By John Walker on May 20th, 2011 at 9:59 am.
So, there’s going to be a Dragon Age The Third then. Eurogamer reports that BioWare are looking to hire staff to work on the game. While possibly no surprise to anyone, it’s still nice to know it exists. They’re after environment artists, if that happens to be you. Let’s hope they give themselves a little longer to make this one.
20/05/2011 at 10:01 Duffin says:
Witcher III will be better.
20/05/2011 at 10:15 heretic says:
Well that won’t be hard, they ruined DA forever with DA2, I think they should make a Jade Empire instead.
20/05/2011 at 10:38 Wang Tang says:
Yes please, another Jade Empire!
20/05/2011 at 10:53 Teddy Leach says:
No, make BG3. And make it in the Infinity engine.
20/05/2011 at 11:27 DarkFenix says:
A couple of things Teddy, firstly the BG saga is finished, second, do you really want them to defile BG by doing what they did to DA2 to it?
20/05/2011 at 13:05 Kadayi says:
Apples and oranges
20/05/2011 at 13:12 qeedeee says:
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20/05/2011 at 10:03 James says:
There is no way for me to be convinced that the above image is not the official logo, it’s that good.
20/05/2011 at 10:14 papabear says:
I second that, it is SO sincere.
20/05/2011 at 10:17 Olero says:
Can’t the whole game be made in Paint? Please? Bioware, hire this man Walker!
20/05/2011 at 10:20 papabear says:
Unfortunately the paycheck would never be enough for a RPS writer.
20/05/2011 at 10:23 Malawi Frontier Guard says:
It can’t be official.
Not enough Dragon Ag3.
20/05/2011 at 11:21 Chizu says:
Dr3g3n 3g3 thr33: Th3 Th3rd3ning.
I still haven’t played 2 and I am in no Rush to, specially as I am now enjoying just how marvelous The Witcher 2 is.
20/05/2011 at 13:21 Calabi says:
Honestly, you could’ve just copied the other side and inverted it.
20/05/2011 at 20:09 IchigoRXC says:
Or split them and put one in the middle.
20/05/2011 at 10:07 Gunrun says:
Let’s hope they use these environment artists to make more than 3 environments this time.
20/05/2011 at 10:26 vandinz says:
This guy, this guy knows it.
20/05/2011 at 11:13 Hoaxfish says:
If Lego and Minecraft have taught us anything, you should just make bricks to build your world with.
20/05/2011 at 15:54 Sentient Waffle says:
Exactly what i was thinking.
And please take 2-3 years to make a good game this time, we can wait, Diablo 3 should be out meanwhile.
20/05/2011 at 18:57 Zenicetus says:
I read somewhere here that the repeating environments were mainly a result of having to fit everything on one XBox disc, instead of two. Don’t know if that’s true or not, but it seems plausible, since world-building isn’t the hardest part of game development. It’s something you can just throw more manpower at, and Bioware has a big enough budget. If that’s the case, then we might be stuck with the same thing in the next game.
20/05/2011 at 19:11 SuaveMongrel says:
Judging from the texture quality (which looked like it had been run through a heavy amount of oil) fitting that game on the 360 wouldn’t have been too much of a hassle. My DA2 install is only about 6.5gb too, so it would have been easy enough to fit on a dual-layer disk.
Even then, that’s a pretty piss-poor excuse in my opinion. Unless EA are feeding the developers crackers in order to save money too. Which I wouldn’t put past them.
20/05/2011 at 10:11 Paxmayne says:
Day oneUnlikely purchase.20/05/2011 at 10:16 jezcentral says:
Day one purchase for for me. The environments, which after all didn’t affect gameplay, were just a passing annoyance for me.
However, hopefully there’ll be larger-scale bifurcation (thanks RPS for that word!) of the story-line, as the main problem I had with DA2 was the lack of impact Hawke had on the story (i.e. choices changed nothing).
20/05/2011 at 10:27 vandinz says:
Day one for me too. I loved DA2
20/05/2011 at 11:50 Kdansky says:
I suspect they will make a leap backwards from DA2, and we’ll get another generic and boring Safe The World story. I still don’t get what you people dislike about it so much. But then again, RPS is deeply in love with ME2 which I really cannot agree with.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/8868-Experienced-Points-What-s-Wrong-with-Mass-Effect-2
I hope for DA3 to be like DA2, and unliky ME2, and then I’m happy.
20/05/2011 at 12:52 bleeters says:
Dragon Age 2′s hypothetical story is great. The way it’s actually handled and presented? Not so much. The narrative structure isn’t used for anything more substantial than giving them excuses to cut out swathes of time or retcon things later, because ‘we only have Varric’s portrayal of events’.
Besides, the game sees fit to take two nuanced and well rounded characters and turn them both into insane monsters at the last minute because, I don’t know, the game needed more EPIC BOSS FIGHTS LOL. The Witcher it ain’t.
I wish people wouldn’t keep writing off Origin/ME’s stories as ‘morally clear save the world’ types. That’s your overall objective, yes, but getting there is far more ethically dubious. Hell, there’s a section in ME2 where you’re asked to decide between annihilating or brain-washing thousands of your enemies. I was far more hesitant to decide one way or another there than anything DA2 managed.
20/05/2011 at 19:10 Jim Reaper says:
“Unlikely purchase.”
Damn right. If DA 3 is anything like DA 2, then it’ll be the first Bioware game for a long long time that I won’t be buying….
20/05/2011 at 10:12 Ricc says:
I would have thought Bioware still has a ton of env artists from TOR lying around.
20/05/2011 at 14:58 Jimbo says:
DA3 will be out before TOR. Hell it’ll probably be out before June.
20/05/2011 at 10:12 papabear says:
MORE INFINITE DRAGONS?! GODDAMNIT.
20/05/2011 at 10:14 Oozo says:
Yeah, they’re starting to become a plague lately.
20/05/2011 at 20:41 Dao Jones says:
Are dragons the new zombies?
20/05/2011 at 10:13 heretic says:
Are they going to have a complete rethink again? Break the things that worked and introduce some shitty ones!
Dragon Age 2 really sounded like Window ME, like they gave the devs too much to drink.
20/05/2011 at 12:06 mouton says:
Or they might fixed what they broke. I doubt they are blind to the lukewarm reception of DA2. Well, I guess we will see.
20/05/2011 at 17:01 somini says:
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/ballmer_peak.png
Yes, way too much above the optimal…
21/05/2011 at 10:38 BobsLawnService says:
I seem to recall an interview with one of the DA2 lead types who refused to sacknowledge that anything was wrong with the game. I wouldn’t hold your breath.
20/05/2011 at 10:15 razgon says:
There was a dragon Age 2??
20/05/2011 at 10:17 Suibriel says:
Yeah, and it sold more than Dragon Age 1. What a world…
20/05/2011 at 10:22 papabear says:
Dragons = $
Infinite Dragons = Infinite $
This equation was being made with zombies 2 years ago. It is good to see dragons are trendy again.
20/05/2011 at 10:48 Robin says:
@ Suibriel
As far as I know it sold less than DA:O, quite a bit less.
20/05/2011 at 11:16 Phinor says:
Dragon Age 2 sold more on it’s first week but because DA:O was actually a great game, it kept selling a lot while DA2 sales have dried up in a matter of weeks even despite the Mass Effect 2 promo and heavily reduced prices.
http://www4.picturepush.com/photo/a/5601927/1024/Anonymous/da2-sales-week8.jpg
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/7236826/1
20/05/2011 at 11:29 DarkFenix says:
Indeed, DA2 didn’t sell itself, DA:O sold it. Then DA2 became known for its own ‘merits’.
20/05/2011 at 11:31 RaytraceRat says:
Yea.. I was one of those who preordered it, what a waste of money.
20/05/2011 at 14:09 RP says:
@Phinor Those pictures can’t be posted enough. It sold well before anyone had actually played it, haha. Hopefully they’ll get the message, not betting the farm on it though.
20/05/2011 at 10:17 stkaye says:
Still looking forward to this, despite the overall disappointment of DA:Kirkwall. It will only need to revert to the quality of Origins – or, hell, Chapter 2 of the sequel – to qualify as a first-day purchase for me.
20/05/2011 at 10:19 jti says:
Definitely not excited. I am even doubting if I’ll bother with Mass Effect 3 after seeing Dragon Age 2.
20/05/2011 at 10:36 papabear says:
Even the interspecies gay sex won’t pick your interest? :3
Well, I couldn’t agree more. The saddest thing will be the popping sound of SWTOR baloon. Let’s hope I’m just too pessimistic.
20/05/2011 at 12:09 mouton says:
I am fed up with interspecies sex, really, gay or otherwise. In ME1, it was reasonable with Asari being as they are. In ME2, suddenly you could be able to hump whatever.
20/05/2011 at 12:12 Daniel Rivas says:
I love that there is an almost 50:50 split between “why would you want to shag Garrus” and “why WOULDN’T you want to shag Garrus?”
20/05/2011 at 12:58 mouton says:
This is the result of ME trying to be a little hard-SF while ME2 went way more “lets-have-a-fun” space-operaish route. Humping Garrus, while desired by many sick internet people due to his personality and all that, is internally incoherent.
20/05/2011 at 13:07 Kadayi says:
Bioware = Many teams
20/05/2011 at 14:07 RP says:
I felt so disillusioned with Bioware after DA2 I wasn’t going to get ME3 either, but they’re different teams. I won’t touch anything David Gaider or the gigglesquee girls do with a ten foot pole again, but Casey Hudson delivered with both MEs so I’ll be gettiing ME3 to support that series and how it HAS delivered.
20/05/2011 at 10:19 Nameless1 says:
“Let’s hope they give themselves a little longer to make this one.”
I don’t care. I won’t buy it anyway.
20/05/2011 at 10:21 Raziel_aXd says:
Almost can’t believe the difference in the richness of the environments between DA2 and TW2. And Skyrim steamrolling this autumn… Still, they’re looking for environment artists, so they probably learned something… probably.
20/05/2011 at 10:22 Derpington Hurrrrrrr says:
I sure hope it doesn’t suck as much as Dragon Age 2.
Edit
Uh-oh. Shit just got real
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/34514/Riccitiellos_EA_Shifts_From_Defense_To_Offense.php
20/05/2011 at 11:21 Drake Sigar says:
“We fully intend to make these properties into year-round businesses”
Is he saying what I think he’s saying?
20/05/2011 at 11:53 woodsey says:
Oh for fuck’s sake.
I actually defend EA quite a lot, because since about ’08 they’d stepped away from the full-retard method of business (even if their marketing department has firmly remained there) but this is ridiculous.
20/05/2011 at 12:15 Brutal Deluxe says:
Oh so they’re going to be better than Steam then. That’s good because Steam comes across as being too “fun” for a company that sells games. Hopefully EA will also expand its SimCorporateBullshit line as well, preferably in the form of DLC that links directly into my bank account and converts my soul into liquid gold.
20/05/2011 at 14:44 Nick says:
it worked for guitar hero.
20/05/2011 at 17:59 Joof says:
Except for the part where Guitar Hero got ran into the ground.
20/05/2011 at 18:08 Nick says:
Congratulations, you blindly stumbled into my point by accident.
21/05/2011 at 00:41 Thants says:
I thought EA sold games but apparently they’re a “packaged goods business”. Only now they’re going to become a “software platform”, because what the world needs is another goddamn software platform.
21/05/2011 at 03:29 MultiVaC says:
Well he’s right about one thing. His new business plan does sound pretty offensive.
24/05/2011 at 16:12 Inarborat says:
Shouldn’t you actually turn a profit before you go on the offensive?
20/05/2011 at 10:24 skyturnedred says:
I still haven’t even finished the first one, so no rush.
20/05/2011 at 13:39 Olero says:
Same here. I’m probably one of the slowest gamers to actually finish games. Most recent finished game is Fallout 3 I think. Or didn’t I finish that….? Hmm, Jagged Alliance 2 then?
21/05/2011 at 00:44 Thants says:
I still haven’t finished Mass Effect and I like Mass Effect.
20/05/2011 at 10:29 bill says:
At the rate Bioware are cranking out games, it should be available a week next tuesday.
20/05/2011 at 10:37 stkaye says:
To be fair, the development time on ME3 is already set to be somewhat longer than that for Baldur’s Gate 2.
20/05/2011 at 10:31 Telekinesis says:
Dragon Age 2: Fisher Price version – Comes with free playdoh and colouring mat.
Dragon Age 3: Sandbox Mayhem – We’re going hardcore this time with a free Tonka Truck!
20/05/2011 at 10:35 Ralud says:
Nice, more stuff.
20/05/2011 at 10:36 Anthile says:
I guess they haven’t played TW2 yet, otherwise they probably would stop making fantasy RPGs for good. I’m not even someone who disliked DA2 but compared to TW2, it feels like a game from another time.
Take your time, Bioware, you have much to learn.
20/05/2011 at 12:44 kyrieee says:
Yup, CD Projekt is like:
“Now I am the master”
20/05/2011 at 13:01 Ian says:
I’m sure Bioware will sincerely worry about all that they don’t know, pondering such matters from their palace made of gold.
20/05/2011 at 13:19 kyrieee says:
They’ll pawn it once their gazillion dollar MMO tanks
20/05/2011 at 10:36 Branthog says:
I hope it won’t be the same half-assed money-grab that DA2 was.
20/05/2011 at 10:43 Solivagant says:
Hoping it will be as epic as Dragon Age 2.
20/05/2011 at 10:54 Darkelp says:
I am actually enjoying Dragon Age 2, for all it’s flaws, so I am looking upon this surprising news of a sequel with quiet anticipation.
20/05/2011 at 10:58 Lilliput King says:
ME3 and DA3 are going to have to be pretty damn good or we could be witnessing the fall of an industry giant here.
20/05/2011 at 12:50 TillEulenspiegel says:
Don’t forget SWTOR.
BioWare isn’t falling, they’re just changing from a company that made RPGs to one that makes interactive movies. ME2 was that turning point. (DA2 is an extremely sloppy, confused mishmash of game design that’s best forgotten.)
20/05/2011 at 10:59 Teddy Leach says:
Dear Bioware,
Think about what you’re making this time.
Yours,
Teddy Leach
20/05/2011 at 11:02 Flameberge says:
Was the PCG review of DA2 on the same scale as a certain Force Commander review? Did McCormick do what I believe is known as ‘doing a Walker’ – a stage every journalist has to go through whilst earning their stripes?
20/05/2011 at 11:10 Stick says:
“Dear Bioware, because the majority of gamers appear incapable of judging a game on its own merits, rather than for not being what it ‘should’ have been, don’t say anything at all before releasing this game. It might just save my last shred of faith in humanity.”
20/05/2011 at 11:28 poop says:
ugh fuck, the invisible war defence again
20/05/2011 at 11:31 poop says:
i agree that the entire bioware/ea marketing/publicity/defending-the-game-on-the-official-forums department should be fired. out of a cannon
21/05/2011 at 03:14 Laephis says:
Right.
“DA2 should have been a fun game with RPG elements that build off the success of games like Baldur’s Gate.”
What the hell were we thinking?
21/05/2011 at 03:51 Stick says:
“Dear ‘poop’, I have my own rather numerous issues with said game. (The various aspects of gameplay/story segregation being the main ones.) However, this entire frothing-at-the-mouth, torches-and-pitchforks style of discourse pisses me off to the extent that I find it hard to talk about them. If I appear to be a ‘Bioware Apologist’ it is because most people are so eminently disagreeable.”
20/05/2011 at 11:13 Matt-R says:
Damn, that’s music to my ears, just finish Uni specialised as an Environment artist and Bioware opens its doors for recruitment.
Flee England’s dev scene for that of Canada, such a patriot I am.
20/05/2011 at 11:21 derella says:
Despite all it’s flaws, I still enjoyed DA2. Just not as much as previous Bioware games. I hope they learned a lot from the criticism lobbed their way with DA2, and take some lessons from TW2.
20/05/2011 at 15:38 Grygus says:
Next to Baldur’s Gate II and the first Dragon Age, yes Dragon Age II looks horrible. But compared to most RPGs it’s merely flawed and disappointing. The reaction is out of proportion. This is what passes for Internet dialogue however, and is to be expected; reasonable measured comments do not get people to click “Like.”
20/05/2011 at 11:27 DirtyGray says:
Bioware makes one mediocre game and all of a sudden everybody hates them, completely forgetting every other game they ever made. That is interesting.
20/05/2011 at 11:36 DarkFenix says:
Said mediocre game just happens to be their latest, indeed the latest in the same series as the game in question here. Time generally shows that developers don’t learn, once they start on the slippery slope there’s little chance of return.
20/05/2011 at 12:09 Bilbo says:
Invoking time was a bad call with that argument, because time has shown us Bioware delivering loads of really top-notch games. If you’re saying there’s a historical trend here, it’s of Bioware rocking.
20/05/2011 at 12:15 DarkFenix says:
If Bioware have changed into a studio that makes mediocre-at-best games, I don’t give a crap how good their previous titles were. There are a lot of developers out there who used to make good games, then something went wrong and the slippery slope meant that franchise or developer never recovered. I can just see Bioware on their way down that slope now.
Make no mistake, I sincerely hope I’m wrong, but in my experience once a developer starts on these habits they don’t stop. Bear in mind DA2 wasn’t mediocre by mistake, it was mediocre by design, this means someone at the top of Bioware thought what they did in DA2 was a good idea. Bioware churning out another mediocre game is a lot more likely than the top management admitting they made a mistake.
20/05/2011 at 13:12 bleeters says:
My personal reservation is due not to the fact that they made a mediocre game (not that I’d necessarily class it as ‘mediocre’ to begin with. I did enjoy it, but I’m painfully aware of its flaws), but that said game is continually held up by Bioware as some considerable improvement over their previous releases.
20/05/2011 at 11:35 Serenegoose says:
I really enjoy DA2. I’m guessing they’re going to probably go down the EPIC QUEST of generic boring route rather than trying to learn lessons and do a personal story a bit better this time though, which is sad. When I rule the universe I’m going to ban epic quest stories for a few years just to force people to do something else for a change. Not interested in saving the country/world/solarsystem/galaxy/universe/multiverse, that’s too big for me to give a fuck about. Anyway, leaving myself plenty of room to be pleasantly surprised, as I usually am, by Bioware. Truly hope they don’t give up trying to tell a personal story after their most recent attempt, since I’d rather someone fouled up a few times trying to get it right than gave up and told me to go kill infinite dragons and save the world from an implausible threat once again.
20/05/2011 at 12:10 Bilbo says:
Here here.
20/05/2011 at 12:16 Makariel says:
Good to see that I’m not the only one tired of saving the world/galaxy from ancient prophecies or implausible evil overlords all the time.
20/05/2011 at 12:36 Squirrelfanatic says:
May contain spoilers!
To be honest, personal stories are not that of a new invention. Baldur’s Gate I & II had a pretty personal story, with you losing your closest “relative” at the beginning of the game (BG I) and having to fight against your pretty personal heritage (BG II). It may be not as personal or “normal” as in DAII, with your folks traveling around with you, but I think SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER if someone is trying to steal your soul, that is pretty much personal.
20/05/2011 at 13:32 bleeters says:
I’m all for it when it’s done well. DA2′s story wasn’t done well.
20/05/2011 at 15:20 Jimbo says:
I wouldn’t even mind ‘epic’ so much if you could count on it being a bit smarter than “an evil artifact made me do it”.
21/05/2011 at 00:51 Thants says:
I was disappointed when I realized that Mass Effect was going to be “You have to personally save the entire universe from an ancient evil”. They created a great, believable Sci-Fi universe. I though it would’ve been a lot more interesting if they had just told some smaller stories in it.
21/05/2011 at 04:12 bleeters says:
Isn’t that what ME2 mostly comprised of already?
20/05/2011 at 11:42 Bilbo says:
They’re after environment artists – that’s good. Maybe DA3 will have a bit more variety of death-dealing locale
20/05/2011 at 12:02 Eversor says:
Gosh, there will be a third one? Really? How unexpected, the second one tied everything up so well!
They better learn from their mistakes. I really enjoyed DA2, but it was very flawed. They can do better. They SHOULD do better.
20/05/2011 at 12:12 Makariel says:
As the only person in on this planet who liked DA2 more than Origins I’m looking forward to this one.
20/05/2011 at 18:55 Mark Schaal says:
I’m also looking forward to DA3. I think there are a fair number of us who liked DA2 better than DA:O, we just aren’t Angry enough about the relatively minor changes between the two to post about it all the time.
20/05/2011 at 22:40 TariqOne says:
I preferred DA2 to DA:O by a slight margin because of the better, more personal and intimate story.
20/05/2011 at 12:18 fiddlesticks says:
The important issue here is how Bioware plans to one-up Skyrims’ infinite dragon approach. Will Dragon Age 3 feature infinity plus one dragons?
20/05/2011 at 12:28 AndrewC says:
A mathematician once told me that there were many different sizes of infinity. I told him to fuck off, obviously.
But, despite my rhetorical victory, he was, apparently, right. Numbers is weird.
20/05/2011 at 12:52 kyrieee says:
He was right, but infinity is not a number ;P
20/05/2011 at 13:29 Stense says:
Fingers crossed for infinity kobolds.
20/05/2011 at 13:57 Lilliput King says:
My money’s down on them going the “one more dragon then you can ever say” route.
EDIT: More than one size of infinity? I’ll bite. Is it to do with the infinity of integers as opposed to the infinity of multiples of 2 or some such? Because I don’t much care for that, but I don’t know why.
20/05/2011 at 14:23 Kdansky says:
Liliput King: Yes, something like that. If you take the positive natural numbers, we can easily conclude that given infinite time, you could count them: You start at 1, and go upwards. Easy.
But for real numbers, this doesn’t work. If you count 1, 1.1, 1.01, etc, you’ll never even get past 2, no matter how much time you spend. It is impossible to count them like that, even with infinite time at your disposal, which is kinda weird, isn’t it? Therefore there are more numbers in R than there are in N, despite both being infinite.
Amusingly, you can count C (all numbers created from integer division), if you do it in a clever order: 1/1, 1/2, 2/1, 1/3, 3/1, 2/3, 3/2, and so on. We’ll eventually cover all numbers, except for Pi and e and so on.
Head hurting already? Don’t study CS! ;)
20/05/2011 at 12:40 Worldbeing says:
At this rate, we’re going to need an ‘Infinite Dragons’ tag… or possibly an infinite number of ‘Dragons’ tags…
20/05/2011 at 12:51 cmi says:
Hey Dragon Age 2012, that’s nice. Gogogo EA profit center formerly known as a good RPG developer.
Let’s see what they “polish” this time.
20/05/2011 at 18:37 D3xter says:
Don’t you dare badmouth the “Polish” after Witcher 2…
20/05/2011 at 12:55 Olivaw says:
Well from what I’ve heard they sure do need more environment artists!
Huh? Huh guys? Am I right?
Woo! You’re a great crowd, I’m here all week.
20/05/2011 at 12:58 Delixe says:
It’s safe to say I won’t be pre-ordering this like I did Dragon Age 2. Fool me once as they say.
20/05/2011 at 12:59 fenriz says:
*|*|*|accessibility does not pay|*|*|*
20/05/2011 at 13:07 ran93r says:
Please be shit, please be shit, please be shit.
Then maybe they will get the message!
20/05/2011 at 13:56 Paul says:
Black Isle were always better then Bioware.
Then Troika was always better than Bioware.
Now? Both CDProjekt and Obsidian are better than Bioware.
Poor Bioware.
20/05/2011 at 16:25 Lars Westergren says:
I agree with you Paul, but I suspect we are in the minority here.
20/05/2011 at 19:15 Farsearcher says:
I think its a little more complex than that.
I don’t know enough about Trokia’s games (I’m part way through Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines with the fan patch at the moment, it is excellent) to compare them and with black isle I’ve only played fallout 1 and 2. I haven’t played any bioware games newer than the first KOTOR (I have an old computer) but the the impression I get from reviews is that they’re usually fairly complete.
Obsidians games are often buggy and have features because no one will give them enough time to complete things properly and their games do suffer for it. However I do think Obsidians writing is clearly better – I’m also part way through KOTOR 2 and while flawed in many respects the dialogue and plotting are superior to the first game so far.
If someone would just give Obsidian enough time they could create something amazing.
How is Alpha protocol by the way? The general rumblings I heard suggested “divisive”.
20/05/2011 at 20:53 FunkyBadger3 says:
Alphacol: as a game of conversation and consequence, its spectacular, as a third-person actioner, it’s a bit mechanically weak. Its not Archer: The Videogame, but its as close as there is. Would definately recommend, certainly at the knockdown price you’ll probably get it for.
Also: don’t specialise in shotguns.
20/05/2011 at 21:15 fiddlesticks says:
How much you’ll like “Alpha Protocol” really comes down to what you expect from it. The combat itself isn’t too bad, but rather uninspired if you go guns blazing and at times fairly frustrating if you’d like to take the stealth path.
That being said, I’ve never played a game that made me feel so strongly that I was in control, that my choices actually meant something. There’s a lot of interesting characters in the game and there’s so many different ways to interact with them. What impressed me the most is how even very small decisions end up contributing to the larger story; to the point where I felt that I didn’t follow the plot so much as I created it.
It’s definitaly a game with a lot of replay value. I’m on my fourth playthrough now and I still see things I never thought were actually possible. In fact, I kind of doubt you can see much more than 50% percent of the content your first time through, especially given how easy it is to miss some things.
Well, that ended up longer than intended. Long story short, it’s very much an Obsidian game. Very well written, but you’ll mostly just go through the actual missions so you can get to more talking segments. At least it’s fairly bug free.
Now, if only someone would combine “Alpha Protocol”‘s dialogue and choice system with “Hitman: Blood Money”‘s open ended levels and varied gameplay.
Oh yeah, “Dragon Age”. Man, how about them dragons, eh?
20/05/2011 at 14:19 vash47 says:
Why do they even bother? Unless they changed all of the staff completely.
20/05/2011 at 14:31 Kaira- says:
I’m not really interested, after the hellfire of DA2 and the mind-numbing boriness of DA:O. It’s as if they knew how to make a good, fun game, and drop it at 80% percent completition saying “it’s good enough”.
20/05/2011 at 14:38 Man Raised by Puffins says:
Blood Mage, Dark-spawn
War-dens can’t meet their demands
Infinity Dragons, Go ‘head
aah aaah ah
20/05/2011 at 14:58 Makariel says:
Infinity Bloodspawn Dark Dragons! Hear the thunder!
20/05/2011 at 14:47 Ertard says:
Would be cool if it didn’t, ya know, suck. Lost my trust of BioWare after DA2, and I don’t want to replay the same fucking dungeons 40 times again thanks.
20/05/2011 at 14:55 billyblaze says:
Maybe CDPR can spare a guy or two to fix that franchise.
20/05/2011 at 15:01 Vinraith says:
It’s not for us, folks, and I think we just need to let it go. It irks, obviously, that they kept the name when they shifted the series from “spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate” to… whatever it is now, but it’s fairly clear Bioware has lost all interest in making anything resembling an old school RPG. We can stand around and bitch about it all we like but their bottom line is just fine without us, better to simply ignore them and give our money to people making more interesting games.
20/05/2011 at 15:19 Basilicus says:
DA2 was good. Sorry it didn’t grant you Keeley Hazell and pay off your parking tickets, but it was good. Not great. Not DA:O. Hardly flawless. But good. Nut up and live with it already.
20/05/2011 at 15:25 Jimbo says:
I found the vast majority of it to be not very good at all. It had its moments.
20/05/2011 at 20:55 FunkyBadger3 says:
It was also broken enough to stop completion. A decent 3ps action-game, not much of an RPG though. See also, Fallout: New Vegas…
20/05/2011 at 15:31 Talorc says:
It’ll be out this Christmas!
20/05/2011 at 16:00 Freud says:
Environmental artists you say? The mine in DA3 will look great.
20/05/2011 at 17:00 Sinkoristo says:
Meh.
I rather replay the first.
20/05/2011 at 17:39 Mut says:
Methinks Bioware’s looking at an uphill battle on this one.
20/05/2011 at 17:48 Zogtee says:
“They’re after environment artists…”
Let’s hope they actually find some this time, then.
20/05/2011 at 17:51 rocketman71 says:
They should get level designers, so we don’t have to see the same levels again and again.
And a project lead with some spine that can stand toe to toe with EA.
Maybe that way we can look forward to DA3. If they do another DA2, they can forget about my money.
20/05/2011 at 17:59 Andy`` says:
Didn’t you know? Level designers don’t exist anymore. They’re all environment artists now.
Oh hey, look at that, they’re hiring!
20/05/2011 at 17:55 The Pink Ninja says:
After DA1 I presumed I would buy the next one
After DA2 I’m presuming I won’t
It and Bioware as a whole have a lot of ground to make up wtih me.
20/05/2011 at 19:46 lamzor says:
when i completed DA1 few months ago i immediately started DA2. it took me while to fully recover from the shock. immediately after my recovery i started DA1 again and started playing expansion and DLCs.
it seems that DA2 is not THAT bad(pretty positive reviews).
for me, its deus ex 1 vs deus ex2 all over again. first game was masterpiece. i could not force myselves to keep playing DE2. it also had pretty good reviews.
but hey, there is still 3.28% chance that DA3 and Deus Ex3 will be good :)
20/05/2011 at 22:01 Tame says:
“Let’s hope they give themselves a little longer to make this one”.
Nah, that would cut down the profit margin, which is a big no no for daddy EA…
21/05/2011 at 03:18 Laephis says:
Will they be making it an RPG this time?
21/05/2011 at 11:53 BobsLawnService says:
If you want a game to fill the giant BG sized hole in your life please buy Drakensang : The River Of Time. If you don’t enjoy it I can’t give you your money back but I will let you mock me mercilessly.
21/05/2011 at 23:28 Blackseraph says:
Let’s also hope it doesn’t involve hawke.