Octopus Overlords

The next game will be called Dragon Age III: Inquisition.

We won’t be talking about the story of the game today. Though you can make some guesses from the title.

This game is being made by a lot of the same team that has been working on Dragon Age since Dragon Age: Origins. It’s composed of both experienced BioWare veterans and talented new developers.

We are working on a new engine which we believe will allow us to deliver a more expansive world, better visuals, more reactivity to player choices, and more customization. At PAX East, we talked about armor and followers… Yeah, that kind of customization. We’ve started with Frostbite 2 from DICE as a foundation to accomplish this.

morlac wrote:I am replaying origins right now as Bow/Dual wield Dale Elf thief. I have a ton of mods running and it's even better than the first play through. Simply love the game. DA2 was an obvious mandated rush job so I have no idea what to think about the third. It sounds like they may be allowed to take their time on this one. How much though? I seriously doubt it will have the development cycle of the first but then it shouldn't need quite that much. Hmm, I'll go with cautiously optimistic for now.

Arcanis wrote:I'm at the forget them point. I liked DA:O but couldn't finish it...

Smoove_B wrote:Yup. Some are excited because they're upgrading to the Frostbite 2 engine -- the same one that powers Battlefield 3. While I'm sure it can craft amazing fantasy landscapes, part of me also thinks they're doing it to take advantage of the possibility of having a 64 player capture the flag battles on dragon back and push-carts.

Which isn't to suggest that a multiplayer game like that wouldn't be fun, but not shoe-horned into what really should be a story-driven SP experience. Adding MP nonsense because you need people to keep copies of the game and not sell them back to GameStop for $10 twenty hours after they finish it is a trend that needs to die.

Octavious wrote:What's so bad about the Origin client? I use it for a few games and it really hasn't bothered me. Downloads were faster then steam.

TiLT wrote:I guess EA got a bit too meddlesome in how Bioware should design their RPGs: Greg Zeschuk, Ray Muzyka Are Leaving BioWare

Probably doesn't bode well for the state of Dragon Age 3, eh?

Smoove_B wrote:Yup. Some are excited because they're upgrading to the Frostbite 2 engine -- the same one that powers Battlefield 3. While I'm sure it can craft amazing fantasy landscapes, part of me also thinks they're doing it to take advantage of the possibility of having a 64 player capture the flag battles on dragon back and push-carts.

Which isn't to suggest that a multiplayer game like that wouldn't be fun, but not shoe-horned into what really should be a story-driven SP experience. Adding MP nonsense because you need people to keep copies of the game and not sell them back to GameStop for $10 twenty hours after they finish it is a trend that needs to die.

Smoove_B wrote: Adding MP nonsense because you need people to keep copies of the game and not sell them back to GameStop for $10 twenty hours after they finish it is a trend that needs to die.

Smoove_B wrote:Here is the first trailer from E3.

Coming "Fall 2014"

“I think there’s always this debate over numbers versus no numbers, what works, what doesn’t work,” Gibeau told IGN. “We felt like we wanted to bring more attention to the word Inquisition, because that’s more the story arc of what it’s like. There’s a whole bunch of gameplay and features and big story choices related to how you go through this Inquisition that happens in the world.”

“It’s a tactical marketing decision,” Gibeau continued. “There wasn’t anything that strategic about it, to be blunt. We just wanted to draw more attention to the fact that Inquisition is an all-new chapter inside of the Dragon Age universe, as opposed to people expecting a follow-on to Dragon Age 1 and 2 in a literal, linear sense.”

Unfortunately, in its attempt to court a wider audience, Dragon Age 2 made some choices that hardcore fans weren't particularly happy about. For example: in becoming more action oriented, the combat in Dragon Age 2 seemed to lose its strategic challenge. And forcing players to be humans in Dragon Age 2 seemed to flatten a lot of the complexity of the world, if not make the entire experience a tad boring—playable races in Origins meant that players could see the nuances and ugliness of specific race politics first-hand.

Now it almost seems like many of the improvements to Inquisition are a direct response to fan complaints to the changes in Dragon Age 2, and like a return to form, RPG-wise, for BioWare. Top-down tactical view is back. Playable races are back. The game seems to have more of an emphasis on challenge thanks to non-regenerative health.

I've seen the new Dragon Age in action, I've even gotten a chance to talk to BioWare about it—Inquisition looks about as promising as a game that I haven't actually played can look. Despite having a gorgeous game that seems to iterate and evolve in the right ways, despite BioWare saying the right things, I wouldn't blame skeptical fans for remaining wary after Dragon Age 2 and perhaps Mass Effect 3 burned them. I get it. But Inquisition doesn't just seem like an improvement on just Dragon Age specifically—it looks like BioWare is returning to its roots instead of making questionable changes in an attempt to cater to the masses, as it has in its most recent games. It'll be interesting to see if this approach works.

Smoove_B wrote:Gameplay trailer, arriving 10/7/14.

Smoove_B wrote: My only observation from the trailer was noticing a guy in plate armor rolling around during a fight. I don't remember that mechanic from the first or even second game...