Niten_Ryu

Haha New low in guerilla marketing! Bioware / EA send their own peons to raise metacritic scores and then fail to cover their tracks. I love it via Neogaf

That type of sign is actually really common in many art and design companies. I have it too but I've used strikethrough on every fast. Deadlines can go to hell EA and Bioware really took costcutting measures seriously with Dragon Age 2. They cut so many corners that they managed to carve sphere out of cube. Beancounters must be happy.

Offical boards have been fun lately, now that several US gamers have finished or sometimes quit Dragon Age 2. It's that same pattern from various MMOG boards - First fanbois defend the game against everything, then they play it, ?, then K

I don't think it's that difficult to understand. If you remove or change enough features, it's likely that some potential customers will reach their individual breaking point where they no longer feel that game with worth their money or at least not worth at full price. For example I really disliked enemy waves, magically teleporting enemies and loss of the isometric camera. These are obvious changes for someone who played PC version of the Dragon Age Origins, but console gamer might not notice any difference at all between Dragon Age Origian and Dragon Age 2 in that area. In console version of Dragon Age Origins enemies attacked often in waves, while PC version allowed much larger static groups of mobs. That's not the only thing I dislike about Dragon Age brand or this latest game. But then again I only rated Dragon age Origins 6/10 (or best run with my Chaotic Stupid mage 7/10 ). Thus for me to buy Dragon Age 2 at full price would have required several improvements or additional features, rather then less of 'em. Also some of the reviewers (and messageboard users) apply some weird revisionist idea of Dragon Age Origins, how it was some magical game that couldn't do no wrong. Sure, maybe for the younger crowd but in general Dragon Age Origins wasn't anything special and if it would have been released in late 90's or early 2000, it would have been just another mediocre CRPG. Thus if someone has idealised version in their mind about Dragon Age Origians, it's no wonder that there's huge backslash from those users

Recently bought Assassins Creed from Steam sale and I really liked it. Sure story is beyond idiotic (I still can't belive they felt the need to tie some future conspiracy and totally inaccurate view of the DNA into game), but game and combat mechanics (counter strikes, freerunning, heavy use of z-axis movement) felt really fresh after myriad of games where you can't even jump or scale knee high obstacle. Graphics and art design are very good. One of the main complains of this game was that it got boring after awhile. That critique is accurate and if I wouldn't have enjoyed the combat and running on rooftops, I probably would have skipped all the sidequests. And if one would totally hate the combat (or found it difficult in some way) or couldn't handlerunning and jumping accurately, I bet they'd quit after few levels. But I liked it... a lot. Combat actually held it togther almost till the end, when developers went crazy with enemy numbers and fighting against dosen opponents at once was bit too... unsophisticated I guess I didn't play as sutble assassin, as saving civilians sidequest (repetative no less) meant that you more or less fight 'em at plain sight. I didn't mind as countering 'em with short blade was great fun. Sometimes it created organic cinemetic action scene as each mob was killed with sequences of special move. I think I got 6-7 of 'em back to back. Beat the heck outta pre-scripted cutscenes Writing is ok, but at the same time in the context of the storyline and lack of RPG elemets it fails to reach anything above mediocre. It's like you'd play renegade Shepard (from Mass Effect) and continuesly made the worst possible choices and then listen pseudo-philosophical lecturing from everyone, no matter if it's your mentor or the targets you kill. Speaking of targets you kill and dialogue that follow the kill. It's almost like highschool project where students are ask to justify some extremely stupid viewpoint in debate and then they think they can actually do it. In (good) RPG you could have just said that assassination targets are full of crap (like they were), but in this linear storyline they manage to raise doubt in the mind of the main character. After this game I'm certain that I'll buy Assassins Creed 2 and Brotherhood at some point. But I still wish that someone would make a RPG with Assassins Creed game and combat mechanics. Same could be said from Ubi's other main brand, the Spinter Cell.

Metacritic scores play a huge part in game biz nowadays. Basically only way to avoid investor backlash is to sell millions of copies, but usually outside party / casual games (including dance games) scores and sales correlate rather accurately. In the case of Bioware, they still have good reputation (at least before Dragon Age 2 ), so it's unlikely that initial Dragon Age 2 sales suffer significantly but later sales (before price reduction and/or ultimate edition with all the DLCs) might take hit and next sequel could have serious problems. Playstation brand Killzone is good example of this. I've seen from various boards that Bioware chose again to recycle dungeons and locations. In Neogaf board someone said that he got same dungeon for three separete quests that should have been in three different areas. This is incorrect way to recycle content - The correct way is to give players a reason to return to locations (that took a lot of manhours to build) by updating questhubs, encounter nodes, scripting ect ect. It's strange that Bioware already learnt this lesson going from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2, but I guess Dragon Age team "powers that be" didn't get the memo from the Mass Effect team.

That investigation and interrogation video look great. It's surreal that some developers like Rockstar try new things while developers like Bioware just dive in the sewers. I should stop watching these videos because I'm just tormenting myself as Rockstar won't realease PC version

A lot of can't tell difference unless they see TVs side to side (usually in stores). Sometimes they use vague expessions like "it's like looking out from the window" when they see 4k TV or small (but high quality) 1080p TV / monitor. From pixels per inch ( ppi ) point of view it's more clear. Something like 42" 1080p TV is common (good size for the most living rooms and at that distance most don't notice individual pixels). They could easily go to 70", keep same viewing distance and select 4k TV in the future as ppi are about the same. Smart phones and digital camera displays are really pushing the limits what human eye can see. For example Apple IPhone 4 has higher then 300 ppi (means that's it's really hard to see individual pixels, even at very close range), the same that high quality physical print magazines have used for ages.

4k resolution will probably be enough for the most consumers, as viewing distances vs. wall space will be limited. 4k and something like 70" screens will be perfect for 'em. For computer monitors (professional use, high end gaming), something like 300+ dpi (about the equal of the current iphone 4 dpi) would be enough - IIRC 30" monitor with 8k resolution would be great. So few more generations

So how exactly have we determined the Bio read their data incorrectly? Because even for games like Gear of War (and similar) only about 50% of the players make it till the end. Gears of War and Modern Warfare series are about as genre defining games as it gets and if those few hour long games can't keep ADHD players interested long enough, Dragon Age or Dragon Age 2 don't have much chance. Bioware can do all the changes they want, but it's stupid to do 'em for this reason.

Mass Effect is trilogy, but other games set on Mass Effect brand will be made. Docs said that in some interview and it's no suprise as building brands is what this generation of games is all about. Speaking of brands and problems in general in todays development, all should check lastest Bonus Round on Gametrailers.com http://www.gametrailers.com/episode/bonusround/502?ch=1_hd It's rather honest chat about various issues and what are required for AAA titles nowadays. Guest panelists are Jade Raymond (bit light on merits in game development, but it's nice to see more women in the biz), Epic games boss Mike Capps and Sonys God of War team boss John Hight. Earlier in this thread we talked about how Bioware didn't like the fact that players quit Dragon Age after just one hour. Mike Capps say that Epics Gear of War is considered a great success for the fact that not only it sold great, but 50% of the gamers played till the end. Bioware did a lot of unnecessary changes, especially for PC version, just because they read their data incorrectly. Jade also has a very good point about sales (on consoles). Game need to be certain length (in her example 60+ hours) or to have good multiplayer component or up 50% of the players just rent the game or loan their friends copy. Thus since there are significant amount of players who don't even finish 5-6 hour games and certainly not 60 hour games, why worry about 'em at all. Developers should just be happy that they managed to sell a game to some douchebag who has attention span of the fruitfly.

I think I played 2 the most. Or maybe 3. I moved to Disciples 2 around the time 4th game was out and haven't played HoMMs since. I think I'll choose 2nd game.

Bioware boards are like CoC RPG insanity checks. More you read, more likely you'll get brain damage I was certain that MMOG boards circa 2002 would forever hold the world record in that area, but I was wrong. I watched some live stream earlier but even that got boring. Guy didn't bother with any strategies or tactics (ok, game doesn't require any or support 'em so I don't really know who to blame here) and just rushed away. Story didn't feel anything special and dialogue just made me want to turn sound off. Now I'm begining to doubt if this game is even worth Steam holiday sale price. I think I'll wait some let's play run with good commentary, hopefully there's something to be salvaged out of this wreck. That complite run time is most likely accurate, especially if you play normal difficulty.

Speaking of buying too much games (crap or otherwise ) from Steam sales, there's Ubisoft weekend 4 game pack for 13

I watch 'em for reviews. Much more honest then most reviewers. I've bought a lot of garbage from Steam holiday sales and if I only would have listened Yahtzee... I would have saved several pennies and a lot of time

*Ralph Wiggum* Console game leak!?! That's unpossible!!! Oh well, maybe I'll watch Dragon Age 2 "let's play", at least I can skip combat parts of the youtube videos.

Yeah, I can imagine it don't look that different for untrained eye. In my POV improvements in animation and game mechanics are same as the excellent writing or storyline are for the majority in this board. When most discuss how romances suck in Dragon Age, I whine about wooden animation, horrible graphics and lack of jumping I found bit more info about new animation system. It is based on previous DiCE works, including Mirror's Edge and last Battlefield, but also EA's sport titles (as those must have great movement animations). Good news is that Bioware and DiCE are both EA team, so in theory Mass Effect and Dragon Age brands might use same system in future titles. http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/arc...tlefield-3.aspx

I saw smoother video version on this... I think Ars Technicas site. Movement animation is probably best I've seen, maybe in any digital medium. I guess DiCE put some extra hours on research. I guess work done for Mirror's Edge didn't go to waste and they continued to develop animations even more. Damn, I wish mobs would move like that in all games. Compare that to say like movement in Dragon Age 2 Hopefully we get more info how DiCE did it in the near future.

Here you go (for example) Fallout New Vegas About 95% complite "Ain't that a kick in the head". If racall this correctly, it means you complite character creation and walk outta docs house. Dunno what happens to that 5% About 62% make it to next offical storyline mission "They went that a way". Obviously in open world game they can adventure hours and hours, but they don't care abou the story in that case. But they don't adventure long in that case, since about 61% make it to level 10. Call of Duty Black ops About 75% complited the first mission (this probably includes multiplayer only gamers, I can't belive that stat correct otherwise), only 70% complited second mission. Only about 45% complite the campaign at any difficulty.

That is so weird. I mean I value data research greatly but it's useless if company don't figure out the right things from the data. Before Dragon Age Origins was released, Bioware lauched massive ad campaign. They didn't try to reach the usual CRPG players, but some mythical "average gamer of today". Actually I don't think even average gamer was impressed with "this is the new ...." ads or nerds playing with whores. But such massive ad campaign must have certain impact on sales. Maybe it's the lowest common denominator gamer growd. Ok, Bioware gained some new customers with ad campaign. Now do anyone agree that ad campaign gave honest impression of the Dragon Age. I mean it's rather dumbed down game but it still ain't the Call of Duty. Speaking of Call of Duty, game practically plays itself and there are still players who start the singleplayer campaign (means that they don't just multiplay) and quit after few archivement (maybe even earlier but we can't see data on that). In some other era or some other company would have accepted the fact that they marketed game to the wrong segment. Or rather, they managed to rip customers money (since they bought the game), even if they didn't bother to play more then one hour. But for some bizarre reason, Bioware figured out that they designed first game incorrectly. Extremely weird.

It's time for another The Witcher run because I seem to have deleted old saves. Maybe it was because I didn't think The Witcher would get sequel... Oh well, time to party like a rockstar again.

That's pure comedy gold! Man, 2 extremely funny videos in one day. Other was (parody of Wii casual party game ad )

I'm going to disagree with you here, total conversion mods of older or substandard games have been prevalent in the last few years. Team Fortress was originally a mod of Quake and DOTA also became a game. I don't think that there is much initiative from the industry to incorporate great mods into their IP but that fault lies mostly in the publisher's side, IMO. Quakeworld Team Fortress was done under 1 year in 1996 and Wacraft 3 was released 2002 and already 2003 first version of DOTA was out. Those days are long gone as development times and budgets are much higher nowaday. In theory one could invent some simple multiplayer only mod that none of the professional developers haven't figured out, but it's been years since that kind of mod have gained any mainstream popularity. Multiplayer mods need to happen when the original game is still popular and in the age of yearly Call of Duty games, it's about that one year. Half-Life 2 was released 2004 and Black Mesa, one of the few singleplayer mods that haven't been cancelled, ain't still out. Mod team could have created their own game or multiple games for iphone in that same perioid of time.

I don't think there's future for larger mods, as even with great mod tool, creating those take years and years. Mini mods like textures, new items and models are here to stay, no matter if developers support it or not.

I'm sure that I've spent already way too much time in a courtroom, since I feel obligated to point out what should be obvious, again. The guy is A) an ex-Bioware employee B) it's conjecture. We'll see if he was right, but his purported gut feeling is hardly more important than what we can see ourselves. I don't speak lawyer jargon, so if conjecture mean something other then what I think it means, feel free to correct me. You think he lies? Or was fired or removed from his position and now he makes things up in his own blog (that I linked in previous post). Changes in Dragon Age 2 are just random and nothing to do with him not wanting to design such a game? He made that post august 15h 2010 and what we have all seen in demo suggest that what he told is accurate.