It's not the same, but the most recent games aren't total disasters IMO. I liked the character story quests in SW: The Old Republic, for example -- Jedi Knight's storyline was enjoyable. (Plus the game is f2p.)
The Old Republic would be a fine game, if it wasn't an MMO.
And I don't mean multiplayer, that is fine. But the hotbar mashing combat, the grindy areas filled with standing mooks, all the padding and instancing... Bioware Austin did a great job changing it to be more KOTOR-like over the years, but at its core its a hotbar MMO.
On a seperate note, Andromeda was tragic, but I still liked it.
Anthem was... Just tragic. I am literally the target demographic (a ME3 coop fan) but was not the least bit interested.
Andromeda was very hard to like and deeply flawed on every level.
Anthem, despite interesting art direction, was impossible to like.
It's almost odd that Bioware still exists as a large studio (>300 employees) when it seems they've forgotten how to release a good game. Baldur's Gate -- which is 25 years old -- was released in 1998, and its sequel was released less than two years later, in 2000. All of the Mass Effect games were released in a 4.5 year period from late 2007 to early 2012.
...Now they're in a state where they haven't released a good game in over a decade. They're a zombie studio. If you ask me, EA, despite its reputation and the way they have botched the decision-making process at the studio (e.g. by forcing Bioware to use the Frostbite engine,) has shown admirable patience, tolerance, and forbearance.
> Andromeda was very hard to like and deeply flawed on every level.
The gameplay was my favorite in the series, maybe in any RPG. Thats a high bar, considering how much time I put into ME3 coop.
And... There were a few interesting side quests and lore bits.
But general character/writing quality really made me sad. I get the whole game was rushed, but it makes me worry about BioWare even more than Anthem. Character writing was their bread and butter, and Andromeda was supposed to be a character game, not a coop arcade like Anthem/Destiny.
If you set your teams up to fail by getting them to work on bad ideas that are not in their skillset, forcing technical choices on them that hamper them, controlling their inputs (budget) and outputs (marketing) and setting the deadlines to please shareholders without taking reality into account you can hardly be said to be patient, tolerant or forbearent.
Allowing teams to fail repeatedly is bad management. Someone at EA should be fired.
SWTOR (which, as another comment points out, came out in late 2011) might actually be their original total disaster. Lengthy development, tremendous cost for a clunky, below-average (give or take) MMO that could not attract subscribers. It's been downhill since about then.
Bullfrog’s big hits were very much RPG adjacent too. I think it’s fair to say Syndicate is something of a tactical RPG. Populous is more of a stretch, but if you squint…
And Origin did Ultima, which is practically the PC RPG archetype.
That is the entire history of gaming though, no? It's the same churn you are working with now but you're not making games or fun, you're making productivity tools or better graphics or whatever, and other people are using that for games.
It's just marking the end of an era. Maxis wasn't the same after Will Wright left, and the writing on the wall was how EA put him in a box with Spore. Rare wasn't the same after the brother founders left and sold it to Microsoft. Origin wasn't the same after Richard Garriot and Chris Roberts left.
Funny how the era started with pay to win (coin-op arcades where the games depend on you spending money on them and are completely unforgiving) and ended a generation or two later with pay to win (micro transactions, subscriptions, etc etc)
Well, in BioWare’s case it’s been reduced to a sticker that EA haphazardly slaps onto random games and random internal studios. The Bioware that most people think about was only based in Canada. Pretty sure that the DNA that made it great is mostly gone if not completely nonexistent at today’s EA. EA likely destroyed it during 2010-2011.
Also Kojima. Death Stranding may have been the most Kojima game he's ever made. Noteworthy that the three examples mentioned here now are Japanese, might also throw in PlatinumGames.
There is still a remarkable strong artistic vision in the games coming out of Japan. It seems weirdly immune to the ironically named gamification everywhere else.
I stopped reading when I got to the agile part, which these days has just become a buzzword for dis-empowering employees and to move even more power towards the company.
I couldn't start reading because disapproving to cookies let to "processing my request" for half a minute. Las time i checked, this was just a fake timeout by the coonie banner provider.
AAA development seems to be broken. With a few exceptions, mega publishers put a stupendous amount of manhours into delayed and ultimately mediocre games.
"AA" seems to be the sweetspot now. Big enough for economies of scale to kick in, small enough to take targeted risks and avoid scaling issues. And I think software advancements (especially gen AI) are going to make that discrepancy even more extreme, as AAAs lose the content volume edge they have over smaller studios.
it is broken because they are putting in too much money into single titles, and therefore, want to "reduce risk". This basically means following a known formula and IP, because previous success means they're likely to get at least brand recognition for the sequel.
But this means you get mediocre games as it rehashes the same property over and over again.
That's why indie games are so fantastic, because they love risk taking on new ideas.
They are all preordering the next AAA ultimate Edition with bonus cosmetics for $100 after spending the last year complaining about how terrible the previous title from 6 months ago is.
If I had a steady stream of customers willing to pay for garbage, I too would happily deliver.
There's maybe 3 fantastic indie games per year and millions of garbage ones. It's also full of clones of the popular games that aren't quite as good or downright terrible. The reason indie games seem to be better is the massive work other people have put in to actually find the good ones in a sea of crap, and most "indie" games that are popular are borderline mainstream production companies.
Yes, and yet that is a symptom of the problem, not a root cause. You'll find the same issue in big budget movies these days. Huge marketing budget, huge special effects budget, etc.
But the contents and script writing is terrible, or at best mediocre. The ultimate root cause is the fact that the money invested in a single movie is too high, and thus the studio/production company cannot have it fail. So they do everything in their power to make it succeed (financially), even if it goes against an artistic vision.
I thoroughly enjoy youtube channel Splattercatgaming who reviews indie games every day. Most of the time I am not interested and just skip through the video but occasionally there is a game with novel and interesting gameplay that I'd never stumble onto otherwise.
Yup, that's a direct result of replacing engineering talent with mediocre MBAs and focusing on making games for shareholders instead of players. Story as old as capitalism
> We are doing everything we can to ensure the process is handled with empathy, respect, and clear communication.
Zero mention of what these employees are getting in terms of severance. Passing mention that there are “other roles in other studios”. Spends the rest of the announcement talking about what it means for the games in development, doesn’t even mention the people involved again
Mentioned this in a sibling post, but bragging about how generous you are in a layoff announcement is pretty par for the course in these because it is good press for the company. See a bunch of examples here: https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/14/tech-industry-layoffs-2023...
Lack of said braggadacio indicates the severance offer was garbage
I don't see how not mentioning how much they are getting in severance has anything to do with what they mentioned. You may wish to know for curiosities sake but frankly it's none of your business.
It can be helpful to tell the employees left behind the severance structure. Knowing their cohorts are being well taken care of can help alleviate the bad vibes for those left behind. General public? Yeah I don't see any benefit to sharing that info.
It signals to the public how much you actually care or don’t about your employees by announcing it. Presumably if they didn’t have anything to say it is gonna be garbage, since the companies who are generous always shout it from the rooftops if it’s good because it’s great press. Click through a few of these to get an indicator: https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/14/tech-industry-layoffs-2023...
Are you kidding? The third title in their famous Baldur's Gate series just came out and everyone is talking about it. It's being called a triumph of PC gaming and a return to form.
Oh wait. They only made the first two. (The answer to your question is ME1)
Mass effect 2 was much more polished, even if it did lean more towards action than RPG. I personally didn't like Dragon Age inquisition, but it was widely acclaimed and was the company's most successful launch at the time.
You might also be thinking about Planescape Torment, which was developed by BlackIsle with licensed BioWare technology (the Baldur's Gate engine). As far as I'm aware, Planescape Torment is the closest BioWare has ever gotten to the creation of an excellent game.
BioWare developed the Infinity Engine, BG1 and BG2. Interplay was the publisher. Black Isle was an internal division of Interplay and box label. Black Isle developed Icewind Dale 1 & 2, and Planescape: Torment using the Infinity Engine.
No, I got the joke. I'm fully aware that Baldur's Gate 3 is not related to Bioware at all.
Also that Larian is basically eating Bioware's lunch right now because Bioware has dropped the ball on Dragon Age which would occupy a similar space to BG3
It's actually even funnier that Larian is doing it by using a franchise that Bioware built 20 years ago.
You should play Dragon Age: Origins. It's a lot tighter, way less filler. I look at these games with a million copy-paste quest markers and "points of interest" and just know there's little actual substance there.
Or you can play Baldur's Gate 3 like everyone else is now :) The DnD systems take a bit of getting used to. The game is an excellent story-telling experience, despite that ("despite" in my opinion).
I had a lot of fun with Inquisition, but the MMOish world design and the fact that so much core plot was hived off into Trespasser makes it hard to call the game truly excellent.
Provided you use mods and community patches, sure. I had to replay all of Nar Shaddaa, and kept getting the bug where it's skipping all the dialogue. (Also, I felt my ending was underwhelming.)
And I don't mean multiplayer, that is fine. But the hotbar mashing combat, the grindy areas filled with standing mooks, all the padding and instancing... Bioware Austin did a great job changing it to be more KOTOR-like over the years, but at its core its a hotbar MMO.
On a seperate note, Andromeda was tragic, but I still liked it.
Anthem was... Just tragic. I am literally the target demographic (a ME3 coop fan) but was not the least bit interested.
Anthem, despite interesting art direction, was impossible to like.
It's almost odd that Bioware still exists as a large studio (>300 employees) when it seems they've forgotten how to release a good game. Baldur's Gate -- which is 25 years old -- was released in 1998, and its sequel was released less than two years later, in 2000. All of the Mass Effect games were released in a 4.5 year period from late 2007 to early 2012.
...Now they're in a state where they haven't released a good game in over a decade. They're a zombie studio. If you ask me, EA, despite its reputation and the way they have botched the decision-making process at the studio (e.g. by forcing Bioware to use the Frostbite engine,) has shown admirable patience, tolerance, and forbearance.
The gameplay was my favorite in the series, maybe in any RPG. Thats a high bar, considering how much time I put into ME3 coop.
And... There were a few interesting side quests and lore bits.
But general character/writing quality really made me sad. I get the whole game was rushed, but it makes me worry about BioWare even more than Anthem. Character writing was their bread and butter, and Andromeda was supposed to be a character game, not a coop arcade like Anthem/Destiny.
Allowing teams to fail repeatedly is bad management. Someone at EA should be fired.
SWTORs problem was that they used their singleplayer game focused engine for an MMORPG.
(okay Westwood did the pretty great Nox, so maybe they are covered but still)
And Origin did Ultima, which is practically the PC RPG archetype.
To be brutally honest I've never played a single Ultima game in my life!
Good things deteriorate. If we are lucky, parts of them will dissolve and reincarnate.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus
Founded as 23 September 1889; 133 years ago
There is still a remarkable strong artistic vision in the games coming out of Japan. It seems weirdly immune to the ironically named gamification everywhere else.
Ultima Wing Commander Strike Commander
What a sad state the internet has reached.
Mass Effect on the Xbox 360 will always be one of my fondest gaming experiences of my life just like Halo and Horizon Zero Dawn on the PS4.
I am going to buy an Xbox Series S just for playing Starfield - hope they don't disappoint me like they did with Fallout 76.
"AA" seems to be the sweetspot now. Big enough for economies of scale to kick in, small enough to take targeted risks and avoid scaling issues. And I think software advancements (especially gen AI) are going to make that discrepancy even more extreme, as AAAs lose the content volume edge they have over smaller studios.
it is broken because they are putting in too much money into single titles, and therefore, want to "reduce risk". This basically means following a known formula and IP, because previous success means they're likely to get at least brand recognition for the sequel.
But this means you get mediocre games as it rehashes the same property over and over again.
That's why indie games are so fantastic, because they love risk taking on new ideas.
They are all preordering the next AAA ultimate Edition with bonus cosmetics for $100 after spending the last year complaining about how terrible the previous title from 6 months ago is.
If I had a steady stream of customers willing to pay for garbage, I too would happily deliver.
But the contents and script writing is terrible, or at best mediocre. The ultimate root cause is the fact that the money invested in a single movie is too high, and thus the studio/production company cannot have it fail. So they do everything in their power to make it succeed (financially), even if it goes against an artistic vision.
Zero mention of what these employees are getting in terms of severance. Passing mention that there are “other roles in other studios”. Spends the rest of the announcement talking about what it means for the games in development, doesn’t even mention the people involved again
Lack of said braggadacio indicates the severance offer was garbage
You are wrong.
-Signed, an employee who was laid off today
And yes we have a union for all knowledge workers with or without degrees
Oh wait. They only made the first two. (The answer to your question is ME1)
I thought they were just the publisher, Black Isle was the developer? Do I have that backwards?
Edit: I looked it up and I do have it backwards.
Also that Larian is basically eating Bioware's lunch right now because Bioware has dropped the ball on Dragon Age which would occupy a similar space to BG3
It's actually even funnier that Larian is doing it by using a franchise that Bioware built 20 years ago.
Or you can play Baldur's Gate 3 like everyone else is now :) The DnD systems take a bit of getting used to. The game is an excellent story-telling experience, despite that ("despite" in my opinion).
It’s too bad. With MSFT they wouldn’t have had to do this.
https://techcrunch.com/2023/08/14/tech-industry-layoffs-2023...
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/10/microsoft-confirms-more-job-...