Dragon Age 3: Inquisition officially announced

[Caliga]

Of course the trick there will be to combine a high stakes quest with the freedom to ignore it for a while. Many side quests come with "if you get around to it", but the main quest will normally a big calamity that threatens the game world's order and is a matter of high urgency. And then you head off to spend the next few in game weeks spelunking in ancient caves.

I would be really happy with a game where the plot isn't "LOL YOU MUST SAVE THE UNVERSE/GALAXY/OUR WRLD", etc.  I don't understand why every game has to have a plot like this.  Heck, the GTA franchise isn't like that and it sells like gangbusters.  If that shit got toned down, it would make pursuing side quests much more realistic.

[Syt]

I agree. The stakes must be high for the player, and the easiest way to do that in fantasy is to threaten all of creation (happens in sci-fi, too) with the player forced to stop it.

Creating a personal story, with high stakes for the player character that players can get properly invested in is much harder (and a harder sell in marketing blurbs, I guess).

[Razgovory]

I liked the way Fallout: New Vegas handled it.  You were essentially tracking down a man who tried to kill you, and as you do you find are in a position to play a pivotal role in a war over an important resource.  While the world is not at stake, the lives of the people in the area will be greatly affected by what you do.

[Valmy]

It seems this game involves rips in the fade where at various places around the world demons are pouring through into the mortal realm.  Man they are really are going whole hog in ripping off the Elder Scrolls aren't they?

[Valmy]

I would be really happy with a game where the plot isn't "LOL YOU MUST SAVE THE UNVERSE/GALAXY/OUR WRLD", etc.  I don't understand why every game has to have a plot like this.  Heck, the GTA franchise isn't like that and it sells like gangbusters.  If that shit got toned down, it would make pursuing side quests much more realistic.

Planescape Torment didn't have that plot and um...yeah that other...erm....

[Scipio]

It seems this game involves rips in the fade where at various places around the world demons are pouring through into the mortal realm.  Man they are really are going whole hog in ripping off the Elder Scrolls aren't they?

Maybe the gameplay will be better than Oblivion, though. Along with the graphics and the story.

[Valmy]

Maybe the gameplay will be better than Oblivion, though. Along with the graphics and the story.

Well we already had mention in this thread it was taking inspiration from Skyrim so...

[Scipio]

Oblivion was really bad, though. The more times I try to play it, the lamer it gets. I can still enjoy Morrowind, though.

[Valmy]

Oblivion was really bad, though. The more times I try to play it, the lamer it gets. I can still enjoy Morrowind, though.

The thing that was especially galling about it is that it was unnecessarily lame.  In Morrowind they described the Imperial Province and it sounded amazing I couldn't wait to go adventure there.  Then when the game came out everything was totally different.  If you are going to break lore that bad at least make it better.  Ah well.

[grumbler]

There were a lot of great mods for Oblivion, though, so it wasn't a complete waste, except for the console gamers.  The base game was astonishingly generic, though.

[Scipio]

There were a lot of great mods for Oblivion, though, so it wasn't a complete waste, except for the console gamers.  The base game was astonishingly generic, though.

Enjoyed many of the mods. But the difficulty level for main quest players seemed inordinately hard for my preferred character build (Breton jack of all trades).

[Valmy]

There were a lot of great mods for Oblivion, though, so it wasn't a complete waste, except for the console gamers.  The base game was astonishingly generic, though.

The evil human enslaving Elves were sorta cool (granted they were all dead) but that was the only thing that really stood out.  Who knew the Daedra were so dull?