Dragon Age 2 = Princess Bride.

[Vympel]

Game to use 'framed narrative' ala Columbo telling Kevin a story

LOL, its an original approach to telling a video game story!

[adam_grif]

Game to use 'framed narrative' ala Columbo telling Kevin a story

LOL, its an original approach to telling a video game story!

Isn't that exactly what Prince of Persia: Sands of Time had? Where every death was "oh no wait, I didn't actually fall into a pit and die, did I? Hmm..."

[Lagmonster]

Okay, one, the Prince's tar-headed amnesia in Sands of Time was fucking cute and charming and everybody knew that.

And two, it's a decent idea for Dragon Age's format, especially considering they're trying to unveil a hugely detailed universe with more backstory than Quasimodo. Bioware may struggle with a lot of things, but when they get it into their heads that they want to tell a story, by god you will be barraged with that story and all of its children. And given my hatred of reading five hundred little collectable backstory notes, a little directed narration actually sounds pretty damn good in a world as voluminous as the one they're trying to create.

[white_rabbit]

I do like that they are indulging in a little bit of character redesign, apparently to distinguish the setting from others a touch more.

I was surprised to learn that Mr Ugly from the latest trailer is actually a Qunari, and that the elves and the dwarves might be hit with a retcon bat in terms of their aesthetic.

[adam_grif]

I do like that they are indulging in a little bit of character redesign, apparently to distinguish the setting from others a touch more.

I was surprised to learn that Mr Ugly from the latest trailer is actually a Qunari, and that the elves and the dwarves might be hit with a retcon bat in terms of their aesthetic.

Does it really count as a retcon when the sequel is set centuries later? They'll probably explain why they look different if they change drastically, likely story related.

[Vympel]

Hm? Its not centuries later AFAIK, the PC is a survivor from the Darkspawn attack on Lothering in the first game. It's about a decade or so into the future at most.

As for retcon of dwarf / elf aesthetic, I reserve judgment until I see it.

[adam_grif]

Oh Jesus, you're right. I had it in my head that it took place 500 years later, and I have no idea where that came from.

Regardless, it's only a retcon if they act like they looked that way in the first game.

[Stofsk]

Did anyone else see the trailer? I thought it was stupid. (but I also thought the sacred ashes one was stupid too)

[neoolong]

Well, the game's not going to be like that anyway.

Other than being kinda gaunt looking, the elves were fine design-wise. The dwarves looked pretty textbook to me. I don't see why a design change is that necessary.

[Stofsk]

Yeah I'm wondering what they mean by that. I found the design aesthetic to be interesting in the first game.

I'm a bit wary of taking too much stock in their claims about how your choices affect the world; they say that about every game, and it almost always boils down to 'lol who's on the council'. On the other hand a framed narrative is a really interesting idea.

[Stark]

Someone played Alpha Protocol.

[white_rabbit]

I do like that they are indulging in a little bit of character redesign, apparently to distinguish the setting from others a touch more.

I was surprised to learn that Mr Ugly from the latest trailer is actually a Qunari, and that the elves and the dwarves might be hit with a retcon bat in terms of their aesthetic.

Does it really count as a retcon when the sequel is set centuries later? They'll probably explain why they look different if they change drastically, likely story related.

As you've noticed, its not really centuries later, although perhaps retcon is still an incorrect term.

The explaination for the Qunari released thus far I can buy. Not all Qunari with horns have massive doombull spikes like Mr Ugly, some are born without them, and are considered special, and are given roles that involve interacting with other civilisations etc, and exiles tend to remove them.

it kinda makes sense not to look like a Darkspawn when you are basically spying on other nations, as apparently most Qunari traders and mercs are.

I too reserve judgement on the Dwarves and Elves, although I think I saw some concept art that basically had the elves looking a lot skinnier, and a great deal more alien, frankly they reminded me of some of the weirder Eldar pictures I've seen.

Yeah I'm wondering what they mean by that. I found the design aesthetic to be interesting in the first game.

Its interesting, but its basically your standard fantasy fare with some tweaks, at a guess, they are trying to give it a much more distinctive aesthetic, kinda like Mass Effect had originally maybe ? (well, I thought it was fairly distinctive)

[OsirisLord]

Did anyone else see the trailer? I thought it was stupid. (but I also thought the sacred ashes one was stupid too)

I never bother with game trailers that exclusively feature pre-rendered animation from a third party studio, precisely because it tells you absolutely nothing about the actual product, which is a pretty horrible thing for a trailer to do.

I don't care for the shifted art design, or the fact that we play a pre-established character. Hopefully the framing device will make for a more compelling narative, but for this I'll have to wait and see.

[LadyTevar]

*watches video in hi-def*
*watches three times in total*

Where do I sign up for the game? I want that spell.

[Lagmonster]

Did anyone else see the trailer? I thought it was stupid. (but I also thought the sacred ashes one was stupid too)

I never bother with game trailers that exclusively feature pre-rendered animation from a third party studio, precisely because it tells you absolutely nothing about the actual product, which is a pretty horrible thing for a trailer to do.

I don't care for the shifted art design, or the fact that we play a pre-established character. Hopefully the framing device will make for a more compelling narative, but for this I'll have to wait and see.

Bioware trailers are cool. I don't care how uninformative and generic they seem, they're cool examples of zero-brain-cell entertainment designed to make you say "Grunt violent big". The new Old Republic trailers are also excellent examples of hype without merit; you watch them not because you expect them to actually preview the game, but because you get to see arguably some of the most action-packed Star Wars violence in existence.

[Stofsk]

Bioware does make good trailers. But for some reason the Dragon Age trailers just don't do it for me.

[adam_grif]

Does Bioware even make the trailers? I was under the impression that the CGI trailers that we got for Mass Effect, Dragon Age etc were made by people on contract? "Blur" or something like that?

EDIT:

Yep.

I remember that the ME2 CG trailer was called the "Blur trailer", but ME2 isn't listed on their site.

[LadyTevar]

Has anyone else seen the "Pop-Up Video" version of the trailer besides me and Nit?

[CaiusWickersham]

Oh Jesus, you're right. I had it in my head that it took place 500 years later, and I have no idea where that came from.

Fable II, mayhap? It had a bit of a framed story gimmick with Theresa doing some amount of narrating in the game.

[Manus Celer Dei]

Well, the game's not going to be like that anyway.

Other than being kinda gaunt looking, the elves were fine design-wise. The dwarves looked pretty textbook to me. I don't see why a design change is that necessary.

The fact they look "textbook" is exactly why they need changing. Dragon Age's entire visual style was horribly generic Tolkien-knockoff fantasy, except for maybe some of the demons and that bloated Darkspawn mother. There was absolutely nothing even remotely original or interesting in the way either the Dwarfs or Elves (or their dwellings) looked, and if DA2 moves away from that and does something new I'm all for it.