Dragon Age character creator is out

[Vympel]

Link

Saves some time if you're going to buy the game.

[Stofsk]

'Please join fileplanet!'

No thanks. I think I'll just wait for the game to come out. Have you fooled around with it yet Vym?

[Xon]

here is a non-fileplanet link. iinet also has it quota free if you grab it from iinet's mirror.

iinet customer's direct link

[Xon]

It is quite amusing that the intro has more information on the backstory than I have seen released elsewhere.

Elfs got enslaved by humanity, and the Darkspawn where originally humans who where cursed after accidently destroying heaven in an attempt to ascend/take over heaven. The background on each of the classes and limited arch-types (last name appears to be fixed as well) was well done for how little text there is.

Also; I'm going to venture the Grey Wardens appear to use a similar process that created the Darkspawn. It is heavily implied but not outright stated.

[Vympel]

'Please join fileplanet!'

No thanks. I think I'll just wait for the game to come out. Have you fooled around with it yet Vym?

Not a member of file planet. I just posted a random link. Ever heard of google-fu? I downloaded it off Telstra Gamearena - one advantage of a telstra account, I can download every demo and video I want from there and it doesn't count against my bandwith.

And yes I've fooled around with it and made my warrior character. There's some sort of skill tree but it didn't let me actually pick any skills. Or maybe I was doing it wrong.

It's very KOTOR style.

[Hotfoot]

I played the game at Gencon, and I have to say, I wasn't overly impressed. The graphics are nice, the fact that you get blood and gore on you that stays in the cutscenes is pretty funny, but the combat is basically MMO fare, the dialog is basically Baldur's Gate stuff, you never hear the protagonist, but you hear everyone else, and....I don't know. It just feels very bland.

[Vendetta]

Also; I'm going to venture the Grey Wardens appear to use a similar process that created the Darkspawn. It is heavily implied but not outright stated.

I'm pretty sure that they do, and essentially being a Grey Warden is an inevitable death sentence.

[Hotfoot]

So, in this game, Spectres er, Jedi Knights, um Witchers I mean Grey Wardens are protecting against some Flood/Sith/Whatver the bad guys from Mass Effect were Dark Spawn, and in order to fight them, they have to become Half-demon half-vampire half-jedi bhaalspawn partway like the monsters they fight, leading meaningless drama serious storyline...

Oh fuck it, I like Bioware and even this is getting to be a bit much for me.

[Vendetta]

It seems to me more like they're doing Witchers than anything else. The whole schtick about the Grey Wardens just screams Witcher.

[Vympel]

So, in this game, Spectres er, Jedi Knights, um Witchers I mean Grey Wardens are protecting against some Flood/Sith/Whatver the bad guys from Mass Effect were Dark Spawn, and in order to fight them, they have to become Half-demon half-vampire half-jedi bhaalspawn partway like the monsters they fight, leading meaningless drama serious storyline...

Oh fuck it, I like Bioware and even this is getting to be a bit much for me.

I agree re Spectres and Jedi Knights, but don't dis Witcher by putting it in that derivative class!

[Stark]

Well, do they use drugs? That's clearly the important element there.

[Vendetta]

Well, do they use drugs? That's clearly the important element there.

Not at all. They deliberately infect themselves with the disease that the bad guys are spreading around, which if it doesn't kill them instantly makes them temporarily awesome before killing them a few years down the line.

Which is totally not the same thing at all as the Witcher initiation of horrible mutagens and various magical herbs, drugs, and chemicals.

At all.

No.

[Stark]

Does it mutilate them and does it make people hate them?

[Vympel]

Who hates Geralt? Not all the amply bosomed ladies in the game, that's for sure.

[RazorOutlaw]

I can't wait to make my own Geralt Warden to save the masses from both the political and literal monsters that inhabit that universe! Alright, lame joke.

Geralt may not have been human but he wasn't exactly on a slider scale that made him more "monster" than "human". Having to mutate yourself and become a little more "evil" or whatever just cheapens the dynamics of being a hero whose services everybody needs but nobody appreciates. Taking Mass Effect, and the suitably generic trailer provded in the OP, into consideration I'm not too excited about Dragon Age anymore.

[Covenant]

Well, we know it's going to be similar to mass effect. We know there's sex, we know there's relationships, we know there's a rather uninvolved combat engine. It's a modern CRPG, with all the flaws that come with that.

If we could form Voltron and develop our own CRPG it'd probably look closer to a very fluid beat-em-up or shooter (depending on setting) with the Roleplay elements being represented by an interesting story and lots of text, low-impact party interaction (such as characters who are a little more interested in the other roles of the party than the combat one), and a lot of keyable triggers for the gameworld to alter the way it plays depending on what you do.

Which is basically the flipside to the current genre, but it's nothing alarmingly complex. There's no real consensus, and it's not that having a bland story is a complete dealbreaker, but for me what really gets me is that all I'm doing is playing a bad combat engine through a story. These could all be mission packs for the same kind of cruddy MMO-style engine. That's my biggest qualm. If the essential gameplay is the same and all that's changed is the story, then the story has gotta be awesome. Otherwise to get me excited there's gotta be some kind of actual improvements that make it feel less "the same thing".

[Samuel]

There's no real consensus, and it's not that having a bland story is a complete dealbreaker, but for me what really gets me is that all I'm doing is playing a bad combat engine through a story.

I thought the only reason people played RPGs was for either the story or the grind.

Not at all. They deliberately infect themselves with the disease that the bad guys are spreading around, which if it doesn't kill them instantly makes them temporarily awesome before killing them a few years down the line.

Competance in villians- a rarity throughout the ages. Seriously, who thought it was a good idea to make a weapon that causes the people targeted to be stronger before killing them? What better way to insure you have enemies who have both motivation AND the ability to kill you!

[RazorOutlaw]

I thought the only reason people played RPGs was for either the story or the grind.

They might, but some people with more critical tastes can't stand the boring combat. The Witcher gets a lot of praise because its combat system was interactive in a way that a lot of "select spell" or "select attack" RPGs aren't. And it wasn't quite a click fest either. Now that I think of it I'm not sure if I could stand the old JRPG combat system anymore...although Diablo is somehow still tolerable.

[Darmalus]

Have JRPGs had an interface change recently? All the ones I know of boiled down to pick an attack and watch this cinematic, with rather slow turn based timing. I haven't played Diablo 2 in years, but I remember my necromancer felt almost like a FPS character, with lots of run-and-gun and use of terrain and that bone barrier thing I had. Watching my minions run off and murder everything was pretty fun too.

[Covenant]

People play them, I think, for a combination of epic goal and length gameplay characterized by minor rewards over a long period of time culminating in dramatic increases of badassitude. The story has a lot to do with if the game goes boom or bust, but the vast majority of RPGs (of which there are so damned many) have stories that are all pretty basic or pretty bland. The only reason I say people don't actually play them for the story is that, if they did, I'd see a lot more storytelling advances or heavier importance placed on storytelling itself.

There's a story in these games, but there's a story in Command and Conquer, and there's a story in Gears of War... and yet, the biggest "RPG" on the planet is still WoW, which has a story that could either be described as nonexistant, irrelevent, or just pretty poor. There's a few, tiny moments of actual 'story' in WoW, but yet it thrives. MMORPGs are different from a BioWare RPG, but there's lots of crossover. The difference is that the feeling of badassitude in an MMO is represented by your gear that you show off, or your pwning of newbs, rather than the praise of NPCs.

It's the same reward mechanic. You could strip it of the RPG aspects entirely and you'd have people enjoy it. You have people calling Diablo an RPG, despite the fact that your only 'role playing' is how to equip your stern-faced slaughter engine. I'd say people play RPGs more for the feeling of advancement that comes from levelling, gearing up, and slaughtering massive critters. One of the big things that changes RPGs from any other genre, since those aspects don't, is that an RPG often has a large period of time spent in areas of peace and quiet (towns, shops, your spaceship, etc) that still serve to advance your power and the story, and while the game may have a linear progression in terms of key places to go to, your actual advancement is still player-controlled. Do you grind in this forest which has lots of ogres, along the coast where there are pirate skeletons, or do you hardcore it right to the boss's base at this level?

Now, if we want to talk about "story" games, those used to be what we call Adventure games, like the Infocom games and such. In truth, what "should" distinguish an RPG from any other genre is the focus on the player taking control of a character and defining their motivations, and how those impact the world. There's no reason an RPG can't be first person, turn based, or strategic combat oriented. You don't need grinding or even levels. But there's no doubt that people would expect it.

[Norade]

I think that Heavy Rain will be more of an RPG than anything we've seen for a long while. I just get a good feeling about that game and the previews so far, but then again it is a modern adventure game and likely won't have levels or even anything that most people would call combat.

[Vendetta]

Alternatively, Heavy Rain might just be a modern Dragon's Lair. Most of it's interactivity appears to be in the form of QTEs.

[Norade]

True, but assuming that it has a decent story and the QTE's aren't too repetitive it could end up being good. I honestly think with a game like that the controls and such should be simple so you're watching the fight while pressing buttons instead of having to do a perfect combo while block and dodge rolling so you never really feel the scene as it plays out.