Dragon Age 4 - Official Teaser Trailer

[Dasale]

Why does it appear that Bioware has lost the skill to make great games then? Solely blaming EA for it would not fly, would it?

Microsoft seems to have adopted a very different strategy and try not to control the studios. I wish that pays off.

It seems so even if MS has also its cases of studio bought and destroyed.

But it's not related to the point you answer on focus level on money/quality/something else.

Company are on wining money, that is sure. That doesn't say they are ignoring, quality, fame, originality aspects, more. Quality, fame, originality can bring money so it's on focus on companies.

If you think EA bought dev to destroy them, hahem, if so then why? To kill concurency? Huu hardly explaining all cases.

There's probably multiple reasons, and EA bought a lot of dev. Some guess/possibilities:
- The dev was already on the slope down.
- The bought made some people leave.
- The bought was only to own some assets, dev could as well disappear, it's rare dev own much but there's cases.
- Dev integration was managed awfully.
- Dev leaders get lure by appeal of money inside a big company context.
- More.

But buy to kill, common.

EDIT:
For MS, Im' not in the internal of the company, but those dev buys are clearly inside a context of video game Streaming and the lure of Netflix for video games. And for now, this is only console stuff, so MS can as well kill those studio, I don't care, I won't buy a console to play their games anyway.

 

[Dasale]

I'm more interested in the new Mass Effect game, and that says something because I'm not even a big fan of that series.

Mass Effect first trilogy is something rather unique, there's really one story throughout a trilogy.

But for me and my tastes, no ME played independently is on reach of DAO and DAI. But ME first trilogy as a whole is better than both.

Also for me, DAI is better than MEA.

Bioware end is in past (not decades ago, but past MEA and with Anthem crap) so I wonder what's trying EA around this trademark, but it looks a bit desperate. No point put much hope in some next ME or DAO, even less when they are many years in future, or could never ever be released.

 

[Giovanni1983]

Seriously? All the writing is this crap?

I'm not in your head, and could have bad tastes, at least I have thousands of books read in past, so some background and not totally naive on writing topic.

Such comment is woo.

Well I have read quite a lot of books so I'm not sure what that says.

Obviously not everything was bad but for the most part it felt very forcedly heroic, cheesy and in general not right. "That's not what you'd say in a conversation with someone" was something that I still remember thinking all the time.

 

[Giovanni1983]

It definitely wasn't OG Bioware level, but if people go into Inquisition with no expectations, it's (IMO) a fun game. If cheesy dialogue had an impact on how good the game is, then we'd have far less Gothic fans.

I know what you mean and even though I have not played the Gothic games for a while, I mostly remember then being "badly" acted but not necessarily cheesy.

 

[Dasale]

Well I have read quite a lot of books so I'm not sure what that says.

Obviously not everything was bad but for the most part it felt very forcedly heroic, cheesy and in general not right. "That's not what you'd say in a conversation with someone" was something that I still remember thinking all the time.

I'm 100% sure it says something, some people read a lot, and many not much, and some almost never. This is creating a very different context.

That doesn't mean that all people reading a lot will be agree on their reading.

I wonder what you found better written in BG1&2, IWD1&2, DAO, than in DAI. For DAO Morrigan is an exceptional achievement and if you counter and say it's cliché, I would ask from what it is cloned in video games. But past that, I don't see where DAO would have a much better written, and even less BG1&2.

There's a constant problem in arguing on writing in RPG, a very very few RPG put writing at another level, but otherwise you can't expect video games reach writing quality of really good books. If 99% of RPG would get the same bashing on writing aspect, this worth be clarified.

if you want compare books and video games, I won't list more than 10 RPG and none are at level of best books, from far.

 

[Dasale]

I know what you mean and even though I have not played the Gothic games for a while, I mostly remember then being "badly" acted but not necessarily cheesy.

No need argue on cheesy aspect, most RPG aren't well written, Gothic series is just one example among other, and I wonder if ELEX doesn't show some improvement on that topic.

If DAI is cheesy, then why BG1&2, DAO aren't cheesy? I wonder.

 

[TheMadGamer]

I know what you mean and even though I have not played the Gothic games for a while, I mostly remember then being "badly" acted but not necessarily cheesy.

PB is not known for polished games. However, what they ARE known for is really good game play which for me is the most important thing... for me it's more important than pretty graphics, great voice acting, and even story.

I just played Elex, a game that takes place in a setting that I'm not a huge fan of. When it comes to the attention-getting aspects most gamers focus on (graphics, graphics, graphics, animation, animation, voice acting, dialog, story etc.) Elex is very average. Elex's story is so-so that gets a little bit more interesting as the game progresses despite the long-windedness of the NPCs which can be painful many times.

But oh the game play... the game play itself is a masterpiece, like most PB games (not all, but most). Elex has that addicting game play that pulls you in and at least for me gives me that one metric where I know I'm really enjoying the game... that's where I'm continuously telling myself "I'm just going to do this one last X and then I'll quit for the day..." then hours later I'm still playing and I'm still saying the same lie.

 

[JDR13]

But oh the game play… the game play itself is a masterpiece, like most PB games (not all, but most). Elex has that addicting game play that pulls you in and at least for me gives me that one metric where I know I'm really enjoying the game… that's where I'm continuously telling myself "I'm just going to do this one last X and then I'll quit for the day…" then hours later I'm still playing and I'm still saying the same lie.

Yeah, Elex is special in a lot of ways despite the jank aspects. PB still knows how to build worlds that appeal to people who love to explore and want it to feel organic.

In fact, they're really the only developer left that designs their game worlds in the way I prefer. No randomly placed loot or procedurally generated quests. Everything is hand-placed, and you're not going to find weapons and ammo just strewn about like in most modern games. Almost every location has something cool to find or a story to tell. Their in-game maps aren't littered with icons. You actually have to, you know...find shit yourself.

I really hope they can continue to make games like that. I'm a little nervous about their acquisition by THQ Nordic. Hopefully they're not pressured to start following the design methods of the more mainstream developers in an attempt for greater profit.

 

[ilm]

There's a constant problem in arguing on writing in RPG, a very very few RPG put writing at another level, but otherwise you can't expect video games reach writing quality of really good books. If 99% of RPG would get the same bashing on writing aspect, this worth be clarified.

And even that, the really good books are just a minority in the massive amount that gets published I think.

What I want is a perfectly executed story in games. I don't need a mind-blowing or novel story.

 

[Dasale]

And even that, the really good books are just a minority in the massive amount that gets published I think.

What I want is a perfectly executed story in games. I don't need a mind-blowing or novel story.

Are you evoking style versus plot? Or just originality aspect?

For Bioware the main plot hardly ever match quality of many characters and some secondary plots.

Yeah, Elex is special in a lot of ways despite the jank aspects. PB still knows how to build worlds that appeal to people who love to explore and want it to feel organic.

I won't try explain why, but for me ELEX writing is a lot better than for Gothic 1&2, and better than what I played of each Risen (didn't finished any).

I don't think there's so many special design in ELEX that make feel their open world implementation quite different. I would say:
- Astute and polished merging of doable combats and impossible combats in any area.
- A combat system (close range) impossible to master totally fully for almost all players.
- A lot of notes to complete NPCs.
- The global quest related to identify special locations.

There are other important aspect, but you'll find each in some other open world RPG, and Gothic 1&2 aren't open world, at best open area.