Well, we should find out momentarily.
The last two times EA put out these surveys, the game was unveiled within a month.
Out of curiosity, what games were those? I was figuring DA3 would be unveiled at the VGAs, but I suppose they could do a Game Informer cover in the next couple months and still do the VGAs for some kind of first trailer or something.
This game is gonna be terrible and get rated harsher even if it's better because critics gave a free pass to DA2 and they'll most likely own up to it.See FF13 and FF 13-2
Maybe...you did see the Dragon Age 2 DLC's get rated more harshly than DA2 even though the DLCs (while still not that good) fixed some issues the main game had. I think its just as likely your typical IGN review will be plastered with ads for it as they shower it with praise.
No problem!
I loved Origins, and theoretically a lot of the people that made that game are still there right?
Not really, no. I'm sure many of the non leads are still there, the people that are actually making the game. But with Origins, the leads changed during the project since it took so long to make. So James Ohlen started out as the Lead designer and a couple years in he moved to work on TOR. Then Brent Knowles took over, but he left BioWare after seeing the direction that BioWare/EA higher ups wanted to take Dragon Age 2 (more like Mass Effect). Dan Tudge, the executive producer of Origins also left after they completed the PC version of Origins in early 2009. David Gaider is still there. But for Dragon Age 2 they had a new lead designer, new executive producer and new art director, amongst other changes. Just compare the credits from Origins to DA2- there are a decent number of changes.
But given Bioware's recent output and attitude, I don't think they have the right priorities, and I doubt they actually understand why people hated DA2 so much. And even if they did, I don't think EA would let them make the game the way it should be made. It has to have the broadest appeal possible to sell what EA needs it to sell, and I don't think we're gonna get an RPG with that broad appeal without doing away with most of what made the genre interesting.
I agree, since Laidlaw and Darrah weren't in charge of making Origins, I don't know if they know why people liked it. Certainly not everyone liked Origins and it had its share of problems. But DA2 didn't really address those problems IMO. I'm guessing Dragon Age 3 will just be a more refined version of Dragon Age 2, just with the blatantly bad aspects of DA2 ironed out- no parachuting waves of enemies or recycled content. That way they can all say "Hey we listened to fan feedback!"
NWN was built all around multi-player, the main campaign was awful.
Very true. I know people that loved NWN but thats for the multiplayer communities that formed. And going by how EA has killed off modding and player generated content of late, any possible Dragon Age multiplayer would likely be more microtransaction laden, grinding rubbish.