{mp3}Dragon Age 2{/mp3}
Release date world 08.03.2011
Release date CIS 10.03.2011/XNUMX/XNUMX
Genre RPG
Platforms X360, PC, PS3
developer BioWare
Dragon Age II is a dark fantasy role-playing game developed by Canadian studio BioWare. A sequel to the role-playing game Dragon Age: Origins, which was released in November 2009 and received many awards. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on March 8, 2011, in Russia the release took place on March 10, and in Europe on March 11.
Review: Playability
Hi all! Today we will look at the sequel to one of the most popular RPG games of recent years, Dragon Age 2! Please don’t criticize too much because for me personally this is the first review, and I’m already familiar with the original, so it will be somewhat difficult. Go!
I decided not to invent the wheel right away and talk to people who were really waiting for the game and literally counted the days until the release! In general terms, it was a disappointment… the same complaints about the decreased level of difficulty from completely different and unfamiliar people – this already says something! Even if you’re not a fan of the original, you can immediately see the fact that the game is more like some kind of console slasher than a “hardcore RPG”; the battles are too fast and bloody (on the X-box 360 and PS3, by the way, it’s more convenient to play and more fun)!
Unlike Origins, the sequel’s arsenal is not rich in races; here we only have to play as a human character with the ability to choose a gender and one of three classes: Mage, Warrior, Rogue. Then everything is the old fashioned way, 6 parameters: strength, agility, magic, cunning, willpower, physique and a skill tree (simplified so much that even a child can figure it out). It is worth noting that only the hero can be customized; partners can only change weapons and rings.
The developers approached the presentation of the story in an interesting way, this is a kind of interrogation of the Inquisition over one of the friends of the main character, the gnome Varik, who tells the story in portions, somewhere reliably, somewhere slightly embellishing the events, a gnome is a gnome after all. But these are only videos, the game itself in this regard surprises in a different way – enemies attacked their native land, Hawke’s family flees while shredding enemies into cabbage, then ridiculous dialogues, an incomprehensible moral choice (taken straight from Mass Effect 2), follow the nearest At the same angle, a couple of elves hostile to us join our gang in order to fight a common enemy… and all this against the backdrop of the same rocks, weak textures and other visual shortcomings that are not typical for a “revolutionary RPG”.
The game world is a closed space (after all, all events take place within the same city), you can’t take a step to the left, you can’t take a step to the right, you can only go where you need to according to the plan – 10 meters, a script, a pack of necrs, a fight, and so on… and after the same Oblivion or Fallout 3, without freedom I already feel uneasy… gaming claustrophobia is developing. Even in the demo, many noticed the same locations, not just similar, but one to one, with the same arrangement of trees, stones, moss, etc. Naturally, this is also included in the final version (see screenshot – this card has been seen more than 5 times)!
I really don’t like to say bad things, but excuse me, I won’t come up with good ones… I didn’t like the game at all… it’s all somehow forced and heroically cliched, that there’s nothing to grab onto! I don’t know who the game is intended for, but after getting to know it, I really wanted to replay Fable 2 again! The studio’s reaction on their Russian-language resource bioware.ru about the user rating on Metacritic.com is surprising, supposedly this is all a flash mob and someone is deliberately giving a negative rating to the product… pfft, they’re probably not used to failures, but no matter how you look at it, they happen to allx and in the end After all, they learn from mistakes!
Well, you can’t make a high-quality product in more than a year, and it’s not clear who to blame: BioWare, working on several fronts (Mass Effect 3 and Old Republic), or EA, with their eternal haste to rip off more profit without compiling a finished product! Many people will certainly like the game with its unobtrusive RPG system, constant action, gore and spectacular ladies, etc., but DA2 is far from a real blockbuster… we are all waiting for a crushing response from Poland with their Witcher 2!
We invite you to evaluate part of the game walkthrough of Dragon Age II, where you can see for yourself the quality of this product:
It’s a pity, of course, to start the activity with such a nondescript review, but nothing can be done, what a game and review it is… but we still have a lot of interesting, tasty and entertaining things ahead of us! We are looking forward to new products, chewing gum and getting ready to knock down our enemies! Bye!
Review: Graphics
Dragon Age II is based on the Eclipse Engine, which follows BioWare’s previous technologies Odyssey and Electron, and likely also contains some of the source code from them.
In comparison with previous BioWare technologies, the renderer was once again rewritten in Eclipse – the effects created by the particle system, such as fog, flames, fire, and visualization of the use of various game spells were improved. Improved display of water created using shaders.
New post-effects have also appeared: in addition to the bloom filter, motion blur and scene depth of field have been added – the latter effect allows you to make sure that an object that is in the foreground (for example, one of the characters) will be clearly visible, while the background the plan is unfocused. This allows the player’s attention to be focused on the character, similar to how it is done in cinema. In addition, the permissible number of polygons for three-dimensional models of objects and characters was increased and texture resolution was raised.
The Eclipse Engine supports a personal computer running Windows or Mac OS X and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game consoles.
Review: Resource-intensive game
All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using MSI Afterburner. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. Below is the configuration of our test systems.
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Hardware configuration |
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Processors |
AMD Phenom II X6 1100T BE 3.33@4 GHz product provided by AMD AMD Phenom II X4 940 BE [email protected] GHz product provided by AMD AMD Athlon II X4 620 2.6 GHz product provided by AMD Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550@ 4.25 GHz Intel® Core™ [email protected] GHz Intel Core i5-760 [email protected] GHz |
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motherboards |
Gigabyte GA-MA785GT-UD3H product provided by AMD Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H product provided by AMD Maximus II Formula socket LGA775 product provided by Asus MSI X58 Eclipse Plus socket LGA1366 product provided by the company MSI MSI P55-GD55 socket LGA1156 product provided by the company MSI |
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Memory |
GOODRAM PLAY 1600MHz (8-8-8-24) product provided by the company GOODRAM GOODRAM Pro 2000MHz (8-8-8-29) product provided by the company GOODRAM |
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Video Cards |
GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB |
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Multimedia equipment |
3D monitor LG W2363D Monitor LG E2750 3D Vision Kit product provided by Nvidia |
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Power Supplies |
4xSeaSonic S12D 850 Silver 850W product provided by Syntex |
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System software and drivers |
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Operating system |
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Edition x64 |
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DirectX |
DirectX 11 |
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Platform Driver |
Intel INF Chipset Update Utility 9.1.0.1012 |
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Graphics driver |
Nvidia GeForce/ION Driver Release 267.31/GeForce 270 beta AMD Catalyst 11.1 |
Less productive video cards up to the level of GeForce GTS 250 and Radeon HD 4830 are tested on the basis of Core 2 Quad Q9550 and Phenom II X4 940 BE processors, and more productive ones on the basis of more powerful solutions. Overclocked versions of video cards presented by sponsors were equal to conventional analogues by reducing their clock speeds.
Our video cards were tested in one resolution 1920×1080 with three different quality settings and using AMD Eyefinity technology also with three different quality settings. NVIDIA 3D Vision technology was not included in the tests, as the 3D driver is currently rated “Not Recommended”. For comfortable gaming on NVIDIA cards, we recommend using beta drivers from the series 267.XX.
For AMD Eyefinity tests, we used two Full HD monitors combined thanks to this technology at a resolution of 3840×1080. By increasing the viewing width by 2 times, we get an unsurpassed volume and scale of what is happening.
Using our graphs, you can evaluate how your video card behaves relative to other modern solutions in almost all modern visual modes. Tests were carried out with high-resolution textures activated.
Testing at high quality settings
First of all, we tested video cards at high quality settings. This setting is only available for the DirectX 11 renderer and requires hardware that supports DirectX 10. It provides additional detail, including dynamic lighting and soft particles. It is also required for the effect of blocking ambient light in the screen space.
Testing at high quality settings 1920×1080 no AA DX 10/11
Testing at high quality settings 1920×1080 8X AA DX 10/11
At a resolution of 1920×1080 at high quality settings without activating full-screen antialiasing, an acceptable level of performance is found in video cards of the Radeon HD 4870 or GeForce GTX 470 level. With antialiasing activated, cards of the Radeon HD 5770 or GeForce GTX 560Ti level will be required.
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing at high quality settings no AA
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing at high quality settings 8XAA
With the use of Eyefinity technology, card performance is reduced by 40-50% of the standard mode, depending on the video cards model. The minimum that is needed for comfortable gaming at a resolution of 3840×1080 is a video card of the Radeon HD 5850 level without activating full-screen antialiasing and a Radeon HD 6950 with its activation. With full-screen anti-aliasing enabled in multi-display mode, only video cards with 2 gigabytes of video memory passed the test.
Testing at ultra-high quality settings
Only video cards with DirectX 11 hardware support have been tested at ultra-high quality settings. This setting is only available for the DirectX 11 renderer and requires hardware that supports DirectX 11. It provides improved dynamic lighting, improved soft shadows, improved terrain rendering using tasselation, and geometry changes objects using displacement maps.
Testing at ultra-high quality settings 1920×1080 no AA DX 11
Testing at ultra-high quality settings 1920×1080 8X AA DX 11
At a resolution of 1920×1080 at ultra-high quality settings without activating full-screen anti-aliasing, the required level of performance is found in video cards of the Radeon HD 5830 or GeForce GTX 480 level. With anti-aliasing activated, a card of the Radeon HD 6870 level or higher will be required.
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing at ultra-high quality settings no AA
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing at ultra-high quality settings 8XAA
The minimum that is needed for comfortable gaming in a resolution of 3840×1080 at maximum quality settings is a video card of the Radeon HD 6970 level, but only without activating full-screen anti-aliasing…
Testing at maximum quality settings
When testing at maximum quality settings, we activated effects such as depth of field for blur and high quality blur, as a result of which we received the maximum load on the video cards.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 no AA DX 11
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 8X AA DX 11
At a resolution of 1920×1080 at maximum quality settings without activating full-screen anti-aliasing, the required level of performance is found in video cards of the Radeon HD 6870 or GeForce GTX 580 level. With anti-aliasing activated, as before, a card of the Radeon HD 6870 level or higher will be required. The best option for gaming is a Radeon HD 6970 video card.
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing at maximum quality settings no AA
AMD Eyefinity Technology Testing at maximum quality settings 8XAA
Using Eyefinity technology at maximum quality settings, there are currently no single-chip video cards that can provide an acceptable level of performance.
CPU dependency testing
We tested processor dependence on 9 models of basic configurations, which are the most relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the value of video cards for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 800×600 with low quality settings.
Testing processor dependence at low quality settings 800×600
The most powerful solutions for Dragon Age II are Core i 7 processors and AMD Phenom II X6 1100T who are able to show the highest results. But even owners of weaker systems should not despair; the game feels great on dual-core configurations.
Additional testing with drivers version 270 beta driver for GeForce
Yesterday a new version of drivers for NVIDIA 270 beta Driver for GeForce cards was released, which, according to programmers, should increase performance in Dragon Age II by 326% for GTX 580 cards and by 241% for GTX 560Ti. Of course, we didn’t get such high results, but the growth is still impressive…
Testing at ultra-high quality settings 1920×1080 8X AA DX 11
The balance of power has changed significantly with the new driver, all cards have become equivalent in their price categories. Now, at a resolution of 1920×1080 at ultra-high quality settings without activating full-screen anti-aliasing, the required level of performance is found in video cards of the Radeon HD 5830 or GeForce GTX 460 768 MB level.
Testing at maximum quality settings 1920×1080 8X AA DX 11
At a resolution of 1920×1080 at maximum settings with full-screen anti-aliasing activated, the required level of performance will now be provided by video cards of the Radeon HD 6870 or GeForce GTX 560 Ti level. The most optimal options for the game are video cards Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 570.
The performance increase in the new drivers from NVIDIA was 90-200%, depending on the settings and model of video cards.
Conclusion on system requirements
Dragon Age II is a very technological project, a feature of which is the active use of DirectX 11 resources, which, on the one hand, makes it one of the most technologically advanced products, and on the other, one of the most resource-intensive games.
We express our gratitude to all the manufacturing companies that were able to provide test equipment for our GPU tests and we hope that in the future their number will increase significantly!
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Rating 80%