Dragon Age 2 Announcement comes with DA: Awakening !!!

Indeeds.

Question 1) How in the 9 hells are they going to do that?

Question 2) See quesiton 1.

Same engine, plus some improvements over existing system. More or less like Mass Effect 2? Like next year's Mass Effect 3?

What they hell were they doing for four years before then? Working on the title? Devising the marketing before they stared doing any work?

"Guys... what about... 'This is the new shit?'" "THATS PERFECT John! Now we can start coding!"

What I mean is, I was under the impression that there was more content in DA and ME 1 or 2. This is not the case?

Wintersong got it right. It will most likely be a rebuild of the same engine with slightly improved graphics. Some people knocked DA:O for it's graphics, honestly I can't see why. Sure they could have went with "Crysis" high end graphics and pushed the system reqs, but why? The graphics more then get the job done and no one can say the game isn't amazing. I'm completely stoked for next year now.

Graphics are not a problem, thats the easy bit. You can easily scale up the outsourced talent for assets to whatever spec they need. Im talking about the quest content, the story and stuff. The feel of the world - the important stuff.

For ME sequels, It feels like a shooter so I don't really expect that much more than a plot, some shootery bits and some 'hot space chicks'. I expect quite a bit more from games who are real RPGs. Thats all.

DAO development took like 4-5 years (can't remember exactly when it was ANNOUNCED).

The game's content was locked down last spring, before E3 i think. The rest of the year was spent on polishing and testing etc. A month or so is needed for printing copies etc. Awakening has likely been in development since autumn or so.

Even if DLC and expansions are done by a smaller team, i don't think the rest can make DAO2 within 1.75y. Sure, there's likely to be enough story material and ideas, but building the game areas, making new stuff, testing, all this is going to take time, a lot of it, ESPECIALLY since "2" implies a whole, complete game, likely similar in scope and lenght as DAO. If they re-use every model, sound, texture, etc, maybe then they could make another game.. but it wouldn't be 2. More like 1.5. Or a DAO:Remix.

Most likely it's another expansion, or some sort of collection. Or maybe another Dragon Age game, but not DAO2, like different genre or something else. Not necessarily by Bioware either, EA owns BW, and thus, AFAIK, DA IP so they could've put another team to work on another DA game.

If i recall correctly, BW spokesperson said that they have plans for DLC for some 2 years. Maybe the plan's something like this: First (small, DLCs are tiny) expansion withing 3.5 months, maybe another later on... and then a year and a couple of months later first BIG expansion. And DLC every now and then.

True, I wouldn't be too worried though. Bioware has proven time and time again they won't put out a crap game. They have far too high of a reputation to uphold. Also they have a pretty big internal team. They can easily have full, dedicated teams, working on things like the SWTOR, Dragon Age 2, and any other projects they would decide to do at once while not compromising the "integrity" of any of their projects. I've never played a Bioware game I didn't like. They are one of the few companies out there I feel I can put "blind faith" in, though as a rule I don't encourage having blind faith in anything.

Sadly Ubisoft was another of those "golden" companies in my eyes that generally puts out quality games but their new draconian DRM has scared me away from ever buying another one of their games.

I would normally agree except that I know they have Huge internal teams. Also, they said from the start DA would be a "trilogy". Most likely part 2 has been half done for over a year and they finalized it's plans once they knew for sure DA 1 was a commercial hit. They're also using the same engine. Building with a bunch of tools they made and have experience with isn't a problem for them.

I'm also going out on a limb here and saying it will be pushed back, Bioware games usually are. Still, I'm pretty sure they can do it by then and we'll still have a top quality sequel. Chances are it's been in the works almost as long as part 1.

I hope they leave the engine/performance where it is, it was just perfrect IMO, fantastic art style, rich and smooth.

Probably the same way that Elemental was in development for how long with nothing to show for it, but once the tools were built content started appearing in a hurry?

Stardock's devs themselves have said that building the engine, tools, and support stuff is much more work then building the actual "game" itself. All that stuff is already in place for Dragon Age 2, all they need is content.

Mass Effect 1 was released the 20th November 2007, Mass Effect 2 was released the 26th January 2010. Without any type of expansion between (except 2 DLCs). That's more than 2 years, it's pretty reasonable.

But DA 2 comes a little more than 1 year late with a big expansion in the middle, I'm sorry, but it's too fast They have to build all the content, plus they have stated that they are going to rework the engine for better graphics. I hope they know what they are doing...

Edit:

link for the engine part: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/01/29/bioware-says-dragon-age-2-to-look-super-hot/

"I think one of the key things we're working on in Dragon Age 2 is the technology," BioWare VP Greg Zeschuk recently told Joystiq. "I can confirm that we're doing a lot of work on the Dragon Age engine, and doing a lot of stuff to pump it -- to make it visually super hot."

Which is why we are worried lmao.

Developers promising the world and not being able to deliver is not news.  Seeing as Bioware has a repuatation to uphold, the most likely scenario is that the overly optimistic release date will slip.

You are just jumping to conclusions. 

Announcing new stuff for february 2011 doesn't mean it's going to be an actual sequel.

In fact, I'm ready to bet it will be more likely a second big expansion, like Awakening.

I was also thinking about this. Is this really going to be "2"? (does anyone actualy have any real info other than the dragon and the date?)

I think I'll continue to wait patiently for the Dragon Age: All The Shit Is Included Now Edition. 

All I want to know is what the hell did morrigan do with the baby?

I don't think they would have changed the Logo just for another expansion. I guess it's "possible" they might, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure it's the sequel.

I didn't get a flier in my copy. I like pretty pics.

Nothing; moody bitch didn't get one in my timeline.

I see EA pushing to make the dev team to rush stuff out quick ...beware of the sequels getting shorter and lamer. hell this one was already 20 hours shorter than they're last independent release.