Dragon Age 3 influenced by Skyrim and older role-playing games, BioWare to focus on exploration

BioWare's upcoming Dragon Age 3 will borrow a few pages out of the book of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim, as well as older role-playing games like Baldur's Gate, BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn said in an interview featured in the latest print edition of Game Informer.

According to Flynn, role-playing games should be emphasizing exploration, much like in older BioWare role-playing titles including 1998's Baldur's Gate and 2002's Neverwinter Nights. Although two of BioWare's key franchises, Mass Effect and Dragon Age, have moved away from this ideal, says Flynn, it's something the company wants to return to with Dragon Age 3.

"You can't look at a game like Skyrim and not think about how impressive what they've accomplished is — or [think] that's an interesting new direction or that there was something that didn't work well for them that we could take in a new direction," Flynn said, "So, we're always influenced by these games, especially in a relatively tight-knit genre like RPGs."

Dragon Age 3 was originally scheduled to release in fall 2013, though recent rumors and a post to an EA employee's LinkedIn suggest the game has been pushed back to 2014 for release on next-generation consoles.