Dragon Age 3: Inquisition announced

[bystander36]

Still rock stable after many hours all day,I just found the most annoying thing in the game,the well of sorrows puzzle,why don't my companions stay still when I tell them to,it's very frustrating because the puzzle is not that hard but your companions that keep moving making it virtually impossible,I'm about to give up if they don't keep still,hold button is crap.

Update:Finally did that part,anyway on to the next part .

Hehe, the puzzles in that region ignore your companions. I hope you figured that out.

 

[zinfamous]

At least you can replay it later fully patched up with a rogue maybe?...Personally they should of kept DA as DA,they got too ambitious and started changing/stripping too many things.

Story keeps it together but DA:I could of been so much better in many ways.


Regardless should be interesting to see how DA4 pans out ,do they dumb down or consolized it even more or go back to the old ways with improvements,we shall see.

The real money is in consoles, so it really is no mystery.

 

[cbrunny]

I'd prefer a story with four characters that I actually give a damn about. I'm finding no reason to play different characters, or even to care about those that I do play with.

What I'd really like is something Dragon Quest IV-like. A single "chapter" for each of the four party members and a chapter that brings them together. A reason to care about each of them rather than feeling like they're just some guys that tag along cause I said it was ok.

 

[KeithTalent]

I'd prefer a story with four characters that I actually give a damn about. I'm finding no reason to play different characters, or even to care about those that I do play with.

What I'd really like is something Dragon Quest IV-like. A single "chapter" for each of the four party members and a chapter that brings them together. A reason to care about each of them rather than feeling like they're just some guys that tag along cause I said it was ok.

I am finding this to be a problem as well. I'm assuming there will be companion quests later? That really helped me get immersed in the first two games; I latched on to certain companions and they really pulled me into the world. Nothing like that has happened yet, though I guess I kind of like Sera and the Prince Oberon type guy. Can't really do much with them though. Most of the other characters I actually hate or are completely irrelevant.

KT

 

[Mem]

Hehe, the puzzles in that region ignore your companions. I hope you figured that out.

I told Sera to hold near switch and guess what she moved lol.

 

[NoSoup4You]

I'd prefer a story with four characters that I actually give a damn about. I'm finding no reason to play different characters, or even to care about those that I do play with.

What I'd really like is something Dragon Quest IV-like. A single "chapter" for each of the four party members and a chapter that brings them together. A reason to care about each of them rather than feeling like they're just some guys that tag along cause I said it was ok.

I really like this idea, too. I'm a huge fan of when RPG's split your group up and force you to just stick to a handful of characters for a while until reuniting everyone at some point later on. The old SNES Final Fantasy games used to do this a lot. This way they can actually bake-in real character story arcs, and causes you to change up your tactics with a new party composition.

I beat DAI finally after growing bored of tracking down shards. 135 hours in total, great game overall. I just re-rolled a Qunari Mage on Nightmare to see what it's like and it doesn't seem any harder so far. Qunari are pretty broken... literally. Several armor sets just show up as "town clothes" when you equip them. Lulz. Further, the game says 10% melee resistance bonus however in-game it's actually 25%, not sure if that's a bug but pretty cool anyway.

But I think the 25% in melee seems like a considerably better bonus than the 25% the other races get, and then combined with Qunari helmets which add bonus damage instead of armor and my Mage feels crazy powerful so far only a few hours in despite upping the difficulty to Nightmare.

 

[Carfax83]

I'm surprised at some of this praise because I'm having some reasonably large pop-in issues. Mostly textures and landscape pop-in, but it's very surprising to say the least. Close up this game looks great, and after everything has loaded it looks great, but pop-in definitely exists in a bad way for me. (4790k, 7970CF, 840 EVO, 8 GB ram).

Some configurations definitely seem to be having texture pop in issues for some reason.. Are you using Mantle or DirectX? And if so, what OS are you using?

Texture pop in is usually affected by both hardware and software. On the hardware front, there's VRAM, main storage (SSD/HDD), CPU, system memory. On the software, there's the GPU drivers and then the engine settings, which is usually determined by the developer.

Bioware is supposed to be looking into it. Personally however, I haven't had any, and I'm amazed at the extremely long draw distances the engine is mustering.

*Edit* one other question. Do you have your page file enabled or disabled?

 

[Carfax83]

From what I have been reading, the texture issues are mainly crossfire / SLI related. I ran the game with a single GTX 970 and didn't have any texture pop-in that I noticed.

I use SLI and haven't had any issues with pop in, either before or after the patch.

Then again, there's some people that expect a game to have zero pop in, which just isn't going to happen with an engine that uses streaming technology..

 

[zinfamous]

I am finding this to be a problem as well. I'm assuming there will be companion quests later? That really helped me get immersed in the first two games; I latched on to certain companions and they really pulled me into the world. Nothing like that has happened yet, though I guess I kind of like Sera and the Prince Oberon type guy. Can't really do much with them though. Most of the other characters I actually hate or are completely irrelevant.

KT

yeah, those do show up. Some of them are actually rather engaging--I think Blackwall's has the most depth. That one, and others like Iron Bull force you to make some tough decisions.

Sera might be my favorite character, but I found her quest to be pointless--though, I think mine was completely bugged out for her. :hmm:

 

[frozentundra123456]

Yea, I mentioned it earlier, but I concur that the companions are pretty blah to say the least. I havent even bothered to switch my party. I have been playing with Sera, Cassandra and Vivenne for almost the entire game. I also did use Varric for a while, but I find Sera as a dual wielding rogue can really dish out a lot of damage. I did not really like Cassandra in the earlier game, but I do in this game. She may be rigid in her beliefs, but she definitely tries to do the "right thing" at least in her reference frame.(Edit: and has developed a bit of a sense of humor.) Lilleana on the other hand was one of my favorites in DAO, but just seems like a cold hearted b**** in this game, but you cant play as her anyway.

 

[Bateluer]

Hehe, the puzzles in that region ignore your companions. I hope you figured that out.

One of the most frustrating puzzles in the game when your party bugs out and gets stuck on the puzzle tiles. :/

 

[pathos]

I really like this idea, too. I'm a huge fan of when RPG's split your group up and force you to just stick to a handful of characters for a while until reuniting everyone at some point later on. The old SNES Final Fantasy games used to do this a lot. This way they can actually bake-in real character story arcs, and causes you to change up your tactics with a new party composition.

Heh, I absolutely hate it when games do this to me. I usually find a couple of characters I like, and use them exclusively, no matter what game I'm playing. And, suddenly, some game makes my some of my favorite characters disappear, and force me to use someone who I've barely played (and if they don't level up while not in the active party, they are massively underleveled). Drives me nuts

 

[zinfamous]

Heh, I absolutely hate it when games do this to me. I usually find a couple of characters I like, and use them exclusively, no matter what game I'm playing. And, suddenly, some game makes my some of my favorite characters disappear, and force me to use someone who I've barely played (and if they don't level up while not in the active party, they are massively underleveled). Drives me nuts

that annoyed me to no end in FF VII when you suddenly have to play that stuffed animal douchebag for a few sequences.

worst RPG moment. ever.

Otherwise, I don't mind the practice. I much prefer FF II, though, where you don't have any party choice, and people come and go as the story goes. It was very theatrical, and I never got into any other FF game as I did with II. I think I was ...12 or 13 when that was released and I spent all of winter break parked in front of that game. Many of those moments blew my effing mind.

 

[zinfamous]

Yea, I mentioned it earlier, but I concur that the companions are pretty blah to say the least. I havent even bothered to switch my party. I have been playing with Sera, Cassandra and Vivenne for almost the entire game. I also did use Varric for a while, but I find Sera as a dual wielding rogue can really dish out a lot of damage. I did not really like Cassandra in the earlier game, but I do in this game. She may be rigid in her beliefs, but she definitely tries to do the "right thing" at least in her reference frame.(Edit: and has developed a bit of a sense of humor.) Lilleana on the other hand was one of my favorites in DAO, but just seems like a cold hearted b**** in this game, but you cant play as her anyway.

You should switch Sera to bow due to her focus tree. I was into her as dagger as a while, too, but when the ghost dude showed up, I didn't really want two dual wield thieves.

I thought it would be a DPS hit, but I was very wrong. I'm pretty sure that Sera on bow is my biggest hitter in the party. I found a 4x purple bow, somewhere and gave it to her...she's a beast. That lightning tonic + thousand cuts = death.

(I never use the ghost dude, anyway, because he is annoying. I don't think I ever talked to him)

 

[bystander36]

You should switch Sera to bow due to her focus tree. I was into her as dagger as a while, too, but when the ghost dude showed up, I didn't really want two dual wield thieves.

I thought it would be a DPS hit, but I was very wrong. I'm pretty sure that Sera on bow is my biggest hitter in the party. I found a 4x purple bow, somewhere and gave it to her...she's a beast. That lightning tonic + thousand cuts = death.

(I never use the ghost dude, anyway, because he is annoying. I don't think I ever talked to him)

Do you mean Mighty Damage (Ofensive?)Tonic? Lightning tonics are just for defense. My current rogue is a Tempest Archer, like Sera. I've killed a couple dragons on nightmare almost immediately after popping the Mighty Damage Tonic. It's crazy damage for sure. Likely a higher focus damage than if you used daggers, since all your hits are based off your base weapon damage, which is much higher with bows.

Though for normal group combat, assassin is pretty good, but against bosses, Tempest owns assassin.

Cole is the spirit guy. I haven't used him much.

 

[frozentundra123456]

One of the most frustrating puzzles in the game when your party bugs out and gets stuck on the puzzle tiles. :/

I havent done that puzzle, but can you just do it solo?

 

[frozentundra123456]

One of the most frustrating puzzles in the game when your party bugs out and gets stuck on the puzzle tiles. :/

You should switch Sera to bow due to her focus tree. I was into her as dagger as a while, too, but when the ghost dude showed up, I didn't really want two dual wield thieves.

I thought it would be a DPS hit, but I was very wrong. I'm pretty sure that Sera on bow is my biggest hitter in the party. I found a 4x purple bow, somewhere and gave it to her...she's a beast. That lightning tonic + thousand cuts = death.

(I never use the ghost dude, anyway, because he is annoying. I don't think I ever talked to him)

Interesting. However, i dont really have any good bows, but some pretty good daggers.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I finally went to the "dark side" ang got a controller. It certainly works much better for movement and looting/interacting with objects compared to a kbm/mouse. I am still undecided about which to use because i have not got the hang of it in combat yet.

 

[ControlD]

I havent done that puzzle, but can you just do it solo?

There is a least one puzzle in the game that requires the use of all four party members, and they need to be placed in specific locations. It was frustrating trying to get them to stay in place.

What I did was first issue the hold command to my party then move the character i had selected. Switch to a new member and IMMEDIATELY issue the hold command again. Otherwise as soon as you change to a different character the hold command gets reset and everyone comes running over to you! Somehow the hold command does not seem to stick and resets when focus moves to a different party member.

 

[ControlD]

I finally went to the "dark side" ang got a controller. It certainly works much better for movement and looting/interacting with objects compared to a kbm/mouse. I am still undecided about which to use because i have not got the hang of it in combat yet.

It took me about 3-4 hours to get the hang of combat with a controller, but I started a new game at the same time. I only had a couple of hours in so it wasn't a big deal and I wanted to go through the tutorial with a controller.

 

[Carfax83]

This game is indisputably much better with a controller in my opinion. The K&M implementation is totally wonky in comparison. I tried K&M after the patch supposedly improved it, but it still sucked.

Anyway, so far I'm having a blast playing the game. I'm nowhere near finished with it, and there's just so much more stuff I have to do. I played it for about 8 hours each day since Friday, as my wife and kids were out of town and I was off from work..

Right now, I'd rate it about a 9/10, just on the entertainment factor alone. It's been a long time since a game has managed to captivate me like this..

One thing I find amusing, is Bioware's preoccupation with political correctness and gender equality in their games. I wouldn't be surprised if they made a list of how many characters they would make male, female, gay, straight, bisexual, black, white etcetera to appear as equable as possible. I noticed that Hawke in DAI is male, but the Hero(ine) of Ferelden was a woman..

I have no issue with it, I just think it's funny. I would never trust them to do a game based on a proper dark fantasy setting like GRRM's Westeros however.

But I would trust CDPR. The World of the Witcher to me is much darker and more believable than Bioware's Thedas..

 

[KeithTalent]

yeah, those do show up. Some of them are actually rather engaging--I think Blackwall's has the most depth. That one, and others like Iron Bull force you to make some tough decisions.

Sera might be my favorite character, but I found her quest to be pointless--though, I think mine was completely bugged out for her. :hmm:

I finally got my first companion quest, from Blackwell yesterday. Nobody else has offered anything up yet. I keep pushing Sera with conversations, but nothing yet. :\

I like my party ok right now. Me as a fire Mage, Sera as dual-wield dagger Rogue, Blackwell as a Vanguard tank who really is a beast, and the creepy bald Elf guy as a Spirit mage. Seems to be working for me. I don't really like the combat in this game though, compared to previous ones so I am just trying to make whatever is easiest for me to get through without having to do too much work.

KT

 

[Red Hawk]

It's definitely interesting how BioWare has made a "rainbow world", so to speak. On the on hand, I can appreciate how they try to make the game accessible to a a wide amount of people. Much as they get poked fun at, one of the appeals of BioWare games is how you develop relationships and romance between your character and party members. It makes sense then to add in gay/lesbian romance options, so gay/lesbian players don't feel left out. As long as they don't get silly by making practically all the romanceable characters bisexual, like they did in DA2.

It does sort of knock against suspension of disbelief just how "rainbow" the world of Dragon Age is, though. I came across a codex entry in DAI that explicitly spelled out that sexual activity isn't socially frowned upon at all in Thedas and homosexuality is accepted virtually everywhere. Now that's a fantasy world of a whole different kind. It's a bit harder to find plausible than in a game world like Mass Effect.

One thing I didn't really appreciate was the way the transgender character, Krem, was presented. If you want to include a trans character, fine. But there's one conversation with Bull and Krem which basically could have started with "We're now going to preach to you about trans people". No thanks.

 

[Mem]

I finally got my first companion quest, from Blackwell yesterday. Nobody else has offered anything up yet. I keep pushing Sera with conversations, but nothing yet. :\

I like my party ok right now. Me as a fire Mage, Sera as dual-wield dagger Rogue, Blackwell as a Vanguard tank who really is a beast, and the creepy bald Elf guy as a Spirit mage. Seems to be working for me. I don't really like the combat in this game though, compared to previous ones so I am just trying to make whatever is easiest for me to get through without having to do too much work.

KT

I was using Sera as bow marksman,maxed out all the bow skills(my crafted bow for her was better then any purple drops in the entire game) and then went to the poison skills part,had Cassandra and sometimes Blackwell as my tanks especially when fighting dragons,Solas and the other mages I rotated now and then.

I finally finished the game at just over 120 hours,I'm not going back to the game yet,maybe after it's fully patched so that's probably another two patches at least.
I was amazed at how many purple dagger drops in this game,seems to favour the rogue more for drops.


Btw I actually gave up on romancing,option was there but the companions felt a bit hollow to me in general.
I'll say crafting is worth it because you can craft better weapons and gear then virtually all purple drops,especially later in game after you killed a few dragons or so.

 

[frozentundra123456]

I dont really bother with the romance options at all. I am male, but somehow enjoy playing as a female character, so it feels a bit weird to romance another guy or a woman. Anyway, the romance just seems stiff and artificial no matter what.