34 réponses à ce sujet

[ILikeCommas]

Yep, I've noticed that too. As I mentioned before, even very powerful gaming laptops with nvidia GPU's have / had trouble running DA:I. On some of those machine the game uses the integrated graphics (instead of the GPU) which, while reasonably capable these days, aren't that great for running the more demanding new games. And by Jove, is DA:I demanding.
 

 You're right! The only question left now is whether they know, and whether they intend to do anything about it. Almost half a year later and it's still a problem, doesn't bode well.

 

 

That one seemed pretty short to me too. The one thing that really bugged me was that the companion quests felt very…isolated from the rest of the game somehow. I will admit that was more of a feeling than something I analysed with any depth.

 

You've got the right feeling. Most of the companions aren't really integrated into the story. Cassandra's fine. Solas and Varric are barely attached to it during beginning, and get little else over the course of the main quest; Cole OR Dorian get a proper, if rushed introduction on any given playthrough at the expense of the other; and... uh, well that's it. The rest amount to "go here, converse for about half the time of the loading screen it to to get there, acquire new companion."

 

 

I find it hard to believe they ever intended this, I find it more likely this was simply cut at some point. I do wonder when, exactly, BioWare stopped developing the different parts of the game and began knitting them together, testing, polishing etc. At first sight, the game seemed fairly polished to me (fairly stable, not too buggy) but the more I played it, the more I got the same feeling I have when I enter a fancy-looking building that seems to have all kinds of odd design decisions on the inside, which indicate that it was finished in a hurry because time and money ran out. If so, I have to give BioWare at least some brownie points for camouflaging this with some skill. There are a lot of games out there where this is far more noticeable (then again, maybe the lack of time and money was far worse in those cases).

I don't have any proof, but my gut says three to six months before it went gold, or came out, even. They were still talking about "dynamic keep battles" back in late April, so it was probably soon after that. Game's had a lot of serious patches, too.

[Rawgrim]

I thought the companions had plenty of dept, even if I didn't romance them Pretty much on par with the previous games. I think it just seems less because the 200 hours of fetch quests stretches the game out so much.

[Das Tentakel]

I thought the companions had plenty of dept, even if I didn't romance them Pretty much on par with the previous games. I think it just seems less because the 200 hours of fetch quests stretches the game out so much.

 

It's not a depth thing, to be honest. The companions are fairly typical BioWare, with two layers to them, which is vastly more than the characters in most games. However, when I wrote that they felt isolated...it probably comes down to it that they are almost entirely optional content and somehow didn't feel that connected to the story. It may be as simple that in other games, it was much easier and felt more logical to talk to them extensively. In DA:I, they are spread out across Haven or the castle of Skyhold, while in DA:O they were handily near each other in the camp (main game) or the castle hall (Awakening expansion).

[Uccio]

 

The story is short, shallow, cliched and amounts to sequelbait. 

 

The action combat is uninspired and the weakest to date. 

 

The tactical combat is a mess and the weakest to date. 

 

The companions are interesting but not deep enough unless you romance them, and you can only romance one at a time. 

 

The quest structure is mostly horrendous filler.

 

The level design is beautiful, but comes at too heavy a cost.

 

The game has no idea what it wants to be, but it sure isn't a Dragon Age game.

(This isn't for the faint of heart.)
 

http://ilikecommas.d...First-530483275

 

 

Awesome review, agree completely.

 

And yes, Morrigan..

 

[b10d1v]

True, management generally pushes QA out without procedures in place. Under SQA and certification processes for product improvement, this is more difficult and even though this is not some controls software for some factory, it is still needed as our frustration is unhealthy in a similar way.  

 

A little Vision with QA could have prevented many of the mishaps with updates and patches with a list of critical repairs that don't get overwritten w/o approval on impact resolution.  

 

"We" are the factory entity, Bioware provides the software and is responsible for testing the product before they provide it to us and "we" are NOT testers unless we participate in the QA process.  Its not uncommon for an Industrial QA process to integrate with business they depend on -to the point of putting people on site to monitor the other's QA processes at times.

[b10d1v]

If it is still up and I can't find it.  There was an AV file on bioblog concerning writing dialog for DAI w/in frostbite, sort of an after hours office documentary style where the writer explained the process w/in frostbite and how it differed from her experience with pen and pencil to desktop.  There was an obvious learning curve issue exposed in that interview and I can see the confusion that could arise with isolation from the bigger picture, but the process has potential nonetheless.  With such a system QA needs to track the "big picture" to help account for potential dialog and script errors -pretty sure the frostbite development system has those features, hard to know just how developed they are or the priority on them.  

[ILikeCommas]

It's not a depth thing, to be honest. The companions are fairly typical BioWare, with two layers to them, which is vastly more than the characters in most games. However, when I wrote that they felt isolated...it probably comes down to it that they are almost entirely optional content and somehow didn't feel that connected to the story. It may be as simple that in other games, it was much easier and felt more logical to talk to them extensively. In DA:I, they are spread out across Haven or the castle of Skyhold, while in DA:O they were handily near each other in the camp (main game) or the castle hall (Awakening expansion).

 

Agreed: most of the characters (everyone but Shale, actually) in Origins were encountered as you progressed through the game. All but Zevran (and, again, Shale) had a vested interest in your quest. All either were involved with something vital to your quest, had to be persuaded to join you or (in Zevran and Leliana's case) made an effort to persuade you to let them join. And the camp setting was much more intimate than "spread out across an entire city/giant mountain keep," in the other games, and that's not to mention being able to converse with companions during exploration.
 

Awesome review, agree completely.

 

And yes, Morrigan..

 

 

If it is still up and I can't find it.  There was an AV file on bioblog concerning writing dialog for DAI w/in frostbite, sort of an after hours office documentary style where the writer explained the process w/in frostbite and how it differed from her experience with pen and pencil to desktop.  There was an obvious learning curve issue exposed in that interview and I can see the confusion that could arise with isolation from the bigger picture, but the process has potential nonetheless.  With such a system QA needs to track the "big picture" to help account for potential dialog and script errors -pretty sure the frostbite development system has those features, hard to know just how developed they are or the priority on them.  

The game clearly tries to go in more than one direction and, combined with the (once again) new engine and numerous bugs, speaks to it not just not getting polished enough before release. It was pushed out incomplete, to be patched over and over again and still feel ultimately incomplete.

Your point is another aspect of a big problem: that finishing the game wasn't a concern, so much as dumping it out in a playable state to meet that fiscal deadline. I can't speak to what QA did and didn't do while they had the game, but I can't imagine they were satisfied with the way it played. 

Could they have waited until after Christmas to get it out? Probably, at the distress of shareholders. (Oh no!)

And while it would ultimately make for a stronger game, the immediate hit in sales (holidays tend to contract sales, rather than actually heighten them in the long run) would never be recouped come late May once The Witcher 3 comes out. 

I have a feeling it's going to be a much better experience.

[Das Tentakel]

The game clearly tries to go in more than one direction and, combined with the (once again) new engine and numerous bugs, speaks to it not just not getting polished enough before release. It was pushed out incomplete, to be patched over and over again and still feel ultimately incomplete.

Your point is another aspect of a big problem: that finishing the game wasn't a concern, so much as dumping it out in a playable state to meet that fiscal deadline. I can't speak to what QA did and didn't do while they had the game, but I can't imagine they were satisfied with the way it played.

I have a feeling it's going to be a much better experience.

Hmmm…I think it’s probable that the timeline was dictated by the need to release in November 2014. I’m not sure it was a case of ‘Oh Lord, we’re nowhere ready, quick, hurry, finish it now!’. But time constraints (‘Dear Canadian subsidiary, you promised us a ‘Skyrim-killer worthy of Mordor’ for the holiday season 2014 in exchange for another year of development time. Granted, but please do not disappoint us or our shareholders. Yours respectfully, EA HQ’) may have had a major impact. Despite all the time and manpower available, DA:I still gives the impression it used or modified quite a few pre-existing resources (see this thread for instance: http://forum.bioware.../#entry19097035 ), so the plan may always have been to use sources economically and ‘glue them together’ in the middle of 2014, regardless of the degree of progress towards the goal.

Then again, lots of stuff gets cut from games. The difference between a ‘rushed’, ‘rushed but superficially polished’ and ‘fairly polished’ game probably lies in how much of what you want and need gets in the game and how much time you have to make it at least somewhat playable.

Larian (Divinity series) ran into this problem, which cost them money and goodwill when they were forced to release Divine Divinity II far too early. It was playable, but not very well-received. They then put a lot of effort into upgrading the game into ‘Dragon Knight Saga’. Even then, a lot of what they developed never made it into the final game, and was a major source of frustration (it also persuaded them they had to go independent in order to get control over their own development process).
I suspect the first Witcher game had similar problems (leading them to develop the Enhanced Edition as a free upgrade) and many of us have heard the horror story of Knights of the Old Republic II.
DA:I may not have had this level of direct publisher interference, but perhaps BioWare’s ability to deliver more or less on time (given the 1-year extension), glue everything together and publish a playable game may not be such a good thing after all. At least from the POV of that part of the playerbase that wanted a really good DA game, not merely a pretty-looking playable one.

[turuzzusapatuttu]

But they made the post on Tuesday.

 

My mistake. In my defence, every day there's someone complaining about the same things.

 

They can complain, no problem, but why do they feel the need to open a new thread every ****** day?

[ILikeCommas]

Hmmm…I think it’s probable that the timeline was dictated by the need to release in November 2014. I’m not sure it was a case of ‘Oh Lord, we’re nowhere ready, quick, hurry, finish it now!’. But time constraints (‘Dear Canadian subsidiary, you promised us a ‘Skyrim-killer worthy of Mordor’ for the holiday season 2014 in exchange for another year of development time. Granted, but please do not disappoint us or our shareholders. Yours respectfully, EA HQ’) may have had a major impact. Despite all the time and manpower available, DA:I still gives the impression it used or modified quite a few pre-existing resources (see this thread for instance: http://forum.bioware.../#entry19097035 ), so the plan may always have been to use sources economically and ‘glue them together’ in the middle of 2014, regardless of the degree of progress towards the goal.

Then again, lots of stuff gets cut from games. The difference between a ‘rushed’, ‘rushed but superficially polished’ and ‘fairly polished’ game probably lies in how much of what you want and need gets in the game and how much time you have to make it at least somewhat playable.

Larian (Divinity series) ran into this problem, which cost them money and goodwill when they were forced to release Divine Divinity II far too early. It was playable, but not very well-received. They then put a lot of effort into upgrading the game into ‘Dragon Knight Saga’. Even then, a lot of what they developed never made it into the final game, and was a major source of frustration (it also persuaded them they had to go independent in order to get control over their own development process).
I suspect the first Witcher game had similar problems (leading them to develop the Enhanced Edition as a free upgrade) and many of us have heard the horror story of Knights of the Old Republic II.
DA:I may not have had this level of direct publisher interference, but perhaps BioWare’s ability to deliver more or less on time (given the 1-year extension), glue everything together and publish a playable game may not be such a good thing after all. At least from the POV of that part of the playerbase that wanted a really good DA game, not merely a pretty-looking playable one.

I agree, though I sincerely doubt EA was anything like that polite with their notification.

http://i.kinja-img.c...nomy81zzjpg.jpg

As for The Witcher, I bet those problems had more to do with the game (never intended as a AAA competitor) having a budget of 6, maybe 7 million dollars, and them spending the bare minimum on translation. The Enhanced Edition was a reaction to the game (rightfully) earning great critical acclaim and financial success.

You're definitely right about that. I expect the old "glue and dump" from Ubisoft, but not from BioWare.

 

"Once Corypheus has been defeated, I fully intend to join my love once more. Kieran misses him greatly."

"(Sighs.) He will be insufferably pleased with himself."

"She would have learned things that could make even an Orlesian blush."

"We lived together, for a while, somewhere safe, far from this world. [...] We were happy there."

This bears repeating.