Thanks for pointing that out. Goes to show I could use a little more prep time before firing off my responses.
Still, I feel the rest of the post is pretty much valid.
Not to single you out, but did anyone bother to read the link to the official website? Allow me to provide the relevant quote from the executive producer:
So there you have it, 1.5-2.0 years of development with another 1 - 1.5 years to go (assuming late 2013/early 2014 release).
Thanks for pointing that out. Goes to show I could use a little more prep time before firing off my responses.
Still, I feel the rest of the post is pretty much valid.
I'll admit I'm still concerned about the timeline. The letter makes it sound as if they have a lot of work to do and if EA pushes for a late 2013 release, we could end up with an inadequately play-tested game on a new, buggy engine.
Neat. Of course, the big question is: will be like DA1 (great) or DA2 (not).
Maybe, except
a) It only just announced almost 2 years after Dragon age 2, twice as long as it took to even make Dragon Age 2
b) Has an estimated release of at the very least 2014, a full 3 years after Dragon age 2.
and
c) Therefore Dragon Age 3 have almost 5 entire years of development time, which is a far cry better than DA2's development time of only 1 year. There's a reason DA2 sucked. You can't make a quality AAA-RPG in only 1 year.
That, combined with a brand new engine, veteran team working on it, and Bioware acknowledging complaints of Dragon age 2, I think there's reason enough to get your hopes up for 3.
DAO was one of my all-time favs however it has not aged well, the combat feels clunky now and I hope DA3 aims to solve that while still retaining the tactical underpinnings.
But we'll see, I still think EA/Bioware wants to take this series somewhere that is very different from what DAO was trying to be. I do not get the sense that "tactical RPG" is something that ranks high on their list of priorities.
Looking forward to finding out more, but like I said... we'll see.
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this will probably be just as shit as DA2.
Look, EA bought out Bioware shortly after DAO and so it was no surprise that DA2 was pretty fucking crap, it had clearly been dumbed down for the mainstream console audience where DAO didn't sell very well.
Financially it makes sense to them, if they can pull in even a tiny number of console gamers that will vastly outweigh the RPG vets from the PC platform, so as much as I'd like them to make a good RPG, it's just not financially the smart move for them.
They deliberately strayed from the path with DA2 and they knew it, it wasn't some massive surprise to me after watching the previews that it was going to be crap, which is why I didn't buy it, It's tempting to think they just made a mistake with DA2 but the simple fact is they didn't it was a calculated move and when they do the same for DA3 it will be the same deal.
Ignore EA and spend that cash on backing Obsidian Entertainments kickstarter, and/or pre-order the Baldur's Gate enhanced edition, seriously...fuck EA.
The whole "EA" being behind it at all says we will get that. And what's more, it will be formula for 'Casual gamer' masses and shoehorned into a console and there will probably be a heavy Multi-player component too boot.
No preorder for me this time. DA2 burned me. I'll take the wait and see approach.
Oh yeah, I agree with your post (console-focus and rushed development) were the problems with DA2. I just thought it was silly that there was a debate about the time when it was on the website.
I'll admit I'm still concerned about the timeline. The letter makes it sound as if they have a lot of work to do and if EA pushes for a late 2013 release, we could end up with an inadequately play-tested game on a new, buggy engine.
Sadly, I won't be preordering it.
I'm too concerned they'll release a paid DLC on the day of release like they did with Mass Effect 3. So I will be taking the wait and see approach as well.
I'll be watching this one with a careful eye, see where it goes. I'm a huge fan of DAO, and still play it occasionally. But DA2 was atrocious. If DA3 follows DA2's path, I'll have to curl up in my bathtub with a bottle of whiskey and cry.
Until Project Eternity.
It will require Origin. It will blow.
No preorder for me this time. DA2 burned me. I'll take the wait and see approach.
I'm somewhat surprised they used the 3 in the title of the game. After all the negativity with Dragon Age 2, I thought they'd name it Dragon Age: Subtitle to distance it from DA2. I'm not interested in a continuation of DA2's mage vs. templar storyline and that's exactly what inqusition sound like.
I actually thought the Architect character from Awakening was really cool and would like to see that line more explored, though it'd be hard to do that from a non-darkspawn perspective I'd think.
I think they explored the Architect story line in the DA2 Legacy DLC but I barely remember any of it.