The PAX presentation! They said it! With words! Or maybe it was a tweet? In all the excitement I have lost track of all the neat things. It was pretty early on in the thing, so just watch it when/if they put it up online.Cybylt said:
Dragon Age: Inquisition Brings Back Tactical View - PAX 2013
- Thread starter Greg Tito
- Start date
Origins isn't good, it's great. But DA2 is way, way beyond that in its quality. DA2 is easily one of the best games ever made. Maybe not to the blinded crowd who can't see past the loss of their precious "old-school 90's RPG nostalgia", but then again, very few things please them, so their taste isn't generally indicative of quality.Soviet Heavy said:
So, everything that was said in this article sounds good to me, although I'm still a bit "fool-me-once" after DA2. However, I still much preferred the art direction of Dragon Age when it was more low-fantasy like in Origins.
All of the outfits in that picture look bad to me, being over the top in a clichéd sort of frill-and-sigils way. Varric doesn't look too bad, but how badly could you mess his design up anyway? That mage on the right is the worst though.
I mean, this looks ugly as sin to me. (Image spoiler for size)
All of the outfits in that picture look bad to me, being over the top in a clichéd sort of frill-and-sigils way. Varric doesn't look too bad, but how badly could you mess his design up anyway? That mage on the right is the worst though.
And Bioware finally admits DA2 had only 15 minutes worth of content.
Joking aside, these details offer a glimmer of hope in what was previously a void of despair. But still I remain doubtful. The news that we're going open world, along with some of those pictures which look a bit Elder-Scrollsy, just makes me think Bioware said "Skyrim made a lot of money and people liked it, let's copy that!"
You know there was nothing fundamentally broken with Origins. Sure combat could be slow, sure you could mock it for being by the numbers fantasy, but it worked. The art style changes in DA2 were terrible and it looks like we're not changing course there. We're keeping the mass effect dialogue wheel because writing responses besides good/neutral/asshole is hard.
And that reminds me. Know what I never remember asking for? A fully voice-acted protagonist in every RPG. More voice-acting means fewer lines of dialogue, which means fewer options. In fact I say nuts to voice-acting entirely in RPG's, which are supposed to offer choice.
Doesn't it kind of make more sense stylistically? The manner in which you talk to people in Bioware games is inherently alienating and unnatural. You stand there stiff, saying nothing until you've made a decision. That doesn't blend with the flow of natural conversation. Reading text would be far better suited for this since reading is done at one's own pace, plus if you have subtitle's enabled you're going to just read faster anyway. Hell, there's a lot of dialogue that will be skipped over because people will read it faster, or because it's repeat dialogue cus we're talking to a merchant to unload gear for the umpteenth time.
Ok so I kinda got sidetracked there but I had to say it. In conclusion, I'm still skeptical.
Nostalgia had nothing to do with it, Origins is actually tons better than DA2. DA2 had flaws out of the bum and didn't really improve or bring anything new to the table.Drago-Morph said:
Reused assets (Hello dungeon #20 with the exact same interior), simplified combat, Console focused UI, meh story, dumbed down dialogue choices, etc.
Now I actually did enjoy DA2 quite a bit, but lets not get crazy here. The copy-paste dungeons alone disqualify it from being "one of the best games ever made". Where DA2 shines through is in it's story and story-telling, and that's the part of the game that many players really hated on. It's weakest moments was the gameplay and mechanics where were, sadly EXTREMELY weak.Drago-Morph said:
In the end I'd say that quality-wise it was on par with DA:O, just in different categories.
There's nothing like corridors pretending to be open areas, parachuting enemies, collect "X" quests with no real background story.Drago-Morph said:
Nostalgia has nothing to do with the fact that DA2 was much, much worse than DA, but I guess the younger crowd, dosn't really care as long as they can button mash.
Ah yes, the stiff animations, creepy eyes, no style, a checkbook of fantasy cliches and a color palette taken straight from an actual cement and dirt factory Origins. How could it possibly have anything to learn from its sequel, or how can its sequel learn anything from the original? No, let's just be angry. It really solves everything.Soviet Heavy said:
Pfft.
(If it isn't clear, I don't dislike Origins. Just so we're not going to use that in whatever follows.)
I really want to be excited but I have been burned one to many times by Bioware over the last 3 or 4 years. So I will remian indifferent until I see some reviews of the finished product.
Unless they suddenly let me bring back my Warden. Then I will get really hyped up. My Warden was a total bad ass! If he was around in DA2 he would have got shit done not done what Hawke did. See begining of bad thing starting to happen, sit on arse for a few years until bad thing starts happening in full swing then stop it.
Unless they suddenly let me bring back my Warden. Then I will get really hyped up. My Warden was a total bad ass! If he was around in DA2 he would have got shit done not done what Hawke did. See begining of bad thing starting to happen, sit on arse for a few years until bad thing starts happening in full swing then stop it.
Here you go:Cybylt said:
http://www.gamespot.com/pax/qunari-will-be-playable-race-in-dragon-age-inquisition-6413926/
Drago-Morph said:
Dragon Age 2 was a long slog of boring, uninspired and stale combat against unvaried mobs of cannon trash, with a story that borders on archaic with its lack of originality. The only saving graces were the hints of greater story, such as going to the Dwarven Thaigs, and the characters and their interactions with both you and one another. But BioWare doesn't really get points for that anymore, because it's what is expected of them and is likely to get them points lost if they manage to fuck it up. Any attempt at being its own unique world like in Origins (and it being unique THERE is debatable too) is tossed away in favor of a two-pence fantasy schlockfest with all the ripped off DnD and Thieves' World trappings thrown into the melting pot.
As a sequel to Origins, 2 was horrid.
which I could only play in third person because lolmasseffect.So, in terms of gameplay this all sounds pretty good. It sounds a lot like Mass Effect 3, but it sounds pretty good.
My concern is with this "Corruption"; I'm realizing more and more that Bioware has a bad habit of making the least interesting aspects of their plots the main focus of their stories.
DA: II's problems didn't stem from it's ambition, it had lots of interesting concepts, they were just poorly executed. One of the best things about DA: II was that it wasn't about the end of the world.
"It's the end of the world!" is overused because writers seem to think it's a convenient way to structure a plot, but they too often ignore it's short comings.
"OMG Its the end of teh world!" is convenient because it's flexible, and it's flexible because it's empty; there is literally no sane person who wouldn't be behind such a thing. The plot has no meaning and no nuance because there's no conflict beyond a struggle for survival. The fact that someone is willing to fight for their life tells us nothing about them because it's something anybody would do, the fact that a group of people would organize to fight their own extinction is a meaningless message because it's something anybody would do.
"Someone or something is causing it" doesn't make the story sound more interesting it makes it sound less interesting. Wouldn't it be more profound and evocative if instead of some comfortable, easily stereotyped, unearthly abomination causing all the problems it was just a matter of human imperfection?
While ambition was in no short supply for DA: II, structural discipline was sorely lacking; the game had two major plot lines, neither of which got the attention they needed, and introducing more extraneous bullshit, no matter how familiar Bioware is with it, will only make things worse. The pieces for a compelling story are starring you right in the face, Bioware, stop working so hard to ignore them.
My concern is with this "Corruption"; I'm realizing more and more that Bioware has a bad habit of making the least interesting aspects of their plots the main focus of their stories.
DA: II's problems didn't stem from it's ambition, it had lots of interesting concepts, they were just poorly executed. One of the best things about DA: II was that it wasn't about the end of the world.
"It's the end of the world!" is overused because writers seem to think it's a convenient way to structure a plot, but they too often ignore it's short comings.
"OMG Its the end of teh world!" is convenient because it's flexible, and it's flexible because it's empty; there is literally no sane person who wouldn't be behind such a thing. The plot has no meaning and no nuance because there's no conflict beyond a struggle for survival. The fact that someone is willing to fight for their life tells us nothing about them because it's something anybody would do, the fact that a group of people would organize to fight their own extinction is a meaningless message because it's something anybody would do.
"Someone or something is causing it" doesn't make the story sound more interesting it makes it sound less interesting. Wouldn't it be more profound and evocative if instead of some comfortable, easily stereotyped, unearthly abomination causing all the problems it was just a matter of human imperfection?
While ambition was in no short supply for DA: II, structural discipline was sorely lacking; the game had two major plot lines, neither of which got the attention they needed, and introducing more extraneous bullshit, no matter how familiar Bioware is with it, will only make things worse. The pieces for a compelling story are starring you right in the face, Bioware, stop working so hard to ignore them.
To be fair to the mage, she's the setting's equivalent of the fench and a high ranking mage. And this is in a series where mage outfits are pretty terrible in general.Geo Da Sponge said:So, everything that was said in this article sounds good to me, although I'm still a bit "fool-me-once" after DA2. However, I still much preferred the art direction of Dragon Age when it was more low-fantasy like in Origins.
I mean, this looks ugly as sin to me. (Image spoiler for size)
All of the outfits in that picture look bad to me, being over the top in a clichéd sort of frill-and-sigils way. Varric doesn't look too bad, but how badly could you mess his design up anyway? That mage on the right is the worst though.
Then there's the fact that Origins, while good, had absolutely no personality of its own. And combat somehow felt like a step backwards from the games it was emulating. So it's to be expected that the sequels try something to make themselves stand out as well as speed things up or bring more flair. Scaling wave combat is dumb but does lend to some more cathartic moments in play and it's been nice to hear that it's been dialed back from that and they've removed level scaling. Now I wish they'd do something to make their class selection stand out more instead of going for that holy trinity nonsense.
The hook and chain weapon for warriors I read about in another article sounds neat, pull backstabbers out of their positioning or drop a shield for a few seconds. Just nice to hear something other than rogues getting tools with specific functions and warriors having something other than "Hit" and "Hit harder."
Anyway, thanks for the links to the confirmation articles guys. I like the qunari and am pretty excited to hear that they're playable.
I'll take checkbook fantasy cliches over holocaust jokes thank you. (Bioware actually did that, not conjecture on my part.)Ferisar said: