Nobody expects the Dragon Age Inquisition

[itsamoose]

Looks like DA:I is getting a Mass Effect 3 style multiplayer mode.  Given how much fun I had with ME3's multiplayer I can't wait to play it.

[Bjorn]

Looks like DA:I is getting a Mass Effect 3 style multiplayer mode.  Given how much fun I had with ME3's multiplayer I can't wait to play it.

 

I'm willing to give that a try.  Hell, I still play ME3: MP (just played some this weekend in fact).  It sounds like they are using the exact same progression system that ME3 used:

 

The goal, BioWare says, "is to make a fun dungeon-crawling experience that you can play with your friends. There will be no pay walls in Dragon Age multiplayer. Everything is accessible with gold coins. You can use premium currency, but you don't have to."

 

No pay walls are good, but the ME3's progression was ultimately pure bullshit, as much as I like it mechanically.  By the time all the expansions were out, it took something like 54 million credits to unlock all the Rare cards and lower, and 100s of millions (if not more) to unlock all the Ultra-Rares.  A good player could make 200K an hour, taking hundreds and hundreds of hours to unlock everything.  An average player could literally be looking at 500+ hours of playtime just to see all the characters and weapons, not even level them up.   Plus, the packs were obscenely expensive for what you got.  I'm hoping that system is balanced out a bit more, a shorter progression curve (ie., not impossible for average players), and more reasonably priced packs. 

 

It sounds like there may be a bit more structure and story to the co-op mode as well.  Over time, they cobbled one together around ME3, and you could see the potential for something much more ambitious there, it just wasn't built from the ground up to support that. 

[Bjorn]

TRAILER! Damn, looks fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=a1aQgQFijHg

[Bjorn]

This comes out in a little less than two weeks! I haven't seen much more said about the co-op mode in it, which is by far what I'm most excited for. But for Xbox One owners who also subscribe to EA Access (gross), they can get a 6 hour unlimited demo of the game a week early, including co-op. That's kind of a bold move, as it means there should be a bunch of opinions out there on the game before people can buy it. I'm hesitant to spend $120 on a pair of copies for my wife and I, but I suppose we can always rent the last gen version for a weekend to see if we like it.

[Justin Leego]

Limited unlimited demo.

[CollegeBaby]

I loved DA:O but DA2 really soured me on this series. Since Wasteland 2 and Divinity: Original Sin have come out - and with Pillars of Eternity not far off - I don't really care anymore that Dragon Age isn't classic PC RPG anymore.

 

But this game just seems to have zero identity. What does Dragon Age as a series actually stand for anymore? Inquisition just looks like a laundry list of Fantasy RPG game features rolled up into a big lump of video game blah blah. I hope this game is good and I'm going to give it a try, but only because this year has been so barren with high profile releases worth playing.

[itsamoose]

But this game just seems to have zero identity. What does Dragon Age as a series actually stand for anymore? Inquisition just looks like a laundry list of Fantasy RPG game features rolled up into a big lump of video game blah blah. I hope this game is good and I'm going to give it a try, but only because this year has been so barren with high profile releases worth playing.

 

Based on what (little) I've seen so far the focus of the game seems to be more toward involving the player in the political machinations of the world which is something previous dragon age games have only really done on the surface, or in highly scripted environments.

 

Video:

[pkirkner]

Bioware streamed some of the multiplayer last week (skip ahead to about 3:00 for the start of the stream or 7:00 for the start of the first session). It's more of a dungeon crawl than the horde-mode sort of gameplay from ME3, which I found surprising. I kind of got a Diablo / MMO raid vibe from what I saw.

[melmer]

Shazam Shazam. Critical reception is high.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=930619

 

Still 7-10 days to go before release date

[prettyunsmart]

I think I'm in, which is weird, given that I haven't preordered a game in a few years. From the reviews, it sounds like it's the sort of RPG I've been enjoying lately (emphasis on politics & a more exploration-focused world).

 

I just went through and re-created my save file with their fancy tapestry thing, so short of actually clicking "buy," I'm all set.

 

Has there been any world on the quality of the PC port? That's the only thing that's holding me back at this point.

[pkirkner]

Has there been any world on the quality of the PC port? That's the only thing that's holding me back at this point.

 

Eurogamer reviewed the PC version and didn't note any issues beyond needing a new GPU to max out the graphical settings.

 

edit: The RPGFan review does mention some issues:

 

A perfect game it ain't, though. There are problems, even in the face of all the care and attention put into the gorgeous visuals, great voice acting, excellent music, and tight gameplay. The menu interface is a mess, even on PC. Comparing items, working with shops, and crafting take far too many clicks. It's clearly designed with the console experience in mind. However, even on the console version, with which I spent much of my pre-release playtime, I still found the menus way too cumbersome for how long I was expected to spend in them.

 

The reviewer goes on to describe clipping issues, some wonky animations, some issues with camera management, and long load times, but concludes: "Some clunkiness only detracts a little from one of Bioware's best RPGs in years."

[prettyunsmart]

Eurogamer reviewed the PC version and didn't note any issues beyond needing a new GPU to max out the graphical settings.

 

Awesome! My GPU's on the list of recommended ones, so I imagine I won't run into too much trouble (even if I don't get to max all the settings). 

 

Now I just need to figure out a way to fit such a massively time-consuming game into my increasingly grown-up-like schedule.

[sclpls]

Hearing so many good things about this game on twitter.

[CollegeBaby]

The reviews give me more hope for an EA game than I've had for a very long time, which is even more surprising to me because the marketing for this game has been so ordinary. The biggest turn off for me though is that this game sounds extremely long. I'm not a highschool baby anymore, I don't have time or patience to spend 60+ hours on a single-player RPG unless it's really really good. Like Dark Souls good.

[Bjorn]

I still haven't had time to watch that stream of MP earlier, but this thread on the BSN details all the things known about MP so far.

So a pretty good chunk of the ME3MP team was bought over to work on DAMP, which I hadn't realized. Looking through all the known things, it sounds like they've addressed a lot of the best criticisms of ME3MP. Promoting was almost useless in ME3, but now you get a reward for it. Your exp and rewards are tracked in realtime, so if you disconnect you still get something. In ME3, if you dc'd, that was it, a total loss. Mission times are still expected to be 20-30 minutes. People who have died can actually help, they get access to some tools to guide and inform living players about the area.

Also, it looks like there is an equal number of male to female characters, which is cool. ME3 had a sizeable female player base, and one of the common complaints was that there weren't nearly as many female characters as male (and the Asari made up like half of the non-human women).

You can play with less than 4 people. Yah! Running high level challenges with just my wife and I was one of my favorite things in ME3.

Man, I'm getting really, really excited about this. I'll probably buy a copy on Origin to pre-load it. My wife is going to want to play SP anyways. It looks like you can pre-order it through Green Man Gaming and use one of their discount codes, so I'll probably do that.

[pkirkner]

I just saw that the Fallen London / Sunless Sea folks made a browser-based game that takes place right before Inquisition. It's part of the Dragon Age Keep website that you otherwise use to input your decisions from the previous games in the series.

[Dewar]

Hmm, I didn't know about the multiplayer. That sounds interesting.

[clyde]

Has anyone found any reviews of the xbox 360 version? The one's I've seen are for xbox one and ps4.

[prettyunsmart]

Man, I'm getting really, really excited about this. I'll probably buy a copy on Origin to pre-load it. My wife is going to want to play SP anyways. It looks like you can pre-order it through Green Man Gaming and use one of their discount codes, so I'll probably do that.

 

Have you had good luck with Green Man Gaming? I have a friend who refuses to do business with them after something went wrong with one of his orders, but I can't remember what it was. Do you know if you can still pre-load if you order through a site like Green Man?

[pkirkner]

I don't think I've ever bought an Origin game through GMG, but I've never had a problem purchasing Steam games through them. I recently preordered Civ: Beyond Earth from GMG and was able to pre-load on Steam with no issues. Looking at their site now, the discount on Inquisition ($12 off) only seems to be showing up on their VIP page, which I think you need a registered account with them to see.

[Bjorn]

I've only ever used GMG once, and that wasn't for a pre-order, just a sale. I've always been hesitant about them, but several people on these forums seem to have had good experiences. The biggest worry to me is that I wouldn't get the key in time to pre-load.

Speaking of which, I might just pre-order or track down a physical copy at Gamestop or Best Buy. People are reporting the Xbox One pre-load (which is already available) is 42GB. My internet blows. That could easily be a 24-48 hour download. The pre-load will unlock 3-4 days before launch, and 42GB could literally take most of that time with my download speeds.

[Dewar]

I have gotten a Steam key immediately every time I've ordered from GMG. I also have never ordered anything intended for Origin.

 

Hmm, Football Manager 2015 is still on the VIP page.

[Architecture]

Green Man Gaming is 100% legitimate, you shouldn't be concerned. They fork over keys as soon as they receive them, and I had plenty of time to pre-load Titanfall's mammoth 50GB footprint on my PC ahead of its release.

 

You should be able to apply GMG's 20% off voucher to Dragon Age:

 

NOVEMB-ERGMGX-20XOFF

[Dewar]

i wonder how GMG can afford giving all this stuff away at a discount.

[Bjorn]

i wonder how GMG can afford giving all this stuff away at a discount.

 

The economics of volume pricing!