Word Of The Day
Dragon Age: Inquisition was released today. It is the third in Bioware's series, following Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age II. I wonder why no numerals?
I loved Bioware games. People look back at the Balder's Gate series and say that was the essence of the company with memorable characters, great dialogue and intriguing game play. For me, I played Neverwinter Nights first, and I loved it. I got the expansions. My wife would look over my shoulder as we played, and eventually she decided to create a character for herself. We played together in the game, and we played it several more times over the years. We bought Bioware games without questions or reading reviews, because we knew that they'd be great.
And then something changed. Electronic Arts bought them, and I've heard so much bad press from the company that won the The Consumerist Worst Company of the Year Award two years straight. I had hopes that Bioware would remain independent and able to continue the great work they put out following Star Wars-The Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire and Mass Effect.
And that's when things started to change. Nothing major at first. Dragon Age: Origins was good. But that's it. From any other company, it would have been excellent, but the high level of quality I'd expected from the company turned out a short game with lots of extra paid DLC. Dragon Age II (because someone in PR couldn't figure out a good subtitle) came out, and I couldn't be bothered following complaints of re-used dungeons and no big villain. Mass Effect 3 was released to the sounds of thousands of collective jaws hitting the floor at the variety of endings to the game, which ultimately came down to what colour explosion would it be from the mass effect relays themselves.
The crowd had spoken, and they were... well, angry. After going through Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, players revelled in the choices they could make, knowing those choices meant something. And in the end it meant a choice of orange, green and blue.
Fans took to making online videos to voice their criticisms. Bioware responded by putting out a free DLC pack which revised the ending so that there was some difference to the endings. Not as much as many had hoped, but at the very least, the endings sucked... less.
I guess I'll wait for the player reviews to come out for Dragon Age: Inquisition...