14 DAY TRIAL // Dragon Age 2 has just been launched today in North America for the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and BioWare has already unleashed a special treat for PC owners: the high resolution texture pack, which we announced earlier today.
But, considering the texture pack weighs in at a hefty 1.08GB and is only recommended to those with powerful computers who can play Dragon Age 2 in DirectX 11 mode and with graphics cards that have over 1GB of memory, the decision of whether or not to use it is a bit hard to make.
As such, we decided to see what actual effect these new textures have on game quality, and compiled a video of the game running in both regular mode, on the Very High visual setting, and in high texture mode, at the same setting.
In the video below, you'll be able to see the regular resolution game in the left side, and the high resolution in the right.
Our first impressions aren't all that great, however.
As you can see more carefully in the picture of this article, the differences between the two textures are quite small.
The most important thing is that some textures, like those on the handles of swords or staffs, aren't that blurry in high res mode. Scratches and dents in armor are also a bit more highlighted, but you really need to examine the two games side by side in order to observe such things.
Another interesting difference is that the high resolution mode is a bit brighter than the regular one, which is darker, even on the highest gamma setting.
We chose to play as female mages in the examples below, hoping to see some better particle physics or spell effects. Sadly, that hasn't happened, as the effects were pretty much the same.
If you still want to download the Dragon Age 2 high resolution texture pack, you can do so right now from Softpedia.
Check out our comparison video of Dragon Age 2 with and without the high resolution texture pack below.