Dragon Age 3: Inquisition announced

[Red Hawk]

The tactical view is a bastardized version of the one we had in DA:O (which was a bastardized version from games before). The game is paused in that view so it's only for issuing orders, not actually playing the game from top down which is what people who like the tactical camera want.

Warriors having chain/grapple powers just makes me think of God of War or similar action games, not a party based RPG where you need a mix of classes to cover your bases.

Not true, Laidlaw specifically says, "Without changing your perspective, you can choose to engage, start time, and continue moving with the most free-floating camera we've ever had", and he shows unpausing the game while in tactical view for a bit before pausing again to give orders.

From what I can tell, the camera seems more dynamic and flexible than it was in DAO. Rather than locking into the isometric view, you can move it around akin to how you would move the camera in a strategy game like the Total War games.

 

[darkewaffle]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/11/12/dragon-age-inquisition-gameplay-footage-surfaces

About a half-hour of footage from some Finnish gaming expo earlier this month. It looks like it's about the same as what we've seen before but it's not chopped up and imo the quality is better - some parts (especially the "Irish" countryside of Crestwood) look pretty spectacular. Also parts of the speech overlaid to the video are neat, particularly regarding world exploration and 'evolution' as your decisions and shape and change people/places/things. I think the elements of controlling the Inquisition and how it's influence shapes the world and it's resources are allocated could add a really cool layer to the game. Still curious to see just how the Inquisition relates to the Templars and Mages exactly - at times it seems like it's a neutral party that can sway either direction and other times (and the name "Inquisition" itself) seems more like you would be playing the role of the Inquisition for a given faction.

Also, while I really liked Dragon Age at the time, I feel like it was almost entirely upstaged by the Mass Effect series. I hope they can bring that same level of connection and emotion to DA.

 

[EDUSAN]

the game looks fantastic, i wish it could be played more like DA:O, in the sense that some fights, without proper planning, were really hard to win.

and, as darkwaffle said, DA:O characters and story weere good, but Mass Effect gave Interacting to partners a whole new meaning, and now playing DA doesnt bring the same commitment to your friends

 

[Zenoth]

The more I see of Inquisition and the more confident I am.

It looks great, absolutely no denying it, it seems to play nicely and that video shows the potential of free exploration (along with seamless loading-less integration of caves and other places to find within a map). The engine helps a lot since of course it allows them to craft their vision of their game properly this time. I haven't watched the whole thing since I don't want to see any potential spoilers (even minor ones), but I'm happy so far with what I'm seeing.

At around 13 minutes or so in the video (that's about when I stopped watching to avoid further spoilers), on the upper right corner of the screen it shows "Pre Alpha Build". I don't know if that specific build is their latest one, but if right now the game already looks that great and is already that big (Crestwood being bigger than the entirety of Dragon Age II, and that map being only one part of Inquisition) but is only Pre Alpha then... wow, it's impressive (in my eyes anyway, especially in comparison to DAII).

I can't wait for Inquisition really, but on the other hand I'd like if BioWare take the time (or rather if EA gives them the time) they need to make it "right" and to not rush it. It looks like it is the case already, however, which is a good thing. It could take them another year or two of development, for some reasons I doubt that it's going to be released in 2014 (according to the Wiki page the release date is Q3 2014) but if so then I just hope that it wouldn't be pushing it out too fast.

 

[Dahak]

the game looks fantastic, i wish it could be played more like DA:O, in the sense that some fights, without proper planning, were really hard to win.

I cant remember about when in that video, later in the 2nd half, but it does show the tactical camera angle and allows you to do the same things that DA:O did in combat.
Also it was mention in the VO that you have a somewhat limited inventory for potions(hard to hear) so you can't say take 100 healing potions and spam them during a fight

Also for it being pre-alpha build it looks great

 

[alcoholbob]

It looks like it's possible to play the entire game in tactical view if you wanted to. Which would be awesome as it was how I played all of DAO.

 

[Red Hawk]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzuR1Fn_b48

Dat scenery porn. This may actually give Witcher 3 a run for its money, visually.

 

[darkewaffle]

Some of those environments look pretty awesome, especially love the one (I think it's the same one between the two shots) from 0:39 to 0:48.

 

[Carfax83]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzuR1Fn_b48

Dat scenery porn. This may actually give Witcher 3 a run for its money, visually.

DAI looks very beautiful, but three things Bioware has repeatedly failed to nail imo are the MOOD, SCALE and ATMOSPHERE of the Dragon Age World.

In that respect, Witcher is vastly superior to Dragon Age I believe....at least so far.

We'll see if Bioware nails it this time. They have a major boon by being able to utilize the Frostbite 3 engine, which is far better than anything they themselves would have been able to come up with.

And good visual representation and scale are extremely important for immersion and atmosphere.

 

[Red Hawk]

DAI looks very beautiful, but three things Bioware has repeatedly failed to nail imo are the MOOD, SCALE and ATMOSPHERE of the Dragon Age World.

In that respect, Witcher is vastly superior to Dragon Age I believe....at least so far.

We'll see if Bioware nails it this time. They have a major boon by being able to utilize the Frostbite 3 engine, which is far better than anything they themselves would have been able to come up with.

And good visual representation and scale are extremely important for immersion and atmosphere.

The Dragon Age games have managed some good atmosphere indoors or underground, but yeah, they've left something to be desired in outdoor areas. Hopefully Inquisition can remedy that; they appear to have the technology and art direction to do it.

 

[alcoholbob]

Seems to be a general lack of density in outdoor areas compared to the Witcher 2. The wilderness is not as clean as the Superbowl lawn. I feel that's the main problem with Bioware games in general since they went into the 3D era, lack of environment density. While they've upped the lightning and textures, their games tend to look like it was programmed for a 2002 CPU.

Although I would say, being full cross-generation multiplatform versus Witcher 3 which is only next gen multiplatform is probably going to be the primary reason there's a gap in environmental quality and graphics.

 

[Red Hawk]

DAI looks very beautiful, but three things Bioware has repeatedly failed to nail imo are the MOOD, SCALE and ATMOSPHERE of the Dragon Age World.

In that respect, Witcher is vastly superior to Dragon Age I believe....at least so far.

We'll see if Bioware nails it this time. They have a major boon by being able to utilize the Frostbite 3 engine, which is far better than anything they themselves would have been able to come up with.

And good visual representation and scale are extremely important for immersion and atmosphere.

The Dragon Age games have managed some good atmosphere indoors or underground, but yeah, they've left something to be desired in outdoor areas. Hopefully Inquisition can remedy that; they appear to have the technology and art direction to do it.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

Neat. Of course, the big question is: will be like DA1 (great) or DA2 (not).

This is the $64,000 question.

The bottom line here is that Dragon Age Origins was one of the best modern day RPGs that gave a nod to the true greats in RPG history like Baldurs Gate, it was squarely aimed at RPG fans from days of yore.

Then EA bought up Bioware and shoved their smelly cock into the mix and like with everything else they touch, they destroyed the IP by dumbing it down for more mass appeal and more sales, and rushed out the sequel as fast as possible which resulted in the utter abomination that is DA2.

EA are to blame, that's simply a matter of fact. They still control the fate of DA3 and hence it will be shit, it's really that simple.

RIP Dragon Age.

 

[EDUSAN]

I want to believeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

[Red Hawk]

This is the $64,000 question.

The bottom line here is that Dragon Age Origins was one of the best modern day RPGs that gave a nod to the true greats in RPG history like Baldurs Gate, it was squarely aimed at RPG fans from days of yore.

Then EA bought up Bioware and shoved their smelly cock into the mix and like with everything else they touch, they destroyed the IP by dumbing it down for more mass appeal and more sales, and rushed out the sequel as fast as possible which resulted in the utter abomination that is DA2.

EA are to blame, that's simply a matter of fact. They still control the fate of DA3 and hence it will be shit, it's really that simple.

RIP Dragon Age.

Much of Dragon Age Origins' own development happened after EA bought BioWare, and even when EA bought BioWare they kept the BioWare co-founders in charge. EA might have had something to do with it but I think they just made a rushed game that would have been subpar regardless.

And Dragon Age II is far from an "utter abomination". This is an utter abomination.

 

[Carfax83]

I hope DAI doesn't use the same static skybox, pre-baked shadow and lighting crap that BF4 uses. BF4 wasn't a good title to show off the capabilities of the FB3 engine as it was inherently geared towards multiplayer..

But DAI being single player, can focus on eye candy.. From the video, it didn't appear that DAI uses a static sky box like BF4, but I can't tell whether they were using pre-baked shadows or lighting from that short clip.

 

[darkewaffle]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2014/...ber-7-release-date-fordragon-age-inquisition/

Release date currently being touted as Oct 7. New trailer in the link as well - it looks very pretty but some of the dialogue they chose to promote the story seemed pretty weak to me. Oh well, trailers will be trailers

 

[frozentundra123456]

This and the mordor game are really the only new games that I very interested in the rest of the year. I am hopeful, but neither will be a day one purchase for me. Going to wait for reviews, forum comments, and possibly a steam sale. Just finished the awakenings expansion for DAO, and I guess I had forgotten how good bioware games used to be. I was just thinking as I played how great the game would be with FB3 engine.

 

[Dumac]

This and the mordor game are really the only new games that I very interested in the rest of the year. I am hopeful, but neither will be a day one purchase for me. Going to wait for reviews, forum comments, and possibly a steam sale. Just finished the awakenings expansion for DAO, and I guess I had forgotten how good bioware games used to be. I was just thinking as I played how great the game would be with FB3 engine.

I wouldn't trust any reviews within the first month of the game being out. Everyone just seems to be in honeymoon phase with their shiny new game they have played to 5-10 hours and gives it a 9 or 10.

 

[Red Storm]

Much of Dragon Age Origins' own development happened after EA bought BioWare, and even when EA bought BioWare they kept the BioWare co-founders in charge. EA might have had something to do with it but I think they just made a rushed game that would have been subpar regardless.

And Dragon Age II is far from an "utter abomination". This is an utter abomination.

Dragon Age was first showed off three years before EA bought Bioware, so no most of the development was done before the EA purchase. It's harder to change a project when you arrive near the end.

Dragon Age II was an abomination because it had FAR higher expectations with a much bigger budget than that game you linked to, but you already know that.

 

[Revolution 11]

I wouldn't trust any reviews within the first month of the game being out. Everyone just seems to be in honeymoon phase with their shiny new game they have played to 5-10 hours and gives it a 9 or 10.

Agreed. Only a few sites have any semblance of being fair. I like Rock Paper Shotgun (RPS)'s reviews and sometimes Giant Bomb and Adam Sessler at Rev3Games. But all the other mainstream sites are more of gushing fluff pieces that wildly skew their rating scale.

How can you say 8 is average, 6 is horrible, 9 is AAA game that didn't disappoint? Better to use 5 stars then because that rating system is closer to how it should work. RPS has no number rating, Giant Bomb and Adam use 5 stars.

A better way to see how the game will be is to watch Let's Plays for actual gameplay (the first sections so you don't spoil much) and to watch YouTube rants. If there are no rants or the rants are not inspiring and substantial, the game is good. If there are a lot of rants, the game is not meeting expectations (not bad per say but getting there).

I say pay attention to rants because watching a clip of gameplay tells you nothing about characterization, plot, or pacing. Most rants will find something wrong with the 3 attributes.

TL;DR Be very careful of review sites, only a few are trusted. Sites that have no number rating or use 5 stars are better. Watch actual gameplay, and see if you like it.

 

[BudAshes]

Dragon Age was first showed off three years before EA bought Bioware, so no most of the development was done before the EA purchase. It's harder to change a project when you arrive near the end.

Dragon Age II was an abomination because it had FAR higher expectations with a much bigger budget than that game you linked to, but you already know that.

I liked DAII, but I hate roleplaying games. I thought it was a fun diablo style game. It just shouldn't have born the title Dragon Age 2.

 

[nageov3t]

I liked DAII, but I hate roleplaying games. I thought it was a fun diablo style game. It just shouldn't have born the title Dragon Age 2.

:thumbsup:

I liked DA2 a lot, but I can completely understand how someone might move to DA1 to DA2 and be like "wtf is this shit?"

I found it to be quite fun on the console... my only major gripe was was the used dungeon layouts. half an hour into the game and you'd already experienced each possible building/cave layout you're going to experience for the rest of the game.

 

[Carfax83]

Box art:

With Watch Dogs, Dragon Age Inquisition and Batman Arkham Knight all coming this year, I'm going to be in gaming Nirvana

 

[Red Storm]

It just shouldn't have born the title Dragon Age 2.

I agree. I love role playing games, so for me DAII wasn't just a bad game, they took a series I loved and turned it into something else entirely. This sucked on many levels because it's not like good RPGs are a dime a dozen.