Dragon Age 3

Multiplayer?

Seems like total speculation with no proof at this time.

Not speculation. It's a leak. Magazines aren't online sites. They have access to personnel in companies and they have time to check their sources.

If this is true, hopefully they take their time with making it. I loved DA2 but I feel that if it just had spent a few more months in development, it would be one of the best games ever.

Yay =)

Hmmm, dunno. Unlike Mass Effect, I am not really seeing it how would multiplayer work for Dragon Age. Also, if its true, I guarantee a shit storm from DA "fans" that will make seem Dragon Age 2 reception extremely positive.

It's practically an MMO combat system already, multiplayer could totally work. A Dragon Age MMO would make me explode everywhere with joy, but I suspect that a dungeon crawler-esque thing is much more likely. If, of course, this has any truth to it at all.

How about co-op multiplayer?

Unless they were going the MMO route, I imagine it would have to be co-op multiplayer. Competitive, I imagine, wouldn't be fun without a complete systems overhaul, which seeing as Dragon Age is still to an extent a deliberate throwback, I can't see happening.

edited 11th Apr '11 9:35:06 AM by CottonWolf

I think that the biggest argument against DA3 being an MMO is that MMOs are expensive to maintain and Bioware is going to have Star Wars The Old Republic to worry about.

edited 11th Apr '11 9:41:39 AM by lrrose

Plus if The Old Republic doesn't tank completely, a DA MMO would be competing with it. Plus there's the lore issues of All Deaths Final and the general scarcity of magic in DA that would be...problematic.

This is bad news though, since the game will need to be balanced around real-time gameplay, meaning we're limited to 6 ability rotations/combos at the maximum. Cooperative gameplay or competitive gameplay in which anyone can pause would be Problematic.

Yeah, that and the fantasy MMO space is currently very full. Who wants to release a product in direct competition with World of Warcraft? (Though, if it were also on consoles this would be less of an issue.)

I honestly don't think they'd do that. Even Mass Effect, their 'action series' doesn't limit talents to that extent.

edited 11th Apr '11 9:52:48 AM by CottonWolf

Confirmed

I hope they don't focus too much on MP if it is going to have it.

And I really hope they go back to the old combat system. I don't get why they changed it, I tought DA combat was very cool, simple to learn and yet very strategic, it wasn't as hard as the classics and it looked cool even, I don't remember getting bored from the combat anywhere in the game(well there were the deep roads...). I don't really mind if they make another actionized game(I realize any game that is not actionized nowadays is going to become one so I don't really get my hopes up about that). But I hope they atleast redo the combat system, DA 2 was very confusing IMO, I haven't played much of it yet but atleast the gameplay I hated, hope the story makes up for it(it's the reason i'm playing anyway ).

Yeeeessss!

I'm looking forward to this. However, as I stated above, I hope that Bioware takes their time with this one.

Wow, they are DEDICATED to tanking Dragon Age, aren't they?

Didn't the EA CEO at one stage said that Dragon Age (among other franchises) was one that he was dedicated to making yearly installments out of?

"I hope that Bioware takes their time with this one."

Ok, I have to ask because every keeps saying that. Beyond not reusing the same dungeon multiple times for separate locations, what would have changed about DA 2 if it had a longer dev time? Everything I hear people complain about screams "standard Bioware design" (shoved in your face badly written "romance"s) or things they have proudly admitted they want to do for a while (Make it more "accessible" read: Dumbed down)

edited 20th May '11 9:39:50 PM by deuxhero

Presumably with more time they could put more effort into some actual choices and diverging storylines thereby leading to a plot that isn't as ridiculously railroaded.

Like I said...

Well...it's difficult to tell if that's really a choice made due to time constraints or a need to make the game more accessible. I don't see how a linear railroaded plot is more accessible than a divergent story with multiple choices and consequences to the average gamer that they were catering for. Is the average/non-rpg gamer really going to notice that the story is changing based on the choices they make and thus feel alienated by it?

Less glitches. A more fleshed out Act III (Orsino had too little characterization for someone with a big role in the plot). I was fine with the quality of the gameplay and the romance subplots (although the DA franchise's romances are the only Bioware ones that I consider well written). I actually don't consider DA2 to be as streamlined as some of the critics said, but I've had that debate too many times on the Social Boards and don't want to continue it here.

edited 20th May '11 9:49:42 PM by lrrose

I believe that the Boneyard was going to have a deeper set of quests devoted to it, and that they'd be more side quests in the second and third acts; certainly more stuff with Orsino and Meredeth too. I also wouldn't have been surpised if a few quests involving your siblings turned up in Acts 2 and 3 as well.

I'm dead certain more time would not have fixed this game. Every interview Bioware gives on DA 2, they always claim they had it all planned out from the beginning, that all the flaws were either "unforseen" or "evolving the genre", and that the only people who hated it just don't understand how perfect DA 2 is.

That's why I'm also certain DA 3 will be at least as bad, if not worse.

Cutting the mod community out of the series is a nice touch though. "Fuck modders" seems to be the general attitude this gen though.