Dragon Age 4 - All the Rumours

Andrew23 said:

I liked Dragon Age for the story and visuals and to some extent for choice and consequences design. But the gameplay was too shallow for game that takes 100+ hours to finish. I think overall ruleset was … is shallow in these games, leading to limited gameplay variations.

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Yes I agree. The sorry, lore, some NPC, C&C are all good but the game play was boring due to their combat and loot system not having much depth.

Also they had so many MMO type fetch quest which is not needed in a single player RPG and it distracted from the main story which was really good. If they have removed this, we would had good 50 or 60 hour game which would not have overstayed its welcome.

While I enjoyed DA:I quite a bit, I'm not one to come back after I've completed the game when they dribble out DLC, unless it's a major 'expansion pack' (remember those?). So I have no idea why Solas is this big bad ass guy now, which is surprising because he always got his ass kicked when he was in my party. If he's the primary threat in this new game, the mission should be to convince him to join my party because he'd be lying on the ground within the first 2 minutes… Game over, world saved.

I also had a lot of fun with ME:A, even though it was a convoluted mess. The overall premise was good, until they got to "space tendrils" and lost me.

Either way, as long as BioWare doesn't go for prequels, Cerberus-focused plots, and games in which the entire story takes place in the same 3-4 neighborhoods of a city, I'll likely enjoy it.

The filler/grind + ME2 sonar was so horrible to me, while I finished the game - once and will never return to it - there was no chance I'd ever buy DLC.
To this day norespawn mod didn't appear and it'd take care of the most annoying feature of DAI's openworld - instarespawns of trashmobs.

Note that I adored the main story, main quests design and sidekicks missions. One of main quests from DAI is IMO the #1 masterpiece of c&c and I haven't seen another game that did something like it. Hopefully CP can beat it so I don't have to point at this collection of design crimes with a gem inside you need to suffer to reach it as if it's a job and not a game.
Most of DAI content sadly was outdated and lazy designs that belong to phonegames and mmos. Not in something we expect from AAA singleplayer RPG. A pity.

Philistine said:

wouldn't even look at Anthem.

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It was selling like hotcakes to those who can't say no to artificial hype. And it's already dead.
Some of us know their addictions though and we dodged the bullet. So pass me a cigarette please, before I'm dead.

Of course, Bioware refuses to admit Anthem is RIP so instead of ME5 news today (N7) they made Anthem skins based on ME species:
https://www.pcgamer.com/anthem-adds-new-mass-effect-themed-skins-for-n7-day/
Whatta joke.

I too enjoyed Mass Effect Andromeda a whole lot.

Dragon Age 2 was in my view the worst Bioware single-player game of all time (from Baldur's Gate 1 through ME:A), but it was still okay. I mostly enjoyed Dragon Age Inquisition but I had issues with it.

Bioware has changed so much and Dragon Age 4 is still a few years off, that for me to want Dragon Age 4 the game will need to be good from what I read in reviews once it's out. That's true for most games anyway.

We debate how good (or bad (depending on your perspective)) Bioware games have become over the years but I think that's only part of the story here. The simple fact is from way back to BG and then later to DA:O and to the current time, there are way more other RGPs to choose from now, by all kinds of studios. So Bioware isn't competing in a vacuum like they did back with BG or even in the smaller arena of choice when DA:O came out.

So, if a game sucks (like I think Anthem does), there's too many other great games to play, so I shrug and move onto those.

It's kinda the same for Bethesda too. I don't need them to release the next Daggerfall or Morrowind 'cause there's lots of choice out there now. Fallout 76? Whatever. I don't care because I've got other games to play. Better games by other studios who make great RPGs and care about more than just making $$$.

So if DA4 is a good game that appeals to me, great - I'll play. And if not, tough luck for them because I've got lots of other places to spend my dollars.

Philistine said:

I don't care that much about mechanics, especially combat, so that's why I enjoyed DA:I and ME:A but wouldn't even look at Anthem.

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I get your point. I dont think Im very combat-oriented gamer as well. I thoroughly enjoyed many games without combat. For example numerous adventure games. Or Planescape Torment, where combat was present, but it was ... really not very well designed. But at least it was rather scarce ... compared to other infinity engine games.

In DA games, on the other hand, the combat is almost omnipresent. And if the activity that creates 80% (fabricated number) of gameplay is boring for me ... well, there is probably root of my problem with the game.

DA:Inquisition I actually liked quite lot. But at some point, probably second half of main game I came to point when my main character, tanking class fighter (dont remember exact name) was completely immune to any damage. From anyone, mages, dragons, giants, whatever. I didnt min-max. I didnt plan the character development in any way. I was just putting together skills I liked without much research. It wasnt difficulty problem, I never play on easy. And from that point I didnt manage to play much longer. Combat became completely irrelevant. Any further character development (because its combat oriented) became also completely irrelevant. So soon after I just left game unfinished.

ChaosTheory said:

While I enjoyed DA:I quite a bit, I'm not one to come back after I've completed the game when they dribble out DLC, unless it's a major 'expansion pack' (remember those?). So I have no idea why Solas is this big bad ass guy now…

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Pro tip: wait for all the DLC to show up, THEN buy the game. Dragon Age: Origins was one of the games that taught me to do that.

Short version is basically this, if memory and a quick video review serve:
Should make for an excellent villain, IMHO.