112 réponses à ce sujet

[T.G]

This is an equitable post. I’m not a prolific poster but these things have been on my mind for a while, and I much prefer posting my thoughts in this thread than any of the (many) angry and unbalanced threads elsewhere; this thread chimes more with my experience of the game.

 

The headline is: I really like this game, and while it’s not perfect I take my hat off to the developers for creating a pretty amazing experience.

 

For those interested, my specs:

- i7 4820K (OCed to 4.3 GHz)

- EVGA (nVidia GeForce) GTX 770 SC 2GB (344.74 WHQL driver)

- 4x4GB DDR3/1600mhz

- OS and gaming SSD

- Asus P9X79 MB

- Win 8.1

- Running the game on Ultra pretty much across the board; MSAA off; cut-scene framerate uncapped.

 

My experiences after >60 hours gaming…

(I’m still just pottering through my first play-through; exploring a lot; only really just started at Skyhold):

• Just a couple of DX11 crashes (nothing persistent).
• Wrong gender dialogue / class equipment on my first character; read about the problem and tried the low-tech fix suggested on a re-roll >>> problem fixed.
• One completely broken AI party-pathfinding situation in a Storm Coast dungeon location; required obscene micro-management to navigate.
• Occasional cut-scene ‘slow-down’ and stutter; though no audio desynch issues at all, even during these glitches.
• I am experiencing party banter; more would be nice, but I am getting it, and it's funny.
• No music issues that I can discern.

 

I do wish for:

• Improved M+KB implementation.
• Walk / jog / run implementation (http://forum.bioware...9#entry17877972)
• Improved TacCam; especially increased zoom-out, no ‘ceiling’, increased tilt-up, no collision.
• Improved AI Tactics, more closely resembling DA:O... let's be honest, they are pretty bad at the moment, along with the AI generally.
• Auto-attack… as an option.
• Click-to-move (+interact)… as an option.
• Improved searching and looting mechanics.
• Improved inventory implementation; one that joins up inventory browsing, weapon/armour crafting, modification and item comparison.
• Research items stored separately.
• Default companion selection = ‘last party composition’.
• Ability to pause cut-scenes.
• Companions ride mounted with you.
• Ability to initiate dialogue with companions outside of Haven/Skyhold… like DA:O.
• Improved character creation fidelity with the in-game outcome +/or ability to modify character design after creation.
• More mouse-over tool-tip functionality.

(I’d also love the ability to save-out combat encounters and then replay them in a spectator / free camera mode afterwards; it would just be a cool thing, that’s all.)

 

Having said all of that, which perhaps sounds like a list of gripes (it’s not, it’s just a wish list)…

• I’m really enjoying playing the game.
• I’ve put most of my initial M+KB issues behind me now, with a few sensible remaps and simply becoming accustomed.
• I’m enjoying the company of the companions.

- Their characters are interesting and pretty well drawn.

- They meaningfully (and not superficially) cause me pause for thought over some of the social and political tensions themed within the game; their own viewpoints, opinions and prejudices are well-delivered in such a way as to provide plausible counter-arguments to one another (and often to my own initial views on a particular issue; they have been know to even 'convince me otherwise' on certain things; points of view I hadn't perhaps considered fully).

- The voice acting is pretty solid… even Leliana has ‘grown up’ quite a bit in that regard now. 

- I particularly like how their approval towards you is not quantified now; the simple approval/disapproval notifications are an excellent compromise to that (in case their vocal responses aren’t a good enough indication for you). I’m delighted that the stupid, superficial and gamey gift-giving mechanics are a thing of the past… though I wouldn’t be completely against being able to gift them things, given the new mechanics, but with much more limited effects on their actual disposition towards you.

• I have laughed out loud many times already, over all sorts of things including dialogue, codex items, discovered notes, war-table reports… It’s not often that a game makes me laugh out loud (i.e. in its core content and design and outside of multiplayer shenanigans). This is a good thing.

• I haven’t cried yet, but I did get a bit of a lump in my throat in the latter stages of ‘In Your Heart Shall Burn’.

• This game has also made me go “Oh wooow”, “Holy ****!”, “**** me, that’s cool”, and iterations thereof, several times. Again, that doesn’t often happen to me in a game. This is also a good thing. And it’s as often about the little things as the big… for example, I LOVE the surface froth on the waves and the way they crash onto the Storm Coast shore; it’s pretty darn amazing. I like the sea, and I like being by the sea. I’ve never had a game recreate that feeling in quite the same way… before this.

There is so much good stuff in this game; so much beauty, scope and content; great story-telling, sound-design and music; so much to love. Its ambition and content is enormous, and you can’t deny the effort and passion that must have gone into its development.

 

If only they’d addressed some of the issues mentioned here and by others elsewhere before launching; the big technical and game-mechanic / control issues that a lot of other people are finding unbearable.

 

I could actually live with a lot of these things remaining unfixed, since I’ve had no real problems playing the game. But I really sympathise with those people who haven’t been able to play, for whatever reason.

 

Some of these issues are studio design decisions (it’s their game, not mine), but some are the result of manifestly poor QA and testing, resulting in a woeful port to PC in some critical areas.

 

That’s disappointing. For me. For others it seems unacceptable. Whatever.

 

Patches might resolve/improve some of these issues, hopefully for the majority of players, including me. But I’m not going to hold my breath, and in any case I am really enjoying playing the game as it stands.

 

(Also, I can’t help but remember the true heartbreak on the initial release of ‘Total War: Rome 2’ last year. That was a terrible time, and by comparison DA:I has been, even as it stands, a pleasure to dive into)

 

It’s actually pretty impressive, since I’m entirely willing to accept that getting a game of this quality and magnitude right at launch is damned near impossible.

 

Given how playable I find this game to be right now, I think it’s an astonishing achievement. Right now, for me, it’s great fun.

 

If they had got it completely right, or if they manage to do so through patching, then...

 

It could be. Absolutely. INCREDIBLE.

 

TG

[Annarl]

I'm a PC user with no problems.  Enjoying the game very much, but those who are having a problem I hope it gets worked out soon.

[Alastara]

Get out of my head TG!  As far as your general feelings we feel exactly the same.  I recognize some gameplay weaknesses as I play (on PC) but at the same time I'm overwhelmed at the scope and brilliance of the things they did right.

 

I was talking with my son while playing the other day and making a comment about how I wish this or that was improved and he interrupted and asked "So you don't like it?".

 

I immediately responded with "Best game I ever played".  I've read a ton of massive hyperbole in these forums, but for me, even as I recognize some things I wish were different, it's the best game I've ever played....really

[Ieldra]

PC player, mostly happy, here. The tac cam issue and the Inquisitor's civilian outfit are my main issues with DAI, but they don't stop the overall experience from being amazing.

[AlexMBrennan]

The combat is almost an exact mix of DA:O and DA:2 which I think is what everyone said they wanted for several years.

The game forces you to hold down LMB to attack, and hides the cursor every time you do that; of course you have been waiting for that for years because no other developer on the planet is dumb enough to hide your mouse cursor when you are using it (try it now by highlighting some text in your browser - wouldn't that experience be greatly improved if you couldn't see the cursor?).

 

Overall, it's not that bad a game but a lot of the design decisions are mindbogglingly dumb.

[Oryctolagus]

...but some are the result of manifestly poor QA and testing, resulting in a woeful port to PC in some critical areas.

 

 

While this seems a reasonable statement, I don't think it's the truth of the matter (but I never think this is the truth of the matter).  It is not poor QA or poor testing; it's poor prioritization by management in regards to bug/fix priority.  It is the result of things getting found and flagged by QA and then not addressed in a timely matter, for whatever reasons - be they political or technical.  It's a missed shot to call out the QA team.  This is not a criticism of you personally - your post was just the +1 on the forum that over-filled the cup of a QA dude who got out.

 

And, honestly, if I didn't have personal experience I would be pointing fingers at testing and QA also.  But if typical is typical, there are about a gajillion bugs in their database that were filed and not fixed because management deemed them not critical.  Then there are architectural bugs that they did not catch because you would need three dozen different machines to maybe hopefully hit the right combo.

 

tldr; it's not QA, it's management

 

 

[Cyberpunk]

I like the game. I'm angry about the bugs that are ruining my experience. 

[Crackseed]

I want to start my post with my grump - for a PC game with promises of PC centric features/support, the tac cam controls are a let down, the CC options for hair and overal lighting on a 2014 game with 4 years of development time, and finally being locked to 8 skill slots w/o a power wheel to back it up for extra skills are all boggling design calls. Some of the bugs and hiccups could also have likely been stamped out with a bit better prioritizing.

 

As I say this I also accept that I'm not a developer and with all the work they put in, this probably came down to time and priorities.

 

Even with those statements however, I am beyond immersed and impressed with this game. I'm nearing the 40 hour mark and I've barely progressed the main plot - I keep getting side tracked by an interesting optional quest or cooing at the overall gorgeous vistas and scope of the game.

 

While the combat is a bit less "free flow" than DA2 I enjoy what came as a result of those changes.

 

And then there's the companions. The romances. The stories that go with good characters. 

 

Even with the complaints I have about some of the PC features not quite being up to snuff, it doesn't hold a candle in the end to the overall awesome that the game brings to the table. I just hope Bioware ups their game so to speak and gives this game proper patching and update support

[T.G]

Some of these issues are studio design decisions (it’s their game, not mine), but some are the result of manifestly poor QA and testing, resulting in a woeful port to PC in some critical areas.

 

While this seems a reasonable statement, I don't think it's the truth of the matter (but I never think this is the truth of the matter).  It is not poor QA or poor testing; it's poor prioritization by management in regards to bug/fix priority.  It is the result of things getting found and flagged by QA and then not addressed in a timely matter, for whatever reasons - be they political or technical.  It's a missed shot to call out the QA team.  This is not a criticism of you personally - your post was just the +1 on the forum that over-filled the cup of a QA dude who got out.

 

And, honestly, if I didn't have personal experience I would be pointing fingers at testing and QA also.  But if typical is typical, there are about a gajillion bugs in their database that were filed and not fixed because management deemed them not critical.  Then there are architectural bugs that they did not catch because you would need three dozen different machines to maybe hopefully hit the right combo.

 

tldr; it's not QA, it's management

 

Good point, well made.

 

I'm not a game designer or bug-tester or QA dude, so you're right, it's unfair of me to make that sweeping statement as fact when I don't really have a detailed understanding of the process.

 

Perhaps you're right, and somewhere at Bioware there exists a list with literally all the issues that have been discussed by players on these forums; a list that might very well have existed in its complete form before the game even shipped; and that these issues were deprioritised as part of some management decision-making process on the road to launch...

 

Very possibly as part of something that I didn't address at all in my original post; i.e. the much discussed issue of this game being launched primarily as a console game (with only a half-hearted, at best, PC port), and the understandable resentment felt by many PC gamers in light of that process, which flew directly in the face of the "game for PC gamers, by PC gamers" rhetoric during  marketing of the game. I've paraphrased, but that was essentially the message to PC gamers from Bioware, "Hey guys, don't worry, we got this, you'll love it, it's designed specially with you in mind". Hmmm.

 

Whatever the truth behind the marketing angle, development priorities, management decisions and launch process, I think that many PC gamers feel justifiably let down, at the very least, by the game they recevied at launch (among many, the feelings seem much stronger; that they were outright duped, maybe even lied to).

 

For me, as I said, I'm just disappointed in this respect. But that doesn't directly affect my enjoyment of the game as it stands... it's still hella fun, and an incredible achievement in game design.

 

I find I'm becoming more and more cynical and resigned (almost concurrently) about a lot of things in life I'm afraid; politics, professional football (my God, I despise it, and yet I still love a football), and more recently the gaming industry. I'm becoming a cliched grumpy old man, no doubt about it.

 

This seeming trend in the gaming industry is depressing, i.e. the understandable tilt towards commercial opportunities provided through the console market; the soul-destroying (literally) influence and control publishers seem to have over many previously reputable (and in their genres, legendary) studios; and the effects of that on legions of insatiable, intensely loyal, but ultimately credulous and, sadly, increasingly betrayed and dismayed PC gamers.

 

Perhaps its simply inevitable that this evolution is occurring. I don't know.

 

I mentioned 'Total War: Rome 2' in my previous post, and the release of that game was... god I don't know, it's really hard to find the right word; depressing seems too weak, abomination far to strong. It was heartbreaking for the loyal fans of the Creative Assembly's canon of work, myself included. I pre-ordered, and I played for a few hours. And then I stopped playing for 12 months. Thank God, with that game at least, for the modding community. I'm now returning to the game with renewed enthusiasm, thanks to the amazing work of modding fans.

 

Anyway, I digress completely, sorry.

 

As I've said, I'm not unhappy with DA:I as a game. I think the game at launch is much more than just playable. For me, it's great fun. I'm not looking for mods for this game. I'm not remotely bothered by the current and probably future absence of moddability for this game (though I know others are, and I sympathise with them).

 

It is a good game. It is. In my opinion. It could have been great, and maybe it can be patched to be great.

 

But still, I can't help feeling a bit sad (and yes, cynical) that the direction of this new game from Bioware is towards the console market, and that my beloved PC is once again just the wall-flower at the dance. Not the partner of choice. Past it?

 

I'm sorry, in the end, to come here with a bit of a lamenting post to an otherwise positive thread... I didn't mean to do that.

 

Let me say again: I do like this game!

 

I also hope that Bioware can manage to retain their soul through the evolution of the gaming industry. A soul that I believe, genuinely, is still at the heart of their development of this game.

 

TG

[Rhayne05]

eVGA GTX 780 SC'd, i5 3570K @ 4.2ghz, 16gigs ram, Win7 64 bit.

 

I'm about 30ish hours in. Game ran above 30 FPS but not much when it "Auto" selected my graphics. I use a mixture of High/Ultra and a few settings Off. I now get steady 50 - 60 framerates in most places besides cities/villages/camps and the middle of the Hinterlands.

 

It took a day of messing around with graphics settings to get comfortable. i was a bit disappointed i couldn't run on ultra at 60FPS. Oh well, i'm not top of the line haha.

 

The only real issues I've had are choppy cutscenes, nasty clipping issues with my Qunari's head, framerate dips in some areas. Other than that, no crashes, no bugged quests (so far)

Would still love to see a patch that gets the game to run a bit smoother, that or a driver release!

[TripGodblossom]

Happy PC player here (Nvidia 560 1gb, i7 2600, 16gb). Buying and pre-downloading from Origin was smooth and fast. 

 

Playing with 360 controller as is my preference - after all I'm playing an action packed dramatic game, not editing my accounts in excel I do sympathize somewhat with m&kb folk though, I haven't even tried and can only imagine it's horrible. The gameplay in general almost reminds me of a Japanese hack&slasher sometimes, combined with the skills available (8 slots is more than I need in a game this fast paced). Walking instead of running, getting vibration on rift closures, the 360 controller is just more fun IMO.

 

The game is just so addictive and that elusive trait really makes it fantastic.

 

My only doubts are in a few cheesy story scenes, and the fairly punishing system recommendations for what isn't exactly jaw dropping rendering and animation. Also character creation is unrepresentative of the actual game, making it too easy to get stuck with a droopy derp face for potentially a 100 hours of gameplay

[RifuloftheWest]

I have about 120 hrs in...and I'm not even close to finishing the main plot of the game. I keep getting side tracked with all the things to discover .

 

Haven't been on the forums for a while, so I'm not up to speed on the details of issues that PC users have had. Personally, there have been a few random crashes but for the most part the game runs very well for me (ultra settings, 2xMSAA, 50-60fps avg).

 

Overall, I am absolutely loving this game. Took me a bit to get used to the tactical cam (I am a "pause every second and control all party members" type of player) but I am enjoying the combat immensely.

 

Now back to the game for me...

[Oryctolagus]

Very possibly as part of something that I didn't address at all in my original post; i.e. the much discussed issue of this game being launched primarily as a console game (with only a half-hearted, at best, PC port), and the understandable resentment felt by many PC gamers in light of that process, which flew directly in the face of the "game for PC gamers, by PC gamers" rhetoric during  marketing of the game. I've paraphrased, but that was essentially the message to PC gamers from Bioware, "Hey guys, don't worry, we got this, you'll love it, it's designed specially with you in mind". Hmmm.

 

Whatever the truth behind the marketing angle, development priorities, management decisions and launch process, I think that many PC gamers feel justifiably let down, at the very least, by the game they recevied at launch (among many, the feelings seem much stronger; that they were outright duped, maybe even lied to).

I hate the PC controls pretty thoroughly.  I play with a controller because I became too frustrated, and I'd much rather play with keyboard & mouse.  My son, on the other hand, even though he plays most of his games with a controller, will only play with the keyboard & mouse because he says the controller frustrates him.  We are baffled by each other, because I find the controller so much easier and he finds it so much harder.  And I'm 42 and he's 17.  Go figure.

 

All that to say that I don't think they expected the frustration with the controls; it's a new engine, they adapted/started anew, they used them and performed well.  They totally underestimated the impact of 1.) the tactical camera bug, rendering it (imho) unusable, coupled with 2.) the expectation that the game would be a successor in all the bits as well as the spirit of the property.  A universal UI for console & PC is always frustrating for the PC (Skyrim's UI suuuucked), and so far no one has stepped up to recognize the disparity (or just refuses to budget for it).

 

So what, says everyone who reads this post.  My armchair analysis just says that two people in my house are still playing and enjoying the heck out of the game with all of its freezes on the menu screen (my record is restarting 11 times before I got in) and broken controls, in two different ways on the PC.  It needs fixes and tweaks, but... I really don't think that marketing LIED that they developed for the PC; I think they genuinely thought things were fine and the bugs and misassumptions have bitten them in the arse.  So which is worse?  Being malicious or being clueless?  Subjective, I guess.

 

This is my favorite game of the 2010s so far, and they executed terrifically in so many other areas that I can deal with the controls needing to be patched for a few weeks.  I can barely theorize about the other bugs, but I have some ideas.  I'm definitely not suggesting folks' concerns are trivial; I get the expectations, the disappointment, and the frustrations.

 

Good posts on your part.  So much better than accusations or complaining, thank you.

[Annaire]

I've enjoyed it for the most part. I'd probably be more genial if I didn't have the (seemingly) common DirectX CTD. Up to a point, it makes the game unplayable by preventing me from advancing through a certain plot point, but eh. It'll get fixed.

I'm all for constructive criticism and praise, and for praise i'll give the game its due. It certainly is very ambitious!

[holdenagincourt]

Loved the game from the moment I fired it up, haven't stopped.

 

There are minor annoyances here and there--tiny things like the Undercroft in Skyhold having a loading door, or the bug with one of the Tempest perks not actually working if you switch areas but still eating your crafting ingredients for the extra potion. There are areas I think could be improved and fleshed out--the power system could be made more useful overall, Skyhold could be improved and made less sterile in many ways.

 

All in all though, this is one of my favorite games ever and very close to my preconceived ideal of what I wanted this game to be.

[T.G]

I hate the PC controls pretty thoroughly.  I play with a controller because I became too frustrated, and I'd much rather play with keyboard & mouse.  My son, on the other hand, even though he plays most of his games with a controller, will only play with the keyboard & mouse because he says the controller frustrates him.  We are baffled by each other, because I find the controller so much easier and he finds it so much harder.  And I'm 42 and he's 17.  Go figure.

 

All that to say that I don't think they expected the frustration with the controls; it's a new engine, they adapted/started anew, they used them and performed well.  They totally underestimated the impact of 1.) the tactical camera bug, rendering it (imho) unusable, coupled with 2.) the expectation that the game would be a successor in all the bits as well as the spirit of the property.  A universal UI for console & PC is always frustrating for the PC (Skyrim's UI suuuucked), and so far no one has stepped up to recognize the disparity (or just refuses to budget for it).

 

So what, says everyone who reads this post.  My armchair analysis just says that two people in my house are still playing and enjoying the heck out of the game with all of its freezes on the menu screen (my record is restarting 11 times before I got in) and broken controls, in two different ways on the PC.  It needs fixes and tweaks, but... I really don't think that marketing LIED that they developed for the PC; I think they genuinely thought things were fine and the bugs and misassumptions have bitten them in the arse.  So which is worse?  Being malicious or being clueless?  Subjective, I guess.

 

This is my favorite game of the 2010s so far, and they executed terrifically in so many other areas that I can deal with the controls needing to be patched for a few weeks.  I can barely theorize about the other bugs, but I have some ideas.  I'm definitely not suggesting folks' concerns are trivial; I get the expectations, the disappointment, and the frustrations.

 

Good posts on your part.  So much better than accusations or complaining, thank you.

 

Once again, really good post, thank you. You offer an interesting perspective on the possible development process that, in my cynisism, I hadn't really considered.

 

So, benefit of the doubt I guess. A good standpoint I think... Malicious or clueless, which is worse? That's a good question. Both are pretty depressing. The thrust of my post was simply lamenting what seems to be an unstoppable, and pretty understandable (at least commercially) evolution of gaming towards console platforms (and/or controller optimised games).

 

I dunno, perhaps I'm just being a luddite about things, but at least it seems I'm not at all alone (judging by the comments on these forums, and even in this thread). At least for now there seems to remain a PC community who want to fight against controller-optimised gaming.

 

Maybe it is just an age thing - I'm 42 as well, by the way - though it was interesting to hear you talk about the oddity of you and your son's preferred ways to play this game... that made me chuckle.

 

Anyway, thanks again.

 

~TG

[Lord Vallis]

My initial game (abandoned after about 10 hours) suffered the gender mixup, crashes during conversations, crashes if I paused it and left for 2 minutes to go do something, crashes for no apparent reason, and poor video performance.

 

After starting a new game sans gender bug, I have not had a single crash.  Somewhere in there I also tweaked out my video settings, not sure if that helped with crashing or not.

 

I say all of that not to brag, but in the hopes that I might help someone.  Love this game warts and all.

 

This game is like a smoking hot chick that lets off a stinker in the car.  Some things a guy just chooses to overlook.

[T.G]

My initial game (abandoned after about 10 hours) suffered the gender mixup, crashes during conversations, crashes if I paused it and left for 2 minutes to go do something, crashes for no apparent reason, and poor video performance.

 

After starting a new game sans gender bug, I have not had a single crash.  Somewhere in there I also tweaked out my video settings, not sure if that helped with crashing or not.

 

I say all of that not to brag, but in the hopes that I might help someone.  Love this game warts and all.

 

This game is like a smoking hot chick that lets off a stinker in the car.  Some things a guy just chooses to overlook.

 

This is golden. Love it.

 

I wonder if the gender mix-up bug, when it occurs, is actually responsible for a number of critical follow-on bugs and errors. I stumbled across the 'fix' for this quite early, thankfully, and since re-rolling I've experienced very few bug problems in the game.

 

Gah, such a shame for a game of this calibre (really) to be plagued at launch by this sort of issue that continues to render it unplayable by some. Regardless of how you feel about the control issues (nothing to do with bugs, largely), I think that when you can play this game relatively smoothly it's an amazing experience.

 

~TG

[Ravenfeeder]

I've played nearly 50 hours and the only bug I've seen was one dead body floating 3 metres in the air. I know I've been enormously lucky, My only real wishes for improvement at this point are:

1) a storage chest for loot that has out-levelled me or is Unique and I just don't want to sell.

2) more zoom out in tactical combat. The level of zoom is particularly a problem when dealing with rifts. Just getting to see them at their current elevation is often hard.

3) The black loading screen after the loading screen. Seriously, what's that about?

 

I play all combats entirely in tactical mode, took a bit of getting used to and it doesn't save me from the expletive bears, but I'm having fun.

 

For those who are interested in such things my machine runs an i5 2500k, 8Gb RAM, an SSD (with DAI running on it) and a MSI/Nvidia GTX 970. The processor is fast enough and seems more stable than all the i7's around, not just for this game, I've noticed it for other games as well. I'm wondering if some of the instability others are getting is related to hyper-threading on the processor, rather than anything to do with the graphics card.

[KneeTheCap]

Downed a dragon. Best. Feeling. Ever.

 

I love this game.

[Akrabra]

Played through the game once, took about 60 hours on that playthrough and didn't have any gamebreaking bugs. 2 Ctd's when just questing in different zones and a few glitches with the engine, mostly while jumping. Started a 2nd playthrough now and so far everything is fine, we'll see by the time i reach the end. 

 

I actually have no problems with the controls, and yes i am using mouse and keyboard. I do miss click on the ground during normal pause to move my party ,sucks that i can only use that in tactical cam since tac cam needs fixing!.

[stevemill]

Played 60 hours. Couple of crashes related to one cut scene. Best RPG I've played in many a year.

[DemGeth]

I've played nearly 50 hours and the only bug I've seen was one dead body floating 3 metres in the air. I know I've been enormously lucky, My only real wishes for improvement at this point are:
1) a storage chest for loot that has out-levelled me or is Unique and I just don't want to sell.
2) more zoom out in tactical combat. The level of zoom is particularly a problem when dealing with rifts. Just getting to see them at their current elevation is often hard.
3) The black loading screen after the loading screen. Seriously, what's that about?

I play all combats entirely in tactical mode, took a bit of getting used to and it doesn't save me from the expletive bears, but I'm having fun.

For those who are interested in such things my machine runs an i5 2500k, 8Gb RAM, an SSD (with DAI running on it) and a MSI/Nvidia GTX 970. The processor is fast enough and seems more stable than all the i7's around, not just for this game, I've noticed it for other games as well. I'm wondering if some of the instability others are getting is related to hyper-threading on the processor, rather than anything to do with the graphics card.

I also have an i5 with almost no bugs.

Also have a 670, the x70 series always seems to be the most stable, love that card.

[Ryzaki]

Loving it.

 

Bought a 970 just for it.

 

Only 3 crashes in about 145 hours of play.

 

That said Dorian's quest is bugged to hell. I sometimes have to constantly reload or restart the game to get it to fire properly.

[Itkovian]

While this seems a reasonable statement, I don't think it's the truth of the matter (but I never think this is the truth of the matter).  It is not poor QA or poor testing; it's poor prioritization by management in regards to bug/fix priority.  It is the result of things getting found and flagged by QA and then not addressed in a timely matter, for whatever reasons - be they political or technical.  It's a missed shot to call out the QA team.  This is not a criticism of you personally - your post was just the +1 on the forum that over-filled the cup of a QA dude who got out.

 

And, honestly, if I didn't have personal experience I would be pointing fingers at testing and QA also.  But if typical is typical, there are about a gajillion bugs in their database that were filed and not fixed because management deemed them not critical.  Then there are architectural bugs that they did not catch because you would need three dozen different machines to maybe hopefully hit the right combo.

 

tldr; it's not QA, it's management

 

But is it even management? What different decision might they have done to fix the problem, given limited time and resources?

 

We have no idea what other issues were going on and needed fixing more than the relatively minor issues we're seeing now. It's easy to say bad QA, or bad coding, or bad management, but short of requiring delays until all bugs are fixed (which isn't gonna happen, ever) there's likely little else that could be done.

 

I get that people are angry because of bugs, and design decisions, but ultimately that's just par for the course for software. You can't wait until everything is fixed, because it never is. You just fix what you can in the time you have, and get the game in a state that can be released and will please most fans (which I bet is the case for DAI, including amongst PC users... forum noise is just that).