The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[Slow James]

Skyrim sold 20 million copies.

Where is your source for this?

And no, it didn't.

Sorry, I don't have a real reputable source, just this one website:

http://bethsoft.com/en-us/news/beth...oice-over-cast-for-the-elder-scrolls-online--

"As the sequel to the 2002 Role-Playing Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind®, and the2006 Game of the Year, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion®, Skyrim earned hundreds of ‘Game of the Year’ awards and sold over 20 million copies."

But, I mean... the developer and publisher of the game clearly isn't a good place to find out how well a game has sold. So I'm obviously wrong.

Dick.

 

[PhantasmaNL]

played a bit more...it is not bad

although i dont like the discrepancy between my toons face in character creation and in game

wtf happened to his mouth and eye brows

i like the gfx and atmos though

 

[dryan]

^ dude looks like a mediterranean bricklayer

 

[Branm]

I never said that. I'm pretty sure Skyrim sold well despite of Beth's voice acting decisions, not because of them. Skyrim is a success because of its entire package of features, which happens to be appealing to a lot of people and was very well advertised/hyped. Can you imagine Skyrim using the same partially voice-acted dialogue as Morrowind, especially after Oblivion set the standard for full voice-acted NPCs? I don't know if it would be enough to hurt the sales significantly, or if the other features would be able to negate the backlash, but I think Beth would face a lot of criticism. Anyway, I'm not a huge fan of voice acting, in fact I mostly hate it (with few exceptions like VtM:B), but I'm not going to set myself for disappointment by expecting AAA studios to go back to partial or no voice acting, because that ain't gonna happen, period.

Who needs AAA development studios? The key is to getting studios who have to beg for money on Kickstarter and developer on a shoestring and mortgage their houses to make a game out of the poorhouse (relatively speaking) and getting them to be successful enough to be self-sufficient. A game doesn't need to spend $100 million dollars to be worth $60 to the right people. Studios like Larian, InExile and the back room of Obsidian need to get to the point where they have $10-$20 million dollar game budgets, yet mostly keep to the simplistic design philosophies.

When that particular gaming industry Delorian hits 88 mph, you're going to see some serious shit.

Meh, a dev doesn't necessary have to go begging and leeching on kickstarter. Look at what Underrail is doing!!! That has to be one of the best rpg's I played in the last 5+ years and the 5 man or whatever team didn't need kickstarter. (even though if they did ask for money id toss good money in as I have in other things).

 

[Mortmal]

Just spent like 10 hours in it , its not that bad indeed, and I dare to say more entertaining than some codex approved rpg of this year.
First this game has nothing to do in general rpg discussion as its a pure console game, the keyboard and mouse controls were implemented in the last minute, and its madness to not just use a pad for this game. The pad is MANDATORY, everything will go so much smoother once you use it .

Its a console game and it shows , its clearly not optimized for pc, even high end one like mine, i got stutters and frame rate drop during cinematic and god knows how numerous cinematics are in bioware games.Even during game i had once the pc slowing at like 1-2fps, happened only once, but still i was worried my hardware was damaged.
Same for the tactical view ,they keep it to please the pc crowd but… its useless, the game is made to rush in and smash 5 buttons on your controller, throwing the awesome special effects at enemies , that’s pretty but that’s about all. Yes there’s crowd control and such but whats the point, its never required.
The game is clearly made to be full action but they don’t dare to go full throttle, it should have parry and dodge and huge monster fight like in dragon’s dogma , alas it bastardize its system not satisfying both crowd.

Quite odd game , they seems to have no vision anymore copying features from every AAA popular games but never beating any of them, like assassin creed item collections. Luckily they forgot to include QTE’s but wouldn’t be to surprised to find them .I think it was supposed to be a mmo at some point of the development , full of low cost Korean mmo quests, but then they salvaged it as a more classic mass effect with swords.
Still theres large and pretty areas to explore, decent charactersn, all in all theres fun to ride the bull if you don’t take it too seriously

 

[Mrowak]

Guys, guys, guys! There's something wrong with me. I... am enjoying it.

 

[Grunker]

Guys, guys, guys! There's something wrong with me. I... am enjoying it.

Could you please post some impressions? This thread is about as good for divining anything meaningful about DA:I as Bethesda is good at designing sandbox games.

 

[PhantasmaNL]

When playing it is obvious this was once envisioned as an MMO... I would call it an semi open world action game with added RPG mechanics. And while it certainly isnt optimized for pc, sofar i didnt encounter any stutters or drops in performance (this is on a low scale mid range system). Also, i managed to remap the keys to a control scheme im very familiar with (for Teso, Tsw etc), and this works absolutly fine. Apart from the looting mechanic which is too precise and requires too much effort i have zero complaints control-wise (pc, mkb).

 

[RPGMaster]

The natives are restless:

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/522522-lesbian-romance-options-are-terrible/

 

[DalekFlay]

Just spent like 10 hours in it , its not that bad indeed, and I dare to say more entertaining than some codex approved rpg of this year.
First this game has nothing to do in general rpg discussion as its a pure console game, the keyboard and mouse controls were implemented in the last minute, and its madness to not just use a pad for this game. The pad is MANDATORY, everything will go so much smoother once you use it.

I wouldn't go that far. It's definitely a third-person action game but with some tweaking the keyboard controls for it are just as good as any other third-person action game. Using a pad, for me, just means a slower camera and no quick-save or shortcuts.

In the end the issue is it's no longer a CRPG.

 

[Lyric Suite]

So the game is decent if you reprogram yourself to judge it as a console game rather than as a PC game? What kind of bullshit argument is this?

 

[Monkeysattva]

Dammit. I almost can't wait to play this thing. Perhaps I'm just lore-hurt in the butt, since I genuinely LIKED some part of the Darkspawn, as well as Orlais vs. Ferelden lore. A good hack writer could write some above the board good-bad fantasy out of that shit.

 

[Abu Antar]

So the game is decent if you reprogram yourself to judge it as a console game rather than as a PC game? What kind of bullshit argument is this?

It's the only way you'll enjoy it. My pre-order hasn't arrived yet but this is what I have expected of the game since around 18 months ago. I do agree, it is shit logic.

 

[Malpercio]

The natives are restless:

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/522522-lesbian-romance-options-are-terrible/

In their defense no one deserves Sera.

 

[Slow James]

So the game is decent if you reprogram yourself to judge it as a console game rather than as a PC game? What kind of bullshit argument is this?

There has been feedback that the actual PC dialogue and character definition options are pretty good. It just seems you have to wade through 10-20 hours of fetch quests to get to any of the meat.

Which reminds me of KoA, honestly. A LOT of the feedback reminds me of KoA. Which was a game I couldn't get past the 10 hour mark, so this is going to be bargain bin, if purchased at all. Too much goodness out and on the horizon for things that require me to close my eyes and fake RPG.

 

[circ]

The natives are restless:

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/522522-lesbian-romance-options-are-terrible/

Hmm so you can't lesbian it out with Cassandra? Disappointeeeed..

 

[Frozen]

 

[dryan]

The natives are restless:

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/522522-lesbian-romance-options-are-terrible/

In their defense no one deserves Sera.

I thought she was the only lez option, but by reading that thread I just learned that you can get it on with a barely decent looking chick named Josephine. I might roll a dyke after all.

 

[Lhynn]

"Skyrim is better in every way imaginable.

EDIT: Even oblivion is better in every way imaginable."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Its true, sadly.

"Skrims soundtrack is one of the most iconic soundtracks to come from the gaming industry in years."

FUCK OFF FUCKER

Its also true.

"DA:I, that has "destruction" and "not healing"."

\Liar.

Nope, its true, destruction schools do have some CC on them, but nothing terribly interesting. spirit is just about the barrier, and some limited utility. All in all there are less spells in the entire class than effects in a single skyrim magic school (you can only slot 8 skills anyway, because consoles). Not to mention the perks, shitty as they are. Never made it to DA:I advanced classes tho, but i dont think they are going to shower you with new spells and effects.

Look, im really not praising skyrim with this, codex already knows how it is, but its many times better than whatever the fuck bioware gave us.

Anyway, back to tales of Maj Eyal, go die in a ditch all of you.

 

[SwiftCrack]

The natives are restless:

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/522522-lesbian-romance-options-are-terrible/

That middle avatar and post combination...

 

[Mrowak]

Guys, guys, guys! There's something wrong with me. I... am enjoying it.

Could you please post some impressions? This thread is about as good for divining anything meaningful about DA:I as a turd is Bethesda is good for designing sandbox games.

I started playing it today, so I cannot give full impressions

Long story short it is miles better than DA2, hard to say if it outclasses DA1

Negatives:

• The controls are attrocious - especially camera controls in tactics mode are abysmal. This is my main gripe with the game so far.

• Motherfucking fetchquests everywhere. And they are very simplistic.
  
• You are the chosen one.
• Fights were boring, then got decent, then got repetetive.
• I just realized the game probably has some level-scalling. And some gating. Ugh...

From the positives:

• The key positive is the war minigame, which is embeded in everything you do. This is akin to Merchant game in NWN2:SOZ and or managing castle in NWN2 but taken to an extreme. Like you start doing that 30 mins into the game and it's evident it is supposed to be your main drive to do things in the game world.
  
• From the very start your PC is in position of power and it shows. Your merry band of homicidal maniacs is actually supports war effort. You do so by gaining trusts of powerful NPCs, destroying factions, monsters, solving quests - standard stuff. Surprisingly, however, all you do is somehow embeded in leading the Inquisition. For example exploring wilderness is not only about finding treasure and adventure. You also do that to mark points of interests so that your NPCs soldiers can erect camps, where you can get healing, craft items and rest. And best of all, this is vital in terms of gamplay.
  
• Did I mention that unlike previous games there is not auto-regen for hp? hell, there are no healing spells. They even placed an artificial limit of 8 healing potions per party (which are refilled after rest) so there is some resource management involved there. I actually had to retreat a few times to avoid TPK.
  
• The first really open map of the game actually conveyed well how you progressively expand you influence. Each successful endeavour - be it completed quest, defeated faction or claimed land raises the Power level of Inquisition.
• The Power level appears to be used in a tactical map of the world - thanks to it you can send agents to different locations - this unlocks subquests, nets you npcs, gear, mounts and maybe some other stuff. To do so you spend the power points and assign one of the 3 councillors to those tasks (a diplomat, general or spymaster). I don't know if there are different consequences to doing so.
• It appears you can recruit more agents for solving some subquests, but how you can use them, and to what end, I have no idea.
• The new characters did not annoy me... yet.
• The old characters are less annoying.
• Encounter design is better than in DA2 - enemies do not spawn out of nowhere in the middle of battle. Although some of them do respawn, after rest.
• There were some fights I found challenging in a fun way - playing on Hard with Party Damage enabled. Then there are many I did not.

Meh:

• Overarching plot so far is standard D&D edgy, gritty, nonsense about the chosen one and the big bad one. Conversations with NPCs included. Take it or leave it.
• Despite positives, I can see that some of the stuff I praise could get old in the long run.
• Also, some of the unusual stuff I gush about may be typical biowarian, inconsequential window-dressing.

 

[kris]

like the gfx and atmos though

Now, that moon would create some killer tides.

 

[Telengard]

Skyrim sold 20 million copies.

Twenty. Fucking. Million.

Which serves to reinforce my point, when such a widely successful RPG still finds criticism for hanging on to "outdated" practices.

every RPG developer on the planet should have seen that and said "hmmmm... maybe the tens of millions of dollars we are investing in voice acting and cinematics don't mean shit?"

I don't think that's a very good conclusion to draw from the Skyrim's success. The game was successful despite of its silent protagonist, not because of it. I believe most people would prefer Dovakin to be fully voiced like Shepard/Hawke.

Given that Skyrim alone has about sold more than all of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games combined, I'm not sure that's true. Given that DA:O wasn't a voiced main character and yet was more critically acclaimed and higher sales than DA2 also hints this may not be true. Yes, there are alternative explanations for both, but it also is proof that the idea of "we need full vocie acting and movie cutscenes for anyone to buy our game" is not a valid one.

With these sorts of things, one can always just go to the source. It's not like Bioware hasn't done these surveys before, not to mention tons of focus grouping, which outsiders can occasionally catch a glimpse of.

BIOWARE FORUM STICKY SURVEY

45% (1027) prefer voiced PC
21% (484) prefer silent PC
33% (759) are fine with both (or have no opinion)

There is overlap in Bioware v Skyrim audience, but one should never conclude that those audiences are the same. Bioware states that an unvoiced protag would negatively impact their sales with their audience, and they're more than likely correct. They could maybe increase sales numbers by wholly chasing Skyrim's gameplay, but as so many others have proved in the past, chasing other devs is like chasing rainbows - you never do get the pot of gold. Instead, generally speaking, you lose your current audience and never win over the audience of those you're chasing, since that audience is already satisfied by the game they've got.

 

[RK47]

 

[Lyric Suite]

The survey is misleading. Of course people are going prefer voiced PCs, all things being equal. The question is whether they would prefer voiced PCs at the expense of other things. How many people do you think are actually aware of how much is being sacrificed in order to have voiced dialog?