Dragon Age II: EA boogaloo

[RobbyB1982]

Thanks. Nice to know that people hate watching this review as much as I hate doing it.

Sorry to hear that Chuck. Is it your first time through this particular Bioware game, is the game really that bad to you, or is it the myriad of technical hiccups? Or all of the above?

You seemed to have enjoyed their other outings and indicated you'd played some of their games a couple of times, so its really unfortunate if you're suffering through this one.

[AlucardNoir]

I'm about ready to just quit watching the reviews after yelling so many expletives at Part 3 for just how completely unfunny and unwanted the 'in character' bits got. Really...

Turns out I paused right before pulling the Weinstein card, and calling BioWare 'fucking assholes'. So guess what, the gloves are off!

I fucking hate the fucking in character crap. It is actually a burden to any potential review material, and if it's meant to steer away from making it just a lets play, it just failed in a catastrophic way.

If this is how the review 'writing' is going to be for all future games, I'm flat out calling it quits on anything in that category at all.

That entire category? that's what he's done for all RPG games he's reviewed? did you even watch anything else from that "category"?

[cambiata]

Thanks. Nice to know that people hate watching this review as much as I hate doing it.

I hope this is sarcasm... I really love this review, and I've loved a lot of your Bioware-themed game reviews. Doing the "Janeway voice" for Flemeth is in particular a gag that always makes me laugh. The use of the Shaft theme was fucking on point. (this is coming from someone who adores Varric though, so ymmv)

I actually came to post here because I was curious about the "Anders comes on to you" thing. I had heard people complain about that before, but I've never experienced it in game. In fact, I recently replayed DA2 (and I appreciate it a lot more now than I did when I first played it - but I always liked the game, especially for the character work) and I kept my eyes pealed for any flirting from Anders, and there was none. I didn't flirt with him, and he never initiated anything. Maybe it only happens if you do a flirt first? I was actually wondering if maybe it was an Xbox bug, because I only play the games on PC. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

[Rodan56]

Thanks. Nice to know that people hate watching this review as much as I hate doing it.

I hope this is sarcasm... I really love this review, and I've loved a lot of your Bioware-themed game reviews. Doing the "Janeway voice" for Flemeth is in particular a gag that always makes me laugh. The use of the Shaft theme was fucking on point. (this is coming from someone who adores Varric though, so ymmv)

I'm sure he's just pissed because of the game crashes he's experiencing. I can totally understand that from the perspective of someone who has had their computer crash for no good reason.

By the way, it might be an Xbox thing, since it regularly happens to me when playing DA2. Kinda annoying really.

[RobbyB1982]

I actually came to post here because I was curious about the "Anders comes on to you" thing. I had heard people complain about that before, but I've never experienced it in game. In fact, I recently replayed DA2 (and I appreciate it a lot more now than I did when I first played it - but I always liked the game, especially for the character work) and I kept my eyes pealed for any flirting from Anders, and there was none. I didn't flirt with him, and he never initiated anything. Maybe it only happens if you do a flirt first? I was actually wondering if maybe it was an Xbox bug, because I only play the games on PC. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

I don't know about the Anders hitting on you in particular, but a lot of the romance stuff is absolutely bugged, especially if you flirt with multiple people, and REALLY especially if you sleep with more than one of them.

[cambiata]

I actually came to post here because I was curious about the "Anders comes on to you" thing. I had heard people complain about that before, but I've never experienced it in game. In fact, I recently replayed DA2 (and I appreciate it a lot more now than I did when I first played it - but I always liked the game, especially for the character work) and I kept my eyes pealed for any flirting from Anders, and there was none. I didn't flirt with him, and he never initiated anything. Maybe it only happens if you do a flirt first? I was actually wondering if maybe it was an Xbox bug, because I only play the games on PC. Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

I don't know about the Anders hitting on you in particular, but a lot of the romance stuff is absolutely bugged, especially if you flirt with multiple people, and REALLY especially if you sleep with more than one of them.

OK, that makes sense. I did experience a few bugs playing on PC, but not as many as Chuck seems to get.

That aside, yes Anders is an asshole and everyone knows it.

[Steve]

I've only played it on PS3 myself. I don't recall much in the way of bugs, at least not the kind that has stymied Chuck's playthrough.

And put me down for another person who enjoys Chuck's in-character dialogue and acting. Especially the IC-ranting we got back in Tim's adventure. The putdowns of the Amaranthine guards and of Jowan during the Redcliffe Infiltration were hilariously awesome.

[Rodan56]

And put me down for another person who enjoys Chuck's in-character dialogue and acting. Especially the IC-ranting we got back in Tim's adventure. The putdowns of the Amaranthine guards and of Jowan during the Redcliffe Infiltration were hilariously awesome.

I feel the need to add to this too, I do enjoy Chuck's in-character dialogue reading as, honestly, it's how I play most of my games in an RPG. I substitute my voice half the time as an inner monologue. When I got to the end of Project: Overlord, I was on full me mode because I had the most direct visceral reaction to the game. Maybe it was because I have Aspergers and could identify with the character who was being victimized, maybe because what I was seeing was so abjectly horrible that at that point my Shepard's and my own mind synced up perfectly, but when Gavin came running into the room and shouted "I can explain!" I was basically: "Oh? You can? Well, please, explain to me, asshole... what. the fuck. IS THIS!?" It was one of those moments a game made you feel angry and it was on purpose but not because I was failing constantly. And that is what the magic of a good Bioware story can do and why I like it when Chuck roleplays. The game asks you to do that already after all.

If I do have a problem, it is when he makes choices that I may not agree with. For example, I watched his ME2 review once and haven't really gone back to it because Wrex was dead. Good review, but I just don't want to watch a playthrough where one of my favorite characters is dead is all. But, again, that's just the nature of an RPG and I wouldn't want him to play differently just to suit my own needs. If anything, it at least makes me interested in seeing which way things go as I'm watching someone tell the story like a singular narrative but I have no idea what decisions he'll make because he's not really playing a full paragon or renegade or whatever playthrough. He's just roleplaying. Which, honestly, is why I like Andromeda as it encourages that. Instead of isolating your choices between an arbitrary scale... you're given options and you have to decide which is bad or good, not have it spelled out for you which is which.

[hammerofglass]

I'm kind of wondering how you "accidentally" hit on somebody in Inquisition. All of the flirting options have a big red heart symbol tagging them.

[BunBun299]

I like the review thus far.

I did like this game. Thought it was interesting having all the action around one city. Though the reusing of the maps got old fast. And this is definitely the weakest part of the trilogy.

The only problem I have is the problem I've been having watching all videos on this site lately, they just grind to a halt at random points, and either crash the page, or just resume at random. It's becoming an increasingly annoying problem.