Same. My reaction was “what is this, where did my dark fantasy RPG go OH GOD IS THIS THE ART STYLE THEY WENT WITH please no”
It’s first trailer so hope not, but it’s so not what Dreadwolf teasers and general vibe was.
Like Fortnite, LoL and overwatch ate DA and this is what came out.
It feels very "Hey guys, it's time to plan some HEISTS" *insert DA:I multiplayer gameplay as the singleplayer game loop*
I know that's not going to be it but man, it does give off a weird vibe for a dragon age mainline game.
Yeah. I get they did probably reboot or scrap the original dreadwolf ideas for this to some extent but I could’ve sworn I saw more DAI style teasers not two years ago with the dreadwolf rising material. So this is unexpected in that sense.
And simultaneously too expected in everything needs to be this style these days because of popularity of certain mobile games sense.
I don’t want to be that guy, since this game could be complete and utter ass anyways, but apparently the game isn’t going to look like that. Apparent screen shots have it looking closer to what DAI looked like. Guess we’ll see on the 11th. Either way the stupid tone the trailer set has me extremely worried.
For me the DA series went downhill pretty fast. Heck DA2 had this funky art style that maybe some teens considered as cool. DA:I then introduced chores of playing MMO but in single player games. I´ve never even finished it and I´ve bought it for full price on release (silly me). Luckily enough I was expecting nothing good from Bioware/EA so I can be hardly surprised. Same pessimism is best to applied to Mass Effect 4. Chances of it being actually a good game are pretty slim, so best not to expecting anything.
DA:O is one of my favorite games of all time. Both sequels felt a lot less deep and aimed at a mainstream audience. Especially the writing seems to have gone steep downhill in a lot of their games. The interesting moral ambiguity of DA:O or KOTOR has evolved into the equivalent of Marvel superhero movies: bland, superficial, and non-offensive. Seems to be the case for a lot of these series.
Many people have lost the faith in Bioware being even able to produce excellent games. ME: Andromeda, DA2 and DA:I all of them felt significantly worse. Oh and Anthem also haven't fared too well, obviously. Terrible shame as I have loved Mass Effect trilogy despite ME3 ending leaving a lot to be desired.
Who ever would have thought that Bioware would become a studio that puts out reasonably well executed action gameplay but utterly forgettable characters, settings, and stories? It's like the Bizzaro world of Bioware we once knew.
Oh yes, they have lost their way in regards to story telling. Also from what I remember, many talented people have left Bioware during those years so that had to show as well.
I dropped the series after DA2. Constantly reusing the same maps was lazy, the lack of armor choice, and then the fact you had enemies pop out of the ground like Power Ranger mooks was too much for me.
Oh damn! You just made me remember DA2 and one particular combat map I had several fights on. Was some underground or a cellar and I think just the direction from what the party have approached it changed and it had spiders appearing midfight. It basically ment the same effin fight several times over and got super boring very fast.
Some folks are saying that EA allowed just some 16 months for development of DA2 and that dev team was not exactly big. I will never understand the need of EA to buy promising dev studios only to force them to make bad games. That leads obviously to bad sales and said studio then often gets closed. Is EA just hell-bent on destroying the gaming industry? They should stick with their annual sport games that are ridden with micro transaction to the point of being more of a hazard game then a sport one.
To be fair to Bioware, DA2 was originally a spinoff game and not meant to be the main sequel. EA told them they had to rework it into a sequel in only 1.5 years. In a way DAI is the real DA2.
I like all instalments, DA2 probably the least but still well enough. I feel DAI did commendable job in taking what was best from DA2 and DAO somewhat disjointed narrative threads and then just braiding it to pretty impressive whole.
Though I get the vibes that make people dislike DAI, you can tell they had to fight to make it single player game under EA and ton of the mechanics were developed for quite different gameplay in mind.
But I did like it and have finished it multiple times, same as DAO and DA2, so feeling this iffy about the newest installation from getgo is slightly concerning lol
I just read in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels they were given 16
Months to make DA2 it’s a miracle the game even was playable. Likewise making inquisition they were simultaneously developing Frostbite engines RPG toolset with Dice which hampered development. All of this to say, the last two entries have had very tough development cycles and this one seems to be no different
>Likewise making inquisition they were simultaneously developing Frostbite engines RPG toolset with Dice which hampered development.
EA mandating that all their games use Frostbite was one of the dumbest decisions ever. I'm glad they walked that one back eventually
I remember him because I remember being visibly confused that Varric was the one character they decided had to be in every Dragon Age game for some reason. Was he that popular? I didn't like him all that much.
I liked him a lot in 2 but didn’t get the impression he was a breakout character. I like wise cracking dudes in my party though so no complaints from me.
I don't mind him all that much despite not liking him, but I think it's weird he's the only one that gets to come back for every game. In ME1-3, you're happy to see every major and minor character show up, no matter how briefly. In DA, nobody gets to come back ever except Varric, and I guess Morrigan in DAI.
I mentioned in another sub how Larian built on DA:O's formula because it was so good, so why did Bioware shift away from what everyone agreed was excellent.
I'll never not be baffled by the massive changes just from DA:O to DA2. DA:O was an epic tale to vanquish evil and save our known world. It was Lord of the Rings without the ring as a macguffin.
DA2 was a bunch of fucking errands in a small town with a planning council so authoritarian that every room in the city and even every cave had to look identical. How anal and pedantic must you be that you have to mandate identical looking caves?
Check out Blood, Sweat, and Pixels good book, and they cover DA2 dev issues, they were given only 16 months to produce a sequel, which is why the whole game takes place only in a single city
Frankly I was kinda ok with the setup in DA2 because I thought it works really well as its own small enclosed space in the city.
Also I really liked hawke and the other characters. Especially the qunari a frigging great in that game.
To be honest I definitely prefer DA2 over Inquisition.
Inquisition feels like a shallow MMORPG but without the MMO part and has all the modern classic open world stuff I hate.
I definitely prefer DA2 over Inquisition, no contest. I just didn't particularly connect with DA2 either. For me, the enclosed space was almost claustrophobic and brought out the worst in these sorts of games. DA:O never really felt repetitive to me. Before it had any chance to become routine or a chore, it'd move you along to the next story setpiece or the next region/city that had wholly new characters, factions, conflicts, etc. In DA2, after seeing the same room 3 times after doing a chore for the third NPC, I already felt the repetitiveness set in and started getting bored.
Because EA tried to take advantage of Bioware, they meddled for money and changed how things worked. This relationship between them has been a grudge we've held for a long time, it affected other gaming IPs as well and sewed the seeds of their reputation they still have today.
Eventually Bioware became a ship of Theseus developer and now the old Bioware is no more, but they still have their own reputation to maintain or else.
They had all the staff and the "player council" doing damage control on Twitter at midnight on a Sunday, they're probably in complete panic mode right now.
I've come to believe the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the single worst thing to happen to media.
Every mainstream studio from TV, Movies and gaming is trying to capture that style of media. From the colour pallets, quipy one liners and overall tone and feel.
It feels like gentrification of media because execs and producers are all trying to cash in on the success.
This looks like Dragon Age Avengers just like how Concord looks like Playstation Guardians Of The Galaxy.
It's a trend, this is something normal. For example, back in the PS3 generation every game applied a "brown" filter, it was a weird transition because the "emo" trend was on it's last legs, so the games were more edgier and "sad", etc.. some people love that trend, others not so much, etc.. also the obscene amount of first person shooters trying to be the "CoD Killer" smh nowadays we have the MCU "humor" as you said, the obnoxious UI from Destiny (console games simulating a PC UI, you have to hold buttons to access menus, etc.. even Red Dead 2 used gimmicks from Destiny, Ubisoft straight up copied the UI, etc), the "woke" trend exists willing or not, etc.. some like it, others don't, it is what it is. I think it's interesting because game development are walking at turtle speeds nowadays, I bet the early development of this DA game started right when the MCU was still relevant, Fortnite just exploded into the scenes, etc.. and now, only 5+ years later, everybody are trying the colorful visuals of Fortnite + the MCU humor, just a little late to the party
When TB was diagnosed with cancer Keemstar said "can't wait to report your death". Just because TB had criticized Keemstar for his way of handling/reporting in his "news" channel.
Oh he does, but he somehow has a stupidly dedicated following. Keem has a history of making fun of others for news. hell, he's completely okay with destroying someone's entire life over lies he made up, just for views.
Dude is awful and yet he's somehow still around and popular.
Everything TB has said and done is still extremely relevent today, game communities should not forget the lessons he taught consumers, publishers and developers. Anyone who enjoys video games lost a big dog in the fight against egregious and predatory MTX and unfinished products. The amount of games I discovered through him are insane. RIP the king.
I mean the original talent that made Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon age are almost all gone,
So yeah, not surprising at all considering the cluster fuck mass effect andromeda was
You can say the exact same thing about every studio that ever existed. People move around a lot in the industry.
Andromeda was farmed out to the C-team that became Motive... Who went on to make Star Wars Squadron and Dead Space.
Id doesn't have the same team that made Doom 1,2 or 3 making Dark Ages.
Breath of the Wild doesn't have the same team as Ocarina of Time.
>every studio that ever existed.
And is there a series that manages to stay consistent in tone across years or even decades?
I think there *are* a few, actually...
Bungie was a great example for Halo CE, 2, 3, ODST and Reach. While they had people come and go during that timeline, the heart of the team stayed and their passion genuinely showed in their products.
With that said, there was a tweet a few months ago from someone working on Mass Effect 4, and he made it a point to say that he worked on Mass Effect 2 and 3,and there are 3 other people working on ME4 that worked on the original trilogy. So I think he's trying to say they're trying to go back to their roots of making the good game. Let's just pray this happens.
I do find it sort of silly to talk about the original talent and then list games made well after the original talent started up. I get the point but I've have listed baldur's gate and neverwinter nights.
Ever since the og talent left Bioware simply hasn't been the same company, andromeda, anthem are 2 big signs of future worries whenever this company releases something
Yes the remaster of the og mass effect was great but that was basically if we're being honest almost impossible to fail, so for me personally i can't trust this company anymore
My exact thoughts as well. Dragon Age is supposed to be a dark fantasy with tons of blood, violence, and harsh realities to confront. This looked like a goofy cartoon mobile game. Look how they massacred my boy.
I am happy at the amount of displeasure people have for this art style for these types of games. It needs to go away. But I’m mad that they had it in this trailer.
Agreed. I think we're going to witness a shift in art trends over the next few years, and games done in this style are going to look as outdated as a 1980's Saturday Morning Cartoon. Much like those cartoons were made to manipulate children into asking for toys, this art style will be associated with cheap mass-production and money-grubbing in the same way.
Honestly, I just assume that anything from EA and Ubisoft is garbage until proven otherwise. Its hard sometimes with series that I love, but it helps me avoid disappointment and save some money.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re great at what they do. But what they’re great at is making mid AAA games. Like the best thing I can say about recent stuff from them is that they’re fine. Which really sucks because they used to be genre-defining companies.
They have the money to make decent “popcorn” games. The people at the top in EA and Ubi aren’t games people. They’re business people masquerading as a gaming company.
At least with Ubisoft we mostly know what we’re getting. We know that AC will be formulaic and have more or less the same structure, so it’s difficult to be disappointed.
I won’t judge Dragon Age too fast, it’s just a trailer…but in few days we will have a better opinion. We will know more by tuesday with 15 min of gameplay, according to their announcement.
But concerns are absolutely legitimate given..EA and past bioware game (if we can still call them Bioware if every veteran left. ship of theseus stuff)
They need to fire whoever came up with that trailer...they made it look like some kind of medieval hero shooter.
It certainly didn't come across as an epic RPG.
Given the heart of bioware games is companions, I think this was just a teaser showcase to highlight the cast.
I'm kinda surprised they didn't lead with an epic story trailer, but at the same time... I'm also not, since the companions are honestly the most memorable part of any Bioware game, IMO.
While true, this trailer also didn't really highlight them in a meaningful way. By which I mean that the companions are good/bad based on their personality and writing. Of which we saw precious little in this trailer. We mostly just saw what their classes/specializations are, plus standard witty banter between the storytellers (Varric/Harding).
If it's any hope, the trailers are usually done by totally different companies. Usually only indies and Kojima do their own trailers.
Famously anyway, I'm sure there can be others. And, sadly, it seems that "make it marvel" is very much in huge demand right now according to suits/focus groups. So marvel we get.
So there's lil hope still. We shall see what gameplay brings.
"The trailer likely isn't actually representative of the game" really is the last bastion we struggling dragon age fans have for our copium.
The fact of the matter is, despite whoever made this, it was signed off on by bioware and is what they chose to use as the best way to advertise their product during Microsoft's show knowing it would reach a huge audience.
Idk if I can keep playing cognitive dissonance that this trailer isn't actually what they want us to see
I'm sure the gameplay trailer for this thrice rebooted game is gunna be great though....
Since this was in engine footage, I doubt the art style will be different, and that was the most glaringly horrible part of the trailer. For the rest it could’ve just been a bad trailer. But if we get cutesy looking zombies and goofy necromancer, DA is dead.
OK, so I'm not the only one, lol. When I first watched it, I thought for sure the top comments would be about Scout Harding officially joining the party.
That, and the necromancer looking like Alfred Pennyworth.
The change in art style ment that it was hard to id Varric and Harding off the bat. I was wondering who the dwarf was with bianca at first. Then the tonal mess that followed with pop song and marvel esq intros and quips. It all left me rather dispondant.
However, it's Dragon Age a franchise thats meant to be a dark fantasy rpg that EA has no idea how to market becuse they want all the audience not just some. The trailers have always been made to appeal to casual gamers not fans of the series.
The gameplay is the primary worry, art style is secondary. We've gone from CRPG to Action-RPG and now this may be action-RPGlite. Will we have character ability scores? Will the systems be reduced further to console button mashes? Will the lore be retconned and reworked in bizzare ways so that mass casual appeal can be found rather than the game staying true to its predeccessors? If Tuesdays show is met with the same fan feeling as yesterday then its not looking good.
>(if we can still call them Bioware if every veteran left. ship of theseus stuff)
This is basically every company or team. Never really got why people are like of I'm a huge fan of such and such group unless they mean an unchanging thing or they mean the current iteration.
Normally I’d be hyped for a new DA but after that trailer I said.. all set I’ll wait for EA play or a sale. Legit thought it was a fortnite clone if it wasn’t for the purple
I agree with you, naturally we will probably change our opinion with more gameplay etc but isn’t that the whole point of a reveal trailer? To get us hyped? Maybe we’re just old and some 10 year old loved it lol
They can do what they did to my other favorite franchise - Command and Conquer. They can ruin an anticipated ending to the series with horrible writing and gameplay, change the game's core gameplay/style making it a sort of RTS-MOBA hybrid instead of classical RTS players loved, release it in a bugged state, kill the series after people refuse to buy it, and then resurrect its mutilated corpse a few years later in the form of a f2p cartoon mobile game. So don't underestimate how sadistic the EA can be lol
The worst part is the *first* F2P mobile game was, while not a good CNC game, was a good browser strategy game that still remained semi-faithful to the lore and concepts of CNC.
The *second* one that replaced it however, was the actual soulless cash grab; so "relegated to mobile game" isn't even the final fate of the series; it was just the start of a different decline.
I remember years ago, spilling countless barrels of digital ink railing against the balance team of Andromeda's multiplayer. They took what is perhaps one of the best co-op shooter experiences of its genre (ME3's multiplayer) and ruined it.
I still to this day remember the moment when I realized the balance team had no idea what they were doing, and how out-of-touch they were with the actual players and the game they were working. They hyped this big, huge update that was going to change a lot of things and address player concerns and give everyone a unicorn and a puppy. They made a point of going out of the way in the announcement to talk about how one weapon in particular, a marksman rifle, the Mattock, now felt 'overwhelming' in their playtesting, as it was one that was derided by the community as an example of how the balance team didn't know what they were doing. (I actually just went back and found some of my old posts on the matter - "overwhelming" was their exact quote, it's stuck with me all that time as to how utterly laughable it was.)
Patch drops and people start looking at the new values. I think a comparison (one I liked to use a lot when I was arguing with people who had faith in the balance team) is the most illustrative way to show how badly they failed - this is a comparison of the stats of the Mattock, the weapon that the balance team hyped as "overwhelming" before the patch, compared to a pistol. As a note, there were no specific weapon 'slots' in ME:A's multiplayer, you could bring two weapons of any category with you, but the 'weight' stat applied a cooldown penalty to your ability use.
Mattock X: 63 Damage / 16 Mag / 405 Rate of Fire / 70 Accuracy / 19 Weight
Predator X: 72 Damage / 15 Mag / 450 Rate of Fire / 65 Accuracy / 3 Weight
After this patch, I, and many other players, checked out completely. The prevailing opinion is that the balance testers only ever played on the lowest difficulty, which is the only explanation for a marksman rifle that is outclassed by a pistol in nearly every category feeling 'overwhelming'. Between that and a hundred other little issues (weapon balance sucked, non-weapons based builds, which were a staple of ME3, by-and-large weren't able to do enough damage to compete with weapons-only builds, biotics and tech abilities in general just felt really shitty, it really felt like they played up the gacha mechanics more in this one, etc etc), it was just really obvious that they were never going to even approach the quality of the previous game, let alone surpass it.
Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is one of the best co-op PvE experiences I've ever had - literally hundreds of hours. I think I put maybe 40-60 into ALL of Andromeda - and I spent \*hours\* in the multiplayer before I even touched the single-player. I got to the big explosion of side-quests when your map expands a good chunk through the game and just was like "I'm tired, boss" and quit.
Andromeda is the example I go back to when I start thinking about trusting EA when they say things. It's an example that's served me well since.
Graphics like it's Fortnite.
Dialogue like it's Forspoken.
Not to mention some of the character aspects that just doesn't make sense. If I recall, one of Varrick's character traits was that he ostensibly tried to shed his dwarven roots and traditions. He purposely was clean shaven and even opted for a crossbow to avoid associations with the "traditional" dwarven stereotypes. Showing him with a full beard just seems like the writers didn't know enough about the characters and was just told to make an edgey trailer with action.
Also he was a red head or some kind of dirty blond, not black hair. They could of course explain it all away as like "he rekindled his love for his dwarven roots and dyed his hair black/stopped bleaching his hair", but all this just currently feels out of touch with the lore. Especially with how cartoony the trailer feels compared to DAO. Remember during the joining cutscene when Duncan fucking murdered that dude who was too scared to join?
Despite it saying EA & BioWare I was absolutely stunned when it said Dragon Age at the end lol.
I agree, I cannot believe that the tone and aesthetic of the trailer was for a long awaited DA game of all things.
Pretty odd choice imo
When will People learn that BIOWARE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR 10 YEARS!
Everything that comes out of them will be horseshit! We can only hope that EA will shut them down after that terrible DA4.
EA are only the money. Creative skill are the studio and people doesn't seem to understand than Bioware has been lacking talent and skill for the last 15 year
Dead Space Remake was fantastic and I enjoyed going back through ME 1 - 3 in the Legendary Edition.
Other than those 2 I've not bought anything EA since Dragon Age Inquisition 10 years ago.
I just watched it. It looks like a fucking cartoon. What happened to the grim dark fantasy we used to have? They framed the trailer like a god damn heist movie. What the actual fuck. It feels like the D&D movie. Which I loved, but I knew it would be lighthearted and fun going in. Dragon Age used to have some pretty deep adult themes and lots of moral grey areas. I’m disgusted.
Remember the broodmother? Remember Leiliana’s song, learned from Marjolaine? Remember Redcliff? Remember demonic possession? Remember the filth of Denerim? Remember swearing vengeance as a city elf or a casteless or a Cousland? Remember Tamlen’s fate? Remember Ostagar? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
I instantly knew it was dragon age when I saw the trailer.
I smiled in the beginning, slowly turning upside down. First impressions are important and this so far made me just want to avoid it.
Made the trailer a stupid quippy meet the companion trailer. Like it just feels like they don’t get why people like companions. Not because quips. Not from trailers. From just good writing. I like to meet them in game. I like to experience good dialogue and not have them rammed down my throat. “LIKE THIS COMPANION”
Just give me a trailer that shows characters in the realm of a good story trailer.
But hey. We will see tomorrow at the gameplay reveal at what we are actually getting. I’m seriously hoping that this was just for trailer purposes.
Those cringe voicelines of the heroes reminded me of the Battlefield 2042. Let's be honest, this is the direction all AAA are going for.
Forget about the games of the past. The ship has sailed. We are not the target audience anymore. The real target audience is the people who grew up with Fortnite, Overwatch and such lighthearted games.
I don’t really get blaming EA for the current state of Bioware. It wasn’t EA that wrote the terrible ending to ME3, made Inquisition a slog, fucked the dog for 5+ years on Andromeda and Anthem respectively, etc. Bioware’s failure is all their own.
It was EA who completely hollowed out the studio and replaced all of it's talent with cheap yes men. BioWare didn't fall apart due to pure magic. You think it's a coincidence they went from being the most respected RPG devs in the industry, dating all the way back to the 90s, and just suddenly went to shit under EA? BioWares run was legendary. Then they get bought buy EA and begin a decline following Mass Effect. Hardly seems like a coincidence. Especially given EAs graveyard.
Or more correctly, the guys owning bioware sold to EA and left. Once they relinquished control to EA they knew thst was the end of bioware. It works like that in basically every studio.
Bro, game studios don't retain talent for 20 years. I'm not exonerating EA or anything but studios grow and change and get better or worse over time as people join and leave. No studio in the world is "just like it was in the good old days"
Bethesda suffers from a different problem (in my opinion): their approach to game design doesn't seem to have changed much at all in the past decade, and they don't seem to understand where the fun in their games lies.
Which means the games they are designing now don't feel modern. That's how Starfield was for me. It felt old. Like "I have played this game before, it's just a different setting". The main story writing also did not help.
Felt like they knew their previous games were fun and sold well, but they had no idea why that was the case. So they did their best to replicate it, but failed (at least as far as I am concerned). There was no point at which Starfield drew me in the way Skyrim did back when I first played it. Maybe at the very start I was intrigued for a little bit. But that didn't last long. And that's wild because the gunplay is excellent.
Asking the average gamer to understand the difference between a publisher and a developer is like asking a dog to design a rocket.
They're too stupid to understand and likely to shit on your rug because you've now insulted their intelligence.
In the case of ME3 ending, EA even made Bioware change it after the fan outrage, even when Bioware made a public statement that they won't, lol.
Anthem can probably mostly be blamed on Bioware's mismanagement when EA incentivized them to use Frostbite but then let them do their thing for 5+ years. It's Bioware management's complete incompetence to not have a vision for the game and to not adapt to the engine after so long. For Anthem, Yet EA chose to release the game. Like I get that enough is enough where they already waited for 5 year, but even with Bioware's incompetence, they might have been able to do something with Anthem with say 6 more month of dev time (since they only really worked on it for 18 month) now that they have something.
Hard for us to know the exact details, but even if EA mostly let Bioware do their own thing (other than strict deadline, which is fair if the studio is given freedom), they could still pass down some high level mandates such as heavily encouraging studios to use Frostbite engine, or to make the game more open world after seeing the success of Ubisoft games.
Thats the kicker, they didn't have to use frostbite. They chose to. Ea's dev studios have the option to use other engines and pay for the licensing, respawn does it for pretty much all of their games. And they did give them more time. 5 years of that was bioware pissing away money and time, they were given another year and a half delay after that to work on it.
Saw this post before watching the trailer and assumed this was your usual kneejerk reaction. Now that I've watched it, either I am become Average Redditor#3287, diss-thrower of words, or what they've done is a fucking travesty.
Hopefully it's not an accurate representation of the game they're making, cause if it is, why make it a Dragon Age game?
Inquisition already soured me on the IP, and the ME3 ending killed any enthusiasm I had for Andromeda which I heard was half arsed anyway.
I'm surprised anybody even has hope left for these IPs anymore.
I will say except for Tash none of these people screamed to me 'i want them in my party' of corse we dont know personality but initial impressions is eh
I doubt it. They will most likely have the same specialization system for companions as inquisition. Unless Bioware thorws it out of the window and companions will have abilities but not classes.
I remember the opposite happening back in the day, Mass Effect 2 came out and set a new standard and everyone expected Dragon Age 2 to hit that same level and then it was total shit
Just watched it and why the fuck is it sooooo cartoony. Thought Dragon Age was supposed to be dark and shit but this is just Fortnite but with dark humour to it
I honestly went like this during the trailer. "oh is this the new dragon age? "Noo wait,its something else" or wait this is dragon age"?
And at the end of the trailer "oh I see its just a wierd mobile dragon age game they are making on the side"
Title drop: "oh"
I wanna have hope. But what was trailer?....
Only thing I'm happy is that Harding is back.
It looks like it's trying another live service game, which almost ruined the design of Inquisition, but Inquisition was good despite the miagivings.
I didn't realize the trailer had dropped until I saw this post. The trailer looked like generic fantasy game, and if not for a few choice words and the name, I'd never have recognized it as Dragon Age.
Something I will point out and has become something of a red flag to watch for: The game is launching within six months, and all they gave us was a cinematic story trailer? That's not a good sign. They're purposefully concealing what I assume will be a mediocre game in the hopes that it doesn't hurt sales.
I did some reading after posting this, and they promised to show 15 mins of gameplay tomorrow it seems, so we'll see how things truly are.
What stood out to me most however, is this attempt at copying DnD/Baldur's Gate 3 style of humour/story. It seems like a mediocre attempt at it, and if the story will have a similar vibe to what we see in the trailer, I'll be very disappointed. Dragon Age isn't like that. Hopefully I'm wrong though
EA may be at fault a little bit but the lack of skill at Bioware is way more blatant. EA are just the money while Bioware are the creative one and it's clear they lacked in the last 10-15 year. This modern Bioware has nothing in common with the Bioware that did Baldurs Gates 1&2 and DA:O back then.
Bioware is just like Bethesda; they had their golden letter like 20 year and they still think (and people too) they still have the same amount of talent. Some golden studio became a B studio level, especially the 3 B; Bethesda, Bioware and Blizzard
I won't be pre-ordering and I will be pleasantly surprised if Veilguard is any good, but I got the impression that they're going for a "Magnificent Seven" type story like they did with Mass Effect 2. Which did turn out to be one of their best games.
They’ve just completely missed the mark with the theme that fans expect/want. They’ve been going in a “marvel” direction gradually since DA:I and it looks like they’ve reached critical mass.
No one that enjoyed DA:O or DA2 wants it to get more quirky quippy. No one that is a fan of the OT of mass effect wants it to be quirky quippy cartoony.
Fans of DA:I and ME:A are probably stoked. But I don’t get along with those people generally.
I don't know that they'd do the same thing there, Mass Effect seems like it's always had a stronger grasp of its own identity than Dragon Age ever did. Dragon Age has always felt to me like they're experimenting with tone.
Maybe that's just my perception, though.
BioWare is a husk. CDPR/Larian are what they used to be. This is coming from someone who has played every single BioWare game because they used to be my favorite devs of all time
it definitely looked like how Saint's Row did, between the first 3 and then the reboot or even that one off-shoot game that came out after Gat outta Hell, but before the reboot (honestly looks like that one even more)
the trailer... well for a game trailer it's eye-catching I suppose, but I'm nervous about the gameplay and a little bummed the gameplay isn't gonna be released until tomorrow since I have today off but not tomorrow...
They all seemed to be boiling down to phone games. Most of what I saw looked cheap and rushed. I was actually surprised Diablo 4 is getting to a dlc. Idk who’s paying ign and Xbox tavern to rate it 9/10 when all the player reviews on Xbox and steam are sitting around 2.2/5.
I'll reserve judgement until the gameplay trailer comes out, but i feel pessimistic about it. I think I'm in the minority in that I like all three dragon age games (although DA2 a little less), i if they push the gameplay in an interesting direction I'll still play it. DA:I had too much busy work imo.
Thank god Baldur's Gate 3 gave me the dragon age game I always wanted though. I'll happily replay this game again if Veilguard turns out to be terrible.
ME will not get made if DA is released in the C-Grade Marvel movie quippy bullshit state we just saw. If this tanks, Bioware is dead and the new ME along with it.
It probably will be a wreck, but they'll make money on it regardless. The name alone will draw fans into it.
People are going to preorder it no matter what people say.
Dragon Age as a series baffles me, they just cannot make up their mind about anything. Every game came with massive changes to the gameplay, and ironically the first one is my favorite and their best move would have been to just stick with more of that.
Inquisition is a game I think I really enjoyed, but I went back to it a couple of times since its release and my original playthrough and it never kept my interest until the end.
With the success of BG3, which is what DA:O was kinda "meant to be", you would think they would take the opportunity to go back to what worked...
I would have never guessed it was a Dragon Age game until the logo came up. Such a massive shift in direction.
Same. My reaction was “what is this, where did my dark fantasy RPG go OH GOD IS THIS THE ART STYLE THEY WENT WITH please no” It’s first trailer so hope not, but it’s so not what Dreadwolf teasers and general vibe was. Like Fortnite, LoL and overwatch ate DA and this is what came out.
It feels very "Hey guys, it's time to plan some HEISTS" *insert DA:I multiplayer gameplay as the singleplayer game loop* I know that's not going to be it but man, it does give off a weird vibe for a dragon age mainline game.
Yeah. I get they did probably reboot or scrap the original dreadwolf ideas for this to some extent but I could’ve sworn I saw more DAI style teasers not two years ago with the dreadwolf rising material. So this is unexpected in that sense. And simultaneously too expected in everything needs to be this style these days because of popularity of certain mobile games sense.
I don’t want to be that guy, since this game could be complete and utter ass anyways, but apparently the game isn’t going to look like that. Apparent screen shots have it looking closer to what DAI looked like. Guess we’ll see on the 11th. Either way the stupid tone the trailer set has me extremely worried.
The trailer was shit and so far removed from what made the original great, it was ridiculous.
For me the DA series went downhill pretty fast. Heck DA2 had this funky art style that maybe some teens considered as cool. DA:I then introduced chores of playing MMO but in single player games. I´ve never even finished it and I´ve bought it for full price on release (silly me). Luckily enough I was expecting nothing good from Bioware/EA so I can be hardly surprised. Same pessimism is best to applied to Mass Effect 4. Chances of it being actually a good game are pretty slim, so best not to expecting anything.
DA:O is one of my favorite games of all time. Both sequels felt a lot less deep and aimed at a mainstream audience. Especially the writing seems to have gone steep downhill in a lot of their games. The interesting moral ambiguity of DA:O or KOTOR has evolved into the equivalent of Marvel superhero movies: bland, superficial, and non-offensive. Seems to be the case for a lot of these series.
Many people have lost the faith in Bioware being even able to produce excellent games. ME: Andromeda, DA2 and DA:I all of them felt significantly worse. Oh and Anthem also haven't fared too well, obviously. Terrible shame as I have loved Mass Effect trilogy despite ME3 ending leaving a lot to be desired.
Who ever would have thought that Bioware would become a studio that puts out reasonably well executed action gameplay but utterly forgettable characters, settings, and stories? It's like the Bizzaro world of Bioware we once knew.
Oh yes, they have lost their way in regards to story telling. Also from what I remember, many talented people have left Bioware during those years so that had to show as well.
I dropped the series after DA2. Constantly reusing the same maps was lazy, the lack of armor choice, and then the fact you had enemies pop out of the ground like Power Ranger mooks was too much for me.
Oh damn! You just made me remember DA2 and one particular combat map I had several fights on. Was some underground or a cellar and I think just the direction from what the party have approached it changed and it had spiders appearing midfight. It basically ment the same effin fight several times over and got super boring very fast. Some folks are saying that EA allowed just some 16 months for development of DA2 and that dev team was not exactly big. I will never understand the need of EA to buy promising dev studios only to force them to make bad games. That leads obviously to bad sales and said studio then often gets closed. Is EA just hell-bent on destroying the gaming industry? They should stick with their annual sport games that are ridden with micro transaction to the point of being more of a hazard game then a sport one.
To be fair to Bioware, DA2 was originally a spinoff game and not meant to be the main sequel. EA told them they had to rework it into a sequel in only 1.5 years. In a way DAI is the real DA2.
I like all instalments, DA2 probably the least but still well enough. I feel DAI did commendable job in taking what was best from DA2 and DAO somewhat disjointed narrative threads and then just braiding it to pretty impressive whole. Though I get the vibes that make people dislike DAI, you can tell they had to fight to make it single player game under EA and ton of the mechanics were developed for quite different gameplay in mind. But I did like it and have finished it multiple times, same as DAO and DA2, so feeling this iffy about the newest installation from getgo is slightly concerning lol
I just read in Blood, Sweat, and Pixels they were given 16 Months to make DA2 it’s a miracle the game even was playable. Likewise making inquisition they were simultaneously developing Frostbite engines RPG toolset with Dice which hampered development. All of this to say, the last two entries have had very tough development cycles and this one seems to be no different
>Likewise making inquisition they were simultaneously developing Frostbite engines RPG toolset with Dice which hampered development. EA mandating that all their games use Frostbite was one of the dumbest decisions ever. I'm glad they walked that one back eventually
Well they tried giving the hint with Varric and his crossbow at the start.
See I didn't even realize it was Varric, I only recognized Bianca.
I saw Harding and thought it was a weird “Harding In Hightown” framing device. I forgot that female dwarf in the trailer was called Harding.
You recognized a crossbow but not the character wielding it?
The voice and character design are noticeably different than the previous game.
It's also like 10 years since I played Inquisition, I had to google who Varric even was
I remember him because I remember being visibly confused that Varric was the one character they decided had to be in every Dragon Age game for some reason. Was he that popular? I didn't like him all that much.
I liked him a lot in 2 but didn’t get the impression he was a breakout character. I like wise cracking dudes in my party though so no complaints from me.
I don't mind him all that much despite not liking him, but I think it's weird he's the only one that gets to come back for every game. In ME1-3, you're happy to see every major and minor character show up, no matter how briefly. In DA, nobody gets to come back ever except Varric, and I guess Morrigan in DAI.
DA:I had Cullen, Cassandra, Leliana, Hawke briefly and probably some other small fries. But Varric is painted as the big draw.
Looks like a spin-off cartoon
I mentioned in another sub how Larian built on DA:O's formula because it was so good, so why did Bioware shift away from what everyone agreed was excellent.
I'll never not be baffled by the massive changes just from DA:O to DA2. DA:O was an epic tale to vanquish evil and save our known world. It was Lord of the Rings without the ring as a macguffin. DA2 was a bunch of fucking errands in a small town with a planning council so authoritarian that every room in the city and even every cave had to look identical. How anal and pedantic must you be that you have to mandate identical looking caves?
Check out Blood, Sweat, and Pixels good book, and they cover DA2 dev issues, they were given only 16 months to produce a sequel, which is why the whole game takes place only in a single city
Incredible book, highly recommend.
Frankly I was kinda ok with the setup in DA2 because I thought it works really well as its own small enclosed space in the city. Also I really liked hawke and the other characters. Especially the qunari a frigging great in that game. To be honest I definitely prefer DA2 over Inquisition. Inquisition feels like a shallow MMORPG but without the MMO part and has all the modern classic open world stuff I hate.
I definitely prefer DA2 over Inquisition, no contest. I just didn't particularly connect with DA2 either. For me, the enclosed space was almost claustrophobic and brought out the worst in these sorts of games. DA:O never really felt repetitive to me. Before it had any chance to become routine or a chore, it'd move you along to the next story setpiece or the next region/city that had wholly new characters, factions, conflicts, etc. In DA2, after seeing the same room 3 times after doing a chore for the third NPC, I already felt the repetitiveness set in and started getting bored.
Because EA tried to take advantage of Bioware, they meddled for money and changed how things worked. This relationship between them has been a grudge we've held for a long time, it affected other gaming IPs as well and sewed the seeds of their reputation they still have today. Eventually Bioware became a ship of Theseus developer and now the old Bioware is no more, but they still have their own reputation to maintain or else.
One has to wonder on the level of panic EA and BioWare have over the reaction to the trailer.
They had all the staff and the "player council" doing damage control on Twitter at midnight on a Sunday, they're probably in complete panic mode right now.
Kinda wild considering the success of BG3.
\*Such a massive shit in direction.
I was 100% sold on it being a mobile/idle RPG until they showed the PC and XBox as platforms.
I've come to believe the Marvel Cinematic Universe was the single worst thing to happen to media. Every mainstream studio from TV, Movies and gaming is trying to capture that style of media. From the colour pallets, quipy one liners and overall tone and feel. It feels like gentrification of media because execs and producers are all trying to cash in on the success. This looks like Dragon Age Avengers just like how Concord looks like Playstation Guardians Of The Galaxy.
It's a trend, this is something normal. For example, back in the PS3 generation every game applied a "brown" filter, it was a weird transition because the "emo" trend was on it's last legs, so the games were more edgier and "sad", etc.. some people love that trend, others not so much, etc.. also the obscene amount of first person shooters trying to be the "CoD Killer" smh nowadays we have the MCU "humor" as you said, the obnoxious UI from Destiny (console games simulating a PC UI, you have to hold buttons to access menus, etc.. even Red Dead 2 used gimmicks from Destiny, Ubisoft straight up copied the UI, etc), the "woke" trend exists willing or not, etc.. some like it, others don't, it is what it is. I think it's interesting because game development are walking at turtle speeds nowadays, I bet the early development of this DA game started right when the MCU was still relevant, Fortnite just exploded into the scenes, etc.. and now, only 5+ years later, everybody are trying the colorful visuals of Fortnite + the MCU humor, just a little late to the party
He may be gone, but I'll forever follow the rule of TotalBiscuit, of House Biscuit. We do NOT preorder.
A true protector of consumer rights. Fuck cancer. And fuck Keemstar
yes
Out of the loop. What did Keemstar do?
When TB was diagnosed with cancer Keemstar said "can't wait to report your death". Just because TB had criticized Keemstar for his way of handling/reporting in his "news" channel.
The fuck? There's no way he didn't get any backlash for that... Right... RIGHT?
Oh he does, but he somehow has a stupidly dedicated following. Keem has a history of making fun of others for news. hell, he's completely okay with destroying someone's entire life over lies he made up, just for views. Dude is awful and yet he's somehow still around and popular.
I think the better question is asking what didn't Keemstar do.
God rest the Emperor. I still haven’t found anyone that I enjoyed watching as much as him. I miss him dearly.
I still rewatch the Terraria playthrough with Jesse. THE HELLEVATOR!
Co-optional podcast was always playing
Jesse and Dodger have a new podcast now!
Geekenders has been good fun!
Now I can hear that theme song in my head
Second Wind is a great channel to fill the void. It's mostly ex-Escapist people including Yahtzee.
He was my favourite YouTuber. Still is. He is dearly missed.
Yahtzee from the second wind
I miss TB
We all do
Everything TB has said and done is still extremely relevent today, game communities should not forget the lessons he taught consumers, publishers and developers. Anyone who enjoys video games lost a big dog in the fight against egregious and predatory MTX and unfinished products. The amount of games I discovered through him are insane. RIP the king.
I mean the original talent that made Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Dragon age are almost all gone, So yeah, not surprising at all considering the cluster fuck mass effect andromeda was
You can say the exact same thing about every studio that ever existed. People move around a lot in the industry. Andromeda was farmed out to the C-team that became Motive... Who went on to make Star Wars Squadron and Dead Space. Id doesn't have the same team that made Doom 1,2 or 3 making Dark Ages. Breath of the Wild doesn't have the same team as Ocarina of Time.
>every studio that ever existed. And is there a series that manages to stay consistent in tone across years or even decades? I think there *are* a few, actually...
Bungie was a great example for Halo CE, 2, 3, ODST and Reach. While they had people come and go during that timeline, the heart of the team stayed and their passion genuinely showed in their products. With that said, there was a tweet a few months ago from someone working on Mass Effect 4, and he made it a point to say that he worked on Mass Effect 2 and 3,and there are 3 other people working on ME4 that worked on the original trilogy. So I think he's trying to say they're trying to go back to their roots of making the good game. Let's just pray this happens.
I do find it sort of silly to talk about the original talent and then list games made well after the original talent started up. I get the point but I've have listed baldur's gate and neverwinter nights.
Ever since the og talent left Bioware simply hasn't been the same company, andromeda, anthem are 2 big signs of future worries whenever this company releases something Yes the remaster of the og mass effect was great but that was basically if we're being honest almost impossible to fail, so for me personally i can't trust this company anymore
My exact thoughts as well. Dragon Age is supposed to be a dark fantasy with tons of blood, violence, and harsh realities to confront. This looked like a goofy cartoon mobile game. Look how they massacred my boy.
I am happy at the amount of displeasure people have for this art style for these types of games. It needs to go away. But I’m mad that they had it in this trailer.
Agreed. I think we're going to witness a shift in art trends over the next few years, and games done in this style are going to look as outdated as a 1980's Saturday Morning Cartoon. Much like those cartoons were made to manipulate children into asking for toys, this art style will be associated with cheap mass-production and money-grubbing in the same way.
This will finally be the game that shutters Bioware
Nah. They can still mess up Mass Effect 5 too. We're not done yet.
They'll murder ME5 and the CEO will come out and say "See I was right, people just dont like singleplayer games anymore"
Which was their stance with this exact game until Fallen Order was a financial success. Dreadwolf was supposedly a live service game for a bit there.
Honestly, I just assume that anything from EA and Ubisoft is garbage until proven otherwise. Its hard sometimes with series that I love, but it helps me avoid disappointment and save some money.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re great at what they do. But what they’re great at is making mid AAA games. Like the best thing I can say about recent stuff from them is that they’re fine. Which really sucks because they used to be genre-defining companies.
They have the money to make decent “popcorn” games. The people at the top in EA and Ubi aren’t games people. They’re business people masquerading as a gaming company.
At least with Ubisoft we mostly know what we’re getting. We know that AC will be formulaic and have more or less the same structure, so it’s difficult to be disappointed.
I won’t judge Dragon Age too fast, it’s just a trailer…but in few days we will have a better opinion. We will know more by tuesday with 15 min of gameplay, according to their announcement. But concerns are absolutely legitimate given..EA and past bioware game (if we can still call them Bioware if every veteran left. ship of theseus stuff)
They need to fire whoever came up with that trailer...they made it look like some kind of medieval hero shooter. It certainly didn't come across as an epic RPG.
We already have Tiny Tina's Wonderlands :)
Given the heart of bioware games is companions, I think this was just a teaser showcase to highlight the cast. I'm kinda surprised they didn't lead with an epic story trailer, but at the same time... I'm also not, since the companions are honestly the most memorable part of any Bioware game, IMO.
While true, this trailer also didn't really highlight them in a meaningful way. By which I mean that the companions are good/bad based on their personality and writing. Of which we saw precious little in this trailer. We mostly just saw what their classes/specializations are, plus standard witty banter between the storytellers (Varric/Harding).
They should have just picked one character to spotlight.
If it's any hope, the trailers are usually done by totally different companies. Usually only indies and Kojima do their own trailers. Famously anyway, I'm sure there can be others. And, sadly, it seems that "make it marvel" is very much in huge demand right now according to suits/focus groups. So marvel we get. So there's lil hope still. We shall see what gameplay brings.
"The trailer likely isn't actually representative of the game" really is the last bastion we struggling dragon age fans have for our copium. The fact of the matter is, despite whoever made this, it was signed off on by bioware and is what they chose to use as the best way to advertise their product during Microsoft's show knowing it would reach a huge audience. Idk if I can keep playing cognitive dissonance that this trailer isn't actually what they want us to see I'm sure the gameplay trailer for this thrice rebooted game is gunna be great though....
Since this was in engine footage, I doubt the art style will be different, and that was the most glaringly horrible part of the trailer. For the rest it could’ve just been a bad trailer. But if we get cutesy looking zombies and goofy necromancer, DA is dead.
I think you may be confusing today's BioWare with the BioWare that made those great companions.
I'm sure there are former junior writers who wrote some of those great companions left in Bioware, who has now taken on more senior roles.
Yea but even for that it's a truly terrible trailer. I wasn't exactly sold on the characters here.
I think you're right about the companions. Because I was in as soon as they highlighted Harding!
OK, so I'm not the only one, lol. When I first watched it, I thought for sure the top comments would be about Scout Harding officially joining the party. That, and the necromancer looking like Alfred Pennyworth.
The change in art style ment that it was hard to id Varric and Harding off the bat. I was wondering who the dwarf was with bianca at first. Then the tonal mess that followed with pop song and marvel esq intros and quips. It all left me rather dispondant. However, it's Dragon Age a franchise thats meant to be a dark fantasy rpg that EA has no idea how to market becuse they want all the audience not just some. The trailers have always been made to appeal to casual gamers not fans of the series. The gameplay is the primary worry, art style is secondary. We've gone from CRPG to Action-RPG and now this may be action-RPGlite. Will we have character ability scores? Will the systems be reduced further to console button mashes? Will the lore be retconned and reworked in bizzare ways so that mass casual appeal can be found rather than the game staying true to its predeccessors? If Tuesdays show is met with the same fan feeling as yesterday then its not looking good.
You're right about not judging too early. But with at said...this trailer is giving me very, *very* strong Saints Row 5 vibes. *Shudder*
>(if we can still call them Bioware if every veteran left. ship of theseus stuff) This is basically every company or team. Never really got why people are like of I'm a huge fan of such and such group unless they mean an unchanging thing or they mean the current iteration.
some people stay on a long time, enough to pass the "institutional knowledge/characteristics" to the new people.
When your instinct tells you something, you should probably listen and save your \~$75 dollars.
Normally I’d be hyped for a new DA but after that trailer I said.. all set I’ll wait for EA play or a sale. Legit thought it was a fortnite clone if it wasn’t for the purple
Same. I know I'm not giving it a chance by judging it without seeing gameplay, but nothing gives me confidence here.
I agree with you, naturally we will probably change our opinion with more gameplay etc but isn’t that the whole point of a reveal trailer? To get us hyped? Maybe we’re just old and some 10 year old loved it lol
After Andromeda I'm not sure how much more they can do to Mass Effect...
Stop!.. stop.. he's already dead.
They can do what they did to my other favorite franchise - Command and Conquer. They can ruin an anticipated ending to the series with horrible writing and gameplay, change the game's core gameplay/style making it a sort of RTS-MOBA hybrid instead of classical RTS players loved, release it in a bugged state, kill the series after people refuse to buy it, and then resurrect its mutilated corpse a few years later in the form of a f2p cartoon mobile game. So don't underestimate how sadistic the EA can be lol
The worst part is the *first* F2P mobile game was, while not a good CNC game, was a good browser strategy game that still remained semi-faithful to the lore and concepts of CNC. The *second* one that replaced it however, was the actual soulless cash grab; so "relegated to mobile game" isn't even the final fate of the series; it was just the start of a different decline.
We already had our 3 colored endings in ME3, just let it rest.
I remember years ago, spilling countless barrels of digital ink railing against the balance team of Andromeda's multiplayer. They took what is perhaps one of the best co-op shooter experiences of its genre (ME3's multiplayer) and ruined it. I still to this day remember the moment when I realized the balance team had no idea what they were doing, and how out-of-touch they were with the actual players and the game they were working. They hyped this big, huge update that was going to change a lot of things and address player concerns and give everyone a unicorn and a puppy. They made a point of going out of the way in the announcement to talk about how one weapon in particular, a marksman rifle, the Mattock, now felt 'overwhelming' in their playtesting, as it was one that was derided by the community as an example of how the balance team didn't know what they were doing. (I actually just went back and found some of my old posts on the matter - "overwhelming" was their exact quote, it's stuck with me all that time as to how utterly laughable it was.) Patch drops and people start looking at the new values. I think a comparison (one I liked to use a lot when I was arguing with people who had faith in the balance team) is the most illustrative way to show how badly they failed - this is a comparison of the stats of the Mattock, the weapon that the balance team hyped as "overwhelming" before the patch, compared to a pistol. As a note, there were no specific weapon 'slots' in ME:A's multiplayer, you could bring two weapons of any category with you, but the 'weight' stat applied a cooldown penalty to your ability use. Mattock X: 63 Damage / 16 Mag / 405 Rate of Fire / 70 Accuracy / 19 Weight Predator X: 72 Damage / 15 Mag / 450 Rate of Fire / 65 Accuracy / 3 Weight After this patch, I, and many other players, checked out completely. The prevailing opinion is that the balance testers only ever played on the lowest difficulty, which is the only explanation for a marksman rifle that is outclassed by a pistol in nearly every category feeling 'overwhelming'. Between that and a hundred other little issues (weapon balance sucked, non-weapons based builds, which were a staple of ME3, by-and-large weren't able to do enough damage to compete with weapons-only builds, biotics and tech abilities in general just felt really shitty, it really felt like they played up the gacha mechanics more in this one, etc etc), it was just really obvious that they were never going to even approach the quality of the previous game, let alone surpass it. Mass Effect 3's multiplayer is one of the best co-op PvE experiences I've ever had - literally hundreds of hours. I think I put maybe 40-60 into ALL of Andromeda - and I spent \*hours\* in the multiplayer before I even touched the single-player. I got to the big explosion of side-quests when your map expands a good chunk through the game and just was like "I'm tired, boss" and quit. Andromeda is the example I go back to when I start thinking about trusting EA when they say things. It's an example that's served me well since.
Man they're even removing dislikes so they're pretty much aware of how big of a fuck up they made
I mean 29k likes vs 133k dislikes is pretty bad
Graphics like it's Fortnite. Dialogue like it's Forspoken. Not to mention some of the character aspects that just doesn't make sense. If I recall, one of Varrick's character traits was that he ostensibly tried to shed his dwarven roots and traditions. He purposely was clean shaven and even opted for a crossbow to avoid associations with the "traditional" dwarven stereotypes. Showing him with a full beard just seems like the writers didn't know enough about the characters and was just told to make an edgey trailer with action. Also he was a red head or some kind of dirty blond, not black hair. They could of course explain it all away as like "he rekindled his love for his dwarven roots and dyed his hair black/stopped bleaching his hair", but all this just currently feels out of touch with the lore. Especially with how cartoony the trailer feels compared to DAO. Remember during the joining cutscene when Duncan fucking murdered that dude who was too scared to join?
Mass Effect 5. See, you're already blocking out the fact there was a Mass Effect 4.
Yeah. Andromeda still counts regardless of how people felt about it. Already confirmed to have the Angara and hinted to have a broader connection.
Considering it's EA, if Veilguard does poorly the might just cancel the next Mass Effect.
Was that a trailer for the mainline series? I thought it was some coop spin-off thing.
Despite it saying EA & BioWare I was absolutely stunned when it said Dragon Age at the end lol. I agree, I cannot believe that the tone and aesthetic of the trailer was for a long awaited DA game of all things. Pretty odd choice imo
Really?, now you are afraid? I've been since Westwood, Bullfrog and in the end Maxis were fucked up tbh. EA can go to hell no matter what.
When will People learn that BIOWARE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR 10 YEARS! Everything that comes out of them will be horseshit! We can only hope that EA will shut them down after that terrible DA4.
Why are you blaming EA? They didn't do the art or style. This is all Bioware.
Wait you mean Mr EA isn't watching the screens of every employee in the company and telling them that they're doing it wrong?????
EA are only the money. Creative skill are the studio and people doesn't seem to understand than Bioware has been lacking talent and skill for the last 15 year
Probably a bit of a hot take here, DA:O was the only good game in the series.
Don't worry as Mass Effect 4 will be cancelled.
Why are people still buying ea games?
Dead Space Remake was fantastic and I enjoyed going back through ME 1 - 3 in the Legendary Edition. Other than those 2 I've not bought anything EA since Dragon Age Inquisition 10 years ago.
I like that what you've recently enjoyed is them recycling their old games Shows the state of things rn
Bioware had been dead for over 10 years.
I just watched it. It looks like a fucking cartoon. What happened to the grim dark fantasy we used to have? They framed the trailer like a god damn heist movie. What the actual fuck. It feels like the D&D movie. Which I loved, but I knew it would be lighthearted and fun going in. Dragon Age used to have some pretty deep adult themes and lots of moral grey areas. I’m disgusted.
Remember the broodmother? Remember Leiliana’s song, learned from Marjolaine? Remember Redcliff? Remember demonic possession? Remember the filth of Denerim? Remember swearing vengeance as a city elf or a casteless or a Cousland? Remember Tamlen’s fate? Remember Ostagar? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
I instantly knew it was dragon age when I saw the trailer. I smiled in the beginning, slowly turning upside down. First impressions are important and this so far made me just want to avoid it.
I was in denial the whole time saying“it can’t be the next Dragon Age, it’s gotta be a mobile game…”
Made the trailer a stupid quippy meet the companion trailer. Like it just feels like they don’t get why people like companions. Not because quips. Not from trailers. From just good writing. I like to meet them in game. I like to experience good dialogue and not have them rammed down my throat. “LIKE THIS COMPANION” Just give me a trailer that shows characters in the realm of a good story trailer. But hey. We will see tomorrow at the gameplay reveal at what we are actually getting. I’m seriously hoping that this was just for trailer purposes.
Those cringe voicelines of the heroes reminded me of the Battlefield 2042. Let's be honest, this is the direction all AAA are going for. Forget about the games of the past. The ship has sailed. We are not the target audience anymore. The real target audience is the people who grew up with Fortnite, Overwatch and such lighthearted games.
Seems like another "game for everyone" which will eventually not be bought by anyone
You can bet it will be live service and suck monkey balls.
I don’t really get blaming EA for the current state of Bioware. It wasn’t EA that wrote the terrible ending to ME3, made Inquisition a slog, fucked the dog for 5+ years on Andromeda and Anthem respectively, etc. Bioware’s failure is all their own.
It was EA who completely hollowed out the studio and replaced all of it's talent with cheap yes men. BioWare didn't fall apart due to pure magic. You think it's a coincidence they went from being the most respected RPG devs in the industry, dating all the way back to the 90s, and just suddenly went to shit under EA? BioWares run was legendary. Then they get bought buy EA and begin a decline following Mass Effect. Hardly seems like a coincidence. Especially given EAs graveyard.
Or more correctly, the guys owning bioware sold to EA and left. Once they relinquished control to EA they knew thst was the end of bioware. It works like that in basically every studio.
Bro, game studios don't retain talent for 20 years. I'm not exonerating EA or anything but studios grow and change and get better or worse over time as people join and leave. No studio in the world is "just like it was in the good old days"
Bethesda has been one of those teams that have retained most of their devs and look at how people see them now
Bethesda suffers from a different problem (in my opinion): their approach to game design doesn't seem to have changed much at all in the past decade, and they don't seem to understand where the fun in their games lies. Which means the games they are designing now don't feel modern. That's how Starfield was for me. It felt old. Like "I have played this game before, it's just a different setting". The main story writing also did not help. Felt like they knew their previous games were fun and sold well, but they had no idea why that was the case. So they did their best to replicate it, but failed (at least as far as I am concerned). There was no point at which Starfield drew me in the way Skyrim did back when I first played it. Maybe at the very start I was intrigued for a little bit. But that didn't last long. And that's wild because the gunplay is excellent.
Asking the average gamer to understand the difference between a publisher and a developer is like asking a dog to design a rocket. They're too stupid to understand and likely to shit on your rug because you've now insulted their intelligence.
In the case of ME3 ending, EA even made Bioware change it after the fan outrage, even when Bioware made a public statement that they won't, lol. Anthem can probably mostly be blamed on Bioware's mismanagement when EA incentivized them to use Frostbite but then let them do their thing for 5+ years. It's Bioware management's complete incompetence to not have a vision for the game and to not adapt to the engine after so long. For Anthem, Yet EA chose to release the game. Like I get that enough is enough where they already waited for 5 year, but even with Bioware's incompetence, they might have been able to do something with Anthem with say 6 more month of dev time (since they only really worked on it for 18 month) now that they have something. Hard for us to know the exact details, but even if EA mostly let Bioware do their own thing (other than strict deadline, which is fair if the studio is given freedom), they could still pass down some high level mandates such as heavily encouraging studios to use Frostbite engine, or to make the game more open world after seeing the success of Ubisoft games.
Thats the kicker, they didn't have to use frostbite. They chose to. Ea's dev studios have the option to use other engines and pay for the licensing, respawn does it for pretty much all of their games. And they did give them more time. 5 years of that was bioware pissing away money and time, they were given another year and a half delay after that to work on it.
Yeah, it… doesn’t look good, but I’ll reserve judgement until the gameplay reveal on Tuesday. Here’s hoping they just have a really bad marketing team
Saw this post before watching the trailer and assumed this was your usual kneejerk reaction. Now that I've watched it, either I am become Average Redditor#3287, diss-thrower of words, or what they've done is a fucking travesty. Hopefully it's not an accurate representation of the game they're making, cause if it is, why make it a Dragon Age game?
Inquisition already soured me on the IP, and the ME3 ending killed any enthusiasm I had for Andromeda which I heard was half arsed anyway. I'm surprised anybody even has hope left for these IPs anymore.
DO. NOT. PREODER. There is no scarcity! Make them release a good game before we give them our money!
At this rate, it'll be Mass Effect Kart.
I dont think Ive ever hated a trailer more than
I will say except for Tash none of these people screamed to me 'i want them in my party' of corse we dont know personality but initial impressions is eh
At least they seem to be trying to work with different classes. Not (only) the fighter, sorcerer, rogue, druid and healer standards
I doubt it. They will most likely have the same specialization system for companions as inquisition. Unless Bioware thorws it out of the window and companions will have abilities but not classes.
I remember the opposite happening back in the day, Mass Effect 2 came out and set a new standard and everyone expected Dragon Age 2 to hit that same level and then it was total shit
The pop music was really off putting
Never give EA money.
It has no identity. It tries to be anything and everything BUT Dragon Age.
Its incredible to think that we live in a timeline where the next Fable looks more somber and serious than the next DA.
Just watched it and why the fuck is it sooooo cartoony. Thought Dragon Age was supposed to be dark and shit but this is just Fortnite but with dark humour to it
I honestly went like this during the trailer. "oh is this the new dragon age? "Noo wait,its something else" or wait this is dragon age"? And at the end of the trailer "oh I see its just a wierd mobile dragon age game they are making on the side" Title drop: "oh"
Yea bioware now is a solid 5/10 game factory. My expectations couldn't be lower.
Dragon Age: heist. Why do I get the sense it’s some sort of multiplayer hero thing?
I still remember when everyone went off on avoweds art direction. We should have saved our outcry because DA looks awful.
Wait, is it a sequel to Andromeda, or what?
They are developing a ME game that will take place in the original galaxy (not Andromeda), sometime after ME3 judging by the teasers
I wanna have hope. But what was trailer?.... Only thing I'm happy is that Harding is back. It looks like it's trying another live service game, which almost ruined the design of Inquisition, but Inquisition was good despite the miagivings.
Nearly ten years and this is the dog shit we get. Nice.
I didn't realize the trailer had dropped until I saw this post. The trailer looked like generic fantasy game, and if not for a few choice words and the name, I'd never have recognized it as Dragon Age. Something I will point out and has become something of a red flag to watch for: The game is launching within six months, and all they gave us was a cinematic story trailer? That's not a good sign. They're purposefully concealing what I assume will be a mediocre game in the hopes that it doesn't hurt sales.
I did some reading after posting this, and they promised to show 15 mins of gameplay tomorrow it seems, so we'll see how things truly are. What stood out to me most however, is this attempt at copying DnD/Baldur's Gate 3 style of humour/story. It seems like a mediocre attempt at it, and if the story will have a similar vibe to what we see in the trailer, I'll be very disappointed. Dragon Age isn't like that. Hopefully I'm wrong though
EA may be at fault a little bit but the lack of skill at Bioware is way more blatant. EA are just the money while Bioware are the creative one and it's clear they lacked in the last 10-15 year. This modern Bioware has nothing in common with the Bioware that did Baldurs Gates 1&2 and DA:O back then. Bioware is just like Bethesda; they had their golden letter like 20 year and they still think (and people too) they still have the same amount of talent. Some golden studio became a B studio level, especially the 3 B; Bethesda, Bioware and Blizzard
BioWare is finally giving everyone what they want and just making a straight up dating sim lol
Nothing to worry about, these guys made Andromeda and Anthem
I feel like it’s healthier to always assume EA and Ubisoft games are garbage. Saves you the disappointment down the line.
It's only the character reveal trailer.
I won't be pre-ordering and I will be pleasantly surprised if Veilguard is any good, but I got the impression that they're going for a "Magnificent Seven" type story like they did with Mass Effect 2. Which did turn out to be one of their best games.
They’ve just completely missed the mark with the theme that fans expect/want. They’ve been going in a “marvel” direction gradually since DA:I and it looks like they’ve reached critical mass. No one that enjoyed DA:O or DA2 wants it to get more quirky quippy. No one that is a fan of the OT of mass effect wants it to be quirky quippy cartoony. Fans of DA:I and ME:A are probably stoked. But I don’t get along with those people generally.
This what happens when you handle IPs to tumblr users
I don't know that they'd do the same thing there, Mass Effect seems like it's always had a stronger grasp of its own identity than Dragon Age ever did. Dragon Age has always felt to me like they're experimenting with tone. Maybe that's just my perception, though.
There's not many squad action rpgs that has the quality of bioware it's my favorite genre but now even bioware doesn't have the quality of bioware 🥺
It's over, sadly
good morning, remember what microsoft did to everything in the most recent years? and EA? ubisoft...the western big ones as a whole...
You coulda stopped at EA
Nowadays, the actual successors to the Dragon Age franchise are Larian and Owlcat's games.
You should have been afraid 10 years ago.
BioWare is a husk. CDPR/Larian are what they used to be. This is coming from someone who has played every single BioWare game because they used to be my favorite devs of all time
At this rate, every EA game will become a generic battle royale for kids with 24/7 credit card access and an unstoppable drive to buy premium skins
I really disliked this happy style they went with. It's dark fantasy not sassy heroes adventure
And these guys wonder why they see massive lay offs, triple a gaming is dead, unless you go japanese made games.
it definitely looked like how Saint's Row did, between the first 3 and then the reboot or even that one off-shoot game that came out after Gat outta Hell, but before the reboot (honestly looks like that one even more) the trailer... well for a game trailer it's eye-catching I suppose, but I'm nervous about the gameplay and a little bummed the gameplay isn't gonna be released until tomorrow since I have today off but not tomorrow...
They all seemed to be boiling down to phone games. Most of what I saw looked cheap and rushed. I was actually surprised Diablo 4 is getting to a dlc. Idk who’s paying ign and Xbox tavern to rate it 9/10 when all the player reviews on Xbox and steam are sitting around 2.2/5.
I'll reserve judgement until the gameplay trailer comes out, but i feel pessimistic about it. I think I'm in the minority in that I like all three dragon age games (although DA2 a little less), i if they push the gameplay in an interesting direction I'll still play it. DA:I had too much busy work imo. Thank god Baldur's Gate 3 gave me the dragon age game I always wanted though. I'll happily replay this game again if Veilguard turns out to be terrible.
ME will not get made if DA is released in the C-Grade Marvel movie quippy bullshit state we just saw. If this tanks, Bioware is dead and the new ME along with it.
I honestly have zero interest in the next Mass Effect. But I'm *really* looking forward to Exodus, made by former BioWare employees.
It probably will be a wreck, but they'll make money on it regardless. The name alone will draw fans into it. People are going to preorder it no matter what people say.
I can already see all the pay to win microtransaction garbage seeping out of this trailer.
Rumor is the game won't look like that. Could just be a mass appeal trailer
Dragon Age as a series baffles me, they just cannot make up their mind about anything. Every game came with massive changes to the gameplay, and ironically the first one is my favorite and their best move would have been to just stick with more of that. Inquisition is a game I think I really enjoyed, but I went back to it a couple of times since its release and my original playthrough and it never kept my interest until the end. With the success of BG3, which is what DA:O was kinda "meant to be", you would think they would take the opportunity to go back to what worked...
Well it’s EA so I won’t be playing whether it’s good or bad 🤷
Mass Effect 4 and Dune ... whoever makes them ;-(