To be completely fair, I would say that the people who liked DA2 were probably the type of people who would rather play a platformer than an RPG. and maybe on that merit, it didn't suck. IF IT WERE A PLATFORMER.
This /\
DA2 is a great game if what you expect is a shallow game with 5 areas to walk around in. (Yes, 5. Uptown, lowtown, docks, darktown, mt sunder) and there being what, 3 dungeon maps? Or was it 4? Every dungeon was the same, just this door opened, this one closed. Or traverse it backwards. The story focuses on some crappy black and white "LIKE MAGES OR BURN THEM!" morality crap where neither the mages nor the templars are likable. Both are complete collections of lunatics. And the ending makes NO sense whatsoever. Oh, let's not forget that enemies just randomly get beamed down from the Enterprise in orbit. Finished a wave? Cool. Scotty, beam down some more enemies.
I'll say it right now: people who liked DA2 have no idea what a good RPG is.
All of which is teeny tiny small potatoes. Not even 1% of EA's bottom line. And in a market that they don't play in (historically).
First, don't be an ass. Second, opinions vary. Some people love DA 2. Some hate it.
This is very true, I don't especially like RPG's and I enjoyed dragon age 2, while I quit DAO after just a few hours do to extreme boredom.To be completely fair, I would say that the people who liked DA2 were probably the type of people who would rather play a platformer than an RPG. and maybe on that merit, it didn't suck. IF IT WERE A PLATFORMER.
The deal was actually probably bigger than you think. EA gave Elevation Partners 860 million for BioWare/Pandemic. Right now the company has a market cap of 4.4B. Though granted EA was in much better shape 5 years ago.
In the end I think it boiled down to this. When you get to be a corporation of EA's size the belief is you either grow or die. Yes EA makes the majority of their money is sports games, but does that mean they shouldn't branch out? No of course not. 5 years ago BioWare must have looked very attractive. They had critical success, they had a loyal fanbase and a strong brand name, they were growing their sales numbers, and they had just gotten the rights to develop a new Star Wars MMO.
In EA's mind they probably figured with EA's marketing combined with multiplayer, microtransactions, and dlc (all things the suits are convinced lead to success) they could increase both sales and profits. Combined with shorter developments cycles that leads to faster return on investment. Return on investment is really the only thing EA cares about. The problem is these things lead to declining quality and talent over time. Thats what sucks for us the game developer fans but so long as EA makes any profit from the deal it will have been worth it in their minds.
First, I wasn't being an ass.
Second, you were being obtuse. You were ignorantly bashing the player score without even actually having played DA2. You waived off thoughtful criticism without even giving it a second of consideration.
You were more of an ass than I was
You're still being an ass. Since bringing it to your attention has no effect, bye.
You're still being an ass. Since bringing it to your attention has no effect, bye.
You know, he is right. What you did was as bad as Fox News claiming ME1 had pornographic content...without playing the game.
No, he's not.
What I said is not based on playing the game or not. Reading comprehension problems.
I made statements about my opinion of Bioware and about how I view metacritic versus user ratings generally. I did not say things based on playing the DA 2 game.
So, no, your cheap shot about Fox News - who from your statement *made statements about what's in the game* that were wrong not having played it... makes you Fox News.
No, he's not.
What I said is not based on playing the game or not. Reading comprehension problems.
I made statements about my opinion of Bioware and about how I view metacritic versus user ratings generally. I did not say things based on playing the DA 2 game.
So, no, your cheap shot about Fox News - who from your statement *made statements about what's in the game* that were wrong not having played it... makes you Fox News.
This is very true, I don't especially like RPG's and I enjoyed dragon age 2, while I quit DAO after just a few hours do to extreme boredom.
Personally, I think that is a huge problem. When a game is a direct sequel, it should be a close sibling of the prior release, not a distant cousin.
This doesn't apply to games that tell a different story in a different world (Final Fantasy series) or that retell the same story in a different way (Zelda series), but games that are maintaining world continuity (Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, etc...) need to maintain gameplay/style continuity.
What I said is not based on playing the game or not. Reading comprehension problems.
I think Bioware is a great dev and heard a lot of what players want in the next game.
One must also consider, however, that DAO took five times longer to make than DA2. In a development world where time equals money, that means DAO had to sell five times as many copies in order to be profitable. If it makes it easier to understand, take whatever sales numbers you believe DA2 had and multiply that by five-- that's an indication of its profitability relative to DAO.
Because the option was there as a reaction to your choice to defile the Urn of Sacred Ashes... not as a "you will never have to deal with this character again". We're not saying what happened in that chamber never occurred... in fact, we're not saying anything yet, with regards to Leliana. You're free to make all the assumptions you like, of course, but if what you're insisting on is "I think Xis dead so I should never see them again no matter what"... well, prepare to be disappointed.
I kind of think the point was, when they decided to do DA2 (or somewhere along the way) it was determined not to do an RPG anything, but to make it as platformee as possible. Fewer resources, less customization and overall more cartoony a feel. that definitely made it (a) more console portable and (b) significantly more open to 'Casual gaming'.
That does seem to be what happened. My point is, they shouldn't have done that and still called it DA2. I believe that it is deceitful to customers to use the same world and a continuation of the story from a prior game but to change the gameplay and style (and arguably the genre) of the game.
That does seem to be what happened. My point is, they shouldn't have done that and still called it DA2. I believe that it is deceitful to customers to use the same world and a continuation of the story from a prior game but to change the gameplay and style (and arguably the genre) of the game.
DA2 wasn't total shit. It was certainly more of an action-rpg like mass effect. It did have a crappy ending. It did gratuitously reuse areas and was plainly rushed. But it was playable and had a reasonably fun and challenging system with some cool characters.
On the other hand, I think DA:O was way overrated. The combat was extremely easy and way to repetitive. The main plot was a really lame "evil monster with no intelligence or character wants to destroy the world for no reason". The sub-quests were all simple fetch-this-oh-wait-you-need-to-fix-this-situation types with only a few exceptions. There was no itemization or customization or way of making your characters truly feel powerful. It was just mediocre overall IMO. Compare to the previous major RPG - NWN2 + MOTB, which was of Planescape:Torment quality IMO (not surprising, since it was made by Obsidian).
^ and that is the "sad" part.DA2 is a great success:
One must also consider, however, that DAO took five times longer to make than DA2. In a development world where time equals money, that means DAO had to sell five times as many copies in order to be profitable. If it makes it easier to understand, take whatever sales numbers you believe DA2 had and multiply that by five-- that's an indication of its profitability relative to DAO.
NWN 2 was medicore at best. Yes its expansion MOTB was excellent but the core game was very average.
Comparing that to Planescape: Torment......no. Just.....no.