Dragon Age 3

[Jeyl]

Jeyl's Suggestions....

1. Bring back titles. Don't simply call it Dragon Age III.

2. Dragon Age Origins story progression. I liked how Dragon Age Origins allowed you to venture to any point you wanted to go and didn't lock you out once you've gotten past a certain point (Well, except for that one town).

3. Combat. While the combat in DAII was ok, the amount of re-spawns I felt broke the immersion. I think we should have a set amount of units with a little higher HP to make our other attacks more important to the strategy.

4. DON'T ABANDON ROMANCING ALL LOVE INTERESTS! I know it's a cheap gimmick, but I love the idea of romancing the love interest characters no matter what the gender of the player character is. It was one of the few elements that offered cool replay value to the game, and it wasn't handled in a "Everyone is bisexual" way (i.e. Anders rescuing his friend (female Hawke) or lover (Male Hawke).

5. Endings, endings, mother frelling endings. The endings to Dragon Age Origins were perfect, diverse and critical. Happy ending, sad ending, uncertain ending, the works.

6. Hawke Companion. This is just me, but have your PC Hawke as a companion who's behavior is dependent on how you handled him/her in DAII. I've never seen anything like that before and I think it would be pretty cool to be able to semi-create a companion who could be any kind of character you'd want to venture out with. Even with the limited choices in DAII, there's still a lot that Hawke did in that game that can greatly affect how the character interacts with the world.

More to come...

[RyuRoots]

Dragon Age 3 as a prospect just makes me sad since with all the endless whining about DA2, it'll probably be more like the (IMO) vastly inferior Origins. Origins was a chore to play, and I never felt connected to my Warden the way I did to my Hawke. Colors were dull and uninteresting, and companions overall weren't as good either. About the only problem I had with DA2 was the reused environments and the DLCs seemed to show that they wanted to address that at least in some way.

Ironically, fan feedback is what makes me wary about DA3. I'm hoping it'll be good, but we'll find out eventually.

[Yevetha]

6. Hawke Companion. This is just me, but have your PC Hawke as a companion who's behavior is dependent on how you handled him/her in DAII. I've never seen anything like that before and I think it would be pretty cool to be able to semi-create a companion who could be any kind of character you'd want to venture out with. Even with the limited choices in DAII, there's still a lot that Hawke did in that game that can greatly affect how the character interacts with the world.

Maybe you could play the both in 3 like you could split up your squad in Kotor 2.

[Silent_Bob]

I rather enjoyed the gameplay of Dragon Age 2. While Origins was a great deal of fun on the PC -and if you have any fond memories of Baldur's Gate you must try the PC version of Origins - it was nowhere near as good on the consoles gameplay wise.

And call me selfish, my console is my main source of gaming so i want a damn good experience when i buy a game for it.
So the more action focused sequel was a lot more fun to play for me. But i can certainly see why PC gamers wouldn't be as thrilled with the changes.

That is not to say i didn't have problems with the game nor want changes to be made in any sequel.

My main issues with Dragon Age 2 revolved around the story and the way it was told. We were told prior to release that it would tell the tale of a ten year chunk of Hawkes life and his/her rise to Champion of Kirkwall.

Which is a great idea, a chance to really focus on a set of characters and show the changes caused by their actions earlier on.

In execution though it left a lot to be desired. There were simply far too many time jumps. Whole years were skipped over. I wasn't expecting 10 years real time of course, that'd be insane, but i did expect to have at least one adventure per year rather than jumping 2 or even 3 years at a time.

And nothing much changed in those jumps. Sure you'd see a character change jobs but there was no meat to the changes.

If i chose to kill someone in year one, i want his family or friends seeking retribution in year five, not a quick conversation with a companion where they tell me about how hard their new promotion at work is.

My own wishes for Dragon Age 3 would be giving us the entirety of the Templar - Mage conflict. Show us the beginnings, middle and end of the war, let our actions at the first battles impact the resolution of the conflict.

And for the love of Andraste a bit more variety in locations would be nice too.

[Jeyl]

RyuRoots wrote:

---

Ironically, fan feedback is what makes me wary about DA3. I'm hoping it'll be good, but we'll find out eventually.

Fan Feedback can be a good thing if it's done carefully. After all, they're the group that digests the games from a consumer stand point that the developers cannot do themselves no matter how hard they try.

One of the best and worst examples of BioWare using fan feedback was with the handling of Femshep. For both of the Mass Effect games, Male Shepard has been the poster boy of the series with absolutely zero recognition for female Shepard. So when BioWare announced that they would not only be acknowledging Femshep but also giving her a trailer of her own, fans jumped for joy! For me, this made me jump for joy because if Femshep got her own trailer, that would mean it would showcase Jennifer Hale's talents, since I find her to be one of the most talented voice actors in the game.

Where it went south was when BioWare decided to involve the fans in choosing what Femshep should look like. It was meant to be a one poll deal, but when the blonde Femshep won, fans did what they do best. There was an outcry over Blonde Shep being picked for various stupid reasons, so BioWare started another poll to pick Femshep's hair color which ended surprisingly with the blonde hair color in last place.

And in the end, when the new default femshep was showcased, I was happy since the game finally acknowledged that Shepard could be female, and she was voiced by a very talented actress. What I was not happy about was how Femshep looked. Not only is her head freaking huge, she looks like Jolene Blalock with Robert Z'Dar's facial features. But I didn't care all that much. I have my own default femshep so no problem there.

I also believe that involving fans to determine the look of Femshep is what helped cement the idea of entitlement to players who are demanding a new ending.

[clint g]

I also believe that involving fans to determine the look of Femshep is what helped cement the idea of entitlement to players who are demanding a new ending.

I would say the ending sucking had more to do with it than anything else

[stonester1]

Yeah, I modified my Femshep to look like sort of an amalgam of certain female soldiers I've served with. An homage, if you will.

[Reverend]

^OK, don't you think that's just a little bit creepy?

Silent_Bob wrote:

---

I rather enjoyed the gameplay of Dragon Age 2. While Origins was a great deal of fun on the PC -and if you have any fond memories of Baldur's Gate you must try the PC version of Origins - it was nowhere near as good on the consoles gameplay wise.

And call me selfish, my console is my main source of gaming so i want a damn good experience when i buy a game for it.
So the more action focused sequel was a lot more fun to play for me. But i can certainly see why PC gamers wouldn't be as thrilled with the changes.

That is not to say i didn't have problems with the game nor want changes to be made in any sequel.

My main issues with Dragon Age 2 revolved around the story and the way it was told. We were told prior to release that it would tell the tale of a ten year chunk of Hawkes life and his/her rise to Champion of Kirkwall.

Which is a great idea, a chance to really focus on a set of characters and show the changes caused by their actions earlier on.

In execution though it left a lot to be desired. There were simply far too many time jumps. Whole years were skipped over. I wasn't expecting 10 years real time of course, that'd be insane, but i did expect to have at least one adventure per year rather than jumping 2 or even 3 years at a time.

And nothing much changed in those jumps. Sure you'd see a character change jobs but there was no meat to the changes.

If i chose to kill someone in year one, i want his family or friends seeking retribution in year five, not a quick conversation with a companion where they tell me about how hard their new promotion at work is.

My own wishes for Dragon Age 3 would be giving us the entirety of the Templar - Mage conflict. Show us the beginnings, middle and end of the war, let our actions at the first battles impact the resolution of the conflict.

And for the love of Andraste a bit more variety in locations would be nice too.

I also rather enjoyed DAII for what it was. But yes, it definitely had it's flaws (repetitive environments only being the most obvious.) What I'd hope for in DAIII is sort of what they did with ME3. That is to say, take the game-play improvements from the second game and enhance it with the deeper customization of the first. But of course <insert crack about ME3 ending here>.

Actually, what bothered me most about the "10 year story arc" was that you never felt that passage of time. It would have been nice if characters showed at least some sign of ageing. Maybe some faint crowsfeet creeping in, hair starting to turn grey, or you know, a change of clothes...I mean are we seriously meant to believe that Hawk was the only person in the city to get more that one new outfit or a change of hairstyle in a decade!? That's just weird.

[Evil Twin]

Reverend wrote:

---

Actually, what bothered me most about the "10 year story arc" was that you never felt that passage of time. It would have been nice if characters showed at least some sign of ageing. Maybe some faint crowsfeet creeping in, hair starting to turn grey, or you know, a change of clothes...I mean are we seriously meant to believe that Hawk was the only person in the city to get more that one new outfit or a change of hairstyle in a decade!? That's just weird.

Heh, that's what kind of bugged me about Assassin's Creed II. The story spans almost 30 years and while Ezio gets a beard, everyone else in 1499 still looks exactly liked they did in 1476.

[ATimson]

Evil Twin wrote:

---

Heh, that's what kind of bugged me about Assassin's Creed II. The story spans almost 30 years and while Ezio gets a beard, everyone else in 1499 still looks exactly liked they did in 1476.

They may look the same, but Ezio's voice actor did a great job of aging him naturally over the game. I was shocked when my sister played it and I heard how young he sounded in the beginning.

[Jeyl]

That 10 year progression was very poorly handled. You could have had the game cover a span of a year and it wouldn't have made a bloody difference.

[Reverend]

^I know, right?! The gap between the three acts could just as well have been two months as two years. Indeed, in some cases that would actually have been much more plausible!