Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition to Share "Core Systems"

[StewShearerOld]

Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age: Inquisition to Share "Core Systems"

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/YanickRRoy/statuses/347154938738135040]

Bioware Montreal's Yanick Roy has said the new Mass Effect will draw on Dragon Age: Inquisition resources.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age arguably exist on different sides of the role-playing pond. Sure, they both might have Bioware writing, epic storylines, and moral choice systems, but beyond that they're very much different beasts. There is, of course, the obvious "fantasy vs. sci-fi" difference between the two. More than that however, there is fairly wide gulf when it comes to the way they play. Dragon Age, even in the faster-paced combat of Dragon Age 2, is generally a more tactical affair while the Mass Effect games, especially after the original, pretty much embraced third person shooter mechanics.

That said, recent talk from Bioware would indicate that the next entries in the respective series might have more in common than they did in the past. Yanick Roy, studio director for BioWare Montreal, recently Tweeted a picture of <a href=https://twitter.com/YanickRRoy/status/347046536934486016/photo/1>a blue binder containing the design document for the next Mass Effect. After being questioned by a fan on how long it take for the new game to be made, Roy said, "We started a while ago, and we are 'borrowing' a lot of game systems from [Dragon Age: Inquisition]." This comment, in turn, led to another fan asking if the two games would have similar role-playing elements. Roy's response confirmed that two games will share engines and "some of [Dragon Age: Inquisition's] core systems."

Now, this could translate into a lot of different things. RPGs tend to be complex experience with multiple facets and for all we know, Roy could mean the games will have similar inventory systems, or dialogue menus. Nonetheless, it will be interesting to see where Bioware takes the new games and to find out what elements the two wind up sharing.

Source: <a href=www.ign.com/articles/2013/06/19/mass-effect-4-shares-dragon-age-3-core-mechanics>IGN




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[Zhukov]

Yay?

Nay?

That's all pretty damn unspecific.

 

[The White Hunter]

So there'll be one system for microtransactions across each game? Some kind of bioware market where you can pay money for better stuff to win the game?

Seems legit.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

It will be interesting to see what they can do with Mass Effect on new systems. I really hope they don't even try to make it for current gen consoles. Even though I loved ME series before that abysmal ending, I've always thought that the game was severely limited by the technology of current gen consoles. It was ambitious, but it never reached it's potential as far as exploration goes.

 

[wooty]

Mass Effect 4? I'm listening Bioware, I'm listening.

 

[alphamalet]

If they are sharing that terrible dialogue wheel from Mass Effect, then they just lost a purchase. I hated it in Dragon Age II, and I never liked Mass Effect to begin with.

I just don't get it. Mass Effect and Dragon Age or two TOTALLY different games. I absolutely hate Mass Effect, but I think Dragon Age Origins is one of the best games this gen. Why borrow anything from either game when their play styles are so diametrically opposed?

 

[1337mokro]

CUTTING CORNERS! EA STYLE!!!

Fuck you Bioware!

The corner cutting has become fucking shameless in ME3 and let's not even talk about the lackluster copy pasting in Dragon Age 2. Entire fucking locations were copied and you didn't even BOTHER to attempt to hide it.

That doesn't just say Lazy, that says We don't give a shit.

 

[InterrogationBear]

That's all pretty damn unspecific.

He's talking about the dialog system, character creator and other RPG-systems the "Dragon Age"-team developed for "Frostbite 3".

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Why borrow anything from either game when their play styles are so diametrically opposed?

They took Mass Effect dialogue wheel and implemented it into Dragon Age 2. It can be done. Like the first post suggests, it could be just inventory management and dialogue. Or it could be the way you interact with your squad, reputation system, leveling and things like that.

 

[Phlakes]

God forbid they use the same engine for two games of similar genre and style.

You know, like every developer ever.

(Seriously, what do you people think, every game has its own engine made from scratch? Are Portal and L4D lazy because Valve built them using Source systems from Half Life?)

 

[hentropy]

They might not have shared the same engines with the last games, but they were still fairly similar in a lot of ways, so I'm not sure how this is news exactly.

 

[NLS]

God forbid they use the same engine for two games of similar genre and style.

You know, like every developer ever.

(Seriously, what do you people think, every game has its own engine made from scratch? Are Portal and L4D lazy because Valve built them using Source systems from Half Life?)

Good example of two different games by the same developer using the same engine.
This doesn't mean Dragon Age will feature assault rifles, so everybody take a chill pill.