Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

My memory of the game is not flawed at all. The UI was never designed to tell people how much damage (in raw number form) an ability like Shield Bash does. But it does say "Increased damage" or "Chance for critical hit." So to me, that was perfectly explanatory. It was as clear as BGII, imo, with the possible exception of seeing attack rolls. But the interface gave you as much information as most CRPGs give you.

 

It is okay in the right dose. I have a feeling that PoE is going to get the balance just right for me.

 

I actually remember the 2009 RPG of the year discussion. It was pretty obvious from the get-go that DAO was going to win, despite the lukewarm reception it had here:

Of those choices, DAO had the luxury of being 1) decent enough to be memorable and 2) a major release. The RPG of the year vote is really more of a popularity contest than anything.

I've given DAO plenty of opportunities to impress me. I even beat it twice, thinking maybe my opinion during my first playthrough was colored by a bug that made every area take about 5 minutes to load. Nope. It's just not a very good game. It had good ideas, certainly, and good use of C&C in places, but that doesn't forgive its numerous problems. Side quest design was lazy, combat was atrocious, the story doesn't hold up at all to critical analysis, few of the characters are likable...I could go on. It's not a very good RPG, and even in the wasteland of 2009 I still wasn't that impressed by it.

 

In all fairness, I do agree that winning the honours in 2009 wasn't a super accomplishment. The point is that if you go by what some members say, you'd think that DA:O was absolutely terrible for a number of sins, especially being RTwP. By all such rights, it shouldn't have beat Knights of the Chalice. That citation in VD's review sums it all up quite nicely.

So if you do like what DA:O does well, then you'll like it and that doesn't make you a tasteless fool. I'd go so far as to say that DA:O had the makings of a great game if only a handful of its most key issues were fixed. I'd have been more than happy if only BioWare had turned its gaze to a more interesting part of their own setting, namely Seheron and Tevinter, and encounter design was improved. But then DA2 happened.

I'd go so far as to say that there were others like me as far as 2009 - the makings of the 2011-2012 generation of biodrone refugees was already there.

 

No, not a hivemind. It just cleverly simulates one sometimes.

 

The only reason I can imagine Dragon Age: Origins beat Mysteries of Westgate is that most people didn't play it.

 

I disagree.

 

It can be difficult to see differences of opinion through the fog of "King Troika" and "Bioware is shit."

You have to dig beneath the surface.

Anyway yeah, I imagine the fact Mysteries of Westgate came years late and used the NWN2 engine limited its reception among the Codex.

 

I haven't played Mysteries of Westgate, but I'm told that its riddled with fake C&C and bugs.

Further, yes of course you have to dig beneath the surface. But not that much, no one praise the entirety of TOEE and Arcanum. Not to mention that BG2 and DA:O exist.

 

Yeah, that quote is pretty much spot-on. It's a priorities game on some level, you forgive flaws in areas of the game that are of lesser priority to you.

 

Just preordered both this and Shadow of Mordor. No regrets D1P forever.

 

I hope you preordered the Digital Deluxe Edition for the Armored Mount.

 

I didn't think I had to specify.

 

JES says that PoE is a huge game. I'm sure DAI is going to have some wide open maps but I dunno, it's a next-gen game on a brand new engine with a bunch of new higher-quality art assets with cinematics and such, and that tends to reduce scope.

I spent over 80 hours in DA:O, 60 in DA2. KOTOR took me about 50 I think.

 

You must have found something to entertain yourself with then, because I've beaten DA2 with all the DLC and nearly all the content complete in <30 hours.

Granted, I had played through it before.

 

DA2 is an easy sub-20 hours, I guess I could see 40 hours if you played on Nightmare and fought some of the bosses more than a couple times (the dragon at the end of the game at the highest difficulty has enough life that it will take you between 30 and 45 minutes to kill him with a normal team, because yeah why not said BioWare). DA:O... maybe if you count awakening in there but half of the dungeons can be beat very rapidly (the same with DA2) because there's almost no branching or exploration.

 

It depends, if you listen rather than quickly click through all the dialog choices, talk to everyone and turn off auto run every once in a while (I tend to turn off running completely in all RPG's, jogging everywhere is just something I can't stand, biggest immersion breaking crap ever). Then you can hit 35 hours pretty easy in DA 2.

 

But I don't see how anyone could listen to the dialog without clenching their buttocks so hard their asshole gets permanently fused shut (which on reflection may actually be a blessing in disguise, since the dialog choices more often than not lead to someone attempting to gain entry through it).

 

Game-length is subjective http://www.howlongtobeat.com/game.php?id=2756

 

Wait. Is this still party combat? It looks very Witcherfied...

This is definitely running on the frostbite engine - very close to Battlefield in look.

 

Not really. In general first playthroughs tend to be comparable in time, while completionist runs ppl do given they liked their previous one(s).

 

Please do enact it IRL. Maybe then someone will shoot your stupid ass and we won't be needing to have this discussion any more.

 

Nah, even a normal playthrough can vary wildly in time from one person to the next. Some people stop and smell the roses, some do not.

 

"ITT Gaider continues the long Biowarian tradition of being a cunt to the people that pay his wages.

And they will continue to love him for it."

\EA pays his salary so don't lie.


"This doesn't say anything. DA:O was a large game full of repetition."

All games are. There is not a single exception.


"The only reason I can imagine Dragon Age: Origins beat Mysteries of Westgate is that most people didn't play it."

Actually, it is simply better.


"DA2 is an easy sub-20 hours,"

nO.

 

Bugs not really as for fake C&C not more then any other Bioware game, still It had decent story, characters and quests, shit load of dialog checks, it was pretty long and offered multiple playthroughs so it was well worth its price tag, all that made it better then pretty much everything Bioware did after BG2.

Also Geneforge 5 should have won best game award that years, but yeah very few people played most of the games nominated for the game of the year beside Dragon Age.