The worst kept secret at Bioware is that Dragon Age III is in production. Today, franchise Executive Producer Mark Darrah makes that all official-like with an open letter. Given the lack of any detail to speak of whatsoever, there’s not much to report here. Here’s the most relevant bits from the letter.
So here’s what I can confirm for now:
- The next game will be called Dragon Age III: Inquisition.
- We won’t be talking about the story of the game today. Though you can make some guesses from the title.
- This game is being made by a lot of the same team that has been working on Dragon Age since Dragon Age: Origins. It’s composed of both experienced BioWare veterans and talented new developers.
- We are working on a new engine which we believe will allow us to deliver a more expansive world, better visuals, more reactivity to player choices, and more customization. At PAX East, we talked about armor and followers… Yeah, that kind of customization. We’ve started with Frostbite 2 from DICE as a foundation to accomplish this.
You check out the rest here, if you’re so inclined.
After the break, however, I can offer you an NHS-exclusive look at the main Foozle in DA3! (Yes, this is an excuse to make you click through to see something that is decidedly not the main Foozle in DA3. It’s worth it.)
Awwwwwwwwww.
That cat’s eyes are piercing my soul.
Actually, I heard that the main villains are a mass of whining, slobbering “fans” demanding appeasment.
The final boss just makes you read the longest current thread on the DA2 boards.
Nooooooooooooooooo!
As one of those whining, slobbering fans (though not about the ending, I couldn’t care less about that): the “unnecessary” addition of multiplayer to a traditionally single-player franchise did what I suspect it was meant to do. Used copies of ME3 are worth more, and the price-drop on the new disc dropped precipitously.
I’m willing to stop whining now, I guess. Losing me as a customer earned them money. But I’m not going to carry on supporting them day one.
Let me know if it’s good, guys. I’ll pick it up after the price drop. Or not.
Whoops, the line in the first para about price-drop should read: “price drop on the new disc took much longer to happen”.
I am one of those poor, misguided souls that enjoyed both Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2. For different reasons, but I enjoyed both a great deal. I will be interested to see how they shoe-horn multiplayer into this franchise…
I will end up buying and playing this no matter what they do, mostly because of my love for Origins and for the second’s character melodrama (really, I did like the characters). How excited I am for it when it arrives will depend on what they show when they actually have something to show.
I am so very looking forward to this.
But then again, I am one of this weirdoes who liked DA2 and ME3 multiplayer and the original endings, so take from that what you want
On another note, does anyone else think that co-op in DA3 would be awesome?
Honestly, it would work better in DA than Mass Effect. To me, multiplayer in Mass Effect was like giving James Bond a partner.
Is it just me or does anyone else find the title of this 3rd game ironic ?
I’m skeptical though. Liked DA:O (felt I got a lot of bang per buck). DA2 was a disaster and the line about “being made by a lot of the same team” … “since Dragon Age: Origins” was said about ME2/ME3 and that turned out to be a whopping 3 people according to Mike Gamble.
If it’s a repeat of Day One DLC, required multiplayer (that effects single player), premium access to EA’s servers (hey it’s using BF3’s engine design), Facebook likes/games to unlock in game content & my personal favorite, exclusive store per-order bonus (on top of the expected “Project Ten Dollar”)… I’ll stick to my guns & continue boycotting EA & Bioware.
I think I might be looking forward to this. Bioware’s trackrecord alone should be enough to warrant interest. ME3 was as close to perfect as that kind of game can be. DA2 had some problems true, but in the end it accomplished what it set out to do. Namely give us a fantasy epic that wasn’t about saving the world, but about personal struggles. And DA2 felt personal, and it excelled at that.
Maybe a bit less emphasis on awesome buttons, and just go on in that vein. What DA2 lacked was a longer dev cycle, which is why they recycled all those environments and why act 3 was so short. As long as they give DA3 the time it needs, I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt.
I suspect I’ll just wait until it’s $20 on sale somewhere for the “game of the year addition”. It’ll probably only be a year or so.
Although, one thing I’ve noticed is that EA’s “Origin” service does not seem to have the same deep sales as everybody else, unless you’re talking Sims games.
NOBODY EXPECTS THE TEMPLAR INQUISITION!
I am actually looking forward to this – I think they probably learned some from what went wrong in DA2, and whatever problems you have with that game it did have some good stuff going on for it. I, personally, liked the art design better in 2 than in origins, and I liked a voiced main character with some personal connection to what is going on in the game. That said, I hope they can address the lack of interesting environments and that hideous wave-based combat.
This is making me sad that I have lost the game-saves from DA:Origins and DA2, and also that I will probably not be able to run it on a computer.
Sigh add me to the list of Bioware slobbering fans (but no rants from me) who also loves DA:O, DA2 and actually got hooked on the ME3 multiplayer..AND loved the ending to that game and wish all the “fans” who didn’t would go play something more suited to their tastes, like…hmm…CoD (ducks)