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Halaster

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Everything posted by Halaster

  1. I was speaking about high budget triple A. Ourside of that, this year is, as you say, set to be pretty exceptional for keeping much of the "DA:O spirit" very much alive and kicking: Might & Magic X, D:OS, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity. Though I doubt that we'll be this spoiled again for a while...
  2. Like i said, it's thing of the past I do talk about this 1 million hit points and one shot kill enemies in rant about Dark Souls thread....but i want to continue a bit This typical enemies only need you to become stronger and can spam damage on them, you don't need tactic, critical thinking, whatever...it's the thing of the past. And LAZY design. Just put steroid enemies here and there as bosses and mini bosses. This types of enemies didn't react to you, because they are hard to kill and deal lots of damage, so they just sit there following their script...one of the example is the Stone Wraith in DA2. At certain time it make rolling attack, then it floating in the air and burst out enegy, then minnions come out, then rinse and repeat...you just only need to hid behind pillars then attack when it become static It's also unrealictic...example Meredith, following the manner of the Stone Waraith above, she's also very tough where everyone is attacking her and she don't even give a ****, then she jump in the air, minnions come out, then rinse and repeat.... I do admire your fighting spirit. I loved every byte of DA:O myself, however the spirit of that game is long dead, and it's era is over and done for good. We are now in a fast paced, shallow, action age on the AAA -front and no amount of pointing out flaws on forums will change that. BioWare would rather sink trying to make a hit action game than go back to slow burning RPGs. Not that they could re-hire all the talent that would need or persuade EA to fund it. My suggestion is either enjoy this game on its own terms or move onto the indie / kickstarter scene. I'm sure you'd have more fun with eg Grimrock 2 or Divinity: Original Sin than trying to persuade people that DA:I is less than perfect.
  3. Well if only people who bought the game were allowed to credibility speak their minds, it would hurt the discussion imho. People who bought the game tend to be the ones with a ... positive prejudice. I mean if you're prepared to spend $60++ on something, you've probably mostly decided in your mind it's worth the cost.
  4. If it for that reason then I agree it's fine. But I believe that just as much as I believe politicians resigning "to spend more time with their family". If people in reality (ie behind the press release bs version) want to stay on at their employer and make "nice things" such as deep conventional RPGs, but their employer has decided to stop making such things for corporate strategy reasons and instead go for shallow action games to appeal to the widest common denominator... then I believe it is a shame.
  5. A shame Brent Knowles and Dan Tudge left BioWare - they actually wanted to design RPGs. By the way, MiG29's and F-15 can co-exist. My local Polish airfoce is currently doing joint training of their Fulcrums with a pair of US F-15's. So far both aircraft appear to be getting along like a house on fire.
  6. I dunno, I never get bored of curry or beer or vanilla flavor ice cream. I don't need a different variety each time. /poor excuse. One thing often missed out by those who talk of 'generic' and 'cliches' is that a story (imho) stands 5% on what it's about (synopsis) and 95% on how it is told (delivery). In the latter area DA:O does very well. Outstandingly well by game standards. Another thing often missed out is that DA:O was probably not about the big evil orc and dragon invasion, but the much more sinister Morrigan angle. Flemeth planned the whole thing by Morrigan's own words, and they care little for the Blight. They want the soul of the Old God. That's why your PC refusing the request and therefore dying at the end is a huge ending with vast cutscenes and epilogues. If it were not for the rape and pillage of the DA franchise in rencent comics and cartoons, this could have been one of the biggest plot twists/reveals in recent gaming history. Sadly I suspect Morrigan will make some silly cameo and kiss the inquisitor for old times' sake, but that lovely plot hook will never see the developement it hinted at and which - if my reading is correct - the franchise would so desperately deserve.
  7. While TW2 got serious downvotes from me for Branching Story, I won't deny that it was a fascinating experiment. That's just wonderous! For me any RPG worth its salt must have branching content to respect your decisions. Would you prefer the game asked you to chose between a good action A and evil acition B, both of which lead to on-rails outcome Y? Anyhow, TW3's combat will be too action-y for my taste, and DA:I will just be a baby-first Skyrim clone with creepy romance designed by EA suits, so I won't get either unless by some miracle, a lot of people here say one of those pre-conceptions was wrong. The real poll should be Pillars of Eternity or Divinity Original Sin...
  8. Whelp, you need to make those 5 milliseconds into a minute using bulletime. I meant not being able to think even a little about how you 'do' a level before it jumping on you and tearing you to shreds. Bullet time has a 'cooldown' (so as an RPG gamer I try to hoard it in case there's something impossilbe around the next corner) and in any event it just turns the manic level action down half a notch. Often if you dont get all but one (or all) of the 10 bad guys during bullet time, you're back to the last checkpoint. (sorry for off topic)
  9. I disliked Max Payne 3 - totally cinematic, totally frenetic and totally scripted. And this from someone who enjoyed the original Modern Warfare and Battlefield Bad Company 2. I don't mind any shooter that lets you think at least 5 milliseconds before you're forced to fire at stuff. Perhaps run to a better spot or pick up a rocket launcher to the left etc. Not with MP3. You stop for 5 milliseconds and the devs will kill you off straight away, and plant your sorry hind area at the last checkpoint (often behind a loooooong cutscene).
  10. I suppose it depends what gender the mount is? Same sex horseplay would probably be too risque with all the homophobes trolling the forums. Unless they cop out and make mounts player-sexual too, I suppose. To all the naysayers - I can easily see this as a DLC idea.
  11. I will never get the trash mob argument for DA:O. A game where each encounter was different, hand placed and lethal real quick if you weren't seriously paying attention and micro managing. Sure the game has its faults - classes are unbalanced, loot is uninspiring, art direction is controversial (some think bland) but not encounter design. Almost all poeple that say "trash mobs" are those on consoles or who played on Normal. Anyone who says nightmare was boringly easy is lying because the game has too many cases where enemies get their aoes on you a split second before you get yours in (eg after a cuscene). I replayed this game about 5 times on Nightmare just for the combat. Enemies have traps, terrain, scripting, class abilities, spells, teleports, resistances, elemental attacks. There are ice patches, oil patches, destructible barricades, dog pits you can open to help you, ballistas you can fire. Honestly there is no game I can think the term "filler' applies less to. Compare and contrast with 3 waves of functionally identical (insert enemy name here) mid air spawns in DA2.
  12. With a heavy heart I have to second that opinion that the droid planet is not all that much fun (not to be confused with the extra droid level in the restored content mod, which is great). I *hate* to say things like that because I appreciate the enormous work that was clearly put into making something out of (almost) nothing by poeople who clearly love this game even more than I do, but, yeah, m478 is definitely missing a magic ingredient somewhere, imho. I'd pay huge $$$ for a Kickstarter to do an add-on M478 the way god intended, but it's unlikely to happen because of the things MCA mentioned in the recent Eurogamer interview (obscure IP rights to various stuff). Re lightsabres - dual wield all the way, crafting lots of upgrages if you want to make easy combat even easier. Single blade for the cool factor and extra challenge
  13. One essential is to speak a certain line to HK-47 early on, otherwise you will miss out on some great content. Some quest walkthroughs are obviously obsolete, so don't stress if you speak to X and he doesn't do Y. He was never meant to. Someone else will do Y and also give you Z (sometimes google doesn't help - you'll need to stay alert). Some dialog trees are also different, so if you want to hear new stuff, don't follow all the 'max influence' maps too slavishly.
  14. Why do you believe I haven't played DA2 - because I make a criticism of it that you disagree with? (FYI I did play it) I disliked almost all the party characters in DA2 regardless of their orientation (in contrast to DA: O) simply because - imho - they were written for a young teen audience with the depth and issues that are relevant to that demographic. If I were 15 or 16, I'd probably have connected better with them. My point was though, that if Gaider wants to make a social comment with a character, he should, in my opinion, try not to make him a petty whiney emo terrorist. At least for my demographic - teen mileage may differ.
  15. Not to derail the thread, but yes, it is a pity that a character seen by gamers as 'gay' (though in 'reality', 'player sexual') is a two dimensional whiney emo terrorist that comes on way too strong (in my understanding there was no way to let him down gently without him getting petty/unpleasant/earning a heap of rivalry points). On topic - they should leave the warden alone or run the same risk as any film adaptation of a book. And the film in this case would be like a low budget aimed at a different audience than the book. However I doubt at this point there'll be much overlap between the people who bought DA: O and those that will buy DA:I, so I guess Bio can defile away to their hearts' content.
  16. Do you mean art direction? I seriously hope you're basing that opinion on 30 second youtube vids! I mean, Dishonored's vivid colors and designs versus ... loads of shades of brown and grey brick? I struggle to think of a title in the last 3 years that's more bland than Thiaf. Even on a 75% steam sale, this would be a monumental waste of money. Humble bundle in 2 years, and even then only if you donate $1 with a custom split that cuts Eidos out of any share of that.
  17. Are there any other apps or games that give any fps drop offs? For what it's worth I'm running it on an Nvidia 580M win7 and no issues with magic missile or any other effects. I'm no Nvidia fanboy but one reason I paid a lot more for the 580M compared to the AMD competitor (which was technically better) is driver glitches.
  18. I know you've had the problem on all machines, but can you list the specs of the machine that's currently running this - including OS and video driver version. Also if win 7 have you tried to run it in compatibility mode (or even in the XP virtual machine)? Do you get frame drop offs with any other app or game?
  19. Erm, Alan ... I was talking about a hypothetical case I thought up on the spot to illustrate the point that simply not buying' a product is not necessarily the best idea (as Woo was probably suggesting and you seem to be reiterating) for either gamer or developer. All the other details I wrote were picked out at random (though I do know a couple of people who do boycott). I could just as easily have changed 'Day 1 DLC' for 'Origin exclusive' or 'Compulsory Multiplayer' or any other cause celebre for crusaders or trolls on the BSN. For the record, I personally don't mind Day 1 DLC. I am obviously aware that neither Woo nor you actually told anyone to literally "shut up". I was paraphrasing an implied attitude (don't buy the game if you don't like a feature - and that's all).Sorry if that was not clear from my post.
  20. No, of course I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the case where someone really really really wants to play eg ME3, would happily pay $100 to play ME3, but their dislike of the eg Day 1 DLC monetization thing is so great that they painfully chose to forego the enjoyment of the game just to send a message "Day 1 DLC costs you sales, do DLC later in future and you get my money". I know two people in real life who fit that description. The doll analogy does not quite fit them. If you hate Day 1 DLC more than you want ME3 then you don't buy - that's clear. The question being debated is what next? You've voted with your dollar, The Ender of Lines has said that BioWare approves of this method of protest, now please shut up. What I'm saying is that it is - contrary to what Woo thinks - worth 'arguing' (but not crusading) on the forum so that the developer can gauge feeling and have a better chance of making the right decision in the future (they already know revenue from Day 1 DLC, but they don't fully know cost). If you don't argue a little with Woo, the devs might think the lost sales were because of eg Origin DRM or any other reason the marketing gurus present in a slick Powerpoint chart.
  21. Ultimately yes, of course. But I think it's in both the developer's and gamer's interest to talk about things without a boycott. If I would be happy to pay $60 for some software, but feel that presence of ancillary feature X is a dealbreaker, then I'd rather say that - and 'argue' with the line ending ninja - than quietly not buy. The developer may incorrectly take any absence of purchase from me to be a result of say, the lack of feature Y.
  22. I believe that's the way humans form opinions - fuzzy logic. You get a two tons of data, analyze it on a broad level to discern a pattern, apply 3 ounces of instinct (flavoured with bias - that's why we talk and debate rather than exchange data and absolute truths) and voila! you have Your Personal Opinion. When someone asks you to defend it, you select the facts you have seen in the two tons of data that support YPO, not the ones that refute it. Obviously as a BioWare employee you have access to more data / higher quality data and if we were machines, I would certainly synchronise my data and YPO to match yours. However we are human, and intuition tells me that you have an interest in presenting a version of the truth that maximizes your chances of receiving the highest possible number of salary transfers from BioWare ULC, which in turn depends on people's perception of a piece of software called DA:I. Therefore your views factor into mine with an Impairment Factor of 0.4 Re the 5m sales thing - it was Gibeau on why Dead Space 4 is probably dead (post above).
  23. Frank Gibeau talking about Dead Space 3 (and why Dead Space 4 is most probably, well, dead) and reported in every game site. Obviously each studio and each title has its own budget and we can't get data on that, but EA's MO seems to be 1) whatever the starting point, double the budget vs the original 2) triple the sales targets 3) close studio when the sales targets are not met. Rinse and repeat.
  24. Yeah, except that $98m on sales of $3.8 billion is a wafer thin margin and anything can happen yet given the volatile nature of the industry. And I don't think the "is BioWare going to be around in 3 years" question was about EA finances, but rather about BioWare's finances meeting EA expectations. EA has officially said they need each game to sell 5m to be profitable, and at the moment, DA:O probably (just) managed that out of all of BioWare's releases.
  25. It's not that I'd rather you lied - quite the contrary. I have dealt with several hundred corporate acquisitions in my professional life and I'd say that in every one there has been some degree of influence by the purchaser on their target. In BioWare's case, I've seen Dan Tudge saying that EA told him to cut the manual down on DA:O. I've seen a BioWare Technical Animator on glassdoor.com say that "EA has taken over and everything is about the finances now unfortunately. Seems like much of the soul of the company as a whole has left". These suggest to me that EA is heavily present and very hands on in the development process. That said, I don't personally care who was responsible for what in the last few games, as long as whoever calls the shots going forward decides to reverse the strategy seen in DA2 and ME3 in a way most on this forum would like. However too many people - eg Laidlaw to Gaider - have openly said that Origins was the last of its kind because someone (BioWare, if you say so) keeps assigning ever larger development budgets to them. And if you're going to cover a larger budget you need more sales. To get more sales you need to move out of any niches you may be in (eg tactical RPGs), and make less demands of the player from a thinking perspecitve and more demands on them from a reflexes perspecitve (aka migrate to "action"). If BioWare themselves are assigning mass-market size budgets to DA, then I hope they have a better mass market capturing strategy than they had with DA2.
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