Bioware General (Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Other)

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0CxFUSuLsE

[TheodoricFriede]

Well. Unless the Metacritic score rises by a full eleven points...

Anthem is the worst reviewing Bioware game ever.

It has a lower review aggregate of scores than Sonic Dark Brotherhood. The Nintendo DS Sonic RPG that was made by a hastily put together EA dev team that had the Bioware name slapped on it.

[magnuskn]

Well, it isn't as if we didn't predict that this would probably be a disaster. So, I guess hats off to us as a collective. ^^

[Alienmorph]

I will go on record one last time to say that while I did expect this, I really hoped to be wrong and to find out that BW can still make good games.

But I also knew that the company is now pretty much a shadow of its former self, and that most good devs and writers fled from it in the years between the ME3 and ME:A debacles, so I have already kinda mourned the loss of the original BW a long time ago.

Really, if the studio is simply shut down now in the wake on Anthem's failure, it's more of a mercy kill.

Hats off for all the hard working devs and artists that actually busted their asses to make the latest 2-3 BW games while writers and producers took all the credit tho. Thei're the ones who deserve the least amount of backlash, if any at all, and instead are the ones who will be out of a job first. That is never going to be a good or fair thing.

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOWs6XErLvI

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8T_pzqc9Cg

[magnuskn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v69gyj6bL7E


Kinda feeling like this by now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcZzlPGnKdU

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72inqu3Q_tg

[DarkStorm]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AJsKyh0x7w

[Vol]

Having played it for 2 days, hit about level 18, I'd give it a solid 6.5/10 for the moment, with a 5 being any standard AAA game. There's potential in here, a lot of stupid shit, but that's just Bioware's signature these days. They held back on the political messaging, actually, other than the implausibility of every race of Earth humans also existing on this fantasy planet with a totally integrated population, but hey. Only one even hint of a dyke! But the writing is too damn quirky and self-aware, can't stand that style, but there's a few characters I like. Have grown to like. Have grown to dislike. So they have some talent still. Though their dedication to "realistic" faces and bodies just looks crappy, it's a visual drag on an otherwise pleasant setting to look at ugly, dumpy chicks and guys with common features. I need some damn _heroes_ and _vixens_.

Glitchy, but not terrible for a new release. Needs some patches to speed up loads and _the GUI_ in menus, which also needs an overhaul. Takes way too long to find information, uses that damn console friendly menu of menus system.

The free currency for the paid DLC isn't hard to accumulate, I've doubled what I was given (40k) in 2 days, so I can buy nearly everything that's available this week. If you grind, I imagine it's almost too easy to earn the free stuff.

Story's alright, it works, but it needs a lot of work. Shit just doesn't make sense, often.

► Show Spoiler

There's no indoor farming in this world of humans living in walled cities and being protected by people in flying robot suits, only radio, no visual transmissions, so everyone has to go outside and deal with horrible monsters and cataclysms to farm. Until one random girl on a side-quest says she thought of it. So _indoor farming_ is invented many, many years after flying robot suits.

If you're on the fence, give a month or two and see how it looks then.

[magnuskn]

I imagine I'll give it a go after a few months, when it is on sale. I tried Warframe for a few days now, and I've uninstalled it because suddenly the game was asking you to pay real money for inventory space (after I got about five or six weapons and a second warframe) and because I've looked at some of the videos from endgame players and it seems like people are just parcour-ing through the levels later, which is a bit too fast for me and it seems a bit too grindey with a quite limited set of mission types. Anthem might be a bit more for me, with ME:A style combat (Shields/Armor/Health and detonation combos).

But until they've ironed out the bugs and the game is on sale, no thanks. I'll try out Star Trek Online for something completely different for now. ^^

[TTTX]

I imagine I'll give it a go after a few months, when it is on sale. I tried Warframe for a few days now, and I've uninstalled it because suddenly the game was asking you to pay real money for inventory space (after I got about five or six weapons and a second warframe) and because I've looked at some of the videos from endgame players and it seems like people are just parcour-ing through the levels later, which is a bit too fast for me and it seems a bit too grindey with a quite limited set of mission types. Anthem might be a bit more for me, with ME:A style combat (Shields/Armor/Health and detonation combos).

But until they've ironed out the bugs and the game is on sale, no thanks. I'll try out Star Trek Online for something completely different for now. ^^

You can expand warframe inventory without paying a single dime, by increasing your master Rank, sometimes you even get as daily bonus (it's very rare, but it happens) or you can sell some prime parts on the market on the bazaar near mars for Platinum.

[magnuskn]

Yeah, I know that, but it was kind of a slap in the face to find out that suddenly I couldn't get new weapons anymore (after getting about four) without real money. I'm sure I'll get back to the game one day, but for now I'm looking for something else, since I already was getting tired of grinding misssions to level up weapons.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYsioV2r51w

[NCLanceman]

If you're like me, you probably wondered where all the sweet Bioware talent and setting building chops went. Here you go!

Former BioWare Writers Release 'Dungeons & Dragons' Campaign Setting

A group of former BioWare writers have released a new campaign setting for use in Dungeons & Dragons.

James Ohlen, the lead designer of Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age: Origins, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, announced that he and several other former BioWare writers were leaving BioWare to found a new publishing company called Arcanum Worlds that would focus on creating third party content for Dungeons & Dragons. Earlier this week, Arcanum Worlds released their first publication, a Player's Guide for their upcoming Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign.

Odyssey of the Dragonlords is set in the new world of Thylea, which is heavily inspired by Greek myths and legends. A land of peninsulas, mountains, and islands, the wildernesses of Thylea are filled with centaurs, Cyclopes, and other monsters while the "civilized races" of elves, dwarves, humans, halflings, and gnomes mostly live in three small kingdoms that have survived countless sieges and attacks over hundreds of years.

The Player's Guide provides a brief outline about the history of Thylea and a prophesied apocalypse that is destined to destroy all mortal races who live there. Most of Thylea's history surrounds the tension between two ancient gods and the Dragonlords, a group of mighty warriors that protected the fledgling civilizations of Thylea. The Dragonlords and their bronze mounts were wiped out during a great war with the gods, but not before they brokered a great peace that lasted five hundred years. Odyssey of the Dragonlords is set at the expiration of this peace treaty, with players assuming the role of heroes trying to stop a great coming destruction.
0comments

Odyssey of the Dragonlords will also provide players with two new playable races (a variant version of centaurs and a new satyr race) along with several epic paths that serve as the equivalent to the destined quests completed by ancient Greek heroes. Not only do these epic paths provide both backgrounds and goals for characters, they also grant a divine favor that players obtain once these goals are completed.

The Player's Guide for Odyssey of the Dragonlords is available to download for free on the DriveThruRPG site. The Odyssey of the Dragonlords campaign is expected to be release in May 2019.

And just who might Arcanum Worlds be?

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZSjqFAWV5I

[Vol]

The Whedon-esque writing does not stop. At best, it's charming and fun. More often, it's something a tryhard guy who's nervous in social settings would bust out. That said, the main plot is getting more interesting. I'm level 25, with a cap of 30, and I can feel the endgame coming, but can see where they'll add more story. Which it'll need, as I can see myself having fully cleared all content on all difficulties within a week at this pace.

There's all these interesting lore bits I'd like to get into, but NPCs instead seem to either be plot relevant or psychological cases where you talk them through their emotional issues. There's a rather feminine feel to what the PC does. The last NPC I talked to, her entire conversation was about how her mother texted her with a request she stop being a scientist-explorer and instead become a teacher. She doesn't know how to talk down her mom, so she wanted my advice, then resolved to drink several pots of tea and text her back that night. As a male PC, I was performing faghag duties.

It's frustrating because there are some well written characters that use the same dialogue framework, so I can see how they could have executed the banal ones better. But at least there _is_ good.

Item rarity seems more tied to level than scarcity, as I've steadily moved from greys to greens to blues to some purples. At cap, I should be getting Masterwork gear, and then occasional Legendary. I do not see how they'll tune this for the additional content they have planned, unless everything will be Legendary after 30, or, they do a gear reset ala MMO expansions.

[magnuskn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYiPsntG3qk

I kinda feel like:

[Alienmorph]

I kinda feel like:

I agree, but I also think it's important make sure the consumers are heard when it comes to these big budget titles that are hyped up the ass for months or even years before release.

Especially with "proper" gaming journalism being pretty much worthless these days.

[magnuskn]

Actually, the old-school gaming sites are beating up on the title as well, hence the low score on Metacritic. And I don't disagree at all from all I've heard, it's just such a deluge of negativity that it took even me by surprise and is getting a bit much.

[Alienmorph]

Mine was more a general assessment. The kind of mentality that is causing this gigantic backlash Anthem has gotten didn't came out of nowhere, and is far from unjustified.

I will say that I still believe Anthem isn't as much of a failure as, say, Destiny 2 or Fallout 76... it's just that the whole "games as service" crap didn't catch on, and yet we keep see more blatant and sadder attempts to shove it downour throat. People are just tired of it. Which is pretty damn impressive in on itself given the kind of shit people playing only AAA stuff have been willing to fool themselves to endure in the past.

[TTTX]

Mine was more a general assessment. The kind of mentality that is causing this gigantic backlash Anthem has gotten didn't came out of nowhere, and is far from unjustified.

I will say that I still believe Anthem isn't as much of a failure as, say, Destiny 2 or Fallout 76... it's just that the whole "games as service" crap didn't catch on, and yet we keep see more blatant and sadder attempts to shove it downour throat. People are just tired of it. Which is pretty damn impressive in on itself given the kind of shit people playing only AAA stuff have been willing to fool themselves to endure in the past.

Anthem much like ME:A doesn't feel like it has been worked on for so many years as they say, I bet they had to redo everything like 2 years ago and this is the result.

[Alienmorph]

Anthem much like ME:A doesn't feel like it has been worked on for so many years as they say, I bet they had to redo everything like 2 years ago and this is the result.

Yes, I'm willing to bet that if indeed they started working on itright after ME3 was done, at the very least they hit the hard reset button once, when EA mandatated that all their games are made in the Frostbyte Engine. And probably not even just that once.

[Raga]

The thing is that dogpiling Bioware has now got so popular that I think even if they released a game that was, say, ME3 sans ending level of quality, it would be mercilessly lambasted. They basically have to make something that is close to the best game ever to pull themselves back up. People will simply not tolerate anything they make even it makes it to "pretty good but not amazing" status.

Admission that I haven't played Anthem and it does genuinely appear to have a lot of problems. But I definitely think Andromeda ended up with a score that was a solid 10 points lower than it really deserved because of the dogpiling. There are worse Bioware games than Andromeda.

[Raga]

D&D campaign setting

I've been wanting another isometric D&D RPG for years, but Wizards doesn't have game publishing money and any outfit that is going to both develop a game *and* pay for publishing would probably demand access to the D&D rights that Wizards simply won't give up. So impasse.

[magnuskn]

Yeah, disagree on Andromeda, sorry. The game had a boring story with a lot of bad characters (and some okay to good ones), a horribly useless antagonist and then, to fill up all the open space, a deluge of typical open world bitch quests. While the combat was more zippy than the somewhat clunky ME2/3 combat, the gunplay was mediocre as well. I never found a single weapon which felt as good as a Harrier or even Mattock from ME3 or as many of the other guns from those two games. Using powers for combos was the only really fun thing to do.

And that isn't even mentioning the facial animation stuff and all the bugs.

[TTTX]

Yeah, disagree on Andromeda, sorry. The game had a boring story with a lot of bad characters (and some okay to good ones), a horribly useless antagonist and then, to fill up all the open space, a deluge of typical open world bitch quests. While the combat was more zippy than the somewhat clunky ME2/3 combat, the gunplay was mediocre as well. I never found a single weapon which felt as good as a Harrier or even Mattock from ME3 or as many of the other guns from those two games. Using powers for combos was the only really fun thing to do.

And that isn't even mentioning the facial animation stuff and all the bugs.

A lot of that stuff can be thrown at Anthem, although Anthem have less visuals on their weapons to tell them apparat then ME:A.

Yeah well most of that stuff is fixed now in ME:A now, it's serviceble, at times fun , but a forgettable experience.
It's pretty much what Anthem is right now, although it does have one leg up on ME:A, since it's a live service it might have a better of becoming better, but it depends on EA shutting down BW or not or putting a stop to Anthem because they didn't make enough or something like that.

[NCLanceman]

D&D campaign setting

I've been wanting another isometric D&D RPG for years, but Wizards doesn't have game publishing money and any outfit that is going to both develop a game *and* pay for publishing would probably demand access to the D&D rights that Wizards simply won't give up. So impasse.

Huh? None of those games ever got published by Wizards. They got licenced by them to make Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and so on. It's not like Interplay or Bioware ever had "the rights to D&D" at any point.

Besides which, those old Bioware writers aren't making a video game here. They're making a pen and paper tabletop setting. Which I'd actually be down for.

[Raga]

Huh? None of those games ever got published by Wizards. They got licenced by them to make Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, and so on. It's not like Interplay or Bioware ever had "the rights to D&D" at any point.

Yea, but a lot has changed. 1) No company like EA is going to be content to license something that isn't an enormous franchise (Star Wars or its ilk). They want to control what they do with it, especially if they are the ones funding the production.

2) It takes a lot more money to make a game than it used to and for smaller isometric niche stuff the companies that have the name recognition to get crowdfunding and such mostly seem to want to work on their own IPs.

That mostly leaves aspirational type no-name or indie developers who don't have the money, and neither does Wizards. I've also read various places that Wizards seems to make stiff demands that turn devs off, but that could just be rumors.

Besides which, those old Bioware writers aren't making a video game here. They're making a pen and paper tabletop setting. Which I'd actually be down for.

I know. I'm just waxing nostalgic about when Bioware *was* making actual D&D games.

[magnuskn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zUZvd9CBkx8

[Raga]

Yeah, disagree on Andromeda, sorry. The game had a boring story with a lot of bad characters (and some okay to good ones), a horribly useless antagonist and then, to fill up all the open space, a deluge of typical open world bitch quests. While the combat was more zippy than the somewhat clunky ME2/3 combat, the gunplay was mediocre as well. I never found a single weapon which felt as good as a Harrier or even Mattock from ME3 or as many of the other guns from those two games. Using powers for combos was the only really fun thing to do.

And that isn't even mentioning the facial animation stuff and all the bugs.

Sure, but my point is that all of these criticisms can be thrown at various other Bioware games. ME1's combat system is ass. The squad members are all shallow with basically no character development.

DAO had craptacular graphics, even at the time. Something like 1/3 of the side missions are "go fetch 10 moose dicks" level of depth.

DA2 has a host of issues that have been gone over in depth and there's no real reason to repeat.

DAI had much worse grinding and fetch type quests.

Bioware has literally never had animations that rose above the "adequate" category. They've also always been plagued with visual bugs. To this day I can't build a ME2 femshep whose left eye doesn't continuously clip and flicker. Guns/equipment clipping in cutscenes is just like standard in all of their games. ME1 had terrible texture pop-in.

There is literally no Bioware game with a compelling bad guy. Some succeed in being suitably comic book evil (Darth Malak, Meredith, Corepheus). The only one with anything even approximating depth is Loghaine. Saren people claim has depth but he really doesn't. Like, can you explain his personality? His development cycle? He is nothing but a cool character design with a somewhat atypical explanation for being evil.

There's literally nothing that Andromeda did wrong that other Bioware games in the past haven't done wrong. And even if you get into some ostensible "well, it's the first that does *all* of these things wrong" you only get there by including really subjective stuff like "quality of squadmates & bad guys." From a purely technical/gameplay point of view, there have absolutely been worse Bioware games.

The main problem Andremeda has so far is I can see is that it fails to have anything about it that's memorable. Even the worst Bioware games of the past had memorable stuff. Like DA2 had an extremely memorable cast and plot that people still argue about today. ME1 had excellent worldbuilding and an innovative conversation system that set it apart from the pack.

Andromeda was just "fine" at every level. Literally nothing goes above the "fine" level. Squadmates? Fine. Environment? Fine. Protag? Fine. Combat? Fine. Writing? Fine. So there's nothing to make up for the truly clunky stuff. (That and I chalk a solid 40% of the overall reaction to Andromeda to be "I resent that this game exists and doesn't fix the ME3 ending.")

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNPcp_ChhLA

[magnuskn]

Sure, but my point is that all of these criticisms can be thrown at various other Bioware games. ME1's combat system is ass. The squad members are all shallow with basically no character development.

Since we are on a linear progression of time, one has to take into account that progress happens forward, not backward. Yes, the NPC's in ME1 were a bit shallow. But all of them were sympathetic and we had stand-outs from the start, namely Tali, Garrus and Wrex. Even Kaidan and Ashley were bearable in their mediocrity. ME:A's had one actively annoying NPC (Liam), two retreats (Wrex2 and FemaleGarrus) and one unexpected stand-out (Peebee). And one more boring human whose name escapes me. That's actually a downgrade from ME1, something we've already seen since DA2.

DAO had craptacular graphics, even at the time. Something like 1/3 of the side missions are "go fetch 10 moose dicks" level of depth.

Yeah, no. DA:O's graphics may have not been the cutting edge, but for their time they were totally fine and in many places outright very good. I don't remember the side missions, which tells me that they were not the drawn out bullshit we got since DA:I.

DA2 has a host of issues that have been gone over in depth and there's no real reason to repeat.

And it's the game where BioWare noticeably started to decline in the QA and storytelling.

DAI had much worse grinding and fetch type quests.

Actually the quality of bitch quests is totally comparable between ME:A and DA:I. They both suck. The only advantage ME:A is faster map traversal, but then again much, much worse terrain to get through (especially mountains).

Bioware has literally never had animations that rose above the "adequate" category. They've also always been plagued with visual bugs. To this day I can't build a ME2 femshep whose left eye doesn't continuously clip and flicker. Guns/equipment clipping in cutscenes is just like standard in all of their games. ME1 had terrible texture pop-in.

Never had a problem with texture pop-in in ME1. However, there are still bugs in ME2 and ME3 which were never properly addressed, so yeah. But they didn't nearly rise to the level ME:A had at its launch. And animations most definitely were better and faces more realistic in ME2 and ME3.

There is literally no Bioware game with a compelling bad guy. Some succeed in being suitably comic book evil (Darth Malak, Meredith, Corepheus). The only one with anything even approximating depth is Loghaine. Saren people claim has depth but he really doesn't. Like, can you explain his personality? His development cycle? He is nothing but a cool character design with a somewhat atypical explanation for being evil.

Saren was pretty damn good. He is explained throughout the game by Anderson and in little bits by various characters, so not sure why you missed that. He is disdainful of humanity because of the First Contact War and is in general an arrogant asshole. He thinks that if sentients submit to the Reapers and make themselves useful, they can survive the coming holocaust. He is wrong in that, in much part because he already has been indoctrinated, but he has a clear philosophy of "the means justify the ends", which is about as much as we get from many other compelling villains in fiction. BTW, you might want to read up what "literally" means, because unless you didn't even find Loghain compelling (contrary to what you just said), then you are using the word the wrong way.

There's literally nothing that Andromeda did wrong that other Bioware games in the past haven't done wrong. And even if you get into some ostensible "well, it's the first that does *all* of these things wrong" you only get there by including really subjective stuff like "quality of squadmates & bad guys." From a purely technical/gameplay point of view, there have absolutely been worse Bioware games.

But it does do all of the things wrong at the same time. It has one compelling squadmate, bad animations, a shallow storyline, a bad villain, boring NPC's and a ton of tedious bitch quests. The only thing it does well is combat and even there you can find problems. I'm sorry if that somehow is not a problem for you, but it was for me and much of the gaming community.

The main problem Andremeda has so far is I can see is that it fails to have anything about it that's memorable. Even the worst Bioware games of the past had memorable stuff. Like DA2 had an extremely memorable cast and plot that people still argue about today. ME1 had excellent worldbuilding and an innovative conversation system that set it apart from the pack.

Andromeda was just "fine" at every level. Literally nothing goes above the "fine" level. Squadmates? Fine. Environment? Fine. Protag? Fine. Combat? Fine. Writing? Fine. So there's nothing to make up for the truly clunky stuff. (That and I chalk a solid 40% of the overall reaction to Andromeda to be "I resent that this game exists and doesn't fix the ME3 ending.")

Yeah, only that it wasn't "fine" at every level. It was mostly bad to mediocre at almost every level, with the exception of combat, where it was pretty good (with some reservations).

[Alienmorph]

Out of curiousity I've watched a video with the final bossfight from Anthem.

Good Lord, I haven't cringed so much in a few years.

Yeah... no. Gameplay-wise I still don't think it looks like the worst game ever, but if that's the level of quality of dialogues and story going forward... no. Just no.

[Vol]

Playing together with Lance on the free trial, the loading times make the squad aspect a bit clunky, also the quality of the voice chat is horrendous. Often I was only hearing half his sentences, so we used Steam voice chat instead, which worked fine. But! It was fun to help a lowbie out with my 300+ epic gear, dropping the armored nerds in one combo, zipping around on my Interceptor beating the shit out of everything without a scratch. Then capped it with a stronghold run, which we agreed was the best content. Though we split on opinions on Princess Zhim, who I saw as yet another attempt at "Queen bitch of the underworld who does cruel things for the luls, now take her seriously!" But she was also the first woman in the game with an attractive face, so, you know.

Getting into the end game on my end, almost fully geared in epics, means Masterwork gear starts soon, and that's where you get the real crazy effects, as I understand it.

[Raga]

"BTW, you might want to read up what "literally" means, because unless you didn't even find Loghain compelling (contrary to what you just said), then you are using the word the wrong way."

Dude, grammar policing is just juvenile. Every human who hasn't been living under a rock for the last fifty years knows that this is used as a generic intensifier. So are basically and essentially and a ton of other unnecessary adverbs. We are arguing about video games. I'm not trying to win an essay competition.

I'll respond to the rest of this at some point tomorrow but that was just silly.

[NCLanceman]

Right! That stuff!

The game world is fantastic. It's the first really unique take on a science fantasy setting I've seen since Star Wars. There's the hardscrabble world full of vicious dangers and foul creatures, the civilized people in the walls of their cosmopolitan cities reminecent of caravanserai along the old Silk Road, anywhere from Constantinople to the heart of the Orient. Freelancers, the knights in powered armor, are not only the brave heroes protecting the weak, but also vainglorious warriors seeking to challenge each other and show off their strength like anyone from L'Morte de Arthur. The big disagreement I have with Vol about Princess Zhim is that in this setting, I can actually see her and the Regulators fitting in without being absurd tryhards, because they're any band of pirates and scoundrels plying the trade routes between the Fort-Cities just like any number of groups Conan the Barbarian would've fought, or even led.

Off Topic

For reference, I find Aria hard to take seriously in part because of where she is. I can see her being the pirate queen of Omega, sure why not. I can't see her being as absurdly powerful as she turns out to be thanks to Mac Walter's writing because Omega is on the exact opposite side of the galaxy from the most interesting trade lanes, thus raising the question of how she got that powerful. It's like being the guy in charge of Mogadishu. Back in the days of the Silk Road, that was an important port in trade from India to the Mediterranean. But it's bypassed these days thanks to the Suez Canal, so it's easier to just load your stuff up in Peshawar and sail it straight to Istanbul, or sail around Cape Town, South Africa.

But Mac Walters writes cheesy comic book stuff, so that's the level of enjoyable Aria hits. Sometimes.

The environments, the codex, the architecture, the costume design, the creatures, the I love this world.

The character writing fucking destroys it, though.

Everything's quirky or ironic. I don't know what to take seriously. I don't know who actually cares about the fate of the world we're going for. The details seem important, but very few people (Spy Lady, Old Freelancer Storyteller, Reasonable Black Lady You See In The Trailers) seem to take any of this with the gravitas necessary for a save-the-world adventure.

The gameplay is a lot of fun though, but that's what's weird. It's a Bioware game where the gameplay is more fun than the story and characters. It's backwards.

They could fix this, I'm sure. Menus and netcode aside, there aren't many technical issues in this game. And it was interesting watching Vol play Warframe in his Intercepter suit while I played Starship Troopers in my Colossus. So all told, I'd give it a couple months to see if it's worth pulling the trigger in a big way or not.

If they made a PnP setting book or the artbook, I'd buy it in a heartbeat and put it on my desk right next to my Art Of Mass Effect and Watch_Dogs books, though.

[magnuskn]

"BTW, you might want to read up what "literally" means, because unless you didn't even find Loghain compelling (contrary to what you just said), then you are using the word the wrong way."

Dude, grammar policing is just juvenile. Every human who hasn't been living under a rock for the last fifty years knows that this is used as a generic intensifier. So are basically and essentially and a ton of other unnecessary adverbs. We are arguing about video games. I'm not trying to win an essay competition.

I'll respond to the rest of this at some point tomorrow but that was just silly.

Actually, no, I don't see this being used as a "generic intensifier" by the vast majority of other people. You are using the word completely wrong if you think that is how it is to be used. And that isn't "grammar policing" (which would be critiqueing your sentence structure), but just notifying you that you are using a word the entirely wrong way and apparently not out of simple error but because you misunderstand its meaning.

[Mazder]

"BTW, you might want to read up what "literally" means, because unless you didn't even find Loghain compelling (contrary to what you just said), then you are using the word the wrong way."

Dude, grammar policing is just juvenile. Every human who hasn't been living under a rock for the last fifty years knows that this is used as a generic intensifier. So are basically and essentially and a ton of other unnecessary adverbs. We are arguing about video games. I'm not trying to win an essay competition.

I'll respond to the rest of this at some point tomorrow but that was just silly.

Actually, no, I don't see this being used as a "generic intensifier" by the vast majority of other people.

Then you've been living under a fucking rock mate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsaaMvxOXHo

I literally find it more outlandish that you've not heard literally being used in such a manner than some people actually liking Anthem.

I know. I'm just waxing nostalgic about when Bioware *was* making actual D&D games.

In my opinion if you put DnD into a videogame you stop making something that's DnD.
I mean the "rolling" mechanic is just so annoying for a video game where I have/should had more direct interaction that it's just annoying IMO.
Plus the whole thing that makes DnD fun is the sharing the times when it goes bad with friends, hoping they can pull your ass out of the fire or get swallowed up themselves.
I can't do that with NPC's. As fun as they are they are not real people.

And yes I am biased as I don't really play isometric RPG's (mainly as I hate relying on RNGsus).

It even worse if you mix DnD systems to live actions. It's why I can't go back to Morrowind.

TBH I picked up Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on Steam just to give Bioware the revenue for potentially making more Mass Effect stuff, lol.

[magnuskn]

Then you've been living under a fucking rock mate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsaaMvxOXHo

I literally find it more outlandish that you've not heard literally being used in such a manner than some people actually liking Anthem.

I'll quote myself here and maybe you'll notice my qualifier this time, if I make it extra big.

Actually, no, I don't see this being used as a "generic intensifier" by the vast majority of other people.

[magnuskn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3USYN8kHkG0

[TheodoricFriede]

Actually, no, I don't see this being used as a "generic intensifier" by the vast majority of other people.

Here, I'll use it in a sentence correctly, just to help everyone out.

literally.png

"Magnuskn is literally wrong."

Literally everyone thinks that using 'literally' as an intensifier is literally incorrect. But according to Miriam Webster, it literally is not.

[magnuskn]

Actually, no, I don't see this being used as a "generic intensifier" by the vast majority of other people.

Here, I'll use it in a sentence correctly, just to help everyone out.

literally.png

"Magnuskn is literally wrong."

Literally everyone thinks that using 'literally' as an intensifier is literally incorrect. But according to Miriam Webster, it literally is not.

Only that very few people (at least in the circles I read, which is mostly political, not entertainment) are using the word willy-nilly like that. Oh, well. If you all want to continue to sound like you are hyping up your opinion to be "literally true", when it is not, be my guest.

Also, note, if Raga used the word in the second way mentioned in that dictionary, then he used it to deceive and misinform. So, not sure why that would be good.

[TheodoricFriede]

your opinion

Oh, dear boy. Its not my opinion. It's the opinion of the dictionary.

Consider yourself both literally, and literally, schooled.

[magnuskn]

your opinion

Oh, dear boy. Its not my opinion. It's the opinion of the dictionary.

Consider yourself both literally, and literally, schooled.

I wasn't talking about the article from the dictionary in reference to what was an opinion, but about what Raga was saying posts above. So, please improve your reading comprehension, it seems lacking today.

[TheodoricFriede]

Alright man. Whatever makes you feel like God.

[magnuskn]

Alright man. Whatever makes you feel like God.

Dude, I wasn't the one bringing out the "you got schooled" taunt. So, maybe stop projecting? Also, we really are getting off-topic by this point, so let's both let it lie, Raga will surely get back to me about this later, anyway.

Although at this point I am not sure if him and me can get any decent discussion done on the topic of ME:A, since both of our arguments are opinion based, of which everyone got his own, just like assholes.

[Mazder]

>The entire English Speaking world
>Not the majority of other people in regards to a phrase/word used in English.

Ha, good one.

Look, clearly you're just more rigid with the language and just didn't pick up on something. The Italian, Texan, (whichever State Theo identifies with, sorry I don't know if you identify with Texas as Raga does...) and an Englishman, all with different areas of potential slang and phrases all got the "literally" being used as emphasis as in the example video I showed.

Only that very few people (at least in the circles I read, which is mostly political, not entertainment) are using the word willy-nilly like that. Oh, well. If you all want to continue to sound like you are hyping up your opinion to be "literally true", when it is not, be my guest.

Also, note, if Raga used the word in the second way mentioned in that dictionary, then he used it to deceive and misinform. So, not sure why that would be good.

Maybe you should approach it like talking with people rather than a political speech then.
Outside of the politics thread for the most part we don't really give a shit if you're not adhering to literal syntax/grammar.

Oh who gives a crap?
This isn't the political thread. If people are "deceived or misinformed" then fuck 'em. It's not your responsibility to babysit anyone to make sure they know everything right, especially when it's an opinion based talk and we're really just shooting the shit anyway, get over it.

Also, she, not he.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C146vvTv5gU

[Raga]

In my opinion if you put DnD into a videogame you stop making something that's DnD.
I mean the "rolling" mechanic is just so annoying for a video game where I have/should had more direct interaction that it's just annoying IMO.
Plus the whole thing that makes DnD fun is the sharing the times when it goes bad with friends, hoping they can pull your ass out of the fire or get swallowed up themselves.
I can't do that with NPC's. As fun as they are they are not real people.

And yes I am biased as I don't really play isometric RPG's (mainly as I hate relying on RNGsus).

It even worse if you mix DnD systems to live actions. It's why I can't go back to Morrowind.

TBH I picked up Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on Steam just to give Bioware the revenue for potentially making more Mass Effect stuff, lol.

Actually, like 80% of my enjoyment of D&D is really just enjoyment of the D&D cosmology, specifically Planescape and the Forgotten Realms. They are just freaking fun universes to play in. Pretty much every fantasy game that isn't in the Forgotten Realms I spend most of my time thinking "Wow, just think how much more fun this would be in the Forgotten Realms."

And the rolling thing is fine in a game that is point and click. It's more like an isometric RTS in that sense. You are assuming more of the role of security camera/blueprint guy telling the SWAT team where to go over the radio than you are point guy for the SWAT team. When it's done well, this is my favorite type of combat.