I'm doing my part. Unlike its older siblings Skyrim and Fallout 4, Starfield is no longer in the top 100 most played on Steam. It's soon dropping out of top 200 as well. Biggest waste of money I've ever spent.
This is a good quote & true in alot of scenarios. However, I would beg to differ. The arguable case in point: Revan. ;) He did not have to die as he went on to see himself become a hero again & even a better one at that.
You know what's funny? In inquisition I found myself fighting FOR Dorian and his rights to "enjoy the company of other men" as he put it, because the character was so charming, interesting, and his story/background was well written. I played Veilguard and I honestly wish I could just kill all my companions to make them shut the hell up. This game is literally doing the opposite of what they want to achieve.
Yes! I went back and found all the remarks I could online about Dorian, going back years. Everyone (including me) loved him! The only time his sexuality was mentioned was if someone had romanced him. Dorian was a great magician and a loyal friend and that was what was important about him. Varric happened to be a dwarf, but he was a giant of a man and that was what was important about him.
I was 17 when Mass effect hit stores. I remember being so exited to play it after being a huge fan of knights of the old republic. I saved up all my baby-sitting pocket money to buy it and loved every second of it. As a young gay girl it really did help a lot when I was younger. Now I am in my thirties and I hate what dares to stand where perfection once stood. Veilguard is not a Dragon age game. It’s a fever dream for the mentally ill. I can not put into words how deeply I loathe that game. Growing up I struggled, hating myself, wondering if I should have been a boy or not born at all. Now to see a game actively trying to tell me, ‘no, all that progress you made, all the effort you put in getting to know and being comfortable with yourself is wrong. You’re not a tomboy. You didn’t struggle with penis envy. You must trans! Or non-binary,' feels so reductive. The second I saw the cc I felt physically ill. The body proportions are practically alien! There is no option to have breasts. They are too far down. They are pecks with breast tissue stacked on top. As an art student I just… I could not get past it! There is weird shadows on the face that looks like six-o’clock shadow that you can’t get rid of. The legs are to short and thin and the models are so top heavy. It felt like I was learning to draw perspectives again. Just… so bad! I could not stand Taash. I hated that all my choices over three games meant nothing! I played a guy in one just to romance Morrigan. Where the hell was our son? I was with Isobel on my Hawke, yet no mention of that. I dated Sera on my Inquisitor. Where was she? Just… ugh, screw this game. And screw you Bioware. Sincerely, from an actual female, that has actual tits and does not need to shave, and yes, enjoys pretty girls! I hope your ip is sold off to the lowest bidder and dies, forgotten and unloved. Edit: Sorry for the rant.
It would be nice if Dragon Age was sold to Larian Studios or something. But I think Dragon Age is over. It's just so depressing. I'm also a gay woman and had issues with my gender identity years ago, also hated myself, wished I were a boy, then wished I was neither, etc. As an artist myself I agree with a lot of what you're saying. Tbh I feel like even back in Inquisition, the boobs were kind of down low- specifically Sera's. Anyway, it just fucking sucks that all the stories we went through in previous games were not honoured AT ALL. All the controversy inspired me to play DA:O again after over 10 years, and man.. I got sucked right into it. The writing is so damn good. The character interactions made them feel alive. The environment is gritty, dark, very dark fantasy. Bioware could never do that again. Not with those weirdos in charge that, while being a TINY minority group, clearly want to make self inserts in a game. Not saying that people can't make self inserts but for a franchise like DA, fans have expectations. They love the game for a reason and it's definitely not because DA pushes an agenda. DA:V will never be a Dragon Age game in my eyes -_-
Don't apologize, rant away. Bioware's goal is not inclusion. We may finally have amazing hair in the CC, but for the first time I can't make a character that represents me. Because.... the graphics and character design are so...wonky/bizarre. IMO its these choices that fulfilled the needs and desires of trans and non binary developers. Results... A game only it's designers can love..
Some of these talents have re-formed as Archetype Enternainment. And I hope that their newly developed 'Exodus' will be the true Mass Effect successor in spirit, rather than the organic garbage that BioWare is currently creating. What could possibly go wrong when the team of Veilguard is now working on that project, too? *cough*
No EA drove away writers becouse history was something they didn't see valuable, content hidden behind choice was wasted money. And so EA changed BioWare to match what they wanted for the gdr game of their dream, a fifa game, good graphic very basic story, and something they can dump year after year with low effort. Corporate killed bioware, old bioware was woke, it talked about those problems but integrated in the whole story, this bioware added them vecouse they were in a check list to assure maximum market and profit.
This has happened to nearly every development company in the industry. It's the managerial take over of the corporation removing founding members of the company in favor of diversity hiring quotas.
Bioware was already a ship in dead waters after Mass Effect 3. It has been a steep decline since then. Once EA buys you up. you are destined for the EA graveyard.
The game looks promising, but I can't deny I dislike the character design, specifically the faces, it's right there in uncanny valley to me, something is off.
As a tool of the Culturally Marxist Wizards of the Coast, this game is going to push their agenda as hard as veilguard. Hopefully it will be that ham-handed, because games like 'Baldur's Gate 3', are THE most dangerous cultural manipulation tools out there. BG3 is just as 'woke' as Veilguard, but because it's well-written and entertaining, most people either don't care, don't think it matters, or actively deny that propaganda exists. Yet that's how we _got_ here in the first place. Especially in Hollywood, they've been Culturally Marxist/Communist almost since their inception. Yet, they followed a profitable model of 'Entertainment First->Propaganda Second'. Products like BG3 show that that model still works extremely well.
@@torikazuki8701 Bioware games always have been diverse and inclusive. But not woke, till Veilguard. In Dragon Age Origins they told a story about oppression via the elven people. It was the best and most gripping origin. BG3 also is diverse. But it is not woke. Cyberpunk 2077 is diverse as hell, but not woke. You will not get far with black/white manipulation conspiracy theories. Fun fact: In Space Marine 2s campaign you run a diverse fireteam. They just do it, but do not preach about it and respect the IP.
It’s a bit hateful for you to enjoy another person failed in their job and bussiness, I understand if you were disappointed but to wish someone ill for what? Making a bad game? A bit too extreme.
@@zhilongIt kind of became personal when they started insulting the customers. If they just made bad games it would have been a footnote in history, people would have forgotten about their flops and their studio entirely. But they had to make a show, drama, attacks, etc. If they couldn't spread something positive they went out on social media and called everyone names for their failures. And for what, for giving feedback? Yes negative feedback is still feedback and you should take it and improve. Feedback is a gift.
There is honestly no better time for a video like this to come out. It's one thing to see them fail doing something outside of their bread and butter, but when they can't even deliver on what they're known for, it's toast. I've been looking forward to ME 5 for a long time, but at this point its almost impossible to believe there's a redemption arc at the end of all of this.
I realized this after MEA and Anthem....since the 2 were so close in release and by different teams okay, let's see what the other team does...release day and OMFG what have you done? Anthem made Destiny 1 day one look like a frakking masterpiece!
Before, fault was by EA. The pressure from above Current problem is the creative director, lets be honest we all know this I fear for Mass Effect future, we all know what needs to be done first if they want to recover
and now the ME5 writer is having a election meltdown so you know where the story there will go?? these people can't help themselves not to insert their BS into their games! FFS Bioware is Canadian mostly what do they care about who's in the silly office? shut up and do your jobs!!! this crap never stopped you before! that's what kills any sliver of hope i may have had....
You missed one of the biggest reasons - the actual people who worked on the earlier games, and their exits, leading to what we have now. The people who made the great games left a while back.
Looking back, im glad i grew up when i did, having played mass effect and origins during my late teens/early 20s. ALl those other classics like Crysis, Fear, Deadspace and Metro, even before this with Warcraft 3 and Starcraft. What a time it was to be a gamer. Nowadays i dont have as much time as back in the day, but i cant find anything to play anymore.... Gaming is just dead in my eyes, its never gonna be the same as during that era. To you younger people, im sorry my generation destroyed gaming....
Same it hard for me to find something i enjoy playing, most of the time i buy indie games now! And maybe 2 to 3 big titles a year! It is sad. Bioware had such great writing and branching choices! They had everything right! While most rpg felt cold, Bioware games felt warm cause of the friendships and romances. Giving us a lot more than any other studios! They spoiled us BIG!
There are a ton of great games to play, dude. Had a blast with, Inscryption, Sea of Stars, Lies of P, ... Also a lot of loved games: Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth Wukong, ... And those are just games that came up into my mind in a second.
I think I saw the best era of games. That being 2004-2011. So many classics, Morrowind, Bioshock, FNV, Halo 3. Hell, the 360 PS3 era gave us the classics. It went to hell when chasing the dollar became the motivation. Excellent video, BTW. Subbed.
100% agreed. For me Skyrim is the last game of the golden era, and kinda marked the shift to the new one. Everything after Skyrim has been a decline, and gradually so. There have been a few good games since but it's absurd how few and far in between they are now.
@@Skumtomten1 Talking about Bethesda specifically, the true decline started with Oblivion. Every single game they made after that was a downgrade to the previous entry. Less roleplay options, less story autonomy, and less of a reason to play. We only look back fondly on Skyrim because most of us were too young to realize how shallow that game really was. Especially when compared to the writing and worldbuilding of Morrowind. Skyrim honestly only persists because there's enough mods out there now that you can mod it into a far better game.
@@Seoul_Soldier I agree. Skyrim is still a good game though, it's a classic rpg without microtransaction s and it's a complete game with tons of content etc. Mods have made the game alot better for sure, but no one can deny that it's a great game though regardless. I liked Oblivion more though, I was alot younger and it was actually my first open world rpg and I was blown away by it. The guilds are far superior in Oblivion for sure, but I do think Skyrim improved in many other aspects. I was too young to play Morrowind but I know it's considered the best Bethesda game. My favorite game ever is Dragon Age Origins, it dethroned Oblivion quite significantly. It was my first Bioware game and was when I got to experience great writing and fantastic characters in game, which Bethesda really isn't very good at in comparison. But yea there are so many amazing games from the mid 2000s to yea around 2011. Its just never been the same since, and probably never will be
Mass Effect 2's DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker showcased just how incredible Bioware was at the time. In the Shadow Broker's database, you could find a little inside info on the characters in your team. It was text. Just text. And everyone loved it. By the way thanks so much for this. The Dragon Age: Origins campfire hymn still gives me goosebumps.
The "return to form" wasn't the only or even the most conspicuous example of everyone involved reading from the same script. Scroll through the video reviews from those journalists and count how many of them explicitly go out of their way to specify, in the thumbnail if not the title, either that they've played "to 100% completion" or "for 60+ hours"-either way, drawing attention to how unassailable their conclusion is going to be since they can claim the authority of experience with the game that other journalists, who wouldn't have had time enough with the game for that kind of thoroughness, would be simply unable to duplicate. There was definitely a list of review suggestions being passed around among those involved.
Rise of any studio is it's talent, the moment it leaves and is replaced by people who shouldn't even work in anything adjacent to the industry, but they do because they're cheap and easy to control, is when you see the downfall.
I mourn for what Bioware used to be. Dragon Age Origins taught me how to play RPGs, and I loved the autonomy the gameplay gave us. It's truly sad that they've fallen so far, letting narcissistic people who want to be rewarded for existing infiltrate and destroy the studio from within. They turned beloved games into their personal soapboxes to force their presence and opinions on their captive audiences. It's a shame, and I'm honestly sad to see this.
And even then, the extra mass effect 3 ending felt like vengeance and not repair. spoiler for an old game: the extra ending is you FAIL to stop the reapers and the next cycle's people succeed. You are the backstory for the real heroes who win offscreen.
Mass effect was the first game I played from Bioware and I loved it with all my heart to the point I thanked my mother for a few years after playing it and I still consider it one of the best birthday gifts to this day along side getting 007 golden eye for the N64 and it leaves me utterly heart broken seeing how much they have fallen.
i got into the animation industry because of bg1-2 and NWN. it was really sad to see them go down thanks to EA. great video btw. it was nice to go down a bioware memory lane :)
The ending of the Mass Effect Trilogy was not half baked because the indoctrination ending is the canon of a large portion of players and the only way to resist the indoctrination was to destroy the Reapers. I don't think anyone was really bothered by Shepard's ultimate fate. It seemed like surviving the galactic level extinction threat of the Reapers would require the sacrifice of the Galaxy's biggest hero and most people are okay with that because it is the best way to tie up the narrative. What felt like a betrayal was that anyone would consider an ending that seemed to suggest capitulation to the Reapers. The very really possibility that Synthetic intelligence would always rise up and destroy organic life and supplant it was a core of the story from the outset but to have the Quarian and Geth reunification as the big story beat right before it kind of dispels any gravitas the choice might have carried when reflecting on the story as a whole. It is the hardest possible accomplishment in the story choices of the game, but it is possible which means that synthesis is unnecessary.
It’s so unbelievable how many choices it accounts for and the characters are so vibrant with their own failures and triumphs, pain, needs and wants. We won’t get another game like it for years will we😢 warhammer 40k rogue trader is great for now though
I remember being on the BioWare forums back when ME 3 released with a lot of problems, as if it was rushed, and ignoring that, I and many others were complaining that EA had got their tentacles into a once great studio, forcing them to dumb the game down, remove RPG elements, add more fast paced action and multiplayer etc. Mass Effect 2 had mostly been developed without EA’s involvement but with ME 3 you could see what they’d do to a dev team I remember a BioWare dev arguing with me and being very rude about these comments I knew back then BioWare was done And just look at them now Mass Effect 2 was the last BioWare game
Well, as I've said elsewhere, the changes that ME2 instituted, almost ensured that ME3 would be what it was. From an intricate, narrative-focused, Lore-Based RPG (with at least an effective _illusion_ of choice, in ME1), to an action-based Dudebro Cover Shooter, ME3's 'Roleplaying' had gotten so shallow that you could turn it off in the game options. That's a staggering admission of how dramatically the series had changed, that few people talk about. You couldn't have done that in ME1, the game would have crumbled, but by 3, it was so neutered, it could be turned off... and the response was minimal.
Its funny how the devs said Veilgaurd was dark amd gritty and the reveal trailer wasnt accurate to the final game and launched more dark trailers. Then at release as ot turns out that reveal yrailer was very accurate to the tone of the game. Game has political propaganda in it yes but the even the non political dialogue is so terrible. Skill Up was right, its like having HR in the room everytime you speak.
Haha! although, why tremble the ME series was dead since 3. I'd say anyone with any sense is long gone. The only people who support ME these day are the same people who still write Naruto fanfiction.
@billyhwang4124 Not ashamed to say that I am both disgusted and outraged that the next Mass Effect game we have been waiting so long for could end up like Veilguard or Halo: Infinite.
Damn this was a great video. Echoed how many BioWare fans feel about the whole situation and future of our favorite franchises. I was surprised how small your channel is because your quality was great. Hope to see more
I said it countless times already, except extremely small group, nobody is against representation and diverse set of characters. That is literally why we felt in love with Mass Effect and Dragon Age, or now Baldur´s Gate 3. We are against pandering, preaching, awful writing and bad story telling, against taking options away from us in order to satisfy someone´s personal ego. That is the problem, not that someone is gay. Mass Effect is (along with Expanse) my favorite universe ever and I can´t put into words how sad I am that this universe is almost definitely dead as well. I just really hope that Exodus game from OG BioWare writers and designers and writer Peter F. Hamilton, will be the true successor to this phenomenal trilogy (and one slightly above average spinoff).
Claiming Mass Effect 3 was the beginning of the end just cause the majority doesn't like the final 10 minutes of the game is very unfair and disingenuous. Almost everyone thought ME3 was peak Mass Effect and peak BioWare from the very start to right before the Star Child, painting the whole game as a catalyst of the downfall that came almost a decade later because the final MINUTES didn't stick the landing is very extreme. And the Extended Ending was free, so no, you weren't expected to pay for a new ending, that's just wrong.
You have a bright future in gaming commentary and analysis. I'll be recommending your channel to everyone I know looking for honest reviews and takes on gaming.
'Staying True to the Mass Effect Franchise?" While ME2 is widely regarded as 'The Best' of the 3, from its very beginning it murd3r$ the original game and it's NOT subtle about that. Your PC gets whacked immediately, to be replaced with a fascimile that no longer has agency, but is the Illusive Man's Lackey, from start to finish. It pummels the lore into paste, turning a rogue special ops group into another major galactic power, one who can make an even better ship than the bleeding-edge design of two major governments. The entire main plot of ME2 guaranteed that ME3 was going to be wildly uneven at best. ME1 logically set up what the 2nd game should have been- Find a way to beat (or trap) the Reapers. But because it Faffed about with the 'go nowhere' collector plot, forced ME3 to do double-duty. ME2 has great companions & companion-quests & a slicker action-game interface. But in all other important ways, it turned away from the detail-oriented, meticulous, well-plotted 1st game and started the series on the way to the shallow rpg-lite cover-shooter it became.
I preferred ME1 to ME2. ME1 had the intrigue, it allowed you to be "good" or "bad" while still achieving the end goal. Shepard had agency in ME1 and also ME3, ME2 really felt like you are Illusive mans servant. I always feel like the bad guy in ME2, even if i choose paragon, i still know im working for an evil organisation. All that being said, the character development of Shepard and companions is massive in ME2.
@@martinbernath while the case _might_ be made that you had more agency in ME3 than ME2, the game was easily made worse because the Roleplaying had gotten so shallow & pointless that you could turn it off in the game options. Aside from the insanity of being able to turn off Roleplaying in an RPG (like turning off Driving in a Driving game), that just shows how little impact it had by then. Turning it off in ME1, would have nearly broken the structure of the game.
EA is the death of creativity. They should stick to their loot boxes and garbage FIFA games. They ruined a long list of the greatest IPs ever made and have still not sold off the rights to a lot of them. They are the worst.
It probably won't be a next time. I am unsure they will survive this especially with the current world economic state. It's not a good time for spectacular flops.
Idk howthis channel doesnt have more subscribers. What passion behind your take, your love for bioware shows, great mic and editing. Wish the channel the best
Well, I’ve been excited for MASS EFFECT 5 ever since it was teased. Now that I know the team from VEILGAURD is working on it, I probably won’t be wasting my time or money and just play ME 1,2,&3 again for the 20th time. Great video!
I still remember singing Bioware's praises for so many years as I too grew up playing their games, cRPGs being my absolute favorite genre. Thankfully, there's still Obsidian and Owlcat to carry the torch.
I have a tiny drop of confidence for ME because of Mike Gamble. The director is extemely important and it's evident in Veilguard what the effects are. Maybe it's foolish to have hope but I'm just as heartbroken as you! I grew up on Bioware's games and learned to love storytelling through them. This betrayal after 10 years of silence has been extremely hurtful. 💔
Excellent video. Personally, I’d go a bit further back than you: While Mass Effect 2 undoubtedly did many things better than its predecessor, for me it was the point where BW decided to step away from traditional RPGs towards a more commercially successful approach of making action-focussed games. And sadly, over the years, they sacrificed writing quality, culminating in the infamous red-blue-green choice that ended the trilogy. I’ve considered myself a huge BW fan ever since I first played Baldur’s Gate 2, but the company isn’t what it once was. I wouldn’t be surprised if EA shuts it down after this. Hopefully, TPTB have enough sense to entrust BW’s brands to a dedicated studio, like WotC did when they handed BG3 over to Larian; but I doubt it.
4:13 if larian ever did something like this for their own IP and made their own tabletop rpg, it’ll be over for wizards of the coast/ Dungeon n dragons
Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition suffered from EA pushing for unrealistic or downright insane timetables. Veilguard, however, is an unholy alliance of narcissistic, talentless "creatives" and greedy EA corpos who kept chasing trends. If the people in charge of DA2/Inquisition made Veilguard without corporate pressure to do this or that, we would have had a masterpiece. I can not put into words how much I hate what has become of the DA franchise and BioWare in general. I remember being SO exited for DA4 after Trespasser back in 2015... RIP BioWare. It was good while it lasted.
BG3 is an excellent example of how dumb that phrase is. Bad writing is the cause of “woke” things failing, just as it is the cause of any poorly written but non-“woke” story based media.
Tash is a stereotype that only makes people in the LGBT like myself ashamed. The writing is so bad that they are using people like me as human shields against criticism. I’m tired of being pandered to by corpo morons.
They decided to join DEI culture and that was only part of their downfall. EA is also to blame for forcing deadlines and sacrificing creativity as well employeeing people based on identity.
You have to remember: Veilguard was going to be a live service multiplayer. For 6 years it was developed as such until Anthem flopped and the team shit themselves and ‘retooled’ the game to being a single player again. You can see it in the DNA of the game.
I have already felt that way about BioWare since Dragon Age 2. I didn't like DA2 at all. Where did BioWare go wrong? I guess the part where the OGs left. At that time BioWare needed the EA acquisition. They couldn't find a publisher for DA:O. After their divorce with WOTC, they were struggling to get a publisher because it was an unproven new IP.
Thats why I always laugh when people get hyped when ever Bioware's bloated corpse shows up with a new game, look at their last 6 games in the past 14 years Dragon age 2 considered a mediocre sequel Mass effect 3 the game ruined the trilogy with its terrible endings and tried too hard to be like Gears of War Dragon age Inquisition is divisive to say the least and feels more like an mmo than a dragon age game Andromeda, the game floped both with critics and fans Anthem floped with critics and fans too Veilguard is looking like a wet turd and it might the final straw for EA and they might pull the plug on Bioware. Bioware has been living on their reputation for far too long even when most of the people that made Kotor, Origins and Mass Effect have already left the company.
Nah, DAO. You could already smell the stench on ME2. The atmosphere and attitude shift of the game was palpable to say nothing of the changes to combat and loot.
@WholesomeDough wtf? No it wasnt. ME2 was a masterpiece. Dont get delusional seeing woke shit like our woke friends do because it certainly didnt exist in me2.
BioWare is long gone. They might as well rename themselves, because they are NOT BioWare. As far as the next Mass Effect is concerned, I’m not expecting anything more than the last 4 games BioWare has released. Mass effect is going to be the typical idealism injected detritus that we’ve been seeing from them.
Dude, I just stumbled across your channel while surfing through an endlessly disappointing youtube tangent regarding the state of current media, and how it's all headed towards one creatively-suicidal, greedy, and bankrupt direction, and I stayed for the whole video. Your presentation is warming and totally relatable, despite the sad reality of the content. I have no hopes for the new ME game, as someone who is very sentimental about the original trilogy, I have seen enough to realise now that what we loved has become a mere skin disguising a vacuum and I have resigned myself to the fact that it'll be a good few years until the ship rights itself, if it's allowed to. I keep thinking to myself: surely money speaks louder than most, these companies cannot sustain this way, look at Disney! they've lost billions and billions since they became the champions of DEI. It's inevitable that they will eventually fall apart due to loss in revenue, and be forced to acknowledge that pandering to 3% of the population at the extreme expense of the rest just ain't possible, reasonable, or normal. Thanks for your efforts :-)
@@Jedilord882 You gave them more credit than I did then. ME3 sucked in SO many ways and I despise the game - except for MultiPlayer, which I still play to this day. I hate ME3 because it could have been so much more if the writers were worth their salt.
The acquisition from EA definitely didn't help. But Bioware deciding to follow DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity) and hire people based on their appearance, ethnicity or sexuality rather than skill or merit has also contributed to their downfall. It also appears that DEI doesn't include white people unless their sexuality aligns with it.
Lets stop naming them BIOWARE, lets also stop saying that BIOWARE changed. BIOWARE didnt make the great games. It was a a spacific team of talents! Specific GAMEDEVS, writers, concept artists and modelers and texture artists. These people are gone! Therefore BIOWARE became an empty shell. So in other words: Bioware isnt a factory that keeps producing their famous,tasty chococalte bar with their good old recipe. Bioware is a rotten restaurant without COOKS!
Augustine yip is my family doctor, when I found out I was floored because BioWare games are some of my favorites and one of their founders is the guy who looks after my health lol
Call it copium but I truly think they have one last chance to make a banger cause imo they haven't had much misses. I liked Inquisition, it was alright. Andromeda I thought was incredibly lacking in narrative and had a hit-or-miss script but was overall good, I thoroughly and wholeheartedly enjoyed what it had to offer. Anthem was BioWare at its most creatively bankrupt, with some of the most unengaging lore, script and world building but once again I thought they nailed performance, gameplay and presentation. Anthem didn't have me hooked but I completed all of its quests and had decent fun throughout. Mass Effect Legendary Edition was a redo of greatness so it couldn't really be a miss. Legendary ME2 had more glitches than OG ME2, Pinnacle Station was missing and no ME3 multiplayer which was a shame but the package was well worth it overall, it was simply just Mass Effect but refined and Mass Effect is peak fiction. To me, Veilguard is honestly their first turbo major miss, their first colossal L. No passion, no nuance, no respect for and adherence to lore, this was a shallow and bad experience plain and simple. The creative behind it had all the red flags you could think of, they left no red flag behind. The Mass Effect creative team is different and their lead (project director and executive producer) for the next Mass Effect is Michael Gamble. While Gamble has his fair share of dislikers (and a fair share of issues he can work on as a creator) he has worked on Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda and is incredibly passionate about the franchise, he isn't some random with checks to mark snd red flags to plant. He even openly eluded to not vibing with what the Dragon Age team did with Veilguard. I don't necessarily believe in him but I haven't given up on him either, he can definitely make it work and so far we have no reason to assume he won't.
BioWare stopped being BioWare when EA bought them. EA has been using the BioWare name to keep the money coming in, all while destroying BioWare's name in the process. EA does that to every studio they touch. The reason BioWare has lasted so long is because of the BioWare name and the consumer desire for BioWare to keep producing the games that made BioWare popular in the first place. EA ruins everything they touch; everyone knows this, but people keep buying games from them anyway.
The problem with BioWare is “the ship of theseus” question. If you replace all the parts of a ship is it the same ship? Very few of the people that made the games we love are still at BioWare.
Both BioWare and Blizzard met their fates when they were acquired by the big corporations. They died years ago as most of the key members long left the respective studios. It's truly sad to see.
What people should remember is, that the Bioware from the mid-2000s isn't the the Bioware from now. I'm sure none of the former staff works still there, at least from the senior and team-leading positions. The Bioware now is just a husk of it's former self, only kept alive by it's name and it's IPs names. But hey, we got Larian, CDP Red and (maybe) Obsidian, and a ton of other indie CRPG-studios. Old things die off, new things grow.
Veilguard has replaced Starfield as the "I will watch any video sh***ing on this" game. 😂
Nailed it!
Me right now lmao
My face is tired of all these Emotions !
Preach brother
I'm doing my part. Unlike its older siblings Skyrim and Fallout 4, Starfield is no longer in the top 100 most played on Steam. It's soon dropping out of top 200 as well. Biggest waste of money I've ever spent.
You Either Die a Hero or Live Long Enough to See Yourself Become the Villain
i agree i feel old when i talk to friends about the old ways of bioware
This is a good quote & true in alot of scenarios. However, I would beg to differ. The arguable case in point: Revan. ;) He did not have to die as he went on to see himself become a hero again &
even a better one at that.
I would say it’s more accurate to call them a zombie company. Once they were bought by EA, BioWare ceased to exist
You Don't Have to Capitalize Every Word. Why Would You Even Do This?
lefties took over gmaing and killed it. is more like it
You know what's funny? In inquisition I found myself fighting FOR Dorian and his rights to "enjoy the company of other men" as he put it, because the character was so charming, interesting, and his story/background was well written. I played Veilguard and I honestly wish I could just kill all my companions to make them shut the hell up. This game is literally doing the opposite of what they want to achieve.
While Inquisition was flawed, Veilguard makes it look like a masterpiece
I was explaining this exact thing to my husband last night 😂
Yea Dorian was super charming.
Yes! I went back and found all the remarks I could online about Dorian, going back years. Everyone (including me) loved him! The only time his sexuality was mentioned was if someone had romanced him. Dorian was a great magician and a loyal friend and that was what was important about him. Varric happened to be a dwarf, but he was a giant of a man and that was what was important about him.
Exactly.
Bioware fan: "What is this place?"
Star Wars fan: "Welcome to the refugee camp. Was your franchise overtaken by skinwalkers as well?"
One and the same. RIP Kotor
Like Star Wars was in a great place before Disney 😂
@@masterknife8423 be quiet tourist.
@masterknife8423 If it wasn't, Disney wouldn't have paid billions of dollars for it.
Whatever that Masterknife clown y'all replied to had already delete his comment and went back to being a shjts stain in the family bed drapes
I was 17 when Mass effect hit stores. I remember being so exited to play it after being a huge fan of knights of the old republic. I saved up all my baby-sitting pocket money to buy it and loved every second of it. As a young gay girl it really did help a lot when I was younger. Now I am in my thirties and I hate what dares to stand where perfection once stood. Veilguard is not a Dragon age game. It’s a fever dream for the mentally ill. I can not put into words how deeply I loathe that game. Growing up I struggled, hating myself, wondering if I should have been a boy or not born at all. Now to see a game actively trying to tell me, ‘no, all that progress you made, all the effort you put in getting to know and being comfortable with yourself is wrong. You’re not a tomboy. You didn’t struggle with penis envy. You must trans! Or non-binary,' feels so reductive. The second I saw the cc I felt physically ill. The body proportions are practically alien! There is no option to have breasts. They are too far down. They are pecks with breast tissue stacked on top. As an art student I just… I could not get past it! There is weird shadows on the face that looks like six-o’clock shadow that you can’t get rid of. The legs are to short and thin and the models are so top heavy. It felt like I was learning to draw perspectives again. Just… so bad! I could not stand Taash. I hated that all my choices over three games meant nothing! I played a guy in one just to romance Morrigan. Where the hell was our son? I was with Isobel on my Hawke, yet no mention of that. I dated Sera on my Inquisitor. Where was she? Just… ugh, screw this game. And screw you Bioware. Sincerely, from an actual female, that has actual tits and does not need to shave, and yes, enjoys pretty girls! I hope your ip is sold off to the lowest bidder and dies, forgotten and unloved.
Edit: Sorry for the rant.
Thank you for this awesome comment
No no, let's hope someone can make it better.
It would be nice if Dragon Age was sold to Larian Studios or something. But I think Dragon Age is over. It's just so depressing. I'm also a gay woman and had issues with my gender identity years ago, also hated myself, wished I were a boy, then wished I was neither, etc. As an artist myself I agree with a lot of what you're saying. Tbh I feel like even back in Inquisition, the boobs were kind of down low- specifically Sera's. Anyway, it just fucking sucks that all the stories we went through in previous games were not honoured AT ALL.
All the controversy inspired me to play DA:O again after over 10 years, and man.. I got sucked right into it. The writing is so damn good. The character interactions made them feel alive. The environment is gritty, dark, very dark fantasy. Bioware could never do that again. Not with those weirdos in charge that, while being a TINY minority group, clearly want to make self inserts in a game. Not saying that people can't make self inserts but for a franchise like DA, fans have expectations. They love the game for a reason and it's definitely not because DA pushes an agenda.
DA:V will never be a Dragon Age game in my eyes -_-
This, Bioware. This.
Don't apologize, rant away. Bioware's goal is not inclusion. We may finally have amazing hair in the CC, but for the first time I can't make a character that represents me. Because.... the graphics and character design are so...wonky/bizarre. IMO its these choices that fulfilled the needs and desires of trans and non binary developers. Results... A game only it's designers can love..
It's obvious that the true talent has left BioWare, it's dead.. said ending of one of the greatest.. rip.
its ovious thats there no talented steamers left on youtube, sad state to a once great platform
fortunately they all left to larian studios which is making some great games
Some of these talents have re-formed as Archetype Enternainment. And I hope that their newly developed 'Exodus' will be the true Mass Effect successor in spirit, rather than the organic garbage that BioWare is currently creating.
What could possibly go wrong when the team of Veilguard is now working on that project, too? *cough*
@@Blurksel yeah I just learned that. And their teasers look promising ;)
Left? More like was chased off.
Bioware got on that DEI-wagon and hired people based on their identity instead of their ability and the games that followed showed this.
100%
This shyt hurts !
No EA drove away writers becouse history was something they didn't see valuable, content hidden behind choice was wasted money. And so EA changed BioWare to match what they wanted for the gdr game of their dream, a fifa game, good graphic very basic story, and something they can dump year after year with low effort.
Corporate killed bioware, old bioware was woke, it talked about those problems but integrated in the whole story, this bioware added them vecouse they were in a check list to assure maximum market and profit.
This has happened to nearly every development company in the industry. It's the managerial take over of the corporation removing founding members of the company in favor of diversity hiring quotas.
Bioware was already a ship in dead waters after Mass Effect 3. It has been a steep decline since then. Once EA buys you up. you are destined for the EA graveyard.
Competent game devs:
Bioware: Shift all those DEI hires to Mass Effect.
Bioware name only. everyone who worked on the previous tittles are long gone.
BioWare transitioned to "Identifies as BioWare"
their pronouns are ME & DA
The Bioware you grew up with no longer exists. The people that made those classic games no longer work at the company.
Old Guard BioWare developers are now at Archetype Entertainment and making Exodus.
The game looks promising, but I can't deny I dislike the character design, specifically the faces, it's right there in uncanny valley to me, something is off.
Exodus is full of promise. But only an epic delivery will be able to keep that. And the design we know is leagues above DA VG.
As a tool of the Culturally Marxist Wizards of the Coast, this game is going to push their agenda as hard as veilguard. Hopefully it will be that ham-handed, because games like 'Baldur's Gate 3', are THE most dangerous cultural manipulation tools out there. BG3 is just as 'woke' as Veilguard, but because it's well-written and entertaining, most people either don't care, don't think it matters, or actively deny that propaganda exists.
Yet that's how we _got_ here in the first place. Especially in Hollywood, they've been Culturally Marxist/Communist almost since their inception. Yet, they followed a profitable model of 'Entertainment First->Propaganda Second'. Products like BG3 show that that model still works extremely well.
@@torikazuki8701nah there's no woke dialogues in BG3 no pronounces no genders
@@torikazuki8701 Bioware games always have been diverse and inclusive. But not woke, till Veilguard. In Dragon Age Origins they told a story about oppression via the elven people. It was the best and most gripping origin.
BG3 also is diverse. But it is not woke. Cyberpunk 2077 is diverse as hell, but not woke. You will not get far with black/white manipulation conspiracy theories. Fun fact: In Space Marine 2s campaign you run a diverse fireteam. They just do it, but do not preach about it and respect the IP.
Biowoke became Biobroke and it is a pleasure to watch.
Get BioWoke
Go BioBroke
I can't say it's a pleasure to watch, personally. More like a "it didn't have to be this way" situation, but they set themselves up for this
It’s a bit hateful for you to enjoy another person failed in their job and bussiness, I understand if you were disappointed but to wish someone ill for what? Making a bad game? A bit too extreme.
@@zhilongIt kind of became personal when they started insulting the customers. If they just made bad games it would have been a footnote in history, people would have forgotten about their flops and their studio entirely. But they had to make a show, drama, attacks, etc. If they couldn't spread something positive they went out on social media and called everyone names for their failures. And for what, for giving feedback? Yes negative feedback is still feedback and you should take it and improve. Feedback is a gift.
@@zhilong When you know who developed the game, you know you should have hatred and not pity for them.
There is honestly no better time for a video like this to come out. It's one thing to see them fail doing something outside of their bread and butter, but when they can't even deliver on what they're known for, it's toast. I've been looking forward to ME 5 for a long time, but at this point its almost impossible to believe there's a redemption arc at the end of all of this.
There isn't. There's only a "they/them" Liara and boss babe Krogans.
@@BooDamnHoo Can't wait to see Sheploo doing pushups for misgendering a Krogan
@@mjohnsen8606 Liara is just going to scream how non-binary she is despite the fact that her entire species is explicitly female.
I realized this after MEA and Anthem....since the 2 were so close in release and by different teams okay, let's see what the other team does...release day and OMFG what have you done?
Anthem made Destiny 1 day one look like a frakking masterpiece!
Before, fault was by EA. The pressure from above
Current problem is the creative director, lets be honest we all know this
I fear for Mass Effect future, we all know what needs to be done first if they want to recover
There are Wokes all up in both BioWare AND EA.
Yes, more gender fluids.
and now the ME5 writer is having a election meltdown so you know where the story there will go?? these people can't help themselves not to insert their BS into their games! FFS Bioware is Canadian mostly what do they care about who's in the silly office? shut up and do your jobs!!! this crap never stopped you before! that's what kills any sliver of hope i may have had....
I trust Mike Gamble and Mary DeMarle with the next mass effect game. Gamble has been there since trilogy and DeMarle has a good track record as well.
You missed one of the biggest reasons - the actual people who worked on the earlier games, and their exits, leading to what we have now. The people who made the great games left a while back.
Looking back, im glad i grew up when i did, having played mass effect and origins during my late teens/early 20s. ALl those other classics like Crysis, Fear, Deadspace and Metro, even before this with Warcraft 3 and Starcraft. What a time it was to be a gamer. Nowadays i dont have as much time as back in the day, but i cant find anything to play anymore....
Gaming is just dead in my eyes, its never gonna be the same as during that era.
To you younger people, im sorry my generation destroyed gaming....
Same it hard for me to find something i enjoy playing, most of the time i buy indie games now! And maybe 2 to 3 big titles a year! It is sad. Bioware had such great writing and branching choices! They had everything right! While most rpg felt cold, Bioware games felt warm cause of the friendships and romances. Giving us a lot more than any other studios! They spoiled us BIG!
It wasn't our generation, it was this new safety blanket-dont hurt my feelings generation
@@caseysmith8655 you do realize that most of those people are millenials right?
@@eestiny9734 yeah, theres also so many titles that i forgot to mention like Resistance, bioshock and so on...
There are a ton of great games to play, dude.
Had a blast with, Inscryption, Sea of Stars, Lies of P, ...
Also a lot of loved games: Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3, Black Myth Wukong, ...
And those are just games that came up into my mind in a second.
Very sad, you are 100% right. I'm So disappointed in Bioware
The best dissertation on Bioware's fall from grace on RUclips. Well done sir.
Veilguard's dinner table scene was the hardest I have laughed in a long time.
I think I saw the best era of games. That being 2004-2011. So many classics, Morrowind, Bioshock, FNV, Halo 3. Hell, the 360 PS3 era gave us the classics. It went to hell when chasing the dollar became the motivation. Excellent video, BTW. Subbed.
100% agreed. For me Skyrim is the last game of the golden era, and kinda marked the shift to the new one. Everything after Skyrim has been a decline, and gradually so. There have been a few good games since but it's absurd how few and far in between they are now.
@@Skumtomten1 Talking about Bethesda specifically, the true decline started with Oblivion. Every single game they made after that was a downgrade to the previous entry. Less roleplay options, less story autonomy, and less of a reason to play. We only look back fondly on Skyrim because most of us were too young to realize how shallow that game really was. Especially when compared to the writing and worldbuilding of Morrowind.
Skyrim honestly only persists because there's enough mods out there now that you can mod it into a far better game.
@@Seoul_Soldiersadly true
@@Seoul_Soldier I agree. Skyrim is still a good game though, it's a classic rpg without microtransaction s and it's a complete game with tons of content etc. Mods have made the game alot better for sure, but no one can deny that it's a great game though regardless.
I liked Oblivion more though, I was alot younger and it was actually my first open world rpg and I was blown away by it. The guilds are far superior in Oblivion for sure, but I do think Skyrim improved in many other aspects. I was too young to play Morrowind but I know it's considered the best Bethesda game.
My favorite game ever is Dragon Age Origins, it dethroned Oblivion quite significantly. It was my first Bioware game and was when I got to experience great writing and fantastic characters in game, which Bethesda really isn't very good at in comparison. But yea there are so many amazing games from the mid 2000s to yea around 2011. Its just never been the same since, and probably never will be
And this, ladies and gentleman, is what happens when you hire people for DEI instead of actual skill or passion for the work
I will never touch anything made by bioware again. Mass effect 5 is already dead to me
Mass Effect 2's DLC Lair of the Shadow Broker showcased just how incredible Bioware was at the time. In the Shadow Broker's database, you could find a little inside info on the characters in your team. It was text. Just text. And everyone loved it.
By the way thanks so much for this. The Dragon Age: Origins campfire hymn still gives me goosebumps.
The "return to form" wasn't the only or even the most conspicuous example of everyone involved reading from the same script. Scroll through the video reviews from those journalists and count how many of them explicitly go out of their way to specify, in the thumbnail if not the title, either that they've played "to 100% completion" or "for 60+ hours"-either way, drawing attention to how unassailable their conclusion is going to be since they can claim the authority of experience with the game that other journalists, who wouldn't have had time enough with the game for that kind of thoroughness, would be simply unable to duplicate. There was definitely a list of review suggestions being passed around among those involved.
Rise of any studio is it's talent, the moment it leaves and is replaced by people who shouldn't even work in anything adjacent to the industry, but they do because they're cheap and easy to control, is when you see the downfall.
This exactly. As soon as the core bioware staff who worked on previous games left the company and subsequent games were dead and buried 😢
+1 I hope they check Exodus, new game from new company made by the previous guys who designed the OG Mass Effect.
Blizzard is the same way. All the passionately talented people moved on
Woke agenda, DEI and ESG points are a bigger part than you may think.
I mourn for what Bioware used to be. Dragon Age Origins taught me how to play RPGs, and I loved the autonomy the gameplay gave us. It's truly sad that they've fallen so far, letting narcissistic people who want to be rewarded for existing infiltrate and destroy the studio from within. They turned beloved games into their personal soapboxes to force their presence and opinions on their captive audiences. It's a shame, and I'm honestly sad to see this.
At this point I am not convinced that DA 4 wasn’t a legit intentional move to tank the franchise and studio
SW:ToR was fantastic but it has been turned into a platform to sell shitty armors from failed TV series
Agree I loved that game for YEARS. I wish there'd be a SP game with the mechanics of the Imperial Agent. The gameplay was so fun, the story fantastic!
I hated ToR since launch day. So much wasted potential. Nothing like the videos and trailers made it out to be.
No one who was involved in making the classic games are left. It's Bioware in name only.
Veilguard made me respect Dave Chappelle allot. I mean really really REALLY appreciate his jokes.
And even then, the extra mass effect 3 ending felt like vengeance and not repair. spoiler for an old game: the extra ending is you FAIL to stop the reapers and the next cycle's people succeed. You are the backstory for the real heroes who win offscreen.
You mean the refusal ending?
It is sad that a blessed studio that used to inspire everyone around, now is just copy/pasting what other devs are doing!
Mass effect was the first game I played from Bioware and I loved it with all my heart to the point I thanked my mother for a few years after playing it and I still consider it one of the best birthday gifts to this day along side getting 007 golden eye for the N64 and it leaves me utterly heart broken seeing how much they have fallen.
i got into the animation industry because of bg1-2 and NWN. it was really sad to see them go down thanks to EA. great video btw. it was nice to go down a bioware memory lane :)
same with Westwood Studios :(
The ending of the Mass Effect Trilogy was not half baked because the indoctrination ending is the canon of a large portion of players and the only way to resist the indoctrination was to destroy the Reapers. I don't think anyone was really bothered by Shepard's ultimate fate. It seemed like surviving the galactic level extinction threat of the Reapers would require the sacrifice of the Galaxy's biggest hero and most people are okay with that because it is the best way to tie up the narrative. What felt like a betrayal was that anyone would consider an ending that seemed to suggest capitulation to the Reapers. The very really possibility that Synthetic intelligence would always rise up and destroy organic life and supplant it was a core of the story from the outset but to have the Quarian and Geth reunification as the big story beat right before it kind of dispels any gravitas the choice might have carried when reflecting on the story as a whole. It is the hardest possible accomplishment in the story choices of the game, but it is possible which means that synthesis is unnecessary.
it's ironic that Baldur Gate's 3 has more player choice and stronger narrative story script than Bioware itself.
It’s so unbelievable how many choices it accounts for and the characters are so vibrant with their own failures and triumphs, pain, needs and wants. We won’t get another game like it for years will we😢 warhammer 40k rogue trader is great for now though
@@thetrashcanman7537 BG3 is a once in a generation type of game. We will never get another one, lightning in a bottle I'm afraid.
@@Seoul_Soldier yeah….excited to see what larian does next though!!!
I remember being on the BioWare forums back when ME 3 released with a lot of problems, as if it was rushed, and ignoring that, I and many others were complaining that EA had got their tentacles into a once great studio, forcing them to dumb the game down, remove RPG elements, add more fast paced action and multiplayer etc.
Mass Effect 2 had mostly been developed without EA’s involvement but with ME 3 you could see what they’d do to a dev team
I remember a BioWare dev arguing with me and being very rude about these comments
I knew back then BioWare was done
And just look at them now
Mass Effect 2 was the last BioWare game
Well, as I've said elsewhere, the changes that ME2 instituted, almost ensured that ME3 would be what it was. From an intricate, narrative-focused, Lore-Based RPG (with at least an effective _illusion_ of choice, in ME1), to an action-based Dudebro Cover Shooter, ME3's 'Roleplaying' had gotten so shallow that you could turn it off in the game options.
That's a staggering admission of how dramatically the series had changed, that few people talk about. You couldn't have done that in ME1, the game would have crumbled, but by 3, it was so neutered, it could be turned off... and the response was minimal.
@ I agree
me2 abd da origins
@@torikazuki8701mass effect 3 still masterpiece
@@ТАДАМ-ю4ж Any 'Roleplaying Game' where you can TURN OFF roleplaying, is a terrible RPG.
Its funny how the devs said Veilgaurd was dark amd gritty and the reveal trailer wasnt accurate to the final game and launched more dark trailers. Then at release as ot turns out that reveal yrailer was very accurate to the tone of the game. Game has political propaganda in it yes but the even the non political dialogue is so terrible. Skill Up was right, its like having HR in the room everytime you speak.
"The developer's full attention has now shifted entirely to the next Mass Effect", Tremble, Mass Effect fans!!
Haha! although, why tremble the ME series was dead since 3. I'd say anyone with any sense is long gone. The only people who support ME these day are the same people who still write Naruto fanfiction.
@billyhwang4124
Not ashamed to say that I am both disgusted and outraged that the next Mass Effect game we have been waiting so long for could end up like Veilguard or Halo: Infinite.
Great vid. I would have appreciated some detail around which devs left the studio, and when, and how that correlated to certain game releases
Damn this was a great video. Echoed how many BioWare fans feel about the whole situation and future of our favorite franchises. I was surprised how small your channel is because your quality was great. Hope to see more
I said it countless times already, except extremely small group, nobody is against representation and diverse set of characters. That is literally why we felt in love with Mass Effect and Dragon Age, or now Baldur´s Gate 3. We are against pandering, preaching, awful writing and bad story telling, against taking options away from us in order to satisfy someone´s personal ego. That is the problem, not that someone is gay. Mass Effect is (along with Expanse) my favorite universe ever and I can´t put into words how sad I am that this universe is almost definitely dead as well. I just really hope that Exodus game from OG BioWare writers and designers and writer Peter F. Hamilton, will be the true successor to this phenomenal trilogy (and one slightly above average spinoff).
ME 1 2 and 3 were an unreal experience, specially ME 1 and 2 were just peak.
Claiming Mass Effect 3 was the beginning of the end just cause the majority doesn't like the final 10 minutes of the game is very unfair and disingenuous. Almost everyone thought ME3 was peak Mass Effect and peak BioWare from the very start to right before the Star Child, painting the whole game as a catalyst of the downfall that came almost a decade later because the final MINUTES didn't stick the landing is very extreme. And the Extended Ending was free, so no, you weren't expected to pay for a new ending, that's just wrong.
You have a bright future in gaming commentary and analysis. I'll be recommending your channel to everyone I know looking for honest reviews and takes on gaming.
'Staying True to the Mass Effect Franchise?" While ME2 is widely regarded as 'The Best' of the 3, from its very beginning it murd3r$ the original game and it's NOT subtle about that. Your PC gets whacked immediately, to be replaced with a fascimile that no longer has agency, but is the Illusive Man's Lackey, from start to finish. It pummels the lore into paste, turning a rogue special ops group into another major galactic power, one who can make an even better ship than the bleeding-edge design of two major governments.
The entire main plot of ME2 guaranteed that ME3 was going to be wildly uneven at best. ME1 logically set up what the 2nd game should have been- Find a way to beat (or trap) the Reapers. But because it Faffed about with the 'go nowhere' collector plot, forced ME3 to do double-duty.
ME2 has great companions & companion-quests & a slicker action-game interface. But in all other important ways, it turned away from the detail-oriented, meticulous, well-plotted 1st game and started the series on the way to the shallow rpg-lite cover-shooter it became.
I preferred ME1 to ME2. ME1 had the intrigue, it allowed you to be "good" or "bad" while still achieving the end goal. Shepard had agency in ME1 and also ME3, ME2 really felt like you are Illusive mans servant. I always feel like the bad guy in ME2, even if i choose paragon, i still know im working for an evil organisation. All that being said, the character development of Shepard and companions is massive in ME2.
@@martinbernath while the case _might_ be made that you had more agency in ME3 than ME2, the game was easily made worse because the Roleplaying had gotten so shallow & pointless that you could turn it off in the game options.
Aside from the insanity of being able to turn off Roleplaying in an RPG (like turning off Driving in a Driving game), that just shows how little impact it had by then. Turning it off in ME1, would have nearly broken the structure of the game.
EA ruined ME3 that is for sure but anything after that is biowares own doing with their own games.
EA is the death of creativity. They should stick to their loot boxes and garbage FIFA games. They ruined a long list of the greatest IPs ever made and have still not sold off the rights to a lot of them. They are the worst.
Guess payed reviews and journalists won't bring you profit. Damn, that sucks Bioware, maybe next time.
It probably won't be a next time. I am unsure they will survive this especially with the current world economic state. It's not a good time for spectacular flops.
Idk howthis channel doesnt have more subscribers. What passion behind your take, your love for bioware shows, great mic and editing. Wish the channel the best
Well, I’ve been excited for MASS EFFECT 5 ever since it was teased. Now that I know the team from VEILGAURD is working on it, I probably won’t be wasting my time or money and just play ME 1,2,&3 again for the 20th time.
Great video!
I still remember singing Bioware's praises for so many years as I too grew up playing their games, cRPGs being my absolute favorite genre.
Thankfully, there's still Obsidian and Owlcat to carry the torch.
I have a tiny drop of confidence for ME because of Mike Gamble. The director is extemely important and it's evident in Veilguard what the effects are. Maybe it's foolish to have hope but I'm just as heartbroken as you! I grew up on Bioware's games and learned to love storytelling through them. This betrayal after 10 years of silence has been extremely hurtful. 💔
Excellent video.
Personally, I’d go a bit further back than you: While Mass Effect 2 undoubtedly did many things better than its predecessor, for me it was the point where BW decided to step away from traditional RPGs towards a more commercially successful approach of making action-focussed games. And sadly, over the years, they sacrificed writing quality, culminating in the infamous red-blue-green choice that ended the trilogy.
I’ve considered myself a huge BW fan ever since I first played Baldur’s Gate 2, but the company isn’t what it once was. I wouldn’t be surprised if EA shuts it down after this. Hopefully, TPTB have enough sense to entrust BW’s brands to a dedicated studio, like WotC did when they handed BG3 over to Larian; but I doubt it.
*and now they're digging up Mass Effect so they can kill it again* 😂
4:13 if larian ever did something like this for their own IP and made their own tabletop rpg, it’ll be over for wizards of the coast/ Dungeon n dragons
Dragon Age 2 and Inquisition suffered from EA pushing for unrealistic or downright insane timetables.
Veilguard, however, is an unholy alliance of narcissistic, talentless "creatives" and greedy EA corpos who kept chasing trends.
If the people in charge of DA2/Inquisition made Veilguard without corporate pressure to do this or that, we would have had a masterpiece.
I can not put into words how much I hate what has become of the DA franchise and BioWare in general.
I remember being SO exited for DA4 after Trespasser back in 2015...
RIP BioWare. It was good while it lasted.
Go woke go broke !
Yeah, it just takes 10 years because people can't read the writing on the wall through their lenses of denial.
You mean "top of the charts!"
BG3 is an excellent example of how dumb that phrase is. Bad writing is the cause of “woke” things failing, just as it is the cause of any poorly written but non-“woke” story based media.
You clearly put a lot of thought and effort into your content. Good job mate, it's really good.
You could start making a similar movie about Bethesda, they are already on the road to the abyss too.
Funny enough that video is in the planning stages of development.
Tash is a stereotype that only makes people in the LGBT like myself ashamed. The writing is so bad that they are using people like me as human shields against criticism. I’m tired of being pandered to by corpo morons.
This is a great piece of content. Good luck with your channel. Look forward to seeing what you come up with!
They decided to join DEI culture and that was only part of their downfall. EA is also to blame for forcing deadlines and sacrificing creativity as well employeeing people based on identity.
Fantastic video and essay
You have to remember: Veilguard was going to be a live service multiplayer. For 6 years it was developed as such until Anthem flopped and the team shit themselves and ‘retooled’ the game to being a single player again. You can see it in the DNA of the game.
Casey Hudson left in 2014, thats what happened
and the 2 bosses, without them bioware wasnt bioware anymore. i mean Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk
very good summary, i played all the titles back in the days.
Why do videos like this always skip over Jade Empire?
I just wrote about it too !
Greed and mismanagement
I have already felt that way about BioWare since Dragon Age 2. I didn't like DA2 at all.
Where did BioWare go wrong? I guess the part where the OGs left.
At that time BioWare needed the EA acquisition. They couldn't find a publisher for DA:O. After their divorce with WOTC, they were struggling to get a publisher because it was an unproven new IP.
Companies aren't living entities, they change, alongside leadership and personnel. Nice work!
The last Bioware game was Mass Effect 2
Ouch
Thats why I always laugh when people get hyped when ever Bioware's bloated corpse shows up with a new game, look at their last 6 games in the past 14 years
Dragon age 2 considered a mediocre sequel
Mass effect 3 the game ruined the trilogy with its terrible endings and tried too hard to be like Gears of War
Dragon age Inquisition is divisive to say the least and feels more like an mmo than a dragon age game
Andromeda, the game floped both with critics and fans
Anthem floped with critics and fans too
Veilguard is looking like a wet turd and it might the final straw for EA and they might pull the plug on Bioware.
Bioware has been living on their reputation for far too long even when most of the people that made Kotor, Origins and Mass Effect have already left the company.
Nah, DAO.
You could already smell the stench on ME2. The atmosphere and attitude shift of the game was palpable to say nothing of the changes to combat and loot.
True. Rpg elements were dumb down compared to ME1.
@WholesomeDough wtf? No it wasnt. ME2 was a masterpiece. Dont get delusional seeing woke shit like our woke friends do because it certainly didnt exist in me2.
Yo, this is the best vid ive seen on the subject. Thanks for taking the time to teach the history of Biowoke. I miss the OG
BioWare is long gone. They might as well rename themselves, because they are NOT BioWare.
As far as the next Mass Effect is concerned, I’m not expecting anything more than the last 4 games BioWare has released.
Mass effect is going to be the typical idealism injected detritus that we’ve been seeing from them.
this feel so sad...
i grew up with 90% of my games developed by Bioware..
heartbreaking 💔
I still hear that DA music in my dreams. God, this is sad!
Good video!
Thanks so much
Dude, I just stumbled across your channel while surfing through an endlessly disappointing youtube tangent regarding the state of current media, and how it's all headed towards one creatively-suicidal, greedy, and bankrupt direction, and I stayed for the whole video. Your presentation is warming and totally relatable, despite the sad reality of the content.
I have no hopes for the new ME game, as someone who is very sentimental about the original trilogy, I have seen enough to realise now that what we loved has become a mere skin disguising a vacuum and I have resigned myself to the fact that it'll be a good few years until the ship rights itself, if it's allowed to. I keep thinking to myself: surely money speaks louder than most, these companies cannot sustain this way, look at Disney! they've lost billions and billions since they became the champions of DEI. It's inevitable that they will eventually fall apart due to loss in revenue, and be forced to acknowledge that pandering to 3% of the population at the extreme expense of the rest just ain't possible, reasonable, or normal.
Thanks for your efforts :-)
I'm glad you speak the truth about how BioWare is despicable in cheating the metrics. BuyerBeware! BioWare died the day ME3 released.
For me it was the day Andromeda released.
@@Jedilord882 You gave them more credit than I did then. ME3 sucked in SO many ways and I despise the game - except for MultiPlayer, which I still play to this day. I hate ME3 because it could have been so much more if the writers were worth their salt.
Outstanding and accurate AF. Great job! Subbed.
The acquisition from EA definitely didn't help. But Bioware deciding to follow DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity) and hire people based on their appearance, ethnicity or sexuality rather than skill or merit has also contributed to their downfall. It also appears that DEI doesn't include white people unless their sexuality aligns with it.
yeah and on the other side you have nvidia, they only take the best of the best engineers they can get, pay them well.
DEI= Didn't Earn It
Lets stop naming them BIOWARE, lets also stop saying that BIOWARE changed. BIOWARE didnt make the great games. It was a a spacific team of talents! Specific GAMEDEVS, writers, concept artists and modelers and texture artists. These people are gone! Therefore BIOWARE became an empty shell.
So in other words: Bioware isnt a factory that keeps producing their famous,tasty chococalte bar with their good old recipe. Bioware is a rotten restaurant without COOKS!
Augustine yip is my family doctor, when I found out I was floored because BioWare games are some of my favorites and one of their founders is the guy who looks after my health lol
Very well put together full of facts that can’t be denied. Thanks, man 👍🏻
Call it copium but I truly think they have one last chance to make a banger cause imo they haven't had much misses. I liked Inquisition, it was alright. Andromeda I thought was incredibly lacking in narrative and had a hit-or-miss script but was overall good, I thoroughly and wholeheartedly enjoyed what it had to offer. Anthem was BioWare at its most creatively bankrupt, with some of the most unengaging lore, script and world building but once again I thought they nailed performance, gameplay and presentation. Anthem didn't have me hooked but I completed all of its quests and had decent fun throughout. Mass Effect Legendary Edition was a redo of greatness so it couldn't really be a miss. Legendary ME2 had more glitches than OG ME2, Pinnacle Station was missing and no ME3 multiplayer which was a shame but the package was well worth it overall, it was simply just Mass Effect but refined and Mass Effect is peak fiction.
To me, Veilguard is honestly their first turbo major miss, their first colossal L. No passion, no nuance, no respect for and adherence to lore, this was a shallow and bad experience plain and simple. The creative behind it had all the red flags you could think of, they left no red flag behind. The Mass Effect creative team is different and their lead (project director and executive producer) for the next Mass Effect is Michael Gamble. While Gamble has his fair share of dislikers (and a fair share of issues he can work on as a creator) he has worked on Mass Effect 3 and Andromeda and is incredibly passionate about the franchise, he isn't some random with checks to mark snd red flags to plant. He even openly eluded to not vibing with what the Dragon Age team did with Veilguard. I don't necessarily believe in him but I haven't given up on him either, he can definitely make it work and so far we have no reason to assume he won't.
BioWare stopped being BioWare when EA bought them. EA has been using the BioWare name to keep the money coming in, all while destroying BioWare's name in the process. EA does that to every studio they touch. The reason BioWare has lasted so long is because of the BioWare name and the consumer desire for BioWare to keep producing the games that made BioWare popular in the first place. EA ruins everything they touch; everyone knows this, but people keep buying games from them anyway.
The problem with BioWare is “the ship of theseus” question. If you replace all the parts of a ship is it the same ship? Very few of the people that made the games we love are still at BioWare.
Both BioWare and Blizzard met their fates when they were acquired by the big corporations. They died years ago as most of the key members long left the respective studios. It's truly sad to see.
really enjoying your storytelling. Very compelling. Keep up the great work!
Sad times we living... it was year ogo that we watch Blizzards fall history and now Biowere. Thanks god we still have Larian and Paradox.
They went from creating art to pushing ideology. They deserve to close.
Did you just skip Jade Empire… -_-
Bro your video is highly immersive compare to many EA games.
4k to 400k will be easy for you with quality of video like this.
Thank you very much!
Awesome content here. Keep this up and you'll be over 100K in no time. Like your trajectory is the exact opposite of Bioware. Lol.
Excellent vid, thx for making it
What people should remember is, that the Bioware from the mid-2000s isn't the the Bioware from now. I'm sure none of the former staff works still there, at least from the senior and team-leading positions. The Bioware now is just a husk of it's former self, only kept alive by it's name and it's IPs names. But hey, we got Larian, CDP Red and (maybe) Obsidian, and a ton of other indie CRPG-studios. Old things die off, new things grow.
All these big franchises lost their old guard and gained young fanfiction writers in their place.
Bro you forgot Jade Empire!!
It gets a little nod
@@TheComebackKidsTVlol nah you not feeling that jade empire like that! I like it but I don’t blame you
Swtor is a jewel I agree, great game that could bite off WoW's pie if not for stupid management
Your vids definitely feel like talking games with the boys 👊