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Kappa Neko
...lives for biotic explosions. And cheesecake!
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October 2016
kappaneko
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Kappa Neko on Apr 19, 2018 8:42:48 GMT
A bigger concern in my book is the sheer number of senior positions currently listed as being open on the careers portion of Bioware's website. I don't have a whole lot of hope for this company surviving long enough to release a DA4. At this rate, they may not even get Anthem out the door. It may just be a reflection of a round of internal promotions happening or planned. Some companies have a policy of publicizing every single position they aim to fill, even when they already have an internal candidate in mind. That policy can also help them collect some higher quality resumes (to backfill or for recon on competitors) than they'd likely get if they advertised only the entry level positions. I can confirm this. Same thing in our (big) company. We simply can't tell how satisfied Bioware employees are with the company's direction and how Anthem's development is going. We'll see when the game is out, I guess. My belief is still that BioWare needs to make less changes due to what they are reading about what the internet is saying about their games. If they do what one side is saying that should be there or changed there is another vocal group that doesn't like it. To me that was the problem I had with Andromeda is they were trying to add features and systems that people kept saying that should be added, tweaked, or revisited. To me what makes a game enjoyable is that the systems and features are added to compliment the goal and story of the game which only BioWare knows so shoving something into the game because "fans want it" hurts the game because it might not compliment what they are trying to accomplish. That's how I feel about the addition of the open world into their games. People were crying out to get Skyrim's scope believing they'd get Bioware's traditional storytelling woven throughout. Instead the resources poured into creating that is done so at the cost of story elements...nevermind that it detracts from narrative focus. I also hate the fact that they have to reimagine themselves with each installment. Instead of refining and building off DAI (which 4 years later is still a good-looking game) and dropping DA4 3 years later, we'll wait 6 years so they can create an entirely new game from scratch. It'll be the same thing for any future ME game. They should be pumping out games every 18 months, instead they're just kind of floundering about trying to copy others successes (Skyrim, Destiny, etc...) I wish they'd just pick what they're going to be and stick with it. I wonder how successful Naughty Dog games would be if they felt the need to recreate their gameplay elements with each installment...probably wouldn't have been able to build their playerbase to what it is now. I agree... maybe I'm biased because I never understood why people considered exploration a part of Mass Effect just because of the boring FILLER planet roaming with broken vehicle mechanics in ME1, but... open world did Bioware NO favor imo. Not the way they implemented it anyway. Open world is a MAJOR resource hog. Resources that would be better spent on cinematic dialogue with great voice acting and actual choices. DAI looked gorgeous, still does. Most beautiful game I ever played. And at first I thought it was the right move to go open world. I DID enjoy just walking through these stunning landscapes. But that's not exploration. There wasn't really much to discover. Nothing INTERACTIVE about the world. Just a really big elfroot garden. It was even worse in MEA imo. I'd rather replay DA2 now actually. There ARE games in which open world compliments the storytelling, for me those are Witcher 3 and HZD because these games are about two "hunters" in the broader sense. But more often than not, open world is BAD for cinematic storytelling. So if Bioware wants to continue making such games, they need to rethink their approach. I was also not in favor of fanservice romances of the trilogy. Like Tali. Downright irresponsible and somewhat creepy. And Garrus is also a romance I REALLY don't want to think about in sexual terms. I also wish Bioware wasn't so concerned with being non-offensive and inclusive these days to a degree that completely diluted MEA's story into utter nonsense. Now that was Montreal, so I HOPE Edmonton grows some balls to tell a compelling story in DA4 again. Because DAI already had be a bit worried... What fans want is not always something writers and other creative talent should listen to. In fact, what fans think they want is often not what they end up liking. And then Bioware tends to overreact or misunderstand why people didn't like some of the things they put in their games. Their main focus should be: What would make a great story? What would be fun to play? Not: Would somebody be offended if we did that? Do we need to include a dozen more sexual variables to our overblown romance mechanics? At least that's my stance as somebody who cares about a good story more than anything.
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Post by river82 on Apr 19, 2018 10:40:31 GMT
I agree... maybe I'm biased because I never understood why people considered exploration a part of Mass Effect just because of the boring FILLER planet roaming with broken vehicle mechanics in ME1, but... open world did Bioware NO favor imo. Not the way they implemented it anyway. Open world is a MAJOR resource hog. Resources that would be better spent on cinematic dialogue with great voice acting and actual choices. DAI looked gorgeous, still does. Most beautiful game I ever played. And at first I thought it was the right move to go open world. I DID enjoy just walking through these stunning landscapes. But that's not exploration. There wasn't really much to discover. Nothing INTERACTIVE about the world. Just a really big elfroot garden. It was even worse in MEA imo. I'd rather replay DA2 now actually. There ARE games in which open world compliments the storytelling, for me those are Witcher 3 and HZD because these games are about two "hunters" in the broader sense. But more often than not, open world is BAD for cinematic storytelling. So if Bioware wants to continue making such games, they need to rethink their approach. Completely agree here. Going open world goes against Bioware's emphasis on storytelling. To quite Lincoln Michel "It isn’t a world that a writer is creating, it is a story. The goal of the writer is not to clutter the path with every object they can think of, but to clear the way for the reader’s journey." Obviously with games that's almost impossible to do; there will be gameplay and it will detract from the story. With studios that emphasise stories though, these gameplay mechanics should try and supplement the story as much as possible. Adventure games tend to do this, Telltale games do away with gameplay completely. Mass Effect Andromeda though is almost obnoxious in its complete disregard of this philosophy. To its detriment, imo. Witcher 3 got away with it, Horizon Zero Dawn not so much because the game is all about the stealth combat (the story's fairly forgettable).
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Kappa Neko
...lives for biotic explosions. And cheesecake!
3,367
Oct 18, 2016 21:17:18 GMT
October 2016
kappaneko
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Kappa Neko on Apr 19, 2018 10:57:16 GMT
Witcher 3 got away with it, Horizon Zero Dawn not so much because the game is all about the stealth combat ( the story's fairly forgettable). Whut? O.o HZD had a very very well presented cinematic and emotionally involving story. Much like Bioware games the storytelling was better than the actual story which was quite generic. So maybe you mean the plot? But the main character and presentation is what sold the game to me. Plus the super fun combat of course. HZD was what an open world Bioware game should have been imo.
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Post by river82 on Apr 19, 2018 11:09:09 GMT
Witcher 3 got away with it, Horizon Zero Dawn not so much because the game is all about the stealth combat ( the story's fairly forgettable). Whut? O.o HZD had a very very well presented cinematic and emotionally involving story. Much like Bioware games the storytelling was better than the actual story which was quite generic. So maybe you mean the plot? But the main character and presentation is what sold the game to me. Plus the super fun combat of course. HZD was what an open world Bioware game should have been imo. Well, apart from Aloy most of the characters are superficial and it's a familiar type of plot to me. Similar things have been done a lot in anime in JRPGs (imo). The whole way through the game I was getting familiar vibes
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Apr 23, 2024 19:30:38 GMT
8,390
Kappa Neko
...lives for biotic explosions. And cheesecake!
3,367
Oct 18, 2016 21:17:18 GMT
October 2016
kappaneko
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Kappa Neko on Apr 19, 2018 11:20:06 GMT
Whut? O.o HZD had a very very well presented cinematic and emotionally involving story. Much like Bioware games the storytelling was better than the actual story which was quite generic. So maybe you mean the plot? But the main character and presentation is what sold the game to me. Plus the super fun combat of course. HZD was what an open world Bioware game should have been imo. Well, apart from Aloy most of the characters are superficial and it's a familiar type of plot to me. Similar things have been done a lot in anime in JRPGs (imo). The whole way through the game I was getting familiar vibes The backstory was very generic, I agree. But the storytelling was one of the best I've seen. I almost cried a few times because the emotional impact of Aloy's story was so well done. It's a very personal story, I liked that. Top notch voice acting all around. I thought the quest NPCs were pleasantly quirky and fun to interact with. Of course they don't have the depth of Bioware companions. But when an action game does a better job of pulling me in with the presentation than a Bioware game (MEA and to some degree DAI because the inquisitor was such a boring doormat to me), something is wrong. For me personally anyway. HZD blends cinematic storytelling, open world and fun combat extremely well. I will continue to advocate that game as a viable blueprint if Bioware wants to keep open world and finally make it work.
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