So Dragon Age 3.... No Pressure?

[Gennadios]

BW isn't the company it once was. For the most part the writers they have left either don't talk to each other, or nobody on the teams has any idea how to stitch together a story with cohesive themes.

However, They're arrogant as hell and infuriatingly self-assured in their own artistic merit, so I doubt they're particularly worried.

I won't be picking up any more of their games, the shark has been jumped. I will be following their releases closely though, I'm genuinely curious how much longer the company's gonna last.

 

[Lugixx]

As someone who thought DA2 was terrible, but can see why because of a 9 month development cycle, I'll give them the benefit of doubt for this one. Something I'll never give the ME team ever again. ME2 and ME3 had their chances, and I won't be fooled again.

And since we'll be seeing Leilana and Shale again, I might even stretch to cautiously optimistic.

 

[xedobubble]

Between KOTOR hemorrhaging players and the ME3 ending controversy (which the new DLC resolved I feel, because the internet basically accepted it with quiet approval), there's a lot of pressure on DA3. I'm hoping for:

1. Not a console port. Overhead camera view for combat like Origins, more complex controls.
2. No Origin required. Not gonna happen, of course.
3. A better narrative than 2. Anders had no connection to the character with saw in Awakening. Playing through, many required main quests felt as disconnected as the side quests and only made sense after finishing the game. (Why am I questing after this serial killer? Ahhh, because his research ties into one of the last bosses, but you only find that out at the last minute).
4. A quest system that's less mmo-ish. At the start of each act I would get so many 'go here kill them' quests that I had no way to keep them straight, and I just went from quest marker to quest marker. I would turn in a quest and say with surprise, oh, that quest was from YOU!
5. A game that definitely does not keep focusing on the chantry vs. mages. The unique content from the first game was Orlais, Tevinter, the Darkspawn, the Architect, the Old Gods, and the Fade/Maker. The sequel was... about a guy dealing with civil strife and magical fanaticism. Let's get back to the awesome ideas from DA:O!

You know what would be awesome? A side game, even an RTS, of Andraste's adventures. That would be awesome.

 

[-|-]

I cgaff about the whining about how shit DA2 was - imo it was a good game and better than DAO. DA3 will be day 1 purchase for me.

 

[The_Waspman]

Which I kind of hope never happens but will inevitably. Who wants to bet that said game will force you to play an orphaned human child who discovers they are the child of Morrigan and an untainted Old God by the end of the game? No convoluted ritual to end the blight this time. You're just going to straight-up GODSMASH the shit out of any Arch-Demon that crosses your path... wait that actually sounds kind of cool now.

Now actually, that's fairly interesting.

Considering the big deal they made out of Morrigan and that kid, its defiantely going to come back into play at some point. Maybe Morrigan/the Warden become a (dlc) party member, and one of those big moral chocies you have to make is whether to let the kid live (equatable to keeping the collector base at the end of me2 (but, y'know, with ACTUAL consequences) or killing it, and having Morrigan/the Warden become an enemy...

Is this getting a bit too fan fic?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I just want Orlais, is that too much to ask!?

Yes, the movie is in Orlais. BUT IT'S A MOVIE.

DA:O gave a lot of setup for Orlais. I was angry when I found out 2 wasn't there. I mean really....

- You know a lot about politics and how their games work, from Leliana
- You know a bit about the gender inequality from that woman in Denerim's market
- You know about their fashions and cities, from Leliana
- You know they have their own Grey Wardens thanks to Riordan.

Orlais sounds like a really great setting, why on earth did they ignore it in favor of KIRKWALL of all places?

In some panel thing they did back at PAX they heavily implied it was going to be set in Orlais. Sounds cool to me, though I hope they don't half-ass the VO budget and give us a bunch of horrendous French accents. D:

You know they aren't going to do that, Fappy. The closest you'll get is either horrifically bad english pretending to be french, or french canadian actors who do not sound like France French at all.

 

[Hitchmeister]

Dragon Age 2 had a good story I just couldn't forgive the crappy "one dungeon that looked like all the other dungeons except parts were blocked off and they didn't even bother to delete that parts there were blocked off in the map" thing.

They don't pull that shit again I'll be fine.

I have a theory of what they were going for with the one cave (and virtually every other location). They were trying to invoke the feel of a tabletop dice and paper role-playing game where you have one really nice laminated map for each type of environment and and you use your dry erase markers to block off parts and reshape it a bit and the players all willingly suspend their disbelief to pretend every encounter in not taking place on the same map. But it doesn't really work when the computer should be able to generate a completely new map (perhaps re-using some tiles in different configurations) to actually make a new map for each encounter. I think they were trying for an effect and just failed so miserably that it looked like they put no effort at all into it.

They also screwed up the combat by going in two nearly opposite directions at the same time. First they streamlined the combat in response to people saying DA:O was too fiddly. Instead there were only a handful of attacks, which in the pre-release hype was described as "push a button, something awesome happens," but was mostly just kind of boring and repetitive. But then extending every fight with at least one additional wave that would appear out of nowhere, supposedly to make the fight more dynamic, but mostly came off as padded.

Personally, I'm the exception in that I mostly liked the story, but I can see that it wasn't what most people were looking for or expecting. But it's really hard to build an advertising campaign around, "This time the story is going to be a lot more personal in scale and way less epic." I liked it, but you could never sell that.

 

[Ickorus]

Well, we have to remember that the endings of ME3 were not under peer-review, so I don't think Bioware is just rolling around in cash and ignoring the internet squabble. I never got into Dragon Age (always felt like a generic fantasy to me :/), but from what I heard in DA2, the game went from a story involving nations to just a family getting by. So, it essentially took a step backwards. Might be a good idea to get me up to speed on what happened. But, yeah, after ME3, I've lost a lot of respect toward Bioware as writers, after the ME3 endings, so I assume it had something to do with that?

I don't think there's anything particularly bad about focusing on events at a more personal level, the story in the game was actually pretty good bar the couple of times they were clearly writing to fit the game instead of the other way around.

The problem with that game was that they monumentally skimped on art assets by re-using the same 5 areas repeatedly and over-simplified combat and encounters (Boss fights or otherwise).

I also took issue with them making almost every single character bi-sexual, I'm all for equality and such but that was just lazy.

 

[Zetatrain]

Well quite frankly if EA actually gives Bioware the time needed to complete the game it might actually turn out alright. DA2 only had about 15 months of development and part of the reason why ME3 got its ending was because around the time ME3's release date was pushed back Bioware said they needed until June to complete the game and EA gave them till February. For me its about 50/50, its possible they can pull this off though at the same time it won't surprise me if they don't.

 

[Nero18]

BW isn't the company it once was. For the most part the writers they have left either don't talk to each other, or nobody on the teams has any idea how to stitch together a story with cohesive themes.

This is just bad news for a studio that focused so much on story. I get why DA2 was a bad game even though i havent played it myself. But i really dont understand some of the misstakes they did with ME3. Everything from the ending in ME3 to the journal system proves this. I personally doubt that as we knew it (staff) will survive this gen. I would be suprised to hear that some key members have left.

 

[Marcus Kehoe]

Whelp after the 2 most disappointing gaming events to occur by the same company, TOR and the mass effect 3 ending I have to say bioware is running out of chances. DA3 may not be the last chance but dammit its getting close.

 

[GrumpyPirate]

Well, as someone who enjoyed Dragon Age II and didn't ***** about the ME3 ending. I'm sure I'll be happy with what they give us.

As someone who found mass effects 3 ending interesting i also can not wait for dragon age 3 (although with the bioware releases lately i will be avoiding this forum the moment it comes out. Since it will probably be filled with people complaining anyway.

That they will. Never have I seen such a horrible fanbase as Biowares.

I just had to reply to this cause it pisses me of so incredibly much. Either your one of the "new" fans who has no clue about Bioware or you just dont have a clue as to the issues that revolve around Bioware since EA took it over.

Bioware has had the most dedicated loyal and stable fanbase ive ever seen for a studio with the possible exception of Paradox or some of the small ones. People are pissed cause Bioware not only completely abandoned their fanbase completely and without as much as a hug but ont he way out the pissed on the carpet, ripped up the couch, scrambled the channels on the tv and drained the bank accounts. After this they also have the gall to complain that its us theres something wrong with and we were mean to them.

As to the thread, we all know Dragon Age 3 will suck. It will be even more EA than pervious games so itll probably more or less get reduced to a hack and slash with even worse story, no real choises and complete lack of characters with more depth than a sheet of paper.

Sorry but the fact is that EA and bioware simply didnt mix cause it was quality, dedication and depth versus quantity, rushed schedules and story "worthy" of hollywood. One had to die and obviously it was the one owned by the other.

 

[Fappy]

Well quite frankly if EA actually gives Bioware the time needed to complete the game it might actually turn out alright. DA2 only had about 15 months of development and part of the reason why ME3 got its ending was because around the time ME3's release date was pushed back Bioware said they needed until June to complete the game and EA gave them till February. For me its about 50/50, its possible they can pull this off though at the same time it won't surprise me if they don't.

Where did you hear that they were requesting a June deadline? That would actually make a lot of sense.

 

[Bertylicious]

I don't see how it is going to be any good but I will buy it anyway because I am a mug with more money than sense and I am "emotionally invested".

*Baaaah*

 

[Ziggy]

I'll probably enjoy it, since BioWare games are still entertain me greatly. But I think Dragon Age 3 will be one of the most interesting games to watch around its release. The company has never had to come back from such a negative response. It'll be popcorn time whenever it comes out, no matter whether you love them or hate them.

I completely agree. Things are going to get crazy around here when the marketing campaign starts up.

I really can't put a finger on exactly how they screwed up the combat, though..I don't know what, but something just feels..FPS-y?

My guess is that it was because your auto-attacks was so fast but did almost no damage, and you had to wait because of the long cooldown on your 6-7 abilities

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

anc[is] and then a whole other plot starts in act 3 ending in boss fights that would embarrass the power rangers.

lol that is pretty damn hard to do.

OT: I'm sure EA is going to drown it down even more to hook in every person under the sun, and it'll crash and fail and will hardly relate at all to the original dragon age, nor will they have any relation to a mod kit towards it like DA origins did, which made the replay value (for me at least) much higher with all the sidequest mods and item/gameplay changes.

DA2 could've had a family plot just fine, but that doesn't mean it has to be the ONLY plot, they completely screwed what was going on in the world and then the plot circumvention in act 3 was just ridiculous.

I mean I can be pretty forgiving, but damn..that game took every fucking shortcut imaginable, plus more.

 

[Avalanche91]

I didnt hate DA2, but found it underwhelming. I really loved some of the characters. I loved the fact that they had their own plots going on, some interwining with the main story, some amusing side missions. That and the banter between them is incredibly amusing (save for Anders cause dear god what did they do to him)

I am carefully optimistic. I hope that EA learned to give Bioware the time to polish their product after the ME3 debacle and that the next game will have the sense of scale of Origins and the combat of DA2.

 

[Zeckt]

Why do people say the combat in DA2 was its strong point? 3 enemies spawning on top of your mage out of thin air make me want to vomit and not only quit bioware but gaming in general. I don't care what DA3 will be, its already ruined with bioware's new fail idea of attempting to mass appeal.

Seriously, WHAT is good about DA2's combat? it did not feel like an rpg, it felt like streets of kirkwall with enemies cartwheeling on the screen with cheap spawns and crap.

 

[electric method]

Thanks to both who quoted me. In response, I am aware of the multiplicity of Arch-demons, the potential of the warden/morrigan child etc. The bigger issue is just what I stated. Look at it from an SG1 type of thing. The first few seasons of this series the Jaffa were hard to kill the Go'auld almost impossible to do so. The winds of change blow in around season 4 and by 6 the heroes are offing the snake heads and Jaffa in job lots. What was originally the big bad(s) for the series got watered down so much they became a joke.

The same holds true for the DA series. The more Arch-demons they trot out the more watered down they become, eventually losing all menance and threat they could have. It's the same type of problem the ME series faced. BW has wrote themselves into a corner with the established story of DA:O and Awakenings. DA2 is a throw-away title, and if they go back to arch-demoney goodness for DA3 then they'll have effectively repeated the cycle of the ME series.

Yes, the lore does allow for more places to go in the DA universe but, because of how it's been handled BW has nowhere to go with it. Unless, of course, we want a contrived, silly story and plot that vaguely fits into the plot(s) already established. Now, where have we seen this before with BioWare?

 

[Zetatrain]

Well quite frankly if EA actually gives Bioware the time needed to complete the game it might actually turn out alright. DA2 only had about 15 months of development and part of the reason why ME3 got its ending was because around the time ME3's release date was pushed back Bioware said they needed until June to complete the game and EA gave them till February. For me its about 50/50, its possible they can pull this off though at the same time it won't surprise me if they don't.

Where did you hear that they were requesting a June deadline? That would actually make a lot of sense.

It was one of the many many ME3 treads that popped up on the escapist in March and April. Supposedly, the info came from Bioware employees. Unfortunately my memory is a bit hazy on the details, so take what I say with a gain of salt.

However, last month there was another thread about how some ME3 players unearthed a bunch of unused files in the game such as voice clips for the non-squad characters like Jack, Miranda, Jacob, etc. Some of it hinted that the characters from ME2(those still alive) would actually play a large part in the final mission and that it would be sort of be like the suicide mission from ME2. Unfortunately due to time constraints it got scraped. Now granted its not uncommon to find unused files in games, ME2 had some, but based on what read in that thread it seems that the developers originally had much more planned for the final mission in ME3.