Dragon Age comback?

[Thandal]

... I love the social interaction, dynamic characters, and team dynamic of battles. The TES games were all about the player character, every other character is rather flat. DAO on the other hand, has much better story telling and much better character development. So far, I enjoy it more than Skyrim and Oblivion, so much so that I don't even miss the FPS style combat or open world at all.

Hear! Hear! This is exactly my attitude as well.

 

I've played the entire DA:O/A/GoA/WH cycle through at least eight times. (Plus LS, of course. Not to mention "The DLC Which Must Not Be Named".) Just finished off another Archdemon last night (after having to troubleshoot a mod to get a certain relationship status where I wanted it before the final battle.) And I've completed DA2/Legacy/MotA at least six times now.

 

I've played twice that many partials just to see how a different class (or gender, or attitude) for my character gets along. I've encountered new dialogue and new events every single time. Various familiar bits of Party Banter still make me laugh, and I know I haven't heard all of it because I so seldom have certain ones along (e.g. I've only allowed the Secret Companion to survive once.)

 

I've got 120 hours in on Skyrim and am at about 30% of the achievements. Haven't played in two months and don't feel any real inclination to do so. The interface, but far more importantly the story, leaves me indifferent.

 

On the other hand I was very disappointed to hear that BioWare has pulled the plug on any more DA2 DLC in favour of focusing on "The Next Thing". But I'm excited that there's going to be a "Next Thing"!

[GnatGoSplat]

I've played twice that many partials just to see how a different class (or gender, or attitude) for my character gets along. I've encountered new dialogue and new events every single time. Various familiar bits of Party Banter still make me laugh, and I know I haven't heard all of it because I so seldom have certain ones along (e.g. I've only allowed the Secret Companion to survive once.)

 

I'll definitely have to play through at least the beginning with every type of character just to see how it differs. It's amazing how much dialog they've managed to add into the game to give each character his/her own unique personality. I often wish I could take them all with me so I could hear all the possible party banter and their reactions to different scenarios. I often take the more powerful ones (mages) with me, so I know I'm missing out on a lot of good dialog/banter. I also love how their personality/dialog changes based on your relationship with them and whether they're hardened or not, which also affects the story. One of my favorite mods that added much to Oblivion, was Companion Vilja. It added just one follower that was quest aware, aware of any other followers, and she'd say random things while traveling. However, in DAO, ALL followers are like this!

 

I've got 120 hours in on Skyrim and am at about 30% of the achievements. Haven't played in two months and don't feel any real inclination to do so. The interface, but far more importantly the story, leaves me indifferent.

 

Skyrim was actually my first TES game, and my first of the RPG genre. I think I stopped at level 58, 220+ hours when the quests dried up. I thought it was awesome, but that was before I played DAO. I really think DAO is a lot more fun, it's significantly better than Skyrim and Oblivion. The characters, the story, the voice acting, the choices you make affecting the story, it's all much better. It may not be first-person combat, but I actually find the battles a lot more challenging, even with a team of 4 characters. I'm truly surprised this game isn't more popular than it is.

 

On the other hand I was very disappointed to hear that BioWare has pulled the plug on any more DA2 DLC in favour of focusing on "The Next Thing". But I'm excited that there's going to be a "Next Thing"!

 

From what I've read, DA3 is likely to be heavily influenced by Skyrim and other open-world games. I don't mind if it becomes open-world in that way, but I hope they don't lose the wonderful storytelling and dynamic characters that made DAO superb.

[billyro]

On the other hand I was very disappointed to hear that BioWare has pulled the plug on any more DA2 DLC in favour of focusing on "The Next Thing". But I'm excited that there's going to be a "Next Thing"!

 

From what I've read, DA3 is likely to be heavily influenced by Skyrim and other open-world games. I don't mind if it becomes open-world in that way, but I hope they don't lose the wonderful storytelling and dynamic characters that made DAO superb.

 

That would be superb. Keep the magical world, but let you explore it a bit more! :D

[Shadeling]

I would absolutely love it if Dragon Age had a comeback worthy of Origins but with EA in the picture, I really doubt it's possible. I can't think of one instance where a company purchased by EA has gone on to become better and not worse. Traditionally, quality turns to s*** when EA gets involved, so sadly I think Bioware's days of glory and stellar products are over. I really hope I'm proven wrong, but I don't think I will be.

[valkyriae]

i hope they will do a comeback and return to their awsome storytelling :D

and really put allot of work into the game ^^

Eagerly awaiting for DA3 news,gief now please ^^

 

tbh ill be happy as long as they dont trap me on an island again x_x

[Viperswhip]

Well, they have to do something to get the fans back. When game retailers are telling devs that they have no desire to stock a Game of the Year or Ultimate Edition that gathers all the DLC and everything, it means your game did not sell very well.

 

I felt so betrayed by DA2 that I left DAO out of of my last game rotation. Can a sequel tarnish the original? I don't know.

 

I am just re-installing it on my newer computer, which I thankfully purchased not just for Swotor ( :facepalm: ) but also the Witcher 2 ( :P ), because the origin stories were sooooooo good. The City Elf, blew my mind, especially the female version. The Dwarven commoner is fantastic. The only one that didn't impress me was the mage, but thankfully the Dalish Mage Origin mod allowed us to play through that origin instead.

 

With mods, the character design is truly epic. Yes, you can always get all the mods working together, but seriously try the monk fighting one or take a round with expanded shape-shifting.

 

Those of us who make and use mods are a small minority of the DAO players, but like Kashah said, DA2 should have brought the best mods to all the gamers. Some of them completely change the game, graphical overhauls, system overhauls, embarrassingly never fixed by Bioware and way more. Instead we got some weird story telling with no emotional impact whatsoever. Oh we also lost the ability to play other races, and have way less ability to mod the game. I mean, who can look at the "intro" part of DA2 and consider it in the same class as the origins from DAO? Did all the writers head over to Swotor? I don't know what happened. I hope that's the case as they will be floating back to ME3 DLC and DA3 development.

 

I am not sad there is no more DA2 DLC because I never bought DA2 heh, I want them to look to past successes to see what people want for DA3. Unfortunately, a certain higher up in Bioware recently gave an interview suggesting they are looking for a home run. Well, when you try that, you strike out a lot. I do not believe they even notice what kind of games are collecting hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on Kickstarter and selling tens of thousands of copies on GoG, they want to make a Billion dollars on a hit. Unfortunately, no RPG has ever come close. Making DA more like ME will not help it sell better, a futuristic war setting seems to have worked okay for ME style of play, but that is quite obviously not what their fans want in a DA franchise. Given that the "home runs" are either FPS or WoW, maybe they should be trying to stake out a claim to the lower hanging fruit.

 

Here is the interview that crashed my desire to follow Bioware as closely as in the past. Only read it if you are prepared to buy a new monitor.

 

Interview

[Thandal]

@Viperswhip;

 

Some thoughts in response:

 

1. The things Dorian Kieken said in that interview you linked made perfect sense to me, so not sure what point you were trying to make.

 

2. You said that you "felt betrayed by DA2", and then devote almost a full paragraph detailing its shortcomings in your opinion. Yet you also say you never bought it... Care to know what conclusion I draw from that?

[Viperswhip]

@Viperswhip;

 

Some thoughts in response:

 

1. The things Dorian Kieken said in that interview you linked made perfect sense to me, so not sure what point you were trying to make.

 

2. You said that you "felt betrayed by DA2", and then devote almost a full paragraph detailing its shortcomings in your opinion. Yet you also say you never bought it... Care to know what conclusion I draw from that?

 

 

As to #1 there, trying to please everyone makes no sense, and with the dimming of the population the only game you are going to make that sells like the home run he is implying Bioware needs means a game that is sugar induced action. Look at all the games that would fall into the class he is thinking of WoW, Diablo, Starcraft, a bunch of FPS games and some of the fighting games. None of those games are RPGs in any traditional sense, which is what Bioware is known for being good at making. My point is that you can make money, you don't have to make all the money. Bioware was successful before being purchased by EA, making games we all really enjoyed, why do they have to change the formula? So they can be as big as Blizzard? Well, I don't really love any of Blizzard's games or any of the other types of games that make all the money.

 

#2 I watched quite a few let's play videos and such before deciding to ultimately not buy the game.

[Thandal]

#1 No one, (and certainly not BioWare) talked about "pleasing everyone". The entire interview was about the process of bringing a modern, mass-market game to the market . The development, the interaction with customers (old and new fans alike) and the difference between operating with a financial cushion vs. not.

 

#2 If you haven't bought and played through the game, then your opinion of it counts for a whole lot less with me than if you had. :armscrossed:

[naomis8329]

Whilst it may not be an "open world" it is a wonderful game where choices have consequences and these consequences have knock on effects throughout the game, wherever you go and people you interact with. We lose this somewhat in DAA and totally in DA2 and I would love to see this back in DA3.

 

I do hope that they don't rush DA3, put in the time and effort and it will be as good as DAO maybe even bigger and better.