Dragon Age: Inquisition Pre-Release Thread

[Infinitron]

Isabella is a hot-headed pirate slut. Triss is a cool, calculating sorceress who manipulates the affairs of entire kingdoms from behind the scenes.

 

[Harold]

Isabella is a hot-headed pirate slut. Triss is a cool, calculating sorceress who manipulates the affairs of entire kingdoms from behind the scenes.

The topic was facial animations

 

[Infinitron]

Isabella is a hot-headed pirate slut. Triss is a cool, calculating sorceress who manipulates the affairs of entire kingdoms from behind the scenes.

The topic was facial animations

Cool, calculating people tend to keep a straight face.

 

[Tytus]

Isabella is a hot-headed pirate slut. Triss is a cool, calculating sorceress who manipulates the affairs of entire kingdoms from behind the scenes.

The topic was facial animations

Cool, calculating people tend to keep a straight face.

Also you get to see her naked

 

[Harold]

Cool, calculating people tend to keep a straight face.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Bioware indeed puts shitload of effort into cinematic stuff like facial animations. That's why they have to cut writing budged and hire free slash fiction girls labor.

Know your audience. Know your priorities.

 

[Jick Magger]

Bioware's always been fairly competent when it comes to party interactions and banter, though. It's one of the few compliments I find myself giving them these days.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Bioware indeed puts shitload of effort into cinematic stuff like facial animations.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Name one non-bioware "cRPG" with bigger focus on the cinematic emotionally engaging experience BS than, let's say, Mass Effect.

 

[Roguey]

But they do. Bioware games use FaceFX just like a bunch of other titles, but theirs look better than average because they devote more resources to it. A few developers devote even more, but they're not making games with reactive dialogues.

 

[sea]

And yet Bioware devs earlier said this:

Funny how PC-focused developers seem to have no trouble whatsoever.

 

[Tytus]

And yet Bioware devs earlier said this:

Funny how PC-focused developers seem to have no trouble whatsoever.

Because PCs don't create artificial problems like Consoles do. For example Bioware now faces a problem when they don't know how to transfer saves from DAO and DA2 onto next gen consoles. A problem that would have been non existant if the game was PC-focused.

 

[SuicideBunny]

Compared to CD Projekt's and a lot of other games? Yes. Those screens speak for themselves.

all those screens are saying to me is that bioware exaggerates facial animations to the point of absurdity.

 

[sea]

Because PCs don't create artificial problems like Consoles do. For example Bioware now faces a problem when they don't know how to transfer saves from DAO and DA2 onto next gen consoles. A problem that would have been non existant if the game was PC-focused.

Uh, why? Pretty sure that exact save data formatting is not something that console makers mandate you follow (though there are probably stability and safety requirements). And what prevents you from including a program in your game that will interpret relevant save data without treating the file as a literal save game?

 

[Rahdulan]

And yet Bioware devs earlier said this:

Funny how PC-focused developers seem to have no trouble whatsoever.

It's almost definitely related to budgets and game scope. Reason why Bioware got in bed with Microsoft and later EA was to get bigger budgets, considering that PC port of ME1 would have probably never happened if it wasn't for Microsoft, in order to create what they perceive as grander games and get bigger payoffs in the end thanks to ever-present marketing. This meant penetrating into the console market and adjusting your games accordingly. Problem is that simply throwing money at your game won't miraculously fix its problem, especially when your publisher starts tightening the coin purse when games begin to flop. PC-centric developers avoid these problems probably because they know their target audience better as opposed to watering down and homogenizing their games in order to reach the elusive WIDE audience. Not to mention they don't need millions of copies sold to get their investment back.

But then again it could simply boil down to a simple fact that good games sell and smart developers build got rapport with their audience that pays off later down the road. CDPR comes to mind, whatever people may think about their games.

 

[Grunker]

all those screens are saying to me is that bioware exaggerates facial animations to the point of absurdity.

This.

 

[sea]

It's almost definitely related to budgets and game scope. Reason why Bioware got in bed with Microsoft and later EA was to get bigger budgets

I thought it was their parent company that sold them and they had no real say in the matter?

 

[Tytus]

Because PCs don't create artificial problems like Consoles do. For example Bioware now faces a problem when they don't know how to transfer saves from DAO and DA2 onto next gen consoles. A problem that would have been non existant if the game was PC-focused.

Uh, why? Pretty sure that exact save data formatting is not something that console makers mandate you follow (though there are probably stability and safety requirements). And what prevents you from including a program in your game that will interpret relevant save data without treating the file as a literal save game?

I don't remember what they said. But it had something to do with the Frostbite 2 engine, EA forced on them. So probably they will be dropping the save transfer function.

 

[sea]

How is reading data from a particular file engine-exclusive? I mean, they already know how their save file format works and how its data is structured, surely it's not extremely difficult to get the new engine to interpret that data? It's all just bunches of binary variables (player did X, did not do Y, etc.). Sounds to me more like they are trying to justify less work, than they "can't do it" period.

 

[Infinitron]

Engines got nothing to do with it. Witcher 1 and Witcher 2 use radically different engines.

 

[racofer]

You guys are getting it all wrong. They will cling on this technowizardry bullshit as an easy getaway.

This way, they can assume whatever backstory and outcomes from the previous games as canon and start fresh at DA3. No multiple paths, less plotholes, less work, more lazyness, more money saved for teh graphix.

 

[tuluse]

I think I've just been trolled. People think Bioware's facial animations are good?

Compared to CD Projekt's and a lot of other games? Yes. Those screens speak for themselves.

Not really, they're troll screen shots.

 

[Lagole Gon]

Compared to CD Projekt's and a lot of other games? Yes. Those screens speak for themselves.

all those screens are saying to me is that bioware exaggerates facial animations to the point of absurdity.

Well, duh.
They are aiming for animu after all. Come to think of it, in more ways than one.
Cartoony style, linear plot, gameplay and story separation...
And Greg was making fun of japs not so long ago

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Name one non-bioware "cRPG" with bigger focus on the cinematic emotionally engaging experience BS than, let's say, Mass Effect.

Anachronox. Sly Boots Quake 2 sad->neutral->happy mouth animation is more effectively cinematic and emotionally engaging than anything you've seen in Dragon Age 2 OR Tea Witch E.R. 2.

 

[DalekFlay]

I especially loved the epic character interaction in DA2, when a girl does blood magic right in front of me and my moral crusader can only say "that's naughty but thanks" as his "angry" reply. Or when Anders can be so obviously up to no good but I have to help him anyway 'cause hey plot. Or when I can spend 50 hours helping the mages and win, only to have their boss turn into a crazy demon anyway and attack his own people because... who the fuck knows why.

Epic character interaction.