Dragon Age gameplay footage

[Shoelip]

Volourn is the RPGCodex official mascot and so is unfortunately unbanishable.

I personally always thought it was stupid that in BG your MCs death meant auto end of the game even if you were surrounded by perfectly healthy and steadfastly loyal allies who'd raise you without a second thought. Hell, Arrie was in love with my character and she had raise dead on her spell list. I mean, after all the shit I went through to save her after she got turned into a fucking vampire slave she sure as fuck better be willing to cast a fifth level spell on me! They don't even cost anything in BG2!

I also thought it was pretty stupid that even though you had a spell like raise dead it could only be used on party members. The only game I know that didn't have that arbitrary limitation was ToEE, though they didn't actually make any use of that.

Er, actually I remember resurrecting some people who weren't in my party in Arcanum. Just how many people could you do that to and how many times did that actually matter? I'm pretty sure I distinctly remember being unable to do it to the crash victims when I cheated.

 

[racofer]

Holy shit, this game will stink as bad as FO3. Stupid "next-gen" faggots.

 

[Keender_surprise]

IMO, the problem with party member deaths is that it encourages a player to reload and replay a particular battle even though victory was possible with just one or two of the party members remaining. Particularly in RPGs (where you've probably spent a great deal of time building and outfitting the party member), it is almost inconceivable that players would simply move on and allow him/her to remain dead. So although not the most realistic, the system is likely to be less frustrating for a game that might stretch for dozens of hours.

 

[spacemoose]

moral environment of the witcher, TOEE combat, PST caliber characters, age of decadence C&C, environment interaction of ultima underworld, by your powers combined, I am the perfect game

 

[aboyd]

I personally always thought it was stupid that in BG your MCs death meant auto end of the game even if you were surrounded by perfectly healthy and steadfastly loyal allies who'd raise you without a second thought. Hell, Arrie was in love with my character and she had raise dead on her spell list. I mean, after all the shit I went through to save her after she got turned into a fucking vampire slave she sure as fuck better be willing to cast a fifth level spell on me! They don't even cost anything in BG2!

QFT

 

[Darth Roxor]

There are two things I really like about this video: the first is that you can counter enviromental effects with spells, and the second was the finishing move on that giant bad guy - take notes Bethesda, that's how you make something bloody without looking stupid.

 

[burrie]

The same footage is also available at gametrailers. That site generally loads faster for me.

 

[Shoelip]

She seems stupid but she could just be a typical scatterbrained nerd.

 

[Mareus]

IMO, the problem with party member deaths is that it encourages a player to reload and replay a particular battle even though victory was possible with just one or two of the party members remaining. Particularly in RPGs (where you've probably spent a great deal of time building and outfitting the party member), it is almost inconceivable that players would simply move on and allow him/her to remain dead. So although not the most realistic, the system is likely to be less frustrating for a game that might stretch for dozens of hours.

Indeed, but doesn't the resurrect skill solve that problem? You can continue without loading and yet get the party member back. They could just add that none of your party members can be permanently killed like in BG. Besides, the perfectionists are going to load even if they spend 2 potions instead of 1, so the "unkillable party members" really does not make any sense to me. Not even on the easy setting.

 

[burrie]

I like the "Get up, but with penalties" setup. It worked well for Betrayal at Krondor to make certain that characters were around to keep the story flowing AND made being downed during combat a big, but not game-breaking, deal.[/url]

 

[aboyd]

Looks like RTwP as in BG.

Please tell me they have auto-pause options like in BG 2. That game had tons of criteria for pausing. I loved that. Character spots enemy? Pause. Character's weapon is used/dropped/broken? Pause. Spell cast? Pause. 30% life left? Pause.

I need those. I'm not twitchy, I cannot react as fast as others.

 

[yarpen]

Holy shit, this game will stink as bad as FO3. Stupid "next-gen" faggots.

What "stupid next-gen" features have you noticed there exactly?
Looking good to me.
[Edit] OK, perhaps my sarcasm detector sucks.

 

[spacemoose]

it is sarcasm towards the codex I think

 

[Pegultagol]

The animations do seem a bit weird. Probably owing to the fact the game is not optimized or the machine running it is not the top of the line machine showing off all the eye candy with aplomb. I am sure they could emulate some blocking animations and the like. The coup de grace move like God of War button sequence minigame seems pretty cool, wonder what it would be for mages?

I understand where Bioware is coming from saying that this game will be the next spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. About the consequence of death, I think it is alright the way it is, I think in terms of gameplay it is a fair if not unrealistic system. Your fallen party members may still be inflicted after the battle, whereas the tradeoff is if your main character dies, the game is likely over. The ideal solution for me would be a state where your members are incapacitated, or permanently killed depending on how devastating the last strike taking their health to certain negative threshold, with the same conditions applying to you and wards to prevent such critical results. I just hope you would not recover every drop of HP and MP by resting.

I am kinda excited about Dragon Age, I hope Bioware is given plenty of time to take some departures from their conventional RPG mechanics. Like a more interactive and physics driven world and puzzles (like multiple heights within a single level, breakable walls, synergy between character attacks, etc.), although from the looks of it I am not holding my breath.

 

[fastpunk]

Looks alright. More importantly, it looks fun to play. But other than that, it's like some sort of NWN with a serious tech update.

 

[MetalCraze]

Lack of interactions and physics in Bioware's worlds aren't their main problem.
The generic saving of the world/silly romances/recycled bland npcs are.
I can live with any poor made combat of Bio if only they would've invested more into the actual RPG aspect with fluff like C&C and non-generic world design.

 

[Shoelip]

The animations do seem a bit weird. Probably owing to the fact the game is not optimized or the machine running it is not the top of the line machine showing off all the eye candy with aplomb. I am sure they could emulate some blocking animations and the like. The coup de grace move like God of War button sequence minigame seems pretty cool, wonder what it would be for mages?

I understand where Bioware is coming from saying that this game will be the next spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. About the consequence of death, I think it is alright the way it is, I think in terms of gameplay it is a fair if not unrealistic system. Your fallen party members may still be inflicted after the battle, whereas the tradeoff is if your main character dies, the game is likely over. The ideal solution for me would be a state where your members are incapacitated, or permanently killed depending on how devastating the last strike taking their health to certain negative threshold, with the same conditions applying to you and wards to prevent such critical results. I just hope you would not recover every drop of HP and MP by resting.

I am kinda excited about Dragon Age, I hope Bioware is given plenty of time to take some departures from their conventional RPG mechanics. Like a more interactive and physics driven world and puzzles (like multiple heights within a single level, breakable walls, synergy between character attacks, etc.), although from the looks of it I am not holding my breath.

No! Keep your Dragon's Lair out of RPGs! I mean the game, not an actual dragon's lair, which is fine in RPGs as long as it's done well.

Also, aren't character attack synergies kind of JRPGish? Not that I personally have a problem with that.

Lack of interactions and physics in Bioware's worlds aren't their main problem.
The generic saving of the world/silly romances/recycled bland npcs are.
I can live with any poor made combat of Bio if only they would've invested more into the actual RPG aspect with fluff like C&C and non-generic world design.

Well, interesting and intelligent gameplay wouldn't hurt either

 

[Pegultagol]

I agree Bioware RPG designs seem to skimp on choices and consequences but they did have gems of what they can do in many side missions across their games. I wonder how the purported mature and darker themes would present themselves; certainly not only in disabling parental violence lock or lowering the cleavage on attire for women. I've read here that a designer fretting over how much dialogue he'd committed to the canine character or something. If the kind care in dialogue depth is extended over the rest of the game, although it is nothing to really go by, I can be cautiously optimistic about the RPG aspect of the game. Of course it could go the other way around but I hope to see some surprises along the way.

 

[bezimek]

I like the "Get up, but with penalties" setup. It worked well for Betrayal at Krondor to make certain that characters were around to keep the story flowing AND made being downed during combat a big, but not game-breaking, deal.[/url]

Yes, it works very good in BiK so it will work in DA. IMHO DA looks like BG 1/2 only in full 3D, combat is RTwP and ... I like it

 

[Naked Ninja]

Looks pretty good, I'll be watching this closely.

Also : magic spells interacting like that? Hell yes.

 

[AzraelCC]

Well, is it confirmed that there would be resurrect or raise dead spells in the game? If they are going for the dark gritty atmosphere, I think it would be better to remove those spells. After all, this is no longer a D&D game. Then the afflictions after an NPC falls would be a great mechanic.

I like the demo so far, especially if each big boss would have a "god of war" finish (minus the simon says mechanic of course). Too early to say if the writing would be good, but saying that a lot of people who worked on Baldur's Gate would also be working on this gives me some hope.

I think at this point, we should be glad that an isometric option is even in place. It'll be a pleasant change to have the Codex talk about the merits of a recent game, rather than being nostalgic all the time.

 

[Shoelip]

I doubt there's any traditional raise dead spell in the game considering that there's currently no permanent death of party members at all except perhaps as a plot point.

 

[Mareus]

Well than I atleast hope those death penalties will really have an effect on the character and that it doesn't disappear after a good night of sleep. What I would like to see is some stat penalties which can gradualy get back to normal. Some potions or bandages could restore a part of the stat, but the rest would have to heal naturaly with time.

 

[Shoelip]

Well than I atleast hope those death penalties will really have an effect on the character and that it doesn't disappear after a good night of sleep. What I would like to see is some stat penalties which can gradualy get back to normal. Some potions or bandages could restore a part of the stat, but the rest would have to heal naturaly with time.

Don't count on that. The time factor would be a major complaint for mainstream gamers. They need to appeal to them at least somewhat.

 

[Suicidal]

Things I hope this game will have:

• Challenging combat encounters.
  No pointless filler combat.
  A difficulty level with permanent injuries and limited game saving.
  At least some choices & consequences.
  At least a semi-interesting story.
  At least semi-interesting characters.
  No motherfucking DRM.

If most of the things on the list are present I'm sold.