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Preview IGN Propagates The Dragon Age Hype Blitz

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Tags: BioWare; Dragon Age

As a follow up to the Red Cliffs gameplay footage, IGN has put out a <a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/967/967555p1.html">preview of Dragon Age</a>, highlighting some combat mechanics and tactics as well as having some very empty words about the Codex's favorite now adopted into a hype piece.<blockquote>A seductive sorceress named Morrigan, for instance, and a gigantic armored warrior named Sten who were following you around don't think helping out Redcliff is a good idea. They say so during the actual dialogue sequence, with the camera angle switching focus over to them as they deliver their lines expressing their discontent. It seems many conversations will play out in this way in Dragon Age. If somebody doesn't like what's going on, they'll usually pipe up immediately, putting pressure on you to change your mind.
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[...]
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The general attitudes of your companions aren't just for looks or making NPC interaction more interesting. Thanks to an approval rating system, you'll have a general idea of how your party members feel about your actions. After any conversation where you make some decision any followers might find agreeable or annoying, you'll see alignment shift notifications pop up onscreen after the sequence is over. These you'll have to pay attention to, as boosting the approval of your friends will, according to BioWare, allow for some better performance during battle, allow you to learn more about the characters, and in some cases unlock extra quests. If your approval rating with someone happens to plummet, there's a chance they'll leave the party outright or, if it's bad enough, turn on you and fight. There'll be warnings if your choices are going to have severely detrimental effects on the party, so party member departures won't be a total surprise.
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</blockquote>Boring stereotypes bad. BG2 style interactive party good (though some examples would be nice).<blockquote>During battle the types of spells and attacks you unleash can work in conjunction with one another to become more effective. For instance, if you set up a fire trap and earthquake spell in the same place, the ground will shake at it catches on fire and burns for a period of time. Then if you set your warrior, Sten, to resist fire and never get knocked down, accomplished through the use of special abilities, he can walk into the affected zone and beat on whatever attackers happen to enter the area that aren't fatally burned or damaged by the shaking ground.
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[...]
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Morrigan can blast forth a cone of cold spell that freezes anything within its area of effect, which has its benefits and drawbacks. The obvious positive effect is it incapacitates what it touches, and if you combine that with a Stone Fist spell you can shatter the target, killing it outright without having to hack away at its life bar. The downside is, assuming you've cranked up the difficulty to a reasonable level, you'll have to be conscious of friendly fire. Freezing and shattering your followers isn't exactly the best idea.</blockquote>The bold return of environmental interaction, or just BioShock style gimmicks a la zap and whack?<blockquote>but as far as the role of player choice goes, it seems you don't have to help out the town of Redcliff. If you wanted, you could pass right on by, which would have some kind of effect later on. It seems these types of choices that impact how the world develops will have to be made regularly throughout the game.</blockquote>How vague and uninformative. Examples might be nice, like the Witcher hype. For all we know, it could just be some cosmetic changes or a bonus weapon or two.
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Thanks <b>Kthan75</b>
 

Volourn

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Your accusationj of IGN is hialrious considering the Codex is always guilty of hyping games the Codex presumably dislikes.
 

MetalCraze

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Heh it seems Bioware took Obsidian's "influence" system and added dumbed-down retard-friendly crap to it in the XTREME amounts. Good job.

I wonder how much time it will take for casual games developers like Bioware to actually give you messages a la "warning! The next enemy shot may kill you, do you want to proceed anyway or let us teleport you 3 seconds back in time?" so your mistake biting you in the ass won't be a total suprise.
 

Volourn

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Oh, please. BIO has been using the so called influence system for years. Before Obsidian even existed. So have others. *yawn* All Obsidian 'invonated' was slapping a name on it.
 

MetalCraze

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Volourn said:
Oh, please. BIO has been using the so called influence system for years. Before Obsidian even existed. So have others. *yawn* All Obsidian 'invonated' was slapping a name on it.

It also innovated the dumbed down messages telling you if you got an influence boost or not, as well as making something dependable on the influence system that is more than "oh I love you too PC let's hug!" - like... cooler bonuses like spells that you get from such influence uh oh
 

Turjan

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dragonfk said:
Volourn said:
Oh, please. BIO has been using the so called influence system for years. Before Obsidian even existed.

Examples?
The NPC's in Baldur's Gate 1 did that already. They commented on what you did, and either left or attacked you when you strayed too far away from their goal. But I agree, you could not change their alignment.
 

Thrasher

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I'm losing interest in DA. Cooldown timers, stupid AI, granny combat controls and animation.

I only pray that character development is fantastic, there's lots of C&C, and the story and NPCs are incrediby deep and well crafted.
 

MetalCraze

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Yep - get your rep higher than 17 and evil characters will auto-leave, get your rep below 7 and good characters will start leaving. Nothing to do with your immediate actions and iirc they only commented during rep-shifts.
 

Volourn

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You guys are retarded. And, ignorant. AKA Typical Codexians. :D



"Examples?"

"But I agree, you could not change their alignment"

"Only the NPC's in Baldur's Gate 1 did that already so far."

"Nothing to do with your immediate actions and iirc they only commented during rep-shifts."

Morons.


In TOB, you could influence two npcs to change their alignment. In BG2, you had a great deal of influence on a certain priest's alignment as well. You also had influence over how a particular npc would reatc to his cheating wife.

In HOTU, KOTOR, JE, and ME you could have all sorts of influence on your companions including having them betray people, have them turn their backs on up to and including killing, etc., etc.

But, hey, this is the Codex where ignorance is welcomed because the truth sullies any attempt to be anti BIO.

So, keep lying to yourselves. It's hilarious!

Bottom line is Obsidian did not invent the influence system. All they did was base it on lame mathematics and gave it a catch all name. Games have been dealing with influence for decades even before BIO.

Tsk, tsk.
 

inwoker

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Yeah, right. It was Black Isle who first used influence right in good amounts and it actually mattered in game. The game was called Planescape Torment. But Obsidian Ent. is not Black Isle, oh wait. :)
 

Turjan

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Volourn said:
Morons.


In TOB...
Since when has ToB been BG1?

Anyway, someone told me that you could turn this depressive elven mage Xan to a somewhat more positive outlook in BG1. That might be a false rumor, though. I never had him in my group long enough. Perhaps, I should have a look at the dialogs.
 

sirfink

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skyway said:
Heh it seems Bioware took Obsidian's "influence" system and added dumbed-down retard-friendly crap to it in the XTREME amounts. Good job.

It's not like Obsidian did such a wonderful job with it.

What I hate about it is you basically have to say all the right things in order to get the most power out of your followers. If you really want to role-play, you might end up with weak followers. And choosing the "correct" responses it usually way too easy -- even in MOTB. Tell the druid chick you want to help the poor wounded animal; tell the greedy thief you're just in it for the money; tell the honorable and noble Sir Shoulderpads you will help the old lady cross the street, etc.
 
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sirfink said:
skyway said:
Heh it seems Bioware took Obsidian's "influence" system and added dumbed-down retard-friendly crap to it in the XTREME amounts. Good job.

It's not like Obsidian did such a wonderful job with it.

What I hate about it is you basically have to say all the right things in order to get the most power out of your followers. If you really want to role-play, you might end up with weak followers. And choosing the "correct" responses it usually way too easy -- even in MOTB. Tell the druid chick you want to help the poor wounded animal; tell the greedy thief you're just in it for the money; tell the honorable and noble Sir Shoulderpads you will help the old lady cross the street, etc.

Although in KoToR2 you also got powerups and special dialogues from pissing them off enough. E.g. the wookie gets stat boosts if you treat him so crap it breaks his will and he accepts his role as a slave. Most of the other chars have special dialogues that give parts of the plot, or their backstory/perception, that you only find out by having really low influence with them - at least with the TSLRP applied, I was one of those ones that held off playing the game until after the mod got leaked, so I don't know if that was in there before.

I assumed the same thing might have been true of MotB, didn't check though.
 

Tigranes

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Fucking get over the cock size contest about who did shit before who. Doesn't really matter that much.

The general attitudes of your companions aren't just for looks or making NPC interaction more interesting.

I thought that was the entire point. Do we really need dating sim minigames and combat bonuses (which I didn't like so much in MOTB either) to validate companion dialogues?

Environment usage is nice.
 

Azarkon

Arcane
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Oct 7, 2005
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The more I look at this game, the more I think Bioware is trying to develop NWN 2.5 OC.

Well, we'll see what they come up with.
 

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