Dragon Age III: Inquisition

[igyman]

@RedHessian: Looks to be the same gameplay segment they showed at PAX. Still, the video quality of this one is better than the PAX recording and at least here we don't have to listen to a bunch of horny *derogatory term of your choice* going "OMG!" and "Woooooo!!!" every two minutes.

 

@Alkonium: To me personally, DA2 didn't look more original, nor did DA Origins look like a Lord of the Rings knockoff. From a purely visual standpoint, I've heard the LotR comparison mentioned mostly in the context of elven design. Origins does use the classic elven look, which I personally prefer, and its environments and technology look predominantly medieval, which is typical for fantasy settings, but I don't see how that makes it a LotR knockoff. By that same account, someone could accuse the Forgotten Realms setting, heck almost any fantasy setting, to be a LotR knockoff.

 

DA2 on the other hand tried something, well, I'm not sure what it was. The elves were Na'vi/Warcraft elves hybrids, the Qunari (technologically the most advanced race in Thedas) looked like savages, while the city looked kind of monotonous, like each building in each area was built from the same type of stone. And then with their DLC, especially MotA, they tried adding some more modern armor and clothing to a medieval setting, which felt completely out of place to me.

 

Inquisition does look a lot better visually, but it remains to be seen if the environments will be as colorful and interesting in design, or is it all about shaders, particle effects and physics.

[Sabretooth]

Is it fair to say that Dragon Age II looks more original, while Dragon Age Origins looks like a Lord of the Rings knockoff?

 

It's certainly more like the 'dark fantasy novel' feel that BioWare always talked about when they were introducing the DA franchise. DA:O feels like what you'd get if you took LotR, put hammy acting and B-movie characterisation and let someone from The History Channel direct it with a 300 aesthetic. "More blood? More blood."

 

DA2 tries a lot of new stuff, experimental stuff. I hate to sound pretentious (or oppositely, a pedestrian misappropriating fancy terms), but it's the closest attempt at a deconstruction of WRPGs since Planescape: Torment.

 

No, the game doesn't have some vast adventure across plains and valleys to vanquish some comical baddie with a totally sick helm. Haven't you done that in every role-playing game already? I mean seriously you guys who use this argument, could you not stand for one role-playing game that doesn't copy-paste the same plot everyone has ever used?

 

Instead the game tries something different, sure, let's do something no RPG has done before, and have a biographical focus on the player character and his impact on a single city, his home. What a stupid thing to do, huh? How could BioWare have known that after playing over 9000 cliche-ridden RPGs, players would want more of the exact same **** they've been playing, only with better graphics. What's this? Is Skyrim out? A game where you waltz around and do entirely boring stuff selling gear and talking to people who talk oh god so slow and fight monsters in totally-not-repetitive caves with a clunky combat system? GAME OF THE YEAR AMIRITE LADS.

 

Then there's the complaints about the repetitive environments. Because you know, other RPGs, that don't repeat environments are so enthralling. Behold the caves in Skyrim, and their sharp sense of variety in offering one rock formation so slightly different from the other. Truly 9.5/10 material. Behold Dragon Age: Origins, and how the annoyingly long dungeon stretches further into, oh what's this, an even ****ing longer dungeon. So amaze.

 

How many of you even remember or care enough about dungeon layouts? All I remember about all the RPGs I've played are some 'shots' of combat in my head. A freeze frame of Zalbaar swinging a sword on Kashyyyk. My character fighting in a bandit camp in Baldur's Gate. Shepard crouching behind a piece of waist-high cover. Which waist-high cover you ask? WELL I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE THEY ALL LOOKED THE SAME TO ME SON.

 

Dragon Age 2's approach I actually found very economical and intelligent, allowing more focus on storytelling and a better pacing of combat. I remember its dungeons and combat areas just as distinctly as other RPGs. But of course, they probably didn't realise there's people who actually enjoyed slogging through that dwarf place in the first game. What's that? There's no Fade section in DA3? Pre-order cancelled.

[DarthParametric]

I'm all for Bioware abandoning their standard "chosen one hero that saves the world" story template, but DA2's plot is not exactly what I would call an improvement. The basic premise may have had some promise, but they seriously went full retard with it.

[HED]

I liked DA2's approach in theory, but in practice there was just... something off, that kept me from getting as immersed in the game as with DAO or even Mass Effect. (I also didn't really like the combat changes, which is a more concrete complaint.)

[MsFicwriter]

Even though I'd like to play Inquisition for the sheer joy of playing/romancing a Qunari, I'm not prepared to buy a whole new freaking computer in order to run it. *sigh*

[Taak Farst]

I myself just recently bought a PC from PCSPECIALIST for my 18th birthday and this'll be one of the first games I buy for it to put it through its paces. It handled Shadow of Mordor on max settings and that game is beautiful.

 

Hope this game is good, and I am very optimistic that it will be. If it isn't, then...well, I can't see BioWare surviving as they have for so long.

[HED]

You know, I haven't actually considered whether or not my computer will be able to run Inquistion...

 

EDIT: http://www.dragonage.com/#!/en_US/news/pc-systems-requirements-revealed

 

I'm over minimum requirements but below recommended...

[DarthParametric]

It seems like Frostbite runs pretty well even on low spec hardware. Check out this comparison of low vs ultra:

 

[youtube=hd]R58l7trgMbE

 

It seems like the main difference is no AA, AO, DOF and reduced particle effects and draw distance on low, as well as (even more) terrible hair. There's also some weird shiny thing going on, that is even more pronounced in the Xbone streams I have seen. I'm guessing there is some difference in the way PBR works on low. I presume they reduced the shader complexity, with some fairly undesirable side-effects. Otherwise, low doesn't look half bad. It seems like they utilise the same texture res, so it's pretty damn playable.

[MsFicwriter]

Okay, these are my computer specs. Does it have a prayer of running DA:I?

 

------------------

System Information

------------------

Time of this report: 11/15/2014, 20:27:22

Machine name: AMYWALKER-PC

Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.130707-1535)

Language: English (Regional Setting: English)

System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.

System Model: Inspiron 530

BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG

Processor: Intel® Core2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz (4 CPUs), ~2.4GHz

Memory: 3070MB RAM

Page File: 1576MB used, 10643MB available

Windows Dir: C:\Windows

DirectX Version: DirectX 11

DX Setup Parameters: Not found

DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 32bit Unicode

DxDiag Previously: Crashed in DirectShow (stage 1)

 

-

[DarthParametric]

Yeah, you might want to edit all that out. No need to dump all that. Just the first bit is sufficient.

 

If you have 32bit Windows, you're out of luck, regardless of hardware specs. It's 64bit only.

 

For anyone else, try this - http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/cyri/requirements/dragon-age-inquisition/12360/

 

Edit: By the way, a warning for anyone planning on installing this on a SSD. The new protection they are employing, Denuvo, apparently performs an extreme amount of drive writes as part of its obfuscation routine. I would advise installing the game on a mechanical drive instead, as an 80-100 hour game is likely to entail a shedload of writes, which is not fantastic for an SSD's life.

[mimartin]

I'll admit first new game I've played in awhile and first game I've played on the 360 in forever. So far I am loving it. It may even keep me from playing TOR for a short while. I'lll also admit I don't have a clue what I'm doing, but I'm having fun doing it. Just as lost as the first time I played KotOR and spent a hour in the Upper City of Taris trying to figure out what to do.

 

Made a two handed female rogue elf. Loving how the dialogue is catered to my character's class and race. Not crazy about the real lack of options in creation, but can live with it as it is way ahead of DA2. Still getting use to not button mashing on a keyboard, but controls seem fine and game is pretty even on the old 360.

 

Of course take what I write with a grain of salt, since like sabre I liked DA2 after I got over my hate for it and actually finished it. Still think the ending sucked but whatever as those that know me know the ending does not destroy the entire game for me. See Mass Effect 3 and the pretty colors.

[Blix]

I'm enjoying the game so far, love the soundtrack disappointed with the lack of hair options though.

[DarthParametric]

Bioware have always been terrible at hair, but the weird thing is how terrible Inquisition's hair is in relation to Origins and DA2.

 

The first attempts at modding have show it is possible to get modified content back into the game by altering the patch data files, so let's hope that custom models for hair, armour, etc. are eventually possible.

[mimartin]

BioWare makes bald cool, even on women....I used the short unkept hair on my females. Doesn't look that bad to me, but some of the other choices were terrible. 84 hours in, still having fun...just one question what do I do with all these power things. Only two main mission from being done working on last area level 19 and have something like 192 power. What the last two mission cost 100 each?

[DarthParametric]

Yeah you'll end up with loads of excess power if you do everything. You can basically farm unlimited power, presumably to allow people to progress the main quest without doing side-missions.

[mimartin]

Should be a vendor that let you buy decent looking armor and wigs with excess power.

[DarthParametric]

God, some of the hair already looks like straw wigs. I shudder to think how bad actual wigs would look.

[mimartin]

Finished tonight....Found the ending satisfactory even though I have no clue how my decision contributed to the outcome since my choice was the exact opposite. Still best ending from a bioware game since ME2 or DA:O.

 

Be sure and watch cutscene after credits....

[stingerhs]

so, let me get this straight: i bought the game on the opening week, and it ran pretty good on my system (31 FPS on the ingame benchmark tool). after the patch on Dec 9, my FPS avg drops to 24 FPS, and the game is extremely unstable as its causing DirectX to crash like crazy especially during cutscenes.

 

things that helped: running the game on my monitors native resolution. for some reason, the game is more stable on the native res of 1920x1200 vs 1920x1080, which sounds like an issue with AMD's Mantle tech (specs below).

 

the other thing that helped was updating my graphics driver to the latest Omega release from AMD. had to get the beta drivers initially before the Dec 9 patch because AMD had a working hotfix for the problem, and while the Omega release helps, its still a very unstable game.

 

anyways, the game is all but unplayable for me, so i'm waiting for the next patch to continue my playthrough.

 

my PC specs:

 

AMD PhenomII X4 955 @ 3.2GHz

AMD Radeon 5850 1GB

8GB DDR3 1600 RAM

Win 7 x64 SP1

Creative Sound Blaster X Fi

[DarthParametric]

Are you using Mantle or DX11? Have you tried switching between the two? Also, switch it to fullscreen/borderless windowed mode. That apparently helps stop crashes.

[stingerhs]

done some more research. my GPU is a bit too far behind on the generation scale to support Mantle. as such, i can't even enable Mantle on my computer. so, that kinda busts that idea.

 

in the meantime, running in windowed mode doesn't seem make a significant difference in the DX crashes.

 

its really frustrating when i can crank up the settings for games like Rome 2: TW, Crysis 2, Alien: Isolation, and the new Thief. even better, those games have no stability problems, either.

 

and from what i hear, the console versions even had stability problems immediately after launch which leads me to believe that trying to beat the Christmas rush was far too optimistic of a goal for Bioware/EA. why is this lesson such a difficult one to learn for these developers??

[mimartin]

Using a console version with no updates yet. Stoffe told me the update introduced a few timing bugs. Seeing ememies you shouldn't see until they are introduced later in the game, so have not updated. Had some minor bugs, but no real stability problems.

 

Also getting close to the end of 2nd playthrough, about 200 total hours in.

[Lynk Former]

Running PS4 version... no issues.

[mimartin]

Finished tonight....Found the ending satisfactory even though I have no clue how my decision contributed to the outcome since my choice was the exact opposite.

Finished 2nd playthrough figured out what happened here. 1st ending was not exact opposite. Ending was do to my choices or lack there of.

 

 

What you say is important to ending. You have to be decisive in supporting people. If you support more than one for a certain role, someone you don't want in that role may end up with it. This time I picked and got a better ending there.

 

 

Female Elf Rogue Archer, Assassin that romanced Solas is my Cannon for DA:I.

[Qui-Gon Glenn]

Merry Christmas all of you Outlanders!

 

 

Just wanna say, thank all of you for your proper and heavy use of spoiler tags. This is a damned civilized forum most of the time.

 

For those of you Outlanders not familiar with Earth Humans... "Christmas" is a confusing amalgamation of several faiths and some space magic, and is celebrated by a fair percentage of the inhabitants. Other belief schools also celebrate traditions during this time of year. Too primitive for this cycle.