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[Craig of War]

Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Cross-Gen Launch “Crushed So Much Ambition,” Says Former BioWare Boss

gamingbolt.com

“I’d say the biggest compromise came from the fact that we had to ship Inquisition on the Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same time as we did on the PS4 and Xbox One,” Flynn said. “That crushed so much ambition because we didn’t have the team size or the time to differentiate those things, truly. So you had to kind of develop the lowest common denominator. And as that came in, that certainly beat out some expectations and ambitions we had for certain fun features in gameplay”

Interestingly, Flynn went on to mention The Witcher 3, another massive RPG that came out just a year later and turned out to be the better experience, partly – according to Flynn – because it wasn’t a cross-gen game.

“In contrast, CD Projekt didn’t do that with The Witcher 3, a few months later, and I think their game was better for it,” he said.

 

[ckaneo]

Cross gen is stupid. Although kinda makes sense in this era for shortages

 

[Sleepwalker]

I never even knew it was out for old gen, thinking back on my time with it it did kinda play like a ps3/360 game, huh. figures.

 

[Halo is Back]

That game sucked regardless. Origins was also playable on console, sounds more like excuses to me.

 

[jaysius]

The combat was pure shit, the AI did all the work, the exploration was one of the worse open worlds I've seen. The crafting was awful but it clashed perfectly with the open world pick flower bullshit grind.

There's no way that game was going to be good.

They should pretend it never happened instead of retconning lies.

 

[Dr. Claus]

Cross Gen couldn’t save the piss poor writing, insulting characters, and god awful art direction.

 

[Represent.]

But the kool aid drinking nerds keep telling me cross gen had no effect on games

 

[YeulEmeralda]

I never even knew it was out for old gen, thinking back on my time with it it did kinda play like a ps3/360 game, huh. figures.

They did make the decision for the DLC to be next gen only.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[luffie]

Hinterlands is just an open field for you to run around and pick herbs.
They retconned their previous dlc story and reused the boss.
No cross gen is involved with these garbage.

 

[Bo_Hazem]

Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Cross-Gen Launch “Crushed So Much Ambition,” Says Former BioWare Boss

gamingbolt.com

“I’d say the biggest compromise came from the fact that we had to ship Inquisition on the Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same time as we did on the PS4 and Xbox One,” Flynn said. “That crushed so much ambition because we didn’t have the team size or the time to differentiate those things, truly. So you had to kind of develop the lowest common denominator. And as that came in, that certainly beat out some expectations and ambitions we had for certain fun features in gameplay”

Interestingly, Flynn went on to mention The Witcher 3, another massive RPG that came out just a year later and turned out to be the better experience, partly – according to Flynn – because it wasn’t a cross-gen game.

“In contrast, CD Projekt didn’t do that with The Witcher 3, a few months later, and I think their game was better for it,” he said.

Always true. Making games for much higher-specced platforms means you can do things aren't possible on older platforms, like encounter count, AI, seamless transitions, etc. With great devs you can mitigate that to some extent, but you can't magically overcome it unless you have a "simple" gameplay/game.

 

[ZehDon]

I enjoyed Inquisition, and thought it was a decent game. Of course, I'd still be curious to see what they would have done without the older hardware holding it back. Anthem and Mass Effect Andromeda weren't cross gen games, and they weren't particularly good, nor would I call either of them all that ambitious in context.

 

[Skifi28]

I'm sure cross-gen didn't help, but most problems with the game were fundamental in its MMO design rather than technical. Would not having a PS360 version make sidequests more interesting?

 

[EDMIX]

I enjoyed Inquisition, and thought it was a decent game. Of course, I'd still be curious to see what they would have done without the older hardware holding it back. Anthem and Mass Effect Andromeda weren't cross gen games, and they weren't particularly good, nor would I call either of them all that ambitious in context.

True. That was such a great title.

Was thinking about replaying it a few weeks back. You make a great point about Anthem and Mass Effect too. I think many times people want to just say its "old hardware", but if the team has a history of issues, maybe its not simply a hardware thing and maybe its more so.....well them.

Its no different then when people had like 100x excuses for CP2077 having all of those issues and saying shit like "what do expect, its 8 year old hardware", so we NEED next gen to have AI? Cops that can drive? Come on folks, I get that cross gen can fuck some shit up, but when your piers have features you don't, when you have a history of issues and problems in development, we simply can't just blame cross gen. So I like Dragon Age 3, actually better then the first 2 games, but the issues with that game I just don't buy was due to being cross gen. They had some design issues and some filler stuff where its clear that just has nothing to do with cross gen or hardware or something.

That being said, I am hype that they are doing Dragon Age 4 PS5 and Series X, PC only.

 

[Rentahamster]

Interestingly, Flynn went on to mention The Witcher 3, another massive RPG that came out just a year later and turned out to be the better experience, partly – according to Flynn – because it wasn’t a cross-gen game.

“In contrast, CD Projekt didn’t do that with The Witcher 3, a few months later, and I think their game was better for it,” he said.

Too bad they didn't keep that same philosophy for Cyberpunk.

 

[ClosBSAS]

What a terrible game...almost worst than da2. Witcher 3 just destroyed inquisition when it came out

 

[Cyberpunkd]

Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Cross-Gen Launch “Crushed So Much Ambition,” Says Former BioWare Boss

gamingbolt.com

“I’d say the biggest compromise came from the fact that we had to ship Inquisition on the Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same time as we did on the PS4 and Xbox One,” Flynn said. “That crushed so much ambition because we didn’t have the team size or the time to differentiate those things, truly. So you had to kind of develop the lowest common denominator. And as that came in, that certainly beat out some expectations and ambitions we had for certain fun features in gameplay”

Interestingly, Flynn went on to mention The Witcher 3, another massive RPG that came out just a year later and turned out to be the better experience, partly – according to Flynn – because it wasn’t a cross-gen game.

“In contrast, CD Projekt didn’t do that with The Witcher 3, a few months later, and I think their game was better for it,” he said.

Nah, I know the guy is trying to shift blame but nah - PS3 gave us Soulsborne. The mess that was DA:IO was a result of them chasing MMO-like mechanics and tedious, repetitive tasks instead of focusing on a great story, exactly what CDPR has done. The whole open world of Witcher 3 is fairly average with nothing of substance, it's with the quests that the game shines.

 

[anthony2690]

I never even knew this came out for 360/PS3 tbh

 

[RoboFu]

But the kool aid drinking nerds keep telling me cross gen had no effect on games

Because one guy complained about it? He could be full of shit and just making excuses for all we know.

 

[Topher]

But the kool aid drinking nerds keep telling me cross gen had no effect on games

Personally, I don't know what effect cross gen has on third party games these days considering the vast majority of them are also on PC. I can kind of imagine the issues that would come along with having to support the entirely different architectures that 360 and PS3 had, but I don't think you can compare that to today where everything is based on AMD.

 

[MadchesterManc]

I remember the Digital Foundry piece on the last gen versions being quite the read back then...

 

[SkylineRKR]

Well Andromeda wasn't much different in design so idk.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Cross gen is stupid. Although kinda makes sense in this era for shortages

Making more money is never stupid

 

[scydrex]

This game is bad even if it weren't crossgen... mediocre game at best.

 

[The Cockatrice]

Funny how ppl call it a bad game yet it won GOTY on gaf lmfao.

 

[anthraticus]

Funny how ppl call it a bad game yet it won GOTY on gaf lmfao.

Most people on here have shit taste though, so not a surprise.

And yea, Bioware's been crushing themselfs with their own retardation long before DA:I

 

[Inspector Q]

Most people on here have shit taste though, so not a surprise.

And yea, Bioware's been crushing themselfs with their own retardation long before DA:I

Also, that was when NeoGAF still had all the crazies from that other site on here. So not sure it winning GOTY is a good thing or a bad thing, lol.

Obviously, everyone is entitled to their opinion, though. So it is what it is.

For me, it being cross-gen is not the problem. The game still looked and ran fine. My issue was with the design decisions.

Creating a bunch of gigantic, open-world zones and filling them with practically nothing of worth? Why the heck did they do this? Where is all the NPC interaction in these zones? That's what I come to a Bioware game for.

Instead, all the dialogue and story was secluded to either your castle or these specific storyline missions like the one that took place at The Ball. They left practically nothing for those open-world zones. Just a bunch of random notes and documents.

Then we get to "Orlais". Wtf was that about? How about you cut a few of those worthless open-world zones and actually flesh out the one city you decided to include in the game? Very disappointing stuff...

I could rant about other things like enemy design, combat and UI, but let's just leave it at that. I am interested to see what changes they make for DA4. Hopefully, a heavier focus on dialogue and story compared to DAI and MEA.

 

[ClosBSAS]

But the kool aid drinking nerds keep telling me cross gen had no effect on games

How bout biowares incompetence with the engine? Blaming it on cross gen when you have games like gta5, come on.

 

[GermanZepp]

i finish the game and it felt like a chore. I liked the first one better.

 

[MadPanda]

This game is bad even if it weren't crossgen... mediocre game at best.

If it weren't crossgen it would be a much different game so how could you know it would be bad?

 

[Thirty7ven]

Funny how ppl call it a bad game yet it won GOTY on gaf lmfao.

It didn’t?

Came 4th. It was a bad year though.

 

[Belthazar]

Origin was also playable on PS360 and was infinitely better as a game. And tell me, what would they not be able to achieve in the gameplay department that couldn't be achieved on a PS3?

Sounds more like excuses to be. I to this day can't believe this won Game of the Year. It was a bad year for games for sure... But there were better ones.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

Interestingly, Flynn went on to mention The Witcher 3, another massive RPG that came out just a year later and turned out to be the better experience, partly – according to Flynn – because it wasn’t a cross-gen game.

“In contrast, CD Projekt didn’t do that with The Witcher 3, a few months later, and I think their game was better for it,” he said.

Suuuuuurrrreee!..... The only reason TW3 was better than DA:I was because it wasn't cross-gen... yeah, that was totally the only reason...

/s

 

[DevilMayFlyForAWhiteGuy]

Sure sure sure. Man it’s too bad Origins is the only good DA game, but at least it got a real expansion pack with Awakenings. They really should’ve just kept it doing it’s own thing being a throwback to Baldur’s Gate and the like, instead of trying to shoehorn it into being medieval fantasy Mass Effect.

 

[ANDS]

But the kool aid drinking nerds keep telling me cross gen had no effect on games

Hey, hey hey. . .did you read the very brief snippet? The developer was short staffed without the resources to do cross-gen properly.

Suuuuuurrrreee!..... The only reason TW3 was better than DA:I was because it wasn't cross-gen... yeah, that was totally the only reason...

/s

That isn't what they said. They said TW3 was better than what it might have been had it been forced to go cross-gen. There was no suggestion that DAI could have been better than TW3.

 

[levyjl1988]

Dragon Age 4 is going to be a shitty woke political game. Dragon Age: Origins was the best. It went downhill from there as they were trying to shove political agendas down users throat. This is why FromSoftware titles are generally better.

 

[DaGwaphics]

I never even knew this came out for 360/PS3 tbh

Neither did I. It just blended in with many of the other early X1/PS4 titles back then.

 

[DeepEnigma]

But the kool aid drinking nerds keep telling me cross gen had no effect on games

It does have a little bit of an impact, but this is poor form. Don't drink the Kool aide from this dev BS, which reality was this...

Cross Gen couldn’t save the piss poor writing, insulting characters, and god awful art direction.

And here are some examples of PS360 games that were and are great to this day.

Halo 3
TLoU
Uncharted 2
Mass Effect
Dead Space
Dragon's Dogma
Oblivion
Skyrim
etc, etc, etc.

 

[Kuranghi]

Damn, imagine the possibilities...

Nevermind back then, what about now, ray-traced pizzles!

 

[Jennings]

Crossgen is fine. If it weren't for cross gen games I'd have to wait an unbearable amount of time to play titles like Breath of the Wild, Twilight Princess, Elden Ring, Or every game released on Xbox in the last 1.25 years.

Crossgen is a big plus in my book, and if a multibillion dollar publisher is too cheap to properly provide the resources to allow for an adequate dev team, then the blame falls there. Shitty dev environments are soul crushing, not the gift that is Crossgen.

 

[TheDreadLord]

It was a rather good game despite all the nonsense written in this topic. Probably among the last games containing DLCs actually worth playing.

 

[Yerd]

It does have a little bit of an impact, but this is poor form. Don't drink the Kool aide from this dev BS, which reality was this...


And here are some examples of PS360 games that were and are great to this day.

Halo 3
TLoU
Uncharted 2
Mass Effect
Dead Space
Dragon's Dogma
Oblivion
Skyrim
etc, etc, etc.

You obviously missed the part where he said cross gen release. Which means across hardware generations. None of those games are an example of that.

 

[TheThreadsThatBindUs]

That isn't what they said. They said TW3 was better than what it might have been had it been forced to go cross-gen. There was no suggestion that DAI could have been better than TW3.

And that's a complete nonsense thing to say.

They have no concept of the compromises TW3 would have had to make had it been cross-gen. So there is no reference point for comparison.

Fundamentally, DA:I's biggest issues were never even technical to begin with. They were mostly to do with the writing and even more so the shitty side-quest design, which compared to TW3 is a night and day difference. None of that had anything to do with the game being cross-gen.

Equally, TW3's biggest strengths were in it's writing, structure and quest design. Which again is in no way contingent upon available hardware performance.

WRPGs live or die on their game design. It's why Morrowind is still beloved and avidly played by gamers today, why Bethesda RPGs, in general, are so popular despite being shitty graphics buggy messes half the time, and why those euro-jank RPGs always tend to find an enthusiastic cult following.

So Bioware blaming any of DA:I's woes on anything other than their poor writing and game design just rings hollow.

 

[DeepEnigma]

You obviously missed the part where he said cross gen release. Which means across hardware generations. None of those games are an example of that.

All those games were leagues better than this one, their hardware did not hold anything back from making great games.

The problem wasn't the tech, or "cross gen", that is the comprehension you are failing at.

 

[Trogdor1123]

I never even knew it was out for old gen, thinking back on my time with it it did kinda play like a ps3/360 game, huh. figures.

I didn’t know either. Learn something new every day

 

[SLB1904]

Making more money is never stupid

tell that to gran turismo ps5 players who have to deal with 16 players lobby because of the ps4 peasants.

 

[Yerd]

All those games were leagues better than this one, their hardware did not hold anything back from making great games.

The problem wasn't the tech, or "cross gen", that is the comprehension you are failing at.

I didn't say any of that. I said your examples were not cross gen.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I didn't say any of that. I said your examples were not cross gen.

My examples were better games (writing, characters, dialogue, gameplay, etc) not held back by "tech."

There was no amount of current or cross-gen excuses saving that shitty game.

 

[ckaneo]

Dragon Age 4 is going to be a shitty woke political game. Dragon Age: Origins was the best. It went downhill from there as they were trying to shove political agendas down users throat. This is why FromSoftware titles are generally better.

I swear this reads like a parody lol.

This place doesnt have to be extreme just in the opposite direction like resetera lol

 

[Imru’ al-Qays]

The problem with DAI is that it was sanitized and dumbed down. Origins was dark fantasy - one of the origins starts with a rape. Witcher 3 proved that that's where the market was, but Bioware/EA decided to make DAI a trite power fantasy instead.