DAI was very much a master-of-none. Plenty of good parts, nothing great or all that deep.
Seemed to exist to cash-in on Skyrim, and to be the anti-DA2. It ended up not feeling like a Dragon Age game at all.
Enjoyed the game, loved parts of it, but PoE and Divinity crushed it IMO.
The general butthurt over romances also produced some vocal haters. Granted, Bioware did make some odd choices in that regard, but people got ridiculous over it.
DAI was very much a master-of-none. Plenty of good parts, nothing great or all that deep.
*snip*
This. A game that is from a particular IP or a franchise is always expected to have its own flavor, its unique spin on things.
TESV is an ES game. It had the essence of an ES game. The prisoner start, the sandbox open world, the 4 guilds, lots of quests, playstyle freedom, etc.
TW3 is a Witcher game. It had the look, feel of a Witcher. The art and atmosphere just look more updated and high res, not drastically different across the games.
If you strip DAI of its title, there is very little to recognize it as a Dragon Age game. As such, like you said, it will be at best average.
I also agree that PoE, Divinity Original Sin and even Transistor > DAI.
If you strip DAI of its title, there is very little to recognize it as a Dragon Age game. As such, like you said, it will be at best average.
I wonder. What makes a Dragon Age game a Dragon Age game?
You know, after hearing so many people rave about Divinity: Original Sin I was disappointed when I got around to actually playing it. The combat has a lot of interesting concepts (although it gets a bit grindy and repetitive after a while) but the characters and story are so flat and predictable that I haven't managed to finish it yet. Whereas I've played DAI five times already and will probably play it another five. I dunno, maybe the Enhanced Edition is better? Or the thing people mostly enjoyed was the multiplayer? (I hate video gaming with other humans, so none of that for me.)
All of which goes to show that there's no accounting for taste, I guess. I still backed DOS2 on Kickstarter, though, because it has playable dwarves and it looks like they're moving in a more BioWare-esque direction with the characters.
I wonder. What makes a Dragon Age game a Dragon Age game?
Dragons. It needs more dragons.
More than the 13 in DAI? 
More than the 13 in DAI?
Over 200. CDPR as a whole has about 240 employees, and I suspect not all of them are devs.
I don't get why people keep comparing developing costs though - it's not like CDPR makes their titles by using a huge work force that EA just can't finance due to the difference in dev salaries. We know that TW3 was made by just over 200 people in just over three years. What difference does their salary make?
It comes down to the breaKeven point. CDPR will have a lower breakeven point than EA/Bioware. The breakeven point is where the development and marketing costs are covered by revenues. CDPR has to sell less copies to reach the breakeven point.
Let's assume that each game requires 200 employees. Let say the average salary for Bioware employee is $60,000 and CDPR employee is $20,000 (being generous).
That means salaries for EA/Bioware amounts to $12 million compared to 4 million for CDPR per year. Both games MSRP is $60.00 and take 3 years to make..
EA/Bioware has to sell $36 million/60 or 600,000 copies to just cover salaries. CDPR has to sell 200,001 copies> let's assume that each spends $35 million for marketing. Marketing budgets always exceed the actual cost of production in AAA games.
That means that each must sell ($35 million/60) 583,334 copies to cover marketing. So EA/Bioware must sell at least 1,183,334 copies compared to CDPR's 783,335.
The example is simplistic because there are other factors involved, such as no publisher gets $60.00 per copy. I do not know the exact marketing costs.
The difference in development costs because of location can be huge.
For example compare housing prices (comparable housing) and salaries (comparable careers) in Dallas, Texas to prices and salaries in New York City, New York or Chicago, Illinois or Los Angeles, California. The differences in the cost of living is interesting.
DAI was very much a master-of-none. Plenty of good parts, nothing great or all that deep.
Seemed to exist to cash-in on Skyrim, and to be the anti-DA2. It ended up not feeling like a Dragon Age game at all.
Enjoyed the game, loved parts of it, but PoE and Divinity crushed it IMO.
The general butthurt over romances also produced some vocal haters. Granted, Bioware did make some odd choices in that regard, but people got ridiculous over it.
Mostly(?) agreed but I'd change a few parts for myself. "Plenty of good parts, some very good parts, nothing clearly great." "Enjoyed the game (after patching meant I could finally play without technical problems...ugh...), loved parts of it, have decided now to play it more than once or twice even, but once finally done with it it won't be one of those RPGs I dive into over several years (for Bioware this has been ME Trilogy, DAO)."
It started a 7/10 for my personal experience, is now a 8/10, and when I get all DLC and include that, it'll probably be a 8.5/10, but that still doesn't surpass some other RPGs and even DAO's full best experience.
I like it more than DA2 though and I like the DA franchise still over Witcher and Elder Scrolls (I like party stories, relatively more custom protagonist narrative, less exclusively cultural setting, and so on).
I don't regret playing but I wish I got the game around now in the GOTY edition instead. The FPS hitching and long loading before patches was SUCKY, and most patch changes to gameplay were positive. Makes me wonder if I should wait for late 2017 to get MEA instead of late 2016.
They really do need to fix that inventory management, though. Be damned if I want to spend another game futzing around item UIs with the joystick.
UIs are something WRPGs seem to struggle with in general, though, and I can't really understand why. It's something JRPGs by and large solved awhile ago.
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So what's the cost of DAI? looks like Bioware never talk about it?
Posters like to think they are comparing David to Goliath when in actually it is Goliath versus smaller Goliath. Posters forget or ignore the fact that CDProjekt owes both CD Projekt Red (developer of Witcher series) and GOG.com which puts it on par with EA. CD Projectk is also listed on the Warsaw stock exchange. That means that CD Projeckt is just as answerable to stockholders as EA.
Posters also fail to take in cost of living expenses when comparing costs of production. For example 2013 Gallup poll put the median income for a US household at $43,585, U.K at 31,617 and Poland at $15,338.
Game developers in the US make an average of $83,060, Canada at $71,445, U.K at $46,591, Poland at $17,352.
It is far cheaper to develop a game in Poland. So what EA should do is move all of its development facilities to Poland or other places with lower cost of living.
Excuses, excuses. nothing more than excuses.
In any case, if EA/Bioware developers make such much more money compared to CD Project's employees, as you stated, it is even more shameful they came up with such a half baked game as DAI was.
If we follow your logic, we shouldn't complain when a game ended up being mediocre because you know, is so expensive to make games in US or Canada. That's preposterous.
I guess I was unclear. I was wishing that such tactics had been necessary in DA:O. Since they weren't necessary in either game, I wasn't too worked up about losing them. Though there is an edge case where DAi is hurt, when you want something more challenging but don't want to go so far that you have to to control everything. ( DA:O can handle that situation -- once you apply enough difficulty mods to actually get into that situation.)
How on Earth do you get through Origins on Nightmare without touching the other characters? I'm assuming that you are upgrading their weapons, armour, and abilities when the option is available?
I found that I had to add the tactic for drink a health potion when health is at 25% or they'd be dropping dead almost as soon as a fight started.
I wonder. What makes a Dragon Age game a Dragon Age game?
...
Personally, I'd say the lore which is likely why I thought Dragon Age: Inquisition felt like a Dragon Age game but as it often is with such things, others will disagree and cite other elements that they consider to be the definitive element.
Personally, I'd say the lore which is likely why I thought Dragon Age: Inquisition felt like a Dragon Age game but as it often is with such things, others will disagree and cite other elements that they consider to be the definitive element.
I'd say the tone and atmosphere are nothing like DAO or DA2. This is pretty blatant if you play them after DAI. It stopped being the dark fantasy of the first two, and went closer to high fantasy. You don't really get to see how awful things in Thedus are, except in the codex. Everything seems sanitized a little too much for my liking. I don't want them to go Drakengard or anything, but I would enjoy them getting back to their narrative roots. There are so many plot-lines in Origins and DA2 that I couldn't see happening in DAI. The black-and-white heroes and villains, the Disney princess romance, etc really clashed with what came before.
I wonder. What makes a Dragon Age game a Dragon Age game?
What makes Batman a Batman?
Excuses, excuses. nothing more than excuses.
What makes Batman a Batman?
How on Earth do you get through Origins on Nightmare without touching the other characters? I'm assuming that you are upgrading their weapons, armour, and abilities when the option is available?
I found that I had to add the tactic for drink a health potion when health is at 25% or they'd be dropping dead almost as soon as a fight started.
This is a legitimate question. Leaving all the various comic book and animated incarnations aside for a while, what do the West, Keaton, and Bale versions of the character actually have in common? (Plus the upcoming Affleck version.)
They're Batman because they are Batman!
Excuses, excuses. nothing more than excuses.
In any case, if EA/Bioware developers make such much more money compared to CD Project's employees, as you stated, it is even more shameful they came up with such a half baked game as DAI was.
If we follow your logic, we shouldn't complain when a game ended up being mediocre because you know, is so expensive to make games in US or Canada. That's preposterous.
First of all I am not making excuses for anyone. I am pointing out the differences in cost. Pointing out that profitability is far easier when what you have to pay your employees is considerably cheaper. I also do not consider DAI to be half-baked or mediocre . That is your opinion which is not shared by everyone.
You can complain as long or as hard as you wish. That is your prerogative. Just as it is my prerogative to say I thoroughly enjoyed the game and the dlc.
How on Earth do you get through Origins on Nightmare without touching the other characters? I'm assuming that you are upgrading their weapons, armour, and abilities when the option is available?
I found that I had to add the tactic for drink a health potion when health is at 25% or they'd be dropping dead almost as soon as a fight started.
Depends on how you build and upgrade your character and companions. For example my playstyle is on damage avoidance, damage mitigation with decent damage output. Build party members so that they avoid getting hit or if they are hit it is no more than a glancing blow.
Also some players tend to micromanage the party. For example, Baldur's Gate 1 had no tactics screen. The gamer had to pause the action to issue commands. Therefore keep tabs on the entire party.
DAI allows similar gameplay with tac cam. Some players on this forum play the entire combat sequence in tac cam.
What I have to say about DA:I is that for some reason it lost its mojo for me halfway through. I went from "Oh this is awesome!" to "Let's get on with it", where I lowered the difficulty and curbstomped my way to the end. The end DID feel good and Trespasser is one hell of a ride but... for some reason it wasn't the same I felt when I finished Origins for example.
When I finished Inquisition I just uninstalled it to free space on my drive, as for when I finished Origins I immediately created a new warden and played all over again untill I finished once more.
There was something lacking, something that was just "not there". And there's no amount of time and money (or lack of) that can fix that.
What I have to say about DA:I is that for some reason it lost its mojo for me halfway through. I went from "Oh this is awesome!" to "Let's get on whit it", where I lowered the difficulty and curbstomped my way to the end. The end DID feel good and Trespasser is one hell of a ride but... for some reason it wasn't the same I felt when I finished Origins for example.
When I finished Inquisition I just uninstalled it to free space on my drive, as for when I finished Origins I immediately created a new warden and played all over again untill I finished once more.
There was something lacking, something that was just "not there". And there's no amount of time and money (or lack of) that can fix that.
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