VG247 Article - How Bioware is losing its heart

Oh my Sweet Rose of Sharon, Cass, the Whiskey Rose, be still my beating heart.  Just listening to her cursing was enough to set me aflame. 

Because MP requires pretty much zero effort to create as opposed to an AT LEAST decent single player campaign. There's nothing of substance to focus on, it's all point & shoot.

Mass Effect games are supposed to be about the story, rite? Otherwise might as well clone & reskin COD. Noone will tell it's the same game.

I read the first 1/3 of the article and skimmed the rest. I agree with some things he says but disagree with most of it. However, I think he's damn right about this:


Both Mass Effect Andromeda and Dragon Age Inquisition feel shaped by trends in blockbuster triple-A, which distracts from the real strength of the studio – fostering an intimate feeling of investment and connection with characters, world and story


I've felt that Bioware has been on the road of Following Trends ever since EA's acquisition of them (which makes sense). In their most recent games, they strive to incorporate what is popular whether or not it would benefit their style of game development in order to appease gaming masses, masses that would have nothing to do with their games otherwise. I think this approach has done more harm than good and with Andromeda and what I've read about its development, it's just been getting worse. I'm speaking about an article recently posted on these forums where a dev (can't remember off the top of my head atm) had stated that they weren't quite sure what they should put in the game and strong emphasis was placed on what fans would like most and also where it was revealed that they spent a year trying to work a No Man's Sky influence into their game (I suspect it was abandoned after the crash and burn of said game upon its release). This tells me that focus was off on this game, no clear vision from the team on just what to do with Mass Effect and bold risk could not be taken.

They need to stop paying so much attention to what everyone else is doing. Bioware needs to come up with ideas for their games and buckle down on them, not get distracted by a new idea that seems cool and try to shove that into the mix during development. 9x out of 10, you'll end up making a mess and a weaker product. Focus, Focus, Focus!

What is wrong with Geralt, apart from the fact that he is male?

That's probably the main reason. A lot of folks here like having a CC and a choice in who our protagonist is. Some don't want to play a 90 year old man.

inb4 discussion turns Witcher.

Oops... too late.

Geralt is pretty much the ultimate male fantasy in a lot of ways: a complete bad ass who can pretty much have any women with no consequence (because he's infertile! How handy!), who all women desire to be with.

No wonder he's a popular character for a lot of people.

Alot of people disliked Gerault true enough but if CDPR made an RPG that was the same quality of TW3 but with an Custom PC that we could make in an estinsive CC then all of their naysayers would be silenced.

I could have sworn they cancelled that game because it went dark for like two years.

There... THERE! There it is again! They depict DA:I as having better story-driven side quests than MEA? How? Why?

Dear game journalists, please go play Inquisition again and realize how much your glasses have already gotten rose-tinted since 2014!!

Also, best outcome of this would be EA going: "BioWare, you've been disappointing us. We gonna cut yo budget and yo gonna make more mid-sized game next" and then BioWare makes a Mass Effect CRPG in the vein of Planescape Torment

That sounds like a terrible outcome.

I think Nick Valentine deserves more love. He's such a great character once you really get into his dialogue, and it's impossible for me to do Far Harbor without him.