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BioWare: Dragon Age 3 "looks stunningly beautiful", "people won't be disappointed"

Complistic

Member
I believe you only get that line if you sleep with her in the game, but not during the ritual.

For instance, if you're playing a female warden and you didn't do the ritual... how would she still be pregnant?

are you guys really arguing plot points? Bioware doesn't care about your previous decisions. You can straight up decapitate leliana in Origins and she'll still show up in DA2 like nothing happened.
 

Trigger

Member
As long as my character from Dragon Age 1 carries over DA3 , I am willing to give the series another chance.

So never?

lol, they've said before that the Warden's story is over. At most we'll get the chance to fill in a few details before the story steamrolls over your decisions.
 

freddy

Banned
Welcome to modern PR where we ,objectively and without any bias at all, tell you how our new game will be shit hot and you and all your friends should buy it.
 

Mxrz

Member
I'm one of those weird types that enjoyed DA2 more than DA:O. I still think it was better gamewise. DA:O just had too much bloat and only one or two interesting companions. The overall plot felt like a lotr spin, and constantly exposition'ing about the chantry and mages got old so damn fast. There was a lot of -game- there, but it all felt like the standard Bioware-trip-101.

But anyway. Only way I won't be disappointed is if DA3 just drops the setting entirely and starts fresh. DA2 was pretty good at distancing itself from all that nonsense they were pushing (up until the trackwreck last chapter). A more personalized story is way more interesting than yet another big generic "go to these 4 places" Bioware plot.

The trouble with DA2 was despite the step up in most of the companions and plot/quests, two of the companions set a new bar on the terrible-bioware-emo level to the point of being nauseating, and the final act was a narrative train wreck. If the game had ended with the Qunari chapter, and relied on wave-combat a little less, it could've been a standout game. I don't think they'll try to capitalize on that, but instead they'll likely swing all the way back to the other extreme to try 'make up' for the outcry.

So meh.

Also expecting some kind of competitive multiplayer.
 

Aaron

Member
Almost every idea in the world has been recycled thousands of times. There is nothing new under the sun when it comes to writing. So the only thing you can hope for is that fantasy tropes will be done well.
No matter how many times someone says this it doesn't make it less bullshit.

The devil is in the details. It's not what you do, but how you do it. The Mass Effect side of Bioware know how to tell a story, even if they sometimes fumble the larger details. DA ranges from tolerable to 'walking in on your grandparents having sex' awkward. Their writers have the worst sort of instincts when it comes to dialogue and some major plot points. They don't know how to finesse anything, so actions come out of nowhere, and villains are usually the 'hahaha I am so evil / possessed' variety. There is zero subtext. Zero suspense. They should be ashamed they made voice actors mumble through suck unreadable tripe.
 

EDarkness

Member
No matter how many times someone says this it doesn't make it less bullshit.

The devil is in the details. It's not what you do, but how you do it. The Mass Effect side of Bioware know how to tell a story, even if they sometimes fumble the larger details. DA ranges from tolerable to 'walking in on your grandparents having sex' awkward. Their writers have the worst sort of instincts when it comes to dialogue and some major plot points. They don't know how to finesse anything, so actions come out of nowhere, and villains are usually the 'hahaha I am so evil / possessed' variety. There is zero subtext. Zero suspense. They should be ashamed they made voice actors mumble through suck unreadable tripe.

Reading this just made me think about Anders. Man, those bastards really screwed up his character. Pissed me off so much I had no desire to continue. Just bad writing all around in Dragon Age 2.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
But does it have gay romances?

That's most important question to Bioware remaining Bioware fanbase usually ;)

the most important question is what form will it take - will I be able to fuck everybody regardless of my sex or do I have to do it in a separate downloadable gay city?
 

Carcetti

Member
Could people stop posting the Bioware cliche chart. It's a terrible chart where half of the 'insights' are reaching too hard. I'm sure the regulatory Bioware hate can be gotten from other sources like Dragon Age 2 reused maps.

"Your journey is thwarted by evil people" OH MA GAWD IT IS SO. THAT IS SO BIOWARE.

Or in "your must travel to four places" It lists Mass Effect as Artemis Tau Cluster (wtf), Noveria, Feros and Virmire bypassing such things as Ilos or Citadel because the shitty chartmaker couldn't even count.
 

Giran

Member
For most people it's probably virtually impossible to be disappointed at this point. But not because this one looks stunning.
 

Moonlight

Banned
Frankly visuals were the least of Dragon Age's problems. If prettier execution comes at the expense of shallower choice and consequences, BioWare isn't getting any more out of me.
 
Bioware disappointed me with both Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 so I can not feel excited about anything they are planning to release. They lost a lot of their credibility when they got taken over by EA.
 

Fezan

Member
I m not into rpgs much but loved origins was disappointed by DA:2 due to recycled environment limited to one city and that ending where my choices mattered nothing but still had fun with it.
but the graphics in DA:2 were a step behind from origins and their dx11 implementation was broken at least they will fix one of the problems by shifting to frostbite
 

Jawmuncher

Member
Setting their selves up for fan backlash with a comment like that. Personally ill play it, didnt mind DA2. Worse thing was just the repeat areas and Kirkwall.
 

Sentenza

Member
I still expect this to not be anywhere near as pretty and colorful as The Witcher 2.
That said, graphics aren't even my main concern with the game.

Dragon Age: Origin was a decent, interesting formula, somehow ruined by a few heavy shortcomings. While it was an acceptable attempt to reproduce the "Baldur's Gate feeling" in a modern engine, the game was based on an incredibly dull ruleset and it lacked variety in the bestiary and in encounter design. Not to mention terrible quest design in most of the sidequests.

I had good expectations for DA2 to improve over the flaws of the original. What we get instead was an inferior product in almost every single aspect, which was also embarrassingly rushed in several areas and repeated its content in a borderline-insulting degree.

In the end I would be glad if they can prove me wrong, but I'm not expecting anything good from Bioware anymore.
I just don't think they are competent and passionate enough.
 

Acheteedo

Member
Really looking forward to this. Bioware still makes great stuff in my eyes, ME3 and DA2 had some serious problems but I really enjoyed them both for the most part.
 

robin2

Member
Graphics aren't even my main concern with the game.

Dragon Age: Origin was a decent, interesting formula, somehow ruined by a few heavy shortcomings. While it was an acceptable attempt to reproduce the "Baldur's Gate feeling" in a modern engine, the game was based on an incredibly dull ruleset and it lacked variety in the bestiary and in encounter design. Not to mention terrible quest design in most of the sidequests.

I had good expectations for DA2 to improve over the flaws of the original. What we get instead was an inferior product in almost every single aspect, which was also embarrassingly rushed in several areas and repeated its content in a borderline-insulting degree.

In the end I would be glad if they can prove me wrong, but I'm not expecting anything good.
That's my take too.
 
I don't have very high expectations for DA3. I suspect they will keep moving away from the DA1 formula, which was superior to DA2 in almost every way.
 

Chromie

Banned
No matter how many times someone says this it doesn't make it less bullshit.

The devil is in the details. It's not what you do, but how you do it. The Mass Effect side of Bioware know how to tell a story, even if they sometimes fumble the larger details.


Lol, oh you! I thought you were being serious.
 

Rubius

Member
the most important question is what form will it take - will I be able to fuck everybody regardless of my sex or do I have to do it in a separate downloadable gay city?

Well, I dont see why you should be able to fuck everybody, since not everybody is gay. Give the option to hit on everybody, yes. Fuck? No. They need to give a sex bar with a % of chance he can go in a Gay relationship. With a penality for failing repeated attempted.
 

Sentenza

Member
Well, I dont see why you should be able to fuck everybody, since not everybody is gay. Give the option to hit on everybody, yes. Fuck? No. They need to give a sex bar with a % of chance he can go in a Gay relationship. With a penality for failing repeated attempted.
I don't think you were supposed to take his post seriously.
 

WARP10CK

Banned
People won't be disappointed you say ? hmmm

skeptical-cat-PJ7R2v.jpg
 

Patryn

Member
Yeah if I had to guess I would say it has both campaign co-op (Edmonton) and some kind of separate co-op and/or competitive mode (Montreal).

If it has campaign co-op, I think people can give up the hope that the gameplay will return to something approximating that of DA:O and we should begin to expect it to be a straight up action RPG.

If it's not, I'll be shocked, but I can't see how they'd reconcile the pause and issue orders with console co-op.

I really wish I could find that old quote of Bioware from around the release of DA:O where they talked about how Dragon Age would never become a fantasy Mass Effect. Good times.
 

injurai

Banned
I want to believe.

In general EA is good with most new IPs or the first Sequals to hit next gen systems. Then they progressively get shittier as each generation wears on...
 

StUnNeR H2K

Member
Why even tease it? If it's really amazing then just blow our minds when you show it without talking about it.

Didn't they do the same thing with DA2? Talk about how amazing it looked compared to Origins? That worked well....
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
If it has campaign co-op, I think people can straight up give up the hope that the gameplay will return to something approximating that of DA:O and we should begin to expect it to be a straight up action RPG.

If it's not, I'll be shocked, but I can't see how they'd reconcile the pause and issue orders with console co-op.

I really wish I could find that old quote of Bioware from around the release of DA:O where they talked about how Dragon Age would never become a fantasy Mass Effect. Good times.

They kept mentioning Baldur's Gate as an example of how they would do online in interviews. How did they handle the online co-op pausing there? Serious question, I never tried online in it.

---

Also for those who don't like clicking links, here are their survey items from Jibbajabbawockky that they'd presumably never ask about if they weren't already in the game.

da3dfuxm.png
 

Patryn

Member
They kept mentioning Baldur's Gate as an example of how they would online in interviews. How did they handle the online co-op pausing there? Serious question, I never tried online in it.

I believe both players have the ability to pause, and when one player pauses, it's paused for everybody.

Which, yes, is a possible way to work it. But I just suspect that modern console gamers may not have the patience for that, especially if you're playing over a network.

I think it's undeniable that the series has been veering into a much more action-oriented direction, I'm just projecting where the final destination will be.

It also may be cynical of me, but it's not unknown for Bioware to spread half-truths and lies while invoking the name of Baldur's Gate while talking about DA. Recall that Bioware said that Dragon Age 2 will at least be as great as Baldur's Gate 2 in the pre-release hype for that game.
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I believe both players have the ability to pause, and when one player pauses, it's paused for everybody.

Which, yes, is a possible way to work it. But I just suspect that modern console gamers may not have the patience for that, especially if you're playing over a network.

I think it's undeniable that the series has been veering into a much more action-oriented direction, I'm just projecting where the final destination will be.

It also may be cynical of me, but it's not unknown for Bioware to spread half-truths and lies while invoking the name of Baldur's Gate while talking about DA. Recall that Bioware said that Dragon Age 2 will at least be as great as Baldur's Gate 2 in the pre-release hype for that game.

Yeah I'm thinking they might just do it like ME3's multiplayer and not have a pause in multiplayer.
 

ironcreed

Banned
So, will we be getting more than 3 locations reused throughout the entire game? Seriously, I will be giving them the benefit of the doubt because I really want it to be good. I'm sure most here do as well.
 

Kinyou

Member
"There was a pre-production period where almost on a weekly basis I'd be sitting in the environment reviews and being blown away by what was coming out - it looks stunningly beautiful. So I think when we do start releasing screenshots, people won't be disappointed."
I wonder if they love the enviroments so much that they will use them over and over and over.
 
Fix the bugs, BioWare! No more "Isabela can't be used on PS3 for the first 8 weeks" bullshit. No more "if you go in this cave, you lose all your armor for no reason". Seriously. Awakening is unplayable to this day on PS3 (without using Wikia as a bug road map), and you never did bother to fix it. DAO was full of them too.

People complain about game design choices, but shoddy QA is by far a worse offender.
 

Deadly Cyclone

Pride of Iowa State
Welcome to modern PR where we ,objectively and without any bias at all, tell you how our new game will be shit hot and you and all your friends should buy it.

Modern PR? Isn't this how PR has always worked?
"Our medicine tablets cure ALL disease!"

Anywho, glad to hear the game will be a bit more colorful. I just hope they nail the gameplay.
 
Yeah I'm thinking they might just do it like ME3's multiplayer and not have a pause in multiplayer.

That would likely make sense since it always felt like their big push with the combat in DA2 was to marginalize the real time with pause aspect of party based combat and push people into just playing it in real time. What with the console versions lacking the auto-attack, or at least having the game default to not having auto-attack and requiring people to spam the basic attack button.

Yet, I don't know how you properly implement full party control and satisfying tactical combat without designing your game around pausing and playing from the start.

On the topic of multiplayer, I'm just remembering this story from November 2011 on how DA3 would have some arena mode multiplayer:
The multiplayer is supposedly an arena-based affair and features player versus environment (PvE) elements as well as player versus player (PvP), as well as humans fighting dragons. Details on what PvE battles entail are scant.

Especially if the multiplayer has player versus player competitive multiplayer of some kind, I can't see how they'd accommodate pausing with that.
 

Patryn

Member
That would likely make sense since it always felt like their big push with the combat in DA2 was to marginalize the real time with pause aspect of party based combat and push people into just playing it in real time. What with the console versions lacking the auto-attack, or at least having the game default to not having auto-attack and requiring people to spam the basic attack button.

Yet, I don't know how you properly implement full party control and satisfying tactical combat without designing your game around pausing and playing from the start.

On the topic of multiplayer, I'm just remembering this story from November 2011 on how DA3 would have some arena mode multiplayer:


Especially if the multiplayer has player versus player competitive multiplayer of some kind, I can't see how they'd accommodate pausing with that.

If it's confined to an arena, I can actually see it being similar to ME3's multiplayer: Pick your loadout of six skills, items on the D-pad, you control only one character. At that point, I can see a no-pause system working.

Under that system, they can retain a pause and issue orders system for the main campaign, same as ME3 did.

The trouble comes if they make the campaign multiplayer.
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
I really hope they've taken the time to figure out how to handle the "choices" in the game in more practical way. I never had a huge problem with the content itself, it's not always that amazing or anything but I never found it offensive like many people, but I have always been annoyed by their very nature.

It's cool that your actions can have major ramifications on the outcome of the plot and everything, more so in DAO than DA2, but the problem is that for a multiple entry franchise it's meaningless. Those variations are too great and have to ultimately be marginalized in sequels or outright ignored. So I would prefer it if BioWare chose to make those "meaningful choices" impact things that weren't so far reaching but were more specialized to the player's immediate journey.

At the end of DAO I cared much more about seeing how that tavern girl I helped out ended up or what became of the other random persons I encountered along the way much more than most of the major plot variations. The Witcher definitely excels in this field. Much more emphasis is put on actions that affect the now and soon to be on the small and medium scale rather than affecting the far away and grand things. And those choices that do affect major events are really limited, so the permutations of them are very minor for future installments in the series to take into account, so you can be fairly certain they'll be accounted for.
 

Nokterian

Member
Very sceptical about this. Looking how other developers using the Frostbite 2 engine with not enough time and getting forced by EA to work harder in a small time frame even with this game has a bit more time then the shitmountain called DA2. Look at NFS The Run and MoH Warfighter same goes for the new really dumb move from EA to make C&C F2P.

Those guys had never enough time to learn the new engine and benefit what can be done to improve it. DICE knows the engine better since they made it off course. Playing aftermath showed how well dice is with the engine on this stage and making better overall even with BF4 on the horizon.
 
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