[Megathread] Dragon Age 3

[Deleted]

They didn't happen at all in 2...Where he said "We don't want you to feel like oh well just another monster dead move on" is exactly what happened in 2.

[Faldric]

"Oh hey, you know that poor decision nearly every major reviewer criticized us for? Yeah, let's do that again." I doubt they'll be reusing anything if at all possible.

So because every major reviewer told them I am not allowed to have the same opinion that going through the same environments with minor tweaks like blocking a single path was shit? This is a forum, we are asked on our opinions. There is nothing released about D3 yet, we are all just speculating.

Oh look, ME3 ending oversimplification bitching, how original

Its not really oversimplified, its actually what happens sadly.

Oh look, a poor out-of-context example to poorly explain a point!

How exactly is it out of context? The dialogues and the wheel were vastly inferior to Dragon Age Origins. Half of the time, you choose your answer and the guy talks something completely different, than what that wheel told you before.

Seriously, DA2 was a mediocre game overrated by the majority of reviewers and Bioware gets WAY TOO MUCH hype and credit lately, but seriously, how about some actual evidence instead of the extreme overreactions I see in every single negative post about them and EA?

Out of curiosity: How should one provide actual evidence that a game is shit? Its all just a matter of opinion.
And for me the medicore dialogue options, the lack of tactics in the combat system, the reuse of the environments, not even being able to equip my characters.... were just to much to enjoy this game.

[Herecius]

Was horrendously disappointed with 2. I refuse to get hyped for 3, and will reserve every single thought I have on it until it's released.

2 was a grand total of 5 environments: the main city, mountain paths, identical warehouses, identical caves, and identical houses. They dumped almost all of the tactical aspects that made Origins so enjoyable. It had more backtracking than a metroidvania game. It was a train wreck of an RPG for me, and I have trouble having faith in Bioware after that.

[Vulpei]

Was horrendously disappointed with 2. I refuse to get hyped for 3, and will reserve every single thought I have on it until it's released.

2 was a grand total of 5 environments: the main city, mountain paths, identical warehouses, identical caves, and identical houses. They dumped almost all of the tactical aspects that made Origins so enjoyable. It had more backtracking than a metroidvania game. It was a train wreck of an RPG for me, and I have trouble having faith in Bioware after that.

I'm sorry, there were tactical elements in 1 that were enjoyable? Combat in 2 was 10x better in -every- way.

[Adrianoz]

Was horrendously disappointed with 2. I refuse to get hyped for 3, and will reserve every single thought I have on it until it's released.

2 was a grand total of 5 environments: the main city, mountain paths, identical warehouses, identical caves, and identical houses. They dumped almost all of the tactical aspects that made Origins so enjoyable. It had more backtracking than a metroidvania game. It was a train wreck of an RPG for me, and I have trouble having faith in Bioware after that.

I find it impossible that BioWare did this on their own initiative. They would have to go out of their way to create such a terrible game as Dragon Age 2.

My guess would be EA didn't realize some oldschool-RPG would be such a sleeper hit, so they rushed BW into throwing another game out there so they could milk the cash cow and keep the hype alive.

Ray and Greg should walk up to the EA boardroom and tell them that if they want to make money, all they need to do is shut up, sit tight and provide any funding BW requires. Same goes for Activision. I hate these two behemoths, just crushing the gaming industry.

[Repefe]

Let's hope DA2 won't happen again. DA1 I still play that game.

---------- Post added 2012-04-10 at 08:00 AM ----------

I'm sorry, there were tactical elements in 1 that were enjoyable? Combat in 2 was 10x better in -every- way.

Spam spam spam spam spam spam ... console frenzy. Combat was one of the things I enjoyed immensly in DA1 and it was one of the reasons why DA1 has such strong following. Yeah, for some it was too slow paced/boring, but I wanted to vomit from how they changed it in DA2. It has nothing in common with DA1 combat ... DA2 does not deserve the name DA, it's a different game, for better or worse.

[Notos]

I admit I was one of the people initially disappointed with DA2 because I sort of expected the story to move away from Kirkwall at some point and move to different places like DA:O. Once I got over that though, I really enjoyed the game. Combat felt a lot more balanced (and the animations were so much better than DA:O), and the talent system allowed for a ton of customization. I also enjoyed Hawke's character and the fact that he would develop differently and people would react differently based on which conversation options you used the most. He's certainly more interesting than, say, Commander Shepard.

The story was one of the things I was pretty *meh* about in DA:O and even though the story was pretty linear in DA2, I felt that it was more coherent and less predictable than that of its predecessor. More real choices in the DA3 story will be nice though. The companions were awesome too, though I missed Alistair and Morrigan quite a bit. Aveline/Isabela/Anders/Ferris/Merril make up for it though. In fact, I don't think I really disliked any of the companions, except Carver cause he can be a bit of a prick. Even with him though, you can sort of see his side of the story, with having to live in Hawke's shadow and his worry for the mages in his family.


edit: I wonder if the Seekers will finally manage to track down the Warden and Hawke in DA3? Maybe the plot will involve those two working together with whoever the protagonist is in DA3. That would be pretty awesome, especially if they do a good job of incorporating your story from imports.

[Deleted]

edit: I wonder if the Seekers will finally manage to track down the Warden and Hawke in DA3? Maybe the plot will involve those two working together with whoever the protagonist is in DA3. That would be pretty awesome, especially if they do a good job of incorporating your story from imports.

If they hook up and the combat is just a nice updated slightly tweaked origins then I will buy it flat out.

[Notos]

If they hook up and the combat is just a nice updated slightly tweaked origins then I will buy it flat out.

I feel like that's where the story is heading based on DA2 and information from the novels. I doubt they will be playable, but just having them factor into what's going on around you and interact with each other would just be awesome.

As for combat, I don't really know. I enjoyed the combat in both DA:O and DA2 so I'll take whatever they give me. DA2 is more fast paced, but I found it plenty challenging and strategic on Nightmare. One thing I definitely want them to keep from DA2 are the animations. The rogue animations like backstab, twin fangs, and the flask-kicking were just awesome, and I love the mage auto-attack as well.

[Herecius]

I'm sorry, there were tactical elements in 1 that were enjoyable? Combat in 2 was 10x better in -every- way.

Well, I found the tactical micro-management of DA:O to be quite enjoyable, and as I'm not mentally insane or a freak of nature, I suspect I'm not entirely alone in that opinion.

DA2 combat just felt like generic, samey, boring action-RPG. It had the depth of a kiddie pool to it. And that's in addition to the other major issues I had with the game, namely, the incredibly tiny number of environments and the sheer stupid amount of backtracking.

EDIT: Acknowledging that it did get tougher and more strategic on maximum difficulty, but even then, the strategy somewhat began and ended at 'toss down your debuff circles, go to town, then run away and dodge damage until you can do it again.'

[Notos]

Well, I found the tactical micro-management of DA:O to be quite enjoyable, and as I'm not mentally insane or a freak of nature, I suspect I'm not entirely alone in that opinion.

DA2 combat just felt like generic, samey, boring action-RPG. It had the depth of a kiddie pool to it. And that's in addition to the other major issues I had with the game, namely, the incredibly tiny number of environments and the sheer stupid amount of backtracking.

EDIT: Acknowledging that it did get tougher and more strategic on maximum difficulty, but even then, the strategy somewhat began and ended at 'toss down your debuff circles, go to town, then run away and dodge damage until you can do it again.'

Are we talking about PC or consoles here? Because if I remember correctly the combat was pretty well gutted in the Xbox version. I was always micromanaging my party on PC though.

[Varyk]

the people laughing every 5 seconds kinda made me wanna die

[Herecius]

Are we talking about PC or consoles here? Because if I remember correctly the combat was pretty well gutted in the Xbox version. I was always micromanaging my party on PC though.

I've only ever played it on PC, so I admittedly can't really speak for console. I still micromanaged in DA2, but only because my party members were generally too stupid when it came to healing properly. It felt less like tactics and more like babysitting.

[Drihan]

I actually prefer DA2 over Origins in almost every department. Combat, most RPG elements, character development, quest log/journal, story in general etc. Even though DAO had more diversity and more choices in which ways to go, but it was so horribly represented, your character didn't even have a voice.

Basically, in all RPG departments, besides diversity, DAO failed horribly (at least for me) to really engage the player in this character they have created. DA2, like the Mass Effect series, brought the player much more emotionally into the game universe. DAO was a good game, just not a very good RPG in many respects. DA3, I hear, will be a "marriage" between DA2 and DAO. There was an interview a little while back where someone at BioWare discussed how they were planning to design DA3, which was keeping the DA2 spirit alive, but bringing in the areas that people missed from DAO. They always say that, hopefully this time they will manage to do it decently, at the very least.

[Deleted]

I'd rather play Witcher 2 again, thanks. Better plot, graphics and it lasts longer than 15yr old boy in bed.

[Dexiefy]

I'm amazed there isn't a DA3 thread where we can hype about the game yet

Whats to hype about? While da1 was great, da2 was crap (and im being generous here).
Whole action besides few quests was in 1 city, story was boring as hell and only thing that resembled dragon age 1 in any way was the fact that you had your group and wasnt walking alone ~~
At start you meet Flemeth even tough there is no point to her as this is the only time she actually appears to any1.
All characters besides Isabella (who had awesome voice acting) were boring...
Combat was butchered from baldurs gate style to hack and slash style with ability to pause. Almost every fight was starting with an ambush of enemies appearing out of nowhere and all crowd control abilities were basically useless due to how fast enemies were actually dying. Note here, i havent played on nightmare, wanted to complete the game on 2nd hardest setting first and then do it again on highest difficulty setting... unfortunately i was so dissapointed with the game that i never sat to complete it the second time...However this "hard" setting made me feel like easy setting of games 12 years ago.

This is only a tip of the iceberg what actually sucked about DA2 so there is no reason for me to be excited about DA3 UNLESS it will be improved da1... However its really doubtfull that it will happen since EA is basically second Fagtivision that prefer to create shit for the masses for better profit, make game easy enough so you can play blindfolded and still complete it and then pay for DLC that are stored in game files at the release...

Let's hope DA2 won't happen again. DA1 I still play that game.

Signed, im actually about to start it for the third time ;o or well, 4th since i lost my save files when i was playing a mage ;o

[Notos]

I've only ever played it on PC, so I admittedly can't really speak for console. I still micromanaged in DA2, but only because my party members were generally too stupid when it came to healing properly. It felt less like tactics and more like babysitting.

I wouldn't really say that's any different than Origins. The AI was horrendously bad at being useful in that game.

One thing I didn't like in DA2 was how it threw huge masses of weak enemies at you instead of fewer but stronger ones.

[Virandile]

Bioware should go back to origins. If you know what I mean.

[Notos]

Whats to hype about? While da1 was great, da2 was crap (and im being generous here).
Whole action besides few quests was in 1 city, story was boring as hell and only thing that resembled dragon age 1 in any way was the fact that you had your group and wasnt walking alone ~~
At start you meet Flemeth even tough there is no point to her as this is the only time she actually appears to any1.
All characters besides Isabella (who had awesome voice acting) were boring...
Combat was butchered from baldurs gate style to hack and slash style with ability to pause. Almost every fight was starting with an ambush of enemies appearing out of nowhere and all crowd control abilities were basically useless due to how fast enemies were actually dying. Note here, i havent played on nightmare, wanted to complete the game on 2nd hardest setting first and then do it again on highest difficulty setting... unfortunately i was so dissapointed with the game that i never sat to complete it the second time...However this "hard" setting made me feel like easy setting of games 12 years ago.

This is only a tip of the iceberg what actually sucked about DA2 so there is no reason for me to be excited about DA3 UNLESS it will be improved da1... However its really doubtfull that it will happen since EA is basically second Fagtivision that prefer to create shit for the masses for better profit, make game easy enough so you can play blindfolded and still complete it and then pay for DLC that are stored in game files at the release...

The story in DA2 was boring and DA:O's wasn't? The gist of DA:O was: rally a bunch of people and fight a dragon. Sounds familiar... (Awakening is better, of course)

The whole point of Flemeth being in DA2 is that she survives and will presumably have a role in future events (and of course they were well below their quota of cryptic hags). Did she do all that much more in DA:O? Nope. All she does is save your ass in both games, and the difference is that you kill her in one game and save her in the other.

I do agree that they need to go back from having waves and waves of easy enemies to fewer enemies that have more health and hit harder.

The cast in DA2 was overall better than DA:O, at least for me. Like I said earlier, Morrigan and Alistair were my favorites in Origins (I like witches and sad puppies). I honestly have no idea how you could not appreciate Merrill's character. Imo she was very well done, and the end to her story is just heartbreaking.

You should actually read through the original post and look at the PAX info. They basically spent the ENTIRE PANEL saying that they will keep all the stuff that people didn't like about DA2 from being in DA3.

[Adrianoz]

The story in DA2 was boring and DA:O's wasn't? The gist of DA:O was: rally a bunch of people and fight a dragon. Sounds familiar

Notice how the only terrible game BioWare has done to date is Dragon Age 2, which is the only game that deviated from this concept.