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BioWare Calls Dragon Age 4 a Single-Player game "Built on Choices that Matter"

Lunatic_Gamer

Gold Member
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BioWare has issued a short and sweet update on Dragon Age 4, calling the follow-up to Inquisition a single-player focused game "built on choices that matter."

"We remain hard at work on the next iterations of Dragon Age and Mass Effect," BioWare general manager Gary McKay wrote in a blog post. "I'm seeing some incredible work from both teams." He goes on to say there's "a veteran group of talented developers" working on the sequel, and that the studio is "focused on a single-player experience that is built on choices that matter."

 

Perrott

Gold Member
Back to square one, as this was literally the premise behind the very first version of DA4 that was started to being worked on around 2015/2016.

The game would've been out already if weren't because of the 700 changes in direction due to the lack of someone with a strong vision and enough balls to see it realized in spite of what everyone else at either EA or BioWare has to say about it based on current industry trends.
 
I honestly find it difficult to believe.

Happy to play with a new character that isn't Shephard but please bring back the edginess the series is known for. Don't be afraid to expose the player to sensitive subject matter like earlier entries. I've said this previously but let me be an arrogant jerk, a virtuous and righteous paragon of moral fortitude or the literal spawn of Satan. I'm more than willing to handle the in game repercussions of my choices. Let female characters be attractive and stop trying to appease the serially offended. Focus on making a great game first and foremost and not on turning the franchise into some sort of dating sim. Romance options have always been fun but not everyone should swing all ways. As naïve as it most likely sounds I remain hopeful.
 

Braag

Member
WRPGs have some weird fixation towards choice and consequence, something that most JRPGs don't really bother with.
It usually ends up making players think that every choice in the game has some major world changing impact in the game or the devs corner themselves into something like the ME3 ending.
 
Nothing wrong with choices and consequences as long as it's done well. The problem is that doing it well requires making the game 2 times bigger or more and creating content a lot of people won't see. I have some serious doubt that EA is willing to overproduce any game.

Could be a good way to deal with different ideologies though. You could have the path where you dye your hair purple, the path where you are lecher and the traditional high fantasy path.
 

Vae_Victis

Banned
Once you remember that AAA companies often defend microtransactions saying they are there as a form of "player choice", yeah that checks out.
 
Real player choice only exists in smaller scale games and basically by design can not exist in big games. Real player choice means that the player will see maybe 50% of the game at best on his first playthrough. This means a lot of content will be "wasted" if the player decides to only play once through the game. This is unfeasible in a big AAA game, because creating content is expensive as fuck.

Good examples of such games are Alpha Protocol, or many CRPGs like Tyranny. I guess the closest you can get to a AAA real player choice game is Detroit: Become Human. Very impressive.
 
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TheStam

Member
I honestly find it difficult to believe.

Happy to play with a new character that isn't Shephard but please bring back the edginess the series is known for. Don't be afraid to expose the player to sensitive subject matter like earlier entries. I've said this previously but let me be an arrogant jerk, a virtuous and righteous paragon of moral fortitude or the literal spawn of Satan. I'm more than willing to handle the in game repercussions of my choices. Let female characters be attractive and stop trying to appease the serially offended. Focus on making a great game first and foremost and not on turning the franchise into some sort of dating sim. Romance options have always been fun but not everyone should swing all ways. As naïve as it most likely sounds I remain hopeful.

This is something that Bioware definitely lost in later years, I want the option of being an absolute dick even if I don't use it. I was replaying Dragon Age Origins a couple of years ago as a mage. Early in the game you run across some young guy who is lying on the ground hurt by monsters. You are presented with a choice which is something like A) heal him or B) Stab him to death for the hell of it.

Loved it. In recent Bioware games the choices tend to be something like A) Sure, I agree B) I don't like it, but OK.
 
This is something that Bioware definitely lost in later years, I want the option of being an absolute dick even if I don't use it. I was replaying Dragon Age Origins a couple of years ago as a mage. Early in the game you run across some young guy who is lying on the ground hurt by monsters. You are presented with a choice which is something like A) heal him or B) Stab him to death for the hell of it.

Loved it. In recent Bioware games the choices tend to be something like A) Sure, I agree B) I don't like it, but OK.

I'm totally with you, haha. The freedom to choose what kind of person you want your character to be defined these franchises for me. The more varied choices really helped the replay ability of these games. I would play as the good guy first time round then I could go back through just being as outrageous as possible for fun. I think this is what I have missed the most.
 

samoilaaa

Member
saying things cost nothing
this game will be filled with sjw crap
and before anyone says that dragon age was always about political stuff , yeah its true it was always about that but its one thing to add them because its makes sense for the story and not add them because you want to make a point
 

Patrick S.

Banned
I liked all three Dragon Age games.

But BioWare saying "your choices will matter" really means shit after the Mass Effect Trilogy.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
I am so sick of the arbitrary gray choices in games. Only two times in games has choice been done right, One was in TW2 where the main decision will basically send you down a path locking out hours of other content. The other is ME on killing or not killing Rex. If you was just a shit character I don't think anyone would care, but he was easily one of the best and not to have him along is a whole different game.
 

ToTTenTranz

Banned
After Inquisition this franchise went off my radar completely.

Who's on the helm for the narrative this time? I heard David Gaider is gone.
 

Spaceman292

Banned
Back to square one, as this was literally the premise behind the very first version of DA4 that was started to being worked on around 2015/2016.

The game would've been out already if weren't because of the 700 changes in direction due to the lack of someone with a strong vision and enough balls to see it realized in spite of what everyone else at either EA or BioWare has to say about it based on current industry trends.
This is right. Delays usually mean that something's gone wrong, not that they're just making the game better.
 

ToTTenTranz

Banned
BioWare has issued a short and sweet update on Dragon Age 4, calling the follow-up to Inquisition a single-player focused game "built on choices that matter."

You mean like the ones in Mass Effect 3?
 

Rivet

Member
Real player choice only exists in smaller scale games and basically by design can not exist in big games. Real player choice means that the player will see maybe 50% of the game at best on his first playthrough. This means a lot of content will be "wasted" if the player decides to only play once through the game. This is unfeasible in a big AAA game, because creating content is expensive as fuck.

Good examples of such games are Alpha Protocol, or many CRPGs like Tyranny. I guess the closest you can get to a AAA real player choice game is Detroit: Become Human. Very impressive.

For games like Detroit, the trick is it makes for a shorter game for every playthrough compared to other AAA games since you only see x % of the game every time. Maybe that's what publishers and gamers should accept : shorter games with more impactful player choices modifying the main quest line more.
 

Jennings

Member
I'm probably gonna make the biggest choice with my wallet. RiP Bioware, but you haven't grabbed me since KotOR.
 

Metnut

Member
I don’t really care about player choices. Write some good characters, have a coherent gameplay/progression system, give me an interesting world to explore (even if smaller than ubicrap open world games) and write a good plot that’s engaging.
 

Andodalf

Banned
Red Blue Green


Okay, how you you have ended the game? Keep in mind you have a deadline, budget, and if you write a personal fanfic ending, you have to make that for a million other people, going far over budget and time.



If you let a meh ending to a game hurt the way you look at one of the best tilogies in gaming, gaming is not for you. Also stories in general aren’t for you. Entertainment as a whole isn’t for you I guess.
 

stn

Member
I hope it still has some medieval fantasy settings, as so far it looks kind of steampunk-ish. Still looking forward to it.
 

Complistic

Member
If I were them I would keep my tail between my legs and not say anything until the game was ready to be released because they have burned through so much of their own good will. They need to let their next game do the talking. No one believes anything they say anymore.
 

TheInfamousKira

Reseterror Resettler
Choices that matter

Your face is either
A. Tired
B. Exhausted
C. [RENEGADE] Fucking out of it

You're either
A. A rainbow haired lesbian
B. Boning a rainbow haired lesbian
C. [RENEGADE] A straight white male

You are tasked with populating a frontier galaxy and making a place for humanity, you either
A. Intelligently and methodically go about your business in a smart way.
B. Take out lesser species in a bid to quickly show your dominance
C. [RENEGADE] engage in Krogan lesbian fist fights for the honor of clan Nakmoor
 
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