Dragon Age Dragon Age: The Veilguard Pre-Release Thread [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

[Roguey]

Bioware had never done a open world game before Inquisition.

None of those maps are "open world." I don't know how you can say they're more open world than say, all the maps in Baldur's Gate.

 

[Heroic Liberator]

Bioware had never done a open world game before Inquisition.

None of those maps are "open world." I don't know how you can say they're more open world than say, all the maps in Baldur's Gate.

Meh, can't really compare isometric maps to fully 3D maps. And while DAI might not be open world, the maps are large enough to give the feel of open world gameplay (too bad that they're arbitrarily overextended and full of MMO tier grinding activities though).

 

[Roguey]

Meh, can't really compare isometric maps to fully 3D maps.

Other than finally being able to support room-over-room, does it make a difference? Third person view, forced bird's-eye perspective, only an aesthetic change.

 

[Nano]

 

[Gradenmayer]

For reference. On Weekes.

PATRICK: I was on Origins, but everything I wrote was cut. I wasn’t on Dragon Age II, except for occasionally tossing advice to people at lunch

I was a senior writer but not the lead, and so for my part, writing the followers, for me it was an experience of getting to see Cole, Bull and Solas from start to finish, and that by itself was huge.

He wrote Cole, Bull, Solas and everything in DLCs.
And he will be writing the next game.

 

[AwesomeButton]

PATRICK: I was on Origins, but everything I wrote was cut. I wasn’t on Dragon Age II, except for occasionally tossing advice to people at lunch

Say what you will about Gaider, but the present day snowflakes make him look like a tower of rationality and refined taste for fantasy writing.

 

[Roguey]

A decade ago, a lot of people loved Weekes's contributions to ME2 and 3.

 

[Delterius]

I'm still holding to a repurposed failed MMO theory. It's one thing to make a shit game, it's another to make such a particular flavor of a shit game.

DAI has an uncanny gameplay familiarity with Kingdoms of Amalur, which is basically an offline MMO. DAI is like an Amalur re-skin.

I suspect Bioware was so late with DA3 development and so desperate, they just copied someone else's homework and ran with it.

it also has an uncanny familiarity with a skyrim chasing version of DA2

 

[Camel]

PATRICK: I was on Origins, but everything I wrote was cut. I wasn’t on Dragon Age II, except for occasionally tossing advice to people at lunch

Say what you will about Gaider, but the present day snowflakes make him look like a tower of rationality and refined taste for fantasy writing.

Time flies, even a Twilight fan David Gaider is becoming a fan favourite compared to modern RPG writers. "Twilight got the romances right".

 

[Gradenmayer]

A decade ago, a lot of people loved Weekes's contributions to ME2 and 3.

He can write characters, but story in Trespasser sucked a big one.
Maybe he could write a good story with enough time and without having to base it on shit story of the previous game. Who knows (doubt it though)?
Would pick him over Kristjanson (dude who wrote Sera) for sure, but that's not saying much.

 

[AwesomeButton]

A decade ago, a lot of people loved Weekes's contributions to ME2 and 3.

I admit I'm not really acquainted with his games, just that quote pushed me into comparisons between the writing in DA:O and DA:I.

 

[Dycedarg]

None of those maps are "open world." I don't know how you can say they're more open world than say, all the maps in Baldur's Gate.

Even if you argue the maps are not truly open world, it does make a difference. Compare the size of the maps to the ones in DAO or DA2. The amount of resources Bioware had to spend to fill those maps with content probably took a toll on the studio. I think this explains, at least in part, why everything in the game feels so souless. It's a classic case of choosing quantity over quality.

Meh, can't really compare isometric maps to fully 3D maps. And while DAI might not be open world, the maps are large enough to give the feel of open world gameplay (too bad that they're arbitrarily overextended and full of MMO tier grinding activities though).

Agree. And I think the choice of filling it with filling it with MMO tier quests is a consequence of trying to make such a huge game.

 

[Nano]

Reminder that this is what the game used to look like in 2013.



Either the game had to be dumbed down for last-gen consoles or this is a serious case of false advertising.

Would pick him over Kristjanson (dude who wrote Sera) for sure, but that's not saying much.

Also known as the guy who wrote Baldur's Gate 1. This is what SJWism does, it rots everyone's brains, whether they're newfags or oldfags.

 

[Delterius]

PATRICK: I was on Origins, but everything I wrote was cut. I wasn’t on Dragon Age II, except for occasionally tossing advice to people at lunch

I mean a lot of what Gaider wrote was also supposedly cut and the guy made the setting.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

NWN release date: June 18th, 2002
(releases: kotor, jade empire, mass effect, sonic)
DAO release date: Nov 3rd, 2009
days between: 2695

DAI release date: Nov 18th, 2014
(releases: mass effect andromeda(separate studio), anthem)
Today: Feb 6th, 2022
days between: 2638

 

[Wunderbar]

Reminder that this is what the game used to look like in 2013.



Either the game had to be dumbed down for last-gen consoles or this is a serious case of false advertising.

can someone explain the difference between this and the released version for someone who didn't play DAI?

 

[Gradenmayer]

Reminder that this is what the game used to look like in 2013.



Either the game had to be dumbed down for last-gen consoles or this is a serious case of false advertising.

can someone explain the difference between this and the released version for someone who didn't play DAI?

Every location shown in that video was not part of the game

 

[Delterius]

can someone explain the difference between this and the released version for someone who didn't play DAI?

For one they feel much less claustrophobic.

DAI is not truly open world. It's made up of several very maps which are much larger than anything seen before in the series, but it's still nothing like a Skyrim, a Witcher 3, or a Zelda BotW. Those games are even larger and their content much more spread out than even the biggest maps of DAI. They aren't called 'walking simulators' for nothing, part of the experience of those games is traversing vast expanses of nothing with your horse on full gallop. Wether this video demonstrates a change in the game's direction we can't know for sure. But it sure seems like it.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Reminder that this is what the game used to look like in 2013.



Either the game had to be dumbed down for last-gen consoles or this is a serious case of false advertising.

can someone explain the difference between this and the released version for someone who didn't play DAI?

it's basically nothing alike at all as far as I can remember, but its been years since I played DAI.

enemies attacking the keep used to "maintain your presence" -> wow, have to break this down here. There's no such system at all in DAI, you have one keep total and it's never attacked. You have a starter village that gets attacked, but it's just a scripted mission(not some dynamic system they seem to imply) and not part of some big area either.
"maintaining morale and position you hold" -> ??? nothing like this in the game
live event featuring warboats -> nope, nothing at all like this in the game at all. Closest is Iron Bull's companion quest and you don't even interact with the boats, they're just there off in the distance.
combat looks similar I guess
"these are my men" -> there's no such system in place at all in DAI, you never see any of your "troops" around because iirc you don't have any. He implies there's leadership involved, and no, there's not.
the area itself doesn't look anything like crestwood actually does ingame btw
"[party members] can spot things and call things out" -> not that I remember

again, this area looks nothing like I remember
there's no keep in the area to "capture", it's just another mission and you never go back there again. In fact, this makes a lot more sense now that there was such a system in place considering how every area you "capture" gets memoryholed 5 seconds later.

strangest part is that the game released what, 1 year later? No wonder the areas were so empty if they were all redesigned in such a short timespan.

 

[Nano]

it's basically nothing alike at all as far as I can remember, but its been years since I played DAI.

enemies attacking the keep used to "maintain your presence" -> wow, have to break this down here. There's no such system at all in DAI, you have one keep total and it's never attacked. You have a starter village that gets attacked, but it's just a scripted mission(not some dynamic system they seem to imply) and not part of some big area either.
"maintaining morale and position you hold" -> ??? nothing like this in the game
live event featuring warboats -> nope, nothing at all like this in the game at all. Closest is Iron Bull's companion quest and you don't even interact with the boats, they're just there off in the distance.
combat looks similar I guess
"these are my men" -> there's no such system in place at all in DAI, you never see any of your "troops" around because iirc you don't have any. He implies there's leadership involved, and no, there's not.
the area itself doesn't look anything like crestwood actually does ingame btw
"[party members] can spot things and call things out" -> not that I remember

again, this area looks nothing like I remember
there's no keep in the area to "capture", it's just another mission and you never go back there again. In fact, this makes a lot more sense now that there was such a system in place considering how every area you "capture" gets memoryholed 5 seconds later.

The demo shows Crestwood having a proper questline, with dialogues and cutscenes and shit. In the actual game it barely has anything of substance, just like any other of the "open-world" zones. Also, it looks the Western Approach has a day-night cycle in the demo, that's not in the game either. The game has a pointless resting mechanic which is probably a remnant of this.

 

[Delterius]

"these are my men" -> there's no such system in place at all in DAI, you never see any of your "troops" around because iirc you don't have any.

speaking of remnants, the idea that 'a system of sieges and your men moving around the battlefield' somehow turned into 'put a flag on place, now there's 4 npcs around it and you can reset your potions there' is really funny

 

[AwesomeButton]

PATRICK: I was on Origins, but everything I wrote was cut. I wasn’t on Dragon Age II, except for occasionally tossing advice to people at lunch

I mean a lot of what Gaider wrote was also supposedly cut and the guy made the setting.

But it comes accross from Weeks as an irrevertible loss to the history of gaming. Think the burning of the library of Alexandria. :D

Every location shown in that video was not part of the game

Oh I remember this demo, and how hyped I was. Genuinely.

 

[Nano]

Oh I remember this demo, and how hyped I was. Genuinely.

They didn't even bother including that little banter at the start with Cassandra and Vivienne.

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Wunderbar]

Fallout New Vegas was made in 18 months.