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[TheEvilDog]

Anyone actually looking forward to it?
Or are people afraid that it's going to turn into another DA2?

I'm not going to bash 2, frankly, whatever can be said about the game has already been said in countless other threads on other forums. I loved Origins, easily one of my favourite games and while 2 had it moments, they were certainly few and far between.

To be honest, I am somewhat dreading 3 for a number of reasons, namely that since Origins' release in 2009, several key members of Bioware have left the company and the pressures of being an EA company has severely lessened the quality of the last few offerings from Bioware and the problems surrounding them. Add on top of that the rumours circulating that the save data transfer in was included in Awakening and 2 might not be implemented, the prospect of micro transactions and the increased use of multiplayer worries me that the game we'll get will be an altogether different beast to what we expect. Normally, I'd be happy for a company to try new things with a sequel, but there is a fine line between change and ripping out the guts and making something else entirely.

So what are other peoples thoughts on Inquisition?

[snalin]

Will not preorder, and wait for reviews. After all the fuzz about 2 being... not finished enough, and a few pet peeves of mine, I didn't even play it. Origins was a fucking masterpiece, and if 3 is bad, I'll literally not buy anything from EA ever again.

[TheEvilDog]

If 3 is bad and does poorly, on top of SWTOR pretty much flopping and ME3's huge amount of negative press, as well as DA2's problems, EA might shut Bioware down and sell it off. It doesn't help that the two founders "retired" last year.

In all fairness to Bioware though, they've spent more time on 3 than they did on 2, considering that DA2 was released 2 years ago.

But yeah, I won't be pre-ordering DA3, until I know the quality.

[henri bemis]

For good or ill, I'll probably end up pre-ordering it.  I know DA2 gets a lot of shit (and I've certainly got my own issues with it), but I'm a sucker for RPGs with a good story.

I haven't read anything about them incorporating multiplayer, but it doesn't exactly excite me.  I was pleasantly surprised by the Mass Effect MP, but I don't think a similar system will really work for DA, and I fear that's what they're going to try to do?

[TheEvilDog]

DA2's story was the biggest problem I had with the game. For a company that prides itself on the quality of its stories and the myriad of choices about how you told the hero's story, DA2 felt very much like it was railroading us to cover the fact that there wasn't actually that much of a story.

Apparently in Inquisition, the human character will be able to choose one of several backstories, non-playable though. More's the shame.

Though I wonder if Deborah Moore is going to play a mother character to the Inquisitor before getting killed off. Make it three for three.

[henri bemis]

Yeah, the main plot of DA2 left much to be desired, but I did really enjoy it when

(click to show/hide)

Hawke's sister (if you went that route) and mother die.  Character deaths to move a plot along are nothing new, but I really thought there was going to be something I could do to save them, and it hurt when I lost them.

I also liked that when you pissed off people in your party, they became reluctant/antagonistic allies rather than just leaving.  At least until the end. 

I was more annoyed with the repetitive dungeons and how small the world was.  Overall, it felt like more like a long DLC than a sequel.

[satsugaikaze]

I'm pretty excited for DA3 because as however many reservations I have about Bioware and their efforts, they're making Cassandra a party follower.

Cassandra a party follower (read: squeeeee)

Also I'm one of those crazy cookies that liked Dragon Age 2's story simply because it was surprisingly lacking in grandeur and felt like a novel way of structuring the plot. Now that people aren't quite expecting DA3 to be a cookie-cutter fantasy quest like Origins was, it'll be interesting to see where Bioware takes it.
They really should ease up on the Mages vs. Templar diatribe though. I'm not actually against that theme being the main one for DA3 (since it'd be stupid if they dropped it after being so blatant about it in DA2), but I'd like some of the dialogue to be less... ham-fisted about it? I guess I didn't so much have a problem with the theme as much as it was implemented in Ander's ridiculous leaps of logic.
DA2 suffered mostly because of the time and resources constraint, I think. Seems like they won't be sparing any expense with 3.
Cutting out save data transfer would be ridiculous. That'd be ruining Bioware's schtick - that's their thing they do! 

Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is a fucking boss co-op mode. I have no problems with them implementing multiplayer in DA3 if they can make this work just as well. The obvious question is whether they can do the same for Dragon Age as they did for Mass Effect, being two completely different playstyles. Hopefully they'll limit microtransactions to multiplayer (like it is, very optionally for ME3).

also lol@ the remote possibility of EA dissolving Bioware. EA doesn't dump companies according to negative press coverage, they dump companies that don't sell a lot of winning product. SWTOR may have been a poor outcome all-around, but both DA2 and ME3 sold like hotcakes.

[TheEvilDog]

This is EA we're talking about, the company voted the worst company to work for in the US in 2012.

The same company that would buy smaller companies, solely for their IP, dismantle and redistribute their assets and then run roughshod over the IP.

There's a lot they can do, as long as they keep making money. And SWTOR was a major cash-sink on both EA's and Bioware's accounts.

[satsugaikaze]

I know all that, I simply don't think we're going to see EA dissolve the Bioware label because of a bungled MMO and a couple of high-sales titles that got bad press. There have been far worse companies under their wing.

And it'll likely hold true for Dragon Age 3 as well that most players will lap it up given the chance.

[ackblom12]

I had a lot of issues with DA2's story, not because of Anders (I actually quite like the path of the madness due his and Justice's good intentions and I feel like that went in the most logical place possible) but because of all of the ridiculous plot holes. Such as, why have a goddamn Wizard's Circle at the weakest point of the Veil in the entire goddamn world? The Quanari were by far the best part of the story, especially the mission involving the Mage, but I would have loved for it to be a much larger portion of it.

I'm also not sure how you could possibly have the inevitable conflict between the Church and the Mage's not be a major plot point in the world without being set outside of Ferelden.

I'll keep an eye on DA3 and hope I'm pleasantly surprised. I was actually pretty happy with everything but the ending of ME3, so I harbor no real ill will there, but Bioware has stopped being on my list of companies to give a shit about.

[Masterpiece]

Origins was fucking masterpiece

this is what I read

[TheEvilDog]

The Quanari were by far the best part of the story, especially the mission involving the Mage, but I would have loved for it to be a much larger portion of it.

Ah, now there's something. Ever since DA2 was released, I've firmly believed that the Qunari are going to be the main antagonists in DA3. A civil war across the continent and one of the biggest advantages humans have had against the Qunari has been taken away, of course the Qunari are going to invade.

[TheEvilDog]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c9rNSlSW_Sg
The Fires Above trailer.

Dragon Age Inquisition is due for release in Autumn 2014.

[satsugaikaze]

Yay Varric in Frostbite 2 engine
Also Cassandra, tsundere dragonslayer waifu 

[GarandMarine]

Do want!

[Edguy]

After the public disasters that were DA2 and ME3, they should have learned something..

[TheEvilDog]

To be fair to Bioware, their recent snafus weren't their fault. More EA's, as they are pretty much the company that hang over developers heads and demand them to work faster.

Dragon Age Origins had a production time of around 8 years, all told. With the success of Origins came EA buying the company and heavily pushing for a sequel and work began pretty much right after Origins' release. All told that meant around an 18 month production, when the average is approximately 2 years. So of course DA2 was a mess.

As for Mass Effect 3, the big problem was that several key members of staff had left in the previous few years, thus the main creative force had gone.

Bioware can, and have done, create some of the best examples of western RPGs, but the last couple of games have shown that the relationship between Bioware and EA is not a wholly healthy one.

[TheEvilDog]

Horses....in Thedas? Bloody Orlesians.

[TheEvilDog]

In case anyone missed it last week, Bioware confirmed that the Inquisitor will be Human...or Elven...or Dwarven. That's right, there's now a choice. And  they also released another tidbit of information, the Inquisitor will be the survivor of an event involving the Fade Tear seen in the E3 trailer, and it is this survival which puts the Character on the road to becoming the Inquisitor.

Also, Jennifer Hepler has left Bioware, though not because of the threats made against her over the past year (though I wouldn't be surprised if that was the real reason, given how vile they were). She is working on a book and several freelance projects.

[ackblom12]

The more I hear about DA3 the more I think Bioware is back on my 'give a shit' list. I'm hoping that EA learned their lesson on interfering with the development process (at least with Bioware) with DA2 and the ending of ME3.

[TheEvilDog]

From what I've heard, it would seem that someone higher up has had strong words with the production leaders and told them to listen to what people are saying.

Other than that, the first three companions have been confirmed as Varric, Cassandra and Vivienne (an Orlesian mage, who was a Senior Enchanter at one of the Orlesian Circles before the war). Nothing has come up about the supposed "leaked" list from last year, the one that had companions briefs, including a Qunari with the name The Iron Bull.

Anyway, lets wait and see what happens.

[TheEvilDog]

Fair bit of info has been released over the last couple of days, between Gameinformer's month long coverage of Inquisition, Gamescom as well as the Dragon Age website finally being updated.
Information about the expanded world we'll be playing.
As well as that, there will be a total of 9 companions, including Varric, Cassandra and Vivienne. I'm happy with Varric being a companion again, I liked him in II, one of the few I did liked. However, I really hope they don't bring back any former companions to act as companions for the Inquisitor, that would just feel lazy.

[de_la_Nae]

Damnit now I have to play 1 again.

[TheEvilDog]

Yeah, I still have a Chi'ken Hawke still running around Kirkwall trying to raise that money for the expedition.

[Blyss]

I just read the article on this in Game Informer, and I have to say that I'm interested in a DA game for the first time.  Never really cared about the series before at all, but yeah, I'm liking what I'm hearing on this one.

A friend loaned me DA2, and I really didn't care for that, but as I understand it, that's not the measuring stick of the series.  So I took it with a grain of salt.

I may be picking this one up.

[TheEvilDog]

Origins is one of those games that it will always be in my top five games. My attitude towards 2 has tempered somewhat over the past couple of years. Its got a lot of problems (when you have a DLC campaign thats more highly praised than the base game ever got, you know you have a problem).

But you are right, Dragon Age 2 is not the yardstick you measure the series by. Its the game you make when you want to capitalise on the successful game and you want to do it fast. Origins had a lot more in common with the older style of RPG, it was a labour of love. 2 was the "Press a button and something awesome happens", which was a one trick pony after about 10 minutes.

I'm looking forward to Inquisition, but I'm nowhere near jumping around like a crazy person excited.

[TheEvilDog]

Aaaaand now the Kossith (Qunari) have been announced as a playable race....

I really don't know what to make of that.

[ackblom12]

Huh, wasn't expecting that.