Dragon Age: Inquisition

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Ha! Finally. Signed for this a couple of months ago.

Invitation to DA Keep Beta in my mail box. Let's see what it's all about then...
 
One of my nitpicks about vidya game armor is they're so bulky and exaggerated it looks like the armor weighs more than the person wearing it. Both TES and DA are guilty in this respect. If I had to choose, I prefer the armors in Inquisition so far because Bioware has toned things down, referred to historical examples and got a little closer to functionality over style.
 
@johncage
You have no idea what you're talking about.

How wearing the Holy Cross on your crusader helmet is useful?
How having a fucking MOUSTACHE on your mask is useful (Menpo masks)?
Why did ancient Greece warriors have feathers on top of their helmets?
Why were there snakes or scorpions on Achilles' shield?
Why would I want the hair of my beloved inside my sword's pommel?
Not mentionning people who still fight nowadays basically NAKED and have done so for hundreds of years.
And I could go on with that for hours. Utility works on today's standards, when every country use the same armors, the same cloths and the same weapons and (sometimes even) tactics.
Before, you had culture, different technological, philosophical or theological levels, tradition, honor, intimidation, God or the wish to be a legend mixed in the bag.

Don't make me start on video games, where the only truly useful thing is... stats. Dark Souls is full of silly stuff, I used to have three builds and each had a different purpose:
- I had one build which I called the "noob build", in which I used the most popular armor (Elite Knight Armor) and weapon in the game to look like a noob and make people think I'm new to PvP
- I had an "intimidation" build when I started PvP to look like a badass who doesn't fear anything. My skeleton mask helped me more than the generic useful knight helmet
- I had a the biggest hat possible to cover my face (to make an impression of uneasiness), a chest armor to look like Clint Eastwood (personal taste) and a armored leggings to have better stats (utility)

"Utilitarian" makes no sense in a game that doesn't strive for realism; not unlike how realism has nothing to do with fiction.
 
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New stuff here about the crafting. I really like the armors in these new screenshots but I never cared much for the helmet in the last shot.

http://www.incgamers.com/2014/10/dragon-age-inquisition-full-crafting-details-and-new-screens

Could be worse.
 
Apparently, helmets are crafted separately and that was a warrior helm. I hope we will be able to toggle helmets like in WoW. I like seeing my character's face in full detail unless I really like the helm.
 
New gameplay material - just battles. Rogue inquisitor. Max settings, according to the title. I read at GAF that this YouTuber's channel is mostly around FPS games, so that could explain why he's a bit different in his style. Such as, making Varric open a chest mid-combat, or not using the tactical camera. Then again, maybe the difficulty he's playing on just doesn't warrant "tactical" combat (obviously).


I'm getting more and more peeved by how flashy combat has become. I can barely make out what's happening anymore in this color show. Also Varric flipping around like a gymnastic isn't doing it for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtnaDbFxBxo - this lack of flashiness in every move isn't a bad thing.

They could choose between Origins' grittier approach and DA2's anime battles, and they're opting for the latter. I suppose they have an audience for that, but I'm personally disappointed. The series didn't have a definitive characteristic about how combat looks so they had the option to go either way.
 
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Clayman/Rechyyy (author of that video) is quite good at games and especially shooters (you wouldn't want him on the enemy team... and he makes some pretty awesome montages too link). And yes. he tends to take the more actiony/flashy approach generally if he's capturing footage he intends to upload.

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Holy crap all those particle effects are super distracting. I'm also disappointed to see that the open world is still basically corridors connecting small areas instead of something more... ehm... open. And it's not the engine, BF4 has some pretty huge open maps with tanks, jets and infantry blowing each other up on 64 man servers. Hopefully it's just that forest (there's a more open area at the end though).

I'm nitpicking here but is anybody else a bit annoyed by the footsteps sound on the inquisitor when he walks on gravel (1:45 ish)? It sounds like he's walking in a empty room instead of an open forest, that echo effect is silly. You can hear it even on grass which is even sillier.
 
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So... this Clayman/Rechyyy is a relatively popular Youtuber who specializes in making Battlefield videos. The last RPG he played is Final Fantasy X and he generally doesn't care about the genre.

And THIS is the guy you want to promote Dragon Age, EA? Really? Are you, what, trying to attract the infamous 'shooter' fanbase? Would explain why the vid is combat only - no story, no character dialogue. Would be 'too distracting' I guess.

The footage itself looks alright, though the YT compression is terrible. Not a fan of the overly flashy particle effects, it was hard to see what was going on sometimes. Varric doing backflips, well... it's like in one of my Japanese animes. Very DA2. Didn't help that the guy clearly didn't know how to play and utilize each of the classes.

There were more people present on this EA conference, or whatever it was. Here's hoping one of them recorded some dialogue and not just combat.
 
I don't really like all those particle effects. I really hope there will be a way to tone them down but who knows, maybe they are this saturated because of tactical camera? Varric doing backflips is also a bit weird.

Aside from that, I like the forest. Seemed pretty open once he went through that little path. I am not expecting any dialogue in further videos, they haven't shown us any thus far and I am not expecting any.

Too bad YouTube compression destroyed the video...
 
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So... this Clayman/Rechyyy is a relatively popular Youtuber who specializes in making Battlefield videos. The last RPG he played is Final Fantasy X and he generally doesn't care about the genre.
Actually he's more well know for his Counter-Strike videos. He usually uploads a couple of BF videos with each new DLC. EA Ronku is a coverage program that pays youtubbers for game coverage (that's why the video has the "Sponsored by EA Ronku" sign in the beginning to let people know it's a pad promotion). He did similar stuff for BF and Titanfall. It's not that EA elected him specifically for what kind of games he likes or audience they want to attract, EA knows he has a large subscriber count and is using that to advertise the game.
 
Oh my god, Varric doing backflips is the silliest shit I've ever seen. What the FUCK... is going through their heads? Seriously. Something "awesome" does not need to happen with every fucking button click. Is this Dragon Age, or is this Bleach? Seriously, I can't tell the difference.

They went from being bathed in blood after battle to being bathed in MLP farts.
Dragon Age 2 wasn't anything like this in that regard. At least to my memory it wasn't.

edit: Also, don't know what you guys mean about the youtube compression. Set the setting to HD 1080, and click full screen. Looks just fine.
 
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A few years back, fantasy enthusiasts were annoyed by a certain dwarf being pictured in a way that made his pride of his beard and unwillingness to be tossed a comic element. And now a shaved, somersaulting dwarf is potentially the best character in the entire cast of one of the most important (in financial and public interest terms) fantasy works of the year. What happened?

:wat:
 
Aye, it's just so ridiculous. I actually watched that video earlier and that is exactly the point the boredom reached absurd levels and I couldn't watch anymore (which is a score 2 of 2 for DA:I vids).

I recall DA2's rogues could do that backflip, but it was an emergency get out of jail skill with a long cooldown, essentially once a fight, and I don;t recall Varic getting it because of his own skiltrees needing filled.

My overall impression & prediction remains the same: I Imagine on release this game may be exciting to play, but that will pass very very quickly for many of us - you all know the experience - and I see nothing else in the game to give it depth. No tactics, just as has been said... instant gratification awesomeness... digital premature ejaculation.
 
I don't mind other rogues hopping around and such. To an extent. But a round little Dwarf pulling acrobatic skills like that is where I draw the line. Friend of mine on another site claims Varric did this in DA 2... I didn't play with him a great deal, but I don't remember anything of the sort. If he did backflip, it wan't anywhere near as "Ninja Gaiden" as this.
 
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