Dragon Age 2

General discussions about PC games/gaming.
Armenius
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Armenius »

Guys im having problems running this on DX11 I get really bad artifacting after the cut scene black triangles on the terrain and major slowdown on DX9 it works fine im using a MSI 460GTX HAWK, with the latest Nvidia drivers

the crysis 2 Demo works really fine on me its just this one game I'm having a problem with its my first time actually I normally figure it out myself im stumped now with this one or do I need to get a patch?
Try the nVidia beta drivers (64-bit, 32-bit). In the release notes it says they improved compatibility with DA2 in DX11 mode, along with overall performance. I just love how the developer always comes out and says that it's the hardware's fault when their game performs poorly, instead of their shoddy programming.

Still, makes me wonder if the same thing would happen if he had a disc version, or the Steam version. The issue is it requires a login via EA Store or sommat, isn't it?
The game requires a log-in for use of the DLC because you need to register them with your EA account, but you don't have to be logged in to play the game. No account is required to install the game unless you have purchased it from EA's store.

I find the fact that with these account systems that the devs/pubs can ban you from playing a single player game. Banning from a MP portion for a time I can sort of understand... but banned from single player? Are EA trying to get me to boycott them along with Activision and Ubisoft? There won't be any publishers left I can buy games from at this rate! :oops:
I'm doing my best to try to not boycott EA because it is such a large company with so many developers under its roof. Activision was easy because of their laser-focus on only the franchises that make them money. Epic and Unreal Engine is going to be a little harder because so many games use the engine. Why are you boycotting Ubisoft, though? Is it because of their choice and implementation of DRM? By the way, on the topic of DRM, even though Bioware has widely advertised there is no third-party DRM in Dragon Age 2 I heard that they actually use everyone's favorite SecuROM... Of course the reason they lied was to avoid a pre-release backlash that happens so often when other developers announce what DRM they're using.
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Paradigm Shifter
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Paradigm Shifter »

Yes, the login is in-game. No matter what version you have, you must have an EA account to play. They changed their tune because the story was picked up by Slashdot and most major gaming publications as well as spreading over gaming forums like grey goo. 50,000+ thread views in under 24 hours is going to draw attention.

Conflicting information, here... if I buy it from EA Store, I need to login. OK, that would be an issue if banned.

But if I actually have to log in to play the game at all WITHOUT DLC, then I'm not going to touch it. That would be acceptable for a multiplayer game (obviously) but for single player?

Armenius says that the disc/Steam version doesn't need to be logged in to EA unless you're using DLC.

As for a boycott... frankly, the games I've enjoyed the most in recent months are Just Cause 2 (SquareEnix), and a host of little indie games. I've played a lot of BC2 and Civ5 recently because I'm 'in the mood' and have a bit of time ATM though.
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Paradigm Shifter
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Paradigm Shifter »

Oh, and this is a naughty-naughty too, EA:

Dragon Age 2 has SecuROM... (linked to Google cache as reclaimyourgame is down...)

edit: Read around a bit more on the subject; EA are in full damage control grovelling mode at the minute... but it does raise an interesting point: again, pirates won't experience issues of this nature. Ho hum. And EA needs to look at following a route similar to Steam, in that case: seperate forum and game accounts. That would mean a forum ban for rude people, without compromising their ability to play the things they have paid for. This "paid for a license we can revoke at any time with no warning" thing is getting dangerous.

Also makes me wonder whether at some point a dev/pub is going to do the head-in-the-sand trick about issues with a game, and start banning people who post reporting an issue regardless of whether they are rude or unfailingly polite.
Armenius
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Armenius »

So regarding SecuROM, a Bioware employee has been in active discussion with the community about it in this thread. He's basically saying that they didn't lie because it's not the same DRM that is highly publicized and hated by the community, but it's made by the same team... Not only that, but the installer software uses a SONY (?!) rootkit that timestamps installation attempts on their servers, meaning you not only have to go online once after it's installed, but a third party is watching what you're doing and when because it requires you be connected to the internet when installing the game.

That's what I take away from it, anyway.
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DaFox
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by DaFox »

And EA needs to look at following a route similar to Steam, in that case: seperate forum and game accounts. That would mean a forum ban for rude people, without compromising their ability to play the things they have paid for.


I actually prefer the account tied. As long as forum bans in no way could modify anything outside of the forum itself.

The merging of Forum and 'Game Service' accounts ends up creating much less forum spam and you only need a single login for both which is nice.
The steam forums are a complete cesspool as it is.
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Ryom
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Ryom »

There may be an offline mode, but I was under the impression you needed to activate the game with EAs servers before you could play the first time... necessitating being online at least once and having a working EA account. I could be wrong, but it speaks for itself that the common gamer has no idea anymore what is needed to do just to run a game.
Armenius
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Armenius »

You do have to be online the first time you run the game, but you don't need to sign into your EA account as far as I know. I didn't need to log into mine when running Origins the first time.
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Paradigm Shifter
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Paradigm Shifter »

Origins or DA2?

I know Origins works without talking to the outside world. Well, the main game and Awakening does. The DLC... no. :(

I've bought the damned Ultimate Edition, the DLC is on the DVD... why the hell do I have to have a sodding online account in TWO places to use it? Didn't have to for Oblivion or Fallout 3... bah, humbug, grumble...
yogibbear
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by yogibbear »

Are the Bioware forums not working for anyone else? Seems like no one has posted in the last 4 hrs on there....

Have they FROZEN their forums?????? :shock: I tried to post in the DRM thread and it wouldn't go through....
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Ryom
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Ryom »

It appears that way for me as well. Can't post, no updated threads for 5 hours or more. Bioware has some of the absolute worst forum software I've ever had the displeasure of using. It is absolutely riddled with bugs. Whomever wrote that piece of junk should never work in the field again. :twisted:

I read a thread on the forum not too long ago with a customer asking why the auto-attack function for consoles wasn't available after the devs stated repeatedly that it would be when it was brought up as a major repeated question from the player base. A dev responded that there was a mixup when they went gold and the "auto attack file" wasn't included on the master. Whoops :lol:
The_cranky_hermit
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by The_cranky_hermit »

A dev responded that there was a mixup when they went gold and the "auto attack file" wasn't included on the master.

I can pretty much promise you there is no such thing as an "auto attack file." And even if there was, forgetting to include files that provide functionality won't result in a game lacking said functionality. It would result in the game not working.
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Ryom
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Ryom »

Here is the relevant thread:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6395493&lf=8


From what I've been reading there is NO auto-attack option in Console DA2? Is this true? If so, why would BW lie?


OK: Here is the story.

Auto-attack option for consoles was added in to the games late in the development cycle after the initial certification build was sent. The auto-attack functionality was sent to be added to the game for testing and approval. This was why staff said it was in game.

Due to an error during mastering, the auto-attack file was omitted during manufacture.

We apologize for this. It was meant to be in game, but it is not currently in the console versions. We are working on how best to distribute this to console users. When we have information, we will let everyone know.
Armenius
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Armenius »

My understanding is that the auto-attack is in there; the menu option to enable it, however, was simply not included in the RTM.
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by The_cranky_hermit »

Then I'm presuming rather than "we forgot the auto-attack file," what they really mean is "we forgot to update the option menus."
Tanuki
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Tanuki »

What is the auto-attack exactly?

Is it where the selected character will still use tactics?
Armenius
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Armenius »

In the console versions you have to keep pressing the 'X' (PS3) or 'A' (X360) button to keep attacking, it's not like the PC where you click on an enemy and your character keeps attacking. That's why people kept calling it a button masher when the demo was released.
tpsky
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by tpsky »

I loved Origins, but early on the change in art style was disappointing but I was reserving final judgment until real reviews could circulate or I could try the game. I played the demo and have exactly zero interest in picking up Dragon Age 2 right away.
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Ryom
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Ryom »

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6522710&lf=8

Sharkey1337 wrote...

So I was curious at the sheer bipolar effect Dragon Age 2 has caused on this forum. Just how split was the community on the game? I made several polls and found some interesting results. Now granted I'm no professional statician, I'm a lab scientist, but I do understand the scientific method and realize my method isn't solid. HOWEVER, these numbers match up pretty well to each other and clearly matches the forum's enviroment from what I've seen. So let's take a look at some of these numbers.

My first poll was a simple Yay! or Nay! response on an overall opinion of Dragon Age 2. Out of a current number of 417 voters, 215 (52%) responded with Nay! while 202 (48%) responded with Yay! The community is perfectly split on their opinion of the game, 1:2 people either like it or hate it. Seems pretty consistent with the type of threads we've been seeing. poll link: social.bioware.com/956165/polls/16602/

Seeing such a split in opinions for DA2, I created a second Yay!/Nay! poll for Dragon Age: Origins. Only 172 responded on this one, however the smaller pool gives a pretty accurate picture. In terms of DAO, there were 148 (86%) Yays!, greatly outnumbering the 24 (14%) Nays! Makes sense as being a fan of the first game obviously means you're here on the DA2 forum for liking the series so far.
poll link: social.bioware.com/956165/polls/16646/

In seeing that 14% not liking DA:O I figured it was time to see opinions on both games in comparison to each other. Here I gave voters the option of choosing preferance to DAO, DA2, liking both equally, or disliking both. This is where it got rather interesting to me in some of the results. Out of 170 voters, 101 (59%) prefered DAO, 24 (14%) prefered DA2, 42 (25%) liked both games equally, and a whopping 3 (2%) disliked both games.
poll link: social.bioware.com/956165/polls/16696/

In conclusion these polls tell me several things:
[list=1][*]Only half the community likes DA2, a severe drop from the first game.[/*:m][*]Only a third of DAO fans actually like DA2.[/*:m][*]Those that disliked DAO seem to have been won over by DA2.[/*:m][*]2% of us are trolls, lol.[/*:m][/list:o]Overall, it's pretty clear that Bioware has a lot of feedback to listen to on DA2. They've accomplished in winning over people that didn't like DAO, however they disappointed twice that number of fans of the first game. Not exactly the progress I'm sure they were hoping to make.

So fellow community members, discuss!
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Ryom
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Ryom »

Highest rated Metacritic review by Bioware employee (with zero disclosure)
http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g3td7/dragon_age_2_conspiracy_highest_rated_metacritic/

Say what you will about the game, I'll admit that the release period has been interesting at the very least :P

Edit: and another... the Russian Bioware Social site is encouraging users to post 10's on metacritic to counteract the "flash mob" unfair low reviews.


What an odd launch :nudgenudge
Armenius
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Re: Dragon Age 2

Post by Armenius »

All reviews are subjective by their very nature, so how can user reviews be unfair? Are they unfair because they can't be bought with advertising dollars like the magazine and website publishers? That's where it seems their train of thought is running to.
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