Dragon Age 2, SDCC Day 2.
So I played the demo at Comic-con. Massive, massive spoilers ahead.
All right.
So they're going the Shepard route this time - your character is (most likely) a human with the last name of Hawke. Your family survived Lothering and fled to the Free Marches, in Kirkwall(?), where you grew up with your sister, Bethany, a mage. Why a mage is not in a tower, I don't know. Also, this looks bad for those who like elves and dwarves - your sister is definitely a human, there are no dwarven settlements in the Free Marches, and elves are, well, elves.
They finally answered a question that had probably been satisfied elsewhere (I just didn't know it, haha), that Dragon Age: Origins took place over two years. The new game will take place over the course of the decade.
They said they changed the art direction, and it does look better - but not as substantially different as I thought it would be. Bethany looks terribly bland, although the basic Hawke did look rather neat. Hopefully this will change between the demo and the game release.
Everything else looks cooler though. The action has been changed to be more responsive, and the moves are definitely cooler. And the mages get a finishing move, which is freaking awesome. I saw an ogre get ripped apart by magic! What's not to love.
The story methods are also changing. They've gone from a long narrative to a framed narrative, with a sister from the Chantry named Cassandra interrogating a dwarf, forget the name, who was evidently one of your companions, about you exploits. Apparently, the Chantry is in some deep shit, and the country is on the brink of war. Just like a typical Tuesday. This bothered me somewhat, since, well, it seems kind of important, and they just gave it away. But it also a creates an interesting system, since the narrator (the dwarf) is prone to exaggeration and possibly unreliable (Scantily Clad Flemeth makes an appearance, both in Dragon and Human form). This makes for some awesome fighting scenes, since the narrator is exaggerating their exploits. It certainly explains some of the power action moves!
Anyhow, the narrators are telling your story, as the Champion, throughout a very long period of time, where your gameplay informs the narration. Pretty interesting, but I don't know how it will play out.
Since this starts in the Free Marches, I don't know how many of our favorite Fereldens will return. This actually pleases me, since I thought that the character arcs from the original game were more or less complete, and that a continuation game would ruin the growth that the characters had already gone through. If they don't show up, it can't be ruined! Yay! But likely my hopes will be dashed, since Gaider's in love with Alistair, haha.
Oh, and your PC will talk. And it uses a far improved version of the Mass Effect dialogue system. So no shooting people in the face when you just want to calm them down.
There's also a new, really really hard DLC coming out for DAO. I don't even remember the name. But the easy setting plays like difficult. Everyone died withing ten minutes. It was crazy. It's supposed to be a dungeon crawl for those who want something ridiculous.
Every time I come to SDCC (I think this is my fourth time!) I remember how much I love it, despite all the crazy, crazy lines. Although I did not love it so much when I couldn't get into two of the panels I wanted to today. It seems that the video game writing panel was mislabeled as solely a Fallout 3 Panel, when it was an Obsidian writer's panel that used Fallout 3 as one of the examples in writing for a franchise. Boo. Also I have yet to get my hands on a Pacman lanyard. Damn you Bandai-Namco!
Unlocked just 'cause.
All right.
So they're going the Shepard route this time - your character is (most likely) a human with the last name of Hawke. Your family survived Lothering and fled to the Free Marches, in Kirkwall(?), where you grew up with your sister, Bethany, a mage. Why a mage is not in a tower, I don't know. Also, this looks bad for those who like elves and dwarves - your sister is definitely a human, there are no dwarven settlements in the Free Marches, and elves are, well, elves.
They finally answered a question that had probably been satisfied elsewhere (I just didn't know it, haha), that Dragon Age: Origins took place over two years. The new game will take place over the course of the decade.
They said they changed the art direction, and it does look better - but not as substantially different as I thought it would be. Bethany looks terribly bland, although the basic Hawke did look rather neat. Hopefully this will change between the demo and the game release.
Everything else looks cooler though. The action has been changed to be more responsive, and the moves are definitely cooler. And the mages get a finishing move, which is freaking awesome. I saw an ogre get ripped apart by magic! What's not to love.
The story methods are also changing. They've gone from a long narrative to a framed narrative, with a sister from the Chantry named Cassandra interrogating a dwarf, forget the name, who was evidently one of your companions, about you exploits. Apparently, the Chantry is in some deep shit, and the country is on the brink of war. Just like a typical Tuesday. This bothered me somewhat, since, well, it seems kind of important, and they just gave it away. But it also a creates an interesting system, since the narrator (the dwarf) is prone to exaggeration and possibly unreliable (Scantily Clad Flemeth makes an appearance, both in Dragon and Human form). This makes for some awesome fighting scenes, since the narrator is exaggerating their exploits. It certainly explains some of the power action moves!
Anyhow, the narrators are telling your story, as the Champion, throughout a very long period of time, where your gameplay informs the narration. Pretty interesting, but I don't know how it will play out.
Since this starts in the Free Marches, I don't know how many of our favorite Fereldens will return. This actually pleases me, since I thought that the character arcs from the original game were more or less complete, and that a continuation game would ruin the growth that the characters had already gone through. If they don't show up, it can't be ruined! Yay! But likely my hopes will be dashed, since Gaider's in love with Alistair, haha.
Oh, and your PC will talk. And it uses a far improved version of the Mass Effect dialogue system. So no shooting people in the face when you just want to calm them down.
There's also a new, really really hard DLC coming out for DAO. I don't even remember the name. But the easy setting plays like difficult. Everyone died withing ten minutes. It was crazy. It's supposed to be a dungeon crawl for those who want something ridiculous.
Every time I come to SDCC (I think this is my fourth time!) I remember how much I love it, despite all the crazy, crazy lines. Although I did not love it so much when I couldn't get into two of the panels I wanted to today. It seems that the video game writing panel was mislabeled as solely a Fallout 3 Panel, when it was an Obsidian writer's panel that used Fallout 3 as one of the examples in writing for a franchise. Boo. Also I have yet to get my hands on a Pacman lanyard. Damn you Bandai-Namco!
Unlocked just 'cause.