Dragon Age - Leliana Update
 

BioWare has updated the Dragon Age Characters with Leliana - here's Chris Priestly's introduction:
Thanks also to leth for a similar submission.
More information.

That loading screen with the head on the spike is the most juvenile piece of crap I can remember seeing.

With all this marketing, it's getting to be the point that I don't even feel the need to play this game… when it comes out I will know the whole plot, watched every scene via clips on the site… etc.

And I totally agree on the head thing. The whole marketing campaign comes across as "Dragon Age: Trying way too hard"

What's with all the blood generally? Jeez, this is supposedly the "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate, I don't recall huge spraying gouts of blood when I killed people (well, only very occasionally and a scattering of a few red 2d pixels is not really the same).

At first I thought you guys were overreacting with all the complaining, but then I watched the video….

They're trying way too hard to inject drama into this game.

Blood = drama
Boobies = mature
Me = lowered interest again

I don't mind the blood and I like boobies ;)

Yet I feel the Taint of Consoles… on the other side - not much competition for party-based RPGs around at the moment…

To be fair, to attract the average console crowd, you can't exactly show off with branching dialogs. And you can't really fit a plot arc in a short trailer.

Unfortunately, blood and sex is what sells to the "new generations." :( ( It is not just gaming industry though, just check out the "pop" music/music video charts…).

I think the previews like one done Gamebanshee does a much better job of representing DA.

"Taint" might end up being an accurate description for this game. :-/

Even for my taste there is a little bit too much blood. It would fit if this was Bloodrayne 4 or some kind of horror or survival scenario. And what about the nudes? I didn't see any (even though i played a lot with the pause-button :biggrin:)

wtf, sheesh… to make a Samhain freak like me do a double-take at the blood, LOL. That's like Cannibal Corpse death metal-ville there, what the hell are they doing w/ this pussy Manson shit playing???

I can see the benefit of reading the book tho, recognizing the lore in people, places, etx. While it wasnt all that good, I'm glad that I read it in preperation for the game. Looks like I'd better bring a rain slicker tho

It is truly epic, dramatic, dark, gritty and mature. Bioware knows how to NOT keep me interested.

At least we had The Witcher and we'll have Risen.

I reccomend checking out:
http://dragonage.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon_Age_Wiki

It gives you a good idea of how the game mechanics will work, skills, attributes, talents, spells, and how all those things will interact.

If you can look past the marketing, and look at the game mechanics, the choices and consequences, etc I think you will find that this looks like an awesome game, and quite different in a lot of (good) ways to what Bioware has done before. It looks like it will have a lot more free-roaming open world stuff, and some choices that have real impact on how things unfold with serious and often delayed consequences.

Some of the voice acting does sound pretty bad though. Not as bad as the voice acting for the nameless hero in Gothic 1 (in the English version, anyway) which I'm playing right now.

I watched the trailer and it's just so excessive that it looked like a joke, something from a Tarantino's film. And I think that's just what it's meant to be, a piece of humour not drama. So I think you are overreacting a bit.

Haha, indeed!! With all these people complaining about the Marilyn Manson thing, all I can think of is "why don't they use some proper death metal??" :D

I don't mind the blood/sex thing, it is what it is. I don't judge a game because of some ulterior motives a company may have (bigger audience). Maybe it'll be fun, maybe it won't.

Oh, and I'll probably get the console version (heresy!), because then I can sit on the couch and won't have to upgrade my PC!

Blood and sex has always sold, across generations. If you think it only appeals to kiddies you're deluding yourself.

Oh, that is a pretty cool piece of concept art of Leliana.

The word is that the console version won't have the BG-style top down camera option.

The system requirements for the PC version are very reasonable, if you've been able to play any recentish 3D RPGs, you should be fine with DA.

Oooh, that would be a crime! I do hope that the gameplay isn't that different, even though everybody hopes for an old-school RPG experience (including me) and consoles don't really lend themselves to micro-management.

My PC is 4,5 years old with some upgraded RAM (2 GB) and a new videocard (a humble Radeon 4650). The CPU will make the difference; I fear it won't be enough. In any case, it will probably look better on Xbox 360 than on my PC.

Well, as I've said before, everyone I know who has actually seen the game was impressed, so I'm not paying any attention to the stupid marketing.

Mike Laidlaw said at the GC that the top-down mode had to be cut due to hardware limitations on consoles. Apart from that the games are identical.

Don't you worry, you'll only be playing the heavily censored version anyway. :D

Interesting how they manage to put everybody off with the marketing, while reading previews and info about the game makes me believe it has the potential to be very fun, even from a "hardcore" perspective. Let's hope the marketing really only is about tricking new kinds of players into the game, and doesn't reflect on actual gameplay too much.

2GB and a new videocard should be just fine for the game. Also, remember it'll cost $10 more for the 360 and you won't get free downloadable content, prepare to pay $10-15 extra for packaged extra content as opposed to free for the PC, you won't be able to play user generated content / additions.

Interesting that you would mention one of the most immature games (The Witcher) of recent years.

I think DA´s marketing campaign will enter into marketing textbooks in no time.


Fixed.
I´m sure you didn´t mean to play the reductionistic sex card here.

Please don't edit other people's posts … it isn't forbidden here, but it is other place - and for good reason.

Thanks for that reminder … it is always easy to lose sight of that in the barrage of crappy juvenile marketing …

Ah sorry, did that for the sake of brevity.
Won´t happen again :).

Very good point. Every preview I read gets my hopes up, every piece of marketing I see puts those very same hopes back down again. BioWares previous releases has ensured that I will buy this game as soon as I see it in a store, but I can certainly understand people being unsure after the rather strange marketing campaign.

From the actual previews we've seen, it seems like a game with fun, tactical combat, yet the marketing campaign (to me, at least) seems to be targeting a completely different audience. What are they trying to achieve by that? Even if it does sell a ton of copies to the "action packed blood and gore" crowd, they're only going to end up with a ton of pissed off customers that were expecting God of War.

I'm impressed with your omniscience. Personally I would have thought the marketing is only putting off a small minority of the target market, while actually appealing to a larger majority.

I'm disappointed with the boobies though - it seems like they go up several sizes, magically grow a bra, and are as rigid as a silicon girl. I'd personally rather see more realistic size, shape and movement, no bra, and prevention of nipple shots by choice of camera angle/bedside objects instead. Would feel a lot more natural and dare I say it, tender, without providing any additional titillation or censorship worries. The sex looks pretty embarrassing actually - want my PC to be able to have it, but would prefer a fade to black than what is showing in these scenes :p

You've given this a lot of thought.

I thought it was obvious that I didn't mean "everybody" literally, more like "most of the people voicing their opinion on this site"… I agree that there are probably lots of people that it appeals to, I didn't have much of a problem with it myself either until the silly amounts of blood in this video and the awkward sex scene clips they (EA) insist on including wherever they can.

Cringeworthy.

Really guys, I wouldn't be too worried about the trailer. It is EA's marketing at work here. Have you guys seen the fiasco that the Marketing for Dante's Inferno has (and still is) causing?

Aside from the sex cards I don't see anything 'immature' or 'stupid' in the game (well, maybe combat but that doesn't impact 'maturity' of the game). So could you write what do you mean by 'one of the most immature games'? Is it less mature than Oblivion/Gothic 3/Mass Effect/Fallout 3? I'd say otherwise.

i hope its possible to turn down the blood effects a little bit.
i have nothin against pools on the ground and splatter effects, but this "bloody shower" feature is really ridiciulous.

Despite my complaints I wouldn't mess with the over-the-top blood in the game itself - any more than the massive blood in Soldier of Fortune 2 or in Wolfenstein bothers me at all. But the focus of those games is different, so therefore the marketing focus is what bugs me.

The cards are exactly it. Their only purpose was to appeal to immature teens. "Wow, look at at the cards for the babes I bagged!"

But, alas, that is who many companies seem to target their games (computer and otherwise) for, or the advertising anyway, even though everything points to most games being played by adults beyond their teens. And all the blood for DA is just weird as well as immature.

It doesn't sound like you've ever played The Witcher…

I thought the trailer was an interesting introduction to her character. I liked the dialogue in that scene and the way she speaks. Also seeing a religious character from Orlais introduces a bit of the setting.

I didn't think it would get such a negative reaction. I did not notice the blood and sex aspect of it. Because the rest of the trailer was good. It is only an issue for me if the whole trailer is about out of context violence and sex.