BioWare's Laidlaw: DA2 'Legacy' DLC is a response to fan complaints

If only they would of listened to their fans -while- they made Dragon Age II instead of until a DLC...

"There's a game out there that's better than both [Dragon Age] Origins and DAII, and I'll be damned if the talented folks of the DA team can't find it,"

The Witcher says hello.

That game was horrifically short and there was like 3 dungeons that were recycled again and again. It's a shame because the gameplay was good.

All this in response initially to this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Bd7Pq-8-I and a thread trying to raise discussion around communities and their usefulness to developers.

Its been an amazing thread with some really good points and I reccomend checking it out.

Stop caring about dragon age 2 when i realize it does nothing to improve from the first game. After the witcher 2 came out, I had no interest DA series.

"Legacy, I think, goes a long way towards demonstrating that we are listening, that we are aware of the weaknesses of DAII, and that we will continue to address them"

With paid DLC?I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to pay to address the weaknesses of a game i already paid for.

The fact that you need to release DLC along with a statement that you're "addressing fan complaints" is reason enough to either A: pass on Dragon Age II completely or B: wait until it hits the bargain bin. Going from "it'll please fans, but also newcomers, so shut up!" to "we're addressing fan issues with DLC you have to pay extra for" is just bad to worse.

I'll probably be going with B, as its already down around the $40 mark quite often, around here. And, should hit that sweet, sweet $20 price range within a few months.

Either way, BioWare, you're not getting my money on this one not only due to the actual product, but your attitude toward your fans, as well.

So its free then?

I don't know, Bioware. I use to love you but you kind of ditch your RPG history.

Now with Xbox 360 World Magazine confirming that Mass Effect 3 will have multi-player, I don't know...

Bioware has yet to confirm it, but nay sayers should realize that they delayed ME3 to add "something that will expand the user base and make it more welcoming to new players of the series"

What is best to expand the series with added multi-player? Esp. with everyone crying for Multi-Player.


http://i.imgur.com/Rhnjk.png

Then give it to us for free as an apology for suckering us into buying your company's mediocre title.

I don't get it, how can there be a game better than this 6 month creation of a Twilight fangirl with only one environment!?

What I don't really understand about his stance is this: "Legacy" is a response to the people who hated the completely recycled dungeons. Therefor he's saying that if people didn't complain about the environments, "Legacy" would have also used them.

Which is BS, of course. "Legacy" isn't a response to anything. If BioWare, even for one second, considered using the same environments in DLC that they did in the main game they'd have made one of the biggest hack decisions in the recent history of game development.

"Legacy" has the dungeons they intended it to have from the start. BioWare was not throwing quests for "Legacy" in the same dungeons as the main game when someone pointed out all the complaints they got about those dungeons and they spontaneously decided to make brand new environments. "Legacy" is only what it was from the start.

I never played Dragon Age Origins, so from that non-bias perspective I can say that Dragon Age 2 was an amazing experience to me.

My only complaint is that the environments were recycled very often.

I got tired of looking at Kirkwall and I got tired of seeing the same dungeon/instance 2-4 times.

I've started playing Dragon Age Origins since I liked the 2nd one. The gameplay is good but learning new skills, spells and equipping gear seems a LOT more tedious than in Dragon Age 2. I don't care to spend that much time customizing gear (this was a good change in DA2).

Customization is good, but keep it simple with a simple interface, so I can get on with the story and keep cutting heads off.

Just put more dungeons in Dragon Age 3, add in a few perks like towns with small mini-games (for comedy), maybe a pet similar to Dragon Age 1. Little things like that make it more interesting and give you a break between major battles.

The first game was so epic! What happened to "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

But seriously, at least Brink is offering their "Mr. Fixit" DLC free for a few weeks. Same courtesy should've been given to DA2 buyers IMO.

shocking development! Developer releases giant log of shit into the mouths of unsuspecting gamers, developer asks gamers if they'd like seconds.

Dear God... whiny entitled assholes.... the lot of you

Bioware's new motto: if it's broken, fix it for a fee.

Legacy is actually pretty good with a nice optional boss fight.

" I believe, especially on these boards, that a few months ago was not a time for productive discussion, particularly."
Mike Laidlaw

Gotta love how he paints the community as being wrong and unproductive and then goes on to explain how Legacy addresses those same concerns.

You people are really weird. I loved DA2 and started second playthrough immediately after. I also started The Witcher 2 and got bored in the third act with endless fetch quests. Still didn't get around to finish it. DA2 has much better pacing - The Witcher 2 just hits a brick wall story-wise in that army camp. Never mind numerous technical glitches or the difficulty profile. DA1 had its own share of problems such as massively screwed up leveling system - if the story wasn't good I would have given up on it due to battles becoming impossible just because I chose to level up my characters differently than the developer intended (thus removing RP from RPG). I replayed DAO and the expansion as a mage recently, following the recommended area completion sequence and leveling up strategy and had a much better time - but I shouldn't have had to do that.

Yes, recycling environment sucks and that's why the game is 8-9 instead of 9-10. And some boss battles in Deep Roads might force you to redo several hours of play if you picked party members badly. But it's a firm step forward in storytelling, pacing and gameplay compared to the first one.