100°

1UP: Dragon Age 2 Afterthoughts

The lead designer for Dragon Age 2 discusses story beats, development decisions, the future of RPGs, and yes, those recycled dungeons.

Tex1174937d ago

Careful with the spoliers in that artcile.

He would say he would have changed the way they recyled enviroments....Yeah...no kidding. That made the game feel clastraphobic. Not good for a high fantasy RPG.

Other than that...Im still getting a kick out of the game.

Christopher4937d ago

Actually, his wording was he would use them "more artfully" which doesn't translate to not using repeated dungeons. Sounds like they would have just put more time into putting in some more differences that would make them look less repetitive, but they would still use the core dungeon outlines.

Good interview overall, and I completely get what they mean with maintaining an identity with companion armor sets, but I think there were room for some other design decision questions (when are console gamers getting auto-attack? Why the decision to limit weapons by class and force warriors/rogues to stick to just one set?)

Tex1174937d ago

I agree with you, he did use the words "more artfully," but I also didn't say that they regretted using repetitive enviroments...I just said changed the way they recyled enviroments.

Of all the things to beetch about in this game...that is easily number one. I have no problem with experimenting with a framed narrative and a more personal story, but if a developer is going to do that, they need to make the enviroments in particulary interesting to make up for the lack of "epicness."

It was a rush job, and everybody knows it. If you look at it like that...They actually did do a pretty good job.

undercovrr4937d ago

I think the whole answer about the recycled dungeon was just him trying to avoid the real answer - which is time constraint and probably just overall lazyness.

20°

Eternal Strands Developer Deep Dive - Future Games Show Summer Showcase 2024

Mike Laidlaw and Fred St-Laurent from Yellow Brick Games dropped by the Summer Showcase to provide a deeper dive into Eternal Strands, the studio’s physics-b...

70°

EA Made Dragon Age and Mass Effect DLC Free On PC By Retiring The BioWare Points System

Immersed Gamer writes: "In order to replace the oppressive BioWare Points system, EA is making a large portion of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age DLC catalogs free for PC users.

For those of you blissfully unaware, EA and BioWare employed a payment system called BioWare Points on PC to pay for DLCs for titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. While PC gamers have been struggling with BioWare point’s unfair conversion rates and extremely scarce and cost-detrimental sales.

Console players have been allowed to purchase content in pieces through the appropriate Sony and Microsoft shops. For real money, and not BioWare monopoly bucks. In turn, console players missed out on some DLC content, such as Mass Effect 2 pre-order bonuses that have been repackaged into a DLC pack."

Read Full Story >>
immersedgamer.com
TinkerNation800d ago

Great response to Ubisoft and their disgusting behavior. Ubisoft decide to take away DLC from people who paid for it, while EA give it for free to everyone when they realize their system sucks. Who would have thought that EA of all companies would be showing Ubisoft how it should be done (even if this is EA fixing their own mistakes as well).

Mobis-New-Nest800d ago

What goes around comes around and I promise you, Ubisoft will see their actions blow back on them when their diminishing sales numbers and stock taking a hit downward. That's the only way a company learns when they decide to be reactive instead of proactive.

160°

All BioWare Games Ranked from Worst to Best

BLG writes: "There was a time that BioWare games were the biggest deal in gaming. The Canadian developer’s legacy of all-time classics is well known. Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur’s Gate are some of the biggest names in gaming.

While BioWare’s quality has fallen off lately, there’s no denying the quality of titles in their portfolio. That’s why we’re going to dive in and rank every BioWare game from worst to best. By every, I do mean every BioWare game, even the ones you completely forgot about!"

Read Full Story >>
bosslevelgamer.com
Orbilator959d ago

Ranked from worse to even more worse more like, they been on free fall for a fair few years now and I personally don't think any of there earlier games have aged well

autobotdan959d ago

Wow to think at one point in their history they made a Sonic the Hedgehog game..crazy

chicken_in_the_corn959d ago

Anthem is crazy underrated. I really enjoyed it. ME1 is Bioware's best imo

959d ago Replies(1)
Michiel1989959d ago

I actually put quite a bit of hours into Anthem but i dont think its underrated. It was a huge mess, server issues, gameplay issues, crashes, no endgame loop, too few different enemies, uninteresting gear. too few dungeons.

It for sure had potential and if they could have managed to keep the same gameplay of the classes but without the rest of the issues, this game could have been huge, but in the state in which it launched it was such a letdown. They partly fixed some of the issues, but it took too long. A grinding game like this needs to hook players from day 1.