Preview Dragon Age really is Lord of the Rings

[DarkUnderlord]

Tags: Dragon Age

<a href="http://e3.gamespot.com/story.html?sid=6194774&pid=920668&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule;picks;title;7">GameSpot have a preview of <s>BioWare's new Lord of the Rings trilogy</s> Dragon Age</a>:
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<blockquote>Next up we were treated to an in-engine cutscene in which Marcus, the King, and a couple other characters were planning how to deal with an imminent blight threat. The cinematic camera angles did a great job of showing off the detailed character models, as well as how great the lip-syncing in the game is already. The upshot of the meeting was a plan involving the lighting of a beacon at the top of a tall tower, and the protagonist was among those chosen to do it.
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The demo reached its climax when the party entered a room and found a large ogre with horns inside. The ogre was quick to attack and, as the fight progressed, it became apparent that it had access to a range of moves almost as impressive as the playable characters'. The first thing the ogre did was hurl a boulder toward the mage who was keeping her distance, and then it pounded the ground to briefly knock over the rest of the group who had moved in the for the kill. The ogre's most impressive attack saw it grabbing a member of the party and then punch him repeatedly. We're told that characters armed with shields will have a chance to free themselves with a "shield bash" move when this happens, but it didn't appear to do much good on this occasion.</blockquote>
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Are you having flashbacks to both the Cave Troll fight in the Mines of Moria and Pippin lighting the beacon while Minas Tirith comes under attack? I am. If you want a bit more, <a href="http://au.pc.gamespy.com/pc/dragon-age/890315p1.html">be sure to read GameSpy's run-down</a>.
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Spotted @ <a href="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPGWatch</a>

 

[Shoelip]

I'm not...

 

[Trash]

Again DU is straining himself to be witty.

 

[Darth Roxor]

*insert criticism here*

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Again DU is straining himself to be witty.

Some people like my news. Some people don't. It's the burden a Codex news poster has to bear.

 

[Trash]

You watched the gameplay footage they based the "preview" on? It's actually rather neat and has been discussed to death here allready.

 

[Texas Red]

*insert criticism here*

Decline of the Codex.

 

[Darth Roxor]

I have nothing against your news, but in this particular case, you're trying too hard to find things that don't exist.

 

[bat_boro]

"Are you having flashbacks to both the Cave Troll fight in the Mines of Moria and Pippin lighting the beacon while Minas Tirith comes under attack? "

Isn't the scene with Pipping lighting the beacon in the Extended Edition?

otherwise, yeah, it sounds quite familiar, but watching the gameplay video I must say I'm impressed... kinda of

 

[Shoelip]

He also lights it before they come under attack and has to climb up the side of a much smaller tower instead of climbing up the inside of a large one. The only similarity is the lighting of a beacon. The cave troll fight thing is just dumb. Ok... so any fight against a large opponent is a ripoff of that? If not, what makes this one so much more similar than others? The fact that it's a boss character and so is allot more impressive than most of the giant ogres and trolls we usually fight in CRPGs which tend to just be fodder?

 

[WalterKinde]

The teaser trailer looked like the battle for helms deep.
And hell lets face facts imitating the LOTR movies will get a lot of mainstream people to look at the game.
Lets face it they are not making a niche market product (solely for RPG fans), this is something they want in the mainstream, heck that a console port is planned/in development says that already.

 

[Chefe]

You're reaching again, DU. There is nothing wrong with that preview. It sounds good.

 

[Korgan]

Hmm. These, ahem, plot elements totally make sense in the context. JE was made to be a Generic Badass Kung-Fu Movie knockoff; ME, a Generic SF Series knockoff, so this is going to be the high fantasy version. Perfectly reasonable if you know that MCA is writing stories for the competition and you can never beat that with fully original stuff of your own.

 

[Shoelip]

The teaser trailer looked like the battle for helms deep.
And hell lets face facts imitating the LOTR movies will get a lot of mainstream people to look at the game.
Lets face it they are not making a niche market product (solely for RPG fans), this is something they want in the mainstream, heck that a console port is planned/in development says that already.

You mean the part where the defenders release the hounds and then charge? Your right, the trailer is a complete rip off of Helm's Deep.

 

[thesheeep]

You watched the gameplay footage they based the "preview" on? It's actually rather neat and has been discussed to death here allready.

Exactly!

 

[J1M]

You watched the gameplay footage they based the "preview" on? It's actually rather neat and has been discussed to death here allready.

Actually, it looks like the NWN1 engine with more bloom and particle effects. The characters animate as stiff as ever, the interface doesn't seem like much of an improvement, and I was not impressed.

Seeing people here bend over and beg for more RTWP NWN combat is embarassing.

 

[WalterKinde]

The teaser trailer looked like the battle for helms deep.
And hell lets face facts imitating the LOTR movies will get a lot of mainstream people to look at the game.
Lets face it they are not making a niche market product (solely for RPG fans), this is something they want in the mainstream, heck that a console port is planned/in development says that already.

You mean the part where the defenders release the hounds and then charge? Your right, the trailer is a complete rip off of Helm's Deep.

Key phrase looked like i didn't say it was a 100% copy of the Helm's Deep battle sequence but it is so close to it that if you have seen the two towers thats the first link you will make.
And that like i said is no accident, they WANT the link made.

 

[Murk]

I'm kind if unhappy about the setting being super classical (generic) fantasy, but if the game itself is done well enough i can easily overlook the lack of "flavah".

EDIT: the gameplay didn't seem very d&d, is the game built off of their rules or heavily tweaked d&d rules?

that'd be kind of a + for me...

 

[barker_s]

Ripoffs aren't bad if they rip-off of good things. I like that 'light the beacon thing' for example. Calling reinforcements is more reasonable than having to find UBAR SWORD +5 so you can slay the enemy commander, making his armies flee from the battlefield.

 

[bezimek]

I must say i like DA. Combat system looks very good ( RTwP), we will have dialogue tree, moral and economic systems and ... team.
I know that it is Codex so everybody is bitching but if somebody like action combat in Witcher or Mass Effect she or he shouldn`t bitch about combat system in DA because RTwP is what we all wanted. BG 1/2 have RTwP combat system , hell PS:T have it, too
- remember guys ?

 

[SpaceKungFuMan]

I must say i like DA. Combat system looks very good ( RTwP), we will have dialogue tree, moral and economic systems and ... team.
I know that it is Codex so everybody is bitching but if somebody like action combat in Witcher or Mass Effect she or he shouldn`t bitch about combat system in DA because RTwP is what we all wanted. BG 1/2 have RTwP combat system , hell PS:T have it, too
- remember guys ?

Actually, I'd say what most people here want is turn based tactical combat, but RTwP is the next best thing. And noone loves torment for its combat. . . That said, DA is shaping up to at least be the best thing Bio's made in 10 years.

 

[Murk]

best combat system i've seen so far -> ToEE followed by BG/IWD real time with pause

if ToEE was made into what neverwinter nights is (huge mod-community) it'd be the best game evahhh

 

[Shoelip]

The teaser trailer looked like the battle for helms deep.
And hell lets face facts imitating the LOTR movies will get a lot of mainstream people to look at the game.
Lets face it they are not making a niche market product (solely for RPG fans), this is something they want in the mainstream, heck that a console port is planned/in development says that already.

You mean the part where the defenders release the hounds and then charge? Your right, the trailer is a complete rip off of Helm's Deep.

Key phrase looked like i didn't say it was a 100% copy of the Helm's Deep battle sequence but it is so close to it that if you have seen the two towers thats the first link you will make.
And that like i said is no accident, they WANT the link made.

Oh well, I just saw it and thought generic epic fantasy battle scene. Helm's Deep really didn't come to mind. Sure it's dark, and there are dark armored bad guys attacking light armored good guys but that really didn't seem any more like Helm's Deep than any other big fantasy battle at night.

 

[Jaesun]

Just wait till EA forces Bioware to make a LotR RPG.

 

[Helton]

Most of the time people are just silently content, DU, so people who like your news might not be so vocal as those who don't.