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Bioware Closing Down

Hotwired said:
Well who's next.

The EA shareholders sold out for 50 billion and now EA continues as privately owned and having to pay 1.8 billion a year just in interest.

Bound to be more getting launched out the window in cartoon fashion as well as quadrupling down on any monetisation.

Some irony that the sharks came for EA.
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Yes I am loving that.

But let's face it, aside from the obvious nostalgia, nothing of value was lost today, Bungie died years ago. I honestly don't care about this at all. These are the people who made DA: The Veilguard and were surprised when it absolutely bombed, they had no business making video games any more.
 
I miss DAO & ME Bioware.

DA Veilguard I saw a couple of clips of and I had to hold back the vomit and disappointment.

The real Bioware died a long time a go, it's a shame it went the way it did and where it's ended up.

Funnily enough I'm currently playing the ME LE remaster. I thought there was talk of a new one? Wonder if the IPs will get bought up.
 
Not a surprise, they've been dead for quite a while, a far cry from their earlier success stories, SWTOR mmo was the beginning of the end for them

Shame though we'll likely never get an official KOTOR remaster now
 
NWN is probably my favourite game of all time but that was a while ago. I'm less concerned about Bioware shuttering - they're a shadow of their former greatness - and more worried (and surprised that you guys aren't worried) about how this has come about. Saudi PI firms and great game output are not necessarily the best of bedfellows ...
 
Kelt said:
The original Bioware disappeared long ago.

I'll miss the company that produced Mass Effect, Dragon Age Origins etc.

Won't miss the company that produced that travesty of a 'game' Dragon Age Veilguard.
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It's actually a good game with a decent story. People just got hung up on the trans character in their fantasy game.
 
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VincentHanna said:
It's actually a good game with a decent story. People just got hung up on the trans character in their fantasy game.
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Totally disagreed here.

It was a bang average game if it were its own IP and an absolutely atrocious Dragon Age game.

The art direction was poor and extremely cartoonish compared to what came earlier, tonally it was painful to look at and don't get me started on what they did to the Qunari. The story was so-so, unfortunately it by and large ignored prior lore and other aspects of the franchise that drew many (including myself) to it in the first place. The characters were hit and miss, granted "Taash" was the worst but she/he/whatever was far from the only problem, they were effectively a collection of milquetoast millennials that were overly agreeable toward one another. The collective dialogue between them was beyond horrendous more than half the time, which is far more than I'm willing to give a pass to. From a gameplay perspective, which was by far its best quality, it was "okay" at absolute best and became old fast, and good lord were the enemies damage sponges unless you played on the lower difficulties.

The soundtrack was pretty good, I guess?

Dismissing people who had problems with the game as "just disliking a trans character" (who wasn't trans, Taash actually identified as non-binary) is frankly childish.

I gave it a more than fair shot and don't subscribe to whatever ideology you have, or those with differing opinions have. I was just a big fan of BioWare and Dragon Age and I'll reiterate that it was bloody awful.
 
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I can sit here and say this is bad news, but it's not really. The studio has been finished for a long, long time.

They'd never get back to making the types of legendary games we grew up with.

I still remember sitting in my nans front room reading the Baldurs Gate 2 review in PC Format, and just being so excited for it.

And then there's Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, Mass Effect... good lord - What a ridiculous run, lol.
 
Vinno said:
I can sit here and say this is bad news, but it's not really. The studio has been finished for a long, long time.

They'd never get back to making the types of legendary games we grew up with.

I still remember sitting in my nans front room reading the Baldurs Gate 2 review in PC Format, and just being so excited for it.

And then there's Neverwinter Nights, KOTOR, Jade Empire, Dragon Age, Mass Effect... good lord - What a ridiculous run, lol.
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I got BG on a whim (also was reading the PCG review), had never played a game like it before, became an instant favourite. Remember playing it on my 17" CRT eating a massive Panettone. Replayed it many times
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
NWN is probably my favourite game of all time but that was a while ago. I'm less concerned about Bioware shuttering - they're a shadow of their former greatness - and more worried (and surprised that you guys aren't worried) about how this has come about. Saudi PI firms and great game output are not necessarily the best of bedfellows ...
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I missed this for some reason, are your posts on review or something? :p

It came about because it wasn't profitable, they've been haemorrhaging money as a studio for donkeys years and to be frank the reasons are obvious. Initially, EA came in and tried to turn the biggest single player RPG western dev into a multiplayer studio following market trends, which begs the question of why they bought them to begin with. It was pretty much their (EA's) party trick for going on a decade by the time they acquired Bioware, Joe Shareholder wants what he wants I suppose. The reason I'm not worried is because I really don't care anymore about big name old school developers, they can live or die on their own merits. There's plenty of smaller studios and indies out there to keep me entertained who aren't tied to big publishers.

[FnG]magnolia said:
Have a look at the thread to refresh your memory on just how 'childish' it got. It's a 6 or 7 out of 10 game unless you're in the 'OMG WOKE WOKE TRANS BLAH BLAH' crowd of shriekers. Possibly one of the most embarrassing threads in the PC Games forum actually :D
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You can't devalue opinions in one direction without recognising it's a two way street.

I remember disagreeing with you in that thread, albeit it politely and again in one or two other game threads such as Avowed. Sure some people were childish about the direction the game took, I don't remember being so personally and I'm aware of many others who were not. A lot of complaints were shoved into the "they just dislike the trans char!" (who wasn't trans, odd how those making the argument for the person are misgendering/pronouning them) while ignoring every other complaint made, of which there were many.
 
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Gray2233 said:
Totally disagreed here.

It was a bang average game if it were its own IP and an absolutely atrocious Dragon Age game.

The art direction was poor and extremely cartoonish compared to what came earlier, tonally it was painful to look at and don't get me started on what they did to the Qunari. The story was so-so, unfortunately it by and large ignored prior lore and other aspects of the franchise that drew many (including myself) to it in the first place. The characters were hit and miss, granted "Taash" was the worst but she/he/whatever was far from the only problem, they were effectively a collection of milquetoast millennials that were overly agreeable toward one another. The collective dialogue between them was beyond horrendous more than half the time, which is far more than I'm willing to give a pass to. From a gameplay perspective, which was by far its best quality, it was "okay" at absolute best and became old fast, and good lord were the enemies damage sponges unless you played on the lower difficulties.

The soundtrack was pretty good, I guess?

Dismissing people who had problems with the game as "just disliking a trans character" (who wasn't trans, Taash actually identified as non-binary) is frankly childish.

I gave it a more than fair shot and don't subscribe to whatever ideology you have, or those with differing opinions have. I was just a big fan of BioWare and Dragon Age and I'll reiterate that it was bloody awful.
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Yeah, I couldn't even remember if they were non binary or Trans. That's how bothered I was by that plot

Here is my actual review from that thread:

VincentHanna said:
The view from somebody who:

1) Bought the game
2) Completed the game


So it took me just under 80 hours to complete it on Underdog mode (hard) and that is getting all the achievements, effectively 100% completing the game (Though my codex, which I never read, was only about 90% complete)

Ovf8KZvh.webp


My character was a Human Rogue specialising in bow combat:
uVoGYMNh.webp


Pros
- Game performed excellent from launch and I encountered zero bugs. I would say it has decent graphics (even if you don't like the art style). 4k Ultra settings with some RT and it was running excellent with 120fps cap in place. Great hair physics
- Decent combat and variety of enemies. Once that specialisation came at level 30 my DPS ranked up considerably.
- Last missions were really good and had a Mass Effect 2 suicide mission vibe to them. In fact the game got stronger as it went on. Conversations with Solas were good.
- Some decent companions. I enjoyed helping Emmrich become a Lich and Davrin's developing bond with the Griffon, Assan (As a dog lover that played very well)
- Gameplay reminiscent of God of War.

Cons
- Nowhere near as good as God of War.
- Some enemies on 'Underdog' were a bit spongey and took a long time to get their health down, particularly some of the harder bosses.
- It's 2024 and the mouths of the characters didn't accurately represent what was being said.
- Companion quests were a mixed bag and either obvious what would happen (Lucanis) or too vague about what was occurring (Harding)
- Should have had a Paragon/Renegade system like Mass Effect, didn't feel like your dialogue choices matter most of the time.
- Some poor dialogue and writing


I'd probably give it 7.5/10 overall. Elements of the main plot were very entertaining, even though I didn't know who/what a lot of the factions were, having skipped DA2 and Inquisition. I didn't know who the Venatori were or the Antaam for example. I played as a Grey Warden as I was only really familiar with them from Origins.

Maybe I'd be more disappointed if I was more familiar with the two games I skipped? We'll never know.

Edit - It was better than Starfield, that was more like a 6/10 for me and more poorly written IMO.
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VincentHanna said:
Yeah, I couldn't even remember if they were non binary or Trans. That's how bothered I was by that plot

Here is my actual review from that thread:
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Completely fair review from someone who hadn't played (some) of the prior games.

I'd personally have given it a much more middling score if it were its own IP, but closer to a 5-6 out of 10. I do not think it's a terrible game in of itself, I just think it's a frankly awful Dragon Age game and as such place it as much lower. The problem is, even if it was a bang average "Dragon Age" game it still wouldn't be good enough, costs were massive at that point as was time wasted and it was effectively the last hurrah for both the franchise and company. It needed to be a damned good game across the board, not just as a DA title but as a game in of itself for newcomers and it was neither.
 
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Can't believe they didn't even get to release the new Mass Effect.

Things must have been really dire with the production for them to not at least release it and then shutter the studio.

I was really hoping it might be good, but I know that was probably unrealistic.
 
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