168 réponses à ce sujet

[Lord_Darkmoon]

There is short article on PC Games about he latest demo of Dragon Age at the EA Showcase in London. The editor who was able to play the demo told about a lifeless, empty and sterile setting of a city.
Whereas the combat seemed to impress, the empty city stood in stark contrast to every other Bioware game.
The editor also wrote about bugs as well as graphical problems.
I'm getting a bit nervous...

If you are able to read german, here is the article at PC Games.de.

[mandalore552]

The game is out in March.....

[Brockololly]

Does it say that they were seeing the PC version or console version?



Cities have never been that vibrant in BioWare games, outside of BG2 really. I sure hope they can get Kirkwall right though, seeing as we'll likely be spending a good chunk of time there.

[Lord_Darkmoon]

They played on the Xbox 360.

[Cutlasskiwi]

-shrugs- Maybe the townsfolk were on vacation. 

[Brockololly]

FWIW, here is the Google translation of the article

I won't quote anything, but thats a pretty damn harsh preview. Wow. Its interesting that they thought the Gamescom demo was actually better.

Modifié par Brockololly, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:28 .

[errant_knight]

People would have a spasm if cities were fully populated and only the newest systems could run the game without a frame rate approaching negative numbers. It's a tradeoff that I can accept. More people can play, less people in the cities--as well as the possibility of haveing things like combat actually happen there without the game crashing.

On the other hand, if it's more empty than, say, Denerim, then they've gone too far the other direction, and shouldn't have gone with whatever graphical choice made that necessary.

Modifié par errant_knight, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:26 .

[David Gaider]

Seeing as most of the props and ambient cityfolk have only recently begun going into the build, yeah, I don't doubt it seemed pretty empty to him. No doubt he was told this when he was shown the demo, but some people are going to comment regardless. Nothing we can do about that.

[Dhiro]

Hmm... he's talking about Kirkwall? If he's talking about Lothering then it's perfectly fine. Darkspawn corruption and all...

[John Epler]

Well, I'm a biased source (obviously!) but unless I miss my guess, the build that they played didn't have the ambient behaviours set for our 'flavour' NPCs - non-quest NPCs who give the city more of a feeling of life and, well, being an actual city.

Given that, it's certainly an understandable conclusion to draw, though not representative. We have a guy working almost full-time on making cities exciting and interesting!

EDIT: Curse you, Gaider!

Modifié par JohnEpler, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:26 .

[Leonia]

JohnEpler wrote...

Well, I'm a biased source (obviously!) but unless I miss my guess, the build that they played didn't have the ambient behaviours set for our 'flavour' NPCs - non-quest NPCs who give the city more of a feeling of life and, well, being an actual city.

Given that, it's certainly an understandable conclusion to draw, though not representative. We have a guy working almost full-time on making cities exciting and interesting!

EDIT: Curse you, Gaider!

This sounds like an AWESOME job, if you guys ever decide to set up a studio in Australia I so want to be on the "bringing cities to life" team.

Also, it is understandable that at this stage of development that the minute details like background NPCs won't be around. I'm not worried at all.

[errant_knight]

David Gaider wrote...

Seeing as most of the props and ambient cityfolk have only recently begun going into the build, yeah, I don't doubt it seemed pretty empty to him. No doubt he was told this when he was shown the demo, but some people are going to comment regardless. Nothing we can do about that.

Ah! So he's just not that bright. How enbarrassing for him, poor fellow.

[Dhiro]

leonia42 wrote...

JohnEpler wrote...

Well, I'm a biased source (obviously!) but unless I miss my guess, the build that they played didn't have the ambient behaviours set for our 'flavour' NPCs - non-quest NPCs who give the city more of a feeling of life and, well, being an actual city.

Given that, it's certainly an understandable conclusion to draw, though not representative. We have a guy working almost full-time on making cities exciting and interesting!

EDIT: Curse you, Gaider!

This sounds like an AWESOME job, if you guys ever decide to set up a studio in Australia I so want to be on the "bringing cities to life" team.

Also, it is understandable that at this stage of development that the minute details like background NPCs won't be around. I'm not worried at all.

No freakin' way. I'LL be the the one who bring cities to life! All hail Nugania!

[Wulfram]

Well, you can only review what you're shown.

[Leonia]

Dhiro wrote...

leonia42 wrote...

JohnEpler wrote...

Well, I'm a biased source (obviously!) but unless I miss my guess, the build that they played didn't have the ambient behaviours set for our 'flavour' NPCs - non-quest NPCs who give the city more of a feeling of life and, well, being an actual city.

Given that, it's certainly an understandable conclusion to draw, though not representative. We have a guy working almost full-time on making cities exciting and interesting!

EDIT: Curse you, Gaider!

This sounds like an AWESOME job, if you guys ever decide to set up a studio in Australia I so want to be on the "bringing cities to life" team.

Also, it is understandable that at this stage of development that the minute details like background NPCs won't be around. I'm not worried at all.

No freakin' way. I'LL be the the one who bring cities to life! All hail Nugania!

You take the brothel, I'll take the marketplace. *inserts witty background banter to make the player stop and go "Wait, did he just say what I think he said?"*

Modifié par leonia42, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:32 .

[Brockololly]

errant_knight wrote...

People would have a spasm if cities were fully populated and only the newest systems could run the game without a frame rate approaching negative numbers. It's a tradeoff that I can accept. More people can play, less people in the cities--as well as the possibility of haveing things like combat actually happen there without the game crashing.

On the other hand, if it's more empty than, say, Denerim, then they've gone too far the other direction, and shouldn't have gone with whatever graphical choice made that necessary.

Yeah, but at least on the PC, that would be where having different graphics options would come into play- more people and liveliness on the higher end and less on the lower settings. Just like Origins really.

I'd love to see a city with crowds like Assassin's Creed or even a city that seemed as alive as Athkatla in BG2, but we'll have to wait and see.

[Collider]

I want more stuff to do in the cities.

[Saibh]

Wulfram wrote...

Well, you can only review what you're shown.

Without being able to read the article, there's also the integrity of not being misleading. He could have very well prefaced this with "it's a demo, and certain portions like the city aren't finished", but I can't know that.

Modifié par Saibh, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:33 .

[Pseudo the Mustachioed]

Saibh wrote...

Without being able to read the article, there's also the integrity of not being misleading. He could have very well prefaced this with "it's a demo, and certain portions like the city aren't finished", but I can't know that.

This, I hope the article contains something like this. Not fair in the slightest if it doesn't D: (not that fairness ever plays into these kinds of things)

Modifié par Pseudocognition, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:37 .

[David Gaider]

Saibh wrote...
Without being able to read the article, there's also the integrity of not being misleading. He could have very well prefaced this with "it's a demo, and certain portions like the city aren't finished", but I can't know that.

Indeed. He may have mentioned this in his article... or it's possible he didn't hear/understand the warning. Or perhaps it wasn't given at all -- I wasn't there, so I can't really say. Regardless, like I said the props and ambient population are just starting to go into the city now. The area looks really good, don't get me wrong. I think we were proud to show it off. But it definitely looks empty without a bit of the clutter one would expect.

[errant_knight]

Wulfram wrote...

Well, you can only review what you're shown.

And listen when you're told that it's not complete.... Assuming he was, of course.

Modifié par errant_knight, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:40 .

[Brockololly]

Saibh wrote...

Without being able to read the article, there's also the integrity of not being misleading. He could have very well prefaced this with "it's a demo, and certain portions like the city aren't finished", but I can't know that.

Mind you this is only the very sketchy Google translation so take it with a massive grain of salt, but the author does mention that:

Of course, many of the claimed elements of a pre-release are not uncommon. Alone on the Gamescom we saw already significantly more compelling material.  If fobs such an experienced developer like Bioware us but measly 4 months before release with such unfinished material acting, then that borders on negligence. Either Bioware has the incompetent marketing department of the gaming industry or this product Dragon Age 2 still has a very long way to go.  At the third option (which actually represents the shown later in the game) we would like to think not currently

Modifié par Brockololly, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:40 .

[the_one_54321]

Darth Gaider wrote...
[ominous breathing sounds]

JohnEpler wrote...
EDIT: Curse you, Darth Gaider!

However the game turns out in the end, you two are obviously doing a fantastic job of things. Keep it up until March! 

Modifié par the_one_54321, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:49 .

[Addai]

Saibh wrote...

Wulfram wrote...

Well, you can only review what you're shown.

Without being able to read the article, there's also the integrity of not being misleading. He could have very well prefaced this with "it's a demo, and certain portions like the city aren't finished", but I can't know that.

I can read the original, and they do finish up by saying (paraphrased), "sure, this is an early version, but we're 4 months from release and this is all a big developer can show us, and it's buggy too?"  It's more like "this is worrying" rather than "this is a crap game."  They conclude (again, paraphrased) "Either Bioware's marketing sucks, or this game has a really long way to go.  And we don't want to think about option 3."

They did like Isabela.  They confirm what you hear around the forums, that it's much more cinematic.  Which just makes me think- if I wanted to see a movie rather than play a game, I'd see a movie.

Modifié par Addai67, 05 novembre 2010 - 03:53 .

[Chris Priestly]

Please keep in mind a couple of things -

1 - Even though this was a recent play, the build used was not all that recent. It is downright shocking how much changes between builds. Things are gettign better all the time.

2 - Ambients (things like generic townsfolk, trees, animals, etc) are usually the last thing added to an area. An area is created by the level artists. The critical stuff is added by the technical designer (thing like "what important plot stuff goes on in this area", "what plot NPCs, items, etc need to be added" etc). Once all that is added, then level designers fill up the rest of the space with ambients to make it look like a "living" area. It is done this way to make sure we don't go over memory.

So, I wouldn't get too worried about this review.