Baldur's Gate 3 is looking pretty nice. Or whatever it's called.

So the one thing I hate about old Bioware games is the awful pause intensive combat. I hated it so much that I've never finished a Baldur's Gate game. The sad part is I really do love everything else in those games. The story, characters, setting, and interaction with the world are all top notch, but I just hated having to micro manage in combat so much. The path finding for party members also sucked ass. It honestly felt like I was playing a shitty RTS, and I fucking hate RTS games.

But this gameplay demonstration for Dragon Age (the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate) I watched gives me hope. The combat seems quick, yet manageable, and the AI for the teammates appears pretty hands off. Ideally I would love to see an in-depth version of the Final Fantasy 12 gambit system in a game like this. Square was really just scratching the surface of awesome AI programming potential with the gambits, and I think a system like that would translate perfectly to the combat interface in Dragon Age: Origins.

Ironically, my real worries for Dragon Age are not the combat at all. High fantasy in video games is usually a turnoff for me lately, and the characters and story in this game look corny as hell -- and kind of boring. I have an odd feeling that this may be related to the realistic graphics of this generation. Suits of armor and dragons just seemed way cooler back in 16 bit JRPGs and late 90s PC WRPGs. I'm hoping Bioware can make this setting cool again. I suppose we shall see.

Anyway, check out these gameplay clips.





Brad