Review Yahtzee: DA2 takes it cues from Mass Effect

[sser]

Because EA has piled more money into SW:TOR than any other game. It is a financial behemoth with huge investments in time and resources. This is how Blizzard created WoW, sure, but WoW came out in an MMORPG vacuum with Everquest 2 being a flop. MMO's now have to compete with WoW, but now there are a number of other solid titles out there to take the market share (EVE, Rift, and Guild Wars 2) and Blizzard is making another MMO. The recipe is there for a mega flop and if that happens I see no way BioWare survives EA's angry axe.

 

[Overweight Manatee]

Because EA has piled more money into SW:TOR than any other game. It is a financial behemoth with huge investments in time and resources. This is how Blizzard created WoW, sure, but WoW came out in an MMORPG vacuum with Everquest 2 being a flop. MMO's now have to compete with WoW, but now there are a number of other solid titles out there to take the market share (EVE, Rift, and Guild Wars 2) and Blizzard is making another MMO. The recipe is there for a mega flop and if that happens I see no way BioWare survives EA's angry axe.

Didn't Bioware get merged with the guys who made the warhammer MMO that flopped? I wonder who Bioware gets merged with in an attempt to make the next EA pipe dream MMO.

 

[RK47]

Bioware has no experience with online gaming.
Mythic software, now a shadow of their former self after the Warhammer Online debacle is attempting their final, last attempt, at MMO development by merging their resources with Bioware.

Prediction: Millions of box sold to rabid Star Wars fans, subs to drop after free month is over. It won't be a huge success, but population will remain low and stable while Sony's Star Wars Galaxies will close down.

EA verdict: Not a hit. Mythic to be nuked. Bioware to be downsized and farm Dragon Age 2012 and Mass Effect 2013 as per usual.

 

[waywardOne]

It will take a consistent and noticeable decline in quality over multiple games before many of them abandon bioware.

welcome to 2007.

 

[Lesifoere]

it' odd that you guys are still harping on about a company that haven't released anything worthwhile since 2001 or whenever baldurs gate 2 came out. get into your heads that this company makes cliched fantasy entertainment for pre-teens and retard adults.

NWN and expansions: Good
KOTOR: Very good
Jade Empire: Very good
Mass Effect: Very good
Mass Effect 2: Very good.
Dragon Age: Very good
Dragon Age 2: Just about average.

'haven't released anything worthwhile' indeed.

How's JE "very good"? How is ME? How is DA:O? Are you on drugs or is that just fanboy kool-aid you just injected into your arm? Even Volourn is less dumb than this.

 

[Xor]

Moar like

NWN and expansions: shit, with a decent expansion
KOTOR: shit
Jade Empire: shit, but less shit than KOTOR
Mass Effect: xtreme average
Mass Effect 2: slightly better than ME1
Dragon Age: shit
Dragon Age 2: as bad as Oblivion

 

[Black]

NWN and expansions: Good
KOTOR: Very good
Jade Empire: Very good
Mass Effect: Very good
Mass Effect 2: Very good.
Dragon Age: Very good
Dragon Age 2: Just about average.

What in the fuck? I honestly want to believe you are trolling. Even if you omit the whole next-gen faggotry, NWN good? KOTOR very good?
Have we all played the same games?

What do you base this on? It might, I don't know much about it, but what makes you see it as the most likely scenario?

Their "thing" is that every npc is voiced, like anyone sane gives a fuck (though we're talking about bioware and its fans here. And MMO audience). Combat looks like any other MMO/WoW with healer/nuker/tank.

 

[Volourn]

"I doubt many of the people who bought DA2 and didn't like it compared to the first game will buy DA3."

Bullshit. All this does is follow the same pattern of all BIO releases all the way back to BG2 when people bithced and moan about not having random maps.

All the crybabies will be amongst the first to buy DA3. Just like all the crybabies about NWN had no problem picking up KOTOR, and all the crybabies about KOTOR had no problem picking up JE, and so on, so forth.




KOTOR MMO is not going to destroy BIo for several reason. Number 1, EA has already stated that they 'only' need 500k subscribers to make money, and a million subscribers to be really profitable. Number 2, even the MMO bombs HUGE all it means is the death of the Texas branch. REAL BIO has nothing to do with it. At all.

 

[Achilles]

Does anyone really expect Bioware to fail with a Star Wars MMO? It's practically a licence to print money.

 

[Volourn]

No, but people are wishing it just like they have been for 10+ years. Eventually, they'll be right, and then they can claim 'told you so'. L0L

 

[Xor]

Does anyone really expect Bioware to fail with a Star Wars MMO? It's practically a licence to print money.

How many MMOs that come out actually make money? WoW did, obviously, but there have been numerous flops since then. EA has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into SWTOR. If it doesn't do phenomenally well, it will be a huge loss.

 

[waywardOne]

why would anyone expect it to succeed? that's the real question.

 

[duanth000]

because the lifeblood of any mmo is hype...I swear people attend community college courses in PR. SW:TOR could be good, but likely not since it's gravitating toward a repetition of WOW in space. And wow was an accident that made good. The idea that you could reinvent the wheel when it already exists (see: shitty graphics, false promises, horrible art design, boring mechanics) is exactly why this piece of shit is championed PRE-RELEASE by retards....

 

[Topher]

why would anyone expect it to succeed? that's the real question.

They don't. It's like the producers. If you know you're making a flop there are ways to profit from that and MMO's fit the bill perfectly. It's easy to dazzle inverters with shiny pie-charts showcasing WoW's success and convincing them that your game will be able to steal a piece of that pie. Greed and stupidity... that's one crazy cocktail.

 

[Achilles]

why would anyone expect it to succeed? that's the real question.

I can think of a couple of reasons.

- It's Star Wars. Yes, you can argue that Galaxies wasn't that successful, but it was a much more sloppy job and it didn't have all that money poured into it. TOR is probably the game that Star Wars fans have been waiting for for ages. Personally I'm much more of a Star Trek fan and even Star Trek Online keeps getting subscription money every month, even though it's a rather mediocre game.

- Marketing. EA is going to advertise and market the shit out of the game.

- It's made by Bioware. I don't mean that as an indisputable seal of quality, but rather as another powerful brand. Just put "by the makers of Mass Effect" on a TV ad and you're set.

- It could very well prove to be a good game, you know.

To answer Xor's question, it's true that not many MMORPGs can sustain a decent flow of income. However, I feel that TOR has a better chance than most because it will try to bring new players to the genre, not cut into the existing gamer pool.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

- It's made by Bioware. I don't mean that as an indisputable seal of quality, but rather as another powerful brand. Just put "by the makers of Mass Effect" on a TV ad and you're set.

Erm... How about: Just put "by the makers of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic" which would actually make more sense.

 

[Achilles]

Come on DU, that shit came out what, 8 years ago??!? Nobody remembers that now. it's old-school, retro stuff. Live in the moment!

 

[GarfunkeL]

Lord of the Rings Online is now actually making a profit, after they went F2P. Age of Conan is also making a profit AFAIK. But of course it's not known whether EA bosses will accept "making a small profit" instead of "making WoW-profit".

 

[Jaesun]

Come on DU, that shit came out what, 8 years ago??!? Nobody remembers that now. it's old-school, retro stuff. Live in the moment!

But the console kiddies recognize it as the first cRPG game ever made.

 

[Achilles]

Indeed. They probably look upon it as one of the early, rough-around-the-edges RPGs that kick-started the genre before it became awesome and extreme.

 

[FeelTheRads]

NWN and expansions: Good
KOTOR: Very good
Jade Empire: Very good
Mass Effect: Very good
Mass Effect 2: Very good.
Dragon Age: Very good
Dragon Age 2: Just about average.

LOLOL. Only played NWN and Jade Empire from that pile of shit (uh oh, incoming waves of retarded Jimbobs and Bloberts telling me how if I played them means I liked them so I should shut up) and I can already tell you're a moron. Honestly, I don't even know what you could have liked about them. They're not even good for story-fags since the writing and stories are catastrophic.
So I can only conclude you're just another simpleton.

Does anyone really expect Bioware to fail with a Star Wars MMO? It's practically a licence to print money.

Wasn't there another Star Wars MMO that failed? Or that is in a bad state?

 

[Volourn]

"How many MMOs that come out actually make money?"

Quite a few, actually.

NEWSFLASH: MMOs do NOT need WOW numbers to be successful.

Fukkin' dumbazzez.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

incoming waves of retarded Jimbobs and Bloberts telling me how if I played them means I liked them so I should shut up

Are you still making up this ridiculous shit? Where have I ever said anything of the sort? Jesus.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Oh, I'm sorry.. what was it then? If you didn't like it why did you play it? Oh yeah, that's so much better.

 

[Admiral jimbob]

I've vocally criticised and hated plenty of games that a lot of people on the Codex love, and been ambivalent at best on others which I've played and finished. The only times I've said anything of the sort have been when people play something to completion several times (and yes, it's happened) only to proclaim that they hated them and got no enjoyment out of them at all. You don't consider that kind of behaviour remotely odd? That the lady seems to protest a little too much?

I know you like to attribute whatever you're angry at on any given week to me, but while kind of adorable, it loses effect when it has no basis in reality.