Dragon Age II [PC, 360, PS3]

[mekanor]

Picked this up this morning and have sunk a couple of hours into it. Seems pretty good so far, and despite how different it looks at a glance, not a whole lot has changed since the first game, everything has just been made more console friendly. This won't be to everyones liking, but so far I'm not finding it too bad. I do think it's a shame Bioware felt the need to dumb the game down but I've no doubt I'll still enjoy the game.

It starts off exactly the same as the demo. Even that bit in the city that the demo skipped ahead to is really quite close to the start of the game, so there is still a lot to see. I think the demo does give a good indication of whether or not you will like the game, so if you hated the demo, the story is probably the only thing that might persuade you to play the game. Voice acting and dialogue are top notch as always (I recommend a visit to the black emporium).

There have been quite a few people having trouble importing their old saves though. If you've played all the DLC like me, you'll go to import and there will be 4 different versions of your character (origins, awakening, golems and witch hunt). If everything works, you'll pick witch hunt and it will include everything from the other 3. There is a handy plot summary on each save so that will help. When I did mine though, it mentioned everything I did from origins and awakening but nothing from golems or witch hunt. For me it was an easy fix, just replay the last conversation in witch hunt and try importing the new endgame autosave.

Anywho, good game so far, looking forward to the rest!

[Neon Ignition]

The reviews seem quite solid and this time around the demo didn't seem as much of a mess like DA1 (consoles) so I think I'll wait till it's on the cheap and give it a try then. I'm surprised you like the voice acting though, like DA1, the va in this has to be some of the worst in not just it's genre but gaming in general. Shocking stuff.

[mekanor]

You really think the VA is bad? I'm talking about cutscenes and major characters, not minor NPCs. Oh and actually now that you mention it, I'm not real fond of femHawke's voice either.

[Daragon]

The VA in the original Dragon Age was actually very good. Crazytaxinext, you must be of the school of thought that suggests that the VA in something like Symphony of the Night was performed with Shakespearean like eloquence.

[Neon Ignition]

I'm not sure how big a role the characters from the demo play in the overall game but bar maybe two who were ok they were definately on the side of bad. Like they hired an amateur dramatics group to voice it

[englishbob]

Picked this up this morning and have sunk a couple of hours into it. Seems pretty good so far, and despite how different it looks at a glance, not a whole lot has changed since the first game, everything has just been made more console friendly. This won't be to everyones liking, but so far I'm not finding it too bad. I do think it's a shame Bioware felt the need to dumb the game down but I've no doubt I'll still enjoy the game.

It starts off exactly the same as the demo. Even that bit in the city that the demo skipped ahead to is really quite close to the start of the game, so there is still a lot to see. I think the demo does give a good indication of whether or not you will like the game, so if you hated the demo, the story is probably the only thing that might persuade you to play the game. Voice acting and dialogue are top notch as always (I recommend a visit to the black emporium).

There have been quite a few people having trouble importing their old saves though. If you've played all the DLC like me, you'll go to import and there will be 4 different versions of your character (origins, awakening, golems and witch hunt). If everything works, you'll pick witch hunt and it will include everything from the other 3. There is a handy plot summary on each save so that will help. When I did mine though, it mentioned everything I did from origins and awakening but nothing from golems or witch hunt. For me it was an easy fix, just replay the last conversation in witch hunt and try importing the new endgame autosave.

Anywho, good game so far, looking forward to the rest!

What version?

[GordonJ]

What version?

Not PC, crappy securom release date check bollocks

[SuperBeatBoy]

Not PC, crappy securom release date check bollocks

Get a no cd .exe then. Saves having the disc in all the time.

[Daragon]

Any preorderers from Game receive their preorder DLC code yet?

[Uli]

is it possible now to queue up commands like in the PC version of Origins? and can i set my party to full auto combat?

[GordonJ]

Any preorderers from Game receive their preorder DLC code yet?

Mine just turned up

[elaniel]

Imported my game tonight and played a little while. Did anyone else finish (and get an auto-save) after the Witch Hunt DLC and not show any description of what happened on the Plot Summary for the DLC when importing?

Lots of other people are reporting nothing being in the description about this DLC. I'm hoping that it only shows you a few of the things that happened in your game and that the choices are carried over, they're just not shown in the summary.

EDIT:
Ah, never mind.

It should be noted that the DLC packs "Return to Ostagar", "Darkspawn Chronicles", "Leliana's Song", "Golems of Amgaraak" and "Witch Hunt" have no plot flags that are checked inside of Dragon Age 2 right now, hence the lack of descriptive plot flags when checking your save file plot summary.

Just an FYI update in case others get worried about not seeing any of that content in the summary.

[mekanor]

What version?

Not PC, crappy securom release date check bollocks

I did get it on the PC actually, the game came out a day earlier in Australia. I was quite shocked actually to get that release date check. Not sure I see the point of it. I'd understand if they didn't want people playing it weeks before it was out, but why stop people from playing it if they're lucky enough to pick it up a day or two early?

Imported my game tonight and played a little while. Did anyone else finish (and get an auto-save) after the Witch Hunt DLC and not show any description of what happened on the Plot Summary for the DLC when importing?

Not sure what the deal is there. Mine mentioned everything from the in game DLC (warden's keep, shale, return to ostagar) but nothing from witch hunt or golems. When I replayed the end of witch hunt though and made a new endgame save and imported that it actually did mention that I let Morrigan go.

Just about to sink some more time into it now. So far Kirkwall seems pretty big, and with the option to go to places during the day or night, there's plenty of places to look for extra quests.

Oh, so far though my rogue won't unlock any locked chests or anything, and I can't find the skill to upgrade. Am I missing something here?

[elaniel]

Maybe it's a console problem then with the Witch Hunt DLC not showing up? I did a new endgame save and there's no mention of it there for me.

Or maybe there's only so much room in the box for the plot summary and some things get left out?

[NeoDragoN]

Oh, so far though my rogue won't unlock any locked chests or anything, and I can't find the skill to upgrade. Am I missing something here?

To lockpick you need to increase your cunning, the skill increase every 10 points.