Skyrim age 3 ....

Now that would be a true horror....

The problem is that studios rarely learn from each other, preferring instead to copy from each other and in the process ruin what made an aspect of gameplay a viable part of the entertainment. For example, Bioware's copypasta opus, DA2, aka WoW + Mass Effect.

It doesn't work because game companies (or, rather, the suits that run them) don't consider how an aspect of gameplay will fit into the rest of the formula.

I don't think there's any danger of Bioware going that route. Besides Jade Empire, their games have always been about numbers rather than reflexes, so the gameplay will always be inherently different.

Imagine if you could walk the entire map of Baldur's Gate or Dragon Age, but the core gameplay and storytelling is otherwise the same. I'd pay double for that.

Well TES also used to be numbers, then they decided to make it a action-adventure instead....

That kind of game would be nice yes but we wont see a game like that for many years.

Still I fear that future rpgs will be copies of Skyrim...

Bioware do not exist.

The company is EA Bioware.

For those who mistook 'streamlined' for being 'dumbed down' in "Skyrim" prepare yourselves for a Master Class in "Dragon Age III".

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

Bioware has always been EA Bioware. So said the Doctors.
They've been heading in that direction since NWN. No need to hate on EA for something Bioware was well on its way to doing all by itself. Edit: this new smiley system is weird. Not the smiley I meant to use. Hah.

i don't like that at all. Sometimes you want the freedom open world, and sometimes it should have the density of events and story a more (not completely) linear rpg can provide.
That only matters if the next dragon age is actaully good, like the first.

But to be honest i'm getting sick of dragons lol.

It sounds great to me. Dragon Age: Origins is pretty much the top of my list as RPG games go. I probably played that from start to finish about 20 times and that is no exaggeration. It was a game that truly made you feel like you were part of a real story and not just performing some list of tasks in a highly condensed journal. There is no better game that I have played that can top the NPC interactions.

Dragon Age 2 could have been SO much better if they had spent about 2 more years actually producing content for it. They kept some of the great NPC interactions, but decided to run you through basically the same set of 2 or 3 dungeons for every single quest.

Hopefully, they manage to keep everything that was great about the Dragon Age games and add a more open world experience. I just hope they don't gut the NPC interactions and end up making the NPCs as soulless as Skyrim. While the Skyrim is amazing to explore, there isn't a single NPC I have met that I actually feel anything towards. I remember how hard it was to roleplay my "evil" warden and having half my party turn on me.

Loved Origins, DA2 was an epic fail.

I'm guessing if they focus on making a big open world like Skyrim then the story, dialogue and multiple options and starts etc will suffer even more which was what made DA:O great (also the ability to view from top down that was missing in DA:2). To be honest for me this is a bad thing, jumping on the bandwaggon. They made great RPGs in the past, I would hope they would continue in that fashion. I like the Elder Scrolls and Bioware stuff equally, but I don't want two Bethesdas, I say leave the open world stuff to Beth (who also need to look back at their origins in my opinion) and Bioware continue what they do well already, not jump on the bandwagon.

Dragon Age series is boring. DA:O entertained me for a good 50 hours, but after that I just quit. The game was alright, but pretty forgettable. I couldn't tell you half the stuff I did in that game. Something about werewolves? And elves. And some kind of templars or something. Bleh.

Skyrim on the other hand has entertained me for 130 hours and still going strong. I may not be able to remember every radiant quest I've been on, but the game has been a ton of fun.

Every RPG out there could take lessons from Skyrim. I wouldn't mind seeing some straight Skyrim-clones either. But I'm not interested in Dragon Age in the least.

Bioware really does story and companions well. Everything else, bethesda does better. I can see why they'd be inspired. Also, the 10 million units sold is pretty amazing, of course they'd try to mimic it.

I don't see what's so great about Bioware's stories, compared to any other game company. Mass Effect 1 bored me to tears after 30 hours. I just didn't care to go on, at all. Never played ME 2.. What else good has Bioware done? Dragon Age: story wasn't that great. Mass Effect we talked about. KOTOR was good in it's day, but I don't remember the story. I don't see what's so great about Bioware. They make decent games for the most part, and there's alot of talking and dialog in them. Companions, wow, how incredible. You can have six with people in the game, great. I don't play games to get emotionally attached to characters in them, personally. I do have to say though that marriage in Skyrim is pretty great. It was just cool seeing a marriage ceremony. I wish they did more with it though, like opened up new content specifically for married players. I dunno. I'm getting off topic. But yeah, Bioware. Maker of decent games. I'm sure Bethesda could do "story and companions" well if they focused all their resources on that like Bioware does, but thankfully (really, thank God!!!) they don't do that.

I sincerely hope that's true. More open world games where you can create your own character and aren't interrupted every 5 steps with cut-scenes written by an emo 15 year old would be awesome.

As for Bioware: once I was a big fan but they haven't made anything but interactive dating novels since KOTOR and their writing isn't what it used to be. I can't imagine them doing anything decent with an open world.

indeed my friend..... indeed

I agree, and I wouldn't mind some skyrim clones either. It's unbelievable that bethesda basically have a monopoly on this kind of RPG. not a single other company is in direct competition with them - bioware comes closest, maybe, but even bioware games are still very different.

So you want 80% of all rpgs to be copies of Skyrim? God I hope that never happens...

Down the slopes, and into the fires of hell, as they roll on down from the ladder they never should have been on...

Well, at-least I can honestly say that Skyrim is better than Deus-Ex Human Revolution, when it comes to game-play, character-models, animations, scripting, AI, and interaction...

Though Deus-Ex doesn't have an actual story... just a cool plot... It still blows Skyrims horrid story, which seems to have no real plot, out of the water. (Seems they used the same bad voice-director and actors... Ug... blah...)

Hope dragon-age is only going to copy the engine, and game-dynamics, not the story and implementation of character-interaction.

Loved Dragon Age: Origins and was playing Awakenings when DA2 came out and largely disappointed people. May still pick it up for cheap, but I'm hoping that 3 will feel more like Origins. A bit more open-world would be welcomed by me.

agree, like kotor and jd cutscene after cutscene it was so annoying

I think Blizzard and D3 will give you a run for your money, though.

Of course, with Blizzard the odds are you'll have a lot fewer buggs in the game.

First DA was ok. The second one was horrible. They used way to many rehashed areas in both games though making them feel repetative and boring. Open world? Yea I'd like to see it but judging by the previous 2 games I really doubt they'll be able to pull it off especially if they stick with the same game engine which they probably will. I've never seen a game series start out with one type of design and then go to something totally different and pull it off. It'll probably be as big a fail as Bethesda making the next Elder Scrolls game linear.

Well, lionhead brought out Fable amidst trumpeting about how it was going to blow TES out of the water... And then it didn't LOL.

I think the general reluctance to take on Bethesda is the simple fact that they are by far and away the best dev when it comes to this style of game - nobody wants to embarrass themselves, with the possible exception of Peter molyneux. I still have to tip my cap to him for having the bottle to try though. Nothing like a bit of competition to keep people on their game, so to speak...

what bioware and other game companys need to do is make it longer. and they better not [censored] up mass effect 3.

I don't really want an open-world for Dragon Age series. I could do without it in Origins and DA2. But yeah, I could enjoy bigger maps to explore... Hmmm... Wise decision they made.