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It will probably come as no surprise to anyone, but Bioware have confirmed that they are working on Dragon Age 3 - or well, their senior director Alistair McNally did on Twitter. So don't go looking for a reveal trailer, any screenshots or any plot spoilers just yet.

"I'm looking for exceptional environment artists to join me at #BioWare Edmonton, Canada to work on #DragonAge3," was all McNally wrote. So now we know that they are working on it for sure and can go all go back to wondering how we'll be punished in Mass Effect 3 for being unfaithful to our original love in Mass Effect 2.

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http://www.gamereactor.eu/news/7475/Bioware confirms Dragon Age 3/



Riveting Maste Hawke.

I didn't finish DA2 but I may go back to it someday.

Someday.

Rumors state a Q4 2012 release.

Are you still disappointed by DA2?

I loved Dragon Age. I played through all 60+ hours of it. Twice. I was all about Dragon Age 2 when it came out.

I got about halfway through it, and never touched it again. Never had any desire to complete it.

I'm calling it now, the entire game will take place in one cave... and as the years pass new door will get opened while old ones will get bricked over... while the companion interactivity will go to new highs as you have to convince each one to abandon their lives and live with you in the cave, forever... and of course you'll have to fight off darkspawn and dwarf invasions.

Ravenpoe said:

I loved Dragon Age. I played through all 60+ hours of it. Twice. I was all about Dragon Age 2 when it came out.

I got about halfway through it, and never touched it again. Never had any desire to complete it.

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Pretty much the same. I played a full "good" noble story and a full "evil" dwarf. I played all origins, I thought the game was pretty solid. Maybe 70-80 hours though the replayability beyond the storyline wasn't exceptional. I bought the game full value, it is after all Bioware.

Dragon Age 2? I grew bored in Act 2... when I started Act 3 I couldn't manage to play it anymore. I didn't buy this because the critics were raging on the net and I told myself... what the fuck? How did they fuck this up? It's Bioware. What the fuck, I can't pre-order off Steam? Smells like bullshit. Oh? A demo. Let's try it. Better safe than sorry. Played it and was shocked.... SHOCKED by what I saw. Then I remembered.... shit, EA bought Bioware in the last year.... OH FUCK.

NOT BIOWARE.

Then I grew scared regarding ME3 but hey, another subject for another thread. Arrival anyone? And that'll be a subject for tomorrow.

I have very LOW hopes for DA3 unless they fully realize they fucked up DA2 and will go back to origins or better.

And yeah Alien, I was pissed by running the same fucken cave, the same fucken warehouse, the same fucken "grotto", the same alley with the fountain by Act 3 with subtle changes of "click here for shitty 1 penny loot" and LOOK A NON BRICKED WALL GO HERE.... OH SHIT ABOMS... WAIT WHAT? HOW? AAARRRGGGGHHHH. *everything explodes*

*loot*

You get crapo, you can sell for 2 pennies.

WHAT THE FUCK

Yeah, DA2 was very disappointing. I can get super on board with that.

Careful positioning so that you get best effect out of your AoE spells? Nah, assassins are just going to spawn behind your mage anyway.

Well at least it looks like they did hear some of the complaints about DA2: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/300/index/7426658

i'm in the same boat. never finished the game. I'm at the Arishok fight and i never felt the urge to beat him.

It's the first bioware game that i have not finished and replayed multiple times.

I beat it, but really the third act is not very remarkable and I don't feel they built up enough for it to be the climax. I blame the fact the game does not give you any semblance of a main plot or antagonist. They kept trying to hint that it was the Templar versus Mages storyline, but they don't really ever focus on that till Act 3 starts up, so you feel lost, like you are just a goon for most of the game then the main plot is like "haha I was here the WHOLE TIME! SUPRISE! Now pay attention to me!"

As for the third game, I am going to reserve judgement till I see it. If the whole thing at the least does not take place in a single location, I may get some faith restored.

DA2 sucked donkey balls. Like most here... I played the crap out of the first Dragon Age... I think three complete playthroughs if I remember correctly... and they were all fun. But DA2? I was getting pretty bored by the second act and after the idiotic Arishok battle (which probably took 10-15 minutes of moving around like a tool trying not to get hit by his dumb special attacks) I lost all hope. I still finished it... and was rewarded with the ultimate idiocy.

Spoiler

Hai... my name is Anders and I blew up the church and killed loads of innocent people! HAHA! Now we have to have a war! Suck it bitches... oh... by the way... can we still be friends?

Totally moronic... *facepalm*

As for DA3? I have a very VERY bad feeling about it.

I am very worried about ME3... I still think they have the chops to pull it off but damn am I apprehensive now.

Talking about the Arishok fight:

Ravenpoe said:

Careful positioning so that you get best effect out of your AoE spells? Nah, assassins are just going to spawn behind your mage anyway.

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Waves upon waves of Assassins that will jump from the sky or simply "appear" magically beside you. But But... you can shoot them with an arrow and make them BLOW UP into little giblets because, that's like... realistic.
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@Li3n said:

Well at least it looks like they did hear some of the complaints about DA2: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/300/index/7426658

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Looks exciting too bad I won't be bothered enough to "replay" the same stages over and over. That in itself was the biggest issue I had. One story, with one city with many many insignificant sidequests to the same handful of locations with combat that was clearly inferior to the previous game.

More ranting on Dragon Age...

As a veteran gamer I feel that it is entirely reasonable and natural to expect a sequel to be somewhat similar to the original. One of the points of making a direct sequel, as opposed to a wholly new game or a spin off, is mostly in name recognition and to bring back the audience of the original game. Otherwise why even bother? What did I even play?

The rushed nature of the game, while rather shameful and sucked the enthusiasm out of me, I think I could live with but the direction and style but the obvious change in the intended audience is what really bothers me. I dislike the anime style with swords far too big to be wieldable (the elf with the 2 hander was balls), waves of teleporting ninjas were dropping out of the sky, most bodies exploding etc... It’s over the top cartoonish and I hardly recognize it as Dragon Age at all.

If DA: O was D&D Lite well DA2 was Final Fantasy: Lite. I actually did enjoy some of the Final Fantasy games for what they are but at least you know what you are getting into. They are absolutely linear interactive movies and they don't make any pretense of giving you choices. The choices in DA2 were pointless except to change how Hawke reacts to inevitable events.

I missed the days where your decisions have consequences and while I don’t necessarily want a Morrowind type of game where you can kill an NPC, play the game 100 hours then find out later that NPC was an essential part of the storyline and go “shit” and learn from your mistakes, I’d like some type of bridge….some type of in-between where the choices you make actually matter beyond “good” and “evil” dialogue. For example in ARRIVAL (SPOILER), simply put it didn’t MATTER what you said, what you did, it happens and you’re pigeon-holed into being a mass murderer of Batarians. I hate where the new gen RPG gaming may be heading.

The story in DA2 is kind of a disjointed mess as well. The acts don't flow together all that well and there really is no driving force to the narrative once the prologue is done very early on and you make your escape. After that it's basically just wander around town and find what odd jobs come up and what kind of trouble you can get into. It really feels like stuff just happens to Hawke for being in the right or wrong place at the right time and not for anything you did. And I won't beat the dead horse regarding the recycled content.

On its own merits DA2 it's a mediocre, forgettable game that provides some light fun and diversion if you aren't expecting too much. As a direct sequel to Dragon Age: Origins it's an absolute disgrace.

And the fact that the cash grab sold over 4 million copies scares me incredibly regarding Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Effect 3. Honestly, ME3 lost a bit of its luster compared to my want to play Dead Island or Skyrim. I don’t like where Bioware is heading and I fear that the Bioware we all knew and loved is gone.

One thing is for sure, they'll have their work cut out for them.

Jay said:

with combat that was clearly inferior to the previous game.

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The combat was one of the few things i found had potential (or it might have just been the new skill tree), but the whole "magically spawn behind or above you for no reason" totally killed any enjoyment.

Combat was too fast, with elves swing 2 handed swords like they were made of plastic. Skill trees were too restrictive with branches being permanently unavailable to certain characters.

Well that too, but that's like a few values being changed... and the DA:O tree was rather bland imo.

What they really should have done is make the skills that have 2 reqs actually be available once you reach them from any of the sides and it would have been great...

What they need to keep is melee attackers closing the gap to their target faster then walking speed... i've disliked that since NWN, it always screws up my planning when they get stuck or move towards the target in a weird way.

Jay said:

Combat was too fast, with elves swing 2 handed swords like they were made of plastic. Skill trees were too restrictive with branches being permanently unavailable to certain characters.

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Heavily agree on that last point. Anders was pretty much the only healer you had, and through pretty much every fight that was not a random nighttime brawl, you NEEDED a healer. Beth is the only other one you have, and you lose her after Act 1 and don't get her back till the very end of Act 3. I know the player can fill that role when they select mage, but sure sucks for the other two classes.

The least they could have done was gave Merrill a healer tree of some type, or hell even try something unconventional like giving some offhealing abilities to other classes. Fenris may hate mages and magic, but maybe those magical tattoos of his can give off a unintended healing effects to those around him. Maybe Isabella can use her knowledge as a rogue to make elixirs and potions she can throw to allies. Anything to give more choice then having to drag Anders everywhere, the big crybaby.

Pretty much that. Anders was a MUST beyond normal difficulty unless you rolled mage and I didn't, I liked my bow archer sniper spec. 10k crits fuckers.

I'm looking forward to DA2 despite what everyone's said. I want to see where the story goes.

Still gotta play Awakening though, and I'm not doing that until I get my evil Dalish elf to that point.

I enjoyed DA2, but it's half the game the first one was. Honestly 95% of my problem had to do with the small world made even smaller by reused maps. If they had changed that and give the story more space in the world it would have been way better. If they had given the story a little more direction and beef it would have been a really good game rather than just a good game.

I'll look forward to 3 though and hope they learn from their mistakes.

Espy said:

I enjoyed DA2, but it's half the game the first one was. Honestly 95% of my problem had to do with the small world made even smaller by reused maps. If they had changed that and give the story more space in the world it would have been way better. If they had given the story a little more direction and beef it would have been a really good game rather than just a good game.

I'll look forward to 3 though and hope they learn from their mistakes.

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Overall, I think what made DA2 so underwhelming is that with the game's pedigree, and the history of the developers, it could have been SO MUCH MORE.

It's like discovering there's a new Van Gogh, but it's from a time in his history where he was wiping his ass on canvas and calling it art.

Espy said:

I enjoyed DA2, but it's half the game the first one was.

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I'd say even less then half...

Well at least they acknowledged it wasn't all sunshine and roses: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/315/index/7475089

Got DA2 today. Wanted to know--how much do my personal actions in Origins affect DA2? I know stuff like who's the head monarch would affect stuff, but would my playing good or evil make a difference? I'm having a second playthrough as a bastard Dalish elf just for the hell of it and was curious if it made a difference from my goody-goody elf mage.

Not really. You'll just occasionally get hints of your DA1 game.

Spoilers, yo.

Better?

Not really.

I bought DA2 for 12 bucks or so from Gamestop online. It's a fun game, but, not the game that DA:O was, even though I didn't finish playing that because I got bored with it. I just started the third act and I'm not really itching to play it anymore.

Quotemander Prime said:

I'm looking forward to DA2 despite what everyone's said. I want to see where the story goes.

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lawl

I barely made it through the dragging repetitiveness of DA1. When I read that people who loved DA1 were complaining about the same in DA2, I knew it wasn't for me. The story critiques bothered me, too. One of the coolest things about DA1, even in comparison to older RPGs, was the lasting effect of decisions. If you let even an important NPC die, they died (most of the time), even if it screwed you over. That was probably one of the most attractive things about DA, and when I heard it was gone in DA2, I figured I wouldn't play it. It certainly explains the massive number of cheap used copies of DA2 at GameStop.

Jay said:

lawl

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Yeah, I know. Worse, the few actual interesting elements that have come up in DA2 have been squandered and/or barely acknowledged. I pretty much stopped playing mid-Act 2, while Julie is muscling slowly through Act 3, determined to see it through to the end.