Dragon Age 4 - Dreadwolf thread (with some new leaked footage.)

aweigh · Post by **aweigh** » February 5th, 2023, 01:06

aweigh · Post by **aweigh** » February 5th, 2023, 01:11

Roguey · Post by **Roguey** » February 5th, 2023, 01:13

https://dragonsdogma.fandom.com/wiki/Rook

Taking shamelessness to new heights.

Post by **WhiteShark** » February 5th, 2023, 01:52

There's worse than darkspawn on the way.

And walls won't hold it back.

wndrbr · Post by **wndrbr** » February 5th, 2023, 05:24

lol that character screen. Looks like something from assassin's creed or any other modern "action game with perks".

Bioware has completely lost the plot, they are copying Dad of Boy-tier action games now.

Kalarion · Post by **Kalarion** » February 5th, 2023, 05:25

Is DA moving to be an action-adventure game or something? That looks like a bad take on Dark Souls.

Graphics are nice, UI is horrific.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » February 5th, 2023, 06:41

Looks like shit.

NEG · Post by **NEG** » February 5th, 2023, 07:13

Darkspawn in general are/were a boring enemy. Sure, some of the concepts like the demon leading them or the fact that they reproduce like, uh, whatever Warhammer monster they their idea ripped off from, but those concepts didn't seem very fleshed out or delved into.

They're orc zombies for all intents and purposes, and that's just not an interesting villain. DA:O's origin subplots were always more interesting to me than the main arc about stopping the undead hordes.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » February 5th, 2023, 11:11

DAO's grim dark/horror aspects were rather unique and it's a damn shame the tards in charge of this series now did away with them because they wanted to turn it into an elf romance simulator.

Lutte · Post by **Lutte** » February 5th, 2023, 12:21

NEG wrote: ↑ February 5th, 2023, 07:13
Darkspawn in general are/were a boring enemy. Sure, some of the concepts like the demon leading them or the fact that they reproduce like, uh, whatever Warhammer monster they their idea ripped off from, but those concepts didn't seem very fleshed out or delved into.

They're orc zombies for all intents and purposes, and that's just not an interesting villain. DA:O's origin subplots were always more interesting to me than the main arc about stopping the undead hordes.

This. I liked the bits about how society perceives its mages and the conflicts that follows, the conspiracies for power (Loghain is a great antagonist, and I feel it's regretful that he can only be considered a secondary antagonist because the main antagonist is a retarded mindless zombie dragon..), the oppression against other species and so on. But the main plot thread is thoroughly uninteresting. Ancient evil that has no will of its own awakens to destroy things for destruction's sake.. okay, whatever.
The way the game treated religion was great too. It's not that common in fantasy cRPGs to see religion be more of an actual faith rather than "well, gods are a certain, known existence and might even walk among us" thing. I always wanted more content talking about this and making us seek out the truths in myths.

The gameplay though was some of the worst I've played in the era. Besides being boring on a plot level, dorkspawns are also boring on a mechanical level. They're no different than packs of humans. The gameplay is based on the idea that you're always fighting balanced groups of tanks, damage dealers and occasioanl caster. Whether they're bandits or darkspawns, they always follow the same format. They rarely have unique abilities, or immunities to your abilities, with very few exceptions (Revenants, the dragon.. and that's it?). Your skill trees are boring aff. It's one of the many RPGs whose length extends far beyond its ability to sustain entertainment.

gerey · Post by **gerey** » February 6th, 2023, 06:59

That wrestling tackle, in full-plate no less, just looks fucking goofy. At the very least the armor itself looks sensible enough, which is sadly a rarity in Western fantasy settings where the artists should know better.

But really, janky gameplay aside, which is a staple of the franchise by now, the biggest pitfall is going to be the writing, same as it is going to be with the new Mass Effect they have cooking. You can't write a good story if the writers actively despise the audience and want the game to be something the audience does not - which has been a problem for BioWare for years now.

And I'm not even talking about politics, but how their resources are mismanaged on things that (what should be) their core audience does not care about. I remember BioWare published their internal metrics for one of their Mass Effect games years ago and something like 80% of the playerbase played hetero Male Shepard, while only 20% played Female Shepard (and God knows how much of that percentage were actually dude that wanted to make their waifu or troons), yet both male and female protagonist required the same number of resources invested into animating them, creating cutscenes, armors, voice acting etc.

Same with the overabundance of romances clearly aimed at... uh, I have no fucking idea really. Not even talking about the fujoshi-bait, but things like that disgusting elf in Inquisition or the racoon in Andromeda. That's still more resources wasted only a tiny, tiny minority of the users are going to wish to interact with.

I imagine BioWare has gotten worse over the years, as anyone with better prospects leaves the sinking ship, only leaving the truly degenerate and batshit insane, that have nowhere else to go.

Ventidius · Post by **Ventidius** » February 6th, 2023, 21:14

It's funny because they seemed to be taking an interest in eschewing the DA2 approach and going a bit back to basics with more tactical combat in DA:I (even if the result still wasn't very good), which is rare with RPGs. Once devs switch to action, they usually don't switch back, especially when it comes to AAA. Shame they never seem to fully commit to simply going back to the DA:O formula, which was successful. Then again, there are probably no devs left in Bioware who can make something like that again.

Also, a lot has changed since Andromeda came out, things have gotten a lot more pozzed. Bioware used to be among the poster children of degeneracy back in the 10s, it should be interesting to see if they can outdo the current crop of woke insanity.

gerey · Post by **gerey** » February 6th, 2023, 21:26

Ventidius wrote: ↑ February 6th, 2023, 21:14
Then again, there are probably no devs left in Bioware who can make something like that again.

Our resident sleuth Roguey can correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's actually any of the "old guard" working at BioWare anymore. Hell, I don't think there's anyone from around the time Mass Effect 1 released there either. They've been bleeding people for years now.

Also, a lot has changed since Andromeda came out, things have gotten a lot more pozzed. Bioware used to be among the poster children of degeneracy back in the 10s, it should be interesting to see if they can outdo the current crop of woke insanity.

I imagine they'll do their very best and try to outdo the competition, though it will admittedly be a tough act to follow. It's not the early 2010s anymore, so having gay characters in your game isn't particularly newsworthy anymore. Even having troons isn't anything special. Maybe they'll feature cuckoldry mechanics?

viata · Post by **viata** » February 6th, 2023, 21:54

wndrbr wrote: ↑ February 5th, 2023, 05:24
lol that character screen. Looks like something from assassin's creed or any other modern "action game with perks".

I wish I had saved that image I saw once, it was a collection of modern games's character screen and they all look the same pretty much. It's amazing how modern western devs can't make unique things anymore. It all have that copy+paste feeling.

Post by **WhiteShark** » February 6th, 2023, 22:00

viata wrote: ↑ February 6th, 2023, 21:54
I wish I had saved that image I saw once, it was a collection of modern games's character screen and they all look the same pretty much. It's amazing how modern western devs can't make unique things anymore. It all have that copy+paste feeling.

I don't have that one on hand but I have this:

► Show Spoiler

Fargus · Post by **Fargus** » February 8th, 2023, 06:48

Looks like another frankenstein monster of modern gaming trends. Then again who cares about Bioware at this point? They died in agony with ME3 and EA just put their corpse on display instead of kicking it into a mass grave with the rest of the unfortunate husks.

Ravenloft · Post by **Ravenloft** » February 9th, 2023, 15:28

Every new Dragon Age game looks trashier and more generic than the previous. It's a tradition for this series. Can't wait to "marvel" at its roster of companions, all of whom will be romanceable, I assume?

Konjad · Post by **Konjad** » February 9th, 2023, 17:32

As someone who actually enjoyed Dragon Ages (including 2 and 3) I wonder how it will turn out, but I don't have much hope.

somerandomdude · Post by **somerandomdude** » February 14th, 2023, 01:25

DA:O was alright, but I didn't care for the others. And this one looks more like the others, and nothing like DA:O.

Post by **rusty_shackleford** » February 14th, 2023, 01:31

I liked the grimdark parts of DAO because there's not too many fantasy games that are actually grimderp.