Dragon Age 4 - now The Veilguard

[Ruin Explorer]

but... your party members will then do the same stuff endgame as they did in their first hour.

I doubt it, frankly. It wasn't true in DAI, nor was it true in ME3. But I guess we'll see.

 

[MockingBird]

I haven't enjoyed DA since DA:Origin was released. Couldnt finish DA2. DA3 just felt blah. After watching the game play video for the new DA I don't think it will be for me. The character reveal video was also a huge turn off to me.

In my opinion Elder scrolls games haven't been engaging on the same level since Morrowind. I hope, without much expectations, that the new ES game would return to the Morrowind era. I played Oblivion and Skyrim a lot, and enjoyed them but it was obvious each release was a downgrade from where Morrowind left off.

 

[Mallus]

Personally I preferred the combat in Mass Effect.

I'm good with Dragon Age: Mass Effect.

It's funny, when we started with CRPGs they rendered worlds of fantastic adventure using 2D maps and spreadsheets. Now you melt into the protagonist as a virtual body in frequently beautiful virtual spaces, with expressive facial animation and professional voice acting.

And we kinda miss the spreadsheets days. And by 'we' I do mean 'I', too. Just picked up a game (Skald) on Steam because it looks like Ultima IV (and the reviews are great).

 

[fluffybunbunkittens]

Game Informer will have their exclusive on the 18th. We'll see if that solidifies some things... like them saying you can only have 3 active abilities?! I really wish their gameplay video wasn't from lv1 tutorial, not many conclusions we can rely on there (like if they just meant 'you have your 3 most common abilities tied to single button presses, go to your ability wheel for the rest').

It does look very Mass Effect-y. Just 2 companions, no direct control but you look at things and order them to attack/move/use an ability there... which I think are all good ideas, but... there is inherent moment-to-moment gameplay to aiming at things, going for headshots and pulling the trigger (and learning to angle Pull so it goes around cover), less so when it's just holding a button down to auto-attack.

EDIT: Bellara having a gravity well ability that sets enemies up for an AoE also sounds very familiar!

 

[wicked cool]

So with respect (and I do respect you for real) Fluffy you absolutely cannot have it both ways.

Either you can have:

A) "There is nothing left of the original Bioware"

Or

B) "This is the people who did Anthem"

Pick one. Anthem was absolutely unquestionably done by "the original Bioware". Literally the same exact people who had primary roles on ME1-3, DAO/2/I and even SWTOR worked on Anthem. Do I need to go get Mobygames to show this?

The same is true for Andromeda.

The big exodus of old Bioware people was after that and sad to say, none of them have accomplished much of note yet (unlike, say, ex-Obsidian people like John Gonzalez.

I get that not everyone is a horrible nerd for the who's who of the games industry like I am but seriously wish people who don't keep track of the specifics would stop believing poppycock claims about who worked on what, especially when Mobygames is right there to check. Reddit for example is wall to wall with claims like you're repeating here so I can understand you assuming it was true - but let me be clear - it is not true.

Further we shouldn't overly lionize certain people unless we can show why. For example, the same guy who drove and lead the creation of Mass Effect drove and lead the creation of Anthem (Casey Hudson). Angel or devil lol?

If we want to be specific, too, the guy in charge of DA4 is Patrick Weekes. Patrick Weekes was responsible for some of the best writing in ME1-3, including Lair of the Shadow broker. He's also the guy who let ME fans know the dreadful ME3 ending was entirely written by Casey Hudson and Mac Walters with zero input from the rest of the team, so is arguably a major friend of ME fans, given that coming out was pivotal to Bioware redoing the ending. And he's absolutely old Bioware. Much of his team aren't.

But that's fine and normal. The only game company that has had the same leadership and lead devs for 15+ years, that I can think of is Bethesda Game Studios, and look at the utter car crash that was Starfield! Anticipate the car crash that will be TESVI!

I'm not saying skepticism isn't warranted. It is. But pick a lane re the devs and ignore the morons on Reddit because they're genuinely ignorant re who works where (even when they could choose not to be). Also we shouldn't have to much faith just because leadership doesn't change, because that's how we get Starfield or launch-era Cyberpunk 2077.

Not here to argue but who were the authors for dao. That tone has drastically changed from dao then da2 somewhat and dai is a very different game from dao. Who is left from dao

 

[Mallus]

Wasn’t Patrick Weekes an ENWorld member back in the day?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Not here to argue but who were the authors for dao. That tone has drastically changed from dao then da2 somewhat and dai is a very different game from dao. Who is left from dao

All three DA games - DAO, DA2, and DAI were essentially made by exactly the same people.

The main project director was Mark Darrah.

The lead game designer was Mike Laidlaw.

The lead writer was David Gaider (who was responsible for the vast majority of Dragon Age lore concept, albeit not specifics).

All three games. So you can say that the tone changed (I don't think it did much, actually - the visual design did), but even if it did, it's because the same people wanted it to.

As for "who is left", well, as I've pointed out, it's an immaterial question. It's a weird fantasy little gamers have that the same people = the same quality/style. No matter how often it's disproven, people believe it. You've just accidentally pointed out how much of a fallacy that it is. Whilst I don't think the tone is different, the gameplay is, and even the visual design is (despite the second two having the same art director). And the real answer is we don't know anyway - we won't even be able to compare credits until DAV comes out. But for those three specifically, they all left after Anthem:

Mark Darrah is "self-employed" as a consultant (which usually means "I got enough money to avoid a regular job but I don't want to retire yet").

Mike Laidlaw is leading Yellow Brick Games, who are making a fantasy action game (not an RPG according to them, note) which to me screams "7/10" in its dated art design and ambitious but messy-looking gameplay, but we shall see.

David Gaider started a small studio in Australia and created an adventure-musical game, which was definitely daring and clever, but also not particularly well-reviewed (74% Metacritic) nor seemingly selling all that well.

 

[pukunui]

If there was a shift in tone, I think it had more to do with the fact that DA2 and DAI weren’t focused on the darkspawn / the Blight.

Kirkwall is a pretty grim place, and some pretty awful stuff goes on there (like what happens to Hawke’s mother).

DAI is probably the least ‘dark fantasy’ of the three, but it still has some dark elements to it (particularly when it comes to elven history).

 

[wicked cool]

All three DA games - DAO, DA2, and DAI were essentially made by exactly the same people.

The main project director was Mark Darrah.

The lead game designer was Mike Laidlaw.

The lead writer was David Gaider (who was responsible for the vast majority of Dragon Age lore concept, albeit not specifics).

All three games. So you can say that the tone changed (I don't think it did much, actually - the visual design did), but even if it did, it's because the same people wanted it to.

As for "who is left", well, as I've pointed out, it's an immaterial question. It's a weird fantasy little gamers have that the same people = the same quality/style. No matter how often it's disproven, people believe it. You've just accidentally pointed out how much of a fallacy that it is. Whilst I don't think the tone is different, the gameplay is, and even the visual design is (despite the second two having the same art director). And the real answer is we don't know anyway - we won't even be able to compare credits until DAV comes out. But for those three specifically, they all left after Anthem:

Mark Darrah is "self-employed" as a consultant (which usually means "I got enough money to avoid a regular job but I don't want to retire yet").

Mike Laidlaw is leading Yellow Brick Games, who are making a fantasy action game (not an RPG according to them, note) which to me screams "7/10" in its dated art design and ambitious but messy-looking gameplay, but we shall see.

David Gaider started a small studio in Australia and created an adventure-musical game, which was definitely daring and clever, but also not particularly well-reviewed (74% Metacritic) nor seemingly selling all that well.

Well I’ll disagree

Dao/da2 and what’s missing from dai and it appears da4

Dai 99% of interesting npcs are gone including shopkeepers etc.the fetch quests didn’t have interesting npcs.
The house elf/city elf stuff almost all gone. Almost all racism gone
Fade demons were different . Appearance wise they were the same but some of them talked in dao
The finishing moves from dao are gone
Darkspawn had much more personality in dao.
Rogues could do a lot more etc
Items gone

Its vastly different

 

[Blue]

Just as a bit of trivia I've heard that likely many of you already know, Thedas came about as the name because before they picked a name they were writing "the Dragon Age setting" which became "the DAS", and then they just went with it.