The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[Nikaido]

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2n98zf/biowares_cinematic_designer_shares_his_heartfelt/

This is some Reality Marble level distortion field. Exhibit A:

"This is the moment the game really started for me and completely gripped me. It was truly epic and beautiful."

"I had actual shivers running down my spine and tears burning at my eyes. It's pretty rare that a game rips at my heart so thoroughly."

"This moment is my favorite moment in video game history."

"I actually cried during that scene."

There are 250 comments along these lines.

new entry Dragon Age Inquisition rounded off the top five. Inquisition sold almost exactly the same amount of launch week copies as 2011's Dragon Age II.

Despite the astroturfing (and uncrackable protection on PC/PS4/Xbox One (denuvo is only on pc, but the other consoles haven't been cracked either so newgen isn't under the effect of piwacy yet)), this game didn't even manage to outsell DA2, and DA2 had this pattern of slightly going over DAO during the first week, then tanking very hard because of word of mouth after. Considering the time it spent in development this time, if this game doesn't outdo DA2, which did MUCH worse than DAO in the long run (even on consoles, despite DAO not being very controller friendly which is why they did things like reducing friendly fire damage on HARD difficulty), EA might look at bioware and think it's time to downsize this shit, probably down to a Mass Effect-only developer or something.

This is how DA2 did on consoles :

There's heavy potential in schadenfreude coming next weeks. So far the pattern of fanboyism from one minority and the way the rest talked about the game makes it look like it might very well fall into DA2's pattern, which would be very bad for biowhore's DA team. There's no profit to be had from a game being sold only to BSN's denizens.

 

[AW8]

I still haven't gotten over Cole's hat. It's just... he sounds ridiculous. His hat is ridiculous. He is ridiculous. :D

Collection of circus freaks indeed.

Watching the latest Chinquisition episodes, Vivienne and Blackwall doesn't seem like too bad companions. It's a shame that most choices I've seen so far is that you can choose whether to he happy or angry about whatever you're being forced to do.

What the hell, I think I'm gonna watch the whole Chinquisition tale from the beginning. I like the Dragon Age lore, I like the returning characters, but the combat looks so bad I don't want to play it myself and especially not pay money for it.

And you don't have to buy day one DLC to get the on-screen commentary!

 

[crawlkill]

Best part is that people discussing the game have already bought it, since it hasn't been cracked yet.

no it sounds like most of the people on the thread have in fact not bought it

 

[SarcasticUndertones]

If you want them to die then let them fucking die, but every word you give them, be it good, bad or indifferent is in their favour.

No, the Codex lacks the power you assign it... Hell, it would actually be more logical to concede that Bioware is willfully trolling the Codex with their game design - all the while being heralded as a shining beacon of RPG goodness. Mainstream gaming loves this game -> bugs, shitty design, shitty implementation and all. There is no killing it, fire or otherwise.

-addendum-

I know it is probably asking too much, but a VD review of DAI would be great. For continuity sake and to juxtapose against his DAO review, IE the evolution of Bioware™.

your comment makes me sad.

 

[Akratus]

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2n98zf/biowares_cinematic_designer_shares_his_heartfelt/.

I also knew that a song can raise morale but as a semi intelligent guy, I thought that was beneath me. A reasonable mind was all I needed. Man, was I wrong. Pure faith is a tremendous force. I'll be sure not to underestimate it again.

 

[Goat Vomit]

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2n98zf/biowares_cinematic_designer_shares_his_heartfelt/

This is some Reality Marble level distortion field. Exhibit A:

"This is the moment the game really started for me and completely gripped me. It was truly epic and beautiful."

"I had actual shivers running down my spine and tears burning at my eyes. It's pretty rare that a game rips at my heart so thoroughly."

"This moment is my favorite moment in video game history."

"I actually cried during that scene."

There are 250 comments along these lines.

I cried during that scene too...






...with tears of laughter. It's Leliana's song from DA:O 2.0, I can't believe they tried that again. I suppose they wanted to do something cheesy but decent like this:

Aimed for something low budget but fun like this:

And ended up with this crap:

 

[Hepler's Vagina]

new entry Dragon Age Inquisition rounded off the top five. Inquisition sold almost exactly the same amount of launch week copies as 2011's Dragon Age II.

Alas that seems to be UK only. For all we know this could already be a Skyrim buster over at the Freedom side of the pond.

 

[Zeriel]

https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/2n98zf/biowares_cinematic_designer_shares_his_heartfelt/

This is some Reality Marble level distortion field. Exhibit A:

"This is the moment the game really started for me and completely gripped me. It was truly epic and beautiful."

"I had actual shivers running down my spine and tears burning at my eyes. It's pretty rare that a game rips at my heart so thoroughly."

"This moment is my favorite moment in video game history."

"I actually cried during that scene."

There are 250 comments along these lines.

250 people isn't that many. There are arguably a lot more aryan supremacists in the United States than that, but they are still a tiny fringe.

If those 250 people are actually a sample representation of how most players feel though, we are well and truly fucked.

 

[dryan]

Goddamn, it's even worse without RK47's music edition.
I didn't cringe as much when I watched 2 girls 1 cup.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Sorry for trolling the Codex, but I honestly think most of the cutscenes are pretty great (I'm not talking specifically about the song here; that felt too forced)! Ain't much companies out there who are as good at this as dem Biowhores!

Since I'm a storyfag I wouldn't mind getting rid of all the shit combat, so I won't have to deal with the horrible controls and UI, and just let me talk and decide stuff, and then watch some 20 minute cutscene again. That's where the game is actually good at.

 

[Zeriel]

I actually like the cinematic dialogues in Mass Effect (it's one of the few games I think does voice-acted dialogue competently), but here? It's a mess. No other way to put it. Sometimes you get the general gist of what they were trying to accomplish, but I'd never call it impressive.

 

[Merlkir]

Started playing. With the controller, aiming anywhere is shit, because fucking analog sticks. But hey, I got kind of used to it. Not having ALT and isntead sending out those weird investigative waves is tiresome. Crafting and all that is overwhelming, but I wonder if there's much point to it instead of using loot or buying stuff. The environments are a bit bland...like, it's generic fantasy land, pretty, but nothing like what any real terrain looks like. Monsters respawn annyoingly fast. :/

NPCs are not too terrible yet. Many conversations are completely unnecessary though and the quests I've been doing so far...FETCH ME SOME MUTTON, INQUISITOR!!! LOLOL.

I think the worst for me is the story, or how few fucks I give right now. With DA:O, they kind of built up the blight and becoming a Grey Warden (as lame as that whole order is) was impressive, as was the battle and what followed. Here, you're just thrown in, the chosen one from the first minute...

Makes me want to do silly faces at everyone.

 

[Pope Amole II]

we are well and truly fucked.

We are well and truly fucked because, despite shitting all over the Bioware for the last 5 or so years (or, better phrased - for as long as I can remember here), half of the codex still buys this shit, thus supporting the Bioware financially. I mean, I'm sure at least a hundred people here bought this. And yeah, you can argue that bioware will still grab millions so they don't give a fuck if they lose here, but it's not about them loosing - it's about you not supporting the indies with the very those money.

I mean, fuck, for an indie developer, 6k gold is a fuckload of money. Heck, I (and my team) can easily do a Wasteland clone with that sum. A proper Wasteland, not that recent abortion. Sure, the graphics will be only somewhat better than the original's (probably SVGA-level) and that's where pretty much all of those money will go, but I actually have everything planned - the rather fresh and unused post-apoc setting, good stat-increase system, even more tied into the exploration gameplay (let's not forget that W1 was very exploration-centric which is something that W2 absolutely neglects - a proper sequel, my ass), some interesting combat ideas (which is probably the sole weak place of W1), the works. All we need is some money for the fucking artist to sit on his ass and draw. But, obviously, even if we'd started an indiegogo, we'd received dick as we're nobody with no track record whatsoever.

And it's not even about us being shit and butthurt. Maybe we are shit. And I'm definitely butthurt, don't even bother to mention that. But there are a crapload of indies out there who need support. Proven indies. You do understand that by setting his selling tag at measly 9 bucks Styg made a huge mistake? And, from the looks of his steam community, while he'll do well enough to pay for the game's development, he'll probably struggle with gaining actual profits? Good enough to start the next game? Instead of burning the money on this shit, you could've bought Underrail (which is the best fucking RPG of the last 10 years), like, seven times. I dunno what you would've done with that and I don't care - the point is, we'd be less fucked than we are.

 

[SarcasticUndertones]

Sorry for trolling the Codex, but I honestly think most of the cutscenes are pretty great (I'm not talking specifically about the song here; that felt too forced)! Ain't much companies out there who are as good at this as dem Biowhores!

Since I'm a storyfag I wouldn't mind getting rid of all the shit combat, so I won't have to deal with the horrible controls and UI, and just let me talk and decide stuff, and then watch some 20 minute cutscene again. That's where the game is actually good at.

Trolling? Does that mean this comment too because I just can't take it seriously. I'm a sucker for a good story too, but it's got to be written by something other than an inadequate amount of chimps with typewriters and not fall back on every cliche in the book, and those are the only two things that bioware are actually good at doing, employing an inadequate amount of chimps and taking everything they learn from the big book of pandering cliches.

Bioware doesn't have a good, christ, even passable story in them and since they they've forgotten how to code game mechanics, they're coasting on reputation alone.

Ahhhh.. it feels so cathartic to hate on Bio again.

 

[Slow James]

Despite the astroturfing (and uncrackable protection on PC/PS4/Xbox One (denuvo is only on pc, but the other consoles haven't been cracked either so newgen isn't under the effect of piwacy yet)), this game didn't even manage to outsell DA2, and DA2 had this pattern of slightly going over DAO during the first week, then tanking very hard because of word of mouth after. Considering the time it spent in development this time, if this game doesn't outdo DA2, which did MUCH worse than DAO in the long run (even on consoles, despite DAO not being very controller friendly which is why they did things like reducing friendly fire damage on HARD difficulty), EA might look at bioware and think it's time to downsize this shit, probably down to a Mass Effect-only developer or something.

This is how DA2 did on consoles :

There's heavy potential in schadenfreude coming next weeks. So far the pattern of fanboyism from one minority and the way the rest talked about the game makes it look like it might very well fall into DA2's pattern, which would be very bad for biowhore's DA team. There's no profit to be had from a game being sold only to BSN's denizens.

Close to a million in sales the first week is really good. Better than many other RPG's opening weeks aside from Skyrim. Of course, the vast majority of these are from pre-orders (just like DA2's was). The real test is in Week 3 and 4 sales. If those drop as sharply as DA2's did, then it will be very bad news for Bioware.

If, on the other hand, they remain steady or even incline over the holidays (just like DA:O did), then that will paint a very different picture and will result in it being Bioware's best selling game to date.

Too early to tell. Glad I did not touch this with a 90 foot poll, but it's impossible to say if it is a success of a trainwreck (or anywhere in-between) just get.

 

[Joni Odin von Hassenstein]

Sorry for trolling the Codex, but I honestly think most of the cutscenes are pretty great (I'm not talking specifically about the song here; that felt too forced)! Ain't much companies out there who are as good at this as dem Biowhores!

Since I'm a storyfag I wouldn't mind getting rid of all the shit combat, so I won't have to deal with the horrible controls and UI, and just let me talk and decide stuff, and then watch some 20 minute cutscene again. That's where the game is actually good at.

Trolling? Does that mean this comment too because I just can't take it seriously. I'm a sucker for a good story too, but it's got to be written by something other than an inadequate amount of chimps with typewriters and not fall back on every cliche in the book, and those are the only two things that bioware are actually good at doing, employing an inadequate amount of chimps and taking everything they learn from the big book of pandering cliches.

Bioware doesn't have a good, christ, even passable story in them and since they they've forgotten how to code game mechanics, they're coasting on reputation alone.

Ahhhh.. it feels so cathartic to hate on Bio again.

Well, although I'm not as decisive as you about the Story itself (still not sure what to make of it) I wasn't really talking about writing, but rather about directing.
The cutscenes in my opinion are very well directed.

 

[Zeriel]

Despite the astroturfing (and uncrackable protection on PC/PS4/Xbox One (denuvo is only on pc, but the other consoles haven't been cracked either so newgen isn't under the effect of piwacy yet)), this game didn't even manage to outsell DA2, and DA2 had this pattern of slightly going over DAO during the first week, then tanking very hard because of word of mouth after. Considering the time it spent in development this time, if this game doesn't outdo DA2, which did MUCH worse than DAO in the long run (even on consoles, despite DAO not being very controller friendly which is why they did things like reducing friendly fire damage on HARD difficulty), EA might look at bioware and think it's time to downsize this shit, probably down to a Mass Effect-only developer or something.

This is how DA2 did on consoles :

There's heavy potential in schadenfreude coming next weeks. So far the pattern of fanboyism from one minority and the way the rest talked about the game makes it look like it might very well fall into DA2's pattern, which would be very bad for biowhore's DA team. There's no profit to be had from a game being sold only to BSN's denizens.

Close to a million in sales the first week is really good. Better than many other RPG's opening weeks aside from Skyrim. Of course, the vast majority of these are from pre-orders (just like DA2's was). The real test is in Week 3 and 4 sales. If those drop as sharply as DA2's did, then it will be very bad news for Bioware.

If, on the other hand, they remain steady or even incline over the holidays (just like DA:O did), then that will paint a very different picture and will result in it being Bioware's best selling game to date.

To early to tell. Glad I did not touch this with a 90 foot poll, but it's impossible to say if it is a success of a trainwreck (or anywhere in-between) just get.

I suspect it'll do well because of Frostbite and the Skyrim effect. It's hard to go wrong with that formula, at least for now. Maybe after a decade of Skyrim clones that well will go dry, but these are like the fledgling days of the Assassin's Creed games, Skyrim clones as a big genre (remember when 100 RTSes came out a year? it's going to be like that, but the cost to produce these AAA open world games is much higher, so neccessarily smaller pool of games) are just getting revved up.

 

[SarcasticUndertones]

The cutscenes in my opinion are very well directed.

And if they fucked off and started making movies I probably wouldn't have anything to say, I still wouldn't touch their stuff with a barge pole but I'm not as invested in movies as I am with rpg's.

 

[Dreaad]

Christ, there's something so horribly appropriate about inserting Fallout NV ost into the retardo plot sections of DA:I. The music parodies the entire goddam fiasco for the pile of pretentious hand waving "logic" shit that it is.

 

[Scroo]

Best part is that people discussing the game have already bought it, since it hasn't been cracked yet.

I received a free key

 

[dryan]

Despite the astroturfing (and uncrackable protection on PC/PS4/Xbox One (denuvo is only on pc, but the other consoles haven't been cracked either so newgen isn't under the effect of piwacy yet)), this game didn't even manage to outsell DA2, and DA2 had this pattern of slightly going over DAO during the first week, then tanking very hard because of word of mouth after. Considering the time it spent in development this time, if this game doesn't outdo DA2, which did MUCH worse than DAO in the long run (even on consoles, despite DAO not being very controller friendly which is why they did things like reducing friendly fire damage on HARD difficulty), EA might look at bioware and think it's time to downsize this shit, probably down to a Mass Effect-only developer or something.

This is how DA2 did on consoles :

There's heavy potential in schadenfreude coming next weeks. So far the pattern of fanboyism from one minority and the way the rest talked about the game makes it look like it might very well fall into DA2's pattern, which would be very bad for biowhore's DA team. There's no profit to be had from a game being sold only to BSN's denizens.

Close to a million in sales the first week is really good. Better than many other RPG's opening weeks aside from Skyrim. Of course, the vast majority of these are from pre-orders (just like DA2's was). The real test is in Week 3 and 4 sales. If those drop as sharply as DA2's did, then it will be very bad news for Bioware.

If, on the other hand, they remain steady or even incline over the holidays (just like DA:O did), then that will paint a very different picture and will result in it being Bioware's best selling game to date.

Too early to tell. Glad I did not touch this with a 90 foot poll, but it's impossible to say if it is a success of a trainwreck (or anywhere in-between) just get.

I hope it's a smashing success, so that Bioware will get the message that people want more of this kind of stuff. So in Mass Effect 4 there will be a romance-able transsexual Krogan who sings inspirational songs while he xir fucks the protagonist.

EDIT: Fixed the pronoun.

 

[Akratus]

The cutscenes in my opinion are very well directed.

And if they fucked off and started making movies I probably wouldn't have anything to say, I still wouldn't touch their stuff with a barge pole but I'm not as invested in movies as I am with rpg's.

 

[Slow James]

I hope it's a smashing success, so that Bioware will get the message that people want more of this kind of stuff. So in Mass Effect 4 there will be a romance-able transsexual Krogan who sings inspirational songs while he fucks the protagonist.

Some Codexers just want to watch the world bone...

 

[DalekFlay]

Wrong. They shouldn't remove the choices - they should remove the imports. Choices are a huge driver of replayability and enjoyment. Without them, a game becomes insanely linear. Keep the choices, just get rid of the mechanic of carrying those choices over into future games. If you are going to ignore or handwave them in future games, just make each game start with a canon.

That's how Ultima did it, that's how Fallout does it... and it's worked out pretty well so far.

SO MUCH THIS.

Not having to worry about carrying shit over also lets them have crazier choices and outcomes in the games. As it is one reason choice is so limited and superficial in Bioware games is because the next one has to incorporate all of it, so no one important can die, no faction can be destroyed, etc. Under the guise of "your choices matter more" they actually take away all choice.

 

[Slow James]

SO MUCH THIS.

Not having to worry about carrying shit over also lets them have crazier choices and outcomes in the games. As it is one reason choice is so limited and superficial in Bioware games is because the next one has to incorporate all of it, so no one important can die, no faction can be destroyed, etc. Under the guise of "your choices matter more" they actually take away all choice.

You sound like someone I know on the BSN.