209 réponses à ce sujet

[Ieldra]

Always my no.1 in Bioware games: Thematic messages I detest being present in the story, with no way to avoid the appearance of being made complicit in spreading them.

 

ME had the "things we aren't meant to know" vibe, which they attempted - too late - to wriggle out of with ME3's ending (I do commend the attempt, but it *was* much too late). I fear DAI will have an inevitable pro-faith bias which I will only be able to avoid by playing an evil bastard, which would be exactly the wrong message to send. I also fear the story will adopt the Chantry's position on magic and acknowledge the moral message in the story of the Black City as the "good" one.

 

This is where actually playing a character comes in. If I read about such things in stories, I may not like them but I can keep my distance. It's a viewpoint I can engage but it isn't being connected to a character I play and through them to me. However, if I play a character in a game and there is some freedom to determine who this character is going to be, I want to be able to play one who is like me in certain important traits. I don't need to play that way in every game, and in fact, I'll have an easier time playing a different type if I have the freedom not to do it, but if I can't, that's a thematic message, and I'm being made complicit in spreading it by playing the game.

[SwordofMercy1]

(Edit: Cat stepped on my laptop)

I have a few...

 

1) Combat- Now, there are quite a few things from DA2 that I did not like, however, I did appreciate that Bioware tried to renovate the combat system. For instance, I liked that they gave mages an actual melee combat mechanic and gave rogues their own little battle style that made them seem like... rogues. What I did not like however, was the combat style of the warriors and the special effects that went on in combat itself. Now I know what you may be thinking, "Why the warriors?" Well, when I picture a warrior, I think of someone who stands their ground, willing to face any foe that is thrown at them... Not flying through the air and doing some sort of twirl. Sure, it looks pretty, but the first time I saw Carver do it... I was a little scared. I thought my game glitched! Though whole situation made it seem like an anime fight than actual combat. And with the special effects that go on in combat, I would say it was completely overdone. Sure, I little bits of effects is nice, to let you know what abilities your party is using and makes the battle seem more intense. But I major in Human Factors, and one of the first things we are taught to do is to not bombard the viewer with numerous, over-exaggerated effects, as that makes them either uncomfortable or completely miss the intended feeling. Now, given what I've seen for Inquisition so far, I think I can say that they don't plan on doing that again...

 

2) Limited Abilities- It's bad enough they took out healing. I don't care what they say about tactics, but healing is an actual tactic. That's like saying that having medics at combat zones isn't a good idea because it makes combat easier for our guys... Okay I know I'm exaggerating! But seriously, if they wanted to make combat harder, stick to giving enemies buffers, or have specific ways required in order to efficiently kill them. And like all games it seems, the number of available abilities going down. I know it happened in DA2, and I understand why they did it, but come on! I want to make a character who does not have the same exact abilities as my other party members. So ya, that's what I'm afraid of too.

 

3) Female Animations- I'm a girl, so I know I walk differently than a guy. If you look at pictures of a woman's hip and leg area and compare that to a man's, you would see that most women's legs are angled inward, while men's are more parallel. This is why, for the most part, girls hips 'sway' when they walk... This is not an excuse for a female character to look like her hips are going to collide with a hallway's opposing walls just from taking a step. And hips definitely do not naturally sway when we run! You'd have to force yourself to do that crap, and really, its not worth the effort (You look as though you are trying to do the potty dance while running). I understand, the game developers want to steer away from giving male and female characters the same animation... Though I saw no problem with it in ME... except for running... and sitting. But over sexualizing a character that we are supposed to connect with and at times take seriously does little to boost a gamer's (especially one who is females) ego about playing this 'epic' game. Hopefully, the walking animation isn't too bad... But I swear, if my char's hips hit the walls as I run, than I want to see the males swagger sexily too! It's only fair...

 

4) Decisions Not Mattering- I have reasons, but I feel as though if I mention them I will release Hell on Earth.

 

5) Bad Story- I like games with good story. I don't care if they have they best combat mechanics or top of the line graphics, if its story sucks, I'm not interested. DA:O to me was excellent. DA:2... Not so much. I could see that they tried but... Ewh... I would also like to see some actual incorporation, if they do it, of the books and the game. And I mean ACTUAL incorporation. Not, 'Oh lets introduce this apparently important character from the book and only tell one thing about them' or 'Ooo, this happened in the book that is affecting the game, but we're not going to explain what it really it'. That's what really irritated me about ME. You either had to read the books (which I don't mind doing) or Wiki it in order to understand who that person or event really was. That particular situation felt as though Bioware was telling me that they just didn't feel like putting extra time into their creation in order to make the game seem more whole. I really hope the story and all its elements get weaved together and make something memorable.

 

6) Multiplayer- Personally, I can do without multiplayer, but I will play it... If its good. Truthfully, I hated ME3's multiplayer just because it was so static. You had to do those overly-simplified tasks and fight endless waves of enemies... And that was pretty much it. There were really no special missions that made the multiplayer worthwhile, classes only varied in combat instead of having a choice in your role (support, special etc), and it was pretty much a spray and pray given all the enemies you have to kill.... Oh, also the whole 'multiplayer affects single player' crap. I loved it how Bioware stated (if I remember correctly) that multiplayer wouldn't actually affect single player... And it did. Not only does that make players, who may not even be interested in multiplayer, invest time into something they do not want to do just to get the 'good' ending, but also makes those who happen to not have internet out of luck. But, given that this team is different than that of ME and the combat system and styles are not even remotely the same, I have high hopes that this will not be the case... Although...

 

7) Forced Attitudes- This also comes from my experience playing all the ME and DA games. I like that Bioware is trying to uphold the 'player's choice' belief concerning the character we get to play as. I mean, we get to decide what our character looks like, what class they are, their specials, and of course, how they act... For the most part. Now another aspect I hated from ME3 (and no I'm not bashing on the game, it just happens to be there), I couldn't help but notice that Shepard had a TON of automatic dialogue. Not that there's any problem with that given that I can't possibly decide what my character will say every second of the day... But that fact that a majority of these automatic expressions were not neutral, like they were in the two other games, that was the problem. It was just so odd to see my fully Paragon Shepard go Renegade for a second with automatic dialogue. I liked in DA2 how your alignment determined what you would automatically say in idle dialogue. What also irritated me, was how dialogue, at some points, made little sense. I remember I was in dialogue with Tali, I picked the Paragon option, and Shepard suddenly got in Tali's face. It was like Bioware was saying that I got to choose what to say, but in the end they wanted me to say something else and that was how it was going to be. Like they were trying to morph a character I had spent years developing in their image. This next part comes from DA2. Now, I liked that Bioware tried to bring DA up to speed with ME, and how they had the three over-all personalities that went with the dialogue choices. What I did not like, was the over simplification of it. Sure, you could have complete control over what your character said and when... But what they sometimes said was the actual problem. For instance, for DA2, I wanted to make my Hawke a more serious, cold, and callous individual. For the most part, I could successfully do this, but at other times, the dialogue that was the closest to what I wanted made my character sound like they had a vendetta against the world (like I will eat your heart). In DA:O, ME1 and ME2, it was pretty easy to tell what each dialogue was about and did not over exaggerate that particular personality to make it seem false. Another example of this in DA2 are those times that I would pick that 'Joke' option... And would sound like a complete and total idiot. So in DA2, you were either a nearly patronizing goody-goody, the groan inducing jokester, or the bloodthirsty brat. In short, I would hope that DA:I will have the condensity of DA2, but the 'choices' of DA:O.

[TinySquid]

Ah, I finally got my old Origin account working again; so first post from it will go to this thread!

@SwordofMercy1:

You make some very good points. I would like to use your post as a jumping off point for my own thoughts.

 

1) I respectfully disagree with what seems to be the majority about DA2's combat. I personally liked it. Am I a casual gamer? Not by any definition. But that does not mean I like 40+ hours of some of the most boring, slow, soul-crushingly bad combat that was in Origins. With my last play-through I downloaded the Faster Combat mod; and even at the highest setting Origins combat is horrifically dull. Perhaps it is not fair to compare such an old game to modern times; but it seems people are calling for the return of Origins combat. My God please don't do this. I will take anime-style flashy fighting over that slog-fest any day. The only complaint I have against DA2's combat is the spawning mobs; something Inquisition appears to have solved. Just please patch in auto-attack for 3rd person view. Not everyone is fond of the tactical camera. (By definition, it is not auto if you have to hold a button or go through complicated keyboard mapping programs to get it to work.)

 

2) I reserve judgement on the removal of healing until I play the game. I admit, when I first heard about it I was pretty skeptical. Removing long-standing staples of your franchise to "make it more tactical" is not good game design. (Looking at you, auto attack.) What personally really irritates me is the arbitrary limit of 8 abilities. There are only two reasons behind this. They either deliberately did it as a design choice or this is yet another example of PC gamers being shafted in favor of consoles. If the former, yet again, deliberately breaking your game is not an example of good game design. The latter would not be surprising. Most likely it is a combination of both.

 

3) Female animations; totally agree. Utterly ridiculous. How can the Femquisitor even fight with such a hip-dislocation problem?

4) The story: Here is another example where I do not agree with the majority. Origins was pretty dull with its story. It is literally the same thousand year old trope repeated time and time again. It is literally the same plot of ME3; collecting resources to fight against the big bad. Honestly I am sick and tired of it. Now, that isn't to say the lore isn't amazing, it is. In fact the lore is really the only thing holding up both franchises. But with DA2, finally - Finally!, there was an attempt at something fresh. Now the more humanist, not-a-god-among-plot-making story is nothing new, but it is very rarely used in video gaming.

 

People for some unfathomable reason want to always be the most important person in the world; always making decisions well above any sense of logic, always deciding the fate of nations and worlds. But honestly I want something new. It seems people don't understand that was the whole point; this is the number one critique I see of DA2's story. Hawke is not a God-among-plots. He/She is just a person, trapped in a series of events they cannot control. Very real, and very human. If EA hadn't screwed Bioware over with such a short development cycle I feel DA2 could have been the best thing to come out in the last 10 years. 

 

But it seems Bioware listened to those who wanted the same story told over again. Here we have a nobody becoming the single person who can save the world who will make decisions that change its course. Hopefully some of this will be mitigated by the fact that the Inquisition is not regarded highly or widely by the countries of Thedas. We'll just have to see.

 

5) When it comes to player "attitudes;" I wish Bioware would stop making the Renegade/Aggressive/Direct option most of the time coming off as an *******. I tend to play characters with a no-nonsense, realistic for the situation attitude. I am the Inquisitor. My job is to save the entire world from the largest threat it has ever faced. I do not have time to help you track down your lost child. I am sorry, but my priorities are higher. Pick reject/direct option: "Bwahaha, your child should die and I want to lick the tears off of your miserable face you disgusting wretch!" Seriously? I wanted to tell her that I cannot afford such distractions, not become pure evil and act like I relish in misery! Ugh, this, fix this. 

[SwordofMercy1]

@ TinySquid

 

Thanks for not bashing my post. Yes it has happened before.

[helpthisguyplease]

It will not have cheats that is my biggest fear I mean I finished the first playthrough in both games cheats free but trust me I need to be faster the second time because I can not do most of the same thing twice that excited so I need cheats to speed up the process. 

[Yangarang]

After seeing the female inquisitor's animations, I'm worried about the walking/running animations for other characters. In the latest stream, they were controlling Sera while running from a dragon and the way her hips swayed was just ridiculous. Hopefully, I'll get used to it because right now it's so off-putting.

 

One of the things I loved about the previous games was the friendships/relationships you could have with your companions, or even their dynamics with each other. I'm worried I won't connect to these companions they way I did with the previous games.

[Gothfather]

 

 

 

Always my no.1 in Bioware games: Thematic messages I detest being present in the story, with no way to avoid the appearance of being made complicit in spreading them.

 

ME had the "things we aren't meant to know" vibe, which they attempted - too late - to wriggle out of with ME3's ending (I do commend the attempt, but it *was* much too late). I fear DAI will have an inevitable pro-faith bias which I will only be able to avoid by playing an evil bastard, which would be exactly the wrong message to send. I also fear the story will adopt the Chantry's position on magic and acknowledge the moral message in the story of the Black City as the "good" one.

 

Bioware is telling THEIR story you are an UNEQUAL partner in that story. You have leeway within said story to shape your character but Bioware never promised nore implied that they would cater to every possible viewpoint and provide every possible option when fced with a decision. They give us tools to shape the world and develope our characters how we want WITHIN the confines of the story. This is both an inherents limitation of ALL CRPG and a larger limitation in STORY driven CRPGs. Players simply have to accept this, the sooner they do the more enjoyment they will get out of the production.

 

 

This is where actually playing a character comes in. If I read about such things in stories, I may not like them but I can keep my distance. It's a viewpoint I can engage but it isn't being connected to a character I play and through them to me. However, if I play a character in a game and there is some freedom to determine who this character is going to be, I want to be able to play one who is like me in certain important traits. I don't need to play that way in every game, and in fact, I'll have an easier time playing a different type if I have the freedom not to do it, but if I can't, that's a thematic message, and I'm being made complicit in spreading it by playing the game.

 

I think you are reading to much into things. In D&D there are stories about religion but people ignore that because well the Gods are "real," so people don't go EEK they are pushing a pro religion message upon me. DA leaves the question of the maker's reality an unknown, but to most people in the game are religious even mages. Some cultures have different gods but the majority of people are religious. And there is evidence of divinity if not proof. Suddenly because this world leaves the question ambigious as to if the maker really exists people think EEK its pushing a pro religion message on me. yet that just isn't the case. In fantasy setting where religion plays a major part like D&D or DA it only makes sense that some stories would be told about this important aspect of the world.

 

Bioware Edmonton is a canadian studio, about 23% of Canadians identify with no religion and those who do the vast majority do so only from a cultural vs a religious perspective. In 2013 church attendance was only 14% (according to a poll). This is a very different enviorment than the USA. Only 16% of the use population in 2007 identified them as having no religion, and church attendance on a nation lvl is 41.6% i provide these numbers to show that the enviorment that the game was made in isn't one where religion is a national topic. Political candidates don't get ask religious questions much at all. I can't remember that last time a member of parliment's religion was even a topic of conversation. So there isn't really a message behind the story, its just a canadian company telling a fantasy story and hoping you enjoy it.

 

I'm hoping that with a bit of context i provided with how Canada is different in terms of religion will show its not really part of the US culture wars that are going on between the religious and the non religious.

 

[sources]

http://en.wikipedia....Canada#Religion

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...ities-1.2471729

http://en.wikipedia....States#Religion

http://en.wikipedia....ates#Attendance

[Hair Serious Business]

My only fear is...not being able to adopt Cole 

[boissiere]

My highest fear is coming from me3. I absolutly fear that multi player will affect greatly solo play and modify the achievements and ends that we may unlock during the playthrough!

[Solid_Altair]

^ Rest easy. They said MP will not affect SP.

[Grieving Natashina]

My highest fear is coming from me3. I absolutly fear that multi player will affect greatly solo play and modify the achievements and ends that we may unlock during the playthrough!

Since they patched it out of ME3 only about three months after the game came out, they won't make that mistake again.  DAMP (those initials crack me up) won't impact our single player game.  I'm sure there will be trophies/achievements that can only come with MP, but Altair is right.  It won't affect the endings of the game.  

[DAJB]

From what I've seen so far, I have very few concerns. My natural cynicism tends to insulate me from pre-launch hype but, in this case, everything I've seen so far has been superb.

 

If I have one very minor doubt it's about the effect of a harder default difficulty level (seriously? do they not remember the fact that the broodmother almost made it impossible to reach the second half of the game?!) combined with the limit on health potions you can carry. 

 

When I heard about the limit on health potions, I was a little sceptical but I was prepared to trust there would be other mechanics to compensate. When I heard they were also increasing the difficulty level, I wondered if they wanted to make the game completely inaccessible to the more casual gamer (i.e. like me!)

 

But we shall see. It's not a huge concern at this stage, but it's the one area that's giving me pause for thought ...

[Iakus]

Same stuff as before:

 

ME3-style forced tragic ending

 

Thematic inconsistency.

 

Multiplayer not being as "optional" as is being claimed.

[janddran]

I have been quite hyped about this game and such hasn't happened for some time. I am a long-time fan of Bioware games (even the ones that are more controversial in appeal) and have come to to have certain expectations about such, including difficulty level and GUI. DA 2 was easier in my opinion, but I enjoyed it thoroughly, so I'll excude it for reference but it was intuitive mostly.

 

After glancing at the thread about healing and seeing some playthroughs I am concerned a bit about difficulty level and if the interface will be unintuitive. I don't like having to depend on potions that much. Sure I used them in the prior installments but they weren't as critical as say in Witcher 2 -- one reason I didn't care as much for that game.

The difficulty level in DA:O was fine with me, despite its spikes, and I would not like to see it become tedious now.

 

I play a lot of strategy (and good ARPG) games and if this becomes a situation where many fights are potion-chugging events that are only made fun if you use a singular strategy that the dev thought of, (but you may not) that will take much enjoyment of the game from me.

 

In this post- Dark Souls world, I hope Bioware doesn't make the same mistake Paradox (CK2) or Larian Studios (Divinity Original Sin) has (after release) by listening primarily to the elite and vocal gamers. When they did so they didn't only make the game harder on higher levels but alienated a good portion of those who play on Easy & Normal difficulty.

 

Difficulty levels have serves us well since the early D&D-based games if not before. Easy should be easy (more real-time) and Normal should not make the average player die repeatedly -- at least once they learn the game. I may be wrong but even post-Dark Souls I don't think average player "skill" has changed much.

 

Bioware hasn't been about punishing games. It would be a mistake to start now in the 3rd installment of a series, in my opinion.

[Siforth]

I'm getting extremely excited! It's soooo close!

[budzai]

Im concerned that the fans don't get that Dragon Age has always been a High Fantasy setting, where npcs who aren't mages can do the phenomenal. Like crush stone with a single hammer swing, can leap 6 ft into the air in full plate wielding a great sword and stab a ogre in the chest and bring it down to the ground, that fem hawke can tackle ogres with 2 daggers and knock them down, can speed blitz, can do standing backflips and land 10 feet away from the starting point, can bash down a castle gate on sheer strength alone. This isn't your renaissance fair, these humans are written to do the fantastical because it's not real. 

that hurts my brain... It is high fantasy yes and which high fantasy world did you see something like that? Lotr is a high fantasy too still I have seen nothing like that... it is a fantasy not a stupid anime...

[budzai]

4) The story: Here is another example where I do not agree with the majority. Origins was pretty dull with its story. It is literally the same thousand year old trope repeated time and time again. It is literally the same plot of ME3; collecting resources to fight against the big bad. Honestly I am sick and tired of it. Now, that isn't to say the lore isn't amazing, it is. In fact the lore is really the only thing holding up both franchises. But with DA2, finally - Finally!, there was an attempt at something fresh. Now the more humanist, not-a-god-among-plot-making story is nothing new, but it is very rarely used in video gaming.

yep, and it was boring as hell... I can't pass act1...

[embrace eternity]

Keymapping: I've always disliked having to use WASD and (E) to move about i.e. combat, exploring, interacting etc. Mass Effect was a brilliant game and it sits while I play DAO & DA2 simply because (it's a co-ordination thing) I prefer using my Mouse to move about. Please tell me I didn't waste my money by pre-ordering another WASD game I'll eventually end up not playing

[Doctor Chopper]

I have to admit I'm a bit anxious about the missions on the war table that you can send your advisers on. Something about the 'time remaining till complete' part makes me nervous.

 

Plus it just feels like a lot of cool sounding stuff we'll never get to directly see will happen in them :/

[Sully13]

My big concern is that we will get another freekin red green or blue ending again. what about Purple and Orange? huh. 

[Grithwa]

I have the gameplay is not as simplified as it was in DA2.  I would like to see ability to seperate you party members and use planned strategic ambushes.  In DA:O you could scout ahead with a stealthy rogue, setting traps along the way, then see where the enemy was.  Also you could line up you mages to let loose spells in predetermined spots that you rogue would lead the enemy through then follow with your melee fighters to engage while your rogue circle back around and backstab.  You couldn't seperate you party members in DA2 and that ruined much of the possible strategy.  When I defended Redcliff I had two characters up by the spawning point to take the brunt of the enemy forces and two others down in the town protecting the people.  I would be dissapointed to see that not return in DA:I.

[timebean]

The only thing that has me worried is the interactive aspect, in 2 regards. 

 

Protaganist - I absolutely loved both of the protaganist ME voice actors (yes, including the male Shepard...I thought his rigid style fit the role). But the female Hawke voice actress was awful to me.  So much so that I really did not like Hawke at all, no matter how I played her (diplomatic, clever, jerk).  And as much as the British female voice actress for DAI was fine as Traynor in ME3, I couldn't bear to play as her a whole game in DAI.  She is not a bad voice actress, but she sounds so...sharp and condesending at times, and I don't want MY Inqusiator to sound like that.  However, i was relieved when it was revealed there were 4 voice options, so I am sure I can find at least one, male or female, that I can feel...what's the word...proud...to play as.

 

General dialouge - in the latest playthrough I saw (it is somewhere above on this thread), the interactions between Cullen, Leliana, and Cassandra had these...awkward unessasary pauses.  Like when they were interupting each other...it took too long for them to do it, so it sounded like a bad play.  What a waste of such talented voice actors to have their dialouge edited toegther poorly!  But maybe that was a rare event and others will be done better.  I have seen a couple of other cut scenes that were much more fluid, and I can be forgiving if it is a rare thing.

 

Story is all that matters to me, so I hope it is good and I can like my Inquisitor and feel immersed in the dialouge.  I generally like Bioware writing and their characters, so I hope it is done well in the game to highlight the talent of both the writers and voice actors. 

[(Disgusted noise.)]

My biggest concern is the 18 more days to wait seems like an eternity at the moment.

[Umbar]

Keymapping: I've always disliked having to use WASD and (E) to move about i.e. combat, exploring, interacting etc. Mass Effect was a brilliant game and it sits while I play DAO & DA2 simply because (it's a co-ordination thing) I prefer using my Mouse to move about. Please tell me I didn't waste my money by pre-ordering another WASD game I'll eventually end up not playing

 

This is hilarious, because my position is kind of the opposite. I much prefer using the WASD to move about, instead of the mouse. Hopefully, neither of us will have to be disappointed.