a mook); but her dialogue during the culminating romance scene is literally "come over here and kiss me before I remember who I am supposed to be." (That particular line was actually there because of Silk Fox actually being Rebellious Princess Sun Lian, but given her earlier dialogue it has a double meaning)

Jack in Mass Effect 2 is one of the biggest Heroic Sociopaths you can recruit and is spoken of fearfully by the prison warden you pick her up from. However if Shepard chooses to help her deal with her past and Male Shepard convinces her that he's not interested in merely sex, she reveals that she hides a deeply vulnerable side that's been wounded one too many times and a need for closure.

Aveline in Dragon Age 2 can come off as rather cold and harsh to some of the Party Members, especially Hawke and Isabela. The real kicker is that she isn't a love interest.

 

...

 

anybody ever heard o' katherina minola? lord only knows how the initially adversarial female character became an anime trope.

 

we gots our curmudgeon going on at full force... old AND dismissive. is pleasantly warm.

 

HA! Good Fun!

"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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I've played both DA2 DLCs in the last days. They are both very good because they fix the most discussed shortcomings of the main game: no area recycle, more variety in terms of gameplay, less filler combat, solid encounter design (they completely reworked the wave mechanic), more interaction in the party.

 

I think that DA2's DLCs are lot worth my money than DA:O ones and they are basically fun and well written. Legacy is more "serious" and more focused on combat (it remembers Awakenings atmosphere a lot). MotA is more lighthearted and more varied and combat is focused on some hard and fun boss fights. But the second one suffers of all the Felicia Day bull**** marketing so I liked it a little less.

 

I think that if Bioware would have developed the game with the same resources and attention to detail the reception could have been different and more neutral. Having said that, the game remains flawed for me and no DLC could fix the issues I disliked about its design: no choice and consequences, excessive linearity and combat designed with too many compromises. I mean, it's too fast paced and actiony to be a satisfactory tactical party based game, but it's too stat/skill driven and requires too much micro-management to be a fun action RPG. DA:O's combat remains a better compromise (at least on PC).

Edited by meomao
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One thing I don't understand is: Dragon Age II has a low Metacritic score for a BioWare title, but an overall respectable one (a quick check for Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege III can show some much worse ones), yet Legacy has been pretty much panned by most major publications and has a fairly low Metacritic score. Judging by the initial 7 given by GameSpot, Mark of the Assassin will do a bit better, but hardly as well as the main game. Now, even considering that the DLC packs are relatively small and that scores for DLC are generally lower than for full titles... how can there be such a disparity between what the press thinks and what the players think?

 

I mean, pretty much everyone I've seen here and in other places that are hardly amicable towards BioWare, Legacy and Mark of the Assassin are sensibly better in design and quantity of assets compared to the main game. Do they simply feel guilty for giving Dragon Age II high scores considering the venomous reaction from fans or Origins?

 

I mean, I'm hardly experienced in this, but usually, as contestable as its methods are, Metacritic matches the majority of players' opinions. Now I get the impression they don't. Weird.

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I mean, I'm hardly experienced in this, but usually, as contestable as its methods are, Metacritic matches the majority of players' opinions. Now I get the impression they don't. Weird.

 

There was some talk the low metacritic score was a machination by 4chan, in response to some early bad rep DA2 got. I didn't dwell too much into it, though. Don't really care about reviews.

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I mean, pretty much everyone I've seen here and in other places that are hardly amicable towards BioWare, Legacy and Mark of the Assassin are sensibly better in design and quantity of assets compared to the main game. Do they simply feel guilty for giving Dragon Age II high scores considering the venomous reaction from fans or Origins?

 

This. Moreover, it's easy to be popular bashing DA2 related products, like it's easy to be popular praising TW2 (in a post on the BW board there was a guy that said something like that "I've not played TW2 but I will vote it as RPG of the year because everyone say that it's good"). Why? I don't know for sure and I could be wrong but I see those reasons:

 

- Bioware completely missed the comunication with the existing player base. I mean, Silvermann should be fired on the spot for what he has done to the franchise's image. DA2 marketing was a complete disaster. Fight like a spartan? Button and awesome? Really? You should never advertise a game bashing its prequel.

 

- Then, because it's fantasy, it's an RPG (more: it's the last party based and stat based AAA RPG in the market, like it or not) and it looks and plays a litte bit clunky (like the classical geek who wants to be cool, while DA:O was a geek who was happy to be a geek). It's the perfect target and it does not have the protection of the grognard like me anymore :lol: .

 

- What is true for the critics is true even for many players. DA2 has many flaws and it's the Bioware title I enjoyed less beside JE but it's not that pile of crap (and DA:O is not that perfect and imparable gem). It's easy to look intelligent, smart and cool bashing DA2 (repeating the same obtuse criticism). And maybe, the popularity of DA2' bashing explains the moderated reaction here and in other places that are not that affectionate to Bioware.

Edited by meomao
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Claudia Black sure has a knack for portraying tsundere characters.

 

we felt compelled to google "tsundere."

 

...

 

dorks.

 

HA! Good Fun!

 

Better just visit TVtropes :lol:

 

BioWare has several examples:

 

Bastila from Knights of the Old Republic is cold, rude, and contemptuous of the player for the first half of the game. She does warm up, gradually, only to freeze solid again as soon as she realizes what is happening.

Nathyrra from Neverwinter Nights Hordes of the Underdark is a milder example, being almost friendly (if a bit distant and businesslike) when you first meet her, though things don't really move along until certain events crack her shell.

Morrigan from Dragon Age fits the type A profile rather well, initially presenting a cold, at times almost evil disinterest in people and mocking the main character's acts of kindness or affection, believing such feelings are a weakness. If the character continues to pursue her, however, she gradually warms up to him, becoming at times genuinely affectionate, only to fall back into old habits and push him away, terrified of the unfamiliar feelings of attachment and need her love for him has brought about.

Velanna, the human-hating Dalish Elf of "Awakening" is essentially Morrigan, only much more hostile and spiteful. However she seems to expose a more flustered side occasionally when Nathaniel Howe compliments or teases her.

Silk Fox in Jade Empire is rather rude and contemptuous with regard to the player during their initial encounters (during their first encounter, she tries to kill him/her due to mistaking him/her for a mook); but her dialogue during the culminating romance scene is literally "come over here and kiss me before I remember who I am supposed to be." (That particular line was actually there because of Silk Fox actually being Rebellious Princess Sun Lian, but given her earlier dialogue it has a double meaning)

Jack in Mass Effect 2 is one of the biggest Heroic Sociopaths you can recruit and is spoken of fearfully by the prison warden you pick her up from. However if Shepard chooses to help her deal with her past and Male Shepard convinces her that he's not interested in merely sex, she reveals that she hides a deeply vulnerable side that's been wounded one too many times and a need for closure.

Aveline in Dragon Age 2 can come off as rather cold and harsh to some of the Party Members, especially Hawke and Isabela. The real kicker is that she isn't a love interest.

 

That's not helping at all.

 

What is tsundere and why do people think they can get away with abbreviations that no one other than themselves and 20 other people have ever heard of.

Na na  na na  na na  ...

greg358 from Darksouls 3 PVP is a CHEATER.

That is all.

 

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What is tsundere and why do people think they can get away with abbreviations that no one other than themselves and 20 other people have ever heard of.

 

 

A character stereotype in anime, and other Japanese nerd-stuff.

 

It's a somewhat common term in anime fandom. More common among the Japanese, being a word in Japanese. And yeah, groups tend to develop their own terminology.

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That's not helping at all.

 

What is tsundere and why do people think they can get away with abbreviations that no one other than themselves and 20 other people have ever heard of.

 

I get annoyed about abbrevitions as much (if not more) than the next man. But surely a couple paragraphs of explanation is sufficient?

"It wasn't lies. It was just... bull****"."

             -Elwood Blues

 

tarna's dead; processing... complete. Disappointed by Universe. RIP Hades/Sand/etc. Here's hoping your next alt has a harp.

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One thing I don't understand is: Dragon Age II has a low Metacritic score for a BioWare title, but an overall respectable one (a quick check for Alpha Protocol and Dungeon Siege III can show some much worse ones), yet Legacy has been pretty much panned by most major publications and has a fairly low Metacritic score. Judging by the initial 7 given by GameSpot, Mark of the Assassin will do a bit better, but hardly as well as the main game. Now, even considering that the DLC packs are relatively small and that scores for DLC are generally lower than for full titles... how can there be such a disparity between what the press thinks and what the players think?

 

I mean, pretty much everyone I've seen here and in other places that are hardly amicable towards BioWare, Legacy and Mark of the Assassin are sensibly better in design and quantity of assets compared to the main game. Do they simply feel guilty for giving Dragon Age II high scores considering the venomous reaction from fans or Origins?

 

I mean, I'm hardly experienced in this, but usually, as contestable as its methods are, Metacritic matches the majority of players' opinions. Now I get the impression they don't. Weird.

 

I get the feeling that Reviewers in general seem to be much harder on dlcs compared to full length games (the reviews for the FNV dlcs aside from OWB were pretty harsh despite having some fantastic campaigns). With DA2, the game was seen as pretty awful by the playerbase, while reviewers for whatever reason praised it/did not hate it as much as the fans, but the dlcs apparently have won many players over while the reviewers have been much more critical and I think it's just cause of the reviewers being more critical about dlcs and mission packs and stuff.

 

(As a side not, personally after playing Mark of the Assassin recently at a friend's house I think it's just as awful as the base game just with random gimmicks and pandering so I personally don't see the appeal of the dlcs but whatever)

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I get the feeling that Reviewers in general seem to be much harder on dlcs compared to full length games (the reviews for the FNV dlcs aside from OWB were pretty harsh despite having some fantastic campaigns). With DA2, the game was seen as pretty awful by the playerbase, while reviewers for whatever reason praised it/did not hate it as much as the fans, but the dlcs apparently have won many players over while the reviewers have been much more critical and I think it's just cause of the reviewers being more critical about dlcs and mission packs and stuff.

 

(As a side not, personally after playing Mark of the Assassin recently at a friend's house I think it's just as awful as the base game just with random gimmicks and pandering so I personally don't see the appeal of the dlcs but whatever)

 

Reviewers are harsher on DLCs than on a full title, with very rare exceptions, and in the case of BioWare DLC, I guess one could argue there is a "value/content for your money" factor, but that still doesn't explain the extreme disparity of opinions between Dragon Age II and Legacy.

 

Dragon Age II's first reviews were all "This is what videogames should be!". Dragon Age II: Legacy "yawn, mediocre and uninteresting".

 

Mark of the Assassin seems to be doing a little better so far, I'm expecting it to at least not fall under 65.

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