LibriumArcana.Games

So, let's talk. Dragon Age 1 was a fucking awesome game, and Dragon Age 2 wasn't. Bioware is very sorry about that, and would like to make it up to you.

[youtube][/youtube]

Some bullet points, for people who don't want to watch the full half hour.

• Content is not designed to match your level, meaning you can and will wander into areas that will kick your ass and not apologize for it, and some places you will wade through like a hot knife through butter. Remember this for later.
• Varric returns, as does Cassandra, the Seeker from DA2 who was questioning him. This has high hilarity potential.
• Combat is a mixture of over the shoulder God of War style brawling, akin to DA2, with the option for full tactical control like from DA1. The video was obviously done with a console, so we can expect PC controls to be not the same.
• Choices will matter, and not just down the line. Good.
• The world being created is huge and varied, allowing for exploration. Not quite Skyrim level, but like several mini-oblivions, I'm sure. Interestingly, caves won't require load screens.
• Destructible terrain with reasons to destroy it. So far, it seems limited, but fancy. I was hoping for a bit more since they're using the Frostbite engine that powers Battlefield these days, which allows for so many things to go boom.
• Full inventory control again. That's nice.
• Resource management and better alchemy, whatever that means.
• Customize your keep to be pure military, spy oriented, or commerce oriented. Gee, I wonder.
• Different improvements will unlock various options for quests and exploration
• Choose who to support, the Templars or the Mages (let's hope they find a way to make this a not totally obvious choice like in DA1, unlike DA2, where it was literally Rapists vs. Rape Victims).
• Oh yes, and massive goddamn dragon fights that are supposed to be optional and will kick your bitch ass. Note, these are designed to kick your bitch ass if you're at level for them. Enjoy.

Now, it looks good. The graphics are shiny, the zones look nice and big and not copy-pasted, and the combat looks cool. You can play as any race now, and there are choices that, one would hope, matter in the small and long term. All good points.

Still, I haven't received my flowers and chocolates yet to apologize for DA2's third act, so I'm going to wait and see how this turns out. Still, for a "pre-alpha" build, that looked pretty good, certainly better than some of the alphas and betas on Steam Greenlight.

Slight Update while I wait for Bioware to announce the winners of the Take Your Place in the Inquisition Contest, their super-deluxe mega edition:

Otherwise known as the edition that makes Hotfoot want the extras more than the game edition

It's a Gamestop exclusive from the looks of it, and there's no mention on if it's console only or PC, but given Gamestop, I can guess.