Dragon Age: The Veilguard - The Good and the Bad
- Thread starter HiddenX
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If you prefer to read instead, here is the link.
Why are words like "hated", "destroyed", "shocked" used so commonly these days?
Is "disliked", beaten" ,"surprised" not enough?
Is "disliked", beaten" ,"surprised" not enough?
My guess is their just buzzwords that catch the reader or viewers attention.
Also gets you ranked higher with with assorted A.I algorithms.
Also gets you ranked higher with with assorted A.I algorithms.
SSIGuy
An Islander Returned
Honestly, this kind of hyperbole is an issue across our society in general; not just game reviews. Frankly, HiddenX, I'm shocked and devastated that you would make such a brutal post that will send shockwaves through these forums!!
Vaelith
Lawful Evil Harbinger
Polarizing things is what gets your attention. In English language there are dozens of words to assign degrees of approval or disproval, but when you go to the internet, there's just no nuance, everything is 100 or 0; and to cope with it, everyone has grown kind of numb to these words as they have basically lost all meaning. I read these video titles like they're white noise on the TV.
dpc76
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So far I'm having a blast with the game. Despite the changes, it still has some of that Dragon Age charm to me.
I usually prefer more tactical battles, but the action combat is not bad here. Whereas Final Fantasy 16's action focus turned me off because combat got tedious with most enemies being damage sponges, this game gets is right with combat that is fast-paced with lots of abilities. It's actually fun to be in combat.
I'm fine with the high fantasy setting since the dark gritty style has been done to death. It's also nice to have a fantasy game with colors other than brown, gray and dark green. Though Veilguard is more colorful than past games, neither DA2 nor (especially) Inquisition was that dark or gritty. Really only Origins had that style.
The writing could be better, but isn't bothering me too much.
I agree with the video's final criticism mentioned regarding party members. It would have been more fun if you could swap between the characters in battle like in DA2.
This game is getting a ton of hate out there - it almost made be hold off on buying. Luckily it seems like most of the rage is overblown.
I usually prefer more tactical battles, but the action combat is not bad here. Whereas Final Fantasy 16's action focus turned me off because combat got tedious with most enemies being damage sponges, this game gets is right with combat that is fast-paced with lots of abilities. It's actually fun to be in combat.
I'm fine with the high fantasy setting since the dark gritty style has been done to death. It's also nice to have a fantasy game with colors other than brown, gray and dark green. Though Veilguard is more colorful than past games, neither DA2 nor (especially) Inquisition was that dark or gritty. Really only Origins had that style.
The writing could be better, but isn't bothering me too much.
I agree with the video's final criticism mentioned regarding party members. It would have been more fun if you could swap between the characters in battle like in DA2.
This game is getting a ton of hate out there - it almost made be hold off on buying. Luckily it seems like most of the rage is overblown.
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Aye it's enjoyable for what it is, but the writing is the main negative.
Like I said before on various threads it's Fantasy Mass Effect.
Sadly it's not looking like a commerical success. Hasn't even sold a million copies.
Like I said before on various threads it's Fantasy Mass Effect.
Sadly it's not looking like a commerical success. Hasn't even sold a million copies.
Agreed. If the game had of released 5 years ago without the development troubles people might have been more forgiving. But 10 years to get an okay game is going to be problematic. Hopefully this doesn't mean the IP is going to go on ice for a very long time.
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If the same people are making the next one, I wouldn’t mind seeing it go on ice at this point. Too much injection of their own personal agendas into the game. I’ll still play this one eventually though…at least that’s my thought right now…
But yeah, can’t imagine how this thing is possibly profitable with the numbers we’ve seen. Maybe if it’s a huge hit on consoles?
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dpc76
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I'm not sure how much I trust those numbers floating around about the game's sales. The main source being quoted for the information is a Youtuber who hates the game and whose entire channel is about inflammatory culture war issues. In fact, if you search for Veilguard on Youtube, almost all the videos are about culture war issues, which might be turning people away from the game if they only read the headlines. You have to dig to find a review where they are offering an objective view of the game and not just ranting about the Taash character.
The game also came out days after the newest Call of Duty game, which is usually the biggest selling franchise every year. It may have sold better if it was released in the summer where there was less competition. Holidays sales will also likely help it.
The game also came out days after the newest Call of Duty game, which is usually the biggest selling franchise every year. It may have sold better if it was released in the summer where there was less competition. Holidays sales will also likely help it.
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We know it wasn’t a great seller on Steam by today’s standards, from looking at the peak players. Hogwarts Legacy had 10X the peak. Could be some people playing on EA’s platform, but not enough to make those numbers look good I suspect. vginsights estimates 553k sold on Steam which is pretty bad for a game like this. BG3 sold 5 times that many copies before the game was even released.
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I'm not basing it on that Youtube video but other sites that give estimates.
The highest number was 700,000 after a week of being released.
When you add console numbers it's higher probably a million.
BioWare wont be releasing any DLC so that will affect future sales as well.
Correct given recent RPG games even a million in one month is nothing to celebrate.
Given it cost $200 million to develop it will probably make even at best.
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Don’t think there’s any way it’s come even remotely close to breaking even at this point. If we assume it’s sold 700k copies on Steam at $60 apiece (both very optimistic estimates considering it’s cheaper in many countries etc) then, after Steam’s cut, that’s around $30M revenue. Then add in whatever they sold on console (who knows) and in the EA PC store (not much).
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dpc76
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Not all gamers buy their games at launch though. Veilguard was the first launch game I bought since BG3, and before that I cannot even remember the last I bought on day one. Some people might also wait to see if any holiday sales (which I usually do) since it's a few weeks away.
I also wouldn't underestimate its console sales. Unlike previous games in the franchise, this one has less PC-oriented controls. I have a PS5 and it is being promoted heavily on there. There is also Epic, where I bought my copy, and Xbox sales to consider. If Epic would end up doing one of those coupon sales in December, there could be a surge from that.
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It is now down to number 10 in the Steam global sales table and it has only been out a week and a half. It is below BG3. It is below Age of Wonders 4. It doesn't have any planned expansions/DLC to improve the general reception. DAI:I had a whole bunch of DLC to keep people interested. The only thing in it's favour is large RPG's do tend to have a long sales tail and when they do cut the price it will sell some more units. If course there are other platforms - that is true of all games however. When guessing performance of games you can compare a single platform to do a pretty good estimate of overall performance assuming it is available on all platforms at launch.
It's the first DA game I didn't buy promptly - I just did not like what I saw. Fundamentally, I didn't *want* a "DA mass effect" game - not sure why they thought people did? I'll get it on a sale - which will likely be sooner rather than later ;-)
I am thinking about just subscibing to EA pro. Probably in Jan or Feb once a couple of patches hit. I just want to judge the game for myself. DA:I I enjoyed in parts but hated the MMO aspects which this one doesn't have so I may actually enjoy it more than DA:I.
So I'm now about 30 hours in.
If I had to sum up the game's shortcomings, I would say that immersion just doesn't happen. It's all just too shallow, like a light-hearted popcorn-movie.
That's why for me it isn't a fantasy Mass Effect. While ME also had streamlined mechanics, it had a captivating plot, interesting characters etc., which DA:V (so far) doesn't have.
I'm also not a fan of the combat. While I think a good foundation is there, I dislike the restriction to 3/4 preselected abilities. I also hate how they made damage types (fire, cold etc.) a key element of combat. Every enemy is vulnerable to one damage type and resistant to another. So how difficult - or rather tedious - an encounter is heavily depends on the selected abilities and weapons.
If I had to sum up the game's shortcomings, I would say that immersion just doesn't happen. It's all just too shallow, like a light-hearted popcorn-movie.
That's why for me it isn't a fantasy Mass Effect. While ME also had streamlined mechanics, it had a captivating plot, interesting characters etc., which DA:V (so far) doesn't have.
I'm also not a fan of the combat. While I think a good foundation is there, I dislike the restriction to 3/4 preselected abilities. I also hate how they made damage types (fire, cold etc.) a key element of combat. Every enemy is vulnerable to one damage type and resistant to another. So how difficult - or rather tedious - an encounter is heavily depends on the selected abilities and weapons.
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