Dragon Age: Inquisition - Editorial @ GamesReviews

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Game Reviews shares their opinion on whether Dragon Age: Inquisition will be another big game disaster of 2014. Please keep the comments civil.

Is Bioware to blame for the probable failure of Dragon Age Inquisition?

It’s hard not to see a recent trend with Bioware’s games. First there was the 2012 controversy over Mass Effect 3, the last twenty minutes of which some believe ruined the entire franchise, not to mention the push on Dragon Age 2, which left a lot of fans wanting.

Finally, a certain Star Wars multi-player role playing game has been a massive fail in capital letters plastered over the studio, due largely to the choice to use an archaic subscription model and thus directly compete with both Eve Online and World of Warcraft. Essentially, it’s a death sentence for an MMO game.
Game sequels in general end up in failure

Game sequels in general end up in failure

It all points to one distinct problem; someone somewhere isn’t learning. The original Mass Effect was definitely not dark and gritty; it was bright, colorful, eccentric and fun. The sequels decided to throw this out the window and instead go for a dark and gritty space shooter with chest high walls and barely any RPG aspects.

Dragon Age Origins was huge; it had a depth of story and experience to rival the Elder Scrolls series and had deep character customization. Dragon Age II, by comparison, took shortcuts to finish production early and ship, a mistake that Bioware had previously avoided by giving up Knights of the Old Republic II because LucasArts was pressuring to have them rush production. The weird thing is they went on to make Mass Effect and forge a name for themselves because of that decision, but then made the same mistake with their own franchise.
More information.
 
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I'm hardly one to usually defend the new Bioware, but the Troll-o-meter on this article is off the charts.
 
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I don't see the problem here. I posted the Forbe articles about ESO were they said the same thing. I await the comments as I'm sure they will be hilarious.;)

Allow me the get ready my flame Shield in advance in though, and say I'm playing the game on release anyway. I'm actually looking forward to it.^^
 
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I don't see it as a troll article, it's the truth. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence knows that BioWare will screw the pooch on this one. DA2 and ME3 were garbage and with the doctors having jumped ship and EA sucking them dry and leaving them a dusty husk, there isn't any reason to think a miracle will happen and DA3 won't be a flop.

You can't pay me enough to play it. DA:O was one of my favorite games, but after DA2 I abandoned the series, as well as BioWare. There are far too many top quality CRPG coming out in the same time frame. Namely Witcher 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance, so yeah...there's that.
 
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They are not out yet. Considering the appetite of players who never have enough games to play, it leaves a window of opportunity for DA:I.
 
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DA2 was disappointing but ME3 was one of the best games of all time, along with ME2 (much better than ME1 which was only decent in my view). I went back and played DA1 and the lack of quality of DA2 really stood out by comparison. SWtOR doesn't really "count" in my book, the reason it is unfun to me is that it's an MMO. However, it is no longer true that everything they make is enjoyable to me so while I think DA3 will be good, I'm not at all certain.
 
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I don't really see DA: I as a "probable failure". It's got a decent chance of succeeding. In fact, it scored fairly well on the most expected RPG of 2014 poll here, which says a lot considering how skeptical people around here are when it comes to EA and BioWare.
 
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Yup, I'm cautious but optimistic...
 
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DA1 was successful because it was designed and intended to be a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate. To me Bioware was spot on, and wouldn't you know it the game was successful. If only they stuck to that formula and improved on it for DA2. That was what the fans expected and that is why the game was not well received when we found out that it was nothing life the first game.
 
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DA1 was successful because it was designed and intended to be a "spiritual successor" to Baldur's Gate.
I think a large part of the reason DA:O stands out so much among Bioware's other products in the last 10 years it that it was designed and intended to be a PC game.

KoTOR 1, Jade Empire, all 3 Mass Effects, and DA2 were designed for consoles. And it shows in all of them.
 
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ME3 was one of the best games of all time, along with ME2



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First of all, the Forbes article predicting another MMO with a $200+ million budget would fail is apples-to-oranges different than this anti-BioWare article with an obvious agenda.

Listen, I was just as pissed about Dragon Age 2 and the BS hype-machine for lame non-game projects, auctions, etc on the BioWare forums as everyone else. I considered the months around the DA2 release to be BioWare's low-point. ME2 & 3 weren't perfect games— but to me they were still very, very good and I enjoyed them immensely.

But at some point, folks need to move on. BioWare has done everything reasonable to address the criticism over the last couple of years and examine what went wrong. While they may not make a game that appeals to everyone (ME3), I seriously doubt they will release another half-assed project like DA2. They know what's at stake with DAI.

Unfortunately for Game Reviews, the writer of this article just took a lot of cred (if they had any) from them.

EDIT: "Author Bio: The article is being authored by an avid gamer and blogger Alfred Stallion. He love car games…" (record scratching sound)
 
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"If only they stuck to that formula and improved on it for DA2."

I am torn between the idea of sticking to a formula which works or branching out and trying something different. Formulas often get old and stale, but branching out sometimes doesn't work. I'm not sure whether or not DA2 fell flat due to trying to branch out or just due to poor overall execution, probably the latter. DA3 might be poorly done, too, or it might not.

When I replayed ME3 recently I was going to focus on the ending and ask myself if it was all that bad, because the first time I played it (when it was released) I thought the ending was okay. I was shocked at how amazingly great the rest of the game was up to that point, gameplay and storyline, up until that last long combat mission (before the ending). It's one of the few games which I will play a 3rd time at some point.
 
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Also saved Charlton Heston laughing in the face of apes ruling the planet. :)
 
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I'm hardly one to usually defend the new Bioware, but the Troll-o-meter on this article is off the charts.

Agreed.

While I don't care for some of their games lately, and I would ultimately call SWTOR a failure as a good MMORPG, their games pay for themselves, they profit, they sell a lot of units - and that is success.

Plus, everything about Inquisition that I've seen looks pretty good, so I'm not about to say it's going to fail. We'll see, but so far what I've seen is visually stunning. Whether it feels like a lame ass console game or a solid PC game can't be judged yet.
 
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I have to admit my first impression was more of a troll article as well. I was not thrilled with many things Bioware has done lately but still enjoyed their games and DAI looks good so far and plan on playing.

I don't think the subscription model is archaic either. Just because there are other types of of methods for getting money in an MMO doesn't make one archaic or better/worse. For example paying by cash for an item could be called archaic these days but it is still a useful and perfectly valid way to pay for many things, as are check and credit cards.
 
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"Is Bioware to blame for the probable failure of Dragon Age Inquisition?"
Game journalism at its finest. Because we all know devs need more ignorant hate channeled towards them, amirite?

I like how the article goes on to assume that "Bioware isn't learning". First of all BW was respectable even before DA:O and ME1 happened. Second, ME3 was better than ME2 (although not as good as ME1, granted). Lastly, anybody who thinks 20 minutes of awful writing/cinematics "ruined the trilogy" (80+ hours of decent & immersive gameplay) has issues or probably sees games as movies.

Never mind the sheer hypocrisy of bashing Bioware and not even touching EA except for a pat on the back at the end (because devs can't do PR and talk back, while EA is the one who handles interviews and media promotion…). Not a single word about how big Publishers are always squeezing devs so dry, that by the time a game is out, any talent the studio might've had the time to pour in, was diluted down to nearly nothing by the Publisher's Q&A and interests.

Wake up folk, it's not a coincidence that the Activision merger was such a dark time for Blizzard. Now that they've bought themselves out of it, Blizz is back to making games a little more for the players and a little less for their wallets. Any gamer who's been playing games for a while and does a bit of research on the industry can see that.

Bioware would be no different if they could buy out from being owned by EA. DA3 will be better than DA2, for the simple reason that EA will grant it the necessary time and budget.

TL;DR my main beef is how the article implies that games being rushed or turning out to be a disapointment, has all to do with Bioware, and nothing to do with EA.
 
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Seems my first comment was right. ;)
I await the comments as I'm sure they will be hilarious.
At least I got people to reply on the weekend, and all it took was one biased Bioware opinion article. The larger sites are right bait articles do work.:lol:
 
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Seems my first comment was right. ;)
At least I got people to reply on the weekend, and all it took was one biased Bioware opinion article. The larger sites are right bait articles do work.:lol:
lol well played, I think I'll come here more often ;-)

Just so there's no misunderstanding, everything I said was aimed at GamesReviews. RPGWatch is generally pretty respectful of devs and indies, which is cool in my book.
 
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