Dragons Dogma 2

brady12

How is ye're hype for this and what console are ye going to play on? Review embargo tuesday I think . Im on chapter 10 of rebirth so I might able to get this in a week or 2 depending on reviews / its performance.

Sephiroth_dude

I'm very hyped for this, I absolutely adored the first one and this looking fantastic.

Andrew76

Will be playing it on PC as hopefully it will run better there compared to console, an uncapped framerate targetting only 30fps on PS5 sounds piss poor tbh. It's only €43 on cdkeys vs €70 on Playstation. Looking forward to it as the first game was great, not sure which starting class to go with though now they split Strider into Thief and Archer.

ahnowbrowncow

I'm hoping this will be good but I'm holding off on purchasing it until I read some reviews.

The combat and animations look great but I have reservations about the game possibly lacking content and variety of enemies.

There are only so many wolves and goblins I can kill and basic fetch quests I can complete without it getting slightly tedious.

Potential-Monke

Disappointing to hear it's not 60fps on console. Another one I'll be waiting for a patch. It does look good though.

Mr Crispy

Once reviews are favourable, I'll definitely be hopping in. Might have to wait a few months though as I've a few projects needing to be completed at home. Would be buying on PC.

Niska

Preordered on PS5 - preload downloadig.

Really liked the first on the PS3, even if it was janky, but technical limitations, and loadtimes, left it unifished.

Bought it and finished on PS4 - loved it, if again janky and previous limitations obvious, especially in the final boss battle.

Anyway, here's ian McShane with a quick overview of DD2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18HF6jWRIBM

EoinMcLovin

Reviews are out

https://opencritic.com/game/16051/dragons-dogma-2/reviews

https://www.metacritic.com/game/dragons-dogma-2/

OpenCritic -89 , Metacritic -87

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/dragons-dogma-2-review-pawn-stars/1900-6418199/?ftag=CAD-01-10abi2f

https://www.ign.com/articles/dragons-dogma-2-review

https://www.eurogamer.net/dragons-dogma-2-review

https://youtu.be/jU-vkDLoGwQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwvtq3VF07Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKjZKfAivhI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHK1zvfGKjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85WLMaP3G_4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xGsJflOzwE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p7r2Cu3FbQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKu3cwSuBYw

johnny_ultimate

Sounds like PC performance is a mite better than the consoles, but is heavily CPU limited so really drags in certain areas even with the most recent chips. Apparently ‘unplayable’ on Steam Deck.

Definitely sounds like a better bet than the consoles overall though, if it is an option.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/dragons-dogma-2-pc-performance-best-settings

brady12

My GPU is a 3060 ti and my CPU is a AMD Ryzen 5 3600X .

Wondering whether to buy pc or ps5 any suggestions ? Wait prob 🙁

Retr0gamer

5 stars from Eurogamer.

Do you need to have played the first one ?

Sephiroth_dude

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921481#Comment_121921481

No just jump in, although I highly recommend the first one.

Andrew76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921481#Comment_121921481

From what I've seen no, the story doesn't follow on from the first. If anything DD2 sounds like the version of the game they wanted to make in the first place rather than a proper sequel.

Kiith

Would love to play it, but my machine isn't even remotely capable of it at the moment. Definitely need a major upgrade.

johnny_ultimate

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921682#Comment_121921682

Not sure if a brute force upgrade will sort this one out. Seems to just be very CPU heavy due to a lot of the stuff going on with NPCs (hence the performance dips in cities / towns), and the upscaling solutions don’t make a whole heap of difference. Sounds like even high end machines will struggle with it.

ahnowbrowncow

Looks like it's a slow burner but is ultimately very rewarding. One reviewer, Fextralife, said they found parts of the first 20 hours of the game boring and tedious because they were traveling everywhere on foot while running out of stamina and constantly being interrupted by uninteresting battles against the same four enemies, which had been my impression from previews and early streams.

But he then went on to say that it really clicks mid - late game as you unlock vocations and skills, progress quests and discover new locations, enemies and equipment.

I might pick this up on PC then, hopefully the performance isn't too bad.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921803#Comment_121921803

Hopefully a patch can fix that. It really shouldn't be that CPU heavy considering how little it's actually tracking.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921824#Comment_121921824

Sounds like the first game. Got a hell of a lot more interesting later on when the bestiary for more varied and the battle system really came into its own with the larger enemies. Had a really worthwhile post game as well which I'm hoping they emulate here.

Sephiroth_dude

Half the charm of the first game was walking everywhere and discovering stuff and sometimes wandering into a place you shouldn't be because of you're level.

one armed dwarf

The bit I heard in one preview reminded me a lot of Gothic, by Pihrana Bytes, wrt to the commitment to verisimilitude and mundanity when it comes to NPC cycles. At least for one of the questlines, I doubt most of the NPCs are much more than dumb mannequins, like the first game.

Though if that is the case it begs the question why they eat so much CPU uptime. I wonder how dynamic things can get, I know that monsters can invade towns so it will be an interesting stress test to encourage that to happen, and have a party full of sorcerers summoning meteors down. Bring the latest Intels and Ryzens to their knees, and overheat the PS5

Kiith

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921803#Comment_121921803

My i5 4670k would still probably melt if it was 100% optimised 😫

Retr0gamer

Considering how little is actually going on in modern videogames they really shouldn't be CPU limited. The issue is that for all intents and purposes most game engines might as well be single threaded. You've one core getting stressed like hell, another running at 15% and everything other core might as well be idle.

SuperBowserWorld

From reviews it looks like there are a lot of systems interacting in this game so it might be cpu bound.

Kiith

Some pretty stupid mtx in there it seems. Buying resurrection potions for example. But allowing fast travel with real money is the worst. If it's supposed to be such a core feature that fast travel isn't allowed, why allow it?

Capcom will be Capcom though.

Penn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121924694#Comment_121924694

Seems like the warp/fast travel items are available to earn in game, but yeah, this really seems like an absolutely sh*tty way to implement it. Also seems like there were no signs of it in review copies and it was only added in after reviews came out.

McFly85

I don’t buy the idea that removing fast travel enhances the experience. Even as I started the first one, the idea of trudging back through a path I’d done twice already recently to continue the game really made me want to put it down and play something else.

Theres wanting players to explore, or there’s wasting the players time. This feels more like the latter.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925029#Comment_121925029

Apparently it's like the first game where the fast travel items can be collected during play. It's a bit **** by Capcom but it's not locking fast travel behind a paywall like some are making it out to be.

Ten of Swords

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121921803#Comment_121921803

I saw a post on Reddit yesterday that said players were mass killing NPCs because it actually improved FPS

taxAHcruel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121925214#Comment_121925214

Yeah the first game allowed you place fast travel portals anywhere on the map. If I recall correctly I had collected 4 or 5 of them by end game. You can place them anywhere - or collect them and replace them.

There was then an item that allowed you to fast travel to those points you had set. But you either had to find or buy that item. So you were forced to be quite cautious in how often you did this and use it sparingly.

I however bought the game late with all expansions and DLC included and this came with an item that let you do the travel infinitely. So while I was still restricted to 4 or 5 target locations - I could travel to them as often as I liked. And to be honest I quite liked that system. It meant I could not fast travel all over the place like many games. I had to be selective and intentional in where I set up my target locations. But I could do it as often as I liked once I had set those locations.

That seemed fun and restrictive enough compared to the flexible fast travel almost anywhere of other games. The idea of DD2 being a much bigger map - and using the limited fast travel method - has pretty much put me off playing this sequel entirely. As have some of the CPU and FPS issues and a few other things I saw in the review videos posted above.

Will probably play it some day. But I think I will wait for all the patches and a similar infinity travel crystal like in the first. Then it might be something a mostly non-gamer like me will enjoy as much I did enjoy the first game.

johnny_ultimate

Sounding very much like a ‘wait for a few patches’ sort of game, at least on PC:

https://twitter.com/wario64/status/1771165625978667262?s=46&t=nwvJe3fJtU0siJ7wj5mjTA

Potential-Monke

Limiting fast travel on a massive map in a single player game... well, now it's off my list until they bring back unlimited fast travel. Its great to say you should explore and experience everything, but not everyone has the time or patience for that. Limiting it in a single player game is a bit crappy tbh, and then adding it as an MT....

Sounds like it will be great in a year or two when they've fixed all the issues and brought out the GOTY edition. Shame.

EoinMcLovin

https://youtu.be/HtGpp1v8c_k

https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2024-dragons-dogma-2-the-digital-foundry-tech-review

On a technical level though, there's a lot to appreciate here - despite some key areas that could use improvement. The visuals on high-end machines like PC, PS5 and Series X often look brilliant, with beautiful RTGI that hopefully represents what we can expect from the RE Engine in future titles. Series S is less appealing, without RT of any kind and suffering from low-res shadows. Series S and X have totally broken checkerboarding too, with a very messy resolve. All console platforms and PC also suffer from heavily CPU-bound performance in some areas, with consoles also offering an unlocked frame-rate that gives them an unstable feel even at the best of times.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a great graphical achievement then, but unfortunately it's let down by some configuration issues on the consoles and heavily CPU-bound performance on all platforms. There's a lot to appreciate visually and its gameplay credentials have been rightly lauded, but equally there are clear areas for improvement post-release.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121926971#Comment_121926971

Everyone online is saying it's fine and works well and no need to pay for it. Sometimes a bit of restrictions can be good for adding important decisions to games, I remember the fast travel being like this in the original. It worked kind of like etrian Odyssey where you'd have to make sure you were stocked up on items including fast travel items before setting out.

taxAHcruel

Entirely leaving out a "New game" option so you can not restart your game if you are not happy with something - really seems to have annoyed a few people online. Cynically then making things like "Change your characters appearance" a 2 dollar microtransaction on top of a 70ish dollar game seems to have annoyed them even more so.

Icyseanfitz

Played a small bit, really like it, don't mind the fast travel as it was similar in the first and that's a design decision they wanted (although micro transaction is greedy). The no new game is a weird thing as well but on PC it's easy enough to delete. Performance is useless on my 1080ti but that's on me.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121929940#Comment_121929940

You get three opportunities to change character appearance per cycle so again it's not a real issue unless you are an outrage merchant streamer.

johnny_ultimate

I wouldn’t be outraged about it, but it is a strange oversight to leave out a ‘new game’ option - so much so that Capcom has already announced they’re patching it in soon.

Not just for appearances sake - plenty of perfectly acceptable reasons why someone might want to begin a new game and start over.

Dave_The_Sheep

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121930389#Comment_121930389

Such as "I've paid for this game and want to be able to perform a basic function".

brady12

running well so far on my system on settings robbed from frame rated fella on you tube

brady12

I can tell aleady i'm going to love this . Only issue is I am on chapter 11 of rebirth be hard juggle both !

Retr0gamer

Game of the year

https://twitter.com/_Kimimi/status/1771594699544899655?t=1KJ4pg3jQFR4SuYYyU_QAA&s=19

brady12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121932006#Comment_121932006

Literally this just happened to me 10 min ago I couldn't stop smiling . I love it . Think it's giving me nostalgia skyrim vibes with the old school game play , low frame rate and the washed out world with dragons .

Icyseanfitz

really enjoying this, one of those hard to put down games

brady12

X2. Can't put it down despise frame rate .

brady12

Game was running fine yesterday and under the graphics memory now it's saying 7.58 gb /7.09 gb but I didn't change any setting wtf?? Is it because i'm outside first major city I wonder ?

ahnowbrowncow

I'm really enjoying this, it's improved on the original in nearly every aspect.

The lack of fast travelling hasn't been an issue for me. I've found plenty of ferrystones and you can purchase them in certain shops (fairly expensive) which restock after a certain amount of in game time. You still have to be economical with their use but combined with the oxcart fast travel, that allows instant travel to another town, I've been fast travelling over and back quite freely.

In saying that there is plenty of running about, mainly because when travelling on foot there are so many many caves off the beaten track and locations in the distance that I constantly get side tracked. The sense of exploration is great, reminds me somewhat of Elden Ring.

At the beginning, your character's max weight limit is quite low which was frustrating as it impacts your speed but it didn't take long to become less bothersome once I found items and bought equipment that increased it, plus it seems to increase every fifth level too.

Performance has been alright, a couple of rare moments in the city when frames dropped to the teens for a few seconds but overall it hasn't been noticeable. I haven't come across any bugs and there's been no crashes so it's very good on that front, especially for such a large game.

KkomradeWarrior

I really want to play Dogma even despite the negative reviews on Steam. The game itself is pretty fun judging by the streams and videos I've seen.

Retr0gamer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121934491#Comment_121934491

Just get it. The negative steam reviews are just moronic sheep influenced by streamer outrage and turns out the outrage isnt even based in any kind of reality. More than likely they haven't even played it.

Retr0gamer

https://twitter.com/sephmitchell/status/1771615967488901205?t=SHXDyNrOLuOpP9DgeYVzsw&s=19

Pwnage

brady12

very good 🤣

Sephiroth_dude

Was doing a cart mission where I had to deliver a message, on the first run I got attacked by a giant bird, a wyvern I think? it destroyed the cart and then I think because I got hit by my magic pawns lightning and went flying lol on the second run I was attacked by giant lizards and goblins, I'm loving this game, hard to put it down.