Alistair McNally, Creative Lead Artist at Bioware Edmonton, revealed the existence of Dragon Age 3 in a twitter message calling for Environment artists. The message, which reads, “I’m looking for exceptional environment artists to join me at #BioWare Edmonton, Canada to work on #DragonAge3,” reveals little beyond the attached hash tags, but expect more from EA and Bioware as E3 looms ever closer.
Hope they go back to the roots of Origins and not what they did with DA2. More action is not necessarily a good thing in all situations.
Conversely, I hope they stick to what they did in DA2 but just take the time to polish it. DA:O had no potential beyond what it was(whether you liked it or not is a personal opinion, but it was as good as it could be), whereas DA2 had a LOT of things that were good about it, but just had way too many things that were sloppily done or rushed too much to be a truly fantastic game.
To quote myself… “I hope you take the same style for any sequel you do, but just take the time to polish it properly and give it the love and care to make it a truly exceptional rpg experience.”
If they give DA3 the same style as DA2 but just polish it a lot, I think it’ll be a truly fantastic rpg experience… whereas if they go back to the DA:O roots then I’ll be highly disappointed.
If it comes out next Spring I won’t even bother with it. Hopefully the disaster that was DA2 and success that is TW2 forces EA/Bio to take a step back for 2 1/2 to 3 years on this one. Perhaps make it a true RPG as opposed to an absurdly repetitive action game with dialog and streamlined RPG elements.
I find it interesting that Seluhir wants a better version of DA2 than DA:O. I thought Origins was superior in every way except fluidity in combat. To each their own though :P.
I found nothing good about DA:O. I hated the game in nearly every way. It would rank among my bottom 5 RPGs of all time, right there with Breath of Fire 4, etc.
I found no story to speak of, no character development in any tangible form – especially for your main character, but even the side characters felt hollow, the gameplay was boring and felt like a badly designed turn based strategy game more than an rpg, the graphics were sorta meh, the voice acting and audio design were mediocre, and the talent/skill tree system was really boring.
I don’t understand why so many people praise the first one… lol
The second one had a TON of missed potential… given the proper care and love it would’ve been amazing. In stead it was still fun, but just really felt rushed.
Have to say that I don’t agree with you on the whole. That said, I love hearing perspectives like yours and fully respect it.
Well I’m glad you respect it, and I wish I could see the good in that game since there seem to be a lot of people who liked it.
I even tried picking it up a second time to see if maybe it was just timing… and I had the same basic opinion. In an rpg, I can live with bad graphics, gameplay, audio, and skill systems if the story is there… and I just didn’t see it. Without a solid main character, the story was just impossible for me to really become a part of, what story there was(which didn’t seem like much). And without a solid main character, the interactions with the other characters just became quickly forgettable, leaving them feeling hollow.
I think the biggest mistake DA:O made was making the main character so generic and unidentifiable… right there is the stem of probably half of the game’s problems for me.
The interesting thing is what you define as the biggest mistake is what a lot of people liked. It was all about using your imagination to fill in the gaps, the voice, the thoughts. It wasn’t a defined/tailored experience like what you’d get in Mass Effect or attempted with Dragon Age 2. A lot of people loved the silent protagonist thing because it hearkened back to the old times of Baldur’s Gate. It was simpler times. Think pencil and paper. Dragon Age: Origins was quite literally a throwback to the Baldur’s Gate games which is why so many people connected with and loved it.
I’m not sure which Origin you played, but I was a male human noble. The story built up to a point where I had to confront the murderer of my family, etc. The thing about Origins is your character isn’t made to be some sort of over the top super hero like Sheppard, even though you essentially are with what you accomplish. You feel a whole lot more normal. But yeah, the way they set up the main character fits for some people and not for others. The greater purchasing populous is perceived by EA/BioWare to be in your shoes. If it wasn’t, they never would have created a defined main character in Hawke.