Dragon Age 2 - Hi-Res Texture Pack

Remove all ads!

I tried to avoid a Dragon Age 2 newsbit but this is too important. BioWare has released the Hi-Res Texture Pack for the PC that apparently missed the retail disk (and presumably current digital versions) because it wasn't ready in time. The details on the 1.08Gb pack:

High Resolution Texture Pack for the PC version of Dragon Age II This will add the option to enable higher detail replacements for most textures in game. A big difference will be noticed on level art especially.

Requirements:
Using high-resolution textures requires a graphics card with at least 1024MB video memory.
Most of the benefits from the Hi-resolution textures will only be seen if you are able to run the game in DirectX 11.

To manually download your new content on the PC:

• Download the installer from the link below and run it.
• Run Dragon Age II.
• Open the Options menu.
• Select Video options.
• Check the "Hi-resolution textures" checkbox.

Note: In order to enable the "Very High" setting you will need a video card that supports DX11 and the latest drivers.​

 

First the auto-attack issue, now this?

It annoys me to no end when companies release games in an unfinished state and expect buyers to download/patch it up after release. This is why I prefer the policy of Blizzard and Arenanet (we will release it, when it is done).

 

Well, look at it this way, at least it's getting released rather than cut. I don't see an issue with this personally.

So you get the game, and you have one more thing to download. Oh well. Only those with high end GPUs will even need to bother downloading this anyway, so it seems a reasonable item to choose for delay if something has to be delayed.

Blizzard has had their share of bugs, so while they certainly do better than most when it comes to releasing a finished product, there are issues with their games on release day too.

 

So I should be thanking Bioware for releasing something that should have been in the game in the first place instead of cutting it? Personally, these 2 issues will not bother me (I do not own a console, and graphics are not a major issue for me in games) but the trend of having buyers download something because of developers going “oops, no time to add this in the game” is not acceptable. It is already causing dissatisfaction among the console players regarding the auto-attack problem and having more problems to add on to it does Bioware no credit. Didn’t Troika go down in flames partly because they have released unfinished games again and again (ToEE, Arcanum and Bloodlines)? I loved them, but the trend of releasing unfinished games most likely made them lose the confidence of their consumers and publishers. I’d rather they just take their time to release a more polished and finished product instead of announcing an unrealistic release date and not delivering.

I have also used a 56kbp modem for the most of my life (and my current connection is pretty crappy) and these type of additional downloads cause me a lot of problems. Which is why I am extra annoyed when games are released with a lot of extra downloading to fix.

And regarding bugs, all games have bugs and the nature of PC gaming would mean that this problem will most likely never go away but at least companies can try to root out most of the major ones before releasing it.

 

Yeah, I guess it's sort of the nature of the beast in big business. The release isn't going to be allowed to slip except for an act of god. So the options are cut the unfinished content entirely, charge for it later, or release it for free later.

Of those options, I'm happy with the one we got. Some stuff just isn't worth getting overly worked up over, in my humble opinion of course. I mean s**t happens, as they say.

 

I don’t mind cut content as long as they do it cleverly (no unresolved/dead end quests/plots). I know that profit is the name of the game and downloadable content is here to stay.

But what bugs me is the developers leaving out features or having extremely buggy/unpolished releases only to have buyers download patches/fixes (that can be quite large) after release. This should not be overlooked (but it unfortunately is) to pressure publishers to give developers more time and to pressure developers to iron out these issues before release. THIS is why I am highlighting this even though the problems in DA2 do not concern me. I’ve pointed out Troika (that has gone the way of the Dodo) as an example and another would be Obsidian. Alpha Protocol was released in a very unpolished state (I loved that game, but it was buggy and frustrating as hell to play) as was Fallout New Vegas (I have not played it, but I have read everywhere about how buggy the game was) requiring later patches to fix. These incidents must have damaged Obsidian’s credibility quite abit.

Thankfully, Bioware has been pretty good in this so far and I hope that this is an isolated incident and not spread to other games it is developing.

 

When release dates get pushed back, gamers get very, very angry.

It's due to a sense of entitlement that some of them seem to have.

 

It took me around 15 minutes to download the texture pack. I simply downloaded it while the game was installing, so it didn't really seem like I had to wait at all.

 

Then, I guess we gamers as a whole reap what we sow and deserve what we get.

Good for you. But not everyone has the luxury of a good online connection.