Dragon Age: The Veilguard - A woke disaster? Yep!

[byuu]

Woke or not, it's going to be a piece of shit anyway.

I don't know why anyone still cares after DA2, which removed anything fun from DA1 because it was too much work.

 

[Ginger Piglet]

Here I stand, in a vacuum of shit writing and no fun
Wishing that, I didn't have to play this with my wife's son
Going home, I just can't play this game
I really should have saved my cash, saved my cash
Shunned this trash, shunned this trash

(Chorus)
Bioware, when the writing's gone and you can't go on
It's Bioware, when you're staying woke but you're going broke
It's hard to bear, having to pander to danger hairs
Bioware, when your romance sucks and your game is chucked
It's Bioware, when you're set up to fail by FUCKING WHITE MALES
It's hard to bear, with soy boys in charge you're going nowhere

Night and day, angry shitposts in front of me
Even with, a trans lez dwarf nonbinary PC
Going home, I just can't play this game
I really should have saved my cash, saved my cash
Shunned this trash, shunned this trash

(Repeat chorus ad infinitum or until your voice gives out.)

 

[IdaRita]

A few friends, including my roommate were interested in this series recently. I only watched them playing, but the series did not striked me as very SJW. Yeah, we were joking about Thedas having ridiculously high population of gay people in Inquisition, but that's all. It still present main conflicts as gray, don't preach and treat main religion/faith with complexity.

My silly fangirl heart only hopes we will see at least cameo of Cullen and this director is not going to butcher the character because he is Straight White Male.

 

[ghostmice]

The last good dragon age game was awakening and that was just an expansion of origins, da2 was shit and had an incredibly forced grey morality, dai was "run around and collect elfroot while characters talk at you about whats happening in the world. Also the elves are the reason everything sucks." Rise of the dread wolf is just gonna be more shitting on the past games and solas talking at you about elf history. They should've made an origins HD remake instead of this.

 

[Just Some Other Guy]

1 was fun to play a few times. Played 2 and didn't think it was terrible. Then again I pirated it, would never buy it. Tried (pirated) DAI, but the over the top console feel killed it not more than 10 minutes into it for me.

 

[DNA_JACKED]

Bioware is dead. Anthem is a Destiny 2 clone from a majorly single player development house. Red Dead 2 is going to take a ton of online players once co-op story comes out. Division 2 might take more as well. Also nobody trusts Bioware anymore to build decent universes and stories anymore. Andromeda fucked Bioware's rep and even the most ardent lovers of the developer couldn't muster a defense after that. How it has any fans left mystifies me. How DA has fans after 2 and Inquisition (which The Witcher 3 raped with a greatsword) mystifies me as well.

Also remember, every single EA game is required to have a multiplayer component to it. CD Projekt Red pitched Witcher 3 to EA, but EA declined because it had no MP component. It's why they fucked up Dead Space 3. With every competent person on Anthem (Bioware cannot afford for it to fail, they'd be fucking idiotic to let any talent go to another project) this is either going to be an asset flip with a huge MP component ala Fallout 76 or mobile.

The cause for concern is that Bioware needs to 100% have all guns firing for Anthem or they're fucking dead. They don't have the time or talent to spare for another DA game. They've already destroyed Mass Effect and they don't care if they destroy DA with a mediocre product as long as it's a win or gives more money to Anthem development.

Also don't give me 'well maybe Anthem development is almost done'. No. Anthem development is not done until its last DLC is out. If Bioware is shifting talent now, they're dumb as fuck. Anthem is do or die for Bioware. EA has killed studios for far less fuck ups than what Bioware has done.

Make no mistake, if this is out before Anthem, it's a cash grab for money to put into Anthem. If it comes out AFTER Anthem, Bioware has lost faith and it's one last hurrah before EA puts them on the corpse pile. I don't really know how anyone who knows about Bioware's predicament can be remotely optimistic about the quality of this title.

I hate to tell you, but bioware's days are numbered regardless. Even if anthem is good, EA will simply shuffle Bioware onto another crazy project, and keep doing that until Bioware falls.

It's how EA works, buy a studio, let them do their thing for a game or 2, then slowly start turning the screws on them, resulting in games that are less true to what the fans want (ME3), until eventually the studio releases a poorly made game (Andromeda), at which point the studio will be shuffled off to a different IP (anthem) before eventually being shut down completely. Wildwood, pandemic, maxis, bullfrog, the pattern is very strong with EA.

The moment Bioware was unable to create perfect acclaim with Mass Effect 3, it was all over, the writing was on the wall. Bioware was a marked studio from then on, the people that made the studio what it was jumped ship eons ago. Inquisition and Andromeda have shown the current employees are a bunch of SJWs, and the problem has only gotten worse over time. I predict Anthem will bomb, hard, and Bioware will be closed down over it.

 

[RomanesEuntDomus]

The moment Bioware was unable to create perfect acclaim with Mass Effect 3, it was all over, the writing was on the wall. Bioware was a marked studio from then on, the people that made the studio what it was jumped ship eons ago. Inquisition and Andromeda have shown the current employees are a bunch of SJWs, and the problem has only gotten worse over time. I predict Anthem will bomb, hard, and Bioware will be closed down over it.

I strongly disagree on two small technicalities:
Any studio that is acquired by EA lives on borrowed time from then on. As you said yourself, they are allowed to do their thing, however EA is going to interfere more and more over time and ultimately, they get put in charge of ever more harebrained projects until they inevitably fail and get dimantled. They might not be closed down, sometimes, they are just downsized into oblivion until they exist in name only (like EA Origins).

 

[Ginger Piglet]

I hate to tell you, but bioware's days are numbered regardless. Even if anthem is good, EA will simply shuffle Bioware onto another crazy project, and keep doing that until Bioware falls.

It's how EA works, buy a studio, let them do their thing for a game or 2, then slowly start turning the screws on them, resulting in games that are less true to what the fans want (ME3), until eventually the studio releases a poorly made game (Andromeda), at which point the studio will be shuffled off to a different IP (anthem) before eventually being shut down completely. Wildwood, pandemic, maxis, bullfrog, the pattern is very strong with EA.

The moment Bioware was unable to create perfect acclaim with Mass Effect 3, it was all over, the writing was on the wall. Bioware was a marked studio from then on, the people that made the studio what it was jumped ship eons ago. Inquisition and Andromeda have shown the current employees are a bunch of SJWs, and the problem has only gotten worse over time. I predict Anthem will bomb, hard, and Bioware will be closed down over it.

Also Origin. After Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part 2 came out, the company was pretty much on its last legs so they were bought by EA in order to make Ultima VIII. It was after this that Richard Garriott decided to attempt an MMO in the form of Ultima Online. EA's management really didn't like this but let him do it. Besides, they wanted to spend the money on Wing Commander Prophecy, which they saw as more bankable than any of the Ultimas. Ultima Online was a success, and this made EA pissed, so they basically sabotaged Ultima IX and used it as an excuse to close them down.

The fact Wing Commander Prophecy flopped didn't help either.

 

[DNA_JACKED]

Also Origin. After Ultima VII and Ultima VII Part 2 came out, the company was pretty much on its last legs so they were bought by EA in order to make Ultima VIII. It was after this that Richard Garriott decided to attempt an MMO in the form of Ultima Online. EA's management really didn't like this but let him do it. Besides, they wanted to spend the money on Wing Commander Prophecy, which they saw as more bankable than any of the Ultimas. Ultima Online was a success, and this made EA pissed, so they basically sabotaged Ultima IX and used it as an excuse to close them down.

The fact Wing Commander Prophecy flopped didn't help either.

Maxis, Mythic entertainment, Origin systems, Bullfrong, Westwood, DreamWorks interactive, Pandemic, Black box, Pandemic, Playfish, NuFX, Waystone games, and Visceral. All killed by papa EA. Soon Bioware will join that list of dead studios, and it wouldnt surprise me if EA managed to kill Criterion by association one of these days.

 

[DangerousGas]

In fairness, I genuinely wasn't expecting the whole 'Elves are why everything's shit' angle they played in DA:I - the fact that it's morphed from 'poor oppressed little knife-ears' to 'actually, no they are massive cunts as a species, and humans deus vulted them into submission' was a bit of a blindsiding experience, especially given the hamfisted pandering to the more-lefty-than-thou crowd.

If they can hold together enough of a coherent narrative that ties in with the extant lore, it could possibly work well. Fen'Harel had the potential to be an interesting antagonist, although that only really came to light in the DLC (because of course it fucking did, you shower of money-grubbing arsehats). That, however, is a gigantic towering 'if', with its foundations firmly rooted in highly corrosive quicksand.

My hopes are not high, but I can dream, I suppose.

 

[Mola Ram]

It has an official title. And a logo. Oh, such a logo.



My hopes, which were not high, are now drifting toward the Challenger Deep.

 

[A Very Big Fish]

The last Bioware game I enjoyed was Mass Effect 2. I have no faith in this technicolor shite.

 

[Mola Ram]

The last Bioware game I enjoyed was Mass Effect 2. I have no faith in this technicolor shite.

I'm a little against the grain when it comes to BioWare's collapse. I liked ME3 just fine (though by the time I played it the Extended Cut had been released, so I'm sure that's a big part of my lack of vitriol toward it) and I mostly enjoyed Inquisition despite its obvious problems. DA2 is one of the biggest flubs from a major franchise I've ever seen, and Andromeda and Anthem were both obvious disasters ... but despite that there's a small part of me that was hoping this was going to turn out okay.

But it's hard to keep hoping in the face of multiple project leads leaving, rumors that the game has already been torn down to the foundation and rebuilt, and this godawful decade long development cycle. The social justice shrieking from the developers is just the icing on the cake.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

4 fucking years with no news. Any person who cared for DA after 3 as long since found other shit to be interested with. The new logo looks like a title card to furry porn. It's only missing the tagline "are you ready to take the knot?"

 

[Cantercoin]

It has an official title. And a logo. Oh, such a logo.

View attachment 3353134

My hopes, which were not high, are now drifting toward the Challenger Deep.

 

[Leaf Wage Slave]

I'm a little against the grain when it comes to BioWare's collapse. I liked ME3 just fine (though by the time I played it the Extended Cut had been released, so I'm sure that's a big part of my lack of vitriol toward it) and I mostly enjoyed Inquisition despite its obvious problems. DA2 is one of the biggest flubs from a major franchise I've ever seen, and Andromeda and Anthem were both obvious disasters ... but despite that there's a small part of me that was hoping this was going to turn out okay.

But it's hard to keep hoping in the face of multiple project leads leaving, rumors that the game has already been torn down to the foundation and rebuilt, and this godawful decade long development cycle. The social justice shrieking from the developers is just the icing on the cake.

I’d still argue that with ME3 - prior the Extended Cut - is that the game was… alright until the last 5 minutes, story wise. Most of, if not all of, the War Assets didn’t really factor into anything as long as you got the number high enough, and while the multiplayer was actually great, I hated how you had to play it to keep your War Score up - least they made an app to do that…

DA2, I’m gonna say something dumb - I liked the first 2 Acts of that game. It, ironically enough for how linear that games story was, falls off the rails entirely in the third act, and I haven’t seen a game recycle the same map that many times in a while, but considering that game was pumped out within a year whin DA-O Expansions were still being made, I admittedly cut it some slack it probably doesn’t deserve.

Inquisition is where things definitely fell off the rails for Bioware. The game felt like it was designed to be an MMO, but the shifted it to “Open World Single Player”, and it shows in how empty and lifeless the maps feel - though, again, I actually liked the multiplayer. Andromeda and Anthem honestly both speak for themselves in terms of lack of quality.

As is, DA4 is likely going to flop hard on arrival - to the shock of no one, Bioware continues to pander to people who don’t spend money on anything they bitch about. Any fans that were waiting for this game have likely moved on in the almost decade since Inquisition, and I doubt there’s enough left to buy the game full price to make back the budget.

 

[Mola Ram]

I’d still argue that with ME3 - prior the Extended Cut - is that the game was… alright until the last 5 minutes, story wise. Most of, if not all of, the War Assets didn’t really factor into anything as long as you got the number high enough, and while the multiplayer was actually great, I hated how you had to play it to keep your War Score up - least they made an app to do that…

This is something else the Extended Cut spared me. In addition to the new cutscenes, it drastically reduced the EMS necessary to unlock every ending. With the DLC, a relatively thorough playthrough made both the multiplayer and the app unnecessary.

There were a lot of lost opportunities (the Rachni choice says hello!) but I liked what was there very much, and it easily had the best gameplay of the series.

DA2, I’m gonna say something dumb - I liked the first 2 Acts of that game. It, ironically enough for how linear that games story was, falls off the rails entirely in the third act, and I haven’t seen a game recycle the same map that many times in a while, but considering that game was pumped out within a year whin DA-O Expansions were still being made, I admittedly cut it some slack it probably doesn’t deserve.

There are aspects of DA2 I think work very well. Most of the characters are pretty well written (Anders being an obvious and painful exception) and the idea of a gameworld that is limited in space but covers a long stretch of time is an interesting one. But at the end of the day the recycled maps, lack of meaningful decisions, and largely unmemorable quests outweigh the good stuff.

The Legacy DLC was really good, though. The less said about the Felicia Day DLC, the better.

Inquisition is where things definitely fell off the rails for Bioware. The game felt like it was designed to be an MMO, but the shifted it to “Open World Single Player”, and it shows in how empty and lifeless the maps feel - though, again, I actually liked the multiplayer. Andromeda and Anthem honestly both speak for themselves in terms of lack of quality.

It's amazing that there's so much filler in DAI. The story quests all told cover maybe 12 hours of gameplay. The personal quests add maybe another 4. There are a handful of interesting sidequests like the haunted villa. But a thorough playthrough will run you over a hundred hours, and for shockingly little payoff. For a game that supposedly took a lot of inspiration from Skyrim it's abundantly clear that BioWare has no idea how to make an open world that's actually engaging and not just a dreary sandbox with no toys.

As is, DA4 is likely going to flop hard on arrival - to the shock of no one, Bioware continues to pander to people who don’t spend money on anything they bitch about. Any fans that were waiting for this game have likely moved on in the almost decade since Inquisition, and I doubt there’s enough left to buy the game full price to make back the budget.

I knew we were in trouble when Patrick Weekes, who did not strike me as especially nutty, came out as "nonbinary" and decided to sport a shock of blue clown hair on his schlubby, middle-aged phiz. That the project lead for Dreadwolf is a troon is ... well, totally expected at this point. And not at all a sign of trouble, I'm sure!

 

[PuffyGroundCloud]

This is something else the Extended Cut spared me. In addition to the new cutscenes, it drastically reduced the EMS necessary to unlock every ending. With the DLC, a relatively thorough playthrough made both the multiplayer and the app unnecessary.

There were a lot of lost opportunities (the Rachni choice says hello!) but I liked what was there very much, and it easily had the best gameplay of the series.



There are aspects of DA2 I think work very well. Most of the characters are pretty well written (Anders being an obvious and painful exception) and the idea of a gameworld that is limited in space but covers a long stretch of time is an interesting one. But at the end of the day the recycled maps, lack of meaningful decisions, and largely unmemorable quests outweigh the good stuff.

The Legacy DLC was really good, though. The less said about the Felicia Day DLC, the better.



It's amazing that there's so much filler in DAI. The story quests all told cover maybe 12 hours of gameplay. The personal quests add maybe another 4. There are a handful of interesting sidequests like the haunted villa. But a thorough playthrough will run you over a hundred hours, and for shockingly little payoff. For a game that supposedly took a lot of inspiration from Skyrim it's abundantly clear that BioWare has no idea how to make an open world that's actually engaging and not just a dreary sandbox with no toys.



I knew we were in trouble when Patrick Weekes, who did not strike me as especially nutty, came out as "nonbinary" and decided to sport a shock of blue clown hair on his schlubby, middle-aged phiz. That the project lead for Dreadwolf is a troon is ... well, totally expected at this point. And not at all a sign of trouble, I'm sure!

Too bad before he become “non-binary” he was a decent writer in Mass Effect.
I should’ve saw the writings on the wall

 

[Miller]

Imagine being an old married man and having to go by "they/them" to keep your place in the company.

It has an official title. And a logo. Oh, such a logo.

View attachment 3353134

My hopes, which were not high, are now drifting toward the Challenger Deep.

Bisexual lighting and subtitle glowing. It looks more like a logo for a generic cyberpunk tranny dating sim game than a fantasy one.

 

[Mola Ram]

Bisexual lighting and subtitle glowing. It looks more like a logo for a generic cyberpunk tranny dating sim game than a fantasy one.

I doubt that the fact it was announced at the beginning of Pride Month is a coincidence.