I think it was fairly received. It is a fun little game, but it is so hilariously rushed and a step back from the first that it is extremely noticeable.
I still preferred it over the bore of Inquisition though.
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Laidlaw: Dragon Age 4's dev team was reduced to "a very small skeleton crew” [UP: ominous tweet]
- Thread starter Nirolak
- Start date
I think it was fairly received. It is a fun little game, but it is so hilariously rushed and a step back from the first that it is extremely noticeable.
I still preferred it over the bore of Inquisition though.
Nope. It was very fairly maligned.
I felt it did have some neat, possibly brave, ideas. Terrible execution all round.
All of this is moot because if anthem doesn't break the bank & review walls the entire studio will be put on cleanup & doing whatever it takes to get that game to what EA deems as good enough. Something like a DA that is going to have its GaaS put into a mode players may never touch will be put behind the backburner
Kind of damned if you do, damned if you dont. If Anthem stumbles out of the gate, all of bioware will be tasked with fixing it. If Anthem is massively successful, EA will shift anyone who is working on DA to anthem DLC and Anthem 2. I just dont see modern EA putting out another 40 hour single player RPG anytime soon.
I've noticed something, maybe. I want to emphasize that my memory is not the best and I might be mistaken. But I think Patrick's account description previously listed him as Lead Writer on Dragon Age, or something to that effect. It currently says Writer at EA BioWare.
Damn. Game wasn't even given a chance if this is their way of saying they stopped. Guess with this, Bioware is basically dead to me.
DICE Sweden is unique among the EA studios in so far that one of the big decision makers at the top of EA's hierarchy was a former member of the studio. This means that the Devs have connections that can bypass the usual maximum shareholder value creation and focus testing barriers that get set up by management to some extent. That's how Battlefield 1 with it's WW1 setting was greenlit in the first place despite massive scepticism by management, and likely also the reason they got another shot at Mirror's Edge at a time where EA had already largely transitioned to dropping development of all non-sports AA titles in their entirety (look e.g. at stuff like Shadows of the Damned or Brütal Legends under EA's old CEO). It would also explain why BF5 is quite unusual when it comes to modern AAA WW2 shooters (no playable US at all at launch, no focus on the western front 44-45 from an US perspective to the exclusion of everything else, Single Player campaign content for the German side. Basically everything that say CoD WW2 didn't do as it was a perfect example of a by the numbers WW2 title). They have the highest latitude of all the EA studios by far when it comes to creative freedom.
The DICE Sweden Devs talked about how Battlefield1 was greenlit quite extensively and openly in post-announcement interviews for BF1, I recommend checking them out, they are quite enlightening.
Sadly this sort of creative freedom is not afforded to any other EA studio (at all).
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It was enjoyable. It certainly had better a better story and combat system than DAI. If it had a much bigger budget it could have been a classic.
Wrong. Mike Laidlaw and everyone else who worked on it didn't deserve the near-constant posts on BSN wishing they all be afflicted with cancer.
RIP Dragon Age team, you couldn't make DA into battle royale/competitive survival MP/GAAS enough.
On to Anthem possibly "flopping" at 10m sales and Bioware being shuttered for good.
On to Anthem possibly "flopping" at 10m sales and Bioware being shuttered for good.
Naw. It was 90's level reuse and recycle. And most importantly, noting like DAO. Neither was 3 for that matter.
I topic: really hope that the date of DA4 does not rest upon Anthem, because right now, it has bad mojo.
Yeap. Those wave base encounters, cut content, bugs. Yeah, the game was appropriately rated. Blame EA for allocating so little time for development.
Agreed.
It's also an great example of how... malleable gamer's criticism can be. DA2 got a lot of flack for its copy and paste level design, yet Mass Effect did not.
Please God no. I know this is just selfish of me, but I love Bioware and I don't want their games to be locked only on Microsoft's platform.
Is the option really only those two? Why can't I hope Anthem be a huge success or dragon age to continue without Microsoft? You talk as if it's a surefire thing.
I said the game got what it deserved. I didn't say the employee's.
Two very different things.
OP
OP
God, DA:O was so good. I enjoyed 2, despite its flaws. Inquisition just didn't appeal to me. I would LOVE a proper return to its roots with a DA4 that takes it back to what made Origins so amazing. This doesn't sound promising though.
...and I'm honestly not very excited about Anthem at this point, so hopefully they aren't riding solely on its success.
...and I'm honestly not very excited about Anthem at this point, so hopefully they aren't riding solely on its success.
You can do that in game.
That looks goofy as shit
Man, I kinda feel like replaying DA:I. Weird.
^^ Something about how fast his head whips back into frame just looks really silly.
I love DA2. Fight me.
When you consider they cranked out a 40 hour RPG in less than 18 months, I think it speaks to the talent at BioWare that it even turned out as well as it did.
I love DA2. Fight me.
When you consider they cranked out a 40 hour RPG in less than 18 months, I think it speaks to the talent at BioWare that it even turned out as well as it did.
Man, i really miss Dragon age... Dragon age, Fallout and Elder scrolls are my fav franchises. Not the best of times for me...
It's been said before but it should have been positioned as a spin-off / sidestory rather than a straight sequel to Origins. It could have been better positioned as the smaller-scoped and more action-focused companion to an RPG classic.
I liked it but if I'm honest, the ugly art direction, wave-based and shallow combat and pacing/structural issues with the story were rightly called out and still don't hold up.
I understand the need for EA to have a GaaS loot shooter to get on the Destiny crowd and try to steal players from Activision. I understand full well.
But to give it to the last EA studio to still have a identity, a style and a fan-base. Wich have nothing to do with GaaS loot shooters and thus jeopardize the making of games that this studio is known for seem really stupid for me.
They could have given Anthem to any other developpers they have access to and generate the same amount of hype if not more. But to bring Bioware into this... Fuck... Andromeda was handed to the C team because of Anthem and we know the result. And now, the next Dragon Age seems to be in danger too.
Anthem will maybe be a good game. I don't know. But i have the feeling EA is playing russian roulette with Bioware's head with this game. And i don't like that. I would have been fine with any other devs in EA's palm but not Bioware...
But to give it to the last EA studio to still have a identity, a style and a fan-base. Wich have nothing to do with GaaS loot shooters and thus jeopardize the making of games that this studio is known for seem really stupid for me.
They could have given Anthem to any other developpers they have access to and generate the same amount of hype if not more. But to bring Bioware into this... Fuck... Andromeda was handed to the C team because of Anthem and we know the result. And now, the next Dragon Age seems to be in danger too.
Anthem will maybe be a good game. I don't know. But i have the feeling EA is playing russian roulette with Bioware's head with this game. And i don't like that. I would have been fine with any other devs in EA's palm but not Bioware...
Why do you think it wasn't Bioware that came up with the basis of Anthem in the first place? It seems pretty unlikely that there's some nebulous part of EA coming up with franchises and just dishing them out to their developers on a whim.
EA was likely keen to get as many of their teams working on gaas titles as possible and this is what the Mass Effect team came up with. Development would have begun long before the release of Destiny and this was the way the industry was already going.
I do agree that this does look like it's a huge risk for Bioware's future, with titles like Destiny failing to be as successful as hoped I think Anthem will have to be something remarkable to stand out and even as a huge Bioware fanI don't really see it in this game. As it stands I'm about 80% certain I'm only going to get this game once the price drops significantly if at all and I think quite a few Bioware fans are like that. It'll be interesting if they can attract enough interest from outside the usual Bioware fanbase to make up for it.
If only.
It should've happened in '07. And maybe Pandemic would still be around today.
Well, i don't really think that EA specifically asked Bioware to do a game called Anthem or anything like that. What i think is that Bioware wanted to do a new IP, that would have probably been an action single player game in the vein of Mass Effect with mechas and such, but that EA swooped in and told them to turn it into the multiplayer open-world GaaS thingy that we've been presented.
That's what i think. Or more honestly : that's what i hope. If Bioware had the idea by themselves to do this game like that, at this level of ambition, that would mean to me that they are already lost. And i don't want that. I want to believe that there is still, somewhere, a part of Bioware that still want to make the games they are loved for.
Microsoft and Bioware do have a long history. KOTOR, arguably their best work, was a PC/Xbox exclusive. Jade Empire, too. It's kinda interesting how the two companies drifted apart because they were an excellent fit.
Hard to imagine if by some miracle Bioware managed to part ways with EA Microsoft would then pick them up, considering they've just acquired Obsidian (which I imagine over time will be built up to make AAA RPG games).
DA2 had an interesting idea/concept (i.e. a decade in a single city) which I hope will get revisited one day.
The whole execution of said idea? You know the rest...
The whole execution of said idea? You know the rest...
Damn it EA(and a couple of up top Bioware people), why can't you let them be. I get they don't sell 10+ million, but they're one of your only IP/Devs that's games were consistently growing sales wise. Maybe if you actually gave them enough resources and a long enough development cycle for once, they could put out the mega hit you want.
Does the possibility of MS buying BioWare even exist, legally?
Anyways, Dragon Age 2 was truly insulting in a number of ways but still has my favorite narrative and themes in the series, I loved the sword and sorcery-esque rise into power and the game would have been amazing if Kirkwall had been more akin to something like Novigrad. Had the devs had the time, budget and a decent engine I think we would have gotten something truly special.
Anyways, Dragon Age 2 was truly insulting in a number of ways but still has my favorite narrative and themes in the series, I loved the sword and sorcery-esque rise into power and the game would have been amazing if Kirkwall had been more akin to something like Novigrad. Had the devs had the time, budget and a decent engine I think we would have gotten something truly special.
