shinobi602 said:

This deserves to be watched: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WeZbGRglWs&feature=youtu.be

14 minutes of pure gameplay, though offscreen. The variety in the world is looking great, impressive visuals, and I'm loving the animations when he traverses the environment (getting stuck in mud, fumbling when walking down a mountain, putting effort to climb a hill, etc).

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Jibbajabbawockky said:

Here is the third part of the PAX demo which shows some more combat. It picks up at around the 5 minute mark from the 2nd video in the OP.

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IGN said:

You can play as a qunari...

The horned antagonists of Dragon Age II can, if you opt in, play a vital role in the waging war between mages and the Chantry, the rise of the long out-of-order Inquisition, and the general rescuing of Thedas from enemies beyond the Fade. You can also play as a female qunari -- not only is this the first time we're able to play as the race itself, it's the first time we'll even see a lady of their kind.
*snip*

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IGN said:

Exploring the open world...

Meandering through Thedas has a purpose. The team used a phrase I really like: "honest discovery." Dragon Age won't force you into a cave to fetch a book. Ideally, you'd stumble upon an opening, go in blind, and see what you find inside. On the larger scale, the sprawling spaces serve a bigger-picture purpose. Capturing keeps allows you to turn your growing army into a militant brute, a commercial enterprise, and more.
*snip*

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IGN said:

The Agent system...

Recruiting followers and amassing a trusted force comes naturally to a good leader, which is what you'll become as the Inquisitor in Dragon Age. This goes beyond companions. Your Agents are specialized units that take care of dirty work off-screen -- think Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker or Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood -- to create new opportunities with serious gameplay ramifications. In a simple example, we're shown a valley absorbed by poisonous gas. Should specialists head into the toxin and cap their source, you're able to explore what lies within.
*snip*

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IGN said:

Dragon Age: Inquisition is gorgeous, and brings the sort of A-game visual splendor you want at the turn of a console generation. Its scenery is beautiful, its spaces are dense, and its destruction looks as great as you'd expect -- and not in a "medieval Battlefield" sort of way. Rocks crumble beneath go-getter dragons tumbling into a structure. Bridges collapse when cut or detonated, boats burn when ignited -- which can halt an enemies' escape or resources long-term -- and combat bowls can be carved through to upend the level design.
*snip*

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IGN said:

Speaking of consequence, making tough calls has always been part of BioWare's legacy, but oftentimes the reaction to an action isn't quite what you expect. Selecting the "Shut up" option in Mass Effect, for example, may have led to an unexpected act of violence that didn't suit the character, or damaged something later on that you may not have expected. Now, when you highlight dialog, you'll see a text pop-up explaining what's likely to happen if you say or do something. This is optional, so if you'd rather not know that a village will certainly fall if you leave its under-attack inhabitants hanging, or you'd rather deal with it on your own terms, you can.

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Kotaku said:

This being a Dragon Age game, the story will likely go way deeper than that, and in Crestwood, which is under attack, I got to see one of the game's many plot-related decisions. Does the Inquisitor have his/her troops fight off the invaders at Crestwood, retreat to the keep, or stay to defend the wounded?

You can't see it here, but there's actually a new prompt that will appear above each choice when you make a major decision. It won't tell you what will happen as a result of your choice, but it will clarify what that option does, so you don't wind up accidentally beheading someone when you just wanted to threaten to cut off his legs, or something.

http://kotaku.com/the-next-dragon-age-is-crazy-ambitious-1232404991

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IGN said:

I loved the physicality of Dragon Age II's combat, but like many, especially PC players, I missed the almost-turn-based tactics level of stop-motion strategy from Origins' combat. That's back in Inquisition (on all platforms), so even console players can stop time, get a high-level view of the battlefield, and assign orders for each of their characters. You can assign move orders, spells, and attack patterns with quick grace, and jump right back into the fray for real-time slicing and dicing. A.I. states also let you assign behaviors to units, as usual, so you can send an aggressive character ahead of his or her teammates to take care of business while supporting them from afar.
*snip*

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What makes these new regions tougher is the fact that enemies don't auto-scale to the player's level in Inquisition, meaning you might wander into a landscape full of high-powered enemies capable of wiping you out in mere seconds if you haven't put in the proper amount of leveling. But come back to that area after you've spent some time exploring other parts of the world and it might be a different story.

"I want players to say, wow, that's an enormous dragon and I can't kill him right now," says Laidlaw. "But I'm gonna gear up and bring the right party, learn the right abilities, and we're going to go dragon slaying later. Other times, you'll come across a few low-level bandits and you'll get the satisfaction of just taking them out."

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Yet it's not all about making things easier. In one important way, the combat has been made more punishing: your party no longer auto-heals at the end of a big fight. This means you'll need to manage your healing items and resources as you descend deeper into caves and enemy strongholds, ensuring you've done the proper amount of prep work before embarking on a lengthy quest into the unknown.

"What we want to do is say, stop thinking about the encounter. Don't think, if I can just get one guy to the end of this fight everyone will magically come back to life. We want you to think more about the adventure. We want you to think about the long term."

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Put a different way, BioWare wants to replace the claustrophobic basements and tunnels of Dragon Age II with a sprawling sandbox designed to let players create their own stories. The demo BioWare brought to Seattle for PAX showcased a couple different environments: the lush hills of Crestwood and the arid badlands of the Deep Desert. Crestwood alone, according to BioWare, is bigger than all of Dragon Age II while still "not even close" to being the biggest environment in Inquisition.

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Kotaku said:

There's no level-scaling, so you won't have to worry about getting crushed by bandits that should be five levels lower than you. There will also be various difficulty sliders, like one for friendly fire. "We're trying to have more variety," Laidlaw said.

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Kotaku said:

As you progress, you'll take on side-quests, slay dragons, and capture keeps—what Darrah calls "beachheads" on the frontiers of war. When you capture a keep, you can use it as a town and take advantage of its abilities by stationing members of your army to help do things like restore giant mechanical robots or maintain alchemy labs.

There's also a main stronghold that the Inquisition will call home, but they're not showing that one off yet.

Once we capture the keep, it turns into a town of sorts. We can shop, rest, hang out, and station soldiers there.

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Kotaku said:

So we fight through this keep, killing Red Templar with the new topdown tactical system, maneuvering our four-person party to flank and surround enemies. Eventually we get inside the fortress, where our characters can actually use the environment to defeat enemies—a first for an RPG like this. Our Inquisitor uses his fire sword to burn down the loose tower that holds up a rickety scaffolding, taking a bunch of baddies with it. (Not sure why enemies always decide to stand on rickety scaffolding, but hey—it's convenient.)

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Kotaku said:

It looks phenomenal—we won't really know what next-gen can do until it's running in our living rooms, but it's hard not to be impressed by what companies like BioWare have done with particle effects and facial animations.

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PC Gamer said:

The broad area that the game will cover includes Ferelden, Orlais, Nevarra and the Free Marches. The map I was shown didn’t extend as far north as Tevinter and Antiva or further south than Ferelden’s Kocari Wilds. If you’re a fan familiar with Thedas’ layout then that should give you some idea of the scope, though I don’t know exactly how many of these open-world zones there will be – nor how the game will handle cities. Nontheless, it feels fair to say that it’s looking pretty big.

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"Tactical mode from origins is back for ALL platforms"

"Summary info on decisions showing in convo wheel"

"Player destroyed a bridge with archers on it and they all fell to their deaths. Destruction baby"

"Huge dragon just flew through swirling green gas and knocked the party over before flying off"

"Small slide deck to talk about how capturing keeps in the game work"

"Mark - you decide how to deploy your troops and agents in the world."

"Mark - Customize your keeps, make them dedicated to spies, commerce or military might #DragonAgeInquisition"

"Mark - capturing keeps open ways to hangs the physical landscape around the keep"

"You can use right action combat camera or tactical top down camera whenever you want. It's your game."

"Seeing the keep the inquisitor captured fully populated by the inquisitors solders, agents, merchants etc"

"We've built a sulfur mine but a HUGE dragon just came and tore a huge chunk out of it"

"Mike - each dragon is a hand crafted, touch challenge with special rewards. Lets go check it out"

"Dragon flying past breathing fire"

"Dragon crushes through buildings"

"Demo is over!!! Teasing the dragon fight only"

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Seemingly much of the party:

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Conversation wheel

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Dragonzord said:

well... it can't all be good news.

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]

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foxtrot3d said:

What's wrong with the convo wheel? I fucking love the convo wheel.

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Darklord said:

No neutral choice? :'(

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Zeliard said:

Snippets of gameplay here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXnA4ah7uqM

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Zeliard said:

Snippets of gameplay here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXnA4ah7uqM

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ComputerMKII said:

Dem low-res textures and square curves

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Zeliard said:

Snippets of gameplay here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXnA4ah7uqM

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Dragonzord said:

an example


voiced protagonist ruins dialogue variety.

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Zeliard said:

Snippets of gameplay here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXnA4ah7uqM

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gfdoom said:

Hrrrmm...Dragon's Dogma still seems to have better combat than this. Especially when they had large Dragons and other creatures landing in the middle of open fields while you battled.

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foxtrot3d said:

Thing is in that example you provided the dialogue wheel offers all of those convo options. It's just that "investigative" questions and in a separate dialogue tree from your actual decisions. I think the convo wheel works fine, I am not a fan when they try and limit it or take away choices. In ME3 they basically eliminated the neutral choice, now I understand that in ME3 you couldn't be neutral anymore about some things, but not everything.

So while I agree that voiced dialogue does limit the amount of responses you have BioWare has proven in the past that they can still offer just as much. Mass Effect 1 was a prime example of the convo wheel. DA2 and ME3 are the worst examples.

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Zeliard said:

Snippets of gameplay here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXnA4ah7uqM

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rafaelr said:

adam sessler interview (with gameplay snippets) with mark darrah:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSepo_GZS1A

looks pretty nice, especially that dragon taking off

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Dragonzord said:

an example


voiced protagonist ruins dialogue variety.

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DieH@rd said:

Isometric view is back?

My interest just skyroteted for 1000000%.

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Enosh said:

silent protagonist was one of the worst thing about DA:O

and I am quite sure that game had some 1. 2. 3. options just as ME had some with 5 or more options

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Dragonzord said:

an example


voiced protagonist ruins dialogue variety.

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Dragonzord said:

Dragon's Dogma was more action than RPG. They're totally different games other than the fact that they're based on typical fantasy concepts. I don't get the comparisons. I would hate Dragon Age if they tried to focus on jumping on dragons and doing lite Capcom combos.

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Dragonzord said:

Did you play any RPGs prior to Mass Effect?

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Dragonzord said:

Dragon's Dogma was more action than RPG. They're totally different games other than the fact that they're based on typical fantasy concepts. I don't get the comparisons. I would hate Dragon Age if they tried to focus on jumping on dragons and doing lite Capcom combos.

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