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Dragon Age 2 announced [split topic]

Started by Mister Six, July 08, 2010, 10:34:06 PM

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Zetetic

This post has received coverage on Ars amongst others. Frankly I feel a little bad for even raising it now - there's a degree to which I should be able to ignore this kind of ridiculousness. Nevertheless:
QuoteIn every previous BioWare game, I always felt that almost every companion in the game was designed for the male gamer in mind. Every female love interest was always written as a male friend type support character. In Dragon Age 2, I felt like most of the companions were designed to appeal to other groups foremost, Anders and Fenris for gays and Aveline for women given the lack of strong women in games, and that for the straight male gamer, a secondary concern. It makes things very awkward when your male companions keep making passes at you. The fact that a 'No Homosexuality' option, which could have been easily implemented, is omitted just proves my point. I know there are some straight male gamers out there who did not mind it and I respect that.

Broadly, one homophobic man doesn't enjoy playing a game where a male character comes on to your male character. The most interesting thing about it is the very odd view of media. I realise that games are meant to be fun, but the guy views game production as nothing but attempting to produce something that appeals in the most trivial way to the largest number of people. Perhaps I'm out of touch.

Mister Six

Ah, so it's just some guy being a cunt then. Ta for the link, but I can't be arsed reading the whole thing when a skim birings up this delightful nugget:

QuoteI'm not here to debate the moralities of homosexuality, I personally find it to be digusting but others will feel different, that isn't the point of this thread.

Big Jack McBastard

Tips/notes if anyone is at all interested, don't think there's anything spoilery:

Get one of your Rouges up to 30 Cunning as fast as possible to be able to open the majority of chests in the game, I've only found one so far that requires level 40 (a master lock) at the docks at night, no idea if it's worth it yet. Some of the locked chests may be inaccessible after you leave an area so it's an idea to keep a rogue in party at all times if you're looking to do a clean sweep.

Mages are, in a word 'overpowered', the area affects of an elemental or force mage (a specialist class which opens up later in the game) are very effective in controlling the battlefield, they don't generate much threat in the eyes of your enemies and being ranged keeps the lions share of their blades out of your kidneys, this run through is a breeze in comparison to my first, though the highest-end mage weapons are very expensive (114 Sovereigns?!)/a bugger to get hold of (Evil Tomes quest).

You'll barely notice archery even exists as an ability (bar Varrick) unless you specifically go for that route or get the Prince Whatshisface DLC.

The Chantry board is easy to overlook, I missed it entirely first time around, well I saw it, saw it had nothing on it and subsequently ignored it for the remainder of the game. This time I've kept a casual eye on it but only clocked 3 jobs so far (I'm in the second official  'act', which would be the 3rd bit or 'Getting famous' part). I'm guessing DLC will feature on here.

Really pissing off Aveline hasn't come easy to me in either run-through and being horrible to Merrill is like kicking a puppy's face off. Fenris can be hard work at times, same goes for Anders if you're not pro-mage. Your family is definitely spoilerific turf and events are significantly altered based your choice of a Mage or Martial character also by a choice made at the end of the '1st' (Living in scum town) section.

There's a fair few little differences throughout, many dependent on who is in your party at the time, I've found more hidden areas this time around though they don't usually amount to much, just an alley or path that's not marked on your mini-map or is obscured by bushes.

The occasional but annoying idiosyncrasy of 'Loot not appearing on dead bodies, for a while, sometimes' is still present, so if you've offed an ogre, some giant creature or an arse breaker of an enemy and their corpse persists give it a minute and they may well go sparkly, now and then you'll roll back through areas to see loads of little stashes in the street where you passed by the bodies assuming them to have dropped nothing.

The Arishock reminds me of Tim Allen for some reason, not nearly as cheerful though.

Big Jack McBastard

I retract the 'hard to piss off Avaline' comment, you can pull a switcheroo on her and have her hackles right up by the third act.

I'm playing Christopher Ecclestone-esque hard nosed, by the books, pro-templar apostate this time around, it's an odd mix of ideals but I still believe in the spirit of this Hawke, dubious as he/I have been, I can still see appreciate his motives.

My rouge was a Natalie Portman looking lesbotic, justice/right obsessed mage lover who trollfaced though 80% of the game, basically my dream girl, seeing as how I knew scant about the game before going in it's done fairly well on a second run, adopting a significantly different personality and sticking with an ethos, of sorts, for them helps to shake things up.

My third run will be a very unpleasant Warrior, probably female, power-mad, horrible to all, betraying at every opportunity while still trying to knob the lot of them.

Little Hoover

Just bought this today and been getting stuck into it. Some of your tips have been useful jack, as I'm so neglectful in RPG's as my usual tactic is to run around hoping I'll be fine and t when I get stuck, then I'll figure out what I've been ignoring and doing wrong. Playing on casual has a been a breeze so far though. Enjoying the role playing elements, even if it is a little simplistic to just have a Good/Evil and Sarcastic response, but maybe it gets a bit more nuanced and morally complex later on. Still trying to figure out my character exactly, I'm finding my design for him says more than dialogue. I gave him very sad world-weary eyes. In my head this makes sense with the tough life he's had, so he's sympathetic to others, but also quite jaded so this manifests itself in his sarcastic responses. The voice actor doesn't quite fit though I don't think.

Big Jack McBastard

It is worth a second look playing a polar opposite character once you're done and even my current (third) has thrown up a fair few new scenarios (now with all the DLC).

There are easy to overlook Attribute points available in the Fade (Act 2: Night Terrors mission) two where you shift barrels and an ethereal floating book right at the start of the sequence which can be interrupted in it's path if you watch it's pattern of movement and double click on it (it falls to the floor).

Also retreading every available location from end to end in each act is advised if you're looking for the crafting supplies, I tend to try and visit every single trader at the beginning of each act (they all get new stuff + goodies like backpack boosts and armour add-ons for your teammates) even if you can't afford them it's handy to know where they are.

Hidden/obscure traders:

The Nexus Golem - Found in 'Recently Opened Passage' (opens in Act 2) near the base exit from Sundermount.

The Tevinter Magister - In the Wounded Coast, hangs out where you have words with the Tal Vashoth for the first time (he appears from act 2 onwards) sells Cold Blooded a pricey but ass kicking staff and some other good bits of kit.

The easy to forget Ferelden Traders (on the left as you enter Lowtown) has the odd very decent item but is mostly crappy.

The shady trader in the backrooms of the Hanged Man. (Isabella gives you a quest to get him started)

Bonny Lem in the 'Disused Passage' (only accessible at night, from the docks, through one of two manholes, ffs!!)

There may also be a shady trader at the docks during the daytime on the far right hand side of the map (near one of the man hole covers for the last bugger)

There are 4 shops in the Gallows, I managed to miss the weapon shop on my first run due to it being right next to the armour stall.

And the trader at the Dalish camp at Sundermount.

I think that's it.

Have a chat with Sandal now and then, you might get free unique shit or just non-plussed comments.

Little Hoover

#36
Well I finished this, took me a while as I was unable to play it for long periods at a time.

This game has some really weird difficulty spikes, there's a few random fights in the game that are about 10 times harder than anything else in the game, including the final battle which was fairly simple. I feel like I badly spent all my attribute points throughout the game, it always seemed like better equipment was well out of my reach.

I was happy with it one the whole, although the ending all feels quite abrupt like it's really just been to set up the next game in the series. Wasn't really keen on the framing device for the story of having Varric retelling it, they essentially just spoilt their own story by revealing too much of what was about to come and it feels like we were supposed to care about the larger story arc of the world, when really I was just interested in the characters but it doesn't bother to give them a proper send-off. Still I enjoyed it, I've seen a lot of complaints that the story is completely linear and the choices are all just smoke and mirrors. But it seemed to me it's about how you play not really about affecting the outcome and crafting a consistent persona for your character. It's a little too inflexible to really be that effective but it works pretty well, and there's a lot of decisions where I really did have to think about what I should do, so it succeeded in that regard.

Next time I'm playing as a pro-templar female mage.