Dragon Age II

[Rook]

http://bacon.modacity.net/img/images/dragonageiilogo.png


Experience the epic sequel to the 2009 Game of the Year from the critically acclaimed makers of Dragon Age: Origins and Mass Effect 2. You are one of the few who escaped the destruction of your home. Now, forced to fight for survival in an ever-changing world, you must gather the deadliest of allies, amass fame and fortune, and seal your place in history. This is the story of how the world changed forever. The legend of your Rise to Power begins now.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlACgYHtWCI

Release Date - March 11, 2011

Purchase
http://eastore.ea.com/DRHM/store?Action=DisplayProductDetailsPage&SiteID=ea&Locale=en_US&Env=BASE&productID=201797000
http://store.steampowered.com/app/47900/

System Requirements
Minimum:
OS: Windows XP with SP3; Windows Vista with SP2; Windows 7
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater; AMD Athlon 64 X2 (or equivalent) running at 1.8 GHz or greater
Memory: 1024 MB (1536 MB Vista and Windows 7)
Hard Disk Space: 7GB
Video: Radeon HD 2600 Pro 256MB and the NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB cards
Sound: Direct X 9.0c Compatible Sound Card Windows Experience Index: 4.5

Recommended:
OS: Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz Processor or equivalent; AMD Phenom II X3 Triple core 2.8GHz or Equivalent
Memory: 2Gb (4 GB Vista and Windows 7)
Video: ATI 3850 512MB or Greater; NVIDIA 8800GTS 512MB or Greater; DirectX 11: ATI 5850 or Greater; NVIDIA 460 or Greater

As excited about this game as I am it's not $60 worth of excitement seeing as they'll be DLC not too long after release plus a highly probable expansion. Still betting on it to be a damn good game just give it a bit for the price drop.

[ejburke]

DLC kind of screws up the whole "waiting for a price drop" plan for me. Because if I'm not interested enough to get the game immediately, I'll usually wait for the GOTY/Ultimate edition to arrive, so I don't have to drop another wad of cash to catch up on DLC if I happen to enjoy the game. So I find myself stuck waiting for the new SKU to arrive and then for THAT price to drop.

Fortunately, DA2 is an instant buy for me, so I don't have to go through another Borderlands scenario where I'm STILL waiting to play it. I've had the Signature Edition pre-ordered since they announced it.

[Warsaw]

What would be nice is if they offered up an SKU that cost more than the regular game but gave you free access to the full range of DLC as they are released.

[ejburke]

Reminds me of Star Trek Online offering a "lifetime pass" early-bird SKU for $600 and then later in the year rumors surfaced that they were switching to a free-to-play model. Hilarious.

I think BioWare likes being able to do DLC when and how they want. If people pre-bought DLC, they would be under pressure to keep a schedule with that stuff that may favor quantity over quality. Not that the quality of the DAO DLC was beyond reproach (blech, Witch Hunt), but I think it would be worse if they had DLC "subscribers" to answer to. Chances are, somebody is probably going to do that, though.

[Warsaw]

They could tier it. Honestly, I wouldn't mind $70 up front to get the game plus the first two DLCs, whenever they come out. I mean, there are usually at least two DLC packs for a given BioWare game.

[Rook]

The biggest problem is paying for DLC at all. I understand paying for good expansions that can have 20+ hours of game play, (Dragon Age: Awakening) but when they release all these piddly DLC that add up to the cost of the game itself it seems they should just give those to you.

As for discussion the core game of DAII, seems like Bioware should have stuck with a non voiced main like the first game. Comparing to ME2 voiced style you have more dialogue options with a silent character along with the choice of race and so on.

[Warsaw]

Eh, I don't really like silent protagonists, but that's a personal preference. As for the DLC phenomenon, you can thank Microsoft for that. I agree with you, but I think that model is all but dead. However, if they are going to do that, don't charge me $60 for the damn game, put it back at $50.