Dragon Age: Dreadwolf becomes The Veilguard

Gameplay looked pretty meh. Maybe a pick up on a sale a long way down the line, but it just didn't look compelling to me.

PCGamer have been absolutely rinsing it: www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/dragon-age-the-veilguards-gameplay-reveal-emphasises-just-how-terminally-out-of-touch-ea-and-bioware-have-become/

Which kinda makes sense, as the perfect RPG is Baldur's Gate or Planescape of some kind, not action nonsense. To PC Gamers anyhow.

Huh I started reading it a lot more as I was sick of everyone (well RPS and EG) attempting to be positive about everything, rather than critical.

I mean there's a very specific reason that's happening now. It's called Baldur's Gate 3 winning literally every award last year. Turns out you can have both crunchy tactical combat and sell well... So why put up with the compromises? If it's what you truly always wanted, but just played along with Mass Effect.

I'm glad a lot of people are looking forward to it after the gameplay video but it's pretty much the opposite of what I wanted so I'll skip it, for me Origins will continue to be the only one I've liked and I liked that a hell of a lot.

Bioware's biggest problem is that Larian has raised the bar so fucking high that even getting close is possibly more than they can manage.

Yeah I doubt there's anyone left at BioWare who could execute it anyway. But there is a whole trend that people are venting at, myself included and it's entirely understandable. It's probably particularly true of PCGamer, and old RPS.

But in the 00s a bunch of genres almost entirely vanished for a variety of reasons. The main ones being budgets and not fitting with the console market. There's that turn of the millennia sweet spot. Then a good 20 years of the likes of EA's executive teams going "Nah that entire genre can't be done anymore." "There's no market for it" "play it safe" etc. etc. And Baldur's Gate 3 was kind of a massive fuck you to all of that as it sold gangbusters on the consoles. Turns out you can go for rich writing, good graphics and mechanically deep + interesting. Plus actually advance the craft of making games with something new. It's not just a 90s throw back. Also Disco Elysium, Pillars and Divinity Original Sin all hinted in this direction, Larian just made it all work and sell.

So a bunch of people having been told they can't actually have what they wanted, suddenly got it again and have gone full fuck you on the sugar rush. Almost like you don't need to compromise.

See also squad tactics games (then XCOM came back and it was like looking into the face of god), or Immersive Sims (then Dishonoured and Prey, so I'm also riddled with worry by MS). Nobody's really re-invigorated RTS or Space Combat sims, but space sims made a big old come back.

But yeah it's not really Bioware's fault, EA probably fired anyone who disagreed ages ago. I don't even wish Bioware ill. I'm just a bit sad that a dev that I used to hang on their every release is this now. This also relates to how much of a damp squelch Starfield appears to have been, all very mechanically safe and not particularly innovative. I'd be bitching about Total War as well probably if Warhammer wasn't involved. We have CPUs with 8-12 cores these days and 32GB of RAM etc. etc. do something with it you soft cunts.

I wouldn't even say fans are a problem. People can like what they like. Ultimately they can only buy what gets made though and the likes of EA or Microsoft are a fucking problem with what even gets out to people. OK Dishonoured didn't sell that well. But CD Project Red's vision has sold and pushed boundaries. So's Larian. Different genre but Firaxis got XCOM out there and people lapped it up. Dwarf Fortress continues and people idolise it. They're just so risk averse at EA and so forth.

Even Doom 2016 coming out as mostly a single player game and one that cleaves to the 90s Industrial Metal side of demon slaying seems like a weirdly risky move to take.

Maybe I should just go load up Cyberpunk and deal with some Corpos.

I kinda want to try Dragon Age Origins, but it looks so bloody long and I feel like it's going to be this epic undertaking.

Like a lot of "long" games from that time, it's pretty svelt by today's standards. I think it's about 40 hours, and maybe another 6 for the DLC.

DA:O was really good. Smashed through it on the dole. I didn't really play games like that back then. Good memories.

Good memories of DA:O here too. I think I fell proper for Morrigan. Proper waifu she was.

Origins was the first cRPG I played, I really enjoyed it despite it probably being a middling example of the genre.

Thinking about it some more, the only reason I want to play it is because she's voiced by Claudia Black. 

Maybe I should just watch Farscape instead, it'd be shorter.