Champ's back

Dragon Age II used to be among BioWare's most derided RPGs. Derided is a strong word for? what was really just a divisive game. Some people loved it, but others felt it ski?mped on the expansive RPG elements that the developer excelled at.

It's funny how time has taken the heat off Dragon Age II. Now when talking about BioWare's greatest shortcomings, this game is no longer in the conversation. Instead, Mass Effect Andromeda and Mass Effect 3 dominate the topic. Dragon Age II is probably pretty okay by comparison! Maybe it doesn't reach the ?heights that BioWare titles are capable of, but it's far from rock bottom.

Today brings a new and simple opportunity to revisit Dragon Age II. It's the latest entry in Xbox One's ever-growing list of backward compatible titles. For anyone looking to play the trilogy in one place, this means the first two games are now both backward compatible (and Dragon Age: Inquisition originally launched on current-gen platform??s).

To commemorate the occasion, BioWare put togethe?r this dance party in re?verse:

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The Dragon Age is pretty damn long

Depending on who you ask, Dragon Age is either one of the best RPG franchises to come out of BioWare in a long time or a lot of failed potential from a once great company. While I never personally cared for the series, I do admire how the PC version of the first game can be played exclusively like Icewind Dale or Baldur's Gate from an overhead viewpoint, which is really old-sch??ool. I just wish the rest of the series reveled in that attention to detail, since the games are mostly a hodge-podge of action elements with lite-RPG systems.

If you're big into the series though, you'll be happy to know that BioWare has plans for a theoretical Dragon Age 4 and 5! Mike Laidlaw, the senior cr??eative director for BioWare, to??ld a fan on Twitter that his team has a plan for the series that involves being two games ahead.

As you can see, it looks like Dragon Age won't be ending anytime soon. It has been roughly three years since the release of Inquisition, though, so maybe Laidlaw is hinting at a new sequel being in the works. Even if he ??isn't, fans won't h??ave to worry about the series ever randomly ending only to be revived with a half-baked interquel.

BioWare has already plotted out "theoretical" Dragon Age 4 and 5 [Eurogamer]

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Coincidentally, so am I! It seems as if only yesterday Bioware was pandering to fans, promising Varric DLC, Flemeth DLC, Leliana DLC, and Morrigan DLC. Well, as of this week, EA's RPG sweatshop has stated that they're completely done with Dragon Age II -- no DLC, support, or expansions. I know people who bought DAII because of the promises of Varric DLC, so no doubt some of you out there are disappointed. Considering it was already outed that the game was rushed, this doesn't bode well for the franchise as a whole, despite the fact that they're seemingly already moving to the next cash cow -- which may or may not be Dragon Age III.

As everyone probably knows, Dragon Age II, while functioning as a servicecable shallow action RPG, had a ton of mechanical and design issues, most notably the constant reusal of assets and dungeons. When Bioware promised new DLC, fans gave a sigh of relief, thinking that maybe future content would solve a few fundamental issues with the game. We ended up getting one lackluster sidestory and a vehicle for the wooden Felicia Day. Has someone made a mod that ports most of Origins into Dragon Age II yet?

Mark Darrah on the conclusion of Dragon Age II [Bioware]

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_{[As originally posted on Japanator]}

It's been a while since we last heard of Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, the anime spin-off of Bioware's fantasy RPG. Dragonagemovie.com has been updated, and we now know that Bioware and EA's collaboration with FUNimation is coming in Spring 2012. Fumihiko Sori (Vexille) is directing the project, and studio Oxybot is taking care of animation duties. A??nd my, what horrible animation it is. It looks quite poor, with objects?? having no weight at all.

Maybe the story will make up for it? Dawn of the Seeker tells the story of Cassandra, an Orlesian Seeker who is framed while attempting to sa??ve the Chantry of Andraste from a dangerous conspiracy. Cassandra must clear her name and "overcome her raging emotions" to save the day. I can almost see Bioware finishing their synopsis with, "Women, am I right?"

VIDEO: Dragon Age Anime Production Update [Crunchyroll]

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Electronic Arts sent over a couple of images to remind us that we can pick up the Dragon Age II expansion content "Mark of the Assassin" this week ??across all platforms. This is the adventure that Felicia Day wrote and stars in with her elvish assassin character, Tallis. Wouldn't be surprised to discover ther??e's a revelation in there where Tallis is actually quite sensitive and insecure, but I'm just spitballing here.

I do think it's telling that my lovely fiancee is lying in bed complaining of a sore throat the very same day that this expansion content first becomes available. It's almos??t as if she planned it.

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Fans of Dragon Age II (me) and superfluous DLC (also, sadly, me) will have another reason to revisit Kirkwall on October 11. BioWare's latest addition to Hawke's adventures, Mark of the Assassin, will team the hero up with elven assassin, Tallis, as they attempt to steal an ancient relic from an Orlesian nobleman's fortified estate. The DLC?? will flesh out the Orlesians and Qunari and adds new environments, foes and gear

While that sounds horribly generic, Hawke's new companion, Tallis, sounds a tad more interesting. She has her own unique fighting style which is somewhere between Varric's and Isabella's, so expect plenty of ranged skills as well as some up close and personal brutality. The Guild writer and star, Felicia Day, will be providing the voice and look of the assassin as it's the character she portrays in the Dragon Age web series, Dragon Age: Redemption.

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Electronic Arts has responded to Destructoid concerning the removal of Dragon Age II from Steam, claiming that this was not a choice the publisher made, but rather the r?esult of some recent p??olicy shenanigans triggered by Steam itself. 

"At EA??, we offer our games and content to all major download services including GameStop, Amazon, Direct2Drive and Steam," said David DeMartini, SVP of Global E-Commerce for EA. "Unfortunately, Steam has adopted a set of restrictive terms of service which limit how developers inter??act with customers to sell downloadable content. No other download service has adopted this practice. Consequently some of our games have been removed by Steam. 

"We hope to work out an agreement to keep our games on Steam?."

So there you go. EA says that this is Steam's fault, and wants Dragon Age II back. The plot, she has thickened!

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_{[As originally posted on Japanator]}

A little over a year ago, FUNimation announced a Dragon Age anime? project,?? a surprising move for a company that normally focuses on translation and localization. Since then, we haven't heard much, and here's why: the project has been pushed back to 2012. At least FUNimation has released a little more info about it though!

Officially titled Dragon Age: Dawn of the Seeker, the anime will feature a girl with three swords and, most likely, a dragon. You can check out some trailers of what's in progress so far, as well as the first concept art image. For a picture, it looks good! Now to?? wait on a synopsis.

Dragon Age ??anime called 'Dawn of the Seeker,' pushed to 2012 [Joystiq]

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On the day its "Legacy" downloadable content was supposed to be released, Dragon Age II has disappeared from Valve's Steam service.

With the recent launch of EA's own digital distribution service, Origin, there's been an air of tension between the mega-publisher and the Kirkland, Washington-based Valve. Electronic Arts has already confirmed that its upcoming first-person shooter, Battlefield 3, would not be available for download on Steam. In June, the EA-published Crysis 2 went missing from the service, with the publisher later claiming the move was Valve's, due to a violation of St??eam's terms of service.

For what it's worth, our sources indicate that the game being pulled may be directly connected to the availability of the "Legacy" downloadable content. EA was offering the content by way of an in-game store, which may be a violati?on of the latest version of Steam's terms of service. If this is the case, EA and BioWare would have had to re-write parts of the game software just for Steam, simply to conform with Valve's standards. It's possible that EA's refusal to do so may have led to Valve yanking the title entirely??.

We've reached out to both Valve and Electronic Arts to get the official word on what's going on with the disappearance of BioWare's role-playing game.

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BioWare and Electronic Arts have announced that the first major story-based add-on content for Dragon Age II, "Legacy," will be hitting on July 26.

The add-on will feature new areas (??including underground areas as you explore an ancient Grey Warden prison), new creatures and Darkspawn, and more. BioWare says its taken fan and critic feedback to heart, and "Legacy" will feature more tactic-based gameplay than the standalone game.

"Legacy" will be avail??able for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, and Mac.

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New DLC for Dragon Age II is supposed to be announced during Comic Con, according to the game's Twitter account. However, the achievements for the upcoming Legacy DLC have already been listed on Xbox360Achievements.org.

While they don't tel?l us that much, they do provide a pretty good idea of what we'll be doing in Legacy. Check out the achievements below, unless you want to remain absolutely spoile?r-free.

• Conductor: Defeat an ancient evil in the Vimmark Mountains - 30 GS
• Deep Roads Safari: Kill a genlock, genlock alpha, hurlock alpha, bronto, and deepstalker in the Vimmark Mountains - 15 GS
• Family Legacy: Apply three effects to Hawke's Key - 30 GS
• Family Outing: Complete the main quest in the Vimmark Mountains with Bethany or Carver in the party - 15 GS
• Tower Sweeper: Complete every side quest in the Vimmark Mountains prison tower - 30 GS

It looks like Hawke will be making a trip to the Vimmark Mountains again, and possibly to the Deep Roads below them. Family Outing's requirement to have your brother or sister in the party might be a problem for some if you already finished it, depending on how you played Dragon Age II.

Dragon Age 2 Achievements [Xbox360Achievements via Eurogamer]

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TOR books has announced that they will be publishing a third novel based on the fantasy RPG series, Dragon Age. Like the novels preceding it, Dragon Age: Asunder will be penned by BioWare Senior Writer David Gaider. The story will take place following the events of Dragon Age II an??d follow a mage seeking to prove himself innocent of a murder within his order. The book is currently planned for release late in 2011.

I've never read much in the way of novels based in the worlds of videogames. I did read a fair few Shadowrun novels back in the day, however, and always assumed that they were much the same in that there were a few diamonds in the rough but most were largely disposable. BioWare has a good track record for engaging stories, so it could be a decent read. Did anybody read the? previous novels?

The post A new Dragon Age novel approaches appeared first on Destructoid.

Marian Hawke -- refugee of Lothering, Champion of Kirkwall -- is a ??liar, a thief, and a murderer, a political sellsword for the powerbrokers of the Free Marches. Most Kirkwallers assume she is a lesbian after a brief affair with Isabella, a Rivaini pirate, but they do not know that she tried (and failed) to seduce a Tevinter slave elf named Fenris. As a rogue, Hawke's particularly gruesome specialty is stabbing enemies in the back so hard they explode.

While Marian Hawke's body count is staggering, she is decidedly non-violent when circumstances allow it, which is unfortunately rare. And despite her sordid (and rightfully deserved) reputation?, she has something of moral code, however flimsy -- she doesn't tolerate slavery and is sympathetic to mages.

She is also a compulsive hoarder, stashing away rare and valuable weapons and armor like a bloodthirsty magpie. In normal circumstances, she would lend this equipment to her colorful friends -- a dwarven bus??inessman, the captain of the City Guard, several apostate mages and maleficar -- but they choose not to accept her generosi??ty.

This is Marian Hawke, the sultry protagonist of my playthrough of BioWare's Dragon Age II.

Dragon Age II (Xbox 360 [reviewed], PlayStation 3, PC)
Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Released: March 8, 2011
MSRP: $59.99

Hawke-as-political-assassin is a fun role to play, undoubtedly, but Dragon Age II's scope is narrow -- without a Blig??ht from which Thedas needs saving, Ha?wke needs an excuse to kill people and professional ne'er-do-well is as good a choice as any. 

Given its frame narrative -- you play the story as told by Varric, a dwarven merchant being interrogated by a Chantry seeker -- DAII seems obsessed with player choice even while it stifles it at most major plot points. The dialogue in the game is notably heavy on phrases like, “I don’t really have a choice, do I?” -- a fourth-wall-breaking question for any game protagonist. There’s the temptation to interpret Hawke’s trials as one version of events that no one in Thedas seems clear on, to imagine that there is an externally “true” version of Hawke that may or may have done the things I did, but Dragon Age II never feels cheap or disingenuous. Abrupt and unfocused are better adjectives, but I n?ever felt like I’d been lied to or manipulated.

And despite the frame narrativ?e and the premise -- Hawke’s mysterious rise to power -- she is rarely the agent of change in Kirkwall. She is simply in the right place at the right time and knows how to stab people until they explode, a useful skill in a ??town beset by religious fanaticism, terrorism, minority oppression, poverty, racism, and xenophobia. Lead writer David Gaider treats his subjects with the respect they deserve, giving Hawke the freedom to be as hard-nosed or relativistic as she needs, a useful outlet for my own helpless liberalism.

While Gaider tips his hand in a few situations, Hawke is generally free to make her own choices, most often in response to -- as opposed to as the agent of -- change in her city. But because she doesn’t drive the narrative forward, the player is left to fill in her motivations. In Origins, finding a reason to act was easy -- because if you didn’t, everyone would die -- but DAII demands a more actively e?ngaged role-player, and the payoff is generous indeed.

Hawke’s companions have their own lives and motivations and generally act independently of our hero. Each companion is relatively well-drawn, and Hawke is often left with the unenviable task of picking up the pieces and protecting her friends from their foibles and pitfalls. The companion quests are by far the most engaging of the game, in terms of both quest structure and their contribution to that character’s growth or the overall narrative. Merrill’s is particularly harrowing, the result of which is an act that, more than any other in Dragon Age II, will define my experience with it; Aveline’s, on the other hand, is heart-warmi?ng in equal measure.

It is unfortunate, then, that the game doesn’t allow for more interaction. The extensive back-and-forth conversations that so richly complimented Origins are only available during specific quests, the party’s camp having been replaced by individual houses and apartments scattered throughout Kirkwall. Fewer opportunities for interaction means that relationships are less subtle, less nuanced -- companions are drawn to overblown extremes in order to push their sub-plot forward. And that’s too bad: Hawke’s companions are weak, frail people with obvious moral blind spots and their own ways of coping with their lives in Kirkwall, and they are a joy to talk to. That I often sought out chances to excoriate Anders or protect Merrill are credit to David Gaider’s characterization and the role-playing he encourages; that I wasn’t allowed to do so is a black spot on Dragon Age II. 

The series excels in the small moments of its games, and DAII is no different, but it’s a genuine disapp??ointment -- stemming from moments of great joy -- that there aren’t more of them. Collateral damage includes the game’s romancing mechanics -- whether by design or the system’s own opacity, I accidentally broke up with Isabella and was locked out of pursuing other relationships or the option of trying to re-seduce her. Marian Hawke is apparently a prude.

A corollary to the game’s basic interaction system is the friendship-rivalry dichotomy, the mechanic by which different characters respond to Hawke’s decisions. No one ever says that Hawke’s decision to, say, help a mage is immoral, but such an act would enrage Fenris and?? make Anders? happy. Companions accumulate points on a sliding scale, unlocking dialogue options, quests, and abilities along the way.

The system works well, generally, but rival is a misnomer -- even if you disagree with a companion, high rivalry scores open abilities and inspire loyalties just as effectively as high friendship scores. There are moments of genuine concern and kinship, even among Hawke’s so-called rivals. I was afraid that I’d never ?be able to do anything to push my companions away, that any animosity would just be funneled into rivalry points, b??ut I’m glad to report that, with a little experimentation, I managed to get Anders, Isabella, and Fenris to abandon Hawke.

Walking through Kirkwall and its environs -- the central area of Dragon Age II both geographically and narratively -- is a mixed affair. The environments are relatively bland and narrow to begin with, and BioWare’s decision to re-use assets for ostensibly different locations only reinforces the issue. I don’t mind spending the whole game in Kirkwall -- it gives Dragon Age II a familiar, intimate feel diametrically opposed to the “epic” quality of most role-playing games -- but the town is unfortunately static. There are few people to talk to, and fewer of them give you quests or valuable information. Not only did things get a little stale after sixty hours, but it undermines the potential of the frame n??arrative: the three-year time jumps that pepper the story ring false when Kirkwall never changes.

On the other hand, simply hanging out in Kirkwall is the best way to learn ?about your companions -- the conversations they have in town are well-written and interesting, respond to recent plot developments, and never repeat themselves. I was also cat-called by some ??roustabouts at the dock, once.

Dragon Age II’s ensemble cast -- complemented by evocative character designs that blow Origins' out of the water -- does much to mitigate its narrative problems, but there’s no denying that the game has serious structural and pacing issues: Act I is too long, Act III is too short, and Act II feels like the climax of the game but is largely tangential to the main plot. Nevertheless, the game is remarkably good at hiding its disparate narrative threads in the nooks and crannies of Kirkwall -- you never know which sidequests will provide relevant plot information or story beats, or tie together two other loose ends. Dragon Age II tends to dr?ag in the beginning and speed up later, but the way Hawke weeds out information and learns about Kirkwall and its culture feels organic. And while the game clearly sets itself up for a third installment, it answers enough questions about Hawke’s life and its consequences to be satisfying, despite it's abrupt conclusion.

And what a life it is! And what bloody, bloody consequences it bears -- Hawke and her friends rack up quite the body count in a decade of assassinations, two wars, and dozens of attempts on her own life. Despite Hawke’s efforts to be non-violent, there’s a certain allure of the combat -- its pace, its visual rewards, the way it empowers players the way Origins never could. Which is to say: pumping up your cunning stat in Origins doesn’t really re-create what it’s like to unle??ash a perfectly tuned party onto a group of ill-fated th??ugs in its sequel.

The statistical gears and cogs that move the combat in Origins haven’t changed very much per se, but the animations have been overhauled to such an extent that DAII feels noticeably faster and more hectic. Each movement or attack feels more responsive, and each class' "closing attacks" -- designed to move in close to an enemy -- eliminate the trodding, shuffling combat of Origins. The result is that -- given that Kirkwall seems largely indifferent to he??r -- players only really get a sense of Hawke's p??ower because it's constantly reinforced through combat.

By and large, though, I played Dragon Age II the same way I did Origins: by pausing frequently to issue orders to my mages while my rogues and tanks followed a set of painstakingly algebraic tactics -- if-then statements designed to maim and dismember. The tactics system is more robust this time, with more sophisticated parameters and more slots to work with. The branching skill trees open up more interesting abilities earlier in the game, as opposed to the more restricted skill lines of Origins -- no more spending ability points on useless skills ??just to get down the line. To boot, each class is varied enough to compensate for most builds and play styles -- some abilities, like Rush or Archer's Lance, need to be micro-managed while others, such as Backstab, can be easily automated.

Like the story, though, the game’s combat leaves much potential untapped -- rogues no longer have access to traps, and because combat abilities are only available during combat mages can no longer lay down defensive glyphs. Dragon Age II -- especially on the Hard difficulty, which I recommend -- demands smart, tactical play but impedes it at every turn. The camera is given much less freedom than it had in Origins, which makes laying down precise area-of-effect spells and picking strategic targets difficult, and your companions don’t hol??d positions like they should. 

For better or worse, Dragon Age II focuses less on positioning than its predecessor, as new enemies spawn mid battle, making it easy to get swarmed. Crowd control -- large spells, threat generation, and debilitating status effects -- are the paths to success in DAII. It’s somewhat of a change from Origins, but even after sixty hours I enjoyed tinkering wi??th my builds and experimenting with my tactical choices.

It helps that DAII is exponentially better balanced than its forebears. Archers do more damage, the entropy school of magic is stronger, and ranged classes aren’t so frail anymore. Difficulty spikes are unfortunate hangers-on from Origins, but they’re less prevalent and less drastic. And, finally, DAII does a better job of drip-feeding decent equipment, but most of it is w??asted: companion armor cannot be replaced, only upgraded. I'm sure this particular quirk was designed to keep each companion feelin?g like his own character, but I miss the flexibility. The trade-off -- and I'm not sure it's a fair one -- is that players now have enough disposable income to buy gear that plays to their strengths and mitigates their weaknesses.

As a general rule, Dragon Age II gets better the more you play it – the story comes together, the combat becomes more intricate, and the quests become more interesting. A few bugs – two glitched minor quests, a bug in Merrill’s dialogue, and couple missing textures – notwithstanding, Dragon Age II is a remarkable game for the way it juxtaposes its flashes of brilliance with some baffling decisions. It’s a deeply flawed game, to be sure, wasting a wellspring of potential for no discernible reason, but one that should be played for being unafraid to show people at their weakest and most vicious. If the metric of a good game is that I keep coming back to it despite its faults, Dragon Age II certainly qualifies.

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To understate it somewhat, Dragon Age: Origins was a fine piece of work. After years of development, Bioware came up the game that older players had been clamoring for since the beginning of the '00s: A spiritual successor to the Baldur's Gate series.

Though BioWare had made other great RPGs since Baldur's Gate, the likes of Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass Effect did not quite rub sweet spot that screamed "Baldur's Gate!". And nine years later, Dragon Age: Origins? came along, scratching that itch at long last. It was very much an "old-school" PC RPG, with all the rewarding complexities (and nitpicks) that implies.

When BioWare announced that consoles would be the lead platform for Dragon Age II, it promised that the sequel would be "streamlining" out many of Origins' perc?eived frustrations and the awkwardness of its? console interface.

PC gamers were (justifiably) concerned. Would we pay as much as console players ($10 more than the average for PC, not counting the cost of DLC) for a game we couldn't sell?? back, only to have a lazy port that asked us to "Press Start" at the opening screen? And if we complained ??about it, would we then get mocked and told that we're lucky to have anything at all because our platform is "dead" and we're all probably pirates anyway?

Put plain, how does Dragon Age II play on PC? ?That's the question I'm here to a??nswer.

[PLEASE NOTE: This is NOT the Destructoid official review! Joseph's writing that one, and it's coming soon! I won't be giving it a score or critiquing the story or anything like that. Rather, I'll just be giving you my impressions of the game as a person who tries to buy all his RPGs on the PC, if possible. Has the need for BioWare to make Dragon Age II a more enjoyable experience on the consoles compromised its ability to satisfy PC players? Are there huge differences between it and the console versions? I intend to address questions of that sort, ones that can't necessarily be answered by downloading the demo alone or reading a review that doesn't distinguish between platforms.]

Performance:

Perhaps the first question any PC player asks when a shiny new game is announced is "Can my rig run it?", often followed by "Is it on Steam?". The answer to the latter question is "Yes," and the answer to the former is "Well, it ran on mine, which i?s set up like so:"

I played on ??a system equippe??d with an Intel core i7 920 CPU, a Radeon HD 5850 graphics card (Catalyst drivers version 11.2), and 6GB of RAM, running the 64-bit version Windows 7. These days that's considered a mid-range PC, and the card can be had for less than $175 from some vendors. According to the game's Steam store page, I fall slightly ahead of the "Recommended" range of system specs. Not bad. I played at 1920x1080 resolution, also known as 1080p.

Dragon Age II allows for a good range of customi?zation options. Gamma and brightness settings, anti-aliasing, texture filtering, and detail levels are all adjus?table on the fly and don't require a restart to be applied. Support for DirectX 11 also allows for some fancy post-processing effects and better dynamic lighting.

As you can see above, I played with anti-aliasing turned off, as t??urning it on tended to slightly blur the interface text for me, and in some cases? introduced some ugly black lines across the scenery:

Despite having no anti-ali?asing turned on I found the aliased, "jaggy" edges largely unnoticeable, as the higher resolution tended to blend them in easily. Character models also seemed to have a very mild blur effect that smoothed out their jaggies during dialog scenes or when zoomed in:

Of course, none of this would be important if my gameplay experience chugged like a careless college student. Thankfully, it seems that Dragon Age II, for its visual upgrades over the original (among them having an actual art style), still manages to scale rather well. Being just a little better than the "Recommended" system specs proved enough to turn all the graphical details up to "Very High", equip the optional High-Resolution Texture Pack, and still manage just under 30 frames per second except in the largest-s?cale encou??nters.

That doesn't sound like a lot, but it's more than the average framerate of the console versions, and more than enough needed to p?lay effectively without pausin?g (if that's your style). Framerate improved considerably during dialog and cinematic scenes. V-sync is also available, and I would recommend that you turn it on if you can, as screen tear was quite noticeable during combat sequences.

Speaking of the High-Resolution Texture Pack,?? see the side-by-side comparison below. The ??image on the left is the capture with High-Res Textures toggled on, and the image on the right has it toggled off. Though the pack description purports to affect primarily the environmental textures, the details on Carver's clothes and weapon are significantly sharper and more pronounced.

Interface:

The next most important concern to PC gamers would be to do with the interface. Dragon Age: Origins was definitely designed with a keyboard and mouse in mind. Combat was best managed from a more strategic viewpoint, frequently pausing the game and assigning orders. Y'know, Baldur's Gate-style.

Thankfully, Dragon Age II's UI was not changed much from Origins, though its appearance has been altered to look more transparent and minimalist. As before, powers are arranged in a World of Warcraft-like hotbar along the bottom of the screen, and can b??y triggered either by clicking or pressing an assigned number key. "Quick Heal" and "Quick Mana/Stamina" icons are also located in the corner of the screen, freeing up the need to assign health and mana/stamina potions to individual slots.

Given the significant difference in the UI, it is not surprising that Dragon Age II PC does not support gamepads.

The menus were also redesigned for easier mouse navigation, and took advantage of the larger amount of screen real estate available to PC players. For example, on the "Abilities" page of the character menu, all of the ability "trees" are visib??le on the screen. They zoom in once selected, rather than needing to be paged through one-by-on?e as on the console versions. This makes it easier to see just where points are allocated on a character in a single glance.

Inventory management is also much the same as in Origins, with players dragging equipment into appropriate slots onto characters' "?paper doll" cutouts. Gone, sadly, is the ability to switch "weapon sets", which was a shame, as I manually had to reenter the inventory screen if I wished to switch from daggers to bows, or two-handed weapons to swor??d-and-shield.

One potentially significant issue I noticed, however, is that the interface does not scale to the screen resolution. While this significantly increases the a??mount of uncluttered screen space, it also can make text smaller and harder to read at high resolutions, or ability icons more difficult to distinguish from each other. As you may see from some of the menu screenshots in this very writeup, there's a lot of u?nused real estate on the menu screens.

The ??camera can be zoomed in and out, but not quite as far as before, and can no longer be detached from a character. As I did most of my movement manually, only using the mouse when I wanted to make party members move simultaneously, this wasn't much of an issue. Being unable to detach the camera proved a little more problematic, though. It made area-effect spells like fireballs and flask attacks more difficult to place for maximum effectiveness, and enemies behind or in the middle of crowds?? harder to target.

As ever, combat can be paused at any time by tapping the spacebar. This alleviated many of the camera angle issues, as I could take my t??ime selecting targets. Further, I found a "pause-and-play" approach was preferable, as the quickened pace of combat often required that I execute multiple actions simultaneously, such as pulling the whole party together when another wave of enemies spawned into the combat area.

Perhaps the most striking difference between the platforms when it? came to combat is the issuing of basic attack orders. On the PC players can simply select a character, mouse over a target, and right-click it to have a character auto-attack it until it dies.

By comparison console players have to mash the attack button for every strike. This lends a more "action-y" feel to the combat, but also demands a lot more mashing. I found the auto-??attack more useful, as I could concentrate on positioning and juggling ability cooldowns.

Recent interviews and comments from BioWare staff suggest that the omission of auto-attack from the console versions of Dragon Age II was a bug, and the abil?ity to order auto-attacks without having to use the radial menu will be patched in moving forward.

Regarding difficulty, players who liked playing with "friendly fire" set to on (in which area-effect spells also cause damage to allies) in Dragon Age: Origins may be disappointed to find that it is set to off?? at all difficulty settings except Nightmare, a setting whose other changes from Normal or even Hard might be found too extreme (particularly with regard to enemy health pools) by players who just would want a somewhat more "realistic" combat ??experience.

DRM:

DRM is always ??a thorny issue when it comes to PC games. More often than not it simply punishes paying consumers while not actually deterring pirates, the end result being that the thieves end up with the better,?? less frustrating game experience.

For the most part, Dragon Age II's DRM is fairly benign. The Steam version of the game merely requires that the Steam client be running to play. Contrary to some early reports, the retail version does not use SecuROM, but Sony Release Control, a simple system designed to prevent pre-launch piracy, which happens to be made by Sony DADC, which also makes SecuROM. Some common (but harmless) files share signatures wit?h the much-maligned DRM solution, which set off alarm bells on DRM detector software. Now that the game is out in all regions, the point is utterly moot and players need not be concerned at all.

That said, both retail and digital versions of the game require a one-time online authentication before playing, which involves logging into an EA Account. As some recent incidents have shown, losing access to the one's EA account before getting a chance to?? authenticate the game can pr??event players from playing at all.

DLC Implementation:

There's no way to put it lightly: Dragon Age II is up to its ears in Downloadable Content. DLC for ordering early, DLC for playing the Facebook game, DLC for playing Dead Space 2, DLC for ordering from certain places, DLC for playing the demo, and of course, DLC you have to pay for. It's a sad, tragic truth of the times, and in Dragon Age II's case, it's unavoidable.

Thankfully, it's not as awkwardly implemented as it has been in previous BioWare. You won't have to worry about seeing an NPC standing in your camp whose sole purpose is to encourage Hawke to buy some Premium Content, nor have the Cerberus Network freeze the main menu for ??fifteen seconds while it checks for new items.

Unlike the console versions, which use Xbox LIVE and the PlayStation Network to manage the purchase and installation of new content (assuming it isn't simply an unlock), Dragon Age II manages its DLC through the BioWare Social Site. Players can log in usi?ng their EA account details, and purchase "BioWare Points" to purchase DLC packs with. The DLC is ?then unlocked on the player's account and can be downloaded manually as a separate installer and run from the player's PC. Once installed, the player must log in with his or her EA account in-game to authenticate the content, at which point it is playable online or offline.

The fact that the DLC can be downloaded manually as a separate installer can actually make it more convenient than the console versions, since players can store the executables on their ha??rd drives, for backup purposes or transfer to other installed computers.

One should be careful, though, to make sure that their BioWare Social Account uses the same email address as any other EA account that they use, and that any DLC they download is registered to the same account. Case-in-point, I need to sign in using a particular email address whenever I want to download/install DLC for any BioWare game (including Mass Effect 2 or Origins), lest some content be playable but other content disabled. This also goes for unlocks such as the Dead Space 2 promotional armor or the Facebook game tie-ins.

Modding/Customization Support:

A key draw for many PC games, and something that is more or less unique to the platform, is modding. The ability for players to tweak the games they bought to their hearts' delight or even generate entirely ?new content to fool around with is something outside the scope of the averag?e console game.

Dragon Age: Origins was one such game, supported by a remarkably robust toolset. Mods ranged the whole spectrum, from cheat items to appearance mods that made everyone's giant, giant hands look more human-sized, and were eas??y to? implement.

While BioWare has stated that it will not be releasing a separate toolset for Dragon Age II, it has raised the possibility of patching the existing Origins toolset for enhanced compatibility with Dragon Age II.

Even so, the Origins toolset seems robust enough for players to begin tweaking the game considerably. At the time of this writing several dozen mods for Dragon Age II are already online on sites such as Dragon Age Nexus, ranging from a savegame generator to create customized Origins saves for importing into Hawke's story to a mod that gives Isabela some goddamn pants. The latter was the first mod I downloaded.

Further, it seems that the developer console is also unlockable, allowing players to run functions that would otherwise not be possible through normal in-game actions. It takes a little bit of doing to enable, but once available many commands that were usable in Origins are also appa??rently compatible with its sequel, including the commands that artificially add money, items, and experience or attribute points.

As is the nature of modding and command consoles, players can screw around with their game experience ??at their own risk.

For my part, I found the developer console invaluable while playing Origins, as it allowed me to work ar?ound several potentially game-breaking situations that i?n some cases have yet to be fixed officially.

Conclusion:

Overall, many of the fears that Dragon Age II's new console focus would ruin the PC experience prove unfounded, at least from my perspective. Some camera niggles and the mechanical changes aside, I've been able to play Dragon Age II almost identically to the way I played Origins. Whether the lack of a dedicated toolset will limit the ambition or diversity of future mods may be concern for the future, but at the base level, Dragon Age II plays just fine on the PC.

The post Dragon Age II: The PC Experience appeared first on Destructoid.