Dragon Age Inquisition News: New Screenshots, Update From BioWare Producer

There's been rumors of a "Holiday Build" for Dragon Age: Inquisition and producer Mark Darrah took to the Bioware Blog to confirm that it's real. The Holiday Builds are a tradition in BioWare where the team tries to get the game in as complete a state as possible in order to focus on the next steps in the game. Aside from this news there are also three new screenshots to gaze upon, including one with the most ridiculous hat in the series yet, one which when equipped will never become unequipped. 

Darrah, who is the executive producer of the entire Dragon Age series, writes a list in the blog of a number of things the team likes to focus on. The number one thing BioWare focuses on? The story. Go figure!

I would have focused on this hat, personally.

Getting the main storyline completely playable from beginning to end is the goal for them, since it will allow everyone to experience the story as it will be played, allowing them to tinker with it for pacing and other issues. It has to be a tremendous task for a game as long as Dragon Age titles usually are. The other things they focus on include getting the gameplay systems working together (combat, etc.), starting to record voice and music, making sure all the classes play differently, and getting the various new tech implemented well. They also focus on important features like trees and dead things. Hey, you'll be seeing a lot of those! 

This is all pretty exciting stuff but it's hard not to think about all the problems with Dragon Age 2 and hope against hope that they don't make the same mistakes. The level design, for one- let's hope each level and sidequest doesn't feature interchangable levels. A return to the turn-based combat of the first game is likely impossible at this point but nearly everyone I've talked to prefers it over the twitchy, button-mashing mayhem of the second game. And let's really hope that they make a more compelling story this time, preferably one that takes place outside the confines of the politics of a single city. 

Head over to BioWare's Blog for more details on what goes into a build like this, and what they're focusing on in the game. Expect Dragon Age: Inquisiton to hit sometime next year.