Paul continues his look back at the Dragon Age series with the much maligned Dragon Age 2. Is it really as bad as people say it is?
Immersed Gamer writes: "In order to replace the oppressive BioWare Points system, EA is making a large portion of the Mass Effect and Dragon Age DLC catalogs free for PC users.
For those of you blissfully unaware, EA and BioWare employed a payment system called BioWare Points on PC to pay for DLCs for titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age. While PC gamers have been struggling with BioWare point’s unfair conversion rates and extremely scarce and cost-detrimental sales.
Console players have been allowed to purchase content in pieces through the appropriate Sony and Microsoft shops. For real money, and not BioWare monopoly bucks. In turn, console players missed out on some DLC content, such as Mass Effect 2 pre-order bonuses that have been repackaged into a DLC pack."
Great response to Ubisoft and their disgusting behavior. Ubisoft decide to take away DLC from people who paid for it, while EA give it for free to everyone when they realize their system sucks. Who would have thought that EA of all companies would be showing Ubisoft how it should be done (even if this is EA fixing their own mistakes as well).
What goes around comes around and I promise you, Ubisoft will see their actions blow back on them when their diminishing sales numbers and stock taking a hit downward. That's the only way a company learns when they decide to be reactive instead of proactive.
BLG writes: "There was a time that BioWare games were the biggest deal in gaming. The Canadian developer’s legacy of all-time classics is well known. Mass Effect, Knights of the Old Republic, and Baldur’s Gate are some of the biggest names in gaming.
While BioWare’s quality has fallen off lately, there’s no denying the quality of titles in their portfolio. That’s why we’re going to dive in and rank every BioWare game from worst to best. By every, I do mean every BioWare game, even the ones you completely forgot about!"
Ranked from worse to even more worse more like, they been on free fall for a fair few years now and I personally don't think any of there earlier games have aged well
Wow to think at one point in their history they made a Sonic the Hedgehog game..crazy
Anthem is crazy underrated. I really enjoyed it. ME1 is Bioware's best imo
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I actually put quite a bit of hours into Anthem but i dont think its underrated. It was a huge mess, server issues, gameplay issues, crashes, no endgame loop, too few different enemies, uninteresting gear. too few dungeons.
It for sure had potential and if they could have managed to keep the same gameplay of the classes but without the rest of the issues, this game could have been huge, but in the state in which it launched it was such a letdown. They partly fixed some of the issues, but it took too long. A grinding game like this needs to hook players from day 1.
Delving into a well-loved game or series years after its release, when it already has an enthusiastic and devoted fanbase, can be incredibly difficult. People can be casually mean on the internet without intending to, and that happens a lot when you say you don’t like something they do. Fans of the franchise take their love of the game very seriously. They’re fervent and devoted, which has its charms, but it can also feel like you’re disappointing them when you decide their thing is not your thing.
Because of the reviews, I thought they could do better specially gameplay wise and the third one was even worst
I've never been able to complete a Dragon Age game. They always felt too rigid in design. I eventually think "why am I playing this over Witcher 3?" or pretty much any other rpg.
The same reason you read a different book, or watch different movies. Different world, characters, lore and story.
Idk, because maybe you completed the witcher 3? Not all of us like repeating a game over and over just because its the best in genre.
@arkard
Never found the story or lore of DA interesting. Inquisition was just generic evil dude with demon army wants to conquer world and you're the chosen one.
@jeromeface
I've played through Witcher 3 once, at the same time I was playing DA Inquisition. Hence the example. I never finished Inquisition and went on to complete Witcher 3.
Well the first bored me but I loved 2 and 3. I could never get into The Witcher or Elder Scrolls but I enjoyed those as far as medieval themed RPG's go.
I played inquisition and thought the story was pretty well done. Voice acting as well.
Lost interest when i found an ultimate weapon that could only be wieldable postgame. Like wtf would they let me even obtain it for?
lol Definitely a fair point. When a game is made and published by one of the largest video game companies on Earth, has at least 12 million sales between DA:O/DA2/DA:I, DA:I noted as being BioWare's most successful launch, and made EA enough money to greenlight a 3rd game? I'm thinking it's tough to argue that's niche :-p
If you take cult following on the face of it - a group of people who are highly dedicated & passionate about something - the author wouldn't be wrong. But they have to know that term is most widely associated with the group being small/the object being obscure, so it can't really apply here.
Yeah, in what universe is a series with three games, a fourth on the way that's sold millions and is published by EA a "cult favorite"? Next you'll be telling me The Witcher 3 is a plucky and underrated indie.
Cult favorite? It’s well known and sold fairly well and they are making a fourth game . I don’t see it anywhere near cult favorite status . I really enjoyed the first game and the third was pretty good (with failed mmo faults you could notice) but the second game was lazily made garbage .
Loved the first one, second was pretty good. Couldn't even get through the third one. Don't have high hopes for 4, but hey, nowhere to go but up hopefully.
DA: Origins was cool, but I got Mass Effect 2 at the same time and goddayum there was no comparison imo.
To be honest, I liked DA2. I thought it was a good game. In fact, I thought it was better than DA:O in a lot of ways (but worse in other ways). The main problem is that the game was quite obviously "consolized". It was streamlined to work better on consoles, and everything (story, areas, choices, customization) was narrower than the first game. If DA2 came out as its own game without the DA license, I think gamers would have loved it. But it stood in the shadow of DA:O and suffered for it.
DA:O was the cinema release with its epic scale, diverse locations and characters.
DA2 felt like the TV movie, it had better looking but less diverse characters. The sexy arse wiggle from female Hawk could only distract you for so long before you start to feel déjà-vu from the games locations, it's like they ran out of money for the set design and had to keep using the same interiors and exteriors over and over again. On the plus side I enjoyed the story.
The story had less depth, reused dungeons, couldn't customize party's armor, way less exploration, and 90 percent of the game took place in 1 city. I liked the fighting in origins better, but I understand if people liked 2's faster paced fighting in 2 better. But dragon age 2 was a rush job and could be seen in everywhere but maybe the fighting. It was a pretty good game on its own. But as a follow up to origins it was a major letdown.
Da2 was def not as good as Dao, but I still personally liked it, especially after I found out that you COULD make different choices depending on stuff you've said before (SPOILERS hating on Qunari most of game allows you to side with the crazy Chantry girl, something I heard a lot of people complain about not being able to do)
Also I don't blame Bioware for the rush job, I mean come on, DAO was in development for around 5yrs, DA2 around 15months (AND it wasn't a direct sequel and they made a new engine) why anyone thought it would be as good as DAO (including me) was fooling themselves. I'm actually impressed how good it was considering.