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Dragon Age 3 PAX Info (Qunari, Iso View, Agents, Strongholds) [Up4: 14 & 10 Min Vids]

LastNac

Member
Voiced protagonist, real-time combat, minimal choices in dialogue.

Reasons I disliked Dragon Age 2.

BioWare, why do you not listen to your fans??????
 

Zephyrus

Banned
very interested in.

Still want to know how my progress in DA2 will pass to the ps4 version.

Count me in Bioware.

I am one of the few who actually preferred Dragon Age's 2 gameplay compared to DA origins.
 
Game doesn't look half bad. I'm still pretty cautious because Bioware hasn't provided a satisfying cRPG in ages imo. It seems like they're trying to do that with this, while still giving twitch aRPG players satisfaction as well. I really don't see that working out for them. Why would I ever use tactical view outside of a few instances, like pausing to get my guys to heal up during a heated battle, if I could, theoretically, avoid most if not all damage Dodge rolling in the OTS view?
I also don't trust Bioware to weave an interesting story in this one either, or have any sort of meaningful choices besides binary black and white scenarios. They haven't shown me they can do any of that in a long long while.
So for me the games looks good graphically, and shows promise in other areas, but Bioware lost my faith a while ago and its going to take more than some fancy graphics and PR speak to get me back on board.
 

shiroryu

Member
Looks good, but I'd rather wait for the tactical themes, interplaying skill sets (Grease -> Fireball, Stun -> Coup de grace kinda thing) and the deeper combat mechanics (how does aggression work?) to actually enjoy it. Scripted set-pieces like taking down buildings don't really do it past the first playthrough, and DA has always been big on replayability (at least DA:O was).
 

Piecake

Member
Game doesn't look half bad. I'm still pretty cautious because Bioware hasn't provided a satisfying cRPG in ages imo. It seems like they're trying to do that with this, while still giving twitch aRPG players satisfaction as well. I really don't see that working out for them. Why would I ever use tactical view outside of a few instances, like pausing to get my guys to heal up during a heated battle, if I could, theoretically, avoid most if not all damage Dodge rolling in the OTS view?
I also don't trust Bioware to weave an interesting story in this one either, or have any sort of meaningful choices besides binary black and white scenarios. They haven't shown me they can do any of that in a long long while.
So for me the games looks good graphically, and shows promise in other areas, but Bioware lost my faith a while ago and its going to take more than some fancy graphics and PR speak to get me back on board.

Well, if they have varying difficulty levels and you are playing on super hard it might be necessary considering that you don't heal up for battles and you have limited potions. You'd probably need the greater control and planning that the iso camera provides in that situation. And you might be able to dodge roll to victory for one character, but you wont be able to do it for the other 3

Question: how many dodge rolls do you think we will get? personally, I would like a limmited amount in battle, say 2-3, but have that at least regenerate after battle. It can be a slow regeneration, but you should slowly get back your stamina
 
The negative and doubters are so critical about the most superficial things. Makes me wonder how you ever enjoy any

Game looks awesome to me and for sure a day one buy
 

WanderingWind

Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
The negative and doubters are so critical about the most superficial things. Makes me wonder how you ever enjoy any

Game looks awesome to me and for sure a day one buy

...as opposed to "OMG DAY 1!!!!" off snippets of carefully cultivated PR videos?

I'd say a healthy amount of skepticism is probably prudent, considering their recent track record of saying one thing and doing the exact opposite. It'd behoove all sides to wait before decrying it as another POS like DA2 or salivating too hard because they're telling us things we want to hear.
 

Nerokis

Member
It is wrong that I'm mostly following this game to gauge how Mass Effect 4 is going to look?

It actually seems to me BioWare is doing the same thing. The impression I'm getting is that Mass Effect 4 is still in the earliest stages of development, and Dragon Age 3 is sort of their testbed for what can be done with Frostbite 3, this or that concept, and so forth. DA3 is their vessel into the next generation, and ME4's development is tied to it. If everything turns out well with this game, I'm expecting ME4 to be ridiculously amazing.
 

Ceebs

Member
Nope! Still no faith in this game to be anything above average,

It takes more than PR to win me over after a mediocre first game and awful sequel.
 

Twinduct

Member
Looks decent!
But man that crowd was driving me insane, do they honestly have to applaud at every instance?

Quite optimistic about this now.
 
Doesn't quite live up to what I would expect Frostbite 3 is capable of, however it's a HUGE step up from the previous Dragon Age games... it's just unfortunate that the game play and game design doesn't seem to have followed on as much with it's evolution.

Combat looks probably a lot more refined but I'm still not sure if it will grab me like I want it to.
 

delirium

Member
It seemed they regressed (IMO) some systems back into DA:O. It looks like you still have to individual pick herbs and other crafting materials. I actually like DA2's system where you just need to find a source to make it.
 

Chrysalis

Member
I'm liking just about everything I read. My concerns are what I'm not reading:

1) Can Bioware still tell a decent story? Hasn't happened in a while.
2) Ok, yay, open world blah blah. But is all of that open world content meaningful or just bland copy and paste?

As for the VA debate, I am SO GLAD we get a voiced protagonist. The DA:O scenes were so freaking awkward. The Witcher series has proven you can have interesting dialogue and choices with VA's; it's just a matter of whether Bioware can pull it off.
 

Piecake

Member
It seemed they regressed (IMO) some systems back into DA:O. It looks like you still have to individual pick herbs and other crafting materials. I actually like DA2's system where you just need to find a source to make it.

Yea, I did as well. Personally, I think source nodes make even more sense for this game considering that you are now apart of an organization and have a stronghold. You'd think you could send some of your loser minions to the nodes you found to pick them for you, or at least delegate loser gathering minions to gather resources for you. It can be tied to the strength and size of your stronghold
 

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
Other than Cassandra's busted up face, everything so far is looking really good. I had hoped BioWare would learn from their past mistakes and come back strong with DAI and so far it looks like they have, I now hope they can keep it up and surprise us more.

Yea, I did as well. Personally, I think source nodes make even more sense for this game considering that you are now apart of an organization and have a stronghold. You'd think you could send some of your loser minions to the nodes you found to pick them for you, or at least delegate loser gathering minions to gather resources for you. It can be tied to the strength and size of your stronghold

I think it's a balancing act. DA2s source system makes more sense given your role in the game, but DAOs way makes things more challenging because there will always been a limited supply, as well as the cost benefit of roaming around the map looking for 5 elfroots to make a potion when you might encounter a number of fights that could cost you a few potions.

In the end I think it may be the better way of doing things even if it makes less sense thematically. It provides a far greater cost benefit element to the game and it provides a major incentive to explore the now vastly lager maps as well as making them feel more alive and natural.

Ideally though they would use both systems. DAOs for collecting organic materials, and DA2s for collecting minerals. It makes sense to have to collect herbs one by one spread across the map, while it makes equal sense to mine a dedicated source of silverite or lyrium or what have you that doesn't just pop out X amount there and then and is gone.
 
Voiced protagonist (say it like plinkett) doesn't have to be a bad thing in terms of dialogue. You just need a good developer who isn't going to reduce content for the sake of streamlined forced epicness.

Nothing quite like the, on average, 8-9 meaningful choices you get in a Fallout or Baldur's Gate compared to the 1-3 essentially identical choices you get in one of these modern (butt sucking) Bioware games
 

SerRodrik

Member
It seemed they regressed (IMO) some systems back into DA:O. It looks like you still have to individual pick herbs and other crafting materials. I actually like DA2's system where you just need to find a source to make it.

Yeah, but that system was so boring. It wasn't a crafting system, it was just another store where you could buy potions and such for gold, it's just the stock was limited by what random resource nodes you found in the wilderness. Completely unsatisfying as a crafting system.
 

Piecake

Member
Other than Cassandra's busted up face, everything so far is looking really good. I had hoped BioWare would learn from their past mistakes and come back strong with DAI and so far it looks like they have, I now hope they can keep it up and surprise us more.



I think it's a balancing act. DA2s source system makes more sense given your role in the game, but DAOs way makes things more challenging because there will always been a limited supply, as well as the cost benefit of roaming around the map looking for 5 elfroots to make a potion when you might encounter a number of fights that could cost you a few potions.

In the end I think it may be the better way of doing things even if it makes less sense thematically. It provides a far greater cost benefit element to the game and it provides a major incentive to explore the now vastly lager maps as well as making them feel more alive and natural.

Ideally though they would use both systems. DAOs for collecting organic materials, and DA2s for collecting minerals. It makes sense to have to collect herbs one by one spread across the map, while it makes equal sense to mine a dedicated source of silverite or lyrium or what have you that doesn't just pop out X amount there and then and is gone.

Yea, I like your balance suggestion. It still gives players the push to explore and limits potions for better gameplay. You can also limit mineral production by making it slow, have a ton of minerals so copper is worthless somewhat quickly, or require other dropped items or something to forge good weapons and armor
 

Moaradin

Member
Anyway I hope there are some interesting NPC's are in this time. Varric and waif chick with a big sword are not what I was hoping for. Holding out hope for the mage girl.

Varric was about the only good character in DA2. If they bring anything from that game, I'm glad they brought back Varric.
 
It actually seems to me BioWare is doing the same thing. The impression I'm getting is that Mass Effect 4 is still in the earliest stages of development, and Dragon Age 3 is sort of their testbed for what can be done with Frostbite 3, this or that concept, and so forth. DA3 is their vessel into the next generation, and ME4's development is tied to it. If everything turns out well with this game, I'm expecting ME4 to be ridiculously amazing.

ME4 is farther along than you think.
 

Watashiwa

Member
Good lord, people are still giving DA a chance? I hated the first game surprisingly, since I loved BG. Guess finishing the trilogy right before DA released demonstrated how soulless the newer game was.

That said, I hope that you all enjoy DA3.
 
Good lord, people are still giving DA a chance? I hated the first game surprisingly, since I loved BG. Guess finishing the trilogy right before DA released demonstrated how soulless the newer game was.

That said, I hope that you all enjoy DA3.

Well, Origins was a great game imo. Still, I can't believe people are so quick to dismiss something. At least take the game at face value. Sure, they screwed up on a lot of things with DA2, but does one game mean a developer is automatically cast into the abyss along with other shitty devs?

The game's admittedly already showing a ton of promise with so many complaints already addressed. Multiple races, isometric view, squad customization is back, no load times between the world and dungeons, dialogue wheel fixes, and there was more variety in the world and environment in that 14 minute video than all of Dragon Age 2.

It's a great sign that it already looks this good with yet a year left of development. This could really be something special.

I guess I'm just more optimistic than others, but right now I just have a more "looks cool, show me more" approach than "lol fuck em, once they mess up in a game, they're done".
 

hemtae

Member
I guess I'm just more optimistic than others, but right now I just have a more "looks cool, show me more" approach than "lol fuck em, once they mess up in a game, they're done".

I think this will at least be decent, but in the court of public opinion (and mine), they've messed up their last three games pretty bad. They haven't made a good game for about 3 years so I don't blame people for thinking that they're done.
 
I think this will at least be decent, but in the court of public opinion (and mine), they've messed up their last three games pretty bad. They haven't made a good game for about 3 years so I don't blame people for thinking that they're done.

Well, to be fair the DA team is different from the Mass Effect and TOR teams.
 

Squire

Banned
I'm shocked at what a foreign concept fan behavior at PAX seems to be to some people.

PAX is closer to an anime convention than something like GamesCom. The screams and yelps are nothing past the norm.
 

Almighty

Member
I treat this an action rpg with companions.

Eternity, Wastealand 2, Torment: ToN will give me what I want in the other departments.

I guess this summons up my mindset pretty well. Time for a little rant.

I stopped expecting Bioware to recreate their old classics after DA2 to be honest. It is why things like the dialog wheel don't bother me anymore. Yes it is shit, yes it is vauge, yes it cuts down on dialog variety, and the new help system so far isn't what i thought it was either. I was thinking that it would show the dialog like DXHR did instead it sounds like it is just another hand holdy device to show the player exactly what his choice will do. Maybe I am wrong it was hard reading the text on that video. Anyway people have bitched about that wheel since Mass Effect one and their is no signs Bioware will scrap it. So the best we can hope for is that they will improve it.

That is pretty much the case for the whole game. Bioware is never going back to Baulder's Gate 2 or whatever game people want them to. It is quite obvious they have no intention to. So the best we can hope for is that they don't make something awful and instead make a decent action RPG.

Saying that used to bum me out, but with games like Wasteland 2 and Project Eternity on the horizon I am okay with it now. Now having to rely on Bethesda and Bioware for my RPG fix will be very, very nice. I just hope those two sell well enough now.
 

ironcreed

Banned
This is becoming my most anticipated game right now. Can't believe how much better it looks than the previous two combined.
 

Squire

Banned
This is becoming my most anticipated game right now. Can't believe how much better it looks than the previous two combined.

They kept saying they wanted to wait until they has something legitimately impressive to show. Seems the plan has worked, for the most part.
 

Karu

Member
I liked DA:O, i also liked DA2. The shown footage of DAI looks damn impressive. Day One. Hopefully I'll have a new PC til then. As with almost all of the cross-gen titles, I don't wanna buy some downgraded PS3-version...
 

ironcreed

Banned
They kept saying they wanted to wait until they has something legitimately impressive to show. Seems the plan has worked, for the most part.

Yeah, when a dev with known talent is taking that kind of careful approach, it usually bodes well. It truly looks like BioWare is out to make a statement. I knew they still had the talent, it was just a matter of them getting motivated enough from all of the criticism. They know they need to deliver with this game, and it definitely looks like they are more than doing so.
 
I'm shocked at what a foreign concept fan behavior at PAX seems to be to some people.

PAX is closer to an anime convention than something like GamesCom. The screams and yelps are nothing past the norm.
What was weird to me was the one video with the female recording it. She was gasping and omging for damn near everything.
 
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