Dragon Age: Inquisition

[licketysplit]

There's actually been a number of good PC ports coming out recently, like Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 (and its cousin Blood Dragon) just to name a few. We're definitely not in 2006 anymore in terms of PC ports.

 

This is true. Developers are realizing it's to their benefit to establish good will among the PC fan base. So we're seeing more PC exclusives and better ports all around.

[Chrononaut]

lolololol, playing it with an xbawks controller right up against the monitor

 

I bet these losers have never played a PC game in their lives. Will be some sweet schadenfreude when this game bombs

[Elerond]

It looks that he is playing console version of the game, so it would be silly play it with something else than pad.

[Nepenthe]

"We decided to take the best parts of combat in dao and da2 so we took the da2 system and slowed it down!"

 

That's what it looks like.

 

I'm gonna slit my wrists. Seriously, the one thing that made da2 enjoyable to me was the speed.

 

Scorpion wins, fatality.

 

What the **** am I seeing?

[Malekith]

What works on Dark Souls or Witcher 2(single player games) won't work on DA:I (party control). Action combat demands that the player controls one character and lets the AI managing the companions. This seems nothing like DA:O and more like ME with swords or KOTOR.

[Keyrock]

There's actually been a number of good PC ports coming out recently, like Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 (and its cousin Blood Dragon) just to name a few. We're definitely not in 2006 anymore in terms of PC ports.

Tell that to Dark Souls and Darksiders (both of them).  On the other hand, Sleeping Dogs was also a good PC port.  Maybe it's just games with "dark" in the title that do garbage PC ports?

[Keyrock]

"We decided to take the best parts of combat in dao and da2 so we took the da2 system and slowed it down!"

 

That's what it looks like.

 

I'm gonna slit my wrists. Seriously, the one thing that made da2 enjoyable to me was the speed.

 

Scorpion wins, fatality.

 

What the **** am I seeing?

They need to go completely one way or the other.  They need to either go the full Shepard or full-on tactical.  If they try to blend aRPG and tactical RPG once more, we're likely going to get garbage combat like DA2 again.

[Nepenthe]

 

"We decided to take the best parts of combat in dao and da2 so we took the da2 system and slowed it down!"

That's what it looks like.

I'm gonna slit my wrists. Seriously, the one thing that made da2 enjoyable to me was the speed.

Scorpion wins, fatality.

What the **** am I seeing?

 

They need to go completely one way or the other.  They need to either go the full Shepard or full-on tactical.  If they try to blend aRPG and tactical RPG once more, we're likely going to get garbage combat like DA2 again.

I'll just say (again) that I found Da2's combat a lot more fun than the alpha strike heavy dao combat. Just because it had an isonetric zoom didn't mean that storm if the century wasn't the best call every time

[Volourn]

"we're likely going to get garbage combat like DA2 again."

 

DA2 combat was hella fun. Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. There was more tatical strategy involved than most pure RPGs.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Volourn

[Keyrock]

Meh, I found DA2 combat to be very MMO-like.  That's not a compliment, by the way.

[licketysplit]

DA2 combat looked positively retarded and encounter design was terrible. The whole game lacked imagination. As for blending twitch combat with party tactics, well I'm intrigued to see if they can pull that off. I enjoyed Mass Effect far more than Dragon age because there was an element of player control instead of issuing commands and watching things play out.

[Orogun01]

"we're likely going to get garbage combat like DA2 again."

 

DA2 combat was hella fun. Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. There was more tatical strategy involved than most pure RPGs.

I found DA2 combat bothersome because at earlier levels there isn't enough abilities to actually have a strategy and they don't mesh well with the companion's. At higher levels this become less of a problem, but since abilities are mostly wasted fighting the first wave of enemies you are left waiting for the cooldowns. In the end classes in DA are restrictive  and there isn't much potential for teamwork. 

I didn't really found myself overly thinking about strategy on DA2, it was mostly aiming an AOE, moving players around and the occasional potion. Its good that you had fun with the combat but I wouldn't go so far as to call it deep.

[Guest Slinky]

 

"We decided to take the best parts of combat in dao and da2 so we took the da2 system and slowed it down!"

 

That's what it looks like.

 

I'm gonna slit my wrists. Seriously, the one thing that made da2 enjoyable to me was the speed.

 

Scorpion wins, fatality.

 

What the **** am I seeing?

They need to go completely one way or the other.  They need to either go the full Shepard or full-on tactical.  If they try to blend aRPG and tactical RPG once more, we're likely going to get garbage combat like DA2 again.

 

Couldn't agree more. By hopping from slow to fast to less fast to what ever works in bed, but I'm not sure is that a good way to get and keep fans for the entire game franchise.

[Volourn]

"Its good that you had fun with the combat but I wouldn't go so far as to call it deep."

 

I didn't call it deep. I said it was more tatical than most RPGs.  HUGE difference,

[WorstUsernameEver]

Tell that to Dark Souls and Darksiders (both of them).

Sure, not every PC port is good, and so what? I never argued all of them are made equal, simply that we're seeing more good ports compared to the beginning (and middle, really) of this console generation.

[entrerix]

 

There's actually been a number of good PC ports coming out recently, like Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 (and its cousin Blood Dragon) just to name a few. We're definitely not in 2006 anymore in terms of PC ports.

Tell that to Dark Souls and Darksiders (both of them).  On the other hand, Sleeping Dogs was also a good PC port.  Maybe it's just games with "dark" in the title that do garbage PC ports?

 

 

well, its not fair to include dark souls in that.  the game was ported by a team who had never done work porting a title or developing for pc, and only because a petition by fans encouraged them to do it

 

so calling them out for doing a bad job of it is just kinda mean/unfair

[Keyrock]

 

 

There's actually been a number of good PC ports coming out recently, like Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 (and its cousin Blood Dragon) just to name a few. We're definitely not in 2006 anymore in terms of PC ports.

Tell that to Dark Souls and Darksiders (both of them).  On the other hand, Sleeping Dogs was also a good PC port.  Maybe it's just games with "dark" in the title that do garbage PC ports?

 

 

well, its not fair to include dark souls in that.  the game was ported by a team who had never done work porting a title or developing for pc, and only because a petition by fans encouraged them to do it

 

so calling them out for doing a bad job of it is just kinda mean/unfair

 

A garbage port is a garbage port, whether it's done by a team of monkeys or industry veterans.  I ain't about to coddle anybody.  If it's a crappy port I'm going to call it a crappy port.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Keyrock

[Nepenthe]

 

"we're likely going to get garbage combat like DA2 again."

 

DA2 combat was hella fun. Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. There was more tatical strategy involved than most pure RPGs.

 

I found DA2 combat bothersome because at earlier levels there isn't enough abilities to actually have a strategy and they don't mesh well with the companion's.

So it's just like dao in that sense?

[Orogun01]

 

 

"we're likely going to get garbage combat like DA2 again."

 

DA2 combat was hella fun. Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong. There was more tatical strategy involved than most pure RPGs.

I found DA2 combat bothersome because at earlier levels there isn't enough abilities to actually have a strategy and they don't mesh well with the companion's.

So it's just like dao in that sense?

 

Yep

Edit: Worth pointing out that DA2 didn't have spell combos.

Edited August 18, 2013 by Orogun01

[Tale]

I'm unique in liking the wave combat of DA2. It forced you to adjust your tactics in a battle, even if it was something as simple as repositioning your mages.

 

The downside is it was every encounter in the game, so there was no variety.

[licketysplit]

 

 

 

There's actually been a number of good PC ports coming out recently, like Dishonored, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3 (and its cousin Blood Dragon) just to name a few. We're definitely not in 2006 anymore in terms of PC ports.

Tell that to Dark Souls and Darksiders (both of them).  On the other hand, Sleeping Dogs was also a good PC port.  Maybe it's just games with "dark" in the title that do garbage PC ports?

 

 

well, its not fair to include dark souls in that.  the game was ported by a team who had never done work porting a title or developing for pc, and only because a petition by fans encouraged them to do it

 

so calling them out for doing a bad job of it is just kinda mean/unfair

 

A garbage port is a garbage port, whether it's done by a team of monkeys or industry veterans.  I ain't about to coddle anybody.  If it's a crappy port I'm going to call it a crappy port.

 

 

From Software is a gem among Japanese developers. They actually care about the fan base. Show me another Japanese dev who have actually apologized for a job poorly done. Also, they said DS2 will have PC as the lead platform. Again, show me a Japanese dev who does that.

[alanschu]

Edit: Worth pointing out that DA2 didn't have spell combos.

 

They did, it just wasn't typically from the same person (typically they were cross-class combos).  I remember setting up Merrill to use chain lightning on any target that suffered from a particular condition, since I specc'd her ability to do bonus damage against people suffering from that ailment.

 

 

 

 

I'm unique in liking the wave combat of DA2. It forced you to adjust your tactics in a battle, even if it was something as simple as repositioning your mages.

 

One of my friends said he liked the wave combat from the standpoint of making sure he didn't blow all his powerful abilities at the start of the fight.

 

In general though it wasn't very well received in my opinion.  Though I think the bigger issue was more HOW it came (and how frequently).  When guys start dropping from rooftops all the time, it grated on people.

Edited August 18, 2013 by alanschu

[Orogun01]

 

Edit: Worth pointing out that DA2 didn't have spell combos.

 

They did, it just wasn't typically from the same person (typically they were cross-class combos).  I remember setting up Merrill to use chain lightning on any target that suffered from a particular condition, since I specc'd her ability to do bonus damage against people suffering from that ailment.

 

Those were cross-class combos, differently named than spell combos which involved combining 2 or 3 spells into another one and could only be done with mages on DA:O. Example: Freezing an enemy and using a smash type of attack with a warrior will result in massive damage or death unless the enemy passes a check that's a cross class, using Grease and a Fire type spell (not necessarily from the same person)that resulted in a Grease Fire was a a spell combo. Which meant that with prior knowledge you could build your mages abilites  so that they complimented each other with combos. 

 

But "build" was apparently a dirty word around the DA2 team since they COD crowd doesn't believe on min maxing.

[anubite]

Alan, will we be able to get top-down view in DA3? Please let someone over at BioWare know that it's kind of necessary for PC users who aren't using 360 controllers to manipulate spell positioning.

 

As far as wave combat is concerned, I hate enemy spawning. I think it's a cheap way to ramp up difficulty. Make monsters difficult in the properties they have not, by having a trigger spit them out at you faster than you can kill them. It's maybe an okay mechanic if you want players to conserve resources, but there were no resources to conserve in DA2 - spells had low cooldowns, potions were dime a dozen, et cetera.

[Spider]

I'm unique in liking the wave combat of DA2. It forced you to adjust your tactics in a battle, even if it was something as simple as repositioning your mages.

 

The downside is it was every encounter in the game, so there was no variety.

 

I like fights that use the wave mechanic well enough. But, like Alan said, when 90% of the fights use that single trick it gets annoying and loses it's surprise factor. But used sparingly and where it makes sense, it can make for awesome encounter design.