2022 Video Games Thread

[Atocep]

Dragon Age 4 is set for a full reveal June 11th. I'm of the mindset that EA has ruined Bioware until I'm proven wrong.

[Kodos]

This looks good. Too bad I don't have an Xbox...

[GrantDawg]

Why did I read that as Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Jerk? I thought it might be commentary on the last movie.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Dragon Age 4 is set for a full reveal June 11th. I'm of the mindset that EA has ruined Bioware until I'm proven wrong.

Inquisition was too good for them to be ruined. Anthem, Andromeda, and DA 2 were all pretty rough but everything else they have released has been quality from the entire MA Trilogy (I don’t care how you feel about the ending all 3 games were solid) to the rest of the Dragon Age games.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by dubb93

Inquisition was too good for them to be ruined. Anthem, Andromeda, and DA 2 were all pretty rough but everything else they have released has been quality from the entire MA Trilogy (I don’t care how you feel about the ending all 3 games were solid) to the rest of the Dragon Age games.

Inquisition was ok. The biggest problem the series has it's moved so far away from its roots. The MMO style combat is just meh and the open world was mediocre. It's like they just made a single player MMO with a solid story because the world and towns within the game lacked any feeling of being alive. It had that feeling of MMO staleness.

Andromeda was complete trash. I know it wasn't the primary ME team that worked on the game, but it was embarrassing for Bioware to release. Anthem was similarly bad. EA's obsession with trying to turn a single player RPG developer into a live service studio has failed miserably and Bioware has bled talent because of it.

[Edward64]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Inquisition was ok. The biggest problem the series has it's moved so far away from its roots. The MMO style combat is just meh and the open world was mediocre. It's like they just made a single player MMO with a solid story because the world and towns within the game lacked any feeling of being alive. It had that feeling of MMO staleness.

I remember Dragon's Age 1 & 2 which were top down. I never caught on with 3 and probably won't with 4. But the first 2 were great.

[dubb93]

The issue with Inquisition’s combat was that it was better on controller than it was mouse and keyboard. You ask why?

With a mouse and keyboard it was real-time press a button to pause. With a controller it was auto pause when combat starts, issue orders, hold right trigger to advance time, release to stop again. I have no idea why they made that design choice.

EDIT: Well that and they eliminated healing spells. They famously said that “healing isn’t fun.”

[Atocep]

Inquisition released at a very opportune time. It got solid reviews and was generally well received, but 6 months later Witcher 3 released and everyone forgot about it. Now, looking at the 2 games, they look like they were released in different generations rather than 6 months apart.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by Atocep

Inquisition released at a very opportune time. It got solid reviews and was generally well received, but 6 months later Witcher 3 released and everyone forgot about it. Now, looking at the 2 games, they look like they were released in different generations rather than 6 months apart.

I don’t think it’s fair to say people forgot about it considering how well received the DLC was and I don’t consider the two games even in the same genre. One is an action RPG and the other is a party based (isomeric lite) real time with pause based RPG.

If you are going to compare the new dragon age to Elden Ring and Cyberpunk, yea it’s not going to stack up very well. Those games are going to combat much cooler than DA is with its isometric base. The bar for it going to be BG3, Pathfinder, and Pillars.

[dubb93]

All of that being said I agree that, yes, Witcher 3 changed videogames forever. When it released it was possibly the best videogame for it’s time of all time. It sucked attention off of everything for a long time in the same way that GTA 6 is about ready to do.

[CrimsonFox]

I am all in on started valley. It's my third time attempting it snd I finally am super into it.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by dubb93

All of that being said I agree that, yes, Witcher 3 changed videogames forever. When it released it was possibly the best videogame for it’s time of all time. It sucked attention off of everything for a long time in the same way that GTA 6 is about ready to do.

Pffff...Peter Molyneux here

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Pffff...Peter Molyneux here

I will never forgive that man for what he said Black and White would be. He’s dead to me.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by dubb93

I don’t think it’s fair to say people forgot about it considering how well received the DLC was and I don’t consider the two games even in the same genre. One is an action RPG and the other is a party based (isomeric lite) real time with pause based RPG.

If you are going to compare the new dragon age to Elden Ring and Cyberpunk, yea it’s not going to stack up very well. Those games are going to combat much cooler than DA is with its isometric base. The bar for it going to be BG3, Pathfinder, and Pillars.

The comparison between Witcher 3 and Inqusition is for the game world. Bioware chose to go with an open world with Inquisiton that puts it in the same class as other open world games even if the combat is different. Both Bioware and CDProjekt were making their fist open world games coming of games that offered some choice and exploration but in more confined areas.

When you look them through that lens and as large budget games released within 6 months of each other there's a monumental gap. That is why I think they were fortunate to hit a release window before Witcher 3. CDPojekts open world felt alive, the towns were populated, and Inqusition felt like a stagnate world that you would see in WoW or other MMOs by comparison.

All of this is probably because one of my pet peeves in game development is a pointless open world. I wouldn't call Inquisition's approach to an open world pointless, but it definitely felt dated fairly soon after release.

I'm hoping that Bioware has taken some notes from Larian and CDProjekt and we see that in Veilguard. The trailer they released was pretty terrible and didn't feel anything like Dragon Age, but the stuff that's come out so far today is far more positive. I'm happy the game is releasing this year instead of another 1-2 year wait after the reveal.

[Edward64]

Made me check on Star Citizen. Still in Alpha.

Old saying "don't let perfection get in the way of good". I like to think this is what's happening vs out of control project & wanton milking the cash cow.

[rjolley]

Originally Posted by Edward64

Made me check on Star Citizen. Still in Alpha.

Old saying "don't let perfection get in the way of good". I like to think this is what's happening vs out of control project & wanton milking the cash cow.

From what I've heard it's a bit of perfection, but more out of control scope creep. And I'm sure that cash milk is slowing SC's release down. Still waiting on word of a release date for the single player mode Squadron 42 which is supposed to be feature complete.

[JonInMiddleGA]

fwiw, I received a Valorant console beta invite this afternoon.

I'm not gonna redeem until I see if Will gets one (it'd mean more to him than to me honestly, he's a daily player, I'm moderately curious to see how they execute a very different control scheme) but by next weekend at the latest one or the other of us should be in.

[RainMaker]

Anyone tried V Rising? Not a fan of vampire stuff but the crafting and survival aspect look really good.

[Atocep]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Anyone tried V Rising? Not a fan of vampire stuff but the crafting and survival aspect look really good.

I've wanted to like it. I've tried to get into multiple times and have friends that have put countless hours into it. I can't get around to liking it.

If you play on a controller, the controls are bad. I'm not sure how it is when the game progresses, but the day cycles early on are painfully boring.

The combat is ok but I didn't think the building was all that interesting. It's really just run of the mill survival building with a vamp/goth theme.

[GrantDawg]

Man, Paradox keeps getting hit with bad news after bad news. The latest is that their version of The Sims, "Life By You", has been cancelled. This thing has been in the making for years, and was supposed to go into early access a couple of months ago. After three delays in release, they just announced they are stopping development all together. Paradox has just had flop after failure after flop recently.

[Coffee Warlord]

Originally Posted by Atocep

I've wanted to like it. I've tried to get into multiple times and have friends that have put countless hours into it. I can't get around to liking it.

If you play on a controller, the controls are bad. I'm not sure how it is when the game progresses, but the day cycles early on are painfully boring.

The combat is ok but I didn't think the building was all that interesting. It's really just run of the mill survival building with a vamp/goth theme.

I liked it ... for like a day or two. Then you start to realize how shallow the gameplay actually is, and yes, the building isn't particularly interesting either.

[dubb93]

Originally Posted by GrantDawg

Man, Paradox keeps getting hit with bad news after bad news. The latest is that their version of The Sims, "Life By You", has been cancelled. This thing has been in the making for years, and was supposed to go into early access a couple of months ago. After three delays in release, they just announced they are stopping development all together. Paradox has just had flop after failure after flop recently.

Wow. Must have been really bad. It sounded really good on paper too.

[Thomkal]

I always thought it was a poor choice to take on the Sims, but surprised it didn't make it to release.

[GrantDawg]

There are a number of companies that are doing it. "Paralives" look like it has a lot of promise, and is supposed to come out next year. "InZoi" is targeting later this year, and at least graphically looks pretty amazing.

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[Mota]

I think it's the perfect time to take on The Sims, what have they released lately? The game is oooooold now and a more modern version with possibly a slightly different take on the category would be given a chance by the fans.

[bhlloy]

Not only old but basically the DLC is so ubiquitous and such a buggy mess that the game they sell as part of the packages on Steam is almost unplayable for many people.

Which is probably the only reason Paradox were interested in the first place to be honest, shit buggy DLC that makes the game worse is their bread and butter.

[GrantDawg]

The Sims 4 has made lots of money, but it has not been a "success" to fans at all. The Sims 3 and The Sims 2 had better features and game-play. The direction they took with TS4 was a set back. There is just so many people who love that kind of game, that I am really shocked it has taken this long for other companies to start trying to knock them off.

That is also part of why the "Life By You" failure is so painful. Most fans will say that TS2 was the best version of the game, and the lead designer of "Life By You" was a designer on TS2. It just makes you wonder how so many projects tied to Paradox have gone off the rails.