BioWare Edmonton producer Cameron Lee has stated that the next-gen or “Gen. Four” versions of Dragon Age: Inquisition will be a step up from the current-gen versions.
Talking to Eurogamer, Lee said, “On gen four you’ll see far better graphics and, more importantly, a much more immersive world. It’s a lot richer, and there’s more depth to it. We can put more things on screen. There are more NPCs. There is more life to the world. That, while a subtle thing, really does over time build up into quite a strong connection to the game compared to the other gen three platforms.
As for the differences between the current and next-gen versions, Lee stated that, “The visual fidelity differences are huge. For example, the shaders you can put on the characters through different weather systems. The build up system we have, like when you walk through mud, the mud builds up on the leg, then if you’re in a fight, blood goes on top of the mud.
“One of our graphics programmers took a nug and overlayed all these different things on it. Eventually it looked like a nug that had been dipped in chocolate because there was so much stuff that was put on top of it. That’s all the power you can get from the gen four stuff. You’ll see that sort of a difference.
“The spell visual effects are incredible on the gen four and high-end PC. On gen three they will be much lower fidelity. Seeing Vivienne bringing up that big fire storm is brilliant on gen four and high-end PC. That’s the kind of stuff that will make this a gen four experience.”
Dragon Age: Inquisition will be out in late 2014 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360.