Dragon Age 3

[Signe]

I couldn't really tell.  They just showed a bunch of scenery.  It might be better than an MMO without a proper AH.

[Tannhauser]

That looks good, but I'm done buying into the Bioware hype.  Those nice, big unique areas are probably empty.

[Paelos]

It looked like Assassin's Creed to me for the most part with the exception of a few scenes. I'm still worried about the Origin thing.

[K9]

Everywhere seemed to be very wet

[Hoax]

I'm not dealing with this Origin shit. That needs to stop.

[Venkman]

Seemed like a low poly count Skyrim reel... or a high poly count GW2 one.

Which means exactly nil to the game.

It did make me re-watch the DA2 trailer though, which set aside like, the whole game and stuff, the trailer was fun.

Which is always the problem with Blur Studios trailers and their ilk*. They always always always show the game in a much better light than the game actually is.

* I'm not sure Blur did DA2.

[Ingmar]

Hrm, I was thinking it looked sharper/prettier than Skyrim, but I don't have Skyrim loaded down with a billion appearance mods so I don't know which version of Skyrim you have in your mind's eye. Certainly it was more colorful.

Other than camera position stuff, this was supposedly the way the actual game will look on top-end systems, also so comparisons to the sorts of cinematic trailers that Blur does don't seem especially relevant to me. Obviously there's going to be some level of trickery going on in any trailer, but this wasn't in the same category as stuff like, say, the WAR trailers where it bears no connection at all to the game.

[eldaec]

It looked like Assassin's Creed to me for the most part with the exception of a few scenes. I'm still worried about the Origin thing.

Are we talking about EA's evil retail download platform? Or their policy of predetermined character origin?

If the former, what is the origin thing? Is it just that we can't buy it on steam? In which case can we not just buy it on a disk and party like its 1999?

If the latter, meh, price worth paying for protagonist voice over. I'm bored of Gordon Freeman style dialog.

[Ingmar]

I am pretty sure on PC it is going to be Origin-only much like ME3. Can you even buy a ME3 DVD and avoid launching through Origin? I was under the impression you couldn't. I don't really consider this an issue, though, so I never looked into it. Origin doesn't really cause any problems on my computer, and it doesn't really get in the way - but it's a religious issue for some people.

[Trippy]

I am pretty sure on PC it is going to be Origin-only much like ME3. Can you even buy a ME3 DVD and avoid launching through Origin? I was under the impression you couldn't.

No you can't.

[Paelos]

Origin is a fuck you EA issue. They put out a lot of bad games and make you use their shitty drm for the privilege

[eldaec]

Oh yes, its been a while since I looked at anything in EA hell, but its all coming back now.

[Venkman]

Hrm, I was thinking it looked sharper/prettier than Skyrim, but I don't have Skyrim loaded down with a billion appearance mods so I don't know which version of Skyrim you have in your mind's eye. Certainly it was more colorful.

Other than camera position stuff, this was supposedly the way the actual game will look on top-end systems, also so comparisons to the sorts of cinematic trailers that Blur does don't seem especially relevant to me. Obviously there's going to be some level of trickery going on in any trailer, but this wasn't in the same category as stuff like, say, the WAR trailers where it bears no connection at all to the game.

Sorry, I combined a few different rants. The Blur comment was regarding DA2, not DA3. DA2 was a fine enough looking game. I commented on the Blur trailer though because I feel like Blur is the go-to company for large marketing budgets that often result in a fantastic trailer at odds with the quality of the game, or with what the game is really about or how it plays. I've felt this way since EQ2.

Cinematics are fine and all, Blur or not. But at least try and convey some of how the game works. Or better yet, if you've got a fine enough engine to talk about "high end" anything, use the engine itself.

AC4 does a fine job with its trailer. It's higher res than ingame for sure, but not by a huge margin. More importantly though it matches well the feel of the game itself. SWTOR trailers meanwhile, not so much.

Having said all that, DA3 looks ok to me. It doesn't have the gruff splendor of Skyrim, but then they're not promising that. Not really sure what they're promising.  And I do assume they'll end up doing the large marketing budget thing anyway. Will begin to care as it gets closer.

[Ingmar]

Release date is Oct 7 2014. Also, trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uO2h4qUNJ60&feature=youtu.be

EDIT:

Official website got some updates as well.

Map thing: http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/explore

Bunch of other random info trickling out about classes, etc., as well.

[Sjofn]

I'm ready! 

[Stormwaltz]

All I need to know is, "Origin required?"

The answer is directly inverse to "Will I buy it?"

[Ingmar]

Pretty sure that's a yes. (Or there's console versions I suppose.)

[Merusk]

What Bergman said.

[Rasix]

Release date is Oct 7 2014.

Origin.. doesn't matter.  It didn't really get in the way of ME3 at all.

[Engels]

In what alternate universe was that latest video 'gameplay'?

[Simond]

Biowareland!

[Phildo]

I'm pretty sure I'll end up buying this anyway, but I'm definitely going to wait a few weeks to see what other folks' reactions are.  I fully expect their declaration that "we've changed, honest!" to amount to basically nothing in the face of being an EA property.

[Paelos]

It's still EA, no matter how much polish they put on the ad campaign. And it's still Origin, which serves no purpose.

[Merusk]

I'm pretty sure I'll end up buying this anyway, but I'm definitely going to wait a few weeks to see what other folks' reactions are.  I fully expect their declaration that "we've changed, honest!" to amount to basically nothing in the face of being an EA property.

Yep.  I'll let others take the plunge, see if it is more of the same from DA2 and then decide.  I did the same with MA3 and was happier for it.

[Surlyboi]

I'll be your huckleberry.

[calapine]

I think the tone of that trailer was off. Edit the parts that show horses and swords and it might have been a Mass Effect 4 teaser. It didn't feel like playing in a medieval world at all.

And also, too: You are 'The One', special, saving the world from an unknown but all powerful threat only you can master. It's like they have one story and just roll a dice to fill in the names. "The Breach", please...

[Ingmar]

They can't win - when the story of DA2 *wasn't* about some awesome character saving the world, people complained about that too.

[eldaec]

Yeah, but different people. And fuck those guys.

The trailer made me think 'this the plot from ES:Oblivion'. Which was off putting as I didn't like Oblivion.

[Paelos]

They can't win - when the story of DA2 *wasn't* about some awesome character saving the world, people complained about that too.

If that was the only issue, it wouldn't have been a huge problem. The game had many other problems.

[Phildo]

I liked the idea of the story behind two well enough, but it was a tough sell as a sequel to a very different sort of story.  It's jarring going from a nation-spanning epic to following what's supposed to be a very personal journey set within a single city.

[Paelos]

I liked being a Grey Warden.

[Fabricated]

Dragon Age Origins was really good IMO but it suffered from the same problem as Mass Effect in that literally everything you did that wasn't about the main conflict was more interesting than the main conflict.

Like the one time I was engaged by the SpaceCthulu shit was when you talked to Sovereign. The rest of the stuff I loved were basically smaller arcs and character arcs.

Same with Dragon Age; The individual areas and their story arcs were cool but the notorcs from notmordor were the least interesting/engaging thing in the game.

[Nonentity]

Dragon Age Origins was really good IMO but it suffered from the same problem as Mass Effect in that literally everything you did that wasn't about the main conflict was more interesting than the main conflict.

Like the one time I was engaged by the SpaceCthulu shit was when you talked to Sovereign. The rest of the stuff I loved were basically smaller arcs and character arcs.

Same with Dragon Age; The individual areas and their story arcs were cool but the notorcs from notmordor were the least interesting/engaging thing in the game.

This is my main problem with most BioWare games - their universes and setting and backstory tend to be more interesting than anything the main plot could throw at me.

That all being said - I haven't heard a peep about the rumored multiplayer for DA:I. If it's anything like Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, which I played considerably more than the main game, I will be overjoyed.

[Phildo]

That's a good point.  Probably my favorite story aspect in Dragon Age II were the Enigma of Kirkwall journal entries.  It hinted at some pretty interesting things that the game never actually explores.

[Ingmar]

IIRC if you do some dot connecting there are tie-ins to that stuff in a few of the side quests. I know the one with the evil tomes in Act 2 is related. Also that stuff is there partly to explain why Kirkwall seems to be such a hellmouth of blood magic and demons and such.