BioWare Aiming To Combine The Best Of Two Worlds For ‘Dragon Age 3’
By The Movie God
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Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011 at 5:09 pm
If there’s one thing that Mass Effect and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game studio BioWare doesn’t get enough credit for, it’s taking what their fans say to heart, and using that feedback to try and improve future installments of their various franchises.
This commendable effort doesn’t always pay off, however, as was the case with Dragon Age 2, the follow–up to their awesome fantasy title, Dragon Age: Origins. While the game had a lot of positives to offer and was still a solid play, some things were just too distracting to ignore, such as a mind–boggling amount of recycled locations and a combat system that “evolved” from strategic and satisfying to an chaotic mess of button–mashing madness (if you were a warrior, anyway).
When it comes to Dragon Age 3, the game isn’t even officially announced yet, but that’s not stopping BioWare from planning ahead and figuring how to make it the best in the series.
Dr. Ray Muzyka, who co–founded BioWare with Dr. Greg Zeschuk spoke to PC Gamer recently, and talked about the future of the Dragon Age series. While, again, nothing is set in stone yet, it sounds like the company is looking to take the best things from Origins, and the best things from Dragon Age 2, and “marry” the two to make the next game great again.
Muzyka had to say about their approach:
One of the core values of Bioware is that we take feedback really seriously, and we know that the core fans who were expecting more Dragon Age Origins – we have to respond to that – we’re not willing to ignore that, we’re going to take that head on. We also have an obligation to our new fans, the ones who were surprised and delighted with some new approaches and accessibility in terms of action and combat.
What we need to do as developers is take that feedback from both sets of fans to heart and see about marrying that in future games in the Dragon Age franchise. I think that the team has actually got a great plan. I think the team is going to have some things that are going to surprise both sets of fans, both core fans and new fans with a marriage of these”¦the best from both games, Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. And we look forward more to talking about that in the future.
What do YOU want to see changed or kept the same in Dragon Age 3?
Id like a combat system somewhere in the middle.Â
Origins combat felt like a micromanagement simulator, and honestly, if I have to micromanage a game more than I had to for Baldur’s Gate (which worked for that game style,) they’re doing it wrong.Â
II just went to the other end of the spectrum as sometimes I can just start combat and ignore the game for the next two minutes as my party members take care of themselves completely.
I could tell you everything you did wrong in dragon age 2 but by now I am pretty sure you know so instead I will tell you some very useful things to help dragon age 3 sell if you fk up this time you an say bye bye to all the hardcore gamers and keep your lil pussy ones bring morrigan back in the game give us lots of dragons to kill let hawke become a grey warden or team up with them to kill flemeth give us new darkspawns 2 kill and I dont mean those sorry ass sand looking retard darkspawn like in dragon age 2 and maybe half way in the game give us some new crazy enemy’s 2 kill dragon age is all about fantasy expand upon that you can make any crazy location you can think up bring the griffions back into the game let the grey wardens ride them into battle give us more then 1 breed of dog to have or even let us have a griffion or pet dragon I will just come right out and say it every dragon age player wants to be a fabled grey warden its what dragon age is all about its why it is so epic dragon age 3 let it expand upon the true gamers grey warden character let it take place in the home of the grey wardens or journey there expand upon the honor of the grey wardens really explore what they are about go to there headquarters and join them compete in epic fight tournaments kinf of like in the first dragon age but not as well boring and lame as fighting dwarfs but fighting other grey wardens in all kinds of crazy battles to become the best of the best grey wardens and be rewarded with epic legendary grey wardens swords armor ect lead battles against the darkspawn on griffions let us do more the read a book on grey wardens let us live it there is so much you can do your game is based on fantasy your options are endless I think it would be very kool if your game is a lil more like the fable games really make the players think about there decisions let the world change and see the effects of our decisions through out time you kinda of tried in dragon age 2 but failed badly in dragon age 3 bring all companions from both games together and lots of new ones as well give us a fully voiced character dont fk anything up like in dragon age 2 and you should be fine if you just make the game closer to the first 1 grey wardens is what your game epic the darkspawn were kool but killing dragons is what we as grey wardens live for that and killing darkspawn so expand on that give us an even greater enemy we will have to kill or to be killed in dragon age 4 it is a fantasy game endless things you can do just put forth the effort
I loved the combat system for Dragon Age II, but I felt the accessibility and variety in explorable areas was a bit lacking. Also I really liked how you could converse with your teammates in the middle of a mission or what have you in Origins but you didn’t get much of that in DAII, building the relationships was one of my favorite parts in Origins personally. Just my opinions :) excellent job on the characters though, Flemeth looked AMAZING, I got a big cheesy grin when I saw her. I really hope she continues to play a role in the Dragon Age franchise because she (as the game implies) seems to be pretty much eternal and has her hands in everything. I love how the Legacy expansion gave us more of a glimpse into the story of the Trevinter Imperium, it was so great! Anyway, you’re doing a wonderful job and I’m addicted (hardcore) to DA and DAII.Â
That was my one big complaint about 2 compared to Origins. Even on hard you didn’t really have to manage your team. On Origins, there was tons of micro managing to be done. And note….Origins was my first time playing a game like this, ever, and i loved it.
i’d like something combat-wise a little slower paced than 2, but faster than Origins, and more need to manage the tactics for the team.
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If they can merge the 2 styles I’d be happy. I’d have to say I’m more a fan of Origins rather than II.
Comment by Jack E Mabry Jr — August 23, 2011 @ 11:49 pm
Id like a combat system somewhere in the middle.Â
Origins combat felt like a micromanagement simulator, and honestly, if I have to micromanage a game more than I had to for Baldur’s Gate (which worked for that game style,) they’re doing it wrong.Â
II just went to the other end of the spectrum as sometimes I can just start combat and ignore the game for the next two minutes as my party members take care of themselves completely.
Comment by Anonymous — August 24, 2011 @ 1:33 pm
I could tell you everything you did wrong in dragon age 2 but by now I am pretty sure you know so instead I will tell you some very useful things to help dragon age 3 sell if you fk up this time you an say bye bye to all the hardcore gamers and keep your lil pussy ones bring morrigan back in the game give us lots of dragons to kill let hawke become a grey warden or team up with them to kill flemeth give us new darkspawns 2 kill and I dont mean those sorry ass sand looking retard darkspawn like in dragon age 2 and maybe half way in the game give us some new crazy enemy’s 2 kill dragon age is all about fantasy expand upon that you can make any crazy location you can think up bring the griffions back into the game let the grey wardens ride them into battle give us more then 1 breed of dog to have or even let us have a griffion or pet dragon I will just come right out and say it every dragon age player wants to be a fabled grey warden its what dragon age is all about its why it is so epic dragon age 3 let it expand upon the true gamers grey warden character let it take place in the home of the grey wardens or journey there expand upon the honor of the grey wardens really explore what they are about go to there headquarters and join them compete in epic fight tournaments kinf of like in the first dragon age but not as well boring and lame as fighting dwarfs but fighting other grey wardens in all kinds of crazy battles to become the best of the best grey wardens and be rewarded with epic legendary grey wardens swords armor ect lead battles against the darkspawn on griffions let us do more the read a book on grey wardens let us live it there is so much you can do your game is based on fantasy your options are endless I think it would be very kool if your game is a lil more like the fable games really make the players think about there decisions let the world change and see the effects of our decisions through out time you kinda of tried in dragon age 2 but failed badly in dragon age 3 bring all companions from both games together and lots of new ones as well give us a fully voiced character dont fk anything up like in dragon age 2 and you should be fine if you just make the game closer to the first 1 grey wardens is what your game epic the darkspawn were kool but killing dragons is what we as grey wardens live for that and killing darkspawn so expand on that give us an even greater enemy we will have to kill or to be killed in dragon age 4 it is a fantasy game endless things you can do just put forth the effort
Comment by RYan white — August 24, 2011 @ 9:55 am
Romance options for everyone in the party. More kissing! Loving! =)
Comment by IheartDA2 — August 24, 2011 @ 6:30 pm
I loved the combat system for Dragon Age II, but I felt the accessibility and variety in explorable areas was a bit lacking. Also I really liked how you could converse with your teammates in the middle of a mission or what have you in Origins but you didn’t get much of that in DAII, building the relationships was one of my favorite parts in Origins personally. Just my opinions :) excellent job on the characters though, Flemeth looked AMAZING, I got a big cheesy grin when I saw her. I really hope she continues to play a role in the Dragon Age franchise because she (as the game implies) seems to be pretty much eternal and has her hands in everything. I love how the Legacy expansion gave us more of a glimpse into the story of the Trevinter Imperium, it was so great! Anyway, you’re doing a wonderful job and I’m addicted (hardcore) to DA and DAII.Â
Comment by marmar — August 24, 2011 @ 9:14 pm
Alistair being a companion. Dragon Age 2 wasn’t the same without himÂ
Comment by Jalmes — August 25, 2011 @ 12:50 am
That was my one big complaint about 2 compared to Origins. Even on hard you didn’t really have to manage your team. On Origins, there was tons of micro managing to be done. And note….Origins was my first time playing a game like this, ever, and i loved it.
i’d like something combat-wise a little slower paced than 2, but faster than Origins, and more need to manage the tactics for the team.
Comment by Hemlock — August 26, 2011 @ 10:17 pm
Please, it’s hard to take your comment seriously when you have no punctuation marks and it all runs together.
Comment by Hemlock — August 26, 2011 @ 10:18 pm