254 réponses à ce sujet

[Dinerenblanc]

Thank god, is all I can say.

DA:I had the most inane, nonplussed core canon of any Bioware game in the past two decades. It was so mind-numbingly trite and dull, the fetch and carry quests to save the refuges in the Hinterlands felt like they had more weight and progress to them.

150 hours, 120 of which were spent actively avoiding main quest progression...

To be fair, most of that has more to do with game design than writing. The characters in Inquisition are actually very well written. The problem is that they didn't do much with most of them. 

[AresKeith]

Yes, it's the game design that fails the most to me. Which is why I criticized Laidlaw earlier, more than any writers. Most companions are great. Some of their best. Some of the story premise is good too, but not executed as well as could be imo. The only thing I think the writers failed at is not tapping into previous themes enough (especially the mage/templar war). I don't know how much of that was due to game design or just writing, but I think those were better themes.. and it was squandered.

 

That isn't directly Laidlaw either 

[wolfhowwl]

Thank god, is all I can say.

DA:I had the most inane, nonplussed core canon of any Bioware game in the past two decades. It was so mind-numbingly trite and dull, the fetch and carry quests to save the refuges in the Hinterlands felt like they had more weight and progress to them.

150 hours, 120 of which were spent actively avoiding main quest progression...

 

I'm not sure he had much say in having this game be BioWare's attempt at a Ubisoft title.

[HowlingSiren]

Both David Gaider and Patrick Weekes are great writers. So the way I look at it, we get to keep a great writer on Dragon Age, and another great writer on the New Project. Win-win. 

 

Congrats to both! 

[Dinerenblanc]

Both David Gaider and Patrick Weekes are great writers. So the way I look at it, we get to keep a great writer on Dragon Age, and another great writer on the New Project. Win-win. 

 

Congrats to both! 

It would be nice if they just stuck with one writer for the next game. Inquisition's story felt unfocused at times and having two writers is probably the reason. I'm fully aware that more than 2 writers worked on Inquisition and why it's that way, but one can dream. 

[Andraste_Reborn]

It would be nice if they just stuck with one writer for the next game. Inquisition's story felt unfocused at times and having two writers is probably the reason. I'm fully aware that more than 2 writers worked on Inquisition and why it's that way, but one can dream. 

 

There is no way one person could do all the writing in a Dragon Age game in the time allotted. BioWare games have always been written by a team, and with good reason.

[Jaquio]

There is no way one person could do all the writing in a Dragon Age game in the time allotted. BioWare games have always been written by a team, and with good reason.

 

Team writing for character driven games like DA is a good thing.  It really gives different characters a different voice if they're not all coming from the same person's head.

 

Even as it is, you can start to see consistent themes woven through a writer's characters, even if they're quite different.  But I'm most worried about this because I think Gaider's characters were written with the most maturity.  I already feel that there's been a shift from the dread-laden world of Origins to a more bright and caricatured, disneyfied world in Inquisition.

 

I'm more skeptical than others about turning it over to Weekes.  On one hand, Here Lies the Abyss was a strong quest and had a good cinematic scope to it that I think brings out the epic qualities in the game.  On the other hand, most of the characters (such as Iron Bull and the Chargers) seemed anachronistic to the themes already present in the game world.  For example, while I appreciate that Iron Bull is supposed to be Ben Hassrath and thus integrate with other societies more, he is very different in tone than how the Qunari are expressed in Origins (via Sten) and DA2 (via the Arishok).  There's a cartoonish approachability there that feels different to the style and substance of the games in the past.

[ninemil]

Dread-laden world in Origins? Sorry, what is this - I missed it. There was nothing dread-laden about Origin, and if there was any intention of there having been, they suffocated it with inane waffle from Alistair, and his pre-marital spats with Morrigan. Shale didn't help matters, either. The entire atmosphere was a joke.

[Eelectrica]

I'll judge the next DA game on its merits.

Hopefully they'll have learned a lot from this game in terms of working with the FB engine and the adapting their style of game with the the semi open world thing they attempted.

[wolfhowwl]

Dread-laden world in Origins? Sorry, what is this - I missed it. There was nothing dread-laden about Origin, and if there was any intention of there having been, they suffocated it with inane waffle from Alistair, and his pre-marital spats with Morrigan. Shale didn't help matters, either. The entire atmosphere was a joke.

 

Delusion around BioWare's previous titles isn't uncommon.

 

I've seen people praising ME1's "tactical combat" (lol) and "deep exploration."

[Dinerenblanc]

Nostagia has that effect on people. Many games are simply not as good as you remember.

[ninemil]

I was even actually hopeful for Inquisition after the Arishok story arc. It was the first time in ages that Bioware focused on a protagonist, and made him compelling enough to want to understand. You could see his argument, you could sympathise with his position. The atmosphere in the run up to that final declaration of war was tense, and invocative. Sure, the Isabella thing resolved itself in an entirely idiotic manner, but up until that point, the act was some of the best writing Bioware had managed in ages.

 

And then they shat on it with another 'world ending' event in the following act, and reduced the Qunari to 'James Vega wants to get laid again' in the following game o_0

 

Their MO is really, really tired now. The only interesting thing in Inquisition's main story was Solas, and most of that didn't even happen until the game had ended.

 

Having a staff change is really the only way I see they can break the mould.

[Merlik]

I have hopes that it will be better. New blood. I mean wasn't it these guys who did DA2? I couldn't stand that game. But maybe that was EA's fault for rushing them.

[ninemil]

Always with the EA thing.

EA do a job. They keep development houses profitable, to ensure that those houses can continue in the business of making games. If a software house has spent years sat on it's hands, dicking with something that has no marketable potential, then they deserve to have EA come in and stomp on them.

 

EA are the ones bankrolling their whimsical creativity, after all. Be thankful we still have publishers prepared to spend such insane amounts of money on the sector, because I'll tell you now, they'd make a hell of a lot more money with that cash elsewhere.

[AWTEW]

Gaider probably had this planned for a while. He handed over coles writing and Solas to patrick for DAI. I theorise this was a test for patrick.

[Unpleasant Implications]

Obviously I have not read the book so I am oblivious to any other faults it may have but if your major problem with the book is that it set up something that did not quite turn out as exciting in the game isn't that more a problem with the game rather than the book?

That's a problem with Bioware in general. Setups with underwhelming payoffs.

[wright1978]

Gaider probably had this planned for a while. He handed over coles writing and Solas to patrick for DAI. I theorise this was a test for patrick.

 

That was my first thought too. Shame Gaider is moving to a different franchise but if they have a good internal replacement it may a good thing.

[ninemil]

Let's be honest, very few of those setups belong to them. 90% of Mass Effect was just Babylon 5, recycled. (It never ceases to amaze me how many people still think Morden's singing was somehow original... They even used the same damn song, ffs.)

[Elfyoth]

I have hopes that it will be better. New blood. I mean wasn't it these guys who did DA2? I couldn't stand that game. But maybe that was EA's fault for rushing them.

Actually the story wasent the major prob in DA2... 

[Bfler]

Let's be honest, very few of those setups belong to them. 90% of Mass Effect was just Babylon 5, recycled. (It never ceases to amaze me how many people still think Morden's singing was somehow original... They even used the same damn song, ffs.)

 

Except of the ending. I wish it would be like the end of the war against the shadows in Babylon 5.