Mass Effect BioWare Montreal's Mass Effect: Andromeda - where element zero meets trisomy 21

[Freddie]

"Wonderful" book. And there is still half of it left. It is all Jarun Tann's fault.

Thanks for the update. Now that the game itself has been discussed to death this thing keeps me feeling warm inside.

 

[Padzi]

Guess that explains Marvel becoming shittier over time.

The problem with Marvel is that Star Wars is practically the only franchise that's guaranteed to sell. Same happened to Bioware though. I do not think going to EA was unwise, trying to make their outsie image work for their inside workings was a real mistake otoh.

If the creators of Andromeda wanted to make money they chose an incorrect target audience. Cause it's common knowledge that SJWs don't buy products they are commenting on so eagerly. They want people to do what they say but not what they do. And the more something popular is, the more SJWs are trying to push their retarded views on to it. It's a dammed cycle.

"Wonderful" book. And there is still half of it left. It is all Jarun Tann's fault.

Thanks for the update. Now that the game itself has been discussed to death this thing keeps me feeling warm inside.

Thanks. Let's wait for the DLC. I seriously can't wait to see what kind of dish they are going to serve. Some say that DA's DLC were consistently better than the main campaings, so maybe ME:A will repeat that pattern.

 

[Tytus]

 

[Galdred]

It looks like Bioware's future now depends on the success of their new IP

The only company that can jump on the bandwagon of a popular game type and actually succeed is Blizzard.

Because they either practice black magic or sold their soul to the Great One. They always take a popular game, make it worse and earn 10 times more. I still remember the day when I, as a gigantic fan of Dune 2, bought Warcraft and after an hour thought - wtf is this boring shit? W2 was better but also short, dumb and still couldn't compare to C&C. But it had SVGA graphix so it sold like drugs. Starcraft was great but also a hillariously obvious hodgepodge of Aliens, Predator and Warhammer. Diablo was amazingly innovative but it wasn't Blizzard's idea. WoW can't say, don't play MMOs, but people tell me it was pretty cashul compared to EQ. Starcraft 2 was little more than a fan service, we don't talk about Diablo 3, Hearthstone is one of the worst card games out there, HotS is Dota for retards and Overwatch an even dumber clone of the already dumb Team Fortress.

The only truly innovative game that opened a new horizons for the RTS genre was Warcraft 3. But it was just Warcraft with its retarded lore.

They always add unmatched polish to each of their game.
It only shows that polish is much more important sale wise than having deep and complex systems, or getting original ideas.

 

[salaciousbcrumb]

I know an article like this has been posted but I couldn't resist...

http://www.pcgamer.com/report-mass-...e-montreal-transitioning-to-a-support-studio/

Report: Mass Effect on hiatus, BioWare Montreal transitioning to a support studio

Kotaku said it will "help support" the development of games at other EA studios, including the big mystery game at BioWare Edmonton

Also have a google over the amount of times the word "Hiatus," has been used regarding this game now in the past day or so...

 

[Ismaul]

Bioware, THE most creative and visionary AAA dev of yore

No, never. Were they ever even creative at all, let alone "visionary"? They've always been a fan-fiction type of dev, "let's do what's most popular and established in our genre!" Forgotten Realms! Elves! Cutesy barbarian! Star Wars! Generic feng shui setting! etc.

 

[Drakron]

Bioware, THE most creative and visionary AAA dev of yore

No, never. Were they ever even creative at all, let alone "visionary"? They've always been a fan-fiction type of dev, "let's do what's most popular and established in our genre!" Forgotten Realms! Elves! Cutesy barbarian! Star Wars! Generic feng shui setting! etc.

Actually their first game was Shattered Steel that was a mech game, even Baldur's Gate didnt started as a D&D game and became one because Interplay holded the license at the time.

We have to be honest here, BioWare started with a mech game of their own and even Baldur's gate wasnt Forgotten Realms at the start and it was due to Interplay interest that it became one, people should not judge the entire studio and their history for what they did recently, the Bioware now is not the same as of 10 years ago or even of 5 years ago and this one is BioWare pretty much in name only.

 

[decaf]

Does EA have a 3rd game curse? Dead Space 3 killed itself, now Dragon Age and Mass Effect too.

 

[Modron]

Does EA have a 3rd game curse? Dead Space 3 killed itself, now Dragon Age and Mass Effect too.

4th Mass Effect game...

 

[decaf]

whoops

 

[KyivAfter12am]

No, never. Were they ever even creative at all, let alone "visionary"?

Maybe, but they have 5 games in the Codex top 70 RPGs list. To recap, Baldur's Gate 1-2, Dragon Age 1, KOTOR 1, Mass Effect 1. Frankly, I'm surprised Jade Empire is not on the list.

I would argue that most of these games introduced at least a few features or concepts. You might not like the new stuff (like the harem of characters in DA), but it doesn't mean Bioware didn't try to be creative.

 

[schaltbock]

Too bad.
A tranny-centric DLC would have surely stormed the market and reversed the game's fortunes.

The Quarian ark DLC would have definitely brought back the Tali sweat theorizers of yore.

 

[cvv]

Bioware, THE most creative and visionary AAA dev of yore

No, never. Were they ever even creative at all, let alone "visionary"? They've always been a fan-fiction type of dev, "let's do what's most popular and established in our genre!" Forgotten Realms! Elves! Cutesy barbarian! Star Wars! Generic feng shui setting! etc.

NWN came with the modularity, Kotor was the first "cinematic" RPG, DAO vastly expanded on the idea of inter-party relations, ME was the first true space opera RPG. Even the shitty DA2 had a fairly adult political plotline about the mages and inquisition.

Whatever you think of Bioware or their games you can't say they operated the same way as Blizzard or any other AAA dev for that matter. If you can think of one that was more creative and innovative go on and fire away.

 

[donkeymong]

Obsidian--> first spy Rpg i am aware of.

 

[Jimmious]

Does EA have a 3rd game curse? Dead Space 3 killed itself, now Dragon Age and Mass Effect too.

4th Mass Effect game...

The 3rd Mass Effect SHOULD HAVE killed the franchise though.

 

[Serus]

No, never. Were they ever even creative at all, let alone "visionary"?

Maybe, but they have 5 games in the Codex top 70 RPGs list. To recap, Baldur's Gate 1-2, Dragon Age 1, KOTOR 1, Mass Effect 1. Frankly, I'm surprised Jade Empire is not on the list.

I would argue that most of these games introduced at least a few features or concepts. You might not like the new stuff (like the harem of characters in DA), but it doesn't mean Bioware didn't try to be creative.

And all of them (with possible exception of BG2 - which is nothing great but is solid despite the RTWP nonsense) are shitty.
Ok, they did "create" romance in CRPG thing... i'll give them that.
To be honest i haven't played ME1 from that list so who knows... maybe this is the hidden gem (from me).

TL;DR: good riddance

 

[KyivAfter12am]

And all of them (with possible exception of BG2 - which is nothing great but is solid despite the RTWP nonsense) are shitty.

The question was not whether they made good games or shitty games, but whether they were creative.

 

[Kem0sabe]

On the whole I enjoyed the majority of Bioware rpg releases, Bg 1 and 2 are classics, kotor was fucking amazing when it was released and I played it more than a few times on xbox, jade empire was also very fun, as well as dragon age origins and the original mass effect trilogy.

The problems started when most of the talent started leaving the company and they started making games by bullet point lists, dragon age 2, 3, Andromeda, they were all disasters.

 

[Serus]

And all of them (with possible exception of BG2 - which is nothing great but is solid despite the RTWP nonsense) are shitty.

The question was not whether they made good games or shitty games, but whether they were creative.

I was commenting on using a Codex top list as sort of an argument to authority fallacy. Even if it wasn't an appeal to authority those lists are really bad at being any authority in the first place. They are full of bad games - and i'm not even trying to be edgy here, it just how the crpg genre is - hard to make.

When it comes to creativity, as i said, they did "create" romance in crpg as a main feature...
Can't think of any other creative stuff they did (in crpg), all they originally created were boring settings and bad game mechanics. Don't get me wrong, they used (long time ago) to be good or perhaps even very good at implementation of those poorly thought out mechanics and bad settings (see Baldur's Gate 2 comment) but that isn't the "creative" part. Never good at the latter.

 

[KyivAfter12am]

Can't think of any other creative stuff they did (in crpg)

I'm not an expert, but I'll make an attempt:

- Magic battles in BG2. Arguably that's a common D&D thing, but how many non-Infinity Engine games have done something similar?
- DM features in NWN
- Martial styles in Jade Empire.
- Both KOTOR and Mass Effect rare examples of a space opera RPG
- Light side/Dark side alignment in KOTOR that later became Paragon/Asshole system in ME
- The Origins feature for DA
- Honorary mention: my favorite little feature from KOTOR, alien voiceovers!

 

[pippin]

- Magic battles in BG2. Arguably that's a common D&D thing, but how many non-Infinity Engine games have done something similar?
- DM features in NWN
- Martial styles in Jade Empire.
- Both KOTOR and Mass Effect rare examples of a space opera RPG
- Light side/Dark side alignment in KOTOR that later became Paragon/Asshole system in ME
- The Origins feature for DA
- Honorary mention: my favorite little feature from KOTOR, alien voiceovers!

-Hardly creative, it might be nice, but it's not like they did something different
-First introduced in Vampire Redemption
-i must admit i don't know if any other martial arts rpg has included something like this
-Meh. ME is still a bad Star Control ripoff
-and gave us shitty binary dialogue choices too
-which were probably the most interesting thing in those games and yet it's very rarely used
-you mean the star wars voices?

all in all not really creative to be honest. It's mostly different versions of dnd, almost all of them really just "new hat" cases

 

[KyivAfter12am]

all in all not really creative to be honest.

I see now I should have started by asking a variant of The Question: what is RPG creative?

 

[pippin]

Creative would be having elements that can't be found in any other game or games, and this does not applies to Bioware

 

[cvv]

all in all not really creative to be honest.

I see now I should have started by asking a variant of The Question: what is RPG creative?

Useless, this is one of those autistic debates that always fractals out of control. In the end it always turns out absolutely nothing is really creative because everything is just a derivate of the very first electronic game ever created:

Spoiler

 

[Serus]

- Magic battles in BG2. Arguably that's a common D&D thing, but how many non-Infinity Engine games have done something similar?
- DM features in NWN
- Martial styles in Jade Empire.
- Both KOTOR and Mass Effect rare examples of a space opera RPG
- Light side/Dark side alignment in KOTOR that later became Paragon/Asshole system in ME
- The Origins feature for DA
- Honorary mention: my favorite little feature from KOTOR, alien voiceovers!

-Hardly creative, it might be nice, but it's not like they did something different
-First introduced in Vampire Redemption
-i must admit i don't know if any other martial arts rpg has included something like this
-Meh. ME is still a bad Star Control ripoff
-and gave us shitty binary dialogue choices too
-which were probably the most interesting thing in those games and yet it's very rarely used
-you mean the star wars voices?

all in all not really creative to be honest. It's mostly different versions of dnd, almost all of them really just "new hat" cases

Let me add a few points:
- This whole magic system was taken from existing pnp system. This is an adaptation, perhaps a good one if you insist, but is an exact opposite of "creativity".
- Not the first ones as mentioned above. In addition "Coming up" with an idea that was there in the open is hardly creative.
- Ok, i only played JE for a moment a long time ago and honestly the only thing i remember is disliking it enough to delete the whole thing after a few hours... maybe you have a valid point here.
- "rarely"... you did it to yourself. How is that creative ? I'll help you - Creative would be to make an original setting that is not as bland and unoriginal as possible (instead is a collage of overused elements from other settings) but, you know, a somewhat original and creative setting instead.
- You are kidding me, this is just marketing newspeak. The whole system is poorly conceived. Other crpgs did tracking evil/good deeds of the player and reacting to it before kotor. Just without bombastic terminology and stupid gimmicks added.
- The Origins, not sure about it, i can't remember any actual crpg doing it before at this moment but the idea is rather simple and obvious. It just is branching except it already happens at the start of the game. If this is creativity - it is a very "light" version of it.
- yeah...
So yea, in best case scenario 1 and half creative points - and only because i can't talk about JE not remembering it... Sorry, i should have written in my previous post: "Nothing original that i can remember".