Dragon Age 2 - Demo Released

Dhruin

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As promised, the Dragon Age 2 demo has been released. Head to the demo page at BioWare for the 1.88Gb file in English (with Spanish, Italian, Polish or Russian subtitles), German or French.
You'll need to login to your EA account while playing to claim the two in-game items.
If you want to use a different mirror, here's a list from Blue's:
X360 and PS3 users should be able to get thedemo from their respective services.
And a reminder of what's on offer:
In the demo, players will venture through the game's prologue, choosing from three different character classes. They'll also learn more about Hawke and hone their skills and abilities that will make them the ultimate hero. After finishing the prologue, players will enter a key new location in the world of Dragon Age, Kirkwall, befriending Isabela, a romantic interest in the game who is also a deadly smuggler. Upon completion of the demo, players will unlock a special weapon, Hayder's Razor, an ancient dwarven blade which increases health, mana, and combat abilities, in the full release of Dragon Age 2.
More information.
 
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I just finished the PC version and found it to be completely underwhelming. The writing is bad, the voice acting isn't the best, combat looks ridiculous, the GUI is terrible, and it's full of technical annoyances (graphics glitches, sluggish loading between combat and cut scenes).
 
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Just as i thought ,the game is for little boys that want to see big boobs.Dead enemies disappear,plays like a beatem up, the menu is terrible, bad acting, typical bioware writing .
 
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I'm also really tired of BioWare level & encounter design -- it all feels so artificial.
 
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I agree the encounter design feels artificial and I did have some surprising, though minor, issues (character getting stuck, they still don't always respond to attack commands) but I found nothing wrong with the voice acting. It didn't play like a beat-em-up to me, though the over-the-top speed was slightly uncomfortable.

I'll have to play it again to decide - I feel they've spent energy in the wrong places but it isn't the anti-christ some of you make out.
 
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1.9gb download for 30mins gameplay. Oh well - my impressions:

1) Guild wars

2) Bad voice acting

3) Demo had a fair amount of what looked like stand-in footage, quality in the final game should hopefully be a bit better.

4) Game performance is very good, cities look quite a bit nicer than DA:O

5) Guild wars.
 
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Most of those links are pretty slow right now. For what it's worth, AtomicGamer was much faster than any of the others, at least for me.
 
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Most of those links are pretty slow right now. For what it's worth, AtomicGamer was much faster than any of the others, at least for me.
For me the EA site is from far the faster, but perhaps it's because I'm not downloading the English version. I feel cool there's the local version for my country, I hope this time my country will get a box collector edition. With DAO we never got neither the collector nor the ultimate and this last one not even digital, I hope this won't be the same garbage.
 
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I agree the encounter design feels artificial and I did have some surprising, though minor, issues (character getting stuck, they still don't always respond to attack commands) but I found nothing wrong with the voice acting. It didn't play like a beat-em-up to me, though the over-the-top speed was slightly uncomfortable.

I'll have to play it again to decide - I feel they've spent energy in the wrong places but it isn't the anti-christ some of you make out.

Is the speed over the top for all classes? I only tried out the rogue where it didn't seem entirely out of place, although I could have done with less leaping around. I like some of the abilities I got to use, the related animations not so much.
 
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OMG, can it be that bad?
I'll wait for The witcher2, no way I play this kid's stuff.
 
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Oct 11, 2007
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oh dear this was seriously bad. I thought people were a little harsh on the first one and was really, really looking forward to this. I've just cancelled my pre-order after playing through the demo. Its just a boring, endless stream of combat :(
 
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Good thing - combat is as strategic as in DA:O

Bad - Everything else ...

Too much pointless fodder combat , linear maps with no exploration , Boring dialogue , boring graphics , new art direction sucks , and just a stream of fodder combat sequences after another ...
 
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And yet I'm sure gaming sites will be giving this the obligatory 90% plus scores. (RPG of the decade!)
 
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Too much pointless fodder combat , linear maps with no exploration , Boring dialogue , boring graphics , new art direction sucks , and just a stream of fodder combat sequences after another …

I haven't played the demo, but couldn't it be that the demo is simply showcasing the combat since combat is a major gameplay feature of the Dragon Age games?
 
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Ah well, pre-order for signature edition cancelled… that really was a hugely disappointing demo - all mindless combat with everyone looking like they're jacked up on speed.

I think it's one to wait for the innevitable special edition with all DLC once it hits the bargain bins.
 
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Honestly were any of you going to give it a fair shake? After all, it is not made in Europe....
 
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I haven't played the demo, but couldn't it be that the demo is simply showcasing the combat since combat is a major gameplay feature of the Dragon Age games?

Yes, it's impossible to tell how representative this is of the final game - though I found the linear areas and fodder combat little different to most other BioWare games. Somehow everyone loved it in KotOR but they notice it in this.

Either way, you can't blame people for reacting to what the demo shows them. It is all combat, so it's natural to assume that's what you're going to get.

I've decided the speed of things has a detrimental impact on trying to play tactically - I just can't keep good track of things in the chaos. I think I'll play it on Normal as a hack'n'slasher rather than turn the difficulty up and play it like the original. That's a shame, but I can enjoy an action game if the story and quests hang together.
 
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Does trolling really improve things? If you enjoyed the demo, say so! Help balance the ledger, if it needs it.

Give me a minute it's still downloading....and no matter what half these guys had their mind made up before playing, it is the way this site is heading. Unfortunately.
 
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Give me a minute it's still downloading….and no matter what half these guys had their mind made up before playing, it is the way this site is heading. Unfortunately.

yeah because a few members on this site dislike it means its really down the cesspit

r00fles!

..is it worth downloading, watchers? how long did it take? (the download)
 
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