Dragon Age 3 May Be BioWare's Biggest Game Yet

[Pinky's Brain]

Chances are, the idea of a Templar vs Mages storyline was the original idea for Dragon Age, but they put it on hold and went with the Blight for the main campaign.

Then they decided to go back to it. This seems to be especially true as the entire premise of Dragon Age 2 is the story of how the war came to start.

Whoever it was who averted that decision the first time had it oh so right. The blight, the golden/black city, the strength of the veil, the history of Andraste ... all perfectly good hooks for a plot line which can carry an entire game.

"Exactly how fascist should templars be" however is not ... it got old in the first one where it wasn't even the main event, it got beaten to a bloody pulp in the second and now they're just pounding sand in the third.

 

[getoffmycloud]

hmm...
Sounds not bad at least.
However i will still only buy after reviews and, most importantly, the fan reaction.

I wouldn't trust the fan reaction a large or at least very loud part of Bioware's fanbase hate everything they do for some reason.

 

[mdqp]

How will that be different than DA2?

Who said anything about being different? In fact, DA3 will be a HD remake of DA2!

 

[Jack_in_theGreen]

I agree wholeheartedly... "Operation Hyping it up" is under way.



There is no way at all that I would consider buying this before reading at least 5 reviews, and watching the game played on Giant Bomb or the first couple of hours done by my favourite Lets Player.

Ive been burned before, I learned my lesson. They could potentially make a good game, even a "great" game..., as they still have the talent. Hovewer, the business model they are obstinant to keep is ruining their capabilities to deliver it.

 

[scw55]

I'm concerned about the disk space needed to host the game.
This is the flip side of a game being too short.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

just one level in DA3 is as big as all of DA2's levels

This is way less impressive than I think it was intended to be.

 

[Quellist]

Oooooh! i can dye my armor? Whoopie fucking do!

Seriously, this game is going to have to be the best fucking thing ever to convince me to buy it after the high speed trainwreck that was DA 2 and its going to take a lot more than Rainbow Pimp armor to convince me.

 

[RyQ_TMC]

Chances are, the idea of a Templar vs Mages storyline was the original idea for Dragon Age, but they put it on hold and went with the Blight for the main campaign.

My thoughts exactly. Although I don't expect to like the way it's headed. In Origins, the conflict was morally ambiguous. The Templars used morally questionable means to control the Mages, but you could argue those were necessary considering all the demonic possessions and blood magic.

Then in DA2 we've seen a sudden shift towards "corrupt Templars vs innocent Mages" and only in the endgame you could see that it wasn't as clear-cut as that. And even then, the Mages were portrayed as more sympathetic.

And now the third game has a subtitle Inquisition. Taken from a historical institution which has been so thoroughly flanderized in popular perception that it just screams "This game will be about overthrowing/reforming the Chantry so they will stop oppressing the poor Mages".

Maybe I'm too pessimistic with my expectations.

 

[Knight Templar]

I am choosing to be cautiously optimistic.

A wise position.

Then in DA2 we've seen a sudden shift towards "corrupt Templars vs innocent Mages"...

I hear this alot, but fail to see how it is the case. Could you provide examples of clearly wrong templars going after clearly innocent mages?

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

"[Lead Cinematic Designer] Jon Perry said he's had a longer pre-production on DA3 than any other BioWare project he's worked on," Lee wrote. "JP said just one level in DA3 is as big as all of DA2's levels."

...I have the sinking feeling that DA3 will be composed of a single level... ;p

Didn't they already try that with DA2?

Yeah, and I thought it was a good idea. I liked being able to walk around large chunks of the city listening to my companions talk to one another: it made the place feel more alive. That said, I don't think that just having "bigger levels" is a selling point. I'd rather see them make focused levels: go big if you have to, but make sure everything fits together logically, has some sort of theme, and can be understood by the players, rather than just trying to bump up the square footage.

Chances are, the idea of a Templar vs Mages storyline was the original idea for Dragon Age, but they put it on hold and went with the Blight for the main campaign.

My thoughts exactly. Although I don't expect to like the way it's headed. In Origins, the conflict was morally ambiguous. The Templars used morally questionable means to control the Mages, but you could argue those were necessary considering all the demonic possessions and blood magic.

Then in DA2 we've seen a sudden shift towards "corrupt Templars vs innocent Mages" and only in the endgame you could see that it wasn't as clear-cut as that. And even then, the Mages were portrayed as more sympathetic.

And now the third game has a subtitle Inquisition. Taken from a historical institution which has been so thoroughly flanderized in popular perception that it just screams "This game will be about overthrowing/reforming the Chantry so they will stop oppressing the poor Mages".

Maybe I'm too pessimistic with my expectations.

RYQ, are we not playing as Inquisitors? Rather than DA:2, where you had a mage sister/were a mage, and you brought in modern sensibilities about oppressive governmental control, this game offers the reverse: You are inside the power structure, and you have seen firsthand the destruction caused by unchecked mages. It gives Bioware the opportunity to expand on the idea of necessary persecution, and while some missions will almost certainly involve finding out that not all mages are bad, I think that they can bring it back to a more ambiguous conflict.

 

[tmande2nd]

I am making a list:

This game will have horrible MP tacked on because EA demands it
There will be a requirement to use Origins.
Your choices wont matter.
Day One DLC will abound with at least one major character tied into it.
The import function will still be broken
Their will be no mods allowed because of the MP

So overall no way in hell I am going to buy this game.
If it is good I may buy it.

I probably wont though.
I got burned with ME2, DA2, then ME3.
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me, fool me three times, again shame on me.
Fool me four times? I think I may have a condition.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

This is BW, not exactly trustworthy even by AAA dev standards. I'm thinking that the claim of a level bigger than all of DA2 (aside from being a pretty unimpressive claim, by all accounts) is probably based on the size of that level's skybox.

 

[mirage202]

PR/Marketing hype machine slowly kicks into gear!

Not going to believe a damned thing said about DA3 until I see it for myself, capable of learning I am.

 

[Nihlus2]

Correct me if I am wrong but... Dragon Age: Origins was revealed at E3 2004, which means it was in pre-production prior to that. Dragon Age: Origins was released in late 2009... that means a minimum of more than 5 years of production, give or take.

Mass Effect 1 was announced as Xbox exclusive in 2005, stated to have been worked on for more than 3 and a half year by its release, maybe close to 4.

Knights of the Old Republic was also in production for little more than 3 and a half year, maybe 4 if you take in their earliest accounts of production from 1999.

...I am gonna (just for fun) take those two ladder out of the account and go back to DA:O.

So... Dragon Age II roughly had a bit less than 2 years of development, if I give them quite some benefit of doubt and say that they jumped directly into development rather early after DA:O release date. (Disregarding the whole Awakening Expansion).

Soooo...

DA:O - 5+ years from pre-production to finish (Released 2009, 9th november)
DA II - Less than 2 years from pre-production to finish (Released 2011, february)

We are in 2012 now.

...My math is not on the calculative level of some prodigy... but, I am gonna throw this out here and say that. Unless these guys do not plan on releasing this until 2015-2016, and we give them the benefit of saying that they started developing this at the same time as DA2... then ladies and gentlemen, this conversation is being transcribed to us with rose-coloured glasses, so shiny it is not even funny.

Could still be bigger than previous titles, but do NOT connect the productivity time with size. Rpgs need time, DA II was a rather good example of that. And depth does not come from cutting edge technology making things move along faster, depth will take years to make good so. I hope they are just excited for the size, and not trying to PR this to make it sound like the second comming of some golden rpg messiah.

Dragon Age 2 and Mass Effect 3 are breathing over their shoulders, they have a lot to fight against, but I do hope that they are up to the challenge.

 

[cerebus23]

I been wanting to destroy the chantry since the first game, a religious group using addictive drugs to control an army and keep mages in line? please there is no way that can end well.

and we have had mages since dao that were free and yet not pure evil just because, the whole mages will do evil because magic is evil thing never rang true.

mages needed support groups not a bunch of religious zealots lording over them.

we really need to tie up the whole morrigan/flemmith/god child thing in the next game.

and we really need to stop the clown car spawning out of da2.

 

[Genocidicles]

If this miraculously turns out to be good, I'll still be buying it used.

 

[Aiberg]

When it comes out I want someone other than Greg Tito to review it. Someone able to see that the second game was clearly an inferior, dumbed down version of the first.

 

[ecoho]

ok i hear people bitching about copy and pasted lvls in DA2 then go on to say how much better DA:O was im gonna scream. DA:O (which i would agree was the better made game) had so much copy and pasteing its not even funny.

OT: i will buy assuming of corse they dont compleatly fuck up and make it multiplayer only.