Saving Dragon Age 3: A Simple Solution

Stew Shearer from gamrFeed: "A few months before Dragon Age 2 was released I had the opportunity to interview Mike Laidlaw for an article I was writing at the time. It was an amicable chat and while I'm certain that at least some of his responses were colored by PR speak, I still walked away with the impression of a man enthusiastic about his work."

[jsslifelike]

It'd be no surprise if someone slipped and said that EA's harsh timetables clipped DA2, thus sterilizing it a bit. What's on the disc is forever; make sure it's great BEFORE it gets pressed.

[NewMonday]

1-have more than one guy design the maps
2-full party customization
3-choices should change major events , many times encounters end in a fight no matter the choice(and the thing with the mother is another example), the game just felt very liner

[Theo1130]

Jesslifelike, my thoughts exactly.

[despair]

In all fairness, the thing with the mother was intentionally done as it was by the devs. They said too often people play these game types with the mindset that they can solve everything with a good ending/proper ending, so they threw that one in there to show the other side, and threaten the safety players feel in these games.

They also got many messages and inquiries on how to complete it with a good ending from many people(like myself) who reloaded and tried something different hoping for an alternative, showing exactly how we think when playing these games.

I thought it was something of a highlight in contrast to the mostly disappointing game.

EDIT: To emphasize what is also said above...definitely play Witcher 2.

[evrfighter1]

"the thing with the mother was intentionally done as it was by the devs. They said too often people play these game types with the mindset that they can solve everything with a good ending/proper ending,"

the problem is their customers are saying it was a rushed game.

who's right?

[reznik_zerosum]

just let CD Project Red to do DA3 ;) and pay them like gazillionnn $

[jeseth]

While I respect everypne's opinions and was skeptical in the early stages of the game. . . I wound up really loving DA2.

It takes place in a completely different area from the first game and I had no problem with the game mostly taking place within the confines of one giant city. The story and side stories were really good, andsome of the choices you made had far more severe consequences than they originally appeared to present (my sister died my first playthrough and I was pissed. Magical and Melee powers were more impressive and exciting. Etc.

The bottom line is that by itself DA2 is a great game, I also ike origins more but after letting it set in I really liked the different locale and the way the viewed the blight, etc. It just give you, the player, more perspective and a different take on Origins while being immersed in a different atmosphere.

I think this gen has created too many critics and that sometimes people forget game are meant to be entertainment. DA2 was really good and . . . sorry for the rant.

Happy Memorial Day and thanks to all our Veterans and Troops for the hard work they are doing and have done!

[dc1]

One aspect of improvement and self evaluation is measurement.

And there is no better bar to measure yourself against (As an RPG developer) than CDP RED's 'The Withcer 2'

To put it short. I would spoil myself if Bioware turn out a ‘DA3’ title on the level of Witcher 2. For now.. I'm closing in on 100hr on the Wither2, looking forward to Skyrim and have my fingers crossed for DA3.

[Kee]

Yeah, they need more time.

[NYC_Gamer]

i have no plans to support this franchise part 2 just ruined everything for me

[Falaut]

exactly, words are meaningless, its when your wallet decides, that's when they take notice.

As much as I hate to say it, my opinion is that Bioware is to blame for this, much less the publisher EA.

Like I said in one of my previous posts, Bioware of old is gone, replaced with a "publisher" minded dev.

[Xof]

To be fair, the biggest problem was the short development time. Had DA2 had larger, more varied environments (re: the time to build those environments) it would have been a much, much better game.

If you remove the monotonous level design, the biggest problem with DA2 was the... slackshod storytelling (re: mages are always, ALWAYS, evil monsters).

[jsslifelike]

I don't think we should NOT support BioWare(as they pretty much craft the best WRPGs on the market), but that doesn't mean we should be silent on the matter either. IF it can be made known on a widespread basis that the game did indeed have it's shortcomings, then maybe that makes it into the next design doc, if not the final product.

And, let's not kid ourselves- BioWare knew full well what the product was when it left the facility; they were probably just helpless to stop it.

[Xof]

...The simple fact of the matter is that the WRPG is a dying genre. Bioware is pretty much the ~only~ developer making playable WRPGs these days. If we don't buy their games, we don't buy WRPG period.

It's either that, or suffer through awful Oblivion-type games.

[shadowknight203]

regardless I'd rather support an RPG franchise then support more FPS franchises. Especially being that DA is a non japanese RPG brand, something kinda few and far between now a days. I'm not saying JRPG's are bad, simply, they are more fairly common.

[NYC_Gamer]

i'm not going to spend my cash on half finished rushed products regardless of the amount of wrpgs available

[HacSawJimThugin]

I agree...they need to take some time off of Dragon Age and give us a new Jade Empire. That was a dope game.

[Jacks_Medulla]

Hire CD Projekt Red(The Witcher).

[outwar6010]

forget dragon age happened or count it as an extension of the game universe and do another dragon age but mass effect peoples choices etc let people find out what happened to morrigans baby etc

[Kee]

Man, people need to get over this game. It was a good game.

Granted, if they had more time to work with, the game could've been rid of the recycled environments which really annoyed me.

Obviously they did this to go with the story (I liked the story, by the way), but it would've been nicer to explore a continent like in DA:O.

Other than that, I think the game played out perfectly. I'm not one of these sticklers who say "Aww it's been dumbed down" because it hasn't.
The tactical element from origins was still there so you still had to think about some of the tougher battles.
The "Button mashing" as it is called really isn't button mashing.
It's like saying final fantasy has been dumbed down when you could pretty much go through one of the games using the 'attack' command if you grind for long enough (No diss, I like FF).
In DA:O you pressed the attack button, lets say X (or A) and pointed at a monster, your character would go and attack that monster until it's dead or you tell him to do something else.
The only thing that's changed is the fact that you need to press it every time you want to attack.
The swinging of a sword is not perpetual motion. In real life you would have to decide when to swing it every time you wanted to. You couldn't just swing it once then it would just keep swinging by it's own accord so it is a realistic change that some people think makes the game "dumb".

As for the equipment thing (about the not being able to customise your party's gear) I was a little bit pissed at that but it makes sense. If some guy (Be it your friend or not) told you to take off your clothes and change into a big suit of armour you'd tell him where he can shove it, wouldn't you? It is emphasising that the characters can do whatever they want.

Anyway, stop hating.

[Frak]

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