Tag Archives: mike laidlaw

Funimation has finally pulled the veil back on its animated Dragon Age film; see some footage and get the skinny within.

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Bioware’s Mike Laidlaw has said with the release of Legacy, the firm is proving it’s listening to fan feedback on the game.

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Some shots from upcoming web series Dragon Age: Redemption starring Felica Day have landed on the net, and we’ve got ‘em posted for you below.

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Dragon Age lead designer Mike Laidlaw has responded to criticism of Dragon Age II, thanking players for feedback and standing by the game’s narrative elements.

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BioWare has released three environmental images which might be hinting at an upcoming Dragon Age 2 DLC release. Or maybe that’s just my fervent hope speaking.

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BioWare’s Mike Laidlaw has said a significant number of Dragon Age: Origins players didn’t complete even an hour of the game, so Dragon Age 2 has a more forgiving learning curve.

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Dragon Age 2 lead designer Mike Laidlaw has said the sequel will be a more tactical experience than Dragon Age: Origins – and if you tune into the livestream in about half an hour, you can watch him demonstrate the game.

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Dragon Age II is golden folks. It was just announced as being so. And, a video with 55 minutes of footage was also released from a live chat featuring the game’s lead designer, Mike Laidlaw.

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BioWare’s Mike Laidlaw has shed more light on the interaction system in Dragon Age II, mainly the Rivalry system which the development team didn’t feel was a good fit for Origins.

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Dragon Age II lead designer Mike Laidlaw has said that post-release content for Dragon Age II will maintain a “focus” on lead character Hawke.

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Mike Laidlaw, lead designer of Dragon Age 2, has talked a bit more about importing saves from DA: Origins into the new game upon release.

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Well, at least players can still act like a badass.

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BioWare lead designer Mike Laidlaw has said that the developer would love to revisit the Jade Empire franchise someday.

Speaking with Strategy Informer, Laidlaw mentioned that the game was a favorite among those at BioWare.

“We will certainly announce it if it’s going to be coming out,” he said. “At this point, Jade Empire is a staff favorite and a lot of us love it, so we’d love to revisit it at some point.

“But right now, we are very focused on Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2.”

We wouldn’t mind another Jade Empire, we reckon. This time around, maybe you could have a tent party with Dawn Star, Silk Fox and Sky at the same time on the eve of battle.

More through the link.

BioWare’s lead designer for Dragon Age: Origins, Mike Laidlaw, has commented about the seemingly out of place music associated with videos for the game.

Most contain heavy style rock/pop, and most recently, Marilyn Manson’s “This is the New Shit” was used. This type of music is usually not something one associates with a fantasy title; however, Laidlaw says that there is a reason for this. BioWare wants to “shock” you enough so that you take notice of the game.

“I think part of the reason it’s infamous is because people were surprised and just weren’t expecting it,” he told D’toid. “What they expected was a long string of flutes and some harpsichord, perhaps. Quite frankly, Dragon Age ultimately is about surprising the player in terms of their expectations of fantasy.

“It’s going to shock them in a lot of ways. At the same time there’s a deep RPG in there, and a great story, but what I think that particular campaign achieved is, it hit an element of the game, and the game’s about eighty hours for average players, so you certainly can’t make a three minute marketing spec that covers every friggin’ element of that, so you pick a part of it and go, ‘let’s talk about violence for a while, and while we’re talking about violence, we’re going to play some music that, essentially, is pretty violent.”

More through the jump.

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BioWare’s lead designer for Dragon Age: Origins, Mike Laidlaw, has said that good writing in videogames is “essential.”

“I think good writing is honestly essential, because as we see the technology curve start to slow down, we’re kind of past that exponential two-year gain that we used to have,” he told D’Toid.

“We’re wrestling more with the uncanny valley than the number of pixels. I think a good story is what makes [a game] linger.

“… Maybe there’s only one path to do that … That’s where I see a game like Splinter Cell succeeding. Sam Fisher’s got a got a cool, strong character but at the same time he’s also pulled in to do stuff that no one else can do, and as the player I get to adopt some of that coolness and what I’m doing is guiding how he achieves his objectives.

“The story itself can be linear, yet I’m still immersed in the gameplay.”

More through the link.

BioWare’s Mike Laidlaw has said that the reason the firm wanted to create a Collector’s Edition for Dragon Age: Origins was because not only is such a thing a “fantasy RPG tradition”, but the developers wanted to give customers another way to “dive into this bran new world”.

“An extravagant collector’s edition is one of those fantasy RPG traditions, and frankly the world of Dragon Age is one we want to share with people,” he told D’toid. “Cloth maps, additional in-game content and the soundtrack are all part of letting people dive into this brand new world, and BioWare’s always had a tradition of providing value for your money.

“Ultimately, though, let’s ignore the word ‘collector’ and look at the options: you can buy a fantastic game, or you can spend a bit more to get that game with additional thematic stuff. Nothing to justify there, it’s just two ways to purchase the game. I suppose we could call it the ‘Extra Stuff Edition’ but that really doesn’t have the same ring.”

There’s plenty more through the link.

BioWare said at GDC that Dragon Age: Origins is likely to have controversial love scenes included, along the same lines as Mass Effect.

“Probably,” said lead designer Mike Laidlaw. “Mass Effect had a bit of this weird slow news day hiccup where people reacted. We always do romances, and we’ve always done romances. It’s a commitment we have. And to our minds — and we’re Canadians — it’s all done in good taste.

“These are people that are actually in love and have built up a friendship. It’s hardly as salacious as it’s been sold. And ‘Dragon Age’ does have multiple romances available. There’s quite a few characters and friendships that build into the camaraderie of the battlefield.”

Watch for our impressions of the Dragon Age: Origins demo soon.