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What are your thoughts on Bioware right now?

levyjl1988

Banned
Are you eagerly excited about their upcoming games? Are you skeptical over their past failures? What are your thoughts on the company so far and it's future?

For me my first exposure for Bioware was in Dragon Age: Origins bac in 2009 and that blew my mind at how fantastic the lore was. I was deeply invested by the origins of my character and got quickly attached to it. The game challenged me as I read each lore entry. I hopped into Mass Effect and that filled that Star Wars, Star Trek, Battle Star Galactica void. It was more than just mindless combat, there was a narrative direction and choosing outcomes based on dialogue was what I enjoyed bout Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins. Dragon Age 2 released and I disliked it. I was like WTF did they do to the art direction of the Darkspawn. The environment felt drab and couldn't connect to any of my parties. I didn't want to romance any other characters in DA2. Dragon Age Inquisition came out, played it for a couple hours and fell off completely and went to play other titles. The grindy nature, the game lacked the pace that DA:O had and had obvious filler quests that turned me off, it felt like an MMORPG and was quickly disuaded.
Mass Effect Andromeda was horrid. Open world, poor characters. Female models of Sara Ryder looked bad. Anthem sucked and was boring.
























https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdWb7b-Zqpc

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But there is hope.


The visual improvements look fantastic.



Bioware better not FUCK up the character creator.
Bioware better not make UGLY ass fucking characters that I don't want to romance in the game.
Bioware needs to make the story and pacing its TOP priority.
I do not want shitty obvious filler quest and grinding, Jesus fuck that took away from the story and made me quit early and made me not experience what the rest of the game has to offer.

What are your thoughts on Bioware?
 
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Concern

Member
Trash Throw Away GIF by MOODMAN


Sums it up in one gif for me. Clearly not the team they used to be.
 
Excited for the trilogy remaster because even if they change or remove some stuff they can't change the games at their core, which are fantastic imo. I didn't hate Andromeda like a lot of people, I thought it was pretty decent actually and I loved the movement and combat, though the game is overall very uninspired, cobra head/horse leg species, fuck me how boring and uninspired can you get? A much weaker game compared to 1,2 and 3. Anthem has some great mechanics and movement but the game itself is so damn boring. Dragon age, Inquisition was ok, better than DA2 but nowhere near as good as Origins.

Yeah, they kinda suck to be honest. The majority of the talent is gone so it is to be expected.
 
BioWare, as I knew and loved it, is dead. That team that brought us the best DA and ME games is dead. That talent is no longer at BioWare.

The current team is just another EA owned factory, as far as I am concerned. I have no faith in them whatsoever.

I hope they prove me wrong.

Prime BioWare was special.
 
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They need a Rocksteady kind of comeback to surprise people. Rocksteady made shit games until the excellent Batman Arkham Asylum and so on.

I doubt the bioware that made mass effect is still there. They moved on. Now its just a medicore development team.
 
I think that Bioware is, at most, 1-2 years away from getting the Bullfrog Productions Westwood Studios Origin Systems NuFX Pandemic Studios PlayFish Black Box Games DreamWorks Interactive Phenomic Game Development Victory Games Mythic Entertainment Maxis Software EA Salt Lake Visceral Games treatment.
 

Cornbread78

Member
They better come out swinging with the next Mass Effect and Dragon Age...

No political bullshit, no bowing to the extreme left or right either!! They should let you fuck whoever you want for eligible characters, however you want, just make it worthwhile. Seriously, just make your games how you want, but make them intetesting, make them fun and let me get immersed into their worlds through the characters and the environment, ambiance and tone of the story...

Also where's the Andromeda DLC? Where is the other ship? Cowards!!!!
 

wipeout364

Member
I want them to be amazing.

Unfortunately they are not. They are too caught up in Politically correct themes to have impactful writing, which for me is one of the key components of an RPG company. Mass effect 3, Dragon age inquisition , andromeda and anthem were all progressively worse narrative wise. Anthem has one of the worst narratives ever, it’s painful to watch when you know this is the company that made Baldurs gate, KOTOR, Jade Empire and Mass Effect 1. They would never be able to write those stories now, I doubt anyone is even there of consequence from those glory days.

The last game they made that was good IMO was mass effect 2. That was 11 years ago, EA to their credit seems to have given them both time and money but I think the magic left with the Doctors. I think it’s time to let them go.
 

EekTheKat

Member
IIRC,

The old BioWare were literally the types that would get together and play tabletop RPGS and the likes and it came across in the games they've shipped.

The new BioWare comes across as games written by writers auditioning for Hollywood gigs these days. The Role and the Playing part of RPG are left out of the equation, while the game part is entirely an afterthought.
 

Garnox

Member
Hopeful.

I really want them to deliver with the next DA and ME.

Two of my most favorite franchises of all time.

I expect a level of quality drop off as a lot of the talent has since left, but no reason the next generation can't produce quality.

Again, hopeful.
 

Corgi1985

Banned
They will let me down the same as every other AAA developer but it will be worse because they will almost have something decent but will fuck it up.
 

Rickyiez

Member
Shit

I used to love Bioware so much , some of their games like Kotor , Neverwinter Nights 2 , Dragon Age 1 , Baldur Gates , ME1 are my favourite but it is what it is now .
 
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LordCBH

Member
My thoughts are quite simple:

They are a studio who made a wealth of fantastic games across multiple IP’s more than a decade ago. Today, they’re a shell of their former glory and seem to mostly hire untalented hacks that have no idea what they’re doing.
 

Lone Wolf

Member
Ya know, it’s funny that when fans asked for the ME3 endings to be altered, the whole “preserving the artistic integrity of the devs” was used as an excuse, yet in that article you linked, most of the devs wanted to change it, but couldnt because Mac Walters was only speaking for himself when he said that. What a dick. He will ruin the next game as well.
 
One big pile of shit. They haven't made a good game since ME3. Yea the ending was disappointing but I really enjoyed 90% of that game. I really have no faith in Bioware anymore and the ME3 ending was the first major warning sign they were on the decline.
 

GreyHorace

Member
The leadership and talent that made Bioware what is was is gone. You won't see games the likes of Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect 1 & 2 and Dragon Age Origins from the studio ever again.

They're nothing but another division of the soulless corporation that is EA. Damn shame.
 

Sub_Level

wants to fuck an Asian grill.
They're just another mid tier studio. Not excited in the slightest for their new games but I won't automatically write them off. If they look cool I'll try them.

Happy to give the mass effect trilogy another playthrough or five.
 

Dthomp

Member
I used to think I liked them, until I looked at their full list of games and realized that Dragon Age Origins was the only game they ever made I enjoyed.
 
Inquisition went from good at launch to besting Origins with the DLC, especially Trespasser. I'm slightly worried Mark Darrah moved on aka tinfoil hat was forced out because he couldn't salvage that fucking turd Anthem.

The ME team...hoo boy, digging themselves out of a hole that was initially dug by the Mass Effect 3 team and Anthem threw even more dirt on them. It is good Casey Hudson is gone and won't have anything to do with the next ME game. Now just trade Mac Walters to another studio, too.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
Anyone who posts slightly negative criticism against any Mass Effect aspect, and they're immediately just cast as a cry baby/raging complainer/griper or any other pathetic flame worthy set of words. It's as if a Mass Effect game is impenetrable from legitimate criticism and people who defend it as so will either do as I just said and outright label everyone generally who doesn't share the same view as them, or won't even acknowledge what's actually being said because they have it set in stone in their mind that nothing negative could ever possibly be said about anything Mass Effect related.

I'm sorry but people need to chill out about this.
 
BioWare can close down and I wouldn’t care at this point. They haven’t made a game worth playing since 2012. They clearly don’t have the same level of talent they used to. The quality of their last few titles has dropped significantly. Particularly their writing which is now among the worst in the industry.

Then they had the audacity to release two teaser trailers for Dragon Age and Mass Effect that showed fuck-all as if the name BioWare alone should still make people excited. That era is gone, BioWare, your legacy is ruined and you don’t get that privilege anymore. There is no reason to look forward to either of those games after Inquisition, Andromeda and Anthem.
 

Neil Young

Member
I REALLY enjoyed The Old Republic MMO. I hope it comes to consoles eventually. Inquisition was also decent. Now, they seem to be driven by agenda, not artistic vision or good game design.
 

Ozzie666

Member
Just like Blizzard, going down the same path. just like Eypx, West Wood, decades earlier, legendary developers losing their way, losing what made them special. On the verge of being irrelevant, Dragon Age 4 and Mass Effect have the potential to save them, or alienate fans forever.

EA strikes again.
 

Kumomeme

Member
Frostbite engine held back lot of game and devs. it is good for shooter but not for other genre

they better change the engine. use UE4 for example.
 
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STARSBarry

Gold Member
They can't even get a "remaster" of there most ironic series right either, just use AI to upscale all the textures like there some free mod pack, cant even be bothered to remake pinnacle Station so just cut it, couldent be bothered to do some slight tweaks to multiplayer so cut it because its too hard.

Oh but some ass shots, dear god why don't we actually do some work and remove those... Yeah if that didn't tell you the state of Bioware after the failure of Andromeda and Anthem I dont know what will.
 
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TonyK

Member
I think the problem with Bioware or any company that seems to have fallen in mediocrity, is that they preserve the same name company but not the same talents. So when we talk about Bioware they are not the same Bioware now than when they did DA Origins or Mass effect 1.

In reality, even if the logo is the same, it's like if a third party company was making the new games using the Bioware name.
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
Both Bioware and Blizzard keep pushing the envelope of how low you can sink. Currently, Blizzard are in the lead.
Reforged was just too much, Bioware should shit the bed a few more times to even compare to them.

But yeah, both suck, specially when comparing them to their prime days.
 
BioWare can close down and I wouldn’t care at this point. They haven’t made a game worth playing since 2012. They clearly don’t have the same level of talent they used to. The quality of their last few titles has dropped significantly. Particularly their writing which is now among the worst in the industry.

Then they had the audacity to release two teaser trailers for Dragon Age and Mass Effect that showed fuck-all as if the name BioWare alone should still make people excited. That era is gone, BioWare, your legacy is ruined and you don’t get that privilege anymore. There is no reason to look forward to either of those games after Inquisition, Andromeda and Anthem.
Wrong. Guerilla Games, Ubisoft, Capcom, etc etc etc. Games writing is generally an abyss of mediocrity. Even on Bioware's worst day, well besides Anthem, Mass Effect 3's writing still shits all over those studios. Trespasser is phenomenal and Andromeda wasn't nearly as bad as the "It's not Garrus bro and I wanna smell Tali's sweat" crowd would have you believe. Andromeda could have had a flawless launch nd the original trilogy or die weirdos would have hated it no matter what. Damned if you, damned if you don't.
 

Paasei

Member
As always, it was a mediocre / decent studio with a few big and great games. But nothing too major. Slightly overrated at times.
 
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