So Dragon Age 3.... No Pressure?

[tmande2nd]

Their writing just gets worse and worse as time marches on.

Every foe has space magic, or macguffin instead of MOTIVATION.
Loghain and Master Li, are far better done foes then the Reapers, or Meredith.

There is SO much talent you can see and DA2/Me3 had amazing moments, but Bioware keeps making errors.
I hope they do good, but I am more excited for Rome 2 right now.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

I've seen this brought up a few times around here before but never a discussion dedicated to it. So Dragon Age 3... I can't think of any other modern game that has had so much working against it (save Duke Nukem maybe). Not only do they need to salvage the unmitigated disaster that was Dragon Age 2, but they also need to deal with the fallout of ME3's ending fiasco. On top of that they need to attract new fans while doing their damnedest to reel in many of their old fans who've lost hope in the franchise (in some cases the developer themselves). That's a lot of pressure, and I can only imagine that EA is cracking down in an effort to salvage this IP.

You forgot to mention that any future Dragon Age title will have the usual EA trifecta of Day 1/On-disc DLC, online pass and securom...with quite likely an origin requirement thrown in to alienate and disenfranchise even more customers.

The DA:O engine is still a very good one. I don't see why they couldn't release a 25-35hr entirely new campaign for DA:O, I'd pay for that. If it had to be a new title, I'd like to get away from the "cinematic" ME/DA2 style of game and back to the pseudo real-time, party based BG2/DAO style. I can create my own hero, don't care if the PC is mute. Release the toolset with it, and two-three expansion packs of 15-20 hrs each over the course of 1-2 years. If EA did that, they'd get my money. I'm not interested in pathetic "weapon packs" that add nothing to the game. If they included co-op support like BG2, they'll be on to a winner.

 

[Paladin Anderson]

The Dragon Age franchise will be like the Fable games. Start with a really well made, memorable game and get increasingly worse as you make more games.

Or it could be like the Devil May Cry games. First one was great, second one bombed, third one was fantastic. It's Bioware for cryin out loud. I like DA2, not as much as DA1 and yes they bombed on the ME3 ending but that's no reason to count out a company with as much of a history for excellent games as they have.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I have yet to play Mass Effect 3 and, Dragon Age 2 completely ruined the franchise for me. Hell, Awakening, Darkspawn Chronicals and, Lilliana's Song seemed to have had more going for them individually than the whole of DA2 and those were all expansions. I keep forgetting the third installment is under production and I don't see myself picking it up at any point unless it's revealed to be a hack-n-slash proper instead of a closeted one like DA2.

 

[RatRace123]

Yeah, I'm really nervous about Dragon Age 3. DA2, while I didn't hate it, it was obviously rushed and the game suffered for it, Mass Effect 3 ended up being a disappointment.

I can say right away that I'm not preordering Dragon Age 3, and it'll have to be really damn impressive for me to be interested in it (or they could just let you play as more races than human again, and that'll do it.).

I'll probably wait to see what the overall reception, both by professional critics and fans end up being. I want this game to succeed, but I can't help but feel Bioware and EA will screw up another trilogy I like.

Please EA, please give Bioware the time they need to make Dragon Age 3. 'Cause if you rush the deadline, the game will just end being less than great, and if that happens, well I don't know what after that, but I'll be really disappointed.

 

[krugerrand123]

I think they will eventually come out with Dragon age three, I am sure if their marketing campaign is successful and if they learn from the past, it will be a big hit.

 

[Moonlight Butterfly]

I'm gonna keep an eye on it. It's certainly not something I want to sink money into if it is as bad as Dragon Age 2. I liked me3 a lot ending aside but I thought DA2 was rushed and quite horrible.

Spoiler: I mean, the trees alone, oh god the trees. They look like a copy pasted Christmas tree drawn by a toddler. (This is on my rig with 2x gtx580 with SLI and the high res texture pack):

Come on Bioware you can do better.

 

[gim73]

The Dragon Age franchise will be like the Fable games. Start with a really well made, memorable game and get increasingly worse as you make more games.

Well made memorable game my ass! Fable was a game that promised so very much yet delivered so very little. It's a game that you can finish in under ten hours even if you are not trying. I remember that sunday years later, as the day I shouted at my Xbox, "That's it?"

Now Fable 2 was a decent progression forward. It was actually a good game.

Fable 3 took the things that worked with Fable 2, and dumbed it all down. It was still playable, but it definately wasn't as good as 2. It's like when you play Mass Effect 2, and realize that they stripped out all the cool RPG aspects that you loved from the original and turned it into a shooter with levels.

 

[doomspore98]

After the backlash from DA2 and ME3 I think Bioware will pull out all the stops for DA3. In my opinion it's sort of make or break for Bioware with this game. I hope its good.

 

[mad825]

Ignoring the ending, ME3 was a spectacularly good game; probably one of my favourites of all time. Bioware is still a great developer and I will be watching DA3 with interest.

Giving ME3 way too much credit.

Two things that ME3 misses:

1.content - ME2 has quite alot of content and is a worthwhile sequel (in terms of content) to ME1. characters, dialogue and missions are in bulk. Majority of the content is optional however this is a good thing, it means that content isn't being shoved down our throats

2.exploration - ME1 and ME2 had new places to go. ME3? It seems like a slightly extended version of DA2. The sad thing is that they could've reused the same places as well tweaked slightly to show the effects of the war.

ME3 is good but by no means 'spectacular'.

I think that if SW:TOR enters 2013 with less than 500k subs, BioWare will be shut down and this won't see the light of day.

Bethesda is doing the MMO thing now too, though. So, they could just wait around until that horrible idea drives Bethesda into the ground and if Bioware can manage to stay alive long enough with the tumorous growth that is SW:TOR attached to them., they will have no competition!

Not really, this is a project from Zenimax [footnote]ZeniMax Online Studios[/footnote] and not Bethesda[footnote]Bethesda Games Studios (where console/single player Elder Scrolls and Fallout titles are developed) - Quoted from the official ZeniMax Online website[/footnote] directly.

If TESO fails then no real big deal because it's a side project, a spin-off. The worst decision came from EA/Bioware to scrap KOTOR 3 in favour of a prequel MMO.

 

[Sampsa]

Bioware has done some bad choiches but it always deliveres. And I'm ready to put those bad choiches on EA.

 

[ultrachicken]

If they pull another Mass Effect 3, e.g. combine the combat of the second entry with the RPG elements of the first and increase the scope, then I'll be happy. I'm definitely going to watch the release closely, as it's going to be hugely dramatic. The stakes have never been higher for Bioware.

Also, more Dwarves, less fade.

 

[Amaror]

I am not gonna buy it at release. Bioware trashed my blind faith in them with Dragon age 2.
But if they make a COMPLETE u turn and return to Origins i might pick it up when it's cheaper.
We'll see.

 

[Suomimaster]

I remember when Bioware marketed DA:O as "the new Baldur's Gate", but it wasn't even near Baldur's Gate.

 

[KINGBeerZ]

DA:2 was not really a bad game, in fact judging it on its own merits i thought it was pretty good, people are just judging it harshly because it didn't live up to what we hoped after playing DA:O so a lot of people got dissapointed. I just hope that they bring back race selection for DA:3, as ni would always rather play as an elf or dwarf than a human.

 

[Joccaren]

Honestly, I'm not thinking its looking good. I'm sure Bioware knows there's a problem. I don't think EA cares though, and their likely to just say "More action, less development time" and run the franchise into the ground.

In either case, if things continue the way they have been, I'm not going to like it:
ME1: Brilliant.
DAO: Brilliant.
ME2: Great.
DA2: Poor
ME3: Bad
ME3+EC: Poor


What would win it for me, if done successfully, is a return to DA:O in most aspects, and with only 1 or 2 things in DA2 coming across to DA3.
I would like the DA:O style of Aesthetic.
I would like the DA:O style inventory back.
I would like the DA:O style spell combos back.
I would like the DA:O No Dialogue Wheel back.
I would like the DA2 ability to ask your companions on what they want to say.
I would like DA:A Anders back [If he's in the game].
I would like DA2 style writing for the characters for other characters.
I would like more DA:O styled combat, though moving at a slightly faster pace.
I would like the size and scale of DA:O back.
I would like the levelling and stats of DA:O back.
I would like items to stay largely away from "Generic Sword" and "Generic Sword with damaging enchantment" and instead be more "Item with enchantment that will help sometimes, and be unhelpful others".
I would like a large, nation spanning conflict to fight in.
I would like for previous choices to have some reasonable consequences [And no retcons].


That would, if reported to be true by the people who bought the game earlier on, earn the game my sale.
If its DA2 combat with the DA:O inventory and more areas than DA2, but less than DA:O with little else changed - I'm not going to like it.

 

[chinangel]

I'm looking forward to it. Sure the ME3 ending was shite and D.A 2 was the biggest pile of garbage i ever was disappointed to look forward to, but i remember Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic and the other amazing games they did.

But please Bioware..please...balance the game. let me play the game how i want to, if I want to play a mage-fighter let me! If I want to play a twin-blading warrior LET ME!

Don't restrict me. Please.

And for the love of god MAKE ANOTHER JADE EMPIRE!

 

[johnnnny guitar]

I got no expectations for the game since I will not be buying it however my "expectation" of it being a unfun badly written ugly action hack 'n' slash (with a dialogue wheel so they can still call it an RPG) got even worse when they had a one of the major announced features of the game being........................

Armour that you can equip on party members
Then having a 5 minute powerpoint explaining why this is an amazing feature and how it will work.

I sorry but bioware are announcing shit that not only is a standard in 95% of RPG's but also are simply being stuck up their own ass especially with their explanations for things that are obviously lazy being an artistic choice(I'm not just talking about the ME3 ending) or just admit that it's to hard to do something I.E. not making a Wookie playable character for the $500,000,000 TOR because it was "To hard to code" so instead they just make everyone a humanoid shaped character.

Bioware needs more development time then 2 years for each game if they want to reach a good quality RPG

 

[iseko]

DA2 was garbage.

Reusing your dungeon layouts when they're already highly linear and thoroughly unimaginative.

Side quests that consist entirely of looting a random item and returning it to someone you've never seen before (but conveniently highlighted on your map) in exchange for one line of dialogue and some pocket change.

Combat mechanics that include unpredictable ninja enemy spawns, completely invalidating the concepts of positioning and intelligent cool down usage.

Uneven, poorly paced story where none of your decisions ended up mattering hardly at all.

DA2 was an objectively bad game based on the standards of Bioware and DA:O. If they didn't want to call down that kind of wrath, they should have named it something else.

Agree with everything you said. Except you shouldn't even compare it to DA:O to call it a bad game. It just was a friggin bad game. The only reason they sold as many copies as they did is because people believe(d) in bioware to make good games. And because a lot of people found DA:O to be a good game. It's always been like this for bioware games: a lot of people love/like them. Few people hate their games.

They had a 'shut up and take my money' fanbase that was hard to rival. I was one of them. Now... I'm more skeptical and await reviews before buying the game. And if they keep this up and continue making shit games. Then I will go from 'shut up and take my money' to just plain old 'shut the fuck up'.

I hope they go back to their 'roots' and make some decent games.

DA:2 was not really a bad game, in fact judging it on its own merits i thought it was pretty good

No... just... no.

Dragon Age 2 was a masterpiece of modern gaming

Hmm, I had a hard time understanding this if it is not meant sarcastically. My predecessor who is in my first quote explains why it is an utterly shit game. I'd really like to hear your reasoning how you think this is a good game. And how you plan on defending against the summarized points above? In my book trying something new is nice sometimes (like AC, I really enjoyed the first instalment). But DA2 is not an example of this.

 

[iseko]

I'm looking forward to it. Sure the ME3 ending was shite and D.A 2 was the biggest pile of garbage i ever was disappointed to look forward to, but i remember Jade Empire, Knights of the Old Republic and the other amazing games they did.

But please Bioware..please...balance the game. let me play the game how i want to, if I want to play a mage-fighter let me! If I want to play a twin-blading warrior LET ME!

Don't restrict me. Please.

And for the love of god MAKE ANOTHER JADE EMPIRE!

Yea, they had a good streak for a long time. I'm talking baldur's gate until kotor I (I liked shattered steel but I wouldn't call it a real winner). They kind of shit all over themselves with kotor II but hey, everyone can make some mistakes right? Alltho in retrospect we should have taken it as a sign that something was amiss.

Bioware releasing a half ass game with more bugs then content? How odd...

But then they released DA:O and mass effect and all was well again (at least for me). Now apparently they must be infected with cholera(EA games, shit over everything) because they are blasting everything with explosive diarrhoea. Hope they get rid of that nasty bug.