E3 2013!

[Venetia]

I liked it for the first 1-2 hours of DA2. The fighting mechanics were considerably better, and the dwarf was basically Tyrion (actually hamburger hepler probably ripped him off from aSoIaF, but I hadn't read them yet and made that comparison later). so, okay, decent start.

and really it didn't have hardly anything to do with the events of DA1. No Grey Wardens, no progeny of witches, etc. Which is not great because I was hoping for that, but that's their decision to make ... I mean, okay ... I guess.

until:

- I started noticing the reused environments/enemies. and that was FLAGRANT. like not even reused textures or elements, but entire areas that weren't even the same area would be reused, props and obstacles and all. sometimes you would be accessing different areas of the same larger map with prior-explored sections walled off. Which would have only really been excusable a few times, and ONLY when we were revisiting THAT. EXACT. SAME. SPOT. But those city planners and architects must've been fucking robots because I'll be damned if all the city's mansions and back alleys, every single one, didn't look the EXACT FUCKING SAME


- REPETITIVEEEEEEEEEE. So like okay, I was really disheartened to find out the whole game would be in one city. One of the major things I liked about DA was the travelling around and exploring the world. But maybe it's like a REALLY BIG CITY with LOTS OF VARIED SHIT going on to make it worth it.
NOPE. You're in that fucking city for years, and it barely changes. In fact, after you do the grey elf guy (IDR his name)'s character mission, and his mansion is all fucked up, it continues to be that exact state for all of the rest of the time you "know" him. Years and years and years. That's some REAL dedication to brooding, to even keep freshening the blood spatters on the walls and keep the food in the kitchen at that exact state of rancidness. Impressive. (Plus did I mention that no one changes their clothes or ages?)
And the enemy-pop-ins. Predictable, because not only did they happen in the SAME PHYSICAL SPOTS over and over, but via the SAME INSTIGATORS (switch people for spiders at some intervals) or with the SAME TIMING! And they would be the SAME ENEMIES, save for higher HP/damage. This was not the case so infrequently that I actually found myself just trying to mindlessly run past shit after a while just to get to something DIFFERENT.


- EASY AS FUCK. I played this on hard and breezed through it. Definitely did not happen in DA1. The ONLY fights that gave me trouble, and the ONLY reason I enjoyed playing it at all really, were when you fought the boss at the very beginning and the boss at the [near] end-ish. (Qunari leader; don't remember name).


- Ashe is a douchebag. Acts pretty douchey and most comment choices are douchey. As Shepard it was fun acting like a badass rebel, but in DA2, your choices were usually: Ultra Prude, I don't fucking care, and I don't fucking care [and I'm also pissed about it].


- None of the characters, other than the dwarf (who, like I said, is a total aSoIaF ripoff ...), and the Qunari leader, are actually likeable. Everyone in this city is a major asshole. Everyone. They tried so hard to make your affiliations have negative sides that they forgot the positive ones. Shit Sandwich vs. Giant Douche over and over.
Your "romance" choices are even more pitiable. Yayy, I get to pick between Brooding Emo Elf, Angsty-Yet-Shy-and-totally-Mary-Sue Girl Elf, One-Sided Whorish Pirate Bitch, and Brooding-Yet-Dull-as-Dishwater Human Dude.
(Seriously wtf @ all the brooding; did the writers think people would find people who bitch all the time likeable??)


- There is no real resolution. SPOILER ALERT: At the end of everything, what happens? FUCK ALL. You leave and fuck off and THE END. WHY DID YOU WASTE ALL THOSE YEARS OF YOUR LIFE THERE WHEN YOU COULD HAVE BEEN EXPLORING THE WORLD BECAUSE THE CITY WAS FUCKED REGARDLESS



I mean instead of making a detailed, lore-rich and yet mysterious city-world like Dishonored (where it was PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE to recycle a few environments and stage the whole thing in one city), they took a bunch of money and then sort of just sharted out the beginnings of some effort while letting their 16-year-old twilight fangirl nieces write character bios.


I'm sorry Peri and you're entitled to your opinion of course!!!!

It's just ... JESUS FUCK if someone on this site had made this game (ignoring graphics capabilities, which would've wowed the shit out of me out of a single person) I would have been impressed, but still would have offered the same constructive crits.

Out of a major developer with a TEAM though, it's fucking laughable how little time, playtesting, or thought, went into making it.

It quite literally felt like a personification of EA was sitting next to me towards the end of the game, just licking my credit card and telling me how good my money tastes. Then it leaned over and licked up the desperation and frustration and pooped out a giant schadenfreude turd. Until I leaned over and whispered, "sorry. I pirated it." It hissed in revile, then smirked, and leaned in to whisper back, "but you'll never get those hours of your life back."

 

[Venetia]

What I didn't understand was that if they REALLLLLYYY didn't feel like giving the developers the time to create new maps, why not just use all the shit they already made in DA1? I mean it was the same fucking engine? Slap some new textures and dudes in there and it still would have been a fucking disgusting practice but ATLEAST there would've been variation

(obviously they would have had to change the story to be, you know, outside of the city. but was there even a story? Stories have resolutions at the end. This one reaches the middle then just sort of shutters out limply with nothing really answered and no real developments or reasons to have experienced it.)

 

[Perihelion]

I agree with most of that, actually. I think most of your complaints (aside from the characters, which I agree were shitty except Varric and Aveline, and the direction) boil down to the game really, really needing more development time and playtesting. My biggest complaint with it is the dropped plot threads, but I like that they tried to do something so different from the first game, and the idea of spending the entire game in one city and watching how your life develops and how a bunch of different events intertwine is cool. I think the "lol travel all over the world" thing is overdone personally, so it's refreshing to see a different kind of story. Overall I thought it had good ideas but not so good execution, whereas DA1 had boring ideas and great execution. DA1 is much better overall, but I still enjoyed the second one.

 

[Venetia]

Yeah I agree. It was very very rushed. You could tell by how it STARTS that the devs wanted to do something much bigger with it. And it probably would've been cool in that case (like I said, Dishonored is an example of a game that takes place all within one city, and yet still feels epic and varied). Really I think that was the game that put me over the edge from feeling wary of EA to just flat-out hating it.

Also jesus shit, the people/"writers" responsible for developing those characters need to finish puberty and stop it with the brooding and the emo and the twilight and the mary sues.

 

[Perihelion]

Yeah, I think it would have been a good game with more budget. I guess I'm willing to cut it a little slack since its biggest problems are clearly related to time and money, which isn't the developers' fault, although yeah the characters were pretty terrible. Well, I'm still excited for DA3. It's taking much longer, so I hope that means it'll be a better game.

 

[Venetia]

Yeah I definitely wouldn't mind revisiting the franchise so long as they actually allow the devs to put effort into it this time. I'm just going to sit back and read some reviews first before ramblin' on down to Torrentsville.

(Though I'll probably need to run Origin to play it if I get it legally so fuck it honestly maybe I'd just pirate it anyway :/)

 

[united washcloth express]

The only thing I enjoyed about DA2 was the sarcastic tone, because it fit every situation perfectly. Taking any situation seriously in that game was impossible.

It really isn't fun to play a character who gets blamed for everything, stumbles into situations by virtue of being in the right place at the wrong time, and ultimately accomplishes fuck all the entire game.

I did like Carver when he wasn't complaining. The only two characters I completely enjoyed were Gavin (Hawke's uncle) and Charade (Cousin)

 

[moog]

so yeah, how bout that donkey knog

 

[Venetia]

oh yeah the name was hawke, not ashe

the fuck am i thinking of (no not evil dead)

 

[Xhukari]

E3 2013 thread... and no one else has mentioned MIRROR'S EDGE 2?! WHAT THA
I am experiencing every disappoint right now :p

 

[Daxis]

 

[Byron]

E3 2013 thread... and no one else has mentioned MIRROR'S EDGE 2?! WHAT THA
I am experiencing every disappoint right now :p

IS IT OKAY TO EGS|OPJBHORPJEF OVER THIS?

Sorry. I completely forgot how much I loved ME

 

[Xilef]

I didn't like Mirror's Edge.

I was stuck on the same level for months, turned out you have to destroy the servers in a room before you can leave. And the level was the last level.

I then jokingly said to my friend who showed me I had to destroy the servers "I guess you have to jump to win the game?".
I then had to press the jump button to win the game.

It would have been good if they removed the combat and focused on traversing the environment.

 

[Byron]

I agree with most of what you said Xilef...
I wish they didn't even have combat. To be honest, I managed to go the whole game with only taking out like four guys.
I'd take one guys sniper and use it to take out the other guys in the room.
It's annoying how the trailer pretty much focuses on combat when really I think this is a stealth game.
One thing I will say the game did right was isolation.
Isolation is the thing that scares me in games, when you have to go in alone and for mirrors edge that was the whole game.
There were several parts where you were stuck underground or something with some guys chasing you and it really did get my heart going xD
But yeah. Hope they don't fall down the "HUR DUR GUNS BANG BANG" hole and focus more on the parkour aspect.

 

[moog]

It would have been good if they removed the combat and focused on traversing the environment.

oh god THIS

 

[Xhukari]

Not all the combat is bad in that game, I mean...

Spoiler: Plotline Spoilers

I thoroughly enjoyed the scenes where you're fighting Celeste upon the shipment crates, they felt really different to other forms of combat, including in other games. What the game needs is more of those Runner Cops (who would try to fist fight/apprehend you?) in an open would. And hopefully some form of proper multiplayer with say, elimination laps, play tag etc... just think about it, playing a big game of tag with parkour in a open city!

 

[Xilef]

One thing I will say the game did right was isolation.
Isolation is the thing that scares me in games, when you have to go in alone and for mirrors edge that was the whole game.
There were several parts where you were stuck underground or something with some guys chasing you and it really did get my heart going xD
But yeah. Hope they don't fall down the "HUR DUR GUNS BANG BANG" hole and focus more on the parkour aspect.

half life 1 gave me the isolated feeling, I understand exactly what you mean (I prefer hl1's setting to hl2 which had more friends there to help you, more open space and you weren't running away and being chased, you were more or less going through clear cut objectives).

I must disagree about the open world idea, this is asked for a lot but I think treating the levels like skill based obstacle courses is the right thing to do, it gives you an easy performance measuring and you can see where to improve your gameplay.

 

[Venetia]

this sort of makes me a tool to say since i'm constantly like 'lol pc master race' but i seriously couldn't even play mirror's edge because it was first-person and i can't fucking grasp first-person controls with a controller instead of mouse/keyboard. when i have to use the analog stick to look around and navigate ... ay yi yi it feels like i'm playing a retarded robot with a broken neck.

though i HEARD that the ps4 will ship with native m+k support. which in that case, freakin awesome.

 

[Spoo]

douche.gif

C'mon, Daxis. That's not contributing anything to the conversation, and tbqh it's nothing but fanboy nonsense.

I don't give a shit. I'll probably end up buying both eventually, but XBO comes first.

 

[Spoo]

also:

here. now maybe some peeps will shut the fuck up.

An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.

Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.

In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console -- there will be no regional restrictions.