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

Abomination

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... I don't see the story here.

A producer and developer are using the same engine for two different games... okay? Isn't that what you're SUPPOSED to do as a developer rather than needing to reinvent the wheel for a game that is likely to be released within a year of a similar type?

Look at Fallout 1 & 2, the sequel was released EXACTLY one year using the same engine.

Baldur's Gate series and Icewind Dale series - tons of repeated assets allowing them to focus on more important things like the story, combat and characters.

Sarge034 said:
DA2 and ME3 were both failures
... no they weren't. They sold really well and still had decent reviews. The only way they "failed" was in a "big shoes to fill" manner.
 

Bocaj2000

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It's funny. I want to be excited for this- I really do... but I just can't. ME1 and DA:O are among my favorite games ever, but Mass Effect 2 was... different... in a bad way. I wasn't educated in the interactive arts, so it didn't stop me from enjoying the game, but I knew that I didn't like it nearly as much as the first. Then there was Dragon Age 2, where my vague distastes became more apparent. Upon watering down the unique atmosphere and homogenizing it with other "action RPG"s it's intellectual quality suffered greatly, and it degraded into a beat-em-up. Lastly, there was Mass Effect 3. Although it left the same bad taste in my mouth that ME2 did, at least I expected it by now: mediocre AAA schlock that sacrifices the player for narrative and sacrifices experimentation for homogenization.

So, am I excited for ME4 or DA4? No. As far as I'm concerned, they'll be no different than any other AAA schlock that's out there. The ONLY thing that can save these games is experimentation or anything to break the safety net of mediocrity.

Capcha: "lame duck"
My thoughts indeed.
 

Hero in a half shell

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MinionJoe said:
To be fair, Bethesda did the same thing with Elder Scrolls/Fallout and they turned out pretty well IMO.
This was my first thought, although it kind of sounds like they are saying "And because it's the same engine, we can reuse assets" so it'll have the same menu systems and textures and blatantly base the gameplay mechanics on exactly the same system, just tweaked for the style of game.

I guess we'll have to wait and see to what extent these "core systems" are lifted from one game and put in the other, and since all eyes are on Bioware's next release we will get a very detailed examination of the games' similarities, down to the last pixel and polygon.
 

verdant monkai

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After the legendary cock up of ME3 and its wearisome ending, I'm not expecting much.

I hold more hope for DA3 its a much more inoffensive series in terms of narrative, unless you count DA2 as bad.
 

awdrifter

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If all they share is the engine and the core systems like user interface, maybe NPC AI, then I don't think it'll be a problem. Many games are on UE3 and uses similar UI and other stuff.
 

Saw767

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EA...just go back inside for a moment while we sort this out. Don't mind us...

Bioware, you must realize that Dragon Age Origins is better than II, better than Mass Effect 3, and should be held as the game you want to model the next Dragon Age game after. If you so much as hint that Flemeth is some sort of extraterrestrial being in the next game, you may as well just call the game "Dragon Effect". No cover based shooting, no ME3 style ending, no more 3 plot stories set in the same damn square mile.

EA, you can come back out now. Now be a good little EA and FUCK OFF when the game is being developed. This game must not fail.
 

klaynexas3

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valium said:
Adam Jensen said:
alphamalet said:
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.
Or it could be the quoted "core-systems," assuming Bioware has at least some notion of what the word "core" means.
So what is the "core" of a Bioware RPG? That really can range from dialogue choices, reputation systems, squad interaction, leveling, etc. Does Bioware even know what the core is? Because they seem to get a lot of hate for getting some things wrong, even if they manage to do plenty of stuff right, so clearly no one knows the actual core of a Bioware game.
 

Abomination

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Desert Punk said:
Abomination said:
Sarge034 said:
DA2 and ME3 were both failures
... no they weren't. They sold really well and still had decent reviews. The only way they "failed" was in a "big shoes to fill" manner.
Dragon age 2 WAS a failure. It didnt sell very well.


And DA2s "Reviews" were a joke of EA paying off writers, just look at the escapists 'review' if you want an example of that.

Mass Effect 3 though, I will admit had stunning sales, and good reviews that were well deserved, even if the last 15 minutes were tripe, the remainder of the game was well above average.
Where are the PC sales for Dragon Age II? Because according to that graph it sold at least a million copies on consoles for a game that was primarily for the PC crowd... for its short development cycle and cost of production that's pretty damn good.

It most certainly was NOT a failure.
 

Grabehn

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Well it is confirmed at least. It's going to be another fucking MEdieval Fantasy Mass Effect. FUUUUUUUCK YOUUU!

Abomination said:
Where are the PC sales for Dragon Age II? Because according to that graph it sold at least a million copies on consoles for a game that was primarily for the PC crowd... for its short development cycle and cost of production that's pretty damn good.

It most certainly was NOT a failure.
A game that was primarily for the PC crowd... What the HELL are you talking about? A dumb down version with lackluster "tactic combat" and easy mode on by default? That didn't even had the original's Isometric camera options? No... the first one was aimed at PCs. DA 2? Not in the slightest.
 

Sarge034

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Abomination said:
Sarge034 said:
DA2 and ME3 were both failures
... no they weren't. They sold really well and still had decent reviews. The only way they "failed" was in a "big shoes to fill" manner.
DA2 was a failure due to cutting corners, "simplification" of the combat tactics system, and a disjointed story. ME3 was a failure because the last 15 minutes destroyed ALL the fun I had in the 400+ hours I played the series. I can't even stand to reply ME1 and ME2 because I know it leads to that pile of shit ending.

So I guess you could say I was evaluating the games' content, not the sales numbers or half assed reviews. Imagine that...
 

Abomination

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I guess if you're going to ignore a game's profitability and focus on subjective or arbitrary measures of success of COURSE it can come out as a failure.

Did the company get out more than it put in? Did they get more than if they had just put that money in the bank to earn interest? If the answer is yes then it might not have been an amazing success such as Skyrim or World of Warcarft, but it certainly was NOT a failure.
 

Ishigami

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Nothing wrong with that dependant on what they do with DA:I...

Quellist said:
Dragon age Inquisition is going to be a 3rd person over the shoulder shooter using arrows and magic instead of guns and Psi powers!
Haunted - The Demon's Forge? - I actually enjoyed that. It has been done in a few other examples, mostly as FPS, none the less it is not nearly as worn out as WW2 and modern warfare.
Not that I would want encourage them do go that route but a game doing this could still be fun.

Funyahns said:
Button=Awesome
Kinda amazing how the removal of activation times, which improved the combat considerably, gets so misrepresented by bad PR work.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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Dragonbums said:
I really want to see what they are going to do with Mass Effect 4

Like, what are you gonna do? You either have to continue based the story to varying degrees based on your stupid endings, retcon the whole thing to make it work with minimal effort, or do a prequel of a series of events everyone knows about already.
It was meant to be a trilogy. Let if fucking end as a trilogy.

Like, I don't know how they are going to continue this, and quite frankly I'm not going to sink my money into it like I did for ME3. I'll watch from the sidelines
You know that some people are still hoping for The Indoctrination Theory to be true? I shit you not.
 

1337mokro

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bug_of_war said:
1337mokro said:
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.
This isn't really corner cutting, it's making good use of an engine, Valve and Activision have been doing this for years.

OT:Cool...I guess, I'd rather hear more about the games themselves but at least I'll know that if I can run one fine the other will run just as well.
No... No... if it was like CD projekt Red, Valve, an indie studio, Ubisoft or anyone else I would have called it Efficient. Because there I know that they will still design entire levels on their own.

With EA and Bioware.... Well Dragon Age 2. Where there are about 10 unique rooms copy-pasted 100 times and ME3 where they got so lazy that they just spawn you with an assault rifle or a pistol you didn't have with you in every cutscene.
 

Mycroft Holmes

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Desert Punk said:
Dragon age 2 WAS a failure. It didnt sell very well.
Economically a failure? I doubt it. Dragon Age Origins sold quite well, but it was a game that took 6 years to develop. Dragon Age 2 was cranked out in about a year. They may have gotten less money out of it than the original, but they certainly put less money in as well.