Gileadan
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Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 29, 2021 16:54:11 GMT
I found the Inquisitor pretty bland too, mostly because the voice over (I picked American English male, which might have been a mistake) failed to give me much emotion even when a dialogue choice was specifically on their newfangled "emotion wheel". I picked Angry, and I got "Neutral with a bit of Slightly Miffed on top". I picked Sad, and I got something along the lines of "bummer I guess". Yeah, there is That Line in Trespasser, but there's a reason why it stands out so much - because everything else is so bland.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 27, 2021 8:52:39 GMT
Heheh. Inquisition's sales numbers are oddly obscure, and the "most successful launch in BioWare history" statement is a fine example of corpo weasel words. Means it sold great during preorders and on launch day, and probably took a nose dive right on Day Two. And a week is longer than that. While I have lost most of my interest in the franchise, due to the direction the storyline was taking (I don't care about ancient elves one bit) and the time between installments, I don't think it deserves a headshot just yet. There's still a solid foundation there. They could just advance the timeline a few decades and start fresh with new characters, factions and conflicts. That's what tends to carry their games. A new setting wouldn't necessarily make things better - Anthem's setting was new and look what that got us. Anthem's problems have little to do with the setting, but rather the type of content Bioware made for it. I can say the same from Dragon Age and I don't think mixing up the setting to a few decades later is going to change it and, even if Bioware don't release a new IP, after ME Will Continue, in ~2028, the next DA game is at least 5 years away after this one. It's going to be 19 years after Origins, to get a title that might be OK. Just not worth it. True, the setting is not the cause of any of Anthem's troubles, but it being a new setting also didn't make it better in any way. A new setting is not the solution to BioWare's problems is the point I was trying to make. As you said, it's the content that BioWare makes for a given setting that's the key, and my idea was that moving the timeline along a bit would allow them to start with fresh content instead of continuing with the current one. That new content, of course, would still have to be good, but the Dragon Age setting can still serve as a base for fresh, good content.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 27, 2021 8:42:37 GMT
That said - I agree that BioWare shot themselves in the foot with Trespasser by pretending to end the Inquisitor's story while actually giving them a good reason to keep going. That combined with the time passing between DAI and DA4 is about the worst thing thing they could have done. I'm not very attached to the Dragon Age setting these days, I'm just here because of the irrational hope that the next game may be good again. I don't care about Dragon Age anymore. You can't start a conversation about it with anyone, not that you'd want to, anyway, but to me, it seems the franchise is bleeding people and has been for a good long while now. Personally, I'd shelve it entirely, at this point and I can't tell why either Bioware or EA pretend it is a thing anymore. It's been 7 years. Just kill it already. And yes, I know, best launch in Bioware history, a game that couldn't sell 500k copies in its opening month, according to the NPD. If I recall, ME3 sold 3x that in its first week. So I am sure Bioware is definitely not stretching the truth as far as they can. Heheh. Inquisition's sales numbers are oddly obscure, and the "most successful launch in BioWare history" statement is a fine example of corpo weasel words. Means it sold great during preorders and on launch day, and probably took a nose dive right on Day Two. And a week is longer than that. While I have lost most of my interest in the franchise, due to the direction the storyline was taking (I don't care about ancient elves one bit) and the time between installments, I don't think it deserves a headshot just yet. There's still a solid foundation there. They could just advance the timeline a few decades and start fresh with new characters, factions and conflicts. That's what tends to carry their games. A new setting wouldn't necessarily make things better - Anthem's setting was new and look what that got us.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 27, 2021 7:52:43 GMT
I don't like the Inquisitor, I'm not even going to pretend to having any intention of buying DA4, so I really don't care one way or the other. But it seems to me like what people are proposing is along the lines of making something like Infinity War and following it up with Endgame, only none of the Avengers show up. You can do it, but narratively it's a big WTF moment. Not what you'd reasonably expect. Again, I've got zero fucking stakes in this. Has Bioware taken entirely too long to release a sequel to Inquisition and has thus made Inquisition entirely irrelevant at this point? That's Bioware's problem, not something the fans should have to deal with. Bad business practices are the company's job to deal with, not the customers. I don't think that comparing Solas to Thanos (or Darth Vader) really works that well. Thanos and Vader are main antagonists right from the start. They are the big obstacles the heroes must overcome, they are the personification of the opposing force. In Dragon Age Inquisition, that character is Corypheus, and he is defeated in the end, resolving the conflict with him. Solas is one of your companions, someone you thought was on your side who gets a post credits scene showing that he's been the source of the problem and that he now plans to be the next ancient evil in the queue to threaten Thedas. If Infinity War was like the Dragon Age series, Thanos would have died in the end only for Steve Rogers to go "Hail Hydra lol", the Avengers getting retired and Endgame being about Hydra-Cap's evil plan to tear down reality or whatever. Like Solas, he would be a new threat. Sure, there would be potential protagonists (the now retired Avengers) that would have a history with him before he became that threat, but a new protagonist would work pretty well too. BioWare did the same with Corypheus, who probably should have been Hawke's mess to clean up. Would Inquisition have been better if Hawke had been the Inquisitor? I'm actually not sure. There's so little interaction with Corypheus in the game other than fighting him and listening to his blathering that I can't see any big difference that would have made. But that might be because I'm not that invested in the story anymore. However, a recurring protagonist would also create the problem of people expecting their old romances to get dragged along and all that, and that's a whole new can of worms of its own. That said - I agree that BioWare shot themselves in the foot with Trespasser by pretending to end the Inquisitor's story while actually giving them a good reason to keep going. That combined with the time passing between DAI and DA4 is about the worst thing thing they could have done. I'm not very attached to the Dragon Age setting these days, I'm just here because of the irrational hope that the next game may be good again.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 27, 2021 5:59:44 GMT
That looks like some weird bombastic boredom to me. I'm no comic fan at all, but I knew who the Avengers are and watched the movies. These guys? Never heard of any of them, no idea who they are and what they do (apparently nothing, given how they "never interfere" according to the trailer voice over, not even when Thanos snapped his fingers), and there's no hint of any interesting plot in that trailer. *head scratch* There's probably a target audience somewhere out there, but I don't feel that I'm a part of it. I hadn't heard of them, either. And you're right, this does look - on first glance, which is pretty bad for a trailer of an obscure property - to be rather dull. On the other hand, I'd never heard of Guardians of the Galaxy either. Talking tree? Awesome, Marvel have jumped the shark. Literally what I said to a friend when I heard about it (before seeing the trailers). The point; I guess, for me, at this point - Marvel have probably earned the benefit of the doubt. It could suck, but history suggests that Marvel - studios - know what they're doing with this stuff (maybe not from a comics purist point of view, but who the hell cares about those 7 people) when it comes to bringing lesser known properties to the larger public awareness. I think they certainly earned the benefit of the doubt as far as box office success is concerned, but when it comes to actual entertainment value, I feel that the MCU is generally overrated. Sure, I greatly enjoyed the first Iron Man and Winter Soldier and the first Avengers movie, but for each of those there is a snooze fest like Captain Marvel, Age of Ultron or any Thor movie. Bombastic spectacles that made me go "oh wow" once in a while but then were quickly forgotten. And the Avengers movies benefitted from every major character having their own movie series to flesh them out, while those Eternals fellas come out of nowhere with no interesting backgrounds to speak of. Nice costumes though.
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Gileadan
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Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 26, 2021 21:48:17 GMT
There are different things I like and dislike about all the Mass Effect games, but in the end none of them were as exciting to me as playing ME1 for the first time. Yeah, a bit of its intro sequence was taken right out of Top Gun, but watching it made giddy to start playing, even on subsequent playthroughs.
Then ME3 came along and let it all go out with a pathetic whimper, and MEA picked up right where it left off.
I need to go and watch the ME1 intro again to remind myself of the good old times, just as I occasionally watch the DAO intro to remind myself that Wardens weren't always bumbling idiots.
And I still hope that the next ME will, somehow, turn out to be great.
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Gileadan
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Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 26, 2021 9:51:21 GMT
Let's face it, BioWare/EA will want to sell DA4 to as many gamers as possible, and I think most people prefer to jump into a game's story without having to understand a bunch of important references to an almost ten years old predecessor. My feeling is that Dragon Age Inquisition, despite its accolades and GOTY status, has been largely forgotten by the general gaming audience. If I asked my PC gaming buddies, who are all into RPGs and generally story based games, who Solas is for example, I'd get blank stares all around. And BioWare/EA will want to market to the general audience, the one who most likely won't know/remember who Solas is, not DAI's remaining small cult following.
Chances are the new protagonist will get their own introduction into the entire Dread Wolf plot and the Inquisitor / Inquisition will get a few mentions in the Codex or NPC dialogue lines. Why make people go back to an old game to understand the conflict that is going on in the current one, especially if they go there already knowing that Solas is the true villain? The time window for making the Inquisitor a recurring protagonist is pretty much gone in my opinion.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 25, 2021 6:23:39 GMT
That looks like some weird bombastic boredom to me. I'm no comic fan at all, but I knew who the Avengers are and watched the movies. These guys? Never heard of any of them, no idea who they are and what they do (apparently nothing, given how they "never interfere" according to the trailer voice over, not even when Thanos snapped his fingers), and there's no hint of any interesting plot in that trailer. *head scratch* There's probably a target audience somewhere out there, but I don't feel that I'm a part of it.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 18, 2021 22:38:32 GMT
Refusal doesn't delay the solution of anything. If you carefully read between the lines in the Stargazer epilogue, it's presumed the future races didn't even use the Crucible the way it's used in the ending-- or at least in the rudimentary way that we think about it. The caveat is that next time around, the cycle had completely and utterly prepared themselves for the Reapers, to such an extent, that they aren't forced to choose what the Catalyst had previously proposed to Shepard. It's pretty simple to imagine. Shepard's cycle were too mired by time and bureaucratic shuffling to conventionally fight the Reapers in any way. The succeeding cycle, with all the knowledge and data sufficiently at their disposal, have all the the prep time in the world to come up properly with their own strategy,--n the exact way they all want to and agree to-- of stopping the Reapers without the Starchild's determining. Of course it delays the solution - an entire cycle passes, and the rest of the advanced species of the current cycle are exterminated, something that would not have happened if any of the standard endings was chosen. The following cycle in the refuse ending might have had more information at their disposal, but they can't have had much more time to prepare - scientific progress only goes so fast, it doesn't suddenly accelerate just because everyone's afraid of monstrous machines from dark space. And yet the end sequence makes it sound as if the reapers suddenly became a pushover thanks to Liara's time capsule. Somehow, the species of the next cycle must have eclipsed the reapers' power by a vast margin, in just about the time the current cycle had during the Mass Effect trilogy or maybe a little bit longer, and the reapers went from pretty much impossible to defeat to a quickly contained menace (by whatever means). Though I agree that the species of the current cycle weren't too efficient at fighting the reapers, first choosing to ignore the problem and then letting their own petty bickering get constantly in the way. It's not hard to imagine that someone did better after taking the warning seriously, yet the implied ease at which this happened makes the failure of the current cycle seem really drastic.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 18, 2021 17:35:37 GMT
Destroy isn't great, but it's the least garbage ending. It's still bad for the writers so obviously taking the geth hostage against the player. I could practically hear someone say "Go ahead! Shoot that thing and the toasters get it!"
Synthesis is complete non sequitur nonsense. Organics are remote-implanted with cybernetics and this somehow, in an unexplained way, solves the dilemma of organics creating synthetics that will eventually kill them? There is no logical connection between A and B here. Also, the message it sends is more than problematic. "You, the invaded, must become more like the invader to be left in peace. Don't bother, we don't need your consent."
And Control. A super powerful AI controlling the reapers that is based on Shepard's personality. Whew. Let's hope that Shepard never made a single renegade decision because otherwise the new Shep-Omnissiah might just do the same. But instead of shoving a mercenary out of the window, it has a reaper fleet. Do you feel good?
EDIT: I forgot Refuse! Probably the most pointless of all. It just delays the solution by one cycle and goodness knows how many million or trillion deaths, only for some other guy to get to pick between Destroy/Synthesis/Control again.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 17, 2021 17:33:02 GMT
I'm perfectly fine with people not liking games I enjoyed. I'm sure they like games that I didn't find particularly fun either. I'm not sure how I gave the opposite impression. What would you have liked better then as far as Witcher 3 combat is concerned? A more sign-heavy option that let you blast things from afar without ever needing to engage in melee? More melee options like shields or two handed weapons? Assassin's Creed or Deus Ex style stealth? Actually effective crossbow sniping? I'm not trying to be a smart ass or anything, I'm genuinely curious. Yea, pretty much. let me focus on the crossbow, let me be a mage and almost exclusively use signs, let me stealth past people or monsters or use sneak attacks. Basically, let me be something that isn't a fucking Witcher, because Witcher's in lore are shoe-horned into this narrow box of combat options. Ah, I get it. More options would have been really nice, but I suppose that train left the station in the early 2000s when they decided to make Geralt the protagonist instead of letting you create one of your own. Combat gameplay was never a particular strength of the Witcher franchise and I think they made some progress in Cyberpunk there.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 17, 2021 16:07:48 GMT
It is actually quite possible to play Witcher 3's combat with precision instead of spammery. I found it actually easier to use well timed step-backs (against monsters and humans with two-handers) or ripostes (against humans with one-handers) augmented with signs as needed to fight on Death March difficulty. I took out one of those huge bandit camps in Blood & Wine by just using Axii to make them kill each other - as a proof of concept, it's not really a viable method due to the time required to get results. I thought the highest difficulty level greatly encouraged focused precision attack and defense instead of crazed weasel dodge-roll fests. Sir, Step backs, IS DODGING. A dodge has a very simple definition, physically moving out of the way. As for ripostes, yea, you can do that too, but that is not a different style of combat. Being able to riposte does not change the fact that Witcher 3 only plays 1 way, Move around, avoiding damage. But everyone wants to sit here and argue semantics about what fucking dodging is because they refuse to acknowledge what I'm actually talking about because they can't get over someone saying anything negative about Witcher 3. I'm perfectly fine with people not liking games I enjoyed. I'm sure they like games that I didn't find particularly fun either. I'm not sure how I gave the opposite impression. What would you have liked better then as far as Witcher 3 combat is concerned? A more sign-heavy option that let you blast things from afar without ever needing to engage in melee? More melee options like shields or two handed weapons? Assassin's Creed or Deus Ex style stealth? Actually effective crossbow sniping? I'm not trying to be a smart ass or anything, I'm genuinely curious.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 15, 2021 21:52:20 GMT
It is actually quite possible to play Witcher 3's combat with precision instead of spammery. I found it actually easier to use well timed step-backs (against monsters and humans with two-handers) or ripostes (against humans with one-handers) augmented with signs as needed to fight on Death March difficulty. I took out one of those huge bandit camps in Blood & Wine by just using Axii to make them kill each other - as a proof of concept, it's not really a viable method due to the time required to get results. I thought the highest difficulty level greatly encouraged focused precision attack and defense instead of crazed weasel dodge-roll fests.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 15, 2021 5:07:17 GMT
So how's the PC version? Do we finally get a FOV slider? Did they fix the "space bar does everything" nonsense and let us bind different actions to different keys?
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Gileadan
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Agent 46
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Post by Gileadan on May 13, 2021 11:51:27 GMT
I have very little interest in romance (and therefore also sexuality) in video game left in me. Once I found romances a great addition to story based games, back when I played Baldur's Gate II and such, but after Dragon Age Origins my interest began to decline steadily. Once in a great while a romance I actually enjoy comes along (like Panam's in Cyberpunk), but some are so boring that I at least temporarily forget that I'm in a romance at all (Cora in MEA).
I play games to unwind from work and whatever other problems show up in my life. I don't mind at all if there's sexuality or representation or diversity and whatnot in a game because I don't pay much attention to it anyway while I'm casually purging the heretic with my Godwyn pattern bolter. I would just prefer to not being preached to. If I wanted to be preached to, I'd join a cult.
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Gileadan
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Post by Gileadan on May 13, 2021 11:21:25 GMT
Why did they feel the need to redo Kelly of all people? Different eyes, nose, lips, hairdo, everything, and it doesn't look like much of an improvement to me.
Kelly is in ME2 and ME3, both of which were made using the Unreal 3 engine, so there's not even a technical reason for the redesign.
Who knows, maybe Kelly's original model is in the barn with Pinnacle Station.
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Gileadan
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Post by Gileadan on May 13, 2021 8:44:55 GMT
Whether BioWare thought or thinks that the Mass Effect franchise is over or not is not the primary concern here - if Andromeda was a sign of things to come then they're likely at the end of the rope as far as writing and creativity are concerned. Andromeda recycled story moments from the trilogy, just with way less interesting characters and more harebrained plot moments. Doesn't matter which protagonist and galaxy they pick for the next Mass Effect game, they need to stop that trend. I’d say that there are some chances the recycled moments (and some characters’ basic premise) were due the fact the development of the game was a mess. The Montreal team was developing a NMS-like game before Edmonton stepped in and shifted the game towards a more traditional BioWare game. I think they found themselves in a similar situation of DA2, where they didn’t have much time to work on the game, only that with Andromeda, they placed themselves in that. That is a possible explanation of course. But if I remember Mr. Schreier's article correctly, DAI was made under pretty dire circumstances too and yet has a bunch of well written and well voiced characters to enjoy. A part of it may also be personal preference. Andromeda's "rule of cool good, logic and common sense bad" style of story just doesn't appeal to me.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
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gileadan
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Gileadan on May 13, 2021 8:02:13 GMT
Whether BioWare thought or thinks that the Mass Effect franchise is over or not is not the primary concern here - if Andromeda was a sign of things to come then they're likely at the end of the rope as far as writing and creativity are concerned. Andromeda recycled story moments from the trilogy, just with way less interesting characters and more harebrained plot moments. Doesn't matter which protagonist and galaxy they pick for the next Mass Effect game, they need to stop that trend.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
Posts: 2,842 Likes: 7,110
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177
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2,842
August 2016
gileadan
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Gileadan on May 12, 2021 5:42:20 GMT
A lot of people seemed to have expected GTA with cyberware and were disappointed when they got Deus Ex with vehicles. Hey, let’s not get crazy. Cyberpunk 2077 has a long way to go before it reaches Deus Ex’s level. To be fair though, all the ads did focus almost exclusively on the Punk part instead of the Cyber part. Personally I’m glad the game was not really what the ads made it look like. Yeah, they'd have to remove the character creator, almost all the side content and then replace the massive single city map with several smaller maps located all over the world... Just kidding. I think what you mean is that you liked Deus Ex much better than Cyberpunk, and I get that, Deus Ex is a classic and well deserves that status. What I mean is that Cyberpunk tried to be more Deus Ex than it tried to be GTA: it generally offers more than one way to solve a quest, lets you be stealthy or loud and gives you hacking skills to help you deal with any problems you may encounter. Cars are mostly just for transportation. GTA on the other hand is a sandbox with linear quests of which you can only activate one at a time by stepping on its trigger spot. I didn't pay attention to most of the ads because I'm fairly sure I understand what kind of game CDPR tends to make, and I got exactly what I expected. I did the same thing with Dragon Age Origins, where I was also sure that I know what kind of game BioWare makes, and ignored all those cringey "This is the new shit" ads. I also got exactly what I expected.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
Posts: 2,842 Likes: 7,110
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Post by Gileadan on May 11, 2021 6:15:11 GMT
A lot of people seemed to have expected GTA with cyberware and were disappointed when they got Deus Ex with vehicles.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
Posts: 2,842 Likes: 7,110
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177
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gileadan
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Gileadan on May 5, 2021 7:11:43 GMT
I think "bad things happen because people are stupid" is merely a proven pillar of BioWare's story writing. Well, to be fair, that’s also why bad things often happen in real life too. Well, if BioWare wanted to stress the truth behind the words "You want a job done well, you do it yourself", they certainly succeeded.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
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Post by Gileadan on May 5, 2021 6:09:21 GMT
I'm not sure the message of the Here Lies the Abyss arc was so much "GREY WARDENS BAD" as it was "The Grey Wardens' willingness to do anything to defeat the Blight can sometimes create more problems than it solves." I think "bad things happen because people are stupid" is merely a proven pillar of BioWare's story writing. Any faction the protagonist is not currently a member of gets to hold various amount of idiot balls - mages, templars, wardens, the Orlesian court, the Inquisition in the two years between the main story and Trespasser. Here Lies The Abyss was "Wardens are stupid too". Erimond was a moustache twirling caricature and yet so many wardens went with his harebrained idea. It's really weird how all kinds of madmen (templars and red lyrium, mages signing up for Venatori slavery etc) seem to have a much easier time gathering followers no matter how bad their plan seems to be than the protagonist, who has to work hard and solve everyone else's problem before they'll kindly lend a hand to stop the next frigging apocalypse.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
Posts: 2,842 Likes: 7,110
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Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Gileadan on May 3, 2021 22:31:06 GMT
Codex entry for the Inquisition / the Inquisitor.
By the time DA4 comes out it will have been 8 or 9 years since DAI and I'm quite over that game's story and its characters. The end of Trespasser and the DA4 trailer suggest that someone new has to tackle the Solas problem, someone Solas doesn't know about, and that this new protagonist will be mostly on their own.
Hopefully that's exactly what they're going to deliver.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
Posts: 2,842 Likes: 7,110
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gileadan
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
ALoneGretchin
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Post by Gileadan on Apr 29, 2021 20:40:45 GMT
I've got a question for the PC gamers in here. Why aren't you worried about spending so much money upgrading, knowing that it is inevitable to upgrade? Have you seen the prices for graphics cards lately? You can buy an OLED TV or a car with that money. My old PC has 6-7 year old hardware, except for the GPU, which is an RTX 2060. As someone who works in retail, it would take so-many-months just to get all the new hardware I would need to upgrade, especially since my old PC is suffers from a BSOD error (WHEA_Uncorrectable_Error). Stupid master race bullsh*t (which isn't a good term to begin with). Upgrading a PC is not necessary all that often. Most games are multi platform titles, and as long as one particular console generation is going a PC that matches or exceeds its hardware power is most likely fine. As long as consoles don't upgrade, PCs don't need to upgrade either. My custom built PC is from 2016 without any hardware upgrades since then and it ran Cyberpunk 2077 smooth and without a hitch on ultra (without RTX, since hardware that old doesn't support it). I keep my machine's software tidy and up to date, don't install any bullshit I don't need, and this has served me well for literally decades. I keep a PC for around for 6 - 7 years. By then gaming's hardware demands have risen enough that I can no longer switch everything to ultra without worrying, and I build a new one and the cycle repeats. And the best thing is: all my ages old games will run on the new machine too.
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Gileadan
N5
Agent 46
Clearance Level Ultra
Games: Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
Origin: ALoneGretchin
Posts: 2,842 Likes: 7,110
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177
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gileadan
Mass Effect Trilogy, Dragon Age: Origins, Dragon Age 2, Dragon Age Inquisition, KOTOR, Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Jade Empire, Mass Effect Andromeda
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Post by Gileadan on Apr 29, 2021 4:56:10 GMT
andherewego.gif
1. Male Shepard is canon. The very first decision you make in Mass Effect is "Confirm your ID as CDR John Shepard, Alliance Marine" or "Enter new ID". The retcon attempts are cute to watch though. I expect this to be changed or removed in the Legendary Edition. You know, "iconic ME3 Femshep" and all that.
2. ME3MP is overrated. The camera angle is bad and causes your character to block too much screen real estate, the enemy AI's accuracy versus moving targets is based on the host's frames per second that assumes that the game is played at 30 FPS (laughable rookie mistake), enemy shots curve in the air to always hit the cover at your exact position even if you moved since that shot was fired, the dumbass AI always shoots at your center mass so you can screw it over with the right hand trick and probably a few more things I forgot about.
3. Mass Effect's weapon lore is hot garbage. Handguns are ridiculously overengineered pieces that for the most part barely surpass world war 2 tier guns in efficiency, and the supposed "universal thermal clips" are conventional ammunition in all but name in ME2/3. Urgh.
4. Asari are badly done fan service. Seriously, how many of them are strippers for the titillation of all those short lived races before becoming wise matriarchs later in life? It's like Galadriel in the Lord of the Rings spending her early years pole dancing in a skeevy hobbit bar before being elven queen in her later years.
5. ME3 should have been the end and BioWare should have tried something new since then. The story was told and the endings, as much as they deflated my desire to replay the trilogy, were probably meant to be final.
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