Dragon Age 2 - Interview @ Kitty's Pride

Alrik sends in an interview from NY ComicCon with David Gaider and Michael Laidlaw at Kitty's Pryde. It's a faily innocuous article, so here's a snip on the not-yet-officially-announced Dragon Age 3:

KP: The big question is when does Dragon Age 3 come out?
DG: There’s been no official announcement of DA 3. It’s been discussed certainly. I can’t confirm or deny anything about Dragon Age 3, long term the release date is less important to me then our general approach which is a couple of big things we want to add in. Exploration coming back, bigger areas and spaces for people to explore. The wonder of going over a hill and going “whoa, what’s that down there”. That’s got to come back. Probably a bigger scope overall, but still heavy focus on characters. My view is that we have a lot more subtle reactivity to the choices your making so as you’re playing the game you always feel like it’s coming back to bite you in the ass.

More information.

But Bioware haven't managed exploration in any of the games I've played. They can do locations but not exploration in the sense of Skyrim, Gothic or even Two Worlds. (Unless you go back to the 2d games.) Their technology just doesn't support that. The Witcher developed that engine hugely to produce their slightly open second game, but the Dragon Ages are much more a series of stages for the plot & character stories to play out. Which seems fine to me, and where I think they should continue to focus.

Yeah, that "whoa" moment he mentions has never been part of Bioware games in my experience. Clicking a map icon and then going "whoa" when you see the new area maybe, but never exploration "whoa."

With Fallout NV and Skyrim, Bethesda has sort of set the standard for what I want out of an RPG. Dragon Age 3/BioWare has their work cut out for them. DA2 was just too lazy.

I agree with DoctorNarrative. Exploration has never been the strong point of Bioware games. Even with adding highlight button in Baldur's Gate 2 they saved us from pixel hunting. But overall, their statements about Dragon Age 3 so far show they're on the right path. Dragon Age 2 is indeed a waste of potential. It really features interesting characters, plot and side stories, but terrible repetitive of places and corridor feeling really it's huge flaw. I don't know whether it stems from their laziness or short development time but I'm now at the end of Act 3, I'm going to puke at screen because of seeing same places over and over again. At least playing DLCs reduces this feeling. Only reason I'm still playing the game is the story.

It seems Bioware developers learned something from Witcher 2 and Skyrim. For they aim meaningful choices&consequences (Witcher 2) and much exploration (Skyrim). If they can also provide different, interesting locations as well as protecting their strong story telling aspect, I'm sure they can win back their old fans.

I have hope for Dragon Age 3. Game companies may take their lessons from their mistakes, like Bethesda did from Oblivion's mistakes.

Originally Posted by Gokyabgu
I agree with DoctorNarrative. Exploration has never been the strong point of Bioware games. Even with adding highlight button in Baldur's Gate 2 they saved us from pixel hunting. But overall, their statements about Dragon Age 3 so far show they're on the right path. Dragon Age 2 is indeed a waste of potential. It really features interesting characters, plot and side stories, but terrible repetitive of places and corridor feeling really it's huge flaw. I don't know whether it stems from their laziness or short development time but I'm now at the end of Act 3, I'm going to puke at screen because of seeing same places over and over again. At least playing DLCs reduces this feeling. Only reason I'm still playing the game is the story.

It seems Bioware developers learned something from Witcher 2 and Skyrim. For they aim meaningful choices&consequences (Witcher 2) and much exploration (Skyrim). If they can also provide different, interesting locations as well as protecting their strong story telling aspect, I'm sure they can win back their old fans.

I have hope for Dragon Age 3. Game companies may take their lessons from their mistakes, like Bethesda did from Oblivion's mistakes.

Bio was saying all the right things during early DA2 production, as well. Then (I guess) EA told them that blood and awesome buttons would appeal to a wider audience, so they started changing their story. It began with Rob Zombie-featured background music in advertising and went downhill from there.

It's not BioWare I distrust, it's EA.

If all they improve from DA2 is add a bit more free exploration, a lot more side quests and have your choices result in more impact on the ending, I would be pleased.

(I'm referring to quests where you actually need to speak with an NPC first, rather than simply finding something in a chest and then getting gold from a random stranger.)

It would also be nice to see a more complex implementation of joinable factions and a crafting system that is actually fun and worthwhile, but I'm not going to hold my breath for either of those to happen.