Dragon Age 3

[Sagacious-T]

If you played DA:O on consoles then the problem might be much harder to spot. Playing DA:O on a computer made me see why people hated DA2 so much: DA:O was basically a RTSRPG. Positioning was important, and so were the right skills, the right setup, and the right equipment, especially on higher levels.

I think you hit the nail on the head. DA:O on higher difficulties was slower paced and methodical. You could still break the game by spell nuking through doors, but in general the fights were a lot more tactical, making them (to some people) more fun.

I highly doubt we'll get the same type of slow paced, top-down, PC-centric combat in DA3. I'm willing to compromise if the game is good enough, but it'll never be exactly what I want. I guess Project Eternity and the other kickstarter games will have to fill that niche instead.

As for storyline comparisons, I'd say DA:O had a better world, settings, and characters, but DA2 had better plot movement--right up until act 3. Am I the only one who played that last act and expected it to last a hell of a lot longer?

[unsmashable_pumpkin]

So the chick in the new trailer is Morrigan?
If so can't say I love the new design :/
Trailer was good, but too short. Was hoping for more concrete info, but it will come in time I guess. The game is still far off.

[PaleRobbie]

Agreed.  Not much reason to get excited yet, but I'm glad they're making it.  Let's hope for the best! 

[Yggdrasil]

@unsmashable_pumpkin: That didn't look like a new design to me.

[(Tunnels)]

The story seems intriguing. It looks to be a return to the wider scope of DA:O. I'm hoping it deals more with the Fade and the mysteries surrounding it and the Darkspawn, and perhaps making the Golden City a visitable locale.

But yeah, I would have preferred that they showed some gameplay. Since they're not bringing back the race option, I hope they expand the class option. Also, compare this teaser to DA2's. DA2's teaser revealed Hawke, while this one only shows the silhouette of a character. I'm hoping then that means they're moving away from the already defined character with Hawke and Shepard and giving the player more control over who their character is.

[unsmashable_pumpkin]

@unsmashable_pumpkin: That didn't look like a new design to me.

It's certainly not a major difference, but her nose looks slightly different.
http://www.destructoid.com/morrigan-returns-in-dragon-age-inquisition-255894.phtml
compared to
http://es.dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Morrigan?file=Morrigan.gif

[Dice]

I always liked this interpretation of DA2: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=26194844&postcount=1

Part of me can imagine Bioware adding quick time events... everyone loves pressing buttons, right?

I know dick about Elder Scrolls Dragon Age and still love it. xD

[Carter83]

...DA:O on higher difficulties was slower paced and methodical. You could still break the game by spell nuking through doors, but in general the fights were a lot more tactical, making them (to some people) more fun...

I played both DA:O and DA2 on Nightmare difficulty and DA2 seemed way more difficult and tactical to me. For example, fighting Corypheus in Legacy DLC was just insane. Actually, DA:O had a bit weird difficulty tuning. Normal fights were usually harder then bosses, at least for me.

[Sagacious-T]

I thought DA2 was more "Cheap" than anything else.

The game seemed made to be played around medium difficulty.

[Carter83]

 Well, I can't say anything about the Normal difficulty - I haven't tried it.
 Anyway, DA2 no doubt has many mistakes. Yet still, the main Bioware strenghts - story presentation and characters, were done excellently there, and I loved DA2 just as all the other Bioware games. And, to be honest, some of the flaws are just Bioware "signatures", Mass Effect (one of my very favorite games), misused copy/paste locations, too...

[Cyril]

I honestly found almost every single one of DA2's character unlikeable, save Aveline.  Varric was okay.  I wouldn't consider that "well done."  I also wouldn't say the story presentation was particularly stellar, either.  Siding with either the Mages or Templars changes nothing, and the Mages in general are just ridiculous.  Every mage is a blood mage now, apparently.

That's my problem with it; it doesn't even have, as you say, "Bioware's strengths."

I do like the idea of skipping through time, but they could have worked better with it.  They should look at something like Dragon Quest V for it being done properly.

[Parn]

Carver was fantastic.  He was an insufferable fuckface for 95% of your playtime (if he lived) for no other reason than you being the eldest and he being the baby brother that gets no say in anything.  Sibling rivalry amuses me to no end.

[Alisha]

who's carver?

[kofvscapcom]

who's carver?

your brother that dies if you got too much melee in your group.

[Kevadu]

DA2 didn't truly jump the shark for me until at certain battle at almost at the very end...

I had decided to side with the mages.  We were all holed up defending against a templar attack.  Except for once in this game the enemies weren't spawning out of nowhere.  There was a single narrow passageway they were all trying to storm in through, so for once I was able to use actually tactics.  Naturally I had my tanks lined up in front to keep them at bay with my supporting characters and the few NPC friendly mages who were around raining death on the enemies.  They couldn't gain an inch of ground.  It was total one-sided slaughter, and I was the one doing the slaughtering.  Probably the most one-sided fight I ever experienced in the whole game.

Suddenly as cutscene triggers and the head mage guy (forget his name) is all freaking out, saying we could never win (are you kidding me?).  Naturally he decides to use blood magic (because apparently the templars were right: all mages are blood mages), turns into a big demon thing, loses control, and proceeds to attack friendly units because he wasn't anywhere near the enemies when he did this.  Seriously, I don't think he made even a single attack on an enemy unit.

Obviously this was all scripted and whoever wrote the script was expecting the situation to feel more desperate, I guess.  I think he was supposed to at least kill a few templars before losing control and attacking friendlies.  Maybe in the process somehow justifying this guy's decision to use blood magic.  But with the way it played out for me, we were kicking ass better then we've ever kicked it before when this guy suddenly decides to use blood magic for no reason, fails to do even the slightest bit of damage to the enemies in the process, and destroys the formation that was working so well.  I had to facepalm.