Mike Laidlaw (Dragon Age's Creative Director) confirmed the BioWare staff reassignments in his GDC panel when he was talking a bit about where the series was heading.
Quote:
USGamer said:
Ultimately, Laidlaw felt it was time to leave BioWare behind regardless of Dragon Age's loose threads. "I wanted to try a new challenge, and I knew that [the staff reassignments] would change the date," he says. "I was going to have a very small skeleton crew, and I'm lucky because Patrick Weekes is an exceptional lead writer, Daniel Kading is an exceptional lead designer. There were two very veteran designers who could hold a vision, and it was going to move down to a very small team.
"I thought if I'm ever gonna go, this is the least disruptive time for me to leave. So I would be stunned if whatever plan I had remained completely unchanged."
Happy fourth birthday to #DragonAgeInquisition. Whatever happens in the future, I’m proud to have been part of a team committed to making its players’ lives better. We have some of the best, geekiest, most passionate fans in the world, and my life is better for knowing you.
Seems like Dragon Age 4 is hitting some problems but Bioware or EA is also prioritizing Anthem currently so in that regard the team for DA4 would have a pretty minimal crew during pre-production and while Anthem is being finalized.
Though it also seems Anthem is possibly the last chance for Bioware after Inquisition and Andromeda under performed.
Hard to say really, not sure how many more chances EA is willing to give Bioware if the game fails though that would end up with EA as doing mostly sports games and Battlefield via Dice wouldn't it? Some smaller content updates for Sims which are still selling really well and the odd smaller scale project.
Yeah Dragon Age 2 didn't get near enough development time and Inquisition has a lot of problems with it's design and the amount of work just to get the engine to do what they wanted when Bioware probably should have been allowed to just go with Unreal Engine 4 or something instead of forcing Frostbite.
(Which also happened with Andromeda though it had other problems too even if the engine also hampered development.)
For Anthem it seems they are aiming for something like Destiny and it's market and online so it will be interesting to see how that goes when it comes out next year, it's a very competitive market to take on online games but Bioware still has a lot of fans and interest in the game has been high so initial sales could still be really good though long term is going to be tougher.
The main problem is DA: O was great because it had old-school philosophy behind it. It was one of the last great Bioware games before they were acquired by EA. I have zero faith in their abilities to create quality content these days.
DAO was only good DA game, the rest are of varying degrees of shit. It was clear Bioware EA had no faith in the old RPG formula, and DA2 was already fucked when they went the wrong direction AND not given the time needed to make RPGs.
Frankly, the only thing I cared about any more of DA was my Warden and what happened when he went into the portal with Morrigan. That was the one last story hook that I cared about as the rest I felt was story complete at that point. The setting had potential, but they wrapped up the storylines well with the epilogue slides and Awakening.
I couldn't even play DAI long enough to get to the point Morrigan show up so I can get some closure or explanation. I was so disappointed with the game I just couldn't be bothered.
I actually like DA2. Not as much as the first game but it had it's own charm. The fighting was improved and more fun imo. But it's understandable why people hate it. DAO was for fans of the turn-based combat like in Baldur's Gate and the second game changed that to be more similar to Prince of Persia than Baldur's Gate.
And I can't clearly remember but I recall the story was much worse in the sequel, wasn't it? And the characters were so bland.
I couldn't even play DAI long enough to get to the point Morrigan show up so I can get some closure or explanation. I was so disappointed with the game I just couldn't be bothered.
You didn't miss much. There's no real resolution to the Warden's storyline. They are supposedly off somewhere looking for a cure to the Calling.
The other remaining DAO plot thread, Morrigan's kid, gets some further development when he gets the Old God soul sucked out of him by Flemeth/Mythal, who then (presumably) has it sucked out of her by Solas/Fen'Harel. But seeing as there's the possibility of Morrigan not having a kid, I imagine nothing will really come of it. Assuming they even get to make DA4 in the first place.
No idea. I'm sure the writers could pull whatever they want out of their ass. And like I said, there's no guarantee she even has the soul in the first place given you can refuse the Dark Ritual in DAO, so it can't play any major role.
I actually like DA2. Not as much as the first game but it had it's own charm. The fighting was improved and more fun imo. But it's understandable why people hate it. DAO was for fans of the turn-based combat like in Baldur's Gate and the second game changed that to be more similar to Prince of Persia than Baldur's Gate.
And I can't clearly remember but I recall the story was much worse in the sequel, wasn't it? And the characters were so bland.
I liked the combat of 2, especially as a mage. I thought the spells were overall better than DAO in terms of usability. DAO's was a bit too much like the old CRPGs when combat didn't really fit for it anymore. The problem was the infamous reinforcement bullshit. That really ruined it for me, it became tedious and predictable. It just became a clunky hack and slash game at that point. It was fun using Force spells and Fireballs, and Storms. You felt powerful, and you get to just AOE clear trash quickly and get combat out of the way. But then reinforcements!
My issue with DA2's story was how I felt many things were forced into my face. As in characters are portrayed in a way where everyone was going "Oh look at me, I'm this kind of character! Listen to me!". It's hard to explain with examples since it's been so long, but that's how it felt to me at the time. One I do remember was Isabella and Zevran. That was some fanfic level writing when those 2 characters share a scene. In the end, I just didn't like anyone in my party. Same problem I had with DAI.
In DAO, I loved my party to bits, I was total attached, they were like my closest companions, and I would do anything for them. It was the perfect RPG party for me. It was hard going from that to a new party that sucked and was even worst in DAI for me. Not to mention how you could RP your Warden, it was just so much easier to get immersed and attached to the game. I couldn't do it with Hawke and the Inquisitor, they never felt like my own characters. Didn't help that I wasn't enjoying the games other aspects either.
The main problem is DA: O was great because it had old-school philosophy behind it. It was one of the last great Bioware games before they were acquired by EA. I have zero faith in their abilities to create quality content these days.
For me, DA2 had some really great moments that I look back to. For instance, that female elf party member (forgot her name) who consorted with demons with the right intentions, along with the tragic consequences for her whole village...
I didn't like DA:I as much as DA1 and DA2 because I didn't like the characters. I mean, I did finish the game and overall found it reasonably enjoyable, but it was much more forced. What worries me a bit is that I have the same issue with the latest installment of ME (ME:Andromeda) - none of the party members were interesting for me.
If you’ve been following these blogs, or myself and Mark Darrah on Twitter, you know we’re also working on some secret Dragon Age stuff. Dragon Age is an incredibly important franchise in our studio, and we’re excited to continue its legacy.
Look for more on this in the coming month (though I won’t tell you where to look…)
The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.
Dragon Age is an incredibly important franchise in our studio, and we’re excited to continue its legacy.
It's both hilarious and sad that with today's Biocontext and Dragon Age's sad-trombone-shaped parabola, a supposedly stimulating sentence like that one comes off as a threat
Dragon Age is an incredibly important franchise in our studio, and we’re excited to continue its legacy.
It's both hilarious and sad that with today's Biocontext and Dragon Age's sad-trombone-shaped parabola, a supposedly stimulating sentence like that one comes off as a threat
The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.
You know, I own DA:I on both PC and PS4, hoped it would play better as a console game (it doesn't) and even with mods rubbing down the sharper corners, I absolutely cannot enjoy this game. The combat is a gigantic mess - AI is horrible, they removed all spells and actions that added true tactics and it makes each encounter feel the same. The world was too open and "MMO" like, the way the story progressed felt weird, the characters were far less interesting (and they all looked like they got dropped on their heads a couple of times as a baby), .... there's really nothing to keep me engaged and frankly, another game from the same studio is likely to be even worse. SJWs have taken over all the talented folks and then this is what you get.
After Dragon Age 2 : Recycling and Dragon Age : Inquisition it's hard to remain positive about the series.
Inquisition had moments with it's deconstruction of the hero myth and what not (DLC was entertaining but also paywalled the actual ending to the game.) but the padding and bloat killed it and that's if you even lasted long enough to get out of the Hinterlands first.
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