DA2 Playthrough: Things are looking up

Hours In: 5.5
Character Level: 6
My Score: 65 (+10)
Metacritic Score: 84 (no change)

A few hours can make a big difference, apparently. I'm actually tempted to raise my score a bit further, but that would probably be an overreaction. If nothing else, this exercise of updating my rating on the fly should illustrate the dangers of voicing an opinion before you have all the facts.

The major improvement is that the "critical path" has released its stranglehold on Hawke, allowing me the freedom to wander a bit. New areas have opened up, old ones have been filled in with sidequests, and I've finally faced my first non-human enemies since Lothering. It also helps that I've met Merrill, a companion who, refreshingly, doesn't have a cringeworthy introduction scene.

I've also become quite enamored of some of the lesser-known design choices. For example:

• Stores are opened by clicking an object rather than going through a repetitive merchant conversation.
• Loot is organized in a way that makes it easy to ignore stuff you don't need.
• Clicking on books launches a popup with the book text, so you don't have to hunt through your inventory or, in the case of Origins, open the Codex.
• The world map, in addition to being gorgeous, allows you to switch to nighttime locations - an elegant solution to issues raised by having an actual day/night cycle.

Those buttons in the lower-right corner allow you to switch between day, night, and wilderness.

One thing that can no longer go unmentioned: This game is incredibly easy on Normal. I really don't feel like I'm doing anything special in combat, and yet I have not had to reload yet. In fact, I think only two characters have fallen in battle. I could up the difficulty, but eh... I think I'll just continue to breeze through it for the time being.

I'm still struggling with the writing and the dialogue wheel - and most of all, with Hawke's tendency to speak without any direction from me at all. Still, I'm actually enjoying the game now, which is a new and very welcome development.

DA2 Playthrough: A rough start

Hours In: 2.5
Character Level: 4
My Score: 55 (-15)
Metacritic Score: 84 (no change)

In my previous post, I gave Dragon Age 2 a baseline, "sight unseen" score of 70. I didn't explain my rationale for that score because, honestly, I didn't put a lot of thought into it. It wasn't intended to be some sort of objective measure, but merely a starting point for the sake of comparison. The important thing was for there to be considerable distance to a perfect 100, as I didn't agree with many of the design changes in Dragon Age 2 and was not impressed with the demo. I wanted there to be plenty of room to raise my score in case I was pleasantly surprised.

After my first play session, I don't think that's going to be a problem. So far, it appears the demo is an accurate gauge of the game's quality.

DA2 Playthrough: Baseline expectations

Hours In: 0
Character Level: N/A
My Score: 70 (Baseline)
Metacritic Score: 84

I was sorely tempted to make this a DA2-free zone this week. For one thing, I wasn't sure I would buy the game on release, which would have made commenting on it a bit awkward. For another, I wasn't sold on the value of adding my voice to the cacophony of internet opinion. I mean, between the deluge of professional game reviews and all the forum chatter (read: bickering), who needs to hear what I have to say?

Then today arrived and I found I had nothing better to do.

However, rather than just jot down a few thoughts under a bland title like "First impressions," I thought I'd try something a little different - something that might help you get a read on how my opinion is evolving as I play the game. So, before I even fire up Dragon Age 2 for the first time, I'm going to predict how much I'm going to like it and adjust my score with each report. I'll also chart the Metacritic score to test the conventional wisdom that it declines over time (in the case of Dragon Age 2, it already has declined somewhat from its peak of 94).

Finally, to provide a more detailed baseline and give you more of an idea where I'm coming from, I'll list what I consider the positives and negatives of the game as I currently understand them. Of course, I could be wrong in my assumptions. In fact, if I'm not wrong in at least some cases, I will be seriously disappointed.

Is this what you call roleplaying?

Nemorem is torn about what to post today. He or she (depending on whether this is regular Nemorem or FemNem we're talking about here) has a number of different issues on his or her mind, and can't figure out a way to tie them all together in one post. In short, Nemorem needs help making a decision.

	Bitch about the dialogue wheel again
	Follow up on the (nonexistent) DA2 toolset
	Go off-topic
	Screw it - I'd rather be reading Kotaku

Modders could help fix Dragon Age 2

Is it just me, or has the attitude toward Dragon Age 2 soured a bit since the release of the demo? In large part, this is simply because more folks are talking about it now - the "normal" players are getting interested and are disrupting the shiny protective halo formed by the long-term Bioware faithful. Many of these latecomers may not have been aware of some of the major changes in Dragon Age 2 and are only now registering their disapproval.

Then again, the demo did kinda suck. It wouldn't surprise me if it turned some of the true believers into skeptics. In addition to its un-Biowarian lack of polish, the demo demo-nstrated the impact of some of the design decisions that had long rankled old-school RPG'ers and change-averse fans of Dragon Age: Origins. The dialogue wheel, the fast pace of combat, the lack of choices, the console-ified interface - all have become targets of criticism.

Where do players turn when they find certain aspects of a game's design vexing? Well, if they're playing on the PC - and PC gamers seem to be those most distressed about the changes in Dragon Age 2 - they often turn to mods. Unfortunately, there won't be a toolset for Dragon Age 2 available on release, and Bioware is noncommittal on whether one is forthcoming in the future.