Dragon Age II’s Hawke to be fully voice-acted, but no choosing his/her race

This is the first step into simplifying the game…
This time around the all tree version will be all the same…

So its dragon age 2 taking mass effect ideas, not really feeling the idea tbh

So DA:O had multiple beginnings and one finish… and this will have one beginning and maybe multiple finishes?

I’m not that worried, DA:O was good… and Bioware hasn’t let me down yet. Well, except for the scanning in ME2… but they’ve fixed that now too.

Sounds like Mass Effect with swords. Not really Dragon Age.

Getting worried about this game now tbh.

Just adding a more foccused and fully voiced storyline to Dragon Age does not suddenly turn it into a third person shooter.
Comparing it to the Witcher would be a more reasonable assumption. Playing the one character hasn’t stopped it from being a hardcore RPG.

The combat in Dragon Age Origins was the best part. It was massively tactical and each fight felt great rather than a push over.

Dragon Age really surprised me. I just finished “Lelianna’s Song” and it was good. This is the first game, other the Mass Effect 2, that I have bought all the story driven DLC for, so they are keeping my interests peaked, if just in little nuggets right now, but that is smart, on their end, keep releasing DLC for the Old game till the New game comes out so the Game world is still fresh in your mind, very smart.
Just wish ME2 let you play the bad guys like DAO does in the darkspawn chronicles.

Aside from Return to Ostagar and the one you get chucked in for free, shale, the DLC I thought has been pretty poor.

“Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, the player’s character in Dragon Age II will be fully voiced. This opens the door for a more cinematic approach to dialogue and creates an identity for the character outside of the text you see on-screen. It also eliminates those awkward scenarios where you feel like your character should be reacting, but instead just stares blankly without so much as a grunt.”

THis right here is smexy. One thing I really disliked about the original. I would easily much prefer this over the catatonic character in heated scenes.

“Dragon Age II is not about killing an ancient evil or about quelling another blight; Hawke is the driving force behind the narrative. Over the course of the game’s 10-year timeline, players’ actions and choices will determine Hawke’s history, relationships, and regrets…all in service to answering the larger question: Who is the Champion of Kirkwall?”

And this is the selling point for me story over 10 years and not about just killing the big bad. Fuck yeah, Me wantey now.

@4 When they were in the midst of developing the original they said the reason we were able to pick different races and genders to each race was because of the character not having a voice. Now that the character will have a voice for a more “cinematic” effect,they had to take away the race choice. I would easily sacrifice this for a character that doesn’t just stare blankly at the screen while his mother is being murdered.

Aside from the blank stares of the character, I really got used to not having a voice for my character, the extended dialog options really moved me back to the golden times of Baldurs gate 2 and Fallout 2.

I’m not gonna be one bit surprised if they bring in the same conversation system as in Mass Effect. Although I will be extremely saddened if so.

Mass Effect is awesome, but Dragon Age is not Mass Effect.
Dragon Age was My story, Mass Effect is Shepards story.

One thing I don’t understand. If “Dragon Age: Origins” has been their most successful game yet , why-oh-why are they changing it to be more like Mass Effect?

I enjoyed the multiple openings, they made the game alot more re-playable. I can see the reasoning behind the more focused main character, but you cannot deny that it definitely looks like they are trying to change the game to be more like Mass Effect. I enjoyed “Dragon Age: Origins” because it felt like it was it’s own game, you really had the freedom of choice because you were the character.

We’ll see how this turns out, but after this: http://www.vg247.com/2010/07/08/bioware-dragon-age-more-globally-successful-than-mass-effect/
I really thought that you wouldn’t change Dragon Age.

as long as the female version is hot then im not complaining lol.

Is Hawke Morrigan and The Grey Wardens child?

Because, we were given that option in Origins…

Errr, unless it has lasers and rips off Rainbow Six: Vegases weak cover mechanics, it won’t be anything like Mass Effect 2.

I think it’s a pretty sad thing to limit your race in an RPG though, that’s a pretty big restriction on your interaction with the world. And using the voice acting as an excuse doesn’t really hold up. There are plenty of RPGs that offer a variety of voices for the main character. Granted, voice acting costs a lot of dough, but not enough to sink the average game budget.

But like Hunam says, it’s all about the clever tactics. If they preserve those, I’m in.

@13 James Mac:
No, Hawke fled from Lothering (the place that gets ransacked and burned, the place you first travel to in DA:O), so unless he travelled in time I doubt it.

@13 You might notice a suspiciously dragon-esque female mage/witch taking centre stage in the promotional art. I’d peg her as a more likely suspect.

Thank god.

Weeeell, my dwarf lord is now with the Maker it seems.

@14

I think why they did this is to not just pigeon hold us into one character but also making the game’s beginning much more epic to be honest the Origins felt more or less cliched with just having one they can make it that much stronger.

I think of it not as a sequel to DAO but another game about a story in the Dragon Age universe. If they make it RPG lite like Mass Effect, then I will have a huge issue with the game. But for now there is nothing to go on except those 5 facts and then wait for the trailer next month.

whose hawke
and im being serious

@20

http://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2010/07/09/five-facts-about-hawke-in-dragon-age-ii.aspx

I don’t know about this. On one hand, I really appreciated the “origins”-part of Dragon Age: Origins. On the other, well, The Witcher is a great RPG and that gives you even fewer character choices than Dragon Age 2 will.

Very very disappointed so far in what I hear about DA:II so far.. and Ill be the first to admit I’m a huge DA:O Fanboy but none of the DLC/Expansions post release have intrigued me enough to shell out the money for them. -shrug-

Bioware…. I am disappoint.

I really need to see some gameplay from this before I shake my bad feeling.

are hawke is the guy u play as wow im a full on idiot

if they do use an acting then the DLC will be less just look at ME2 and ME1 there reason for not having enough DLC was getting the actors back