The Veilguard was the very shiny, very pretty nail in the coffin.

I really tried to enjoy myself. God, I tried so hard. I attempted to find nuggets of joy within its hamfisted dialogue, one-note companions and the flashy but soulless fights. But I just couldn’t do it. Every time there was a glimmer of hope, it was dashed against the rocks of infinite disappointment.

Honestly, I’m amazed I finished it. There was certainly a point where I was starting to feel like I’d rather do anything else than listen to a hot Grey Warden talk about his big dumb bird for the hundredth time, or play therapist to a giant dragon slayer who just wants to moan about how their mum doesn’t understand them. These should have been great characters. A veteran knight reclaiming his order’s lost legacy, a proud warrior wrestling with their cultural and gender identity—there’s so much good stuff to mine here. But nope, they’re just plain boring. All of them.

I’m beating a dead horse, I know. I’ve already said my piece. But it’s just a real shame. When I got to the final cutscene that teased what we can expect from the next Dragon Age, it really sealed the deal. I’m out. BioWare just isn’t telling stories I care about anymore. Instead of moping around, I’m moving on. BioWare had an exceptional run, but that developer is long gone. What’s left is just an EA studio that makes middling games I’m not really interested in.

  • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
    14·
    3 days ago

    I’ve been playing it and enjoying it. It could be better. Most games could. I had kind of low expectations, honestly. I’m glad it’s a single player game with no live-service and no season-pass. I’ll probably play it a second time. Runs kind of like crap, so I might play it again in the distant future where I have better hardware.

    I imagine a lot of internet duds are mad about how there’s a queer subplot, but they can go fuck themselves. Unfortunately, this creates a problem where if some random guy is bashing it I have to try to suss out if they’re really just mad about queer stuff. It’s hard to tell. And because we’re all just emotional idiots, some people might be mad about the queer stuff and not realize it, and the words that come out of their mouth will be “boring characters”.

    But also a lot of their games have problems. Mass Effect 3’s ending is so bad it has its own wikipedia page.

    • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
      10·
      3 days ago

      I think this is an important and distinctive point to be made, and I think it needs some background.

      Who else remembers when EA won The Consumerists “Worst Company in America” two years running?

      Well, I remember, but I also remember that EA actually placed the blame for winning Worst Company on something else entirely, and we have to be honest with ourselves and question whether this sentiment was real and we ignored it to our detriment.

      https://consumerist.com/2013/04/05/ea-admits-it-can-do-better-but-blames-worst-company-success-on-homophobes-and-whiny-madden-fans/index.html

      This is part of what EA CEO Peter Moore had to say when EA won “Worst Company” a second year in a row:

      In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games. This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America.

      I remember at the time thinking this was pure deflection. Now I’m not so sure.

      I mean, they won the awards in 2012 and 2013 and then Gamergate happened in 2014/2015. Seems pretty tied together, to me.