Aleens: Coloneeal Mareens

[crimson sickle2]

I'm wondering how, if at all, Gearbox is going to cover their asses from this. I can't find any evidence of an expanded team with a quick search, there might be one, but my crappy information gathering skills haven't seen anything. I can only expect pinning the blame on one person and firing them, but I hope that's not the case.

 

[soren7550]

I wonder, what are those 3 games they mentioned to have turned the fans against BioWare?
Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 are obvious, but I have no idea what the third is.

I was confused about this too. I know that Dragon Age 2 is one of them, but the other two I don't know. Mass Effect 3 was great until that which won't be named, SW:TOR from what I heard was good but not the next greatest MMO it was hyped up to be. Maybe that Baulder's Gate remake?

 

[Reeve]

I don't actually like the text sections they put under some of the comics. I think that the comic should speak for itself.

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

I wonder, what are those 3 games they mentioned to have turned the fans against BioWare?
Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 are obvious, but I have no idea what the third is.

Either The Old Republic or Mass Effect 2, depending on who you ask.

I've personally only ever played the Mass Effect games from Bioware, and I love all three of them.

 

[Dr.Sopel]

This is the funniest strip I have seen in a very very long time, but it's that one small Bioware portion of the post-strip comment that really makes me want to respond (first post ever, anywhere, yay!). And I apologise in advance for making a point that's probably been made a million times over.

I don't mean to inflame, but I wonder how any of the last three Bioware games qualify as even remotely bad. One of them is technically The Escapist's latest Game of the Year. Nothing makes me more sad in the games industry today than the amount of shit Bioware gets for slight flaws in otherwise great games. Especially in the RPG genre which I always considered quite tolerant of big flaws in otherwise great games (see Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, any Fallout game). Especially especially when compared to stuff like DNF and (apparently) ACM that has the same price tag. But that's just me.

Also I don't think it took three games for the fans to turn on Bioware, I felt like the vocal ones turned right after DA2 and they were already turned by the time ME3 came out. I almost think the players who like BioWare don't post on forums all that much (say like, for example, myself) - at least that's the only explanation I can find for ME3 being voted GotY here after nearly a year of ME3 rage in the threads.

 

[Quiotu]

I wonder, what are those 3 games they mentioned to have turned the fans against BioWare?
Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 are obvious, but I have no idea what the third is.

I was confused about this too. I know that Dragon Age 2 is one of them, but the other two I don't know. Mass Effect 3 was great until that which won't be named, SW:TOR from what I heard was good but not the next greatest MMO it was hyped up to be. Maybe that Baulder's Gate remake?

Depends on your opinions I guess. There's many that found TOR a massive disappointment, but I gotta feeling it'll hold enough of a fanbase to live as a F2P game for years. It's not exactly innovative, and this is coming from someone who still subs to TOR. It just wasn't anything special other than the story and the dialogue, and there's a rather small demographic looking for that in MMOs. Most want endgame content and PVP, and TOR doesn't do either terribly well, even after this long. But I'm of the mindset that the story and dialogue are enough for me, and I don't play it enough that I'll burn through the game anytime soon. So as long as the story still interests me, and as long as my friends still play it, I'll still be around.

 

[nin_ninja]

I wonder, what are those 3 games they mentioned to have turned the fans against BioWare?
Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 are obvious, but I have no idea what the third is.

DA2 was good, but had issues. ME3 was amazing except for the ending. They did make Sonic Chronicles though, which was a bad game.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I haven't played the game or the demo, but judging by Jim Sterling's video it baffles me that they'd go to all the trouble to release a demo that is better than the finished product. I mean you can talk about cut content, but that doesn't account for having enemy AI that is better in the demo then it is in the finished product. This is why I've lost faith in the games industry.

Well, there have been (well founded) accusations that the demo was entirely scripted. Which means there was no AI present in the video at all.

 

[GaltarDude1138]

It took three bad games for the fans to turn on BioWare

I like how, y'know, each game was made by a different studio of BioWare yet you say it like it was the entire company's fault for putting out each of those perceived "bad" games.

 

[Skeleon]

Awww, I thought there'd be more to that Boreale reference than just the title.

 

[IronMit]

It took three bad games for the fans to turn on BioWare

I like how, y'know, each game was made by a different studio of BioWare yet you say it like it was the entire company's fault for putting out each of those perceived "bad" games.

Bioware's name was stamped on the game. That's the point.
When the game disappoints an individual that individual trusts the brand less and less.
Or you can research the name of every member of each sub-studio to figure out who has talent and who doesn't lol

 

[PunkRex]

Thanks GameGrumps for opening the door into all these 'Sonic 06' references... what the fudge Sega?

 

[UnderGlass]

I haven't played the game or the demo, but judging by Jim Sterling's video it baffles me that they'd go to all the trouble to release a demo that is better than the finished product. I mean you can talk about cut content, but that doesn't account for having enemy AI that is better in the demo then it is in the finished product. This is why I've lost faith in the games industry.

Well, there have been (well founded) accusations that the demo was entirely scripted. Which means there was no AI present in the video at all.

I think people are confusing a playable demo (I don't think there is one), with the Expo stage demonstration that Jim Sterling talks about in his video. The stage demo was a non-interactive piece of publicity shown to press as if a real playable segment of the game. Clearly it was built and prepped expressly for this purpose. Sadly, this is pretty much the case for most 'gameplay' demonstrations seen at expos and conventions. Publishers regularly force devs to waste time creating these 'vertical slices' that often can't be used in the final product.

OT: I'm usually pretty understanding of the pulls and needs of the triple-A industry and Gearbox head Pitchford is an eminently likeable guy; but I'm going to have to agree with Carter here. It doesn't matter whether Gearbox actually made the game or not. It was their project, Sega contracted them to make it, and it was developed under their watch. If the final product farts like a dog and they still slapped their logo on it and shipped, then yeah... they deserve the backlash. It just doesn't matter how original and surprising Borderlands was.

I'm willing to let DNF pass because, well, reasons. It was a passion project of Randy Pitchford's, he used to work for 3D Realms and I still find it difficult to believe anyone thought it would actually be good. But when I think back on all those videos where he's enthusing about how amazing Aliens: Colonial Marines is coming along and it's his boyhood dream come true to add canon story to the franchise and how they're all about respect for the license... and he was fucking lying. There's no other real explanation for it.

 

[Covarr]

Bad games are nothing new for BioWare. Or have we all forgotten 2008's Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood? Heck, anyone who enjoyed Mass Effect 2 or 3 should go back and replay the first one. The action segments were unrefined and unremarkable. They've been on a downward spiral for some time now.

Gearbox? I don't really think it's fair to say they've always done crap. I haven't played the Borderlands games, but quite a few people seemed to like them. And if you go even farther back, there was a time when they pretty much only did ports, and they were the very best at it. The PC version of Halo was excellent, and the PS2 version of Half-Life was far ahead of console ports of the time (revamped graphics, good performance, USB mouse+keyboard support)... It's only very recently that the company has had a serious quality control problem, and in both cases the majority of the work was done by someone else. Give them some pure porting projects, and I bet they manage technical excellence again.

P.S. Thanks

 

[Undead Dragon King]

Awww, I thought there'd be more to that Boreale reference than just the title.

That should make you feel better.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Bad games are nothing new for BioWare. Or have we all forgotten 2008's Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood? Heck, anyone who enjoyed Mass Effect 2 or 3 should go back and replay the first one. The action segments were unrefined and unremarkable. They've been on a downward spiral for some time now.

Wait. So first you point out that the action in the first Mass Effect was worse than that in its sequels, then you claim that the company is on a downward spiral. So are their games getting better or worse? Make up your mind.

Truthfully, they haven't been getting worse so much as they've just been getting stale. They've pretty much been reusing the same plot structure since KOTOR in 2003. The only RPG to break away from it was Dragon Age 2, but that game was rushed, so no one seems to be able to look past its (admittedly egregious)flaws to see that it was was the closest thing to originality that the company has managed since Baldur's Gate.

These days I look at Bioware much like I would an old worn out shirt. Nothing surprising about the games, but I find them to be comfortable.

 

[Covarr]

Bad games are nothing new for BioWare. Or have we all forgotten 2008's Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood? Heck, anyone who enjoyed Mass Effect 2 or 3 should go back and replay the first one. The action segments were unrefined and unremarkable. They've been on a downward spiral for some time now.

Wait. So first you point out that the action in the first Mass Effect was worse than that in its sequels, then you claim that the company is on a downward spiral. So are their games getting better or worse? Make up your mind.

It's more of a long-term thing. Compared to what they did in the '90s, their games are definitely worse. I suppose what I should've said is that overall, their dud-to-hit ratio is much lower than it used to be.

P.S. Thanks

 

[mattttherman3]

I did an audible LOL at the sentence of childs imaginations, well done