Weak! Sorry about all your troubles, Eddie. The game is supposed to arrive in the mail today, and I'm concerned now that I've heard your tales of woe. I checked out the Bioware forum for PS3 tech support, and there's just a laundry list of problems that people have been experiencing. I will say, though, that Bioware has a good record for solving technical problems speedily, at least in my book. So I expect that they'll get things sorted out soon, though patches have to be approved by Sony before being released, which dramatically slows their release. Still, I'm pissed that studios are so lazy that they sometimes push crap out the door these days, relying on the patching system to cover for inadaquate beta testing. Some people don't have internet connections, and moreover no one wants to stick a bugged $60 drink coaster in the drive.

Eddie said:

You don't recall an entire month where DA:O was unplayable for many PS3 owners waiting on a patch?

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Yeah, you're absolutely right. I had forgotten that, as I'd beaten the game by the time that happened, so the bug didn't affect me. But y'know, as I recall, that wasn't entirely Bioware's fault, except perhaps for the tardiness of their fix. Sony's FW update broke the game, and it may, in fact, have been the update that killed OtherOS in Sony's knee-jerk Geohot panic. That must have been an update that made some pretty profound low-level changes to the system. Anyway, the game had worked fine out of the box.

Oh, and you're talk of dumbing down the game is making me sad, too. Some of the reviews allude to this fact, but don't really expand on it (they say things like you can't change companions' armour). So it's nice to hear your perspectie on it, if depressing. Also reviewers say the game clocks in at 30 hrs. WTF? I spent 60+ hours on DAO. People in the fora were already griping about the possibility of a shorter game when Bioware announced that the PC version would require a 6 Gb install, compared to something like a 15 Gb install for the original DAO.

I haven't seen any glitches yet. The image kind of "stutters" right before entering combat and right before cut scenes. But we had that same problem in DA:O. I've heard of the infinite XP/Gold bug. I don't plan on taking advantage of this bug because I know it will ruin my gaming experience. I'm also fairly certain that enemies scale to your level so you can only really take advantage of the infinite Gold. Here is a video, just in case you're curious and you feel like wasting 60$ in exchange for console currency! :P

 

 

It is user friendly! And that's awesome because the DA:O menus were ugly and awkward imo.

 

The dialogue options are VERY similar to those of ME2. Which is an improvement (imo) over DA:O's seemingly never ending dialogue options. But it's hard to tell if the choices you make impact the game. It either doesn't at all or I'm going to have to play it through a second time as an evil mofo just to see the differences. My character atm is super good guy hero who is occassionally firm and occassionally makes the smart as$ comment. Hard to tell if I would of made different choices, what the impact would of been.

 

No gifts? Why! I loved that too! >< It looks like a few characters will only really like me later in the game. This loyalty opens up certain abilities for your companions.

 

I love having the Mabari, I named him Bronx, after my dead dog. I know, I know… I'm cliche! But I wish the game took into account the extra damage that he provides and upped the difficulty of enemy encounters. Not sure if it does… But with Bronx by my side combat does seem easier.

 

It's worth noting that you can speak to your party members but you have to do so in their "home base".

 

No changing your companions armor? Wtf lol… I agree that DA:O had a pain in the ass inventory system. They could of fixed it or modified it. Less upgardes/drops in general. Maybe less armor slots. Something else besides completely removing gearing your companions. At first I didn't even catch it… But then I saw that almost every item specifies that it's restricted to Markus Hawke -.-

 

The game has been modified a bit, so that the casual gamer can get into it (in particular combat and story). Here are some comparisons from DA:O and DA2:

 

Dragon Age: Origins
1,000,000 Words
1,000 Cinematics
1,000 Characters
56,000 Spoken Lines
60 Hours of Gameplay

Dragon Age II
400,000 Words
2,500 Cinematics
500 Characters
38,000 Spoken Lines
40 Hours of Gameplay

 

Were they trying to improve on the game or trying to cash in on DA:O's success? Hard to say. It just seems like it slim pickings for RPG fans. I want to play my RPGs on a big screen and not only on my portable devices! 20 less hours of game play makes me a sad panda but I'm still enjoying the game. I think about the game a lot and I can't seem to put it down lol… So I guess I'm enjoying it. No full, open world maps to explore; sucks. I often find myself yearning for combat!! I want to fight! I wish I could cast my AoEs even when I'm not in combat. The first year of my characters life… I didn't even get to play! /ed lover voice C'mon son!

 

And now, I'm off to play!