With Dragon Age: Inquisition finally having a set release date, Bioware has naturally been fielding questions left and right regarding everything about the game, from the characters to how the game will play on last-gen consoles versus current gen consoles. Much has been discussed over “transitional” or “cross-over games”, ones that are available on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as well as the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with many observing that the PS4 and Xbox One versions, while superior, aren’t as superior as one would expect given the power difference. Speaking to the Examiner, producer Cameron Lee talked about how BioWare plans to approach this conundrum of sorts.
“Our goal is for there not to be any differences. We’ve already pushed as far as we can on the Gen 4 stuff, on Xbox One and PS4, so we’re already at that point. When we look at how we bring it down to Gen 3, it’s a challenge we know we have to solve and we’re starting to think about it. But mostly it’s going to be visual elements and immersion elements.”
He continued, “In terms of gameplay, there might be a situation where the creature count in some combats is lower in Gen 3 than it is on Gen 4, that’s another good way to do it. Creature counts for us are high costs, given how much AI and how much animation in the combat abilities they might have. You might see that, but our goal is not to have to do it.”
Lee finished by assuring that the story elements would not be compromised on “Gen 3” systems. “We think we can probably turn the knobs on the visual stuff far enough for the Gen 3 for us not to impact gameplay. And it certainly wouldn’t have any impact on the story or the areas you can go to, or anything like that.”
Producer Mark Darrah echoed that sentiment to GameSpot, saying that, “I would say we’re definitely making this game to take advantage of the hardware that we have. I don’t think we’ve had to make any compromises [to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions]. Because this is ultimately about you controlling a party. The combats are designed to be controlled in size, and that’s really meant that scaling for the lesser platforms has been a manageable exercise. I don’t think we’re making any gameplay compromises. Graphically, yeah, I think you’re gonna see some compromises on the last-gen stuff, but in gameplay, I think we should be able to keep parity.”
- This article was updated on March 8th, 2018
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