Preview Dragon Age preview at ComputerGames.ro

[Volourn]

"but I doubt it will top BG."

It will. Easily. No contest.

BG2, and NWN:TP are different stories, though. They will be tough to beat in overall quality.

 

[Warden]

The Dragons are not gods. The banished mages went underground and started worshiping Dragons, who were in turn banished by the creator for pretending to be gods.

Orly? That makes a world of difference, really.. orly.

D&G said:
http://www.dragonagecentral.com/filtere ... s&mode=and
"They began a search for the Old Gods, essentially. Long before the wizards, people used to worship dragons as deities, but the Maker shackled them under the earth supposedly to sleep for all time. The Darkspawn search for these Old Gods, and when they find them they extend the taint to the dragons."


D&G said:

"In my experience, people tend to dislike "new" names until they begin to associate that name with something tangible."

Ah, that explains why you named the game with generic shit such as "dragon age".

D&G said:

"After all, had I used more fantastical-sounding names are you really going to tell me that you wouldn't then complain about how very fantasy-ish and silly said names would be? I kind of doubt it. "

Sure we would.. Bioware + imagination & originality = x : 0. I.e. nonexistent/impossible. For example, The Forgotten Realms setting has tons of fantasy names.. nations, cities.. and I must tell all sound pretty good and haven't heard people ridiculing them.


D&G said:

"..it's a complicated backstory, though, so I can't really complain much.."

Oh yeah, I'm sure it is ......... complicated for Tommy who has just learned how to tie his shoes.

D&G said:

"..but the origin stories are full chapters that have considerably more influence later down the line."

That's outstanding. So people will be able to play through this linear game of yours.. completing the same areas one after another, in the same order.. but the catch is.. you'll get some different dialogue responses and quest solutions because you're a dwarf worker instead of an elf rebel? Wonderful.

D&G said:

"It's not really indicative of the way most dialogues go in DA.."

Why didn't you choose something more indicative then? Are all indicative dialogues so long that people would fall asleep during the show?
What's with this bullshit: "Don't worry - we have better things but we decided to show something shitty and simplistic, on every expo we attended, that is not indicative of our other dialogues". Bioware marketing trick?


D&G said:

"Not having a good/evil meter as part of the gameplay means that we can avoid inserting the dichotomy into every quest solution.."

Hmm.. and why the hell would you need to insert such a dichotomy into every quest if you have a good/evil meter?

 

[Kingston]

Here we go again!

 

[Annonchinil]

While its not the best back-story/opening I fail to see how it is significantly worse than many other RPGs that people here enjoyed.

 

[Pastel]

While its not the best back-story/opening I fail to see how it is significantly worse than many other RPGs that people here enjoyed.

Such as?

Let's take a look at Mask of the Betrayer:
The evil God of death creates a wall to punish the Faithless, which drains away their identity. Then he tests his favourite servant by killing his lover and putting her soul into the wall. Because that's why badass, Greek-style gods do.
So this guy starts a crusade against the wall, disguising it as a battle of ideology. An epic battle commences, which, gasp, isn't between good and evil.
So the evil god puts his servant into the wall as well, only to remove him after his identity has seeped away, leaving him a ghost that inhabits bodies and devours souls in order to replenish his own lack of identity.

Now, tell me this isn't better than "There were dragons who pretended to be gods and mages rode dragons into the Golden City which became corrupted and became the Dark City and then the Mages became corrupted and dark and the dragons became corrupted and dark and from dragons they became demons and the creator threw them all away because they were corrupted and dark and then the mages went on to live in the dark, and corrupted, underworld, and the dragons became arch-demons who raised armies of pure corruption and darkness."

 

[Volourn]

About equal. Both not super original, both highly fantastical, boyth could have potential for greta story. It worked for MOTB (though that aprt of its story was nowhere near the driving force of the game). Now, it's time to see if it cna work for DA. 8shrug*

L0L @ Warden "My Mother Was Raped By BIO" Buttfuck.


R00fles!

 

[MasterSmithFandango]

Honestly, the quality of a story premise doesn't necessarily equal the quality of the story told. In Fallout you were chosen to go find a broken water chip, stop a bad guy from making a mutant army and eventually eradicating mankind, and in Fallout 2 it wasn't much better. The premise isn't what makes stories good, since every good idea has been thought of before. What's important is the execution. You can make a generic fantasy premise into a fantastic story if you work it right, just like you can take a fantastic premise and make it garbage if you rest on your laurels.

That being said, BioWare's track record isn't the greatest. They seem to put out decent games, but nothing to really write home about (since BG2, at least).

 

[Warden]

L0L @ Warden "My Mother Was Raped By BIO" Buttfuck.


R00fles!

Hmm, mother jokes, petty princess?
Ok..
My mother raped your mother and threw her in the sewer.

 

[kris]

My mother raped your mother and threw her in the sewer.

Are you like a homosexual family?

 

[Warden]

It's just a mother joke, for god's sake.

 

[Volourn]

"My mother raped your mother and threw her in the sewer."

. Sweet bedtime story!

 

[Mareus]

Honestly, the quality of a story premise doesn't necessarily equal the quality of the story told. In Fallout you were chosen to go find a broken water chip, stop a bad guy from making a mutant army and eventually eradicating mankind, and in Fallout 2 it wasn't much better. The premise isn't what makes stories good, since every good idea has been thought of before. What's important is the execution. You can make a generic fantasy premise into a fantastic story if you work it right, just like you can take a fantastic premise and make it garbage if you rest on your laurels.

That being said, BioWare's track record isn't the greatest. They seem to put out decent games, but nothing to really write home about (since BG2, at least).

Exactly!

 

[Ebonsword]

I know the names aren't the most important thing in any plot, but the ones here scream GENERIC_PLACEHOLDER_LOCATION_NAME too much.

Well, the previewer didn't get all the names quite right... but even so, what kind of names would work better for you? In my experience, people tend to dislike "new" names until they begin to associate that name with something tangible.

After all, had I used more fantastical-sounding names are you really going to tell me that you wouldn't then complain about how very fantasy-ish and silly said names would be? I kind of doubt it.

All you have to do is take the same names and translate them into some cool (to Americans, anyway) European language--like, say, German.

It's a well-known fact that German automatically makes things more Middle Ages-sounding. (German is even better than badly using pseudo-Elizabethan words (as favored by pretentious LARPers) like "forsooth" and "zounds".)

So, instead of "Dark Spawn" you would have "Dunkellaich". And instead of "Grey Warden" you'd have "Grauwarter". See? It's totaly different!

And so much better!

 

[SimpleComplexity]

All you have to do is take the same names and translate them into some cool (to Americans, anyway) European language--like, say, German.

It's a well-known fact that German automatically makes things more Middle Ages-sounding. (German is even better than badly using pseudo-Elizabethan words (as favored by pretentious LARPers) like "forsooth" and "zounds".)

So, instead of "Dark Spawn" you would have "Dunkellaich". And instead of "Grey Warden" you'd have "Grauwarter". See? It's totaly different!

And so much better!

And instead of " leader" they could go with "Fuhrer".

 

[thesheeep]

So, instead of "Dark Spawn" you would have "Dunkellaich". And instead of "Grey Warden" you'd have "Grauwarter". See? It's totaly different!

And so much better!

For all, except Germans...

 

[Solohk]

Or so the Germans would have you believe...

 

[muds_animal_friend]

Well, the previewer didn't get all the names quite right... but even so, what kind of names would work better for you? In my experience, people tend to dislike "new" names until they begin to associate that name with something tangible.

Archaic terms and names are often unfamiliar enough to feel fresh yet familiar enough to remain evocative. Gene Wolfe uses this approach in The Book of the New Sun.

 

[elander_]

Honestly, the quality of a story premise doesn't necessarily equal the quality of the story told. In Fallout you were chosen to go find a broken water chip, stop a bad guy from making a mutant army and eventually eradicating mankind, and in Fallout 2 it wasn't much better. The premise isn't what makes stories good, since every good idea has been thought of before. What's important is the execution. You can make a generic fantasy premise into a fantastic story if you work it right, just like you can take a fantastic premise and make it garbage if you rest on your laurels.

That being said, BioWare's track record isn't the greatest. They seem to put out decent games, but nothing to really write home about (since BG2, at least).

Exactly!

Agreed!

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

So, instead of "Dark Spawn" you would have "Dunkellaich". And instead of "Grey Warden" you'd have "Grauwarter". See? It's totaly different!

And so much better!

For all, except Germans...

Kaiser Wave.

 

[Elwro]

Thanks for your reply, DG. Yeah, I'm 10 days late, but I had some serious business to attend to.

 

[Sarvis]

The game sounds better than 99% of other games that are coming out these days, but I doubt it will top BG. 3D camera vs 2D camera and you have an obvious winner, since 3D camera can never simulate party based combat so precise as 2D camera. As for the story being better... well I guess that depends on the sequels. I only hope you will be able to import your party from the Origins.

The camera isn't the problem, RTwP combat is. In a turn based system the camera wouldn't matter at all for controlling the party in combat.

 

[Hory]

The game sounds better than 99% of other games that are coming out these days, but I doubt it will top BG. 3D camera vs 2D camera and you have an obvious winner, since 3D camera can never simulate party based combat so precise as 2D camera. As for the story being better... well I guess that depends on the sequels. I only hope you will be able to import your party from the Origins.

The camera isn't the problem, RTwP combat is. In a turn based system the camera wouldn't matter at all for controlling the party in combat.

RTwP isn't the problem, the dumbing down is. Even with TB and isometric view, the combat would still be too easy and simple so that the average kiddie can understand and play the game.

 

[Sarvis]

The game sounds better than 99% of other games that are coming out these days, but I doubt it will top BG. 3D camera vs 2D camera and you have an obvious winner, since 3D camera can never simulate party based combat so precise as 2D camera. As for the story being better... well I guess that depends on the sequels. I only hope you will be able to import your party from the Origins.

The camera isn't the problem, RTwP combat is. In a turn based system the camera wouldn't matter at all for controlling the party in combat.

RTwP isn't the problem, the dumbing down is. Even with TB and isometric view, the combat would still be too easy and simple so that the average kiddie can understand and play the game.

Actually RTwP requires that kind of simplification. You just can't have a player control all the options for multiple party members. Look at NWN2 vs. ToEE which use the same combat system. NWN2 isn't simplified because it was too complex for gamers, it's simplified because you just can't control that much stuff in real time.

RTwP is the problem.

 

[Mareus]

The game sounds better than 99% of other games that are coming out these days, but I doubt it will top BG. 3D camera vs 2D camera and you have an obvious winner, since 3D camera can never simulate party based combat so precise as 2D camera. As for the story being better... well I guess that depends on the sequels. I only hope you will be able to import your party from the Origins.

The camera isn't the problem, RTwP combat is. In a turn based system the camera wouldn't matter at all for controlling the party in combat.

RTwP isn't the problem, the dumbing down is. Even with TB and isometric view, the combat would still be too easy and simple so that the average kiddie can understand and play the game.

Actually RTwP requires that kind of simplification. You just can't have a player control all the options for multiple party members. Look at NWN2 vs. ToEE which use the same combat system. NWN2 isn't simplified because it was too complex for gamers, it's simplified because you just can't control that much stuff in real time.

RTwP is the problem.

Depends upon the game you know. If you are trying to make a game which uses RTwP I would do it in 2D since you have a lot of things to do in RT and if you have to battle with 3D camera it just lowers the gameplay. TB can work in 3D, since you have enough time to adjust the camera without being too annoyed pressing pause all the time just for the sake of adjusting the camera. Incubation showed 3D can work pretty well in TB games. But since Bioware always uses RTwP I would say they should have done it in 2D. Too late for that now and the result are battles which look very NWN2-ish. I just hope they will feel better than NWN2 when you actually play it.

 

[Spectacle]

I don't understand why its taken until diablo 3 for developers to figure out how to do isometric view with 3d graphics. Just lock the camera and make sure every level in the game is easily playable from that view. Gives the convenience of 2d with the prettyness of 3d. Of course it helps that 3d graphics finally looks as good as 2d games.