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PaperclipPerfector  10mo ago (text post)   2086 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for November 1, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I’m playing Dragon Age and enjoying it. I don’t really disagree with the criticisms of the game from some reviewers. There is indeed a lot of peak millennial YA woke cringe dialogue…but the same was true of Baldur’s Gate 3 and both God of War reboot games, and many people enjoyed those; this doesn’t seem any worse.

I appreciate that this is an RPG with the filler removed, much needed after both Inquisition and Andromeda were ruined in large part by barren open zones that were unnecessarily created to try to attach the studio to some kind of perceived open world trend.

I quite like the new gameplay. Good RTwP will always be my preferred system, but Inquisition already ruined Dragon Age 2’s sublime and hugely underrated RTwP-action-hybrid combat, and this is definitely better than what we got in 2014.

People complain about facial animations, but they’re much less distracting than in Mass Effect Andromeda or Star Wars Outlaws / AC Valhalla (for non-facial-capture scenes, obviously). You can’t do much better than this without either hand-tuning facial animations like CDPR or capturing them directly like Larian, and it’s clear Bioware didn’t have the budget for that.

Choice and consequence is pretty good so far, better than some recent RPGs. I like the world and level design. The game has a nice, breezy pace. I will keep playing for now. I am more concerned about Obsidian’s Avowed, which looks like it might turn out like the Outer Worlds, which was passable but very dull.

I've watched some video reviews, and the dialogue doesn't seem great but it could be cherry picking. Still, from what I've seen there is nothing like Dragon Age 2's Friendship/Rivalry system which was something I was hoping for. In fact it doesn't seem like you can have disagreements with companions up to the point of them leaving the party/etc. Again I haven't played but it looks like the Dragon Age subreddit is turning on the game now that people have had time to play. Lack of continuity seems to be the biggest strike against it. Inquisition and Trespasser especially provided a pretty epic setup for this game and even with 10 years to deliver it doesn't seem like Bioware really managed it. I doubt I'll play this one (or at least wait for a very deep discount) in spite of really loving the rest of the series. I'm finishing up Wrath of the Righteous at the moment and a second playthrough sounds more appealing than Veilguard.

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