Nobody expects the Orlesian inquisition! Our chief weapon is surprise!...and cheese wheels! Yeah, not a huge shock, but at least things are "officially" moving forward. Nice to hear they're paying attention to the fans *before* they release the game (take note Mass Effect team!) and with a bit of luck--and by luck I mean EA being satisfied that it'll have co-op and leave the rest of the game alone--the third game will strike a nice balance between DA:O & DA:II.
I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with this new engine. And I'm morbidly curious about how they intend to implement multiplayer. Most importantly, though, I hope they have enough time to actually finish the game and write a solid, varied ending. No more of these one-size-fits-all endings we got in DA2 and ME3, please.
I think they already made it clear before multiplayer was confirmed that "if" they were to do it, the model to emulate would be Balder's Gate II. IIRC the way that worked was for everyone to create specific characters for the co-op rather than import their SP character. When it comes to conversations they'll probably use something similar to the dice-roll system from The Old Republic. Not sure how recruited NPCs would work though.
If it's anything like DA2 I won't be touching this. I only played the previous game for a few hours before getting tired of it. That was a shocking effort from Bioware. Why they decided to go all 'Mass Effect' on Dragon Age I don't know. The original game was great, the style and engine was fine, as was the gamers ability to mod the crap out of it. Hope they bring all that was good about DA:O to the 3rd game because I saw absolutely none of that in DA2.
I liked Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2, despite their shortcomings, and I hope the third installment takes the best aspects from both games.
The only things they really borrowed from ME was a modified dialogue wheel and a voiced main character. Aside from the odd poorly implemented paraphrase, neither of these really detracted from the game for me. The main problems DA2 had were 1) limited time ad resources in the development stage resources which resulted the endlessly recycled environments. 2) A lack of agency as a result of the decision to tell a multi-chapter story without the aforementioned resources to tell a truly branching story. And 3) a combat system that while fun, eliminated any real strategic planning by having enemies come in wave and even drop out of thin air. From what I've heard so far, they appear to have a firm grip on what was wrong with DA2 and what does and (just as importantly) does not need fixing.
Even with any faults with recent games from Bioware, this will still most likely be a pre-order for me. Of course, I'll keep an eye out on all the information (barring story line) that comes out about and that may change, but given how much I enjoyed ME1-3, DAO and DA2, I don't expect things to change too much.
I expect Inquisition will mirror Mass Effect 3 in a sense, by balancing the heavier mechanics of the original game with the streamlining of its first sequel. Can't wait to hear more about the new engine. I'm not as concerned about the story; for all its shortcomings, DA2 still (mostly) delivered plot-wise and excelled at characterization. Sure, the Qunari thread was relatively pointless, and the multi-year transitions mishandled, but the implications of the endgame hours and that cliffhanger? Enticing as hell. Loved the framing device too, though I doubt Bioware will draw from that well again. Multiplayer? I'll probably just ignore it. Hard to imagine how that will work, especially without knowing more about the engine. I'm hoping it'll be co-op centric, or even better, asynchronous or otherwise largely passive, perhaps along the lines of Demon's/Dark Souls.
This pretty much sums up my view. That said, if this was 2010 I would have dropped a pre-order on this in a heartbeat. BioWare's recent track record has pretty much killed that though.
In related news: BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk have retired. As expected, the comments are swimming with "R.I.P. Bioware" and "evil EA", because people on the internet are known for their measured, contemplative responses. If I had a crystal ball, I think I'd use it for better purposes, y'know? Who knows what the future holds for Bioware now, but... Score!
I just can't bring myself to get excited about this. DA:O is one of my favorite games ever and DA2 was so disappointing. Unless I hear some stellar word of mouth I think I'll wait for the inevitable $10 Amazon sale, even if that means waiting 6 months after release to play.
^In defence of such irrational doom-sayers, EA does have a bit of a habit of obliterating many the otherwise respected and/or successful independent studios it's acquired over the years. And let's be realistic here, this sudden and unexpected dual retirement doesn't really engender much optimism.
Agreed. Though in this case, I would like to imagine that Bioware is too prestigious and historically relevant to be put out to pasture, Westwood style. ...of course, I said exactly that about Sony and Psygnosis/Studio Liverpool, so maybe I shouldn't tempt the universe any further. My bad, guys.
Westwood, Bullfrog, Origin, Pandemic...remember those? Prestigious? Check. Historically relevant? Check. Gone the way of the dodo? Quadruple check. Actually, come to think of it remember that really good, respectable studio called Electronic Arts? They used to be great. It's somewhat tragic in a way. EA's first victim was...EA. I'm not saying it's guaranteed, I mean you never know right? Maybe the EA boss man just thinks "EA Edmonton" is a dumb name for a studio. But Bioware's founders suddenly beating a hasty exit is just the latest in a long line of warning signs, red flags, bad omens, alarm bells, S.O.S calls and cries of "iceberg dead ahead!" to come out of Bioware since EA took over. I'm not saying it's time to give up all hope, but all the same, I think I'm going to stay up on deck near the lifeboats and if I hear so much as the first three notes of 'Nearer, My God, to Thee', I'm not hanging around to see how it all turns out.
*sigh* I still mourn for Pandemic to this day. The original Mercenaries is one of my favourite games of all time.
Bioware is screwed with those two gone. EA will replace them with their own people and we can forget about seeing Bioware develop the games they did previously. IMO at least.
BioWare's DA developers hosted a panel at the Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo today titled "Dragon Age: A Look Ahead." It should be online for viewing "soonish," for anyone curious. On Twitter, DA Creative Director Mike Laidlaw confirmed that the playable character in DAIII will be human only again, but promised "varied, detailed backgrounds." He's also been sharing a few other thoughts from the panel: Other races will still be represented within your party "Long term," he wants all four races to be playable Human; Elf; Dwarf; "Qunari" (Kossith is the correct term for Sten and the Arishok's species) No Origin stories, but the game will include "numerous reaction points" to your background choice The team is looking into ways to import information without needing save files; "world imports will still happen."
Some concept art has gone up on the bioware blog. Nothing specific, but it gives a nice impression of the type of environments they're looking to depict. I think the overgrown ruins look especially nice an refreshing. Not sure if any of this looks like how I envisioned Orlais though. Indeed if I had to guess based on that first one I'd say I was looking at Nevarra. Or Antiva perhaps?