Dragon Age 2 - Gone Gold!

[Couchpotato]

Since where talking about Piranha Bytes wheres the new info on there new game? Its been months and not a single news bit has come out. Only a few forum post saying it will be different because they learned a few lessons from risen.

On a side not wasn't scared 3 announced by kalyscpo. I know part one wasn't bad but the second was a mess,

 

[DArtagnan]

Well, you probably meant Gothic 1 only because in Gothic 2 you are in fact being told within the first two minutes of the game that you are THE superhero out to save the universe with endless heroic deeds, namely by finding the eye of Innos and by kicking some dragon ass .

No, I meant both of them.

As I said, I don't want to be a superhero without some kind of plausible underpinning.

The Gothics have a very low-key way of evolving the story - and I find the characters to be extremely human and quite believable. So, it's not the fact that I'm a bad-ass that's the problem in most other games, but that it's so contrived and Hollywood-ish.

I like the way Gothics start out by kicking your ass and you have to work to become powerful, and slowly build your way towards a position of respect.

It's still just a game, obviously, and you're doing things no real person could ever do - but I find it easier to relate to.

But I understand that most people are fans of the Hollywood approach, where your character is basically Rambo from the moment he enters the scene. But it's not really for me.

 

[Couchpotato]

Apparently it looks like bioware is trying to control info and editorials on there games. Don't believe me here is a link. http://www.incgamers.com/News/26984/bioware-moves-to-control-fans-voices. Gotta love having to sign a contract just to get interviews and info on the game.

 

[Gorath]

Apparently it looks like bioware is trying to control info and editorials on there games. Don't believe me here is a link. http://www.incgamers.com/News/26984/bioware-moves-to-control-fans-voices. Gotta love having to sign a contract just to get interviews and info on the game.

Totally understandable from EA's point of view. They're investing many million $ and are trying to maintain as much control over editorial output as they can possibly get. Of course they're not interested in critical voices.

IncGamers' reaction is correct.

 

[Couchpotato]

Totally understandable from EA's point of view. They're investing many million $ and are trying to maintain as much control over editorial output as they can possibly get. Of course they're not interested in critical voices.

IncGamers' reaction is correct.

And it just shows you how there is to much corporate bullshit is in today's world.
To many contracts and clauses on what you can do and say. I don't envy the journalists.

 

[Captain Buzzkill]

And it just shows you how there is to much corporate bullshit is in today's world.
To many contracts and clauses on what you can do and say. I don't envy the journalists.

It's not just Bioware or the video gamez industry. This is boilerplate across just about any market.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

Totally understandable from EA's point of view. They're investing many million $ and are trying to maintain as much control over editorial output as they can possibly get. Of course they're not interested in critical voices.

Not only this.

But they also tried to instrumentalise fans by providing them with a form for an online petition against the possible ban of Dead Space here in Germany.

This like lobbying.

 

[crpgnut]

Quote from actiontrip:

Ultimately, folks, an "RPG" is what BioWare says it is. Such is their grip on the genre, a grip that's been made so strong by the overwhelming approval of the majority audience.

Quote from CouchPotatoe:
This is from another site called actiontrip and I agree with his post. ME2 set the new trend and were stuck with it.

I'd say Bethesda Softworks has a pretty big say on what RPG means too. I think they can go toe-to-toe with Bioware on sales and any other measure you'd like to use. I'm not disagreeing with the actiontrip dude, but I think he excluded the other powerhouse in the crpg world.

I'm definitely NOT saying that Bethesda's dialogue is as good. It's not their forte. Their lore is top-notch, but dialogue? Nada. Obsidian was a blessing for FNV.

 

[Gorath]

And it just shows you how there is to much corporate bullshit is in today's world.
To many contracts and clauses on what you can do and say. I don't envy the journalists.

The contract is for fan sites, not press.

 

[Couchpotato]

The contract is for fan sites, not press.

Well Im sure it works both ways. Don't really care it just it smells as I said crap. Yet the company just proves what jackasses they are. Sites need donations and sometime ads to maintain server cost.

 

[Anderson]

You guys are so negative, it makes me sad.

 

[Drithius]

Not so much negative as simply disappointed in Bioware's continued direction and the overall lack of quality RPG's on the market.

 

[Anderson]

You say tomato...

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

... I say ketchup ...

 

[rich ruffo]

Bioware is the poster boy of what the TYPICAL RPG in North America should be And it sucks.You say negative , i call it the truth. Dont worry guys The Witcher is coming in a couple of months and its going to be great.

 

[Couchpotato]

Bioware is the poster boy of what the TYPICAL RPG in North America should be And it sucks.You say negative , i call it the truth. Dont worry guys The Witcher is coming in a couple of months and its going to be great.

Quit trying to convert some people they will continually see the positive of everything. Just like others will see the negative side. One thing that I hate are comments that say its bioware they cant do me wrong. A name means nothing and they have let others down. Its a company and they will make decisions other may not agree with.

 

[Dasale]

Not so much negative as simply disappointed in Bioware's continued direction and the overall lack of quality RPG's on the market.

I don't have this feeling at all, since some years I feel the PC game market blessed with many interesting RPG like I haven't seen since a long time. It's possible that some older gameplay values are weak today but overall I feel there's a good amount of good quality and interesting RPG, for me it's he release year of The Witcher that started this period:

• Eschalon Book 1
• Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer
• The Witcher
• Avernum 5
• Drakensang: The Dark Eye
• King's Bounty: The Legend
• Fallout 3 (probably and perhaps with few mods)
• Borderlands
• Dragon Age: Origins
• Avernum 6
• Risen
• Torchlight
• Din's Curse
• Drakensang: The River of Time
• Venetica
• Dragon Age: Awakening
• Eschalon Book 2
• Dragon Knight Saga
• Fallout New Vegas

Not the list of "perfect" RPG but interesting and worthy RPG, well I haven't played them all, most but few that I played at least a few hours to get a feeling from it. And I don't list those I never tried yet like Knights of the Chalice, Farewell to Dragons, Ultima VI Project: The False Prophet, Nehrim: At Fates Edge, Mount & Blade, Mount & Blade: Warband

 

[JuliusMagnus]

I keep hearing the complaint about tired Bioware writing and story. Who does writing and story better than Bioware?

I don't get it. I've played lots of rpgs, but I've also missed many of them. Yes, Bioware has clichés in their games and some stuff gets to be a pattern. But all crpgs are pretty much vamping on clichés.

Can someone tell me who they think does better writing than Bioware? I'd like to hear opinions on this. Bioware is far from perfect, but IMO they are the best out there.

With writing, I always wonder what writing is actually meant. The main quest? Dialogue?

I prefer the backstory writing of the Morrowind era Bethesda.

I'm not saying their dialogue, quest writing or code writing were the best. But I'm talking about the backstories (books, placenames and immaterial culture), the story behind the geography, the culture and the history. Most Morrowind writers have moved on and if they are involved with any further project they would be as freelancers. MK is involved in Skyrim. Rolston is working on Kingdoms of Amalur. I don't know if Ted Peterson will be involved.

Exploration is important to me in an RPG, that's why backstory writing is the most important to me.

In recent games the backstory writing of Obsidian really brought the Mojave (and even the surrounding areas) to life for me.

 

[zadokAllen]

Dont worry guys The Witcher is coming in a couple of months and its going to be great.

Yes, let`s be positive!

 

[Dasale]

With writing, I always wonder what writing is actually meant. The main quest? Dialogue?

I prefer the backstory writing of the Morrowind era Bethesda.

I'm not saying their dialogue, quest writing or code writing were the best. But I'm talking about the backstories (books, placenames and immaterial culture), the story behind the geography, the culture and the history. Most Morrowind writers have moved on and if they are involved with any further project they would be as freelancers. MK is involved in Skyrim. Rolston is working on Kingdoms of Amalur. I don't know if Ted Peterson will be involved.

Exploration is important to me in an RPG, that's why backstory writing is the most important to me.
…

For me too the exploration is an important part I like in RPG and for sure it's not a constant high value in modern RPG. Yes books are part of it, but the problem I have with them is to be disconnected to the gameplay, just my own feeling. I really appreciate the wink in Venetica to books in RPG, it's a wink a bit insolent but I felt it very founded. In general books in RPG are very tedious writing often quite boring to read. So books in Venetica made it "à la Borges" without the talent but for nice winks, there are useful books but for other it's just a very short description of the book itself.

For books I do agree that few of Morrowind books was top quality and are exception of the rule of boring books in RPG. But many was average but pleasant and that's better than most often in RPG, and some was boring crap. There's one series making a novella, which was top SF adventure and I could bet it's a writing made "à la J. Vance". The two series describing two point of view of the same story was the other very good one I remember, not as top than the SF adventure but quite good anyway.

For me there are many points behind the writing in video games:

• The first is definitely the plots, the main plot, the alternate plots and the secondary plots. This includes necessary a design of the world background and of the characters.
• The dialogs are very important too, the art is to build the story, the characters and the world through the dialogs (no real need of books) and keep short each trunk the player have to read.
• But another important point is just the players choices related to dialogs, with their links to the alternate or parallel branches. How are presented and highlighted those choices is very important and that is definitely very close to pure writing.
• Books could be important but they need such a top pure quality writing that it's probably the more difficult part. I also consider that make the world background live though dialogs more captivating than through books (I mean in RPG), even when it's just the old man telling you a tale or something. But a RPG with books not too badly written is always a good plus to the mood.
• The case of quests is an interesting point. For sure a quest should be related to a story, the story of the quest, and that's a part of the plots and dialogs I mentioned. And from that point of view the writing is important. But the quest gameplay and the merging of the gameplay and the story is at least as much important, in my opinion it is even more important. For me a good counter example is Oblivion, many quests are good stories with poor gameplay and a very bad merging of the quest gameplay and its story. It's a lot like if some writers write them and closed it. Then gameplay designers get them, get embarrassed with them to design the gameplay and the result is often bad.
• That lead me to the secondary point of merging of gameplay and story/stories. It's a major point, not pure writing, but it's like the writing of a game.