The Dragon Age: Inquisition Thread

[Ninjerk]

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/530612-the-romance-in-this-game-is-medicore-at-best/

Alright, let me dive straight into it.

When I first saw that their was romance I stopped myself from Googling spoilers, and I kinda regret that. While the characters appear more human I cannot help to feel that it limits the whole roleplaying experience. In any game that allows it, my first playthrough is always a gay human male -- so I'll start on this for now! The first person I saw that I could flirt with was Cullen, and by the Gods he was perfect for my Inquistitor! So I got to work, I began talking to him every time I saw him, selected each flirty option I could and tried to in his direction for his approval of me. It was actually going insanely well, first option to flirt down and he gave me that corny smile people noted, and I thought I was onto something, second option he let me flirt with him again and that was great, but.. the third time he shot me down, and it hit me like a truck. Cullen just friendzoned me.

While I adore the fact that the NPC's have unique tastes, this cuts from the roleplay standard. I'm not making this so Cullen will be made bisexual just for my pleasure, or whatever I aim to get out of him. It's the fact I feel like every character should be coded bisexual, but with preferences. Okay, maybe Cullen is straight, but if you woo him enough he'll swap over to the same team. Because from what I can muster, this game is based on choices, I learnt that the wrong way when I snapped at Cassandra over something so little because the choice-wheel lies, it lies at every turn, for an option that seems like it will come out as happy my character ends up chewing someones head off, but back to romance.

Alright, so now all characters are bisexual, what now? Well the most formiddle part is making it work, I shouldn't be able to just walk up to someone and have relations with them. I'll use Cullen as an example, because almost everyone on here knows him, let's say our Cullen is now bisexual, however he doesn't know it. Simple, in order for a male to get Cullen, you'll have to put in some mad extra work for him, the amazing thing about this is each character can be coded to be easy or hard to obtain.

And while we're on it the whole buddy system should be improved, as you know this is a game where reading and listening prevails, so let's say if you try to flirt with someone who is straight before you're highly close to them it'll kick your rating right down, maybe flirting options could even fail and you're blocked from talking to that person for a few hours (I haven't noticed a day/night cycle) 3 hours real time, it'd make sense and add a sense of realism into the mix, I really think you guys could do amazing work with a system with this, maybe even add in potential lovers, as 6 is actually rather low for a game this size.

formiddle

 

[Ulminati]

Maybe leave it a year or two before you next start throwing around join dates. Funny.

Joined: Nov 24, 2014

 

[bozia2012]

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/530612-the-romance-in-this-game-is-medicore-at-best/

Reading through that thread. So far I've learned that 1 in 3 people are bisexual!

 

[Zewp]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... Jesus, dude.. really? No come back? Just some daftass gif that only gets used because there is no reply that doesn't reinforce it?

Post more, you make me laugh.

Sup Drog

 

[SuicideBunny]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... Jesus, dude.. really? No come back? Just some daftass gif that only gets used because there is no reply that doesn't reinforce it?

Post more, you make me laugh.

you sound like a shitty orgasm alt.

 

[SarcasticUndertones]

Maybe leave it a year or two before you next start throwing around join dates. Funny.

Joined: Nov 24, 2014

I think you missed the point of that comment.

 

[AW8]

Keep in mind for a lot of people "best Dragon Age game" might be similar to "best shit sandwich." They're all pretty flawed.

Yes. Watching Chinquisition made me start the second playthrough of DA:O that's been 5 years in the planning.

And... it's not as good as I remembered it. The camera is clunky. Combat iniates when you're such a distance from your enemies that you can't even target them in the top down camera. Most battles start with me running towards the enemy or waiting for them to come into range. Awkward. Even when enemy archers are in range to shoot, you can just barely target them in the top down camera. The top down camera was already limited in the first installation.

The controls are dumb. Coming from Wasteland 2, which was exclusively top down and where WASD panned the camera, having only the option to pan the camera with MMB is worse. Using RMB to both activate things and rotate the camera smells of consolitis.

Clicking on enemies in third person is just bad. I almost wish this was a full-on action game with a crosshair. If the game had been exclusively top down, or had isometric 2D backgrounds, the mouse controls would have been a lot less clunkier as a result.

The trash mobs in the Mage origin story and the Kotaku Wilds bored me to tears. Packs of Genlocks appearing from thin air that has to be put down in this slow, auto-attacking combat. Now that I've learned more spells and can pull off spell combinations combat is more fun, with the added frustration/fun of trying to keep your party members from attacking enemies and breaking my sleep spell.

I could make all party members passive in the Tactics screen (yay!) but considering how dull and clunky the combat is, I just want as much of it to run itself. Which leads to the frustrating balancing act between full party control and "the game plays itself".

Kotaku Wilds had 2 banal MMORPG sidequests that may as well have been from Inquisition. In one of them you follow an invisible trail only viewable by highlighting (holding TAB), which leads to a hidden cache(!??). In the other, you pour ashes onto a pile of rocks... which summons a generic demon carrying some above-normal loot. All because you found a pouch of ashes, a bookpage on a legend and some added notes on a dead body. So dumb. :D

I can barely take Alistair seriously. I don't remember him being this childish. In a world with Duncan, Loghain and even King Cailan he feels completely off. I can understand Morrigan's attitude, having no relation to the Fereldan army - but Alistair just saw all his friends slaughtered, why does he engage in funny bickering with Morrigan? It's like if Atton in KotOR 2 was a miner on Peragus and still engaged in comical bickering with Kreia after all miners were murdered.
The man's been a Grey Warden for 6 months, just saw his friends and relative slaughtered, and still acts funny and charming. You've chugged Darkspawn blood for heaven's sake! Why do you still act like you're in a romance novel for teenage girls!?

So what good aspects do the game have then?

Well, there are interesting characters and lore in droves. I really like the Dragon Age setting, lifted elements or not. While the main enemy is dull, there are interesting conflicts going on all throughout the world which you can decide the outcome of. Your choices obviously doesn't really matter since it's a BioWare game, but it's still nice to be able to choose who lives and who dies.

The dialogue is good. People react plenty to my sex, my class and my race - and I've had several chances to comment on these things myself. You get to say a lot and define the personality of your character. (Looking forward to Pillars of Eternity and Joshboi's reputation system that will allegedly make this have an effect on gameplay instead of just being flavour).

The music is great! I'm looking forward to visiting Orzammar and Wonders of Thedas if just for the music.

The origin stories are a great concept. As a Mage, I got to see the Tower before it was overrun with demons. The story also has an entirely different feel from the Human Noble, where I was motivated by revenge the whole way through. Here, I'm a Mage newly freed from my cage. It's fun to threaten plebs with magic.

Combat is starting to get better as I get more spells. Looking forward to blow shit up as I get access to more spell combinations.

But what DalekFlay says is true. Dragon Age was flawed from the beginning. Compare Origins to New Vegas, released a year later, which not only has acceptable combat that fits the first-person camera, but also has better choices, better writing, better skill checks, better quests and doesn't have romances for teenagers.

 

[Lhynn]

Okay guys, I need the REAL information about this game.

How are the boob jiggle physics?

Japan is still about 20 years ahead of us in this, it is a sad state of affairs.

 

[Slow James]

What you need is Skyrim with HDT.

Argonian nipples or GTFO.

 

[Slow James]

Japan is still about 20 years ahead of us in this, it is a sad state of affairs.

Curse you, Japan!

 

[Volourn]

"Alright, let me dive straight into it.

When I first saw that their was romance I stopped myself from Googling spoilers, and I kinda regret that. While the characters appear more human I cannot help to feel that it limits the whole roleplaying experience. In any game that allows it, my first playthrough is always a gay human male -- so I'll start on this for now! The first person I saw that I could flirt with was Cullen, and by the Gods he was perfect for my Inquistitor! So I got to work, I began talking to him every time I saw him, selected each flirty option I could and tried to in his direction for his approval of me. It was actually going insanely well, first option to flirt down and he gave me that corny smile people noted, and I thought I was onto something, second option he let me flirt with him again and that was great, but.. the third time he shot me down, and it hit me like a truck. Cullen just friendzoned me.

While I adore the fact that the NPC's have unique tastes, this cuts from the roleplay standard. I'm not making this so Cullen will be made bisexual just for my pleasure, or whatever I aim to get out of him. It's the fact I feel like every character should be coded bisexual, but with preferences. Okay, maybe Cullen is straight, but if you woo him enough he'll swap over to the same team. Because from what I can muster, this game is based on choices, I learnt that the wrong way when I snapped at Cassandra over something so little because the choice-wheel lies, it lies at every turn, for an option that seems like it will come out as happy my character ends up chewing someones head off, but back to romance.

Alright, so now all characters are bisexual, what now? Well the most formiddle part is making it work, I shouldn't be able to just walk up to someone and have relations with them. I'll use Cullen as an example, because almost everyone on here knows him, let's say our Cullen is now bisexual, however he doesn't know it. Simple, in order for a male to get Cullen, you'll have to put in some mad extra work for him, the amazing thing about this is each character can be coded to be easy or hard to obtain.

And while we're on it the whole buddy system should be improved, as you know this is a game where reading and listening prevails, so let's say if you try to flirt with someone who is straight before you're highly close to them it'll kick your rating right down, maybe flirting options could even fail and you're blocked from talking to that person for a few hours (I haven't noticed a day/night cycle) 3 hours real time, it'd make sense and add a sense of realism into the mix, I really think you guys could do amazing work with a system with this, maybe even add in potential lovers, as 6 is actually rather low for a game this size."

Isn't one of the biggest most used pro gay argument is that it's not a chocie? You are born with your sexual perferences? Yet, here, this 'gay' guy believes you can MAKE someone gay? That's fucked up. And,e vil.

 

[hell bovine]

http://forum.bioware.com/topic/530612-the-romance-in-this-game-is-medicore-at-best/

Reading through that thread. So far I've learned that 1 in 3 people are bisexual!

Depends on how you look at it; a lot of heterosexual people have gone through the young & experimented (or were just plain drunk) phase.

Isn't one of the biggest most used pro gay argument is that it's not a chocie? You are born with your sexual perferences? Yet, here, this 'gay' guy believes you can MAKE someone gay? That's fucked up. And,e vil.

Eh, not that different from a straight guy trying to get a lesbian girl, because she just needs a "real man" in her life, or a straight woman trying to convince a gay man to have sex, because if he never had woman, he can't know "for sure". I would say, when it comes to this sort of stupidity, sexual orientation does not discriminate.

 

[dryan]

I believe every person is inherently bisexual.

 

[Stefan Vujovic]

Bioware forums can sure get you homophobia , and cancer of course...

 

[Caim]

"Alright, let me dive straight into it.

When I first saw that their was romance I stopped myself from Googling spoilers, and I kinda regret that. While the characters appear more human I cannot help to feel that it limits the whole roleplaying experience. In any game that allows it, my first playthrough is always a gay human male -- so I'll start on this for now! The first person I saw that I could flirt with was Cullen, and by the Gods he was perfect for my Inquistitor! So I got to work, I began talking to him every time I saw him, selected each flirty option I could and tried to in his direction for his approval of me. It was actually going insanely well, first option to flirt down and he gave me that corny smile people noted, and I thought I was onto something, second option he let me flirt with him again and that was great, but.. the third time he shot me down, and it hit me like a truck. Cullen just friendzoned me.

While I adore the fact that the NPC's have unique tastes, this cuts from the roleplay standard. I'm not making this so Cullen will be made bisexual just for my pleasure, or whatever I aim to get out of him. It's the fact I feel like every character should be coded bisexual, but with preferences. Okay, maybe Cullen is straight, but if you woo him enough he'll swap over to the same team. Because from what I can muster, this game is based on choices, I learnt that the wrong way when I snapped at Cassandra over something so little because the choice-wheel lies, it lies at every turn, for an option that seems like it will come out as happy my character ends up chewing someones head off, but back to romance.

Alright, so now all characters are bisexual, what now? Well the most formiddle part is making it work, I shouldn't be able to just walk up to someone and have relations with them. I'll use Cullen as an example, because almost everyone on here knows him, let's say our Cullen is now bisexual, however he doesn't know it. Simple, in order for a male to get Cullen, you'll have to put in some mad extra work for him, the amazing thing about this is each character can be coded to be easy or hard to obtain.

And while we're on it the whole buddy system should be improved, as you know this is a game where reading and listening prevails, so let's say if you try to flirt with someone who is straight before you're highly close to them it'll kick your rating right down, maybe flirting options could even fail and you're blocked from talking to that person for a few hours (I haven't noticed a day/night cycle) 3 hours real time, it'd make sense and add a sense of realism into the mix, I really think you guys could do amazing work with a system with this, maybe even add in potential lovers, as 6 is actually rather low for a game this size."

Isn't one of the biggest most used pro gay argument is that it's not a chocie? You are born with your sexual perferences? Yet, here, this 'gay' guy believes you can MAKE someone gay? That's fucked up. And, evil.

Don't you know how relationships work? If you pour enough effort into you they eventually have to reward you with a relationship and/or sex. If you don't do this with someone of the opposite sex you're a tease and if you do it with someone of the same sex you're a homophobe.

 

[kris]

I believe every person is inherently bisexual.

I believe 1/4 posters on the bioware social forums agree with you.

Reading through that thread. So far I've learned that 1 in 3 people are bisexual!

9/10 people also just make up statistics on the spot. You can trust me on that one.

 

[aris]

So do anyone know if bioware devs have stated any plans to make the tactical view for pc better? Like actually mouse driven? I still haven't picket it up, but I would be interested if they fix this, and when it becomes cheaper.

 

[Zombra]

So do anyone know if bioware devs have stated any plans to make the tactical view for pc better? Like actually mouse driven? I still haven't picket it up, but I would be interested if they fix this, and when it becomes cheaper.

I don't know about that specifically, but they have gone on record saying that they have their first three patches scheduled out already. I imagine there will be a number of QOL fixes in there, but that's a guess.

 

[Azarkon]

I call bullshitz on both.

Mundanity isn't something that's bad. It's not good, but it's not bad, that's why it's called mundane. When you have a game where the only genuine criticism you can muster is that it's mundane (or the less useful term boring) then that's pretty darn good in my books. That means I could list 9 things I liked and just downgrade the game's points from one category. You could argue that boredom is the biggest sin of all, but it's not really (what with boredom threshholds being different for different people)... and so we get to NWN2...

Which was *mostly* mundane with just the odd *good bit* people can use in forum arguments (the use of "significantly" later recinded in the same post by "redeeming features if someone else had have done them"), but, holy shit, most of it was mundane. But it also had crap combat, was bugged to high heaven, and felt like a disjointed mess, both in area design and story/questing. I don't play games and give them a personal rating based on what it could have been, I rate games on what they are.

I have no idea why you think DA2 was in any way comically bad. It was grey, dull, pointless dross with not one single redeeming feature that couldn't raise a smile if it tried. You might find it amusing to play a game where the only humourous aspect is taking the piss out of a scrawny, badly written companion doll, but I tend to prefer either real humour to make me smile or something genuinely comically bad, like the way the companions can't keep still or climb into walls or hump each other while your PC has supposedly meaningful and serious dialogues that decide the fate of everything in DA:I.

NWN was the definition of average. NWN2 was below average. DA:I is average. DA2 was below average.

Mundane is a poor word for describing Bioware and Obsidian's worst efforts. I rather use boring, and there's little that is worse than boring in entertainment.

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

Mundane is a poor word for describing Bioware and Obsidian's worst efforts. I rather use boring, and there's little that is worse than boring in entertainment. I think the only way to fail harder, as an entertainer, is to insult your audience.

Really? So if you find something boring no-one else is allowed to find that product not-boring?

Because "boring" is completely subjective. Oh, how ideal for you, a damn-you-all criticism that relies 100% on subjective personal taste. Fuck all the objective points that mean the same to everyone and can be academically identified, as you long as you don't find it boring, that's fine and that's the final word on a game's historical legacy and objective quality...

... right...

 

[IncendiaryDevice]

I apologise mate, I'm not shutting you down, I know I can write in an aggressive format, but I'm not denying you the right to diss NWN, I am genuinely interested in knowing where NWN objectively failed. What was it that made it boring for you? Can you identify the precise reason and put it into words that make sense? Or are you just parroting other people because it's the cool thing to do?

 

[RK47]

this 'gay' guy believes you can MAKE someone gay? That's fucked up. And, evil.

Don't you know that's how relationships indoctrination work?

If you believe this game isn't shit, it can become true.

 

[Crevice tab]

Well from what Commissar sees from Comrade RK-47 vids DA2 is indeed b.... less shitty game than DAI which has meh popamole combat, MMO grind and even more derp Main Story and Sera oh sweet God Emperor save our souls...

Well DA2 plot line is more interesting than generic ORCs led by Dragon Invasion from DAO was . Both MOTB and Torment had less epic and personal story line and both were top notch story fag games; Its the Biowaste poor execution of the City plot which sucks. So from concepts side of think Comrade Kirkbridge scored a valid point.

Again, someone judging something by what it could have been in their own imagination rather than what it actually is... catastrophic fail. It doesn't matter what the construct of the plot is, it's whether it's executed well that matters. Also, I'd love to hear what's so "differently interesting" about a plot-line about someone becoming a god in a city instead of a god in the wider world - it's the same shit isn't it?

Well considering that the other oh so inclusive masterpieces do everything just as badly and have worse storylines you could say that DA2 is the best of them.

However take note that the best shit is still shit.

In all fairness DA2's plot really was epic. It was a radical departure from the large open fantasy RPGs AAA companies spew nowadays and it touched on some interesting problems like dealing with an alien culture (the Qunari), or the social tensions between repressed groups (elves and mages vs humans and the Chantry) while still snaring the player in with some familiar tropes. Amazing C&C opportunities were built in the plot and only the most idiotic of writers could get make a boring story out of the premise.

Then Bioware happened and we know the result- possibly the most boring, pointless, bland RPG to exit one of the AAA shit factories.

Again Comrades Commissar and Kirkbridge never completed this game which is only way to win it.

Spoiler

Its all in the end shit except first part which was classic Bioware dish but we won't get this ever again from EA/SJW Biowaste.

This^

Also believe in Cleave MK? He seems to be the only big game (aka AAA+++) writer of any value (for games after 2000 of course).

 

[Forest Dweller]

In case you guys missed this:

http://www.incgamers.com/2014/12/denuvo-drm-has-been-cracked

Expect torrents in the near future.

 

[Azarkon]

While reading through a review of DAI I found an official quote from Matt Rhodes, lead artist on DAI, on why 'the characters are ugly':

"For those who are interested, we have been very calculated when it comes to engineering our characters imperfections. The development process has a built in erosion mechanism: many stakeholders in many review meetings tend to trim away a characters humanizing flaws and oddities, leaving little more than "pretty" and "safe" . Strip and shave most game characters today and you'd be hard pressed to tell most of them apart. We've worked very hard on Inquisition to safeguard our characters from this erosion process. We want to give them more identity than just their clothes, hairstyle and makeup. It's our hope that after you've spent some time with them, our character's will be as inseparable from their quirks, flaws and oddities as your own friends and family are from theirs"

Trans.: we went for 'realism.'

Tracing the source, however, I found that the statement was made by Rhodes in a thread on Morrigan being ugly in DAI.

...What? And here I thought Morrigan was one of the best looking female characters in DAI when put beside their other offerings.