Rei86

Enad1

What is this pheonix DLC? I've never heard of it. 
I only know of Levethian, Prothean, and Omega DLC. (but don't spoil any of them, I've only played the Prothean DLC yet)

I agree I don't like Biowares DLC system. It's expensive and especially with Mass Effect and DA2, some major parts of the game are put into DLCs. But we can't change that. 

If the game is great and the DLC substancial(Which they always are), I will buy them and the DLC.

The Phoenix is a reference to the Prothean :P  And since you've already played that you have to admit that without him in the game you're really altering it greatly. 

Like Katsumi and Zaeed didn't matter that much at all in ME2 but Javik is pretty major player in ME3, don't you agree?

And I won't talk anymore about ME3s DLC since you haven't played them yet.

So yeah I'll wait on DA3, just like I did with DA2 when it dropped to around 9.99 sales price.

I can't say I was really affected buy it as I purchased the N7 Collectors Edition, which came with it. It is very substancive and gives you a lot of insight into the prothean lore. The fact that he was a fully integrated character felt a bit lame that they would take that experience away from people who did not preorder that package. The game isn't majorly different without, you just miss out on some very good information. 
 
I'm in the opposite situation as you, I'll be purchasing whatever the best pre order bonus is. I assume it'll come with a bunch of DLC, so it'll save me money in the long run..knowing Biowares DLC pricing.

  

tet5uo

Enad1

Little update. 

At PAX East, Bioware noted how it was a serious challenge to impliment 'RPG features' into the Frostbite engine(It's using Frostbite 3 btw).

Did they also mention if it was still hard for them to implement some actual level design instead of CTRL-C, CTRL-V?

 
Guess you never played Origins, but anyway...They've already said for Dragon Age 3 they won't be reusing levels. It was easily the most vocal complaint about DA2 and it's obvious Bioware noticed the reaction. I don't think we have to worry about that being an issue anymore.

It has been confirmed that Dragon Age 3 will be shown at E3! 
 
Very excited! Can't wait to finally see SOMETHING.

I recently installed Dragon Age 2 due to the announcement of Dragon Age 3. I'm about 6 hours in an have no interest in advancing further. The characters aren't very interesting, neither is the plot. I even put the game on easy mode (which I usually don't do) so I could just plow through it for this non-existent plot. Can anyone offer me some cookies if I finish the game? That may motivate me...

I played both, I own both, I dislike both. I found the both to be terrible in the graphics, OK in story, lacking in combat, with meh audio. When you can get the Witcher or Dragon Age, well that's hardly even a comparison, as much as I don't like the Witcher from a technical standpoint its a good game DA:O/2 is not. As Alcatraz Bioware is dev'ing EA is publishing so the game is pretty much dead from the Start. Lets not forget Bioware gave us ME3's ending and EA...well its EA what more is there to say?

ARCTIC_EAGLE

I played both, I own both, I dislike both. I found the both to be terrible in the graphics, OK in story, lacking in combat, with meh audio. When you can get the Witcher or Dragon Age, well that's hardly even a comparison, as much as I don't like the Witcher from a technical standpoint its a good game DA:O/2 is not. As Alcatraz Bioware is dev'ing EA is publishing so the game is pretty much dead from the Start. Lets not forget Bioware gave us ME3's ending and EA...well its EA what more is there to say?

This is quite humorous.
What exactly DOES have a good story? DAO and DA2 are very different games but both have excellent stories. DAOs plot is a tad generic but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. It's easily the best game ever created(Even if it's not my #1 favorite game). Nothing even comes close to it in terms of story, character development, and content. 

Combat is fantastic but you have to enjoy stat based RPGs to enjoy it. I like stat based gameplay, not twitch gameplay, so DA combat is fine with me. 
 
The Witcher is a totally different game, and it's hardly an RPG, especially compared to Dragon Age. If you like The Witcher that's fine but it's not even in the same class of games. RPGs are a vast genre and come in many different forms. 
What makes The Witcher so much better? Less character development, smaller scale story, lesser RPG features, bad anti-aliasing and generally less memorable characters(due to less development). 
Why is everything about graphics for you? Can you not enjoy a game if it doesn't have super special, technical graphics? 
 
Also, I don't like EA at ALL, but just because a studio is under EA doesn't mean the game will be bad. Bioware hands down creates some of the best games ever, even their worst game, DA2, is better than most crap these days. 
As for Mass Effect 3's ending, I'm gonna assume you're one of those butthurt people who cried about the ending because EVERY single decision didn't have an impact on the ending, and then didn't bother to play the extended cut. Mass Effect 3's ending with extended cut is actually an incredible and highly emotional end to the trilogy. But if you don't like extended cut it just boils down to you being an entitled whiner or just a gamer with horrible taste.

DAO is one of the most brilliant games ever made.  Huge in scale, yet it has some of the best attention to detail I've seen.  Storytelling is excellent, character development is second to none (nobody comes close to Bioware in this regard), amazing use of "role-playing", so much content.  The time and effort put into this game must have been extraordinary. You can do six playthroughs and each one can be a very different experience.
 
The Witcher games do not compare, they're more like usual action-adventure games rather than good RPGs.  These games are just a fraction of what DAO is, they didn't set out to do nearly as much.  The scope is much smaller, character development is much less.  The Witcher is not like Dragon Age, in which there are dozens of ethical decisions and hundreds of dialogue options, and each one has a noticeable impact on the game.  Characters don't really feel alive, only Bioware has managed to do this with Dragon Age and Mass Effect.  Yet despite the difference in scale and type of game, each Witcher game is way more flawed than DAO.
 
Dragon Age 2 has a lot more flaws than DAO, as its development cycle was much too short because of EA.  Still, they did the right thing by narrowing down the scope of the game rather than trying to pull off another masterpiece like DAO in less than two years.  
 
Regardless, DA2 is a very good game.  Character development went even more in-depth, since the game took place over the course of years.  The only real problem with it is that it gets repetitive by re-using locations for side quests.  And it really never leaves Kirkwall, so I can understand players feeling tired by Act 3.  But the character development is what kept me going.
 
Everything said about DA3 makes it sound much better than DA2.  I'm sure it's not going to be limited to taking place in only one city, so that's a big plus right there.  I doubt it will be quite as good as DAO, since that was a once in a lifetime thing, but regardless DA3 is one of my most anticipated titles in 2013-2014.  It's a shame that most people don't really anticipate games like this, instead they somehow look forward to mindless shooters.  It's nearly as mind blowing when people say The Witcher 2 is one of the best RPGs in recent years.  
 
Bioware has impressed me more than any other developer, EA does harm to their more recent games but it's usually nothing serious.  DA2 was an exception.  It will undoubtedly be Origin exclusive, and will most likely have very high DLC prices.  I wonder if it will have micro-transactions...

GameFX

Dragon Age: Origins, Mass Effect, & Dark Souls are three of the best RPG's ever crafted - My most anticipated titles of next year are DA: Inquisition & Dark Souls II

 
Origins.... I cannot say enough great things about that game. Mass Effect was like a dream come true when it came out and I play them both once a year when there isn't anything good being released. Demon Souls was much better than Dark Souls (to me anyway because it was original, and Dark Souls is essentially the same game in almost every way) but I have never been a big fan of trial and error games, as in that is pretty much all it is. Not hard and frustrating like people say, just simple trial and error. Both are great games for sure, better than 90% of things released now a days, just not my cup of tea.

MmmmmisterCrow

My only gripe about DA:O is the clunky real-time combat mechanics.  It resides in this awkward zone between hack&slash and a mouse clicker.  For all the things I hated about DA2 at least the combat was refined and much more fun in my opinion.

 
It's not clunky at all, controls and everything were all just as smooth as DA2.  It's real-time, but they emphasize using the pause feature.  The only real differences are that DA2 sped up the overall speed of combat to stupid levels to look like some JRPG, and DA2 practically abandoned strategy.

Open-World on Frostbite 3 and Morrigan will be a major player...

zzDarkwingDuck

i'd rather it be fall 2014, i don't mind a game that is worked on for a few years. DA2 would have been better given an extra year of development as well as ME3 would have been the bees kness if they waited and made it a PS4 and XBone launch title. Give them enough time to get a good ending.

 
I agree, DA2 only had like... less than two years of development?  And we saw how that worked out; it took place only in a city and reused numerous areas throughout the lengthy 40-50 hour campaign.  We saw what happened when EA didn't rush them, they made DA:O which is just hands down the best RPG in a long time, and is one of the best achievements in video game history.  
 
I don't know if extra time would have done anything for ME3 however, it already has less flaws than ME2, is longer, and is just amazing for the entire time.  Maybe they would have put more into the ending, such as Extended Cut as well as a few major things factored into the endings (like the player's Paragon/Renegade status, closure for the characters).  
 
I can't wait to see what they do with DA:I, and now that they're calling it open world, I'm really curious.  Seems like we have Skyrim to thank for DA and Witcher going open world.

Enad1

DAI isn't fully open world like Skyrim. They're still using segmented levels to preserve a sense of scale(It's impossible for them to make a game with multiple FULL nations of Thedas in a reasonable amount of time).
So we'll get big open levels but they're will still be limits to those levels. The reason for this is, as I imagine, we'll be traveling to many of the nations in Thedas.

 
I imagine the open world will be sort of lie S.T.A.L.K.E.R: big open maps, but separated by loading screens for that reason.  Traveling to different nations would be incredible, it actually sounds like The Witcher 3 might be the same way.  What a year 2014 will be.

omg...
 
http://www.gnd-tech.com/content/952-Dragon-Age-Inquisition-featured-on-Game-Informers-September-Issue-New-Info

PC gamers getting an optimized version; “PC actually is different, especially from a controls standpoint”, trying to “recapture the very tailored experience of DA:O on PC”
Nice!