Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Well it wouldn't be unlikely if they did attempt to make DA3 an open world game. And I say attempt because Bioware fails at everything other than transgender erotic fanfiction writing.

Their jew masters would try to market it as the new Skyrim and try to get a slice of the Popomol pie. Not that I give a fuck about it though. The series has a terrible record and the game is not set in Tevinter, the only place even mildly interesting. I hope it flops and it dies and it takes Biomol with it.

 

[Infinitron]

We're making a game with much larger levels (in large part thanks to Frostbite), as well as spending more time on areas that are less connected to the crit path of the plot.

Look how fucking right I am. Imagine all the mis- and disinfo that would go unchecked on this forum if not for my informed posts.

Much larger levels...like Witcher 2.

Look how right I am.

 

[Commissar Draco]

^ Both Jewz have point game will try hard to be both cinematic and pretty like Twicher 2 and open like Skyrim but will fail both taking the Biowhore to the gutter she belongs to.

 

[circ]

Sooo... Frostbite? Is this gonna be a third person Skyrim clone with shootans? + groupmates from hell. Also, they're saying it's gonna be bigger than DA2. Not really saying much as that's like saying this snickers bar is bigger than this milky way bar.

 

[Kitako]

No engine in the world will save them from their horrible art direction.

 

[aris]

Dragon age 2 had undoubtedly a better art direction than DA, and I daresay a good one, unlike DA1's art direction which was generic to the power of 10. Which incididentally was also the only way DA2 was better than DA1.

 

[evdk]

Dragon age 2 had undoubtedly a better art direction than DA, and I daresay a good one, unlike DA1's art direction which was generic to the power of 10. Which incididentally was also the only way DA2 was better than DA1.

Nice direction, not enough assets.

 

[aris]

Yep. Definitely rushed.

 

[sea]

Dragon age 2 had undoubtedly a better art direction than DA, and I daresay a good one, unlike DA1's art direction which was generic to the power of 10. Which incididentally was also the only way DA2 was better than DA1.

Slightly better. I disliked a lot of the changes though.

1. Watercolor look is okay but it doesn't really match the serious tone of the game. First game was a Lord of the Rings knock-off, but at least it did it competently and it suited the game.
2. Character designs are fucked up, especially the elves. This is so bad that it actually undermines the emotional impact certain scenes have, because I was laughing my ass off at how ridiculous some of it looked.
3. Dragon Age II had even more boring corridor levels than the first game. A few set pieces here and there were neat, but the grid-like nature of the levels was a lot more obvious to me (probably due to a lack of time to polish them). Even the city feels like it's built on a grid.
4. Retcons to the art direction were weird. Qunari having horns I thought was fine (the explanation of "hornless Quanri" is dumb though), but changing the elves to anorexic Welsh people was awkward. Also the mirror that's a big part of one of the character's arcs looks completely different in Dragon Age II vs. the first game, which makes no sense whatosoever and no explanation is given even though it's meant to be the same mirror.
5. Serious lack of variety in environments, duh. Would it have been that hard to build a few more dungeon areas? They did spend more time on the ones they did have, but surely they could have got a level designer to make a few generic caves out of the existing assets over the course of a week, and used those instead.
6. Most of the models were reused from the first game and given new textures which did not fit with the designs well, and at least to me, stuck out like a sore thumb.

I'd say most of the good changes were technological rather than artistic. For instance, lighting was improved a lot in the second game (better shadows, ambient occlusion, more dynamic lights, more consistent lights between characters and levels), plus the DX11 effects and high-res textures helped a lot. The base assets themselves look really weak and inconsistent though.

I got the game for free during that screwed up EA promotion and I still couldn't finish act 2 due to boredom. At least if Dragon Age III is open world it should be more interesting.

 

[aris]

Dragon age 2 had undoubtedly a better art direction than DA, and I daresay a good one, unlike DA1's art direction which was generic to the power of 10. Which incididentally was also the only way DA2 was better than DA1.

Slightly better. I disliked a lot of the changes though.

1. Watercolor look is okay but it doesn't really match the serious tone of the game. First game was a Lord of the Rings knock-off, but at least it did it competently and it suited the game.
2. Character designs are fucked up, especially the elves. This is so bad that it actually undermines the emotional impact certain scenes have, because I was laughing my ass off at how ridiculous some of it looked.
3. Dragon Age II had even more boring corridor levels than the first game. A few set pieces here and there were neat, but the grid-like nature of the levels was a lot more obvious to me (probably due to a lack of time to polish them). Even the city feels like it's built on a grid.
4. Retcons to the art direction were weird. Qunari having horns I thought was fine (the explanation of "hornless Quanri" is dumb though), but changing the elves to anorexic Welsh people was awkward. Also the mirror that's a big part of one of the character's arcs looks completely different in Dragon Age II vs. the first game, which makes no sense whatosoever and no explanation is given even though it's meant to be the same mirror.
5. Serious lack of variety in environments, duh. Would it have been that hard to build a few more dungeon areas? They did spend more time on the ones they did have, but surely they could have got a level designer to make a few generic caves out of the existing assets over the course of a week, and used those instead.
6. Most of the models were reused from the first game and given new textures which did not fit with the designs well, and at least to me, stuck out like a sore thumb.

I'd say most of the good changes were technological rather than artistic. For instance, lighting was improved a lot in the second game (better shadows, ambient occlusion, more dynamic lights, more consistent lights between characters and levels), plus the DX11 effects and high-res textures helped a lot. The base assets themselves look really weak and inconsistent though.


I got the game for free during that screwed up EA promotion and I still couldn't finish act 2 due to boredom. At least if Dragon Age III is open world it should be more interesting.

I can't say I disagree, also, I didn't play DA2 very much. Really just the opening. Also, whether you like an art direction or not, is largely a matter of taste. But I think that we can at least agree that DA2 had a more distinct look than DA1, for better or for worse. Personally, I liked the design a lot on the main character, Flemmeth and the qunari.

 

[Deleted member 7219]

The elves in DA2 did look absolutely hideous. Not enough is said about that bad decision.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Elves in DA1 looked like small humans, DA2 at least tried to make them a bit more distinctive from humans.

 

[Commissar Draco]

Elves in DA2 looked like half starved children... which made the fags who played the game and romanced the loony elven chick pedophiles... One more reason to Kill the Biowhore with Fire.

 

[Drakron]

Elves in DA1 looked like small humans, DA2 at least tried to make them a bit more distinctive from humans.

The thing with elves is either you go with the Unseelie court or you with Tolkien.

You DONT go with the Na'vi.

 

[Lagole Gon]

...or welsh goat-people.

Not to mention leprechaun dalish armour.

 

[Delterius]

Elves in DA1 looked like small humans, DA2 at least tried to make them a bit more distinctive from humans.

This is actually something that I'd see on the BSN back when I cared to browse it. More often than not, people would defend the new elf design by saying that its 'original', and not even saying outright that they prefer the new over the old one (I'm excluding the handful of really weird posters that say just chime in to say 'Contrary to you, I thoroughly enjoyed everything that Dragon Age 2 did with the possible exclusion of <mainstream critique>, though it certainly have not, my good sir, worsened the overall experience'.

I don't necessarily agree that the elves even needed a redesign, but I don't disagree with it either. However, I don't like the elf redesign. Its forced cuteness that goes against the (supposed, advertised) tone of the setting.

 

[Kem0sabe]

They are not necessarily well designed, but they are distinctive as are the Qunari. I think we all agree that DA 1 was a trainwreck in terms of visual identity, from the various races to the environments, to the armors and weapons, it all looked like it came out of RPG maker 2009.

DA 2 being the piece of shit game that it was, at least brought a little more flair to the visuals.

Anyways, i doubt 3D fantasy rpg´s can ever look good or bring the player into the game universe as 2D game art did.

 

[Delterius]

A trainwreck isn't a good way to put DA 1's art direction. It was less ambitious, it didn't attempt to trademark a style or even to win the crowds with MAJESTIC PHOTO REALISTIC, therefore it had less space to both excel and fail. It was generic, but it was serviceable. I'd be ok with a re design, but I reserve the criticism over both the elf and the darkspawn redesign. Qunari are fine.

But I think the worst offender are weapons and armor. Not even speaking about the disconnect between plot and mage armor, it appears that BioWare is trying to trademark spikes the same way Square created a name for zippers. Simply put I'd say that, as far as weapons and armor go, I think DA1 had two things that DA2 should have preserved: the more 'low key' design that was so 'refreshing' in DA:O when I played it just out of World of Warcraft.

Also, the textures were bland. One thing I liked in DA:O's armor are the hammer marks in some of it.

 

[tuluse]

The biggest problem with DA:O's art was reused assets. Every place looked the same as every other place. It's really striking to play BG2 and DA:O back to back. One has all these beautiful glorious unique areas, and the other has a pile of rocks that looks identical to every other pile of rocks.

 

[Roguey]

Laidlaw said they're going to redesign elves again to put them somewhere between DA:O and 2.

At least if Dragon Age III is open world it should be more interesting.

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[sea]

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Let me clarify: Dragon Age II was banal shit boring for a lot of reasons. However, getting that sense of exploration and freedom back would have really helped. I don't mean that the game necessarily has to be open world. However, Dragon Age II felt like it led you by the nose from one quest to another and didn't have environments to explore and interact with so much as it did rooms with quest NPCs, and corridors with traps in them. The fact that you could barely even talk to anyone who wasn't quest-related also kinda sucked. At least going to an open-ended format means that I can feel more in charge of the experience I'm having, and can make up for rough spots by letting me say "well, I can just do something else."

 

[Kem0sabe]

I wonder if they will bring back the top down camera or implement any control scheme besides the third person action rpg one. I think the combat style/camera/control were the factors that disassociated me the most between DA1 and DA2.

 

[Roguey]

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Let me clarify: Dragon Age II was banal shit boring for a lot of reasons. However, getting that sense of exploration and freedom back would have really helped. I don't mean that the game necessarily has to be open world. However, Dragon Age II felt like it led you by the nose from one quest to another and didn't have environments to explore and interact with so much as it did rooms with quest NPCs, and corridors with traps in them. The fact that you could barely even talk to anyone who wasn't quest-related also kinda sucked. At least going to an open-ended format means that I can feel more in charge of the experience I'm having, and can make up for rough spots by letting me say "well, I can just do something else."

I keyboard smashed because you called it open world when on that very page I quoted a Bioware employee who said it wouldn't be open world.

DA2's corridors were a combination of memory and time/tool limitations so I've been told. They're all very grateful they no longer have to build levels using their shitty old tools.

I wonder if they will bring back the top down camera or implement any control scheme besides the third person action rpg one. I think the combat style/camera/control were the factors that disassociated me the most between DA1 and DA2.

The pseudo-iso cam's never coming back, it was more trouble than it was worth.

 

[Lord Andre]

Did Bioware file for bankruptcy yet ? I mean with CDProjekt stealing their fanbase for crappy cinematic fantasy game and now muscling in on their shitty sci-fi soap opera, it's only a matter of time before EA sends Bioware to the rubbish bin and buys the potato company.

 

[sea]

DA2's corridors were a combination of memory and time/tool limitations so I've been told. They're all very grateful they no longer have to build levels using their shitty old tools.

Memory limitations? What memory limitations? They couldn't fit more levels on a DVD? Bullshit.