Dragon Age Inquisition

[Vintage Paw]

I know a lot of people have very strong opinions about isometric. I can only say from my own experience, I had no problems on higher difficulties playing the game strategically, pulling out as far as I was able, I was able to see where everyone was, move them where I wanted them, and set up attacks without issue. Everyone prefers different things though, so it's no biggie.

 

[Chick Webb]

You can tell her to forget him, but she rebuffs you. It's not an 'official' romance. The most you get is a friendly peck on the cheek. And she ends up with Donnic anyway. Which is where she should be

Oh really? I thought Hawke always got what s/he wanted!

Agreed about Donnic. Aveline was so cute and dorky when she was trying to woo him. Marigolds, sheesh!

 

[Vintage Paw]

There were many, many sad cries of anguish when it was revealed that you couldn't, in fact, romance Varric. The man is a legend. I'm so glad he's back for DAI. I quite like the redesign too.

 

[Chick Webb]

A million times agreed! He's a hot babe, and I really like how he looks in the redesign. He looks like he's been through a lot I suppose he was un-romanaceable so that he'd come across as an unbiased narrator. I consoled myself that "I" couldn't chat him up by shipping him with Merrill.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Dragon Age panel happening at the moment.

Confirmed: you can play as a Qunari.

So happy.

 

[Vintage Paw]

One medium sized level in DAI will be the size of all the levels in DA2 combined.

It is the largest game Bioware have made, apparently.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Epona: tactical camera is back in, on all platforms.

As far as I know, the PC version is being tailored specifically for PCs, with proper changes to controls etc., rather than just porting it over.

 

[Vintage Paw]

http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/31/46...tion-brings-playable-qunari-keeps-and-greater

 

[Vintage Paw]

ermahgerd - nice lighting.

 

[Vintage Paw]

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/d...eveals-more-dragon-age-inquisition-intel.aspx

http://kotaku.com/the-next-dragon-a...m_source=Kotaku_Twitter&utm_medium=Socialflow

 

[Chick Webb]

Dragon Age panel happening at the moment.

Confirmed: you can play as a Qunari.

So happy.

YAY! This means we'll finally get to see a female Qunari too. I wonder if the character is a devout Qunari or a Tal-Vashoth, and how they come to be mixed up in human affairs. Whoever/whatever they are, they have to have a sexy voice.

 

[Vintage Paw]

YAY! This means we'll finally get to see a female Qunari too. I wonder if the character is a devout Qunari or a Tal-Vashoth, and how they come to be mixed up in human affairs. Whoever/whatever they are, they have to have a sexy voice.

I'm not certain that they will be having different VAs for each race... that's just too much work for them to do, I would have thought. With the amount of dialogue they'll be recording, to have to do that at least 8 times (humanx2, elfx2, dwarfx2, qunarix2) is expensive, and remember it'll take up so much space it pretty much rules it out for current gen release if they want it to be downloadable on console and not on 3 discs or something. It will be interesting to see how they handle it, seeing as though each race tends to have its own regional accent - perhaps the Inquisitor is from a specific region themselves that gives their accent justification. They gave the fully voiced PC as part of the reason they did away with multiple races last time. Since they aren't going back to silent protagonists, I'm interested to see how they make the voices seem natural to all the characters.

Perhaps they'll give you a couple of voices to choose from, to suit the character you make, but I really can't see them spending all that money and taking all that time to have 8 different voices. And remember, they have to animate the mouths to match the words spoken - they're not going to do that 8 times.

 

[Citizen66]

.

 

[Citizen66]

Perhaps they'll give you a couple of voices to choose from, to suit the character you make, but I really can't see them spending all that money and taking all that time to have 8 different voices. And remember, they have to animate the mouths to match the words spoken - they're not going to do that 8 times.

But you don't tend to watch your own character speaking.

 

[Chick Webb]

It will be interesting to see how they handle it, seeing as though each race tends to have its own regional accent - perhaps the Inquisitor is from a specific region themselves that gives their accent justification. They gave the fully voiced PC as part of the reason they did away with multiple races last time. Since they aren't going back to silent protagonists, I'm interested to see how they make the voices seem natural to all the characters.

There's no reason why they can't do that I suppose. Duncan didn't look ethnically from Ferelden, but that's the accent he was supposed to have since he was born there. My mage Hawke was black too, which gave another interesting dimension to all the "refugee scum" shit you get when you rock up in Kirkwall. They definitely will have to "tone down" the personality a bit if they are using one VA for all the races of the main character. A wisecracking human, elf or dwarf are all plausible, but not a qunari (although I suppose Sten had his own version wisecracking). I like fairly bland personalities for the main character though. Makes me feel more in the game.

 

[Vintage Paw]

But you don't tend to watch your own character speaking.

Yeah you do. In Dragon Age 2 the dialogue is 'cinematic', meaning that the camera focuses on your character as you speak, and the other characters as they speak, in a more dynamic way than you'd expect perhaps in some other games. This isn't Skyrim

Dragon Age 2 had some of the best lip syncing I'd seen in a game up until that point - in that kind of game, at least.

There's no reason why they can't do that I suppose. Duncan didn't look ethnically from Ferelden, but that's the accent he was supposed to have since he was born there. My mage Hawke was black too, which gave another interesting dimension to all the "refugee scum" shit you get when you rock up in Kirkwall. They definitely will have to "tone down" the personality a bit if they are using one VA for all the races of the main character. A wisecracking human, elf or dwarf are all plausible, but not a qunari (although I suppose Sten had his own version wisecracking). I like fairly bland personalities for the main character though. Makes me feel more in the game.

The more I think about it, the more I think they will possibly provide 2 voices to choose from per gender, because I really can't see how they will find one voice that can seamlessly fit both an elf and a qunari. Or perhaps they'll do what Saints Row does, and have a pitch slider. It's not very well implemented in IV, and anything more than a notch or two up or down from the default sounds robotic, but it was a lot better in The Third. But having 8 different voices to choose from (4 per gender) seems an unrealistic expectation considering the amount of animation and voice work involved, the amount it would cost, and the physical space the extra audio files would take up.

I'm going to brace myself and dead over to BSN to see if anyone is talking about this. I'm sure they are.

 

[Quartz]

Given that these games cost millions to develop, I don't know why they don't use actors for the action too. As bases then digitised, I mean. It would also help in scenes where technology isn't yet quite up to the job, like someone standing in a pool - and yes, I'm thinking of that scene in The Witcher.

 

[Citizen66]

Yeah you do. In Dragon Age 2 the dialogue is 'cinematic', meaning that the camera focuses on your character as you speak, and the other characters as they speak, in a more dynamic way than you'd expect perhaps in some other games. This isn't Skyrim

Fair enough, my ignorance is exposed. Although they wouldn't necessarily have to animate each character separately if they all say the same thing. Although it would have to be tweaked if accents differed. If the dialogue is different then yeah.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Given that these games cost millions to develop, I don't know why they don't use actors for the action too. As bases then digitised, I mean. It would also help in scenes where technology isn't yet quite up to the job, like someone standing in a pool - and yes, I'm thinking of that scene in The Witcher.

They do for some games, like The Last of Us, for example. But that really depends on the type of game it is. For something like Dragon Age, a big old sprawling action rpg, you're controlling your characters movements for the majority of the game, and cinematic cut scenes are all about the dialogue, and not necessarily about playing out actions. As for budgets and spending millions, it's not an infinite pot, and just because they're spending X already doesn't mean they'll just shrug and say "eh, well we might as well spend Y too." They'll be aiming to provide the best experience they can, while managing their resources as efficiently as possible. Games are more and more expensive to make (something that's causing problems, now, as many publishers just aren't getting the sales they need to recoup that cost in line with their projections), and there's always going to be a limit to what they will put money into and what they won't.

In terms of technological limitations, it seems like they've made great strides in how they animate basic walking and running for DAI, it looks a lot better from what I've seen of the early demos.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Here you go: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/371/index/17253865

A thread discussing possibilities. Light on the old evidence though.

 

[Chick Webb]

So, V-Paw (or anyone else for that matter), what does one buy to fill a Dragon Age shaped hole in ones life? I have a day off work tomorrow I suppose the Mass Effects would be the obvious choice, but then again even though I like both genres equally well in novels, I much prefer fantasy to scifi in games. Skyrim didn't do it for me.

 

[Stigmata]

The Witcher?

 

[Citizen66]

but then again even though I like both genres equally well in novels, I much prefer fantasy to scifi in games. Skyrim didn't do it for me.

 

[Vintage Paw]

Why the ???

Chick Webb I'm afraid I don't know what to suggest. There aren't a lot of Dragon Age-type rpgs out there at all. You can go back in time to Bauldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights etc., or sideways to things like The Witcher (I haven't played it) as already suggested, but I'm hard pressed to think of something that's directly comparable. Which is a shame because I'd be playing it

Tbh, if I wasn't into this screenshot art malarkey, I wouldn't have put in as many hours with Skyrim as I have. I'd have still played it to death, but not with quite as much dedication.

 

[Citizen66]

Why the ???

It could just be my reading of the sentence but it seemed odd to state that they preferred fantasy games to scifi and back that up by saying 'skyrim didn't do it for me' although they could have been making that as a separate point I suppose.

 

[Chick Webb]

It could just be my reading of the sentence but it seemed odd to state that they preferred fantasy games to scifi and back that up by saying 'skyrim didn't do it for me' although they could have been making that as a separate point I suppose.

I just didn't want people to go recc'ing me scifi games based on my mention of Mass Effect, because I really much prefer being armed with a sword than a gun in games.

I couldn't find the Witcher in the shops. I got Dishonoured. It's ok so far in a Devil May Cry, linear sort of way.

 

[Citizen66]

I just didn't want people to go recc'ing me scifi games based on my mention of Mass Effect, because I really much prefer being armed with a sword than a gun in games.

Well yes. But skyrim isn't scifi hence the

 

[Citizen66]

In fact, it's one of the best fantasy games ever made.

 

[Chick Webb]

Well yes. But skyrim isn't scifi hence the

Because I thought that would be the first thing people would tell me to get when I asked for something to replace my Dragon Age!

I'm afraid I didn't like it, Citizen. I found it lacked focus and I didn't care for the characters or most of the factions. The only thing it was good for in my opinion was nice scenery.

 

[Citizen66]

Because I thought that would be the first thing people would tell me to get when I asked for something to replace my Dragon Age!

I'm afraid I didn't like it, Citizen. I found it lacked focus and I didn't care for the characters or most of the factions. The only thing it was good for in my opinion was nice scenery.

Oh, fair enough. I assumed you were discounting it because you thought it was scifi.