What do people think about Bioware right now?

DarkSoldier84

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endtherapture said:
Does anyone know what Brent Knowles is doing right now?

It would be a terrible loss for gaming if he quit completely, I hope he's working for a good company and publisher which values his input.
Ha ha ha ha! Oh, you are funny, I kill you last.

Seriously, name any publisher that "values input" that isn't "Gears of Duty 5 made eleventy-billion dollars! I think Gears of Duty 6 will make twelvety-billion!"
 

Shidira

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Bioware used to be great. Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, and Jade Empire were all fantastic games. I haven't played any of the Mass Effect games, so I can't comment on those, but I started to see their decline even in Dragon Age: Origins (although it's still a good game). I've put about 50 hours into TOR and I'm already bored and wondering what they were thinking on some of the content.
 

Masterdebator

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I'm buying ME3, Day 1, no questions asked, as ME2 is my favorite game this generation, and regardless of its obvious faults, was a complete improvement over ME1 *ya I said it*.

However, ME3 may be the last Bioware game I ever buy, and it isn't entirely due to Dragon Age 2 being an atrocious piece of shit.

It's due to Bioware's new attitude and mentality toward making games.

The word "action" and of course the now infamous "press a button and something cool happens" line thought dominate their line of thought , and a word like "role-playing game" is now absent.

This is no doubt due to EA buying them out, who clearly has an action-oriented appeal to 12 year old's agenda for all the games they publish. The clearly tacked on multiplayer mode for ME3 (which I won't touch, like Dead Space 2's) is a sign of Bioware's properties being contorted and twisted to fit EA's design and need for games that have maximum potential for profit and return on their investment.

As for their most recent release, The Old Republic, the footage underwhelmed me and I personally could care less about MMOs and much rather have seen a KOTOR 3 (like many others).

So what do I think of Bioware right now?

They have my money for ME3, but as for the future, I'm not so sure.
 

Nomanslander

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Bioware are still great developers. So they've had a stinker, just about every major studio has had at least one. One title they either failed because of time restrictions, trying to commercialize, or doing a 180 with genres and ideas they're comfortable with. To me a studio is as good as the people that work there, and much of the talent hasn't yet left Bioware, so I wouldn't worry until that happens.
 

Olivia Faraday

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I love Bioware now, and I always have.

They're a good developer who focus on story and write the best dialogue and characters in the industry. That alone trumps whatever business decisions they might make. I don't care for the Mass Effect series, because I don't like the genre, but I realize that's a matter of opinion and the games themselves are very good. I do, however, love the Dragon Age series. Especially Dragon Age 2. I invite everyone to sniff my farts with how little I care about your opinion of my opinion. There were some things about the game I didn't like (wave based combat, reused assets, rushed ending) but they were all overpowered wildly by the things I did like (fantastic characters, wonderful writing, appealing visuals, uncompromising story, outrageously fun combat when waves weren't spawning).

The fact is, "they sold out wah wah wah" is the laziest, most butthurt hipster reason not to like something ever. Bioware is in it for the money? NO SHIT. Everybody is in it for the money. That's life. So sorry that people who are very talented at making games would rather reach a wider audience that might alienate you, personally.

I love RPGs. I've played RPGs forever. I've beaten Baldur's Gate 2 over twenty times. And I'm perfectly willing to see the genre get more accessible and evolve in new directions.

I'm not really interested in defending my stance because the arguments always come down to "I liked DA2" vs. "I didn't." I'd just like to say that every single game's quality is measured by whether the flaws are outbalanced by the strengths. Skyrim "Best Game Ever" TES is riddled with game-breaking bugs, the writing is mediocre, and saying it contains characters is like saying jolly ranchers contain fruit -- technically true but practically worthless. But the experience it provides despite these glaring flaws has transcended it, for most people, from a game to an experience.

That's how I feel about DA2, and I'll buy Bioware games so long as they make them.

Also, making comments about Jennifer Hepler's weight or appearance or lack of screen charisma is disgusting. I am a woman who was once quite overweight and it makes me literally sick.
 

Sixcess

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Buddahcjcc said:
Greg Zeschuk, co-founder of Bioware, said: "It [World of Warcraft] is a touchstone. It has established standards, it's established how you play an MMO. Every MMO that comes out, I play and look at it. And if they break any of the WoW rules, in my book that's pretty dumb."
It's comments like this (and they've made a lot of comments like this) that make me want to see The Old Republic... not fail, exactly... but to perform no better than any other MMO that isn't WoW.

I don't hate WoW - I play it maybe a month or two a year - but the last thing the genre of MMOs need is vindication of the "Copy WoW or Fail" philosophy.

More generally, I'm still looking forward to ME3, but overall I think Bioware are on a downward slide into mediocrity and, as others have said, they (or EA) are spreading the name so thin it's becoming meaningless.
 
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I still love them. Sure I didn't like Mass Effect, but every game since Dragon Age: Origins I have loved. I think Mass Effect 2 is just as good as Jade Empire and KOTOR.
 

craftomega

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Ever since they released that spunk pile people call Dragon Age 2. Its crap. EA made it crap. I am almost 100% certain it will remain utter crap. It is no longer an RPG company, just another mindless game pumping machine.
 

archvile93

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I no longer care about them or their games, since they all require Origin. Shame, I would've liked to play ME3, but I guess they have better things to do than get my money.
 

votemarvel

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I used to have a "buy without question" mentality about Bioware games. If I owned the platform it was coming out on I'd buy the game without even having to think about it.

In response to an earlier poster, you've now met someone who not only likes the combat in Mass Effect but prefers it over that of the second game. While Mass Effect had a shooter face it still ran on what was essentially a dice roll system, my stats matched against the enemies stats mattered just as much as my ability to put the crosshairs on them.

The combat for me was also far smoother. I could shoot one guy, use Throw on another and then spin around and use Lift on the guy trying to come from behind. Contrast that to the second game where the bulk of the time was spent behind a chest high wall while you waited for your powers to cool-down before popping up for a few seconds, only to then have to wait again. Only the gun focused classes kept the combat flowing in ME2, something that showed the direction that the series is heading.

For me the balance also changed. Mass Effect has the right mix of story and combat, I never felt I was too far away from the next conversation. In ME2 I'd often start wondering when the heck the shooting gallery was going to end.

Anyway I could go on about why I prefer the first Mass Effect for a long time but that isn't the point of the thread really.

I don't blame Bioware for going after a broader audience by 'streamlining' their games but by doing so they are removing what I liked about them as a developer in the first place. I've already paid for my copy of Mass Effect 3 because I want to see how my choices made as Shepard are going to play out. Future games though are going to be scrutinised before buying.
 

octafish

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Ixal said:
snip
Bioware now is a 100% daughter from EA and we all know what that means. SO far EA managed to destroy every studio they got their hands on.
snip
*Looks at DICE, looks at Ixal, looks back at DICE*
*Wanders off to play some BF3 Large Conquest*
Nope. At least not yet.

OT: Well they're no Obsidian but they do Okay.
 

D14M0ND5

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For me, the whole "Bioware dialogue options bubble" (ME:1, ME:2, SWTOR) is starting to feel a little rehashed and unrefined. Lazy is you will. When I saw it in ME:1, I was blown away by the concept, but it seems like a studio with as much creative capital as Bioware should have been able to improve on their own work by now.

On a similar note I'm getting pretty tired of the morality scales in their current form, not because I don't like the option to be good or evil and then see the consequences play out but because I feel that it limits my role playing to either being 100% good or 100% evil if I want the "best" ending. In fact the whole concept of the "best" ending, is another thing I'd like to see retired.

Regarding the whole EA subject, have they seemed a little less evil empirish to anyone else lately? I'm sworn to hate them but these days I'm having a hard time remembering why?
 

LordOfAllHeSurveys

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I personally love all bioware games. Yeah dragon age 2 wasn't the greatest, but it had the choice of having lesbians sex with your character. Mass Effect series is still one of least appreciated epics I've played and KoTOR, saved star wars from being completely George Lucasified. God Bless you Bioware.
 

LobsterFeng

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Until KOTOR 3 gets announced, I probably won't care about them ever again. (KOTOR 3 has to be good too.)
 

SycoMantis91

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First of all, I'm not going through all the previous posts. I pretty much read most of the first page and the last one before me. So if I hit points other have covered, and/or "refuted" I don't really care to be honest.

Anyway, I love Bioware. If Bioware had tits I'd primally fornicate her/it. Baldur's Gate, KOTOR, Neverwinter Nights, Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, MDK2, Jade Empire, all great games. Quite a few are among my all-time favorite games. Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect both always battling for that number one spot I doubt I'll ever determine in my life time. So suffice it to say I do have my fair share of "fanboy" qualities.

All of this being said, they have scared me lately. I love Mass Effect 2. They did dumb down some of the role-playing elements, but really what they got rid of was mostly tedious things no one ever complimented to begin with. The story-telling and dialogue was still great and it left you with even more to do than the first. Which to be quite blunt is quite a feat. I was very happy with the game but I did worry about them taking the elimination of RPG elements and the slasher/shooter transition too far, but had no evidence as of yet that this would actually be the case.

We all know what's coming next. Dragon Age II. First, since so many have done so, allow me to give my take on Origins. I loved Origins. It was a great story, as is typical of Bioware, It all felt very epic and grand. Fantasy enough to get my nerd senses tingling but not far-fetched enough to to irk the over-analytical and logicy (that'll be a word some day, mark my words, so to speak) side of me. I don't know why the graphics get so much heat. I like them. They weren't stellar, but considering the scope of the game and the fact that it started development in the previous console generation, I thought it held up rather well graphically and is far from ugly. But really, who cares about graphics? They're a nice touch, one Bioware tends to excel at, but it's pretty much the least significant factor in a game if you ask me. As long as they're not so sloppily thrown together that I can't figure out what's happening in the game. I thought Origins was a great adventure, well worth a few playthroughs, and another typically great Bioware title. Being a Bioware game, I knew it'd get at least one sequel, and probably two considering the obsession they and every other graphically artistic medium in the world has grown with three-parters recently. For this, I was hard.

Then, Dragon Age II. I was so excited for this game. I rushed to gamestop right after class and scopped up my copy. Forgoing any contact with schoolwork until at least a couple hours were logged into the game. It starts off actually pretty fun and engaging. I loved the opening fight with your high-powered mage/rogue/warrior, and being able to experience just how beastly you could become. Reminded me of the beginning of Symphony of the Night before you're stripped of all your powers or Mega Man X when you're getting your ass kicked and Zero comes in and effs shiz up and is all "Don't worry kid. You'll grow to be big and strong. Just like me." I always liked when games did that. Shows you just how much your hard work can pay off and it gives you a goal to strive toward beside the obvious main quest. But I digress.

Now to the REAL beginning of the game. The controls are smooth, and action flows a lot better than the first, though not quite as strategically demanding. Then again, neither was the first in the first few hours of Origins when you know nothing about anything. The story's pretty cool to start. The final moments of the intro level actually being rather touching. I was in for a grand adventure. Unfortunately, I was left unsated. Increasingly toned down controls, repetitive locations (applying to the few locations even available), and the total lack of any sense of a tight story. A confusing, thrown together story. From Bioware? This I could never have Imagined. It's a short campaign where you never have a tight grasp of what's going on or what you're working toward. It's like three lazily fleshed out mini-stories slapped onto a disc with no attempt at creating cohesion between them. I'm promised a world-changing epic tale even by the damned promos and the best I get is some guy becomes fairly famous in the smallest kingdom ever and kills a "Qunari" that reminds me of a very violent grandfather prattling on about how everything was better back in the day (what the hell happened with those qunari anyway?) and a crazy blonde with power issues. That's the gist of it. Oh, also the button-mashy combat system makes the game stupid easy. I don't want a Bioware game holding my hand through a clunky at best story with a horribly overpowered protagonist and mages that take their cues from The Force Unleashed. I will give that some of the dialogue was rather amusing, but when that's my favorite part of a game, that's a real problem.

I give that lengthy rant because that game was the turning point for me. I went from expecting anything Bioware touched to be pure gold, to half-worrying every time I see a number slapped next to one of their titles. They made small, subtle changes in Mass Effect 2. Didn't really effect me much. But the whole 360 the did from what makes a Bioware game a damn Bioware game really freaks me out. I still trust that they can make masterpieces of gaming without breaking a sweat. I just don't have near the confidence I did that they will. I'm optimistic about Mass Effect 3, though with a tad caution. If the bomb that game, I'll have to have a hard look followed by a very lengthy talk, followed by some furniture thrown around about our relationship, that'll hopefully end in some intense make-up sex. But here's hoping they stop down the path they're treading.

My wrists hurt and I need those functioning later. So I'm done for now.
 

AM City Watch

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I'm something of an odd fish, but I tend to judge Bioware games almost entirely on the basis of its writing. It's what their best at, and it's what I tend to enjoy most about the game. Interactions with the party are particularly interesting.

Which is why I considered ME2 to be such a massive disappointment. Party members weren't characters in the way they were in DA:O. With the exception of Mordin (simply for one scene) Garrus, and Tali (who both coasted through on the strength of their characters from ME1) the party of ME2 was a bunch of forgettable quest givers with 3-4 conversations apiece. So, from my perspective, DA2 was a step in the right direction: I felt something about every single party member, even if it was hatred (looking at you, Fenris) as opposed to the vague irritation/utter boredom ME2's ensemble conjured up. DA2 certainly has its flaws (which have been discussed at length and with venom) but in the field that Bioware games have always appealed to me most, it shone.

I don't have high hopes for ME3, but hey, maybe I'll be surprised.

TL;DR: Bioware is at is best when story and characters are given prime of place. When they fail to do that, I cannot stay interested.
 

roastbeefy

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Apr 20, 2009
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Well, to put it simply, with The Old Republic, Bioware is my new god now. Seriously, I wasn't expecting that game to deliver on what they said it was going to be, and as far as I can tell, it actually did. So now I make blood sacrifices on Fridays to appease my divine masters.

Regarding what this thread was actually meant to be about, I really think people misinterpret what the developer meant. "We want to appeal to the Call of Duty crowd" does not mean "We want to dumb our game down for petulant children to make more money", it means "We'd like to make our game more accessible and appealing to people unfamiliar with the genre and make a game more people can enjoy." Unless of course Bioware truly does not give a fuck about the games they're making, which, given the kind of games they produce, I don't just doubt, I find it borderline impossible.
 

RatRace123

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Dec 1, 2009
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Eh, I'm with you OP. I'm cautiously optimistic about the future of Bioware.

I've been a fan of theirs since KoTOR, and the first Mass Effect ranks as my favorite game of all time.

But, a while after the release of Mass Effect 2 it hit me that, to me at least, it wasn't as good as the first. Mainly for the story, which lacked a proper antagonist and really didn't go anywhere.

Then Dragon Age 2 came out, and I like Dragon Age 2, I do. But it's very obvious that it was a rush job. And same as ME2, the story wasn't as good as its predecessor, which for the record I loved.

And TOR, there's a lot that I'd like about TOR, but the fact that it's an MMO keeps me far away from it. I'd much rather have a proper KotOR III.

And now Victory Games has been put under the Bioware label, solely because of the brand recognition.

I still like Bioware, and perhaps I'm being far too kind with them, but I'm blaming most of their decline on EA. The yearly releases, the rushed games, the rebranding other companies under a recognizable banner; it all seems to reek of EA's doing.
But I still like Bioware, they still make generally entertaining games, but I'm not gonna lie and say that there isn't a noticeable decline in quality lately, I hope they manage to get out of it.