Dragon Age 3: Inquisition announced

[bystander36]

What's with the bugs? This game has many game crashing bugs still in it. Cut scenes are atrocious. An absolute disaster. Chop all over and regularly crashing my game. Wtf?

Cut scenes seem choppy with SLI (maybe crossfire), but not if you disable. Better yet, remove the 30 FPS cap and it is much better. Google for that fix, or look in this thread several pages back.

As far as the Crashing bugs, most of us who played before the patches, had maybe 1 crash per 20-30 hours played. Since the patches, there has not been any reports of crashes. Make sure you have the latest patches and drivers. It could be a Mantle issue, I've heard that isn't quite as stable.

If you pirated your copy, then that would be on you.

 

[Blanky]

I found a silly bug, granted this was on PS4.

Entered Simeon's Cave to seal a rift. My party got quickly schooled so with one remaining guy I ran out, at which point I was far enough away all my three people came back to life. However, the bad guys disappeared. Went back into cave and was able to disrupt rift, but not seal it. I ran out and back in a few times and at one point saw four bad guys get shot out of the rift, but they were invisible and causing no damage. On minimap they showed as four blue dots. I could even run into them and not through them, as if they were there, but invisible and doing nothing. I finally had to run really far away out of the cave then back in and it reset properly.

 

[bystander36]

I found a silly bug, granted this was on PS4.

Entered Simeon's Cave to seal a rift. My party got quickly schooled so with one remaining guy I ran out, at which point I was far enough away all my three people came back to life. However, the bad guys disappeared. Went back into cave and was able to disrupt rift, but not seal it. I ran out and back in a few times and at one point saw four bad guys get shot out of the rift, but they were invisible and causing no damage. On minimap they showed as four blue dots. I could even run into them and not through them, as if they were there, but invisible and doing nothing. I finally had to run really far away out of the cave then back in and it reset properly.

I'm not sure if that was a bug or not. Rifts reset if you run out of their range. Between waves, when new demons are spawning, they show up as blue dots, which can be dispelled, and stops them from coming through the rift. This might have been what you saw.

 

[Red Hawk]

I think the ending of this game may just commit the sin of being boring. Say what you will about the endings of recent BioWare games, at least they weren't boring...

 

[ControlD]

I think the ending of this game may just commit the sin of being boring. Say what you will about the endings of recent BioWare games, at least they weren't boring...

Yeah, but ...

Spoiler

They sure left it open for a sequel!

 

[escrow4]

That's not about rendering. That's about not having the manpower and financial resources to design that whole game, whether it's on console or PC. You're daft if you think that's within the capabilities of any current developer.

If GTA IV + GTA V made a billion . . . .

 

[Red Hawk]

Yeah, but ...

Spoiler

They sure left it open for a sequel!

Spoiler

I didn't mind that sequel tease. It's not like the main story was left hanging; Corypheus is beaten, the rift is sealed. The post-credits tease was the good kind; it left me curious for what will happen next without feeling like the story I played in the game was left incomplete.

But it was still kinda boring.

If GTA IV + GTA V made a billion . . . .

You're talking about something that's far beyond even GTA games. Not to mention it's very niche, so it would never in a million years make as much money as GTA to justify the cost.

 

[bystander36]

So, I'm working on my 3rd play through, after hurting my wrist and not having much I can do. I had to stop playing my warrior, as melee requires too much left hand work for my hurt wrist. I decided to play on Nightmare with an archer. I must say, that final battle of the prologue is awfully tough. I didn't fail, but most my party was unconscious. Has anyone ever managed that fight and made it look easy? At least on Hard or Nightmare? I realize the problem is my party is level 2, and the demon is level 5 (or 4).

Anyways, the game is still fun, though I doubt I'll play it again for some time after this run through.

 

[Blanky]

I'm not sure if that was a bug or not. Rifts reset if you run out of their range. Between waves, when new demons are spawning, they show up as blue dots, which can be dispelled, and stops them from coming through the rift. This might have been what you saw.

Interesting. However, I hung around for a couple of minutes and they never fully materialized. It must have been caught in the post-deploy but pre-this-world state of the demons. Ultimately, I was below a rift that I could do nothing with and there were no bad guys around me for at least a couple of minutes as I walked around.

Has anyone ever managed that fight and made it look easy? At least on Hard or Nightmare? I realize the problem is my party is level 2, and the demon is level 5 (or 4).

I wouldn't say it's easy, but it took me two tries as a mage. First one wasn't good, but on the second as soon as the low end guys spawned I concentrated on them one at a time to remove them. Fighting them + demon is too difficult, so they must be removed thus allowing concentration back onto demon.

 

[bystander36]

Interesting. However, I hung around for a couple of minutes and they never fully materialized. It must have been caught in the post-deploy but pre-this-world state of the demons. Ultimately, I was below a rift that I could do nothing with and there were no bad guys around me for at least a couple of minutes as I walked around.I wouldn't say it's easy, but it took me two tries as a mage. First one wasn't good, but on the second as soon as the low end guys spawned I concentrated on them one at a time to remove them. Fighting them + demon is too difficult, so they must be removed thus allowing concentration back onto demon.

It does sound like a bug took place, though I would have loved to see if you could have dispelled them. At least it reset, so no real harm.

The tricky part of that demon at the end of the prologue is his abilities. I did kill off the spawns well, but the demon just hit so hard, and had those lightning whips that could wipe my characters pretty fast. It didn't help that there is no potion refills on the way to him. As a tank, I'd probably be able to do better, simply by kiting him, but not without that.

I suppose playing Nightmare without micromanaging everything isn't going to be super easy, though that definitely has been the toughest battle so far.

 

[Bateluer]

Yeah, but ...

Spoiler

They sure left it open for a sequel!

I going to bet its more of a DLC tease than a sequel tease.

 

[Bateluer]

But, speaking of a sequel.

Since I criticized people on /r/dragonage for buying the game on 7th gen consoles and then complaining about frame rates in the teens, and promptly got down voted into oblivion, I'll bring this up. Assuming a ~3yr development cycle, Dragon Age 4 will come out right on the tail end of the 8th gen's life span, so its possible we could see a Skyrim like experience where the game was cut 6 ways from sunday to make it work on the aging hardware.

 

[Blanky]

But, speaking of a sequel.

Since I criticized people on /r/dragonage for buying the game on 7th gen consoles and then complaining about frame rates in the teens, and promptly got down voted into oblivion, I'll bring this up. Assuming a ~3yr development cycle, Dragon Age 4 will come out right on the tail end of the 8th gen's life span, so its possible we could see a Skyrim like experience where the game was cut 6 ways from sunday to make it work on the aging hardware.

If they do a da every three years we would actually see da 5 on the tail end of 8th gen. It is only a year old after all and we should see around 7 out of these consoles.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

What kind of sales has DAI seen? Googling found 1.14 million as of Nov 30, not sure if it's gone up more. What kind of sales figures are needed to solidify DLC/sequels?

Also, would rather see this annualized than Battlefield. Old Bioware is hurting, (true) Battlefield is dead tho.

 

[Bateluer]

If they do a da every three years we would actually see da 5 on the tail end of 8th gen. It is only a year old after all and we should see around 7 out of these consoles.

How do you figure that? Assuming a roughly 3 year cycle, we'd see DA4 in roughly around 2017-2018, right on the tail end of the 8th gen console when we'll be seeing their replacements announced.

I know Bioware had to do some work on the Frostbite 3 engine to get it into a state where they could make an RPG on it, but I've seen nothing about EA making Dragon Age an annual release.

Also, would rather see this annualized than Battlefield. Old Bioware is hurting, (true) Battlefield is dead tho.

No. Just . . . no. Dragon Age should not be an annualized release. Last time they tried a dev cycle that quick, they delivered Dragon Age 2.

 

[escrow4]

But, speaking of a sequel.

Since I criticized people on /r/dragonage for buying the game on 7th gen consoles and then complaining about frame rates in the teens, and promptly got down voted into oblivion, I'll bring this up. Assuming a ~3yr development cycle, Dragon Age 4 will come out right on the tail end of the 8th gen's life span, so its possible we could see a Skyrim like experience where the game was cut 6 ways from sunday to make it work on the aging hardware.

My eyes nearly rebelled:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-dragon-age-inquisition-last-gen-revisited

Look at the comparison, last gen looks like 2007 era gaming (and that is being generous). And people still think dual cores are A-OK . . . . . .

 

[Bateluer]

My eyes nearly rebelled:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-dragon-age-inquisition-last-gen-revisited

Look at the comparison, last gen looks like 2007 era gaming (and that is being generous). And people still think dual cores are A-OK . . . . . .

Yeesh, the 360/PS3 versions look like crap. Granted, I'm spoiled by my 1440p/290X/ultra settings.

 

[bystander36]

My eyes nearly rebelled:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-dragon-age-inquisition-last-gen-revisited

Look at the comparison, last gen looks like 2007 era gaming (and that is being generous). And people still think dual cores are A-OK . . . . . .

There is a lot of differences, not just being dual core. I bet an i3 setup with a decent graphics card looks a lot better than that.

 

[Red Hawk]

But, speaking of a sequel.

Since I criticized people on /r/dragonage for buying the game on 7th gen consoles and then complaining about frame rates in the teens, and promptly got down voted into oblivion, I'll bring this up. Assuming a ~3yr development cycle, Dragon Age 4 will come out right on the tail end of the 8th gen's life span, so its possible we could see a Skyrim like experience where the game was cut 6 ways from sunday to make it work on the aging hardware.

The dev cyle is more likely to be close to 2 or 2 1/2 years. Either way, that's not going to put it at the end of the 8th gen console life cycle. We had 2 Dragon Age games and 3 Mass Effect games on the 7th gen alone. I'd hardly say that ME2 was at the point where they were chomping at the bit to cope with aging hardware.

What kind of sales has DAI seen? Googling found 1.14 million as of Nov 30, not sure if it's gone up more. What kind of sales figures are needed to solidify DLC/sequels?

Also, would rather see this annualized than Battlefield. Old Bioware is hurting, (true) Battlefield is dead tho.

It hasn't made any headlines for sales, which is sort of a bad indicator in itself.

And no, single player story driven games like Dragon Age do NOT work as annualized franchises. Just look at where that got Assassin's Creed...

There is a lot of differences, not just being dual core. I bet an i3 setup with a decent graphics card looks a lot better than that.

I think there's a software restriction that causes DAI to not even launch on a dual core like an i3. Or maybe if there's only two logical threads available? An i3 would get around that with hyperthreading. I'm not sure, I have no way to test...

After typing that I realized I do have a way, my first-gen hyperthreaded i3 laptop. Trying to load DAI onto that...now that would be downright cruel to my old lappy.

 

[bystander36]

I think there's a software restriction that causes DAI to not even launch on a dual core like an i3. Or maybe if there's only two logical threads available? An i3 would get around that with hyperthreading. I'm not sure, I have no way to test...

After typing that I realized I do have a way, my first-gen hyperthreaded i3 laptop. Trying to load DAI onto that...now that would be downright cruel to my old lappy.

I think there was a bug at launch that prevented dual cores from working, but was fixed with the first patch. They apparently have i3's as listed in supported CPU's, but no one could get it to work on launch. However, there is this, which came just after the patch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBYA9FXjoiM

It performs quite well.

 

[Bateluer]

The dev cyle is more likely to be close to 2 or 2 1/2 years. Either way, that's not going to put it at the end of the 8th gen console life cycle. We had 2 Dragon Age games and 3 Mass Effect games on the 7th gen alone. I'd hardly say that ME2 was at the point where they were chomping at the bit to cope with aging hardware.

The 7th gen started in November 2005 and lasted until November 2013. The 8th gen is not going to last a decade like that, they are both underpowered for the games being released today. Even with a quick 2-2.5yr dev cycle, a DA4 will still come at the tail end of the 8th gen life cycle. We will see refreshed 9th gen consoles in the fall of 2017 or 2018, just cross your fingers that they aim for higher performance than a 2018 smartphone. The decade long life span of the 7th gen was an aberration caused by the billions dumped into R&D combined with the Great Recession, normal console life spans are about 5 years.

Could lead to another situation similar to what we see now if the dev cycle is longer, where they've attempted to shoehorn the game into the 7th gen consoles. With DA4, it'd be developed for the 9th gen consoles, but forced into the 8th gen consoles because the penetration of the 9th gen is too small.

 

[SPBHM]

My eyes nearly rebelled:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-dragon-age-inquisition-last-gen-revisited

Look at the comparison, last gen looks like 2007 era gaming (and that is being generous). And people still think dual cores are A-OK . . . . . .

the old consoles pay a heavy price on these cross gen games also for their limited memory (256+256 and 512)
and obviously very weak GPUs (PS3 is running something slower than a 7900GS)

 

[QuantumPion]

I'd rather have bi-yearly major DLC content to a solid existing game than rush out a whole new game every year.

 

[Dumac]

Someone bought me DA:I for Christmas. I've barely put any time into it (I'm still in Haven) but it seems to have turned out about how I figured: a shallow action RPG who's best parts are the dialogue and black-and-white 'decisions'.

Combat is really underwhelming. There is no effective way to command your entire party during combat, and the game reeaaally wants you to just man the helm of a character in third person view and play it like an action RPG while the rest of your party is on autopilot. But I find that this feels like I'm doing only 1/4 of the work, which is pretty unsatisfying.

Coming to DA:I straight after Divinity Original Sin also makes it clear how shallow DA:I's combat really is.

That said, I enjoyed the few hours I put in. The game is pretty and dialogue choices are always fun. It's the kind of game that you can play on the couch with a controller, perhaps while doing something else since you don't have to put much attention into it.

 

[escrow4]

Someone bought me DA:I for Christmas. I've barely put any time into it (I'm still in Haven) but it seems to have turned out about how I figured: a shallow action RPG who's best parts are the dialogue and black-and-white 'decisions'.

Combat is really underwhelming. There is no effective way to command your entire party during combat, and the game reeaaally wants you to just man the helm of a character in third person view and play it like an action RPG while the rest of your party is on autopilot. But I find that this feels like I'm doing only 1/4 of the work, which is pretty unsatisfying.

Coming to DA:I straight after Divinity Original Sin also makes it clear how shallow DA:I's combat really is.

That said, I enjoyed the few hours I put in. The game is pretty and dialogue choices are always fun. It's the kind of game that you can play on the couch with a controller, perhaps while doing something else since you don't have to put much attention into it.

Divinity is for those who want a 1995 era RPG, Inquisition is for those who want a 2010 era action RPG. Right now could you ever picture Original Sin on a console? I doubt we'll ever see a Planescape type big budget AAA RPG.