BIoware Says "Something is Happening with Dragon Age"

shrekfan246

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May 26, 2011
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Samtemdo8 said:
shrekfan246 said:
Samtemdo8 said:
Wasteland 2?
Isn't Wasteland 2 turn-based?
Yes but still I feel there is this stigma agasint any RPG that does not have Real Time Combat like Dark Souls/Dragon's Dogma/Mass Effect.
Eh, not any more so than there is against the JRPG active-time-battle system. There have always been a fair number of people online who are strongly against the idea of mixing between real-time and turn-based combat, and they'd rather just have one or the other.

Dragon Age: Origins in particular is a bit of a thorn for people just because its specific brand of real-time-with-pause was coupled with MMO-style hotkey combat, and as we all know, WoW is the worst thing to ever happen to gaming.

(That last bit was a jape.)
 

TT Kairen

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Samtemdo8 said:
TT Kairen said:
Samtemdo8 said:
Can you please make it PC exclusive, have the combat of Origins and take place in Ferelden again?
PC exclusive would be preferable, but not financially feasible.

As for the other two requests, I'd rather not have bland, painfully slow tedium taking place in Generic_Fantasy_Country_01, thanks.
Than go play your lovecraftian flesh planet RPG with little historical depth if you think Generic Fantasy Country is boring :p

I am sorry but I love the gameplay of Origins. We have plenty of Real-Time Combat RPGs already. Did no one here backed the Kickstarter for Pillers of Eternity and Wasteland 2?
I didn't back Pillars, but I very much enjoyed it. Partly because the combat speed is modifiable to suit your desires. But even the slowest non-paused speed is faster than Dragon Age: Borigins. If you fought that slow in real life, you would die horribly in like two seconds.

Was Dragon Age 2 way too fast, over-the-top animu BS? Yep. At least it wasn't ASMR: Swords Edition. IMO, Inquisition nailed the right combat speed. It just did nearly every other thing wrong.
 

votemarvel

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I think Anthem is the make or break game for the Bioware name. If it isn't good or well received then I can see EA retiring the brand.

The IPs though I think would remain valuable. Bioware once themselves imagined a Mass Effect FPS, why wouldn't EA turn that over to Dice.
 

springheeljack

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Just bring back the Hero of Ferelden already or make Hawk the main character again
Don't just shove another blank slate character at us again that's supposed to save the world and a all new cast of characters that we are supposed to try and give a shit about.
 

kasperbbs

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There was a time when i would get excited for a new Bioware game, but now i just don't care. I hate their large open maps littered with fetch 10 of something quests, their writing has gone to shit too.
 

Fox12

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Well, fucking obviously. It's one of their two major franchises, and the other one just shit the bed. I assumed they were working on a dragon age even without them mentioning it.
 
Apr 5, 2008
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If DA:I and ME:A is the direction BW are going in, whatever the something-that-is-happening is will likely be a boring MMO grindfest. DA2 was single player WoW. DA:I was even worse, with only a couple of standout moments. It went full SJW, the writing and storytelling were dreadful, the action was mediocre, the world and zones were utterly forgettable, as were the characters. I can still quote Minsc, Jaheira and Keldorn after 15 years, but I can't remember the names of most of DA2 or DA:I characters.

DA:O was fantastic. It had some issues, but instead of fixing those, they made an entirely different game, unrelated story, unrelated characters and a different combat style entirely. The Origins were a phenomenal addition, adding an amazing layer of immersion and investment in our warden. As a Magi origin, I remember the mixed feelings when I found the blood mage later on in the human town since I was *there* for the incident that got him expelled. As a city elf, returning to the alienage when the slavers were there made my blood boil. I was playing a good character until that point, but my city elf rogue didn't let any Tevinters there escape alive. If I played as an elf or dwarf, a male or female, good or evil, the world changed and reacted to me. DA:O was a great party based RPG, it's sequels weren't. I blame Mass Effect for it.

Mass Effect took the KotOR and JE formula and refined it. Where KotOR was old turn-based, stat-based combat like older DND games, ME wanted to be a shooter but still held on to the RPG essence of creating a character. By ME2 of course it was fully a third-person twitch, cover based shooter. The formula of action and "cinematic" dialogue/cut scenes is BW's thing, in the same way climbing towers to unlock vapid "content" is Ubi's thing. What's happened is that where ME1 and DA:O were very different games with only some similarities, the ME formula somehow took over and all BW games now follow the ME formula. Voiced protagonists (Fuck Hawke), dialogue wheels, storytelling, they only follow one mould now.

Shepard is only as significant is (s)he is because he was the protagonist of three games that linked together. Granted, the voice acting also played a role, I won't try to argue against that, but if ME had finished after a single game, he would be no more special than Revan, Master Li's student, the warden or Hawke. Voiced protagonists worked in ME, Saint's Row 3/4 and Witcher games, but made DA2 and FO4 shit, and were probably part of why DA:I was shit too.

New BW make EA games. The quality of the writing, character development and story are just not there, instead those have been replaced by action and empty worlds with "content" in them (almost all of which involve doing a thing three times). Whatever this something is (we already knew there was a DA4 was in the works so this article really is non-news), unless it's a true sequel to Origins, it will likely suck.
 

Dalsyne

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Darth Rosenberg said:
Why do you say Nevarra? Surely Trespasser pointed towards Tevinter? I suppose it could be interpreted as only indicating where the Inquisitor and their remaining companions would be heading next, but to me ending a whole game on that note surely points towards the sequel's eventual location, not the current game's protagonist.
Because apparently I forgot more than I thought I did. You're right, it was Tevinter. I remember now why I was interested, as well. Tevinter sounds like a way more interesting place than any of these other medieval fantasy kingdoms.
 

Darth Rosenberg

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Dalsyne said:
Because apparently I forgot more than I thought I did. You're right, it was Tevinter. I remember now why I was interested, as well. Tevinter sounds like a way more interesting place than any of these other medieval fantasy kingdoms.
Hm, dunno about that. After all, DA:I largely wasted its Orlesian setting (compare what Leliana said of Val Royeaux and its culture to how the series depicted it).

My personal choice would actually be Rivain (after that, Antiva), but given DA lore I suppose Tevinter could/should be an interesting place - provided they don't do what DA:I did and reduce an entire nation and culture into, ostensibly, one frikkin' town square.


KingsGambit said:
DA:I was even worse, with only a couple of standout moments. It went full SJW, the writing and storytelling were dreadful, the action was mediocre, the world and zones were utterly forgettable, as were the characters. I can still quote Minsc, Jaheira and Keldorn after 15 years, but I can't remember the names of most of DA2 or DA:I characters.
Putting aside ironically identity politics flavoured acronyms: eh, subjective is as subjective does - I felt some of the writing in Inquisition was the best they've ever done, certainly in terms of character narrative, which is all I ultimately care about with BioWare games. I'd take Solas as a superbly crafted and nuanced character over any poorly voiced 2D creation in KotOR, for example.[footnote]I can't really comment about Baldur's Gate as I came to it far too late, and found a crushingly boring retro game I abandoned after several hours. I gather BGII's the best of the bunch, but that IP's a goner for me given its age.[/footnote]. DA:I was, in retrospect, really just a - largely failed - structural pass at what Andromeda confidently laid out.

If BioWare can iterate on ME:A (provided they insist on doing another semi-open-world game), then they should be able to craft a great DA. Ideally I'd want another DAII; conceptually ambitious (frame narratives in one citystate), and for the most part very contained. I don't want another world/dimension ending threat, even if the post-Trespasser plot strands do suggest that.
 

Gestapo Hunter

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Dalsyne said:
Makes sense. Inquisition's DLC pretty much confirmed a sequel anyway.

Samtemdo8 said:
Can you please make it PC exclusive, have the combat of Origins and take place in Ferelden again?
It's gonna take place in Nevarra unless I'm mistaken. Aka Notspain.
I think Nevarra is the NOTHolyRomanEmpire.
 

spartandude

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Gestapo Hunter said:
Dalsyne said:
Makes sense. Inquisition's DLC pretty much confirmed a sequel anyway.

Samtemdo8 said:
Can you please make it PC exclusive, have the combat of Origins and take place in Ferelden again?
It's gonna take place in Nevarra unless I'm mistaken. Aka Notspain.
I think Nevarra is the NOTHolyRomanEmpire.
I'm pretty sure it's more Spanish, but then again the most at its height the HRE was ruled by Emperor Charles V who was also King Phillip II of Spain, you're both right.
 

Dalsyne

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Darth Rosenberg said:
Hm, dunno about that. After all, DA:I largely wasted its Orlesian setting (compare what Leliana said of Val Royeaux and its culture to how the series depicted it).

My personal choice would actually be Rivain (after that, Antiva), but given DA lore I suppose Tevinter could/should be an interesting place - provided they don't do what DA:I did and reduce an entire nation and culture into, ostensibly, one frikkin' town square.
Whoa, are you kidding me? What I remember most from DA:I is Leliana talking about shoes. SHOES. We're in a fantasy universe fighting dragons and you would like to go buy some FUCKING SHOES.

I got SO bored of her back then that I got bored of Orlais by proxy. Now Tevinter - these are the assholes who killed Jesus Christ! I mean they're basically the romans but in DA:I I always got the impression they were a dead kingdom that didn't exist anymore (because y'know, Roman Empire). But not only does it exist with all its sharp, imposing architecture (probably), its culture is also mostly preserved?! SIGN ME THE FUCK UP. Especially since Dorian didn't seem to imply it's hell on earth so they might be going for a more nuanced approach to a culture drenched in slavery. Maybe. Hopefully.

Gestapo Hunter said:
I think Nevarra is the NOTHolyRomanEmpire.
Nah actually someone reminded me it was not Nevarra but Tevinter. Which is indeed the NotRomanEmpire.
 

Auron225

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To be honest, I didn't even like Origins enough to continue with the franchise. The hate that the sequels got didn't help any to convince me to try them out. A lot of things in Origins seemed great conceptually, but for some reason I just didn't have much fun with it, which is pretty bad since it's a video game and all.