Look! It's already happening!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjexkoGVKlY&feature=player_embedded

Fast forward to the 4:30 mark.

Stormtroopers.
Representing style since '87!

Sorry I am not being over dramatic when I say DA2 was horrible. graphically horrid = The Darkspawn now look like cartoon villans vs. something from the depths of hell. Gameplay was crappy and too linear IMO. Combat was a joke = Thrust, Parry, Strike, Expodes into a blood splatter with no body parts left..... For that matter I could play Mortal Kombat...LOL Rewards were a joke = Every fetch quest had the same rewards, 50 lousy copper or silver. Armor and Weapons were so streamlined it was another big joke. Merchants were useless because almost everything was made for your character and you couldn't buy items for your companions, Armor, Weapons, Jewelry, etc..... I played that joke for 20 hours and I just wanted to gag. It was the worst sequal to DA:O I could imagine.

I think it was a net step back in the series but did have a few areas of superiority over DA Origins. Though I consider Origins the more fun, more technically sound game over all.

Say what you want about DA:2, but it was an above average game. DA:O soured my experience by calling me an evil monster for killing a kid who was possessed by a demon and who killed most of the surrounding villagers. Apparently, the 'good and pure' option was to go travel for a few days and get help from someone else while the demon had everyone at its mercy. I am sorry, but calling me evil for not risking people's lives when the demon has proven that it can and will kill everyone around it is just plain stupid. Especially when I am supposed to feel sympathy for the mother who cares more about saving her son than the dozens of people he killed while being possessed.

ARRRGH! That situation angered me not near as much as Bethesda's [censored] Little Lamplight town in Fallout 3. Nothing says 'quality main quest' like forcing you to help a town of invincible, annoying children whose entire existence makes absolutely no sense. Fallout 3 was a bigger let down, to me, than DA:2. Sure, Fallout 3 was a fun action game like Oblivion was, but they are not RPGs. Just because you can play dress up and choose how you can kill things (while non combat skills are completely worthless) does not make a game an RPG.

Story preference does not equal game quality.

Very true, There was some good to the story, otherwise DA2 was complete trash IMHO.

That is true: compared to Origins it was garbage.

Compared to any game that had the genre RPG on it, DA2 was garbage.

Yes as an RPG it is garbage I will never argue that it was an utter disappointment.
I hate to see that RPGs are being kicked to the curb as its my favorite genre.

RPGs, JRPGs, and CRPGs

DA:2 was not a disappointment as an RPG. It was a disappointment in the action/adventure front. The dungeons were copy/paste and the graphics kinda svcked. I do not mind being unable to customize party member's gear and skills since I am Role Playing 1 character, not a group of people. The companions can wear what they want and do what they want... which would allow me to RP my character more effectively.

I liked DA:O more than DA:2, sorry if I remembered one aspect of games and triggered rant mode.


JRPGs like Final Fantasy I consider to be 'tactical adventure games'. There is no role playing other than how you decide to fight things. At least TES has some RPG elements to it, even if they are rather shallow.

I may be the only one but I honostly got a good 60 hours of enjoyment out of DA2. I really liked the game and a couple of the DLC's were really good too. I like Skyrim as well but if I had to vote for one or the other I'd pick DA2.

*flameshield

I have never seen that before while I feel Skyrim lacks certain things Dragon Age II just simply cannot compare to Skyrim.

I played the game and beat it for the story, but nothing more than that, that was one of the most butchered RPGs ever made, but hey to each his own.

Your flame shield will eventually run out of magicka.

The only thing that really bothered me was the recycled environments. DA2 actually was a big improvement on DA:O in a lot of ways. If they hadn't have rushed it so badly it would have been an absolute masterpiece. I'm hoping they take their time with DA3 and make absolutely epic!

DA2 isn't 100% terrible like a lot of Origin fans want to say (Include me in that catagory as I loved Origins) but DA2 wasn't perfect and made some big mistakes. It did some things really well but in other areas it was flat and I can't for the life of me understand a Voiced Protagonist, that mechanic kills RPG's quicker then a Dragon Shout Recharge rate.

That is a design decision to attract gamers who otherwise do not have the desire to imagine or role play a character. They were attempting to do the Mass Effect 'mainstream' style of RPG.

Elitism by any other name...

Speaking for myself, voiced protagonist was a draw for me in DA 2.

Well everyone has an opinion and some will like DA2 better than Skyrim. However numbers don't like and the fact that DA2 only sold 1.5 million copies and didn't even sell as much as DA:O while Skyrim has sold over 10 million copies and is Bethesda most successful game to date says lot about the games. Its no wonder Bioware is taking notes on Skyrims success.

In terms of an open world, large, sandbox RPG game in a fantasy setting there's no beating Skyrim [out of the "modern" / recent] releases. On the other hand if you want a story-driven element and don't mind being "on rails" then a Bioware game is more likely your cup of tea.

Note: I didn't care much for DA2 even though I'm more of a "story" guy than an "open world" guy. However Skyrim is still a much better game to me. YMMV.

Me too. I hate the age-old "silent protagonist who stumbles off a boat and becomes a god" cliche.

That was one of the things (and I'm not saying it was all good) that DA2 did well. Hawke had a personality, a family, and more specific and down to earth investments in the world.

Speaking of personalities, I think the diplomatic one svcks. Sarcastic and Aggressive are superior to it.. if people think the game was bland, they probably played a Diplomatic weeny.

Ok, so skyrim is great because it has a MASSIVE explorable world and lots of quests, adding to over 200 hours of play in my book.

DA2? Linear and only lasted around 20 hours.

But you know why I really liked DA2? It had what skyrim was missing out on, great Charicters, great grey-morality choices in the quests that actually effected the world, and it really provoked my emotions.

In the end, they were both great games. I just wished DA2 was a little more intreasting gameplay-wise.

Yeah, the fact that DA2 had some decent RPG mechanics doesn't make up for a sale difference at over 8 million units.

I don't think anyone's denying Skyrim's massive success. And probably a minority would say it's undeserved. I think a lot of people like it.. not just bought it.

But that doesn't mean DA2 was crap. It's not great, but damn.. there's no need to exagerrate and make it out to be some plague on the world of gaming. Or something. Whatever. People should tone down on the drama. It's stupid on other subjects, and it's stupid in gaming. Maybe if we're all a bunch of theatrical old grandmas at a bingo party just nagging about every little thing, and overblowing things just to make a point, it'd be fitting. But hopefully, we're not old grandmas. There are better ways to discuss things. At least, any person with a hint of self-respect and reason would want that.

Wait, DA2 had choiced that affected the world? I mean, other than x class = x sibling dies?
I have played through the game and made very different choices, but it always seemed like I ended up with the same result in the story. The Grand Chapel was destroyed etc. "Ah," you might say. "That is the same as the battle of Denerim, it would always happen no matter what you did." Well, too you observant people who would use this argument: The battle against the Archdemon was the goal of DA:O. However, the choices you made ans their long-lasting consequences are reflected upon at the end of the game, as well as altering what allies you get.
In DA2 it is simply get the gold for the trip by whatever menas without consequences, do stuff for the leader of the city by whatever means without consequences and try to stop the mage-templar war with no options for changing the outcome of the game. And along the way you kinda wonder: Why should I care about this?
Don't get me wrong, the game have some good ideas with a longlasting story, but it isn't very well executed.

And to you saying "Skyrim doesn't let you affect the world much either!": Neither did MW or OB or DF as far as I know and that wasn't a part of my argument on DA2s choices.

Varric,Merrill and Fenrir certainly helped me enjoy DA2 quite a bit. With a little Isabella thrown in. Aveline had her moments but the dialogue on those three was great.