MrBrown

https://www.inverse.com/gaming/bethesda-strike-zenimax-xbox-microsoft

Games should have a "random but reasonable" button. I remember trying random in Outer Worlds, and everything that came out looked like a person who just went to a punk concert and then got beaten up.

I got that impression from DAVe. Mainly because the big plot seemed much more interesting than all the details.

I went to check on the Bioware fan forums what everyone there was thinking, and my main takeaway is that they like to call the game "DAVe".

70 hours, finished the game. Seems like there's some differences in ending, I think I got the best one, but not sure. Overall, I liked the game. For me it was probably the worst in the DA series, but it wasn't a bad game overall. Can't really compare it to modern AAA games since I don't play that many. Worst part was the writing. The overall plot was fine, and the ending too, but the more minute details weren't that good (the baddies were uninteresting, dialogue was often bad, quests were really repetitive etc). Or as good as previous DA games, anyway. A lot of Bioware fans seems to like the games for their writing, so maybe the game won't score that big with them. No real knowledge, haven't googled to find out. Exploration was good, but they started running out of gimmicks later on, and it got a bit repetitive. Thankfully the game ended soon after that. Combat grew on me. It's very actiony and flashy, so that might be turn off for older players. Maybe modern AAA games does it better and ignorance was bliss for me. Builds and stats seemed great, there were a lot of options and I could come up with lots of different ways to build my character. Buuut, since I really only played one, I have no idea if it's really that balanced. DA:O and DA:I were quite bad at that part (DA2 much better) so can't really claim it's Bioware's forte. The game tied up most of the plotlines from previous DA games, so it felt like they intentionally made it the last one... buuut, then So it seems they're keeping their options open.

DA2 famously had one for Anders. Can't remember if it was either not labeled with the heart symbol, or was just placed where usually the friendly(-but-not-that-friendly) option was. Don't think there were any for Inquisition.

I think DA:I still lets you play without connecting to the servers. Once you manage to start it once, anyway.

About 35 hours in, felt like writing something. Not sure how long this game is, seems like there's still lots more Overall impression is "kinda ok". Probably wouldn't play this if I wasn't interested in the DA world. Story setup felt interesting, like I said before, but after that it's felt a bit meh. Some of the factions in the game world have been changed, and IMO in a boring way. Can't avoid change, I guess, but the Qunari just feel like basic baddies now and the Crows like a vigilante group. Apparently this mostly relies on stories from non-game DA products, but doesn't save them from being boring choices. Main baddies are boring, hoping they'll shape up by the end. Most of the NPCs are either immediately on your side, or your enemies, without too much in between. Dialogue is the usual Bioware fare of quipping and one-liners. The main difference is there's no massive interrogation trees with important characters anymore, most of dialogue is either in party banter or in specific quests for them. Lots of just text stuff around to flesh out things, like in most RPGs. Exploration is quite parkoury and 3D. There's always things to fiddle with, or loot to get. It's quite smooth overall, but you can spend 30mins trying to reach a chest without figuring it out. But it does feel meaningful, in that what you find ties into the rest of the game fine. Combat grew on me a bit. At the start it felt like I was just dodging 90% of the time, but it feels quite smooth now. I don't play that many games with actiony combat like this, so not sure how other games do it. I'd still prefer the more party based approach of older DA games.

"During early development of The Veilguard, BioWare experimented with multiplayer once again, however, Epler insists that there was never a mandate from parent company Electronic Arts to implement any specific online or live-service modes; the devs were just exploring different ways to tell the story." Reeeeaallly?

The trick is to join one of the factions. The 2nd tier of equipment is locked behind them, so combat becomes a lot easier after that. As for weapon styles, axes seem the easiest, with long reach and a wide attack angle, so you'll hit often.

Most people seem to prefer DA:O. At least those are the ones that make the most noise, maybe the people who prefer the others don't make youtube videos about it.

Regarding dialogue, the game makes it pretty clear what's going on, ie, "X is the bad guy, and now we need to take care of their underlings Y". I think some of it has to do with what I said earlier about the game relying heavily on what happened in Inquisition, so maybe the writers felt they really needed to be clear on things. It certainly feels more boring than say Inquisition, that had a lot of stuff like "Ok, there's a hole in the sky, let's speculate on why, and then go find out stuff about it". Another thing I wanted to note, the game uses the ME2 and ME3 approach of missions (or "quests" because this is fantasy). As in, there's central hubs where you can do various minor things, but when you go on a specific quest, there's a specific area for it and you can't leave until you finish it (personally I preferred the semi-open world approach of DA:O and DA:I). And this leads to the dialogue also being very focused on what you're currently doing, ie., "let's go there to place X". Personally, the dialogue is so far at the level that I don't mind it (because there's a good skip function), but also haven't found any that's particularly good, yet.

8 hours in. Hard to say anything about the story yet. I liked the setup. Also feel like this relies heavily on knowing what happened in DA:I, more so than any Bioware game about their preceding games. Not sure how it'll feel like for people who didn't play DA:I. I expected the combat to be more like Mass Effect with swords, but it's way more actiony. All those button combinations... I tried playing a mage, but the battle field was so full of flashy stuff I couldn't keep up with it. Warrior works better for me. Graphics are fine, most of the time. They're a bit more cartoony, but it works out fine most of the time. One exception so far is the Darkspawn Ogre, who's faces look way too cartoony.

Haven't gotten past the "compiling shaders" -bit yet. Apparently something you have to do an hour before starting one of these new AAA games.

The color palette in DA:O was less saturated. I think that's what people mean when they say it was dark fantasy.

Youtube, or internet in general, is full of content where people trash games or developers because that generates easy clicks. Seems like the only options are love or hate, with nothing in between. So I'm all up for reviews where there conclusion is "it's kinda ok". And that seems to be the case with Mort mostly, which is why I was surprised he praised Veilguard so much.

I don't have a backlog at the moment, so I'll play it on release. Not expecting it to blow me away, but would be nice if it was decent.

It takes about 10-15 completed runs to get the ending credits, as in your mom & dad reconcile. Can't remember the actual amount needed. It took me around 80 runs (not all completed) to get the epilogue for the final ending. So yeah, you have to like the mechanics to go through all that.

Hi Since this released in a few days, I thought people might want to chat about it in it's own thread. For a start, here's Mortismal's review: I only watched the pos/neg and wrap up parts since I don't want spoilers, but he really seemed to like it. Says it's his GotY, and best entry in the DA series. Seems high praise, IIRC he was really into the pathfinder games etc, more party based RPGs and stuff.

tl;dr says it's his personal GotY

I finished Drova. Will probably do a second playthrough to get all the achievements, it'll be much less annoying when you know where everything is. Overall I'd say it's a decent game. It's generally what it looks like from a quick glance on the Steam page, so if that seems your thing, you should probably try it. My two big negatives are: - The map is way too maze-like, and it can take a lot of time to just find things because you can never go somewhere in an even remotely straight line. - The main plot forces you to do things you wouldn't want to. In my game, the 2nd in command of my faction had me do some stuff under the nose of the 1st, and I was called a traitor afterwards. No option to do anything else.

Wasn't it widely reported that their deal with the Pathfinder people fell through? I remember reading that working with them (Paizo or whatever) was hard, but can't remember if that part was credible info.

I just spent 2 hours in Drova looking for a place, only to realize I had glitched into an area that was supposed to be inaccessible from that point on. So I spent the next two hours trying to glitch out, because of course I had no recent saves outside the place. Eventually I managed, and found the thing I was looking for, just slightly away from there. Apparently "near a forest" is not the same as "in a forest".

No no, you go to Vegas to get Int bonus from the surgeon, to maximize skill points gained during the game.

Don't play Drova then. It's not just the main plot, but so much of your power is locked behind joining a faction, you want to do it ASAP. As for FNV, you could just walk past the deathclaws north of the starting town, if you kept to the hills on the eastern side of the track. If you climb a bit high, the deathclaws can't reach you. No particular need for exploits.