BioWare Focusing On The Technology Of Dragon Age 2

Hey, we loved Dragon Age: Origins. We loved it enough to give it RPG of the Year in 2009. But we all had to admit...it looked kinda icky.

But don't expect those muddy, murky graphics when the sequel rolls around. According to what BioWare vice-president Greg Zeschuk told Joystiq, the team is definitely focusing on increasing the level of technology for the new series. There is always the argument that we don't necessarily need the best visuals possible for a game like Dragon Age and while that's true to some extent, it's good to hear the following from Zeschuk:

"I think one of the key things we're working on in Dragon Age 2 is the technology. I can confirm that we're doing a lot of work on the Dragon Age engine, and doing a lot of stuff to pump it -- to make it visually super hot."

The mere fact that a sequel is in the works is enough to get us excited; this graphical upgrade will just be the cherry on the sundae. Zeschuk adds that "the overall visual style" will "continue to evolve" in the series and although he won't give away too much about the sequel, he did talk about the "timeline" and how you can "go anywhere," which is a little cryptic. Technically, you could kind of "go anywhere" in Ferelden once you got to the world map, so... Anyway, we just want Dragon Age 2. That'll make our day.

Related Game(s): Dragon Age: Origins

1/29/2010 9:15:12 PM Ben Dutka

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Comments (32 posts)

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Alienange
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 9:44:15 PM
Reply

They have the story telling down pat so I guess working on the visuals is the only way to go. Never did understand why Mass Effect had better graphics than Dragon Age.

3 up, 1 down

Buckeyestar
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 7:55:56 AM

With Mass Effect becoming even more of shooter now, it has more mass market appeal. Thus it got the extra time put in for better graphics, and it's paying off big time for them.

0 up, 0 down

shadowscorpio
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 9:46:32 PM
Reply

DA: Origins looks great. I personally hard a hard time getting into it because of the frame rate issues( PS3 version).

0 up, 1 down

SerendipityDeus
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 10:01:13 PM

honestly the frame rate wasn't that bad but definetly noticeable, once you get passed it, the game itself can become quite addicting

0 up, 0 down

shadowscorpio
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 9:47:29 PM
Reply

How smoothly a game runs is a deal breaker for me.

1 up, 0 down

chedison
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 3:41:12 AM

I agree, far more important than graphics. If the game isn't intuitive, or has sluggish response, its a very bad thing.

0 up, 0 down

Milonakis
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 9:48:11 PM
Reply

Too bad this game isn't PS3 exclusive. It would be far better.

3 up, 3 down

Kiwi of DOOM
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 10:07:46 PM

Yeah. I don't want to hear more of things having to be downscaled like another certain RPG... *Cough*

2 up, 1 down

chedison
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 3:41:51 AM

1 up, 0 down

Milonakis
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 11:15:24 AM

What if the FFVII remake got put multi plat. That must be why they aren't remaking it. The graphics would be worse than the original and Barret would be replaced with Marcus Fenix.

0 up, 0 down

Qubex
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 9:53:18 PM
Reply

I felt similarly in that the graphical world that dressed the Dragon Age story universe just wasn't good enough. Gamers today are expecting a lot more of their games and for the dollars they spend.

Whilst DA has huge game play value you cannot ignore the fact that people will criticize all facets of it, including the visuals - introducing un-necessary negative commentary... and that is not what you want when you are trying to build a strong sales base I would think.

It seems though that I will get better value for money by purchasing the second one in the series... it seems this is the trend now. By the first one in the series to prove that there is a business case to make a sequel, and then buy the sequel to experience the game the way it should have been experienced the first time around. Hence my cautiousness now at purchasing any firsts. I know it sounds sad, but look, all the sequels I am purchasing are the best in their class. Uncharted 2, Killzone 2 etc.

Of course some of the game exclusives coming out are not mere sequels, however, one can see, hear, play (demo's usually) and read (reviews - the good ones) to get a very good idea of what a particular game will be like. Some will be duds, others will simply be awesome... all in all though, the trend is, that sequels do a good job at creating a game you would have wanted to buy the first time around and not the second...

Q!

"i am home"

0 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 11:30:20 PM
Reply

The graphics didn't bother me. I didn't play it for the graphics to begin with. It was all about the story and gameplay. Just like every game. Graphics are just the icing on the cake. It's the other ingrediants that make the game complete.

Last edited by Geobaldi on 1/29/2010 11:30:29 PM

4 up, 0 down

LimitedVertigo
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 6:59:05 AM

Ya seriously. I've been enjoying the Source engine for 6+ years now and I'm not complaining. Gameplay has FAR more to do with a game being worth playing than visuals.

1 up, 3 down

Ben Dutka PSXE [Administrator]
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 10:32:05 AM

Let's not defend the Source engine too blindly, PC guys. I'm the first to drop the hammer on the graphic whores but that engine is really showing its age, regardless of the upgrades. The best stuff of this generation feels like 2010...the best the Source engine can do - apparently - is a slightly prettier version of 1995.

Even L4D2, which looks a ton better than Dragon Age, still sucks, IMO. You just can't have that and compete visually when we've seen things like Uncharted 2 and soon, Heavy Rain.

Last edited by Ben Dutka PSXE on 1/30/2010 10:33:14 AM

5 up, 1 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 2:08:05 PM

yeah, I had to laugh when I first played L4D2. It was like going back in time.

2 up, 2 down

komotaya
Friday, January 29, 2010 @ 11:40:16 PM
Reply

yeah i loved dragon age and beat it 4 times, but the poor frame rate and bad graphics discourage me from getting it not matter how much i love it cause its really annoying when it freezes or so
lagged

0 up, 2 down

Nerull
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 12:42:17 AM
Reply

About to jump back into DA. Any improvements are good news.

0 up, 0 down

Jackyl
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 12:49:09 AM
Reply

Dragon Age looked pretty great on the PC. So I'm guessing talk about lack luster graphics only pertains to console graphics.

If such is the case I hope the PC isn't just left out while the console graphics are being simply brought up to PC level.

0 up, 0 down

Qubex
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 1:37:15 AM

I don't know, my friend invited me over to his place to check it out on his PC and I wasn't overly impressed to be honest. When he cranked up his nVidia SLI-295 AlienWare QuadCore PC (with 16GB of Ram) rig to 1900x1200 the graphics look quite low polygon and under whelming :(

It is the same story we see about the exclusives argument all over again. If this was a PC only game and was optimised for the PC hardware and video cards, a far better looking game would have been produced. This is similar for the PS3; if the Uncharted 2 engine was employed using the programming tricks Naughty Dog employed Dragon Age could have looked spectacular.

Dragon Age, in this case, was developed in a pretty "generic" way, with the environments modeled to suit all the platforms it was coming out for... hence the underwhelming graphics...

I have one machine to blame for this... xBox3fixIt.. simply because if the PC was developed for with higher polygon counts and better textures, i believe with the right conversion techniques, those higher fidelity visuals, would have translated well across to the PS3, thanks to its superior power when developed for exclusively...

The xBox3fixIt is the lower common denominator here. I also recently had a go at the last installment of Halo whilst wasting time in an electronics store... what a horrible looking game and it seemed quite low res, unless it was a poor LCD monitor I was looking at.

Anyway not really impressed in all honestly... kept on thinking of Killzone 2 and how it just wipes Halo away in one swift stroke :)

White Knight Chronicles will also make Dragon Age look sad in the visualisation department...

Q!

"i am home"

Last edited by Qubex on 1/30/2010 1:40:06 AM

2 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 3:56:52 AM

I have the PC version. The visuals weren't much better than the consoles. Even though it came out later than the console versions, just like their previous titles, they didn't spend as much time on upgrading it as much as they did with SW:KOTOR, Mass Effect, and Jade Empire. Which is understandable since they are throwing a lot of resources into The Old Republic. And that is one game I hope knocks WoW off it's perch when it comes out next year.

0 up, 0 down

___________
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 1:09:15 AM
Reply

theres a sequel?
meh only RPG im interested in is aplha protocol or fallout new vegas.
love fallout 3 one of the best games ever released.
that just proved a buggy game can be GOTY, it just needs to be dam good!
and it was.

0 up, 4 down

Alienange
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 10:25:23 PM

New Vegas will be awesome.

0 up, 0 down

ohmikkie
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 1:54:56 AM
Reply

As one who's first play of an RPG since Bards Tale in the eighties was Mass Effect (since then I've enjoyed Fallout 3 and Dragon Age). The graphics did not bother me. I'll still the improvements in Dragon Age 2 though. I also hope they can reduce the load time between sections.

1 up, 0 down

Geobaldi
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 3:47:51 AM

Bard's Tale was great back in the day. The remake a few years ago was fairly well done too in my opinion. I don't remember the original being as funny either.

1 up, 0 down

Qubex
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 9:04:41 AM

I played Bard's Tale on the Amiga all those years ago :)

Q!

"i am home"

1 up, 0 down

Snaaaake
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 7:26:24 AM
Reply

The graphic aren't too bad in DA:O, it's quite good for me.

I'm enjoying DA:O ever since I got it but sometimes the frame rate drop like crap when there's too many actions on the screen.

Another glitch is that in the Human Noble origins, there's a door that's lock and you need to reload the game until the door is not lock.

0 up, 0 down

lupus
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 7:53:41 AM
Reply

i regret i payed for dragon age so laggy if a game not run smooth it's just crap - personally i get very angry on people who release a game so laggy and frame rate is crap they should be punished!

i tried played it 3 times now and each time i played i just want the devs in a ring with me lol.

0 up, 2 down

Qubex
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 9:05:42 AM

Yes, especially when you see your hard earned dollairos being spent on it...

Q!

"i am home"

0 up, 0 down

fuk u
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 12:55:13 PM
Reply

yea its laggy, its not the best in graphics, but its fun to play right?

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 2:08:50 PM

It's a blast because the story pulls you in, you can't wait to see and hear what people are up to next, and the intrigue stays hot throughout. You just don't know WHO you can trust.

0 up, 0 down

WorldEndsWithMe
Saturday, January 30, 2010 @ 2:06:48 PM
Reply

Good news, I wonder if it will continue our character like the new expansion does or if they plan on placing it in a whole nother time period.

0 up, 0 down

LyleCapua
Thursday, February 11, 2010 @ 12:03:33 PM
Reply

Frame rate issues on the PS3? I, for one, am SHOCKED.

0 up, 0 down

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