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'Dragon Age' director Mike Laidlaw leaves BioWare after 14 years
Today Mike Laidlaw announced his departure from Bioware, where he's been involved with games including Jade Empire, Mass Effect and the entire Dragon Age series. He served as creative director on Dragon Age: Inquisition, and mentioned in a note about the team that "I have every confidence that the world we've created together is in good hands and I'm excited for the road ahead." He didn't mention a reason for leaving other than that it is time to move on, even as his exit follows DA:I lead writer David Gaider, who left the company early last year.
Joystiq Presents: Dragon Age, Dark Souls and dominatrixes
Anthony John Agnello (@ajohnagnello) chats with BioWare Creative Director Mike Laidlaw about Dragon Age: Inquisition. They discuss the influence that From Software's Dark Souls series had on Laidlaw when crafting the developer's latest RPG. Listen to the MP3
Dragon Age: Inquisition delay brings back multiple playable races
Dragon Age: Inquisition will see the return of playable races. "Because we moved the [release] date, we were able to bring it back," Executive Producer Mark Darrah told Game Informer, pointing to the game's delay to fall 2014 as an opportunity to bring race selection back to the series. In October 2012, Creative Director Mike Laidlaw said that humans would be the only playable race in the game in, but that has since changed. "The race decision was made well before E3, but why didn't we bring it up? Because again we wanted to make sure it was locked down," Laidlaw said. "We wanted to make sure we'd done the work and our homework was done so that we could commit to it. So that people could, with absolute enthusiasm, get ready for elf, or dwarf or whatever."
Bioware hints at the future of Dragon Age DLC and 3
BioWare's Mike Laidlaw (who just joined Twitter!) was up at PAX in Seattle last weekend, dropping a few hints on future Dragon Age 2 DLC, as well as what Bioware is planning for the next iteration in the series, Dragon Age 3. Neogaf has kindly summarized a few reports on the panel, and we'll go even one further for you "TLDR" types: Dragon Age 3 will feature the world of Ferelden at war between mages and templars, with the player traveling around to places as far as Orlais and Tevinter to try and calm (or maybe stoke, knowing Bioware) the fighting. One of the maps shown was "four to five times larger than Ferelden," and cited as the future of the series. The story of the first game's Warden "is over," apparently, and while there's still more of Hawke's story left to tell, writer David Gaider hinted that the protagonist of the third game would be yet another new hero. Co-op is possible but not likely, followers will keep their "unique" armor designs but still change visually over time, and combat will revolve around "preparation, teamwork, and positioning," with less button-smashing and more thought given to prepping your team for battle. In closer plans, Laidlaw said that we'll see more of Varric in upcoming DLC for Dragon Age 2, as well as Leliana and Flemeth. Morrigan will be back as well, and BioWare says that the Legacy DLC was received well, so that will be the model for updates in the future. Minus that last boss fight -- the team agrees that the AI in there wasn't quite as smart as they would have liked. Though it doesn't seem all that hard to program fire to equal bad, right?
BioWare's Laidlaw: DA2 'Legacy' DLC is a response to fan complaints
"There's a game out there that's better than both [Dragon Age] Origins and DAII, and I'll be damned if the talented folks of the DA team can't find it," BioWare lead designer Mike Laidlaw concluded a recent response to one fan on his company's forums. He was engaged in an ongoing conversation over the past few days in a subject thread titled "Dragon Age 2 reception and community discussed," wherein fans sounded off and a handful of BioWare reps responded to criticisms about the critically divisive Dragon Age 2, and its improved follow-up DLC, Legacy. "Legacy, I think, goes a long way towards demonstrating that we are listening, that we are aware of the weaknesses of DAII, and that we will continue to address them," he responded to another, specifically citing combat encounters, asset re-use, loot, and choice impact as areas to improve. While he of course didn't speak to Dragon Age 3, he did note that "Reasonable, passionate feedback is the best possible thing to provide. Seeing strongly negative reaction to DAII, and strongly positive reaction to Legacy, even from some of DAII's strongest detractors (and yes, I know it's not universal, but what is), is incredibly useful."
Dragon Age 2 preview: A shot of adrenaline
"What we wanted to do, fundamentally, is take Dragon Age: Origins and give the franchise a shot of adrenaline." Lead designer Mike Laidlaw's statement shouldn't come as much of a shock -- all of the marketing materials and crunchy riffs have said as much. But fans of BioWare's successful 2009 RPG shouldn't fear a repeat of Prince of Persia: Warrior Within. The aesthetics have changed, the battles system has been altered, but a familiar formula still operates beneath the surface. %Gallery-115856%
Dragon Age 2 will import 'the world' from Dragon Age: Origins save
You can still import an older save file into BioWare's upcoming fantasy RPG, Dragon Age 2, like you could with Mass Effect 2 -- but since you don't have a persistent character this time (whoever your Warden was in the first game is replaced by "Hawke" in the sequel), it hasn't been as clear what the save file would change in the new game. Speaking to NowGamer, lead designer Mike Laidlaw revealed that while you don't get to import your character, you're "importing the world" as it was in your game of Origins. "Who's in charge of Ferelden, what happened with the Dwarves, who's running Orzammar?" Laidlaw said. "All of these things are reflected and accounted for in Dragon Age 2." So if you hate the way you left affairs in Origins, consider a fresh save in Dragon Age 2. Then again, maybe you like fixer-uppers.
Preview: Dragon Age 2
BioWare surprised fans at Comic-Con with a world premiere hands-on preview of Dragon Age 2, completely open to the public. A block down the street from the convention center, fans were treated to a short presentation by lead designer Mike Laidlaw, as well as a few very brief combat segments and a look at the story that kicks off the game. I'll get impressions out of the way first: It's faster and more brutal, less cerebral and more exaggerated. You might think that's because BioWare wants to make the game a little flashier and more accessible, and you'd be right in part. But Dragon Age 2's dark secret is that even if the action is a little more over-the-top and a lot darker, there's a real, solid, story-based justification for it. %Gallery-97140%
