In 15 hours I've has probably only two times where the camera was a problem because of a wall. Yes, the problem is there, but really it's not that big an issue for me.

The only bug I've seen in 15 hours was during combat last night Isabella got knocked behind a wall into a black space that I couldn't get her out of. I had to reload, but I save pretty often so it wasn't that big a deal.

I´m pretty sure floating numbers represent the final damage after calculations.
Even peons tend to have a lot more hit points than party members, which btw creates huge inconsistency when playing with FF - one fireball can obliterate a party member whereas it only scratches most of the enemies.

And bosses are yet another ballpark :).
Here I´ve used fully upgraded assassinate on brittled boss and look how relatively small portion of his HP pool the rather ridiculous damage took:
http://i52.tinypic.com/288qqs0.jpg

On what difficulty settings you´re playing though?
The camera becomes a huge issue when FF is active.

To me that is always an issue discussing games … because when something doesn't bother some people they feel the need to mark it as unnecessary and defend the developers. For example - Dungeon Lords was empty, Oblivion had a broken leveling system, Xenus II translations are abysmal, Gothic 3 load-times were heinous, etc, etc, etc …

But that simple statement "Yes, the problem is there, but really it's not that big an issue for me" really frames a different level o discourse.

Nothing is funnier than seeing someone trying to vent in broken English.

I'm not "defending the developer"

I really don't give a rat's ass who develops games. For some reason, that's a huge topic of interest around here.

I enjoy playing (some) games. DA2 is a game I enjoy playing even though it has problems. The camera is not a big problem for me in that it doesn't hinder my enjoyment of the time I spend playing the game. I do not play on Nightmare with FF. I have never, and probably never will play in any kind of Nightmare mode. I've been playing on Hard, and sometimes turn it down to Normal if I find a battle too frustrating.

For the life of me, I don't understand the obsession around here with the inside-baseball about developers and publishers and such. If I like to play a game I like the game, and I don't give a flying f*ck who developed or published it.

Edit- I do keep track of developers in that I have liked Bioware games in the past (some more, some less), and when I see they are releasing a new game I become interested. They released DA2 and I like it. It is not perfect, but I like to play it. Other than that, I don't bloody care who developed or published it.

That's just stupid.

But that's beside the point. A change in the camera would help, but only to a certain degree, with FF. Combat moves so fast that, unless you turned off party AI entirely, you'd still run the risk of blowing up your own while charging and casting a fireball. And if you're upset that the decision not to include FF breaks the realism of combat, how can you justify lobotomizing your companions in the middle of a fight?

Sorry - definitely not implying that you were doing that … and actually *no one* has been doing that here. I was actually praising the way you phrased it - you know a problem exists but it isn't something that bugs you. For me that tells a great story without being an apologist. Sorry if it came across otherwise.

No problem. I wasn't even angered by your comment.

I'm angered that so much discussion here ends up with people "siding with" or "being against" developers, which is so asinine it makes me somewhat embarrassed to be a CRPG enthusiast. Discuss the games, but having some agenda or gripe or anger or feeling of betrayal towards publishers or developers is so silly it should be taken back to grammar school and flogged until thoroughly dead.

Ahem.

I'm not really sure where you're seeing this…unless I missed some of the conversations, I haven't seen an excess (italicized because it has occurred) of debates about the game focusing solely on Bioware's involvement. Most of the conversations seem to analyze the game itself, with various reasons of why people like or dislike the game. If anything, I'd say that some of the people who do enjoy the game are the ones that are more likely to bring up the developer debate, dismissing any negativity as ignorant bias or "Bio-hate."

That's all your answer, lol, seems your pants are wet.

And you who found DA2 is such a crap at least about fights, how about ask yourself how some people can enjoy a lot the fights? No I don't think I'm an idiot, not that I have a superficial approach of fights, nor that I can't appreciate a tactical level.

I feel more that some players got exasperated by the abuse of waves and lost all their objectivity and ability of enjoyment about fights because of that. But that's giving too much importance to a single point.

For the tactical view, I don't remember you quoted how Drakensang tactical level was destroyed by the lack of tactical view. So I wonder if it's really a so objective point of view. I do agree for comfort but not for tactical level. DAO had a huge problem of no fog of war management with the tactical view and many spells going through walls.

For the developers defense, I'm bored to repeat I don't understand all this craziness about Bioware, NWN1 just a bit above my average, Kotor boring fights, ME1 boring shooter and crap SF writing. All have also noteworthy qualities but I don't care and no I won't spend hours to attack something I dislike, but it's different with something I like.

I used that tactic every time there was a door with mobs being it in DA:O. Otherwise I created a chockpoint using cone of cold and freezing the first wave of enemies. Thinking about it, my tactic was mostly "freeze the hell out of it". It doesn't work in DA2 though. :(

DA2 have been different so far. My Mage was a Force Mage and it's better to get in the room and have most of the mobs in a small area (yeah for Pull of the Abyss and Gravity Well), then you slaughter them with AOE from everybody.

My rogue is a different, it's more "pick a target and kill it".

You can create a shock point with a Gravitic Ring and using a short passage like a corridor or a door. I love this spell and it has many uses but I abuse of it and it's most probably one of the unbalanced spells of DA2.

Glyph of repulsion was also an excellent way to create a shock point and or blocking a passage. It seems work but a bit less well in DA2, perhaps more enemies get immune to it.

About special tactics in DAO, I regret the disappearing of the "Slippery" spell and Earthquake spell. With the DA2 great trick to make AOE effects start almost immediately and have the cast duration be after the effect start, they would have been even more fun in DA2 than in DAO. Perhaps with some tune down for balances.

Let enemy come is a tactic I abuse in both games but I feel it works less well in DA2 so end be much more fun and is efficient anyway. In DAO the enemy isolation was working too well too often (not always) ending in making this approach not that fun.

I don't have one tactic but many, depending of the enemies and area possibilities, and my current mood. But the more exciting is the tension and expectation rising for the replay to come, because I can't wait try more different build and mixes, but don't want abuse of respec and like stick to a party, at least for first play.

Well, the game does not allow a first person view. The view point floats nearby the selected character, kind of third person view.

A character being selected and getting into a third person view is not realistic from the start.

As soon as this is accepted, the question should be about practicability, not realism. Asking for realism after admitting this choice is back pedalling.

An efficient tactical view would have helped. Added to that, you can pause the battle, you can track your enemies/parties on a mini-map.

The game was rushed, but it just makes it a flawed gem. Its not defending the developer, goodness knows I have problems with ALL game developers, namely EA and Activision but I can look objectively at games, which is something alot of gamers are incapable of, they get too caught up with buzz words like "streamlined" and "hardcore" or caught up in politics of which hated company made this or that.

Its really a shame how so many good games get underrated like Alpha Protocol or overhyped like Halo crap all because people spend too much time nerd raging or playing fanboy then trying to see a game for what it is.

There does seem to be an emotional attachment / hate that gets in the way of objective evaluations.

There are some people here who can't even admit that a game that always destroys your hard drive, can't be called objectively bad. But I think that's a special case. ;)

I stated my views on the game and Bioware in general many times. The game is a disappointment to me. I loved Alpha Protocol and its sad that people wanted a game like Mass Effect but instead got a rpg.

If you can hate on a game but give good reasons, thats what I consider a opinion worthy of respect, after all everyone has different tastes but I was mainly directing my comment to people who just straight up hate on DA2 and the only criticism they can offer is "its different then DA 1" or "Its a abomination to all RPGs and only dumbs down the world".

I really just cant respect those opinions because its not an opinion its pure rare emotion which reaks of someone turning on the game for 5 minutes and getting upset because isometric view is gone or they changed a animation from DA 1 or something and just quit and go on to say the game is the worst ever all over the internet.