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Dragon Age: Veilguard releases with over 70k concurrent players on Steam and 'Mixed Reviews'

Hookshot

Member
It didn't drop much lower during it's lull than the day before. I thought it was plummet below 20k but 21k is still the daily low.
 

Alex11

Member
A regular combat system, quite superficial to be honest. Apparently they had a lot of God of War fans in the office and they dragged quite a lot. Essentially, endless beating of dumb, identical sponges of opponents. For me, the most annoying moment was probably that they actually removed companions from the game, now they are roughly speaking just skill buttons. It is not bad, it is as casual as possible and fun for the first 4-5 hours, then it gets boring very quickly. There are very few types and varieties of enemies, they are constantly repeating.
I really can't believe how some praise this game's combat, and yeah, it's GOW dumbed down hard.
I've said it before, there's no challenge, for fuck's sake, they put an option to not die at the lowest difficulty. Why would you need that, you're walking around with companions which can't die and they are also basically just another set of abilities, who can heal you till tomorrow (lol, who needs mana, it's so last year, have some global cooldowns) on top of pots of health everywhere and also you can be revived at least 2 times.
Perhaps the most striking example (sorry for the spoilers) is the arena quest, there you need to go through 10 fights, "a very exciting quest", where enemies can be repeated simply because there are so few of them in the game.
Man, I couldn't believe that quest, the last fights were easier and no special boss fight for the last one, a joke of an arena fight quest.
 

Mayar

Member
I really can't believe how some praise this game's combat, and yeah, it's GOW dumbed down hard.
I've said it before, there's no challenge, for fuck's sake, they put an option to not die at the lowest difficulty. Why would you need that, you're walking around with companions which can't die and they are also basically just another set of abilities, who can heal you till tomorrow (lol, who needs mana, it's so last year, have some global cooldowns) on top of pots of health everywhere and also you can be revived at least 2 times.

Man, I couldn't believe that quest, the last fights were easier and no special boss fight for the last one, a joke of an arena fight quest.
Well, to be honest, I don't know anymore, either I'm old and don't fit into the realities of the modern world, or the priorities of the players have changed so much and abruptly that I simply stopped understanding modern players. In my time, when RPGs came out, the development of the plot, dialogues, the world, characters were valued, all this was actively discussed between players. Now - the graphics are beautiful, you have to poke buttons until the enemy dies, there are sometimes some dialogues. We are all satisfied with everything 9 out of 10.
 
Sooo the only white male party character is some effeminate necromancer and the only strong white male important character is some angry bald warden leader who can't be reasoned with?

For the people who can't understand what wokism is. There you go.
Not Listening Dumb And Dumber GIF
 

JayK47

Member
As a person who has nevertheless completed this masterpiece of the gaming industry, judging by everything...

1) yeah the story and acting ain't the best

If we take the 3 games in the series that came out before this, they are the worst of everything that came before, despite the fact that DA2 and DAI are also far from being masterpieces, but at least they tried to get into the game's setting. Here we have a complete lack of understanding and respect for the game's setting, events that contradict the game's lore, the main character who is essentially a psychotherapist for his companions and treats them like little children. A complete lack of any kind of choice in the game, all dialogues lead to the same decision (with the exception of 2 moments closer to the end, in the best traditions of Mass Effect 3, when you are actually given the choice of the ending). For some reason, the characters in the fantasy game speak as if they were born in the 2000s in California and drink smoothies for breakfast. I won't even talk about things like Sweet Baby, everyone is tired of them. Although if you make the main character an elf, then he will be ASHAMED throughout the game for what the Elven gods did long ago, and this is the only case when the main character will be offered to REPENT for this, while Bellara also constantly reproaches herself for this... and this is in the world of DA, seriously?I can still understand if people haven't played the previous parts of the game, but forgive me people, what are you just letting dialogues flow past your brain without processing the information? Or do you really not understand what they are trying to shove into your brain in a veiled manner? barely any cringe dei shit...

2) And the combat is top tier for me

A regular combat system, quite superficial to be honest. Apparently they had a lot of God of War fans in the office and they dragged quite a lot. Essentially, endless beating of dumb, identical sponges of opponents. For me, the most annoying moment was probably that they actually removed companions from the game, now they are roughly speaking just skill buttons. It is not bad, it is as casual as possible and fun for the first 4-5 hours, then it gets boring very quickly. There are very few types and varieties of enemies, they are constantly repeating. Perhaps the most striking example (sorry for the spoilers) is the arena quest, there you need to go through 10 fights, "a very exciting quest", where enemies can be repeated simply because there are so few of them in the game.

No one denies the fact that the locations look nice, only the characters turned out badly, they look like characters from Pixar cartoons. Apparently, the quality bar for games, especially RPGs, has fallen so much among players that the main thing is that the picture is nice, the rest is not important. History, dialogues, world, characters, etc. we apparently no longer need in RPGs =). And in general, if this game was not called DA, it would have received its 7 points as a week-long pass, which everyone would then forget. And everything would be calm. But since they decided to make money on the DA brand, then you will get the full consequences. And perhaps the saddest thing in this whole story, before that everyone was worried when DA2 came out and the quality of the game dropped, but they still had hope, then DAI came out and hope had not died yet, but there were already prerequisites for it. Well, now I am practically certain that with the release of this game, the nail was finally driven into the coffin of DA.
Good review. You should post it in the review thread. I am amazed at what some gamers can overlook as long as it looks good at 60 fps. Must give a decent dopamine rush in spite of everything.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Sooo the only white male party character is some effeminate necromancer and the only strong white male important character is some angry bald warden leader who can't be reasoned with?

For the people who can't understand what wokism is. There you go.
They did this shit in Anthem too. I only played 5 hours of my 10 hour Origin trial, but I remember the only white dude in your crew was this meek soy loser guy who couldn’t pilot a robot for some reason. I found out that he later betrays your team.
 

Mayar

Member
Good review. You should post it in the review thread. I am amazed at what some gamers can overlook as long as it looks good at 60 fps. Must give a decent dopamine rush in spite of everything.
I don't see much point in reviewing it. People who have experience in RPGs and those who are familiar with the world and lore of the game will quickly and easily see through this dummy. And there is no point in explaining it to people who just play for the beautiful graphics, they will continue to play for the beautiful graphics, other aspects of the game are of little interest to them.

Explaining how and where dei is presented in a veiled manner, everyone is so tired of it, that the less attention is paid to it, the better. There is a chance that it will be forgotten quickly and the fashion for it will pass, plus there are already so many videos and screenshots that there is no need for this. If someone cannot recognize this in the dialogues, well, here we can only advise reading more books and not skipping school =)
 

BigBeauford

Member
They did this shit in Anthem too. I only played 5 hours of my 10 hour Origin trial, but I remember the only white dude in your crew was this meek soy loser guy who couldn’t pilot a robot for some reason. I found out that he later betrays your team.
You think this is bad, just watch any popular kids show on TV these days. The white dude is either afraid of his own shadow (Hilda), is a total nerdy simp who lets the minorities and girls fight the dinosaurs (Jurassic Park), or they are disabled/handicapped.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
They did this shit in Anthem too. I only played 5 hours of my 10 hour Origin trial, but I remember the only white dude in your crew was this meek soy loser guy who couldn’t pilot a robot for some reason. I found out that he later betrays your team.
Starfield did the same thing at the beginning of the game. The first two characters you see are an asian girl boss and a submissive white guy. She berates and belittles him before going full boss lady on her mining crew (this shows she is strong and capable!). It's insufferable.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Starfield did the same thing at the beginning of the game. The first two characters you see are an asian girl boss and a submissive white guy. She berates and belittles him before going full boss lady on her mining crew (this shows she is strong and capable!). It's insufferable.
Yeah I remember one scene where I chose to jokingly give Matthew shit about how I was winning 3-0 in finding artifacts. He laughed and said something like “I welcome the friendly competition”

Then fucking Sarah AND Andreja both butt into the conversation and start scolding him about how we’re on the same team and we can’t have any competition.

He’s like “well I find that sometimes friendly competition can motivate us to try harder and do our best”

“NO, ABSOLUTELY NO COMPETITION”




It’s so stupid. This is their idea of what a “strong woman” character is supposed to be like. Some humorless, 0 charisma cunt who scolds and bosses around her underlings with a scowl on her face.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Game is trending down on Steamdb, but it's not falling off a cliff. It's a slow burn with daily low CCUs slightly trending down. Makes sense as it's an RPG. So gamers have lots of content to plow through.

Past few weekdays it's been roughly 21k Low and 50k-ish High. So the weekend will likely bring a peak high again of perhaps 70k? Doesn't look likely it'd match or exceed 89k all time high.
 

Nydius

Member
It may not profit in the long run, but Bioware isn't going anywhere

If this were their first critical miss, I’d agree with you. But if this ends up being a sales flop it’s looking to be, it’s their third failure in 7 years. Mass Effect Andromeda, Anthem, Dragon Age.

Anthem is somewhat understandable as they chased a looter-shooter live service trend out of their wheelhouse. But they’ve completely mutilated the legacy of their two most revered RPG franchises by releasing pure mediocrity.

Edit:
Have a feeling that if this dies, Mass Effect will die together with it.

Let it die. I say that as one of the biggest Mass Effect fanboys on this forum. The people behind the ME Trilogy who made it special (minus the ending kerfluffle) are long gone. The writing of Andromeda, Anthem, and now Dragon Age show they can no longer write decent characters or stories.

Any future Mass Effect game will only shit on the legacy of the original trilogy.
 
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Pop

Member
Sooo the only white male party character is some effeminate necromancer and the only strong white male important character is some angry bald warden leader who can't be reasoned with?

For the people who can't understand what wokism is. There you go.
White People bad ok...
 

GymWolf

Member
Kacho Kacho

Don't worry, it's definitely not that either (or neither, i always forget the right form :lollipop_grinning_sweat: )

It's decent\good at best and if enemy variety is shit like i'm hearing everywhere and the game remain this easy even on max difficulty, this thing doesn't even sniff great territory, let alone top tier.
 
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DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Game is trending down on Steamdb, but it's not falling off a cliff. It's a slow burn with daily low CCUs slightly trending down. Makes sense as it's an RPG. So gamers have lots of content to plow through.

Past few weekdays it's been roughly 21k Low and 50k-ish High. So the weekend will likely bring a peak high again of perhaps 70k? Doesn't look likely it'd match or exceed 89k all time high.
Single player games almost always hit their all time peak on their first Sunday, unless it’s a situation where the game wasn’t on a lot of people’s radar until it got a ton of post-launch buzz.

It’ll definitely do better on the weekend than it did during this week, but no way in hell it’ll do better than last weekend. It’s peaked.
 

Fbh

Member
So.... apparently Jason Schreiber deleted his sales tweet about "go woke go... top of charts" post for DAtV. I legit wonder how the game is doing.

The tweet was fucking dumb to begin with.
One can argue a 70K launch and 89K peak is an ok result and doesn't reflect a proper "bomb", but to claim it's "topping the charts" with those numbers is silly.

Just earlier this year Dragons Dogma 2 was doing 200+k. And that's a game that reviewed similarly, was a sequel to a game that sold less than DA Inquisition and also had a bit of online controversy surrounding its launch (though more from technical issues than the actual content of the game).
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
So.... apparently Jason Schreiber deleted his sales tweet about "go woke go... top of charts" post for DAtV. I legit wonder how the game is doing.

He truly is pathetic when it comes to this sort of thing. Folks should keep this in mind when reading anything from him that isn't directly about video games because he is promoting his own personal political agenda. In that regard, I don't see him any differently than that Endymion youtube guy who is on the opposite side of the spectrum.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The tweet was fucking dumb to begin with.
One can argue a 70K launch and 89K peak is an ok result and doesn't reflect a proper "bomb", but to claim it's "topping the charts" with those numbers is silly.

Just earlier this year Dragons Dogma 2 was doing 200+k. And that's a game that reviewed similarly, was a sequel to a game that sold less than DA Inquisition and also had a bit of online controversy surrounding its launch (though more from technical issues than the actual content of the game).
I never saw the tweet, but like most media out there (not just gaming related), they seem to stick together being more liberal leaning. The best proof of them running away with their tails between their legs is dead silence or deleted tweets, since they'd almost never come out with logical reasons why a DEI-ish product bombed. You'll get post mortem analysis more from streamers who dont have any skin in the game or are part of the media industry.

But a guy like Jason S has to tow the line as he's a big enough name in gaming and even does Bloomberg articles. So he'll never really be able to just call a spade a spade that concord sucked as a game and was DEI laughed at to death.
 

RoboFu

One of the green rats
He truly is pathetic when it comes to this sort of thing. Folks should keep this in mind when reading anything from him that isn't directly about video games because he is promoting his own personal political agenda. In that regard, I don't see him any differently than that Endymion youtube guy who is on the opposite side of the spectrum.

which is every video game " journalist " these days. So what happens when you sit in a room full of these people and ask what they want from video games? you get concord and Dragonage: failhard
 
So.... apparently Jason Schreiber deleted his sales tweet about "go woke go... top of charts" post for DAtV. I legit wonder how the game is doing.
It's staggering that this guy does this shit FOR A LIVING and myself and several others in this thread had the foresight to see this coming before the game even launched. He writes about games for Bloomberg and he actually gets paid for insightful takes.

I haven't even played Dragon Age before, I'm just here with my popcorn bucket because I knew this was going to be a flop.
 
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llLeonhart

Member
Yeah it's like AI generated content. I keep telling YouTube to stop posting his content in my feed and it doesn't go away, likely because I watch Asmongold clips.
I hate woke culture, I truly do. Specially when it feels like I’m being talked down to, or when they’re trying to “educate” gamers.
That being said. I cannot stand Endimyon. It honestly feels like he pulls info out of his ass. I bet 80% of his “sources” are voices in his head.
 
This is one of the most stark differences between the journo class and customers.

It's actually quite stunning how fucking off the mark they are with this game.

They called this the best DA by:

1. Going against the core game play of the series (GoW-clone Action focused, you command only one character)
2. None of your choices in previous games matter in a series that prided itself that your choice matter.
3. Complete tone change from the others from dark fantasy to whimsy.

Not a fucking mention in these salivating reviews. You think maybe there would have been a passing criticism or even a comment on these departures, right?
 
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Topher

Identifies as young
which is every video game " journalist " these days. So what happens when you sit in a room full of these people and ask what they want from video games? you get concord and Dragonage: failhard

To some extent, perhaps, but Schreier is on another level than most I think and is probably the most prominent journalist in the industry. The guy has a ton of connections though and is incredibly well-informed, but he will let his politics dictate what he does/does not report. That is what we are seeing here.
 

Alex11

Member
Well, to be honest, I don't know anymore, either I'm old and don't fit into the realities of the modern world, or the priorities of the players have changed so much and abruptly that I simply stopped understanding modern players. In my time, when RPGs came out, the development of the plot, dialogues, the world, characters were valued, all this was actively discussed between players. Now - the graphics are beautiful, you have to poke buttons until the enemy dies, there are sometimes some dialogues. We are all satisfied with everything 9 out of 10.
I think it's all these things you described combined, even so, for the plot, writing, characters, there's no excuse for gaps of logic and story progression, yeah some ways of thinking change and should change, but not including the viewpoints of every lunatic on twitter or tik tok.

In terms of gameplay, sure, it's expected to change, as today the tech allows for animations that were not possible, but that doesn't mean that a win button should exist, the gameplay is so dumbed down, this game isn't the only example.
Why would I play it then, for the story? I'll watch it on youtube, for the visuals? There are tons of screenshots out there, so weird, I need a bit of a challenge, it's healthy.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
I cannot stand Endimyon. It honestly feels like he pulls info out of his ass. I bet 80% of his “sources” are voices in his head.

Haha, maybe. I've never watched Endymion's stuff myself - not because it's rage bait, but because it's too long. I can't listen to someone ranting for half an hour and repeating the same talking points over and over. Give me a 5-minute clip where you give me some new information, and I'll listen long enough to get the gist (usually a minute or two), but I ain't got time for a 30 minute rant over something everyone else is ranting about but more succinctly.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Well, to be honest, I don't know anymore, either I'm old and don't fit into the realities of the modern world, or the priorities of the players have changed so much and abruptly that I simply stopped understanding modern players. In my time, when RPGs came out, the development of the plot, dialogues, the world, characters were valued, all this was actively discussed between players. Now - the graphics are beautiful, you have to poke buttons until the enemy dies, there are sometimes some dialogues. We are all satisfied with everything 9 out of 10.
Baldur’s Gate 3 does all those things you loved about classic RPGs, and was rewarded with stellar reviews and blockbuster sales because of it.

I think what you’re witnessing isn’t a change in players’ preference. Rather completely artificial hype created by the useless legacy gaming media, who are afraid to piss off a big powerful publisher like EA, and afraid of giving even the slightest hint of being on the wrong side of the “culture war”.

The sales #s and user reviews tell a totally different story.
 

Mayar

Member
Baldur’s Gate 3 does all those things you loved about classic RPGs, and was rewarded with stellar reviews and blockbuster sales because of it.

I think what you’re witnessing isn’t a change in players’ preference. Rather completely artificial hype created by the useless legacy gaming media, who are afraid to piss off a big powerful publisher like EA, and afraid of giving even the slightest hint of being on the wrong side of the “culture war”.

The sales #s and user reviews tell a totally different story.
This is one of the reasons why after the release of BG3, some developers and media wrote that - "BG3 cannot be perceived as a standard for RPGs, it's unfair." They were really shaken after the release, when they realized what had happened and what would happen next.

Honestly, I wouldn't mind making a time machine and going back to the times -Icewind Dale 1-2, Fallout 1-2, Baldur's Gate 1-2, Planescape: Torment, Neverwinter Nights 1-2 and ect.
It seems to me that I didn't really appreciate what we had then, looking at what we have now ))))
 
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Let it die. I say that as one of the biggest Mass Effect fanboys on this forum. The people behind the ME Trilogy who made it special (minus the ending kerfluffle) are long gone. The writing of Andromeda, Anthem, and now Dragon Age show they can no longer write decent characters or stori

Any future Mass Effect game will only shit on the legacy of the original trilogy.
Publishers don't care about preserving legacy. They care about profits. Mass Effect is still a massive IP that has huge potential. It is the biggest reason why Bioware isn't going anywhere. Take 2 would have to put Mass Effect on the backburner if they shuddered the studio. And there is no doubt Bioware still has a lot of talent, from a technical perspective. Hopefully they can find new writers, as Veilguard seems to fall flat from a story perspective
 

Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
Let it die. I say that as one of the biggest Mass Effect fanboys on this forum. The people behind the ME Trilogy who made it special (minus the ending kerfluffle) are long gone. The writing of Andromeda, Anthem, and now Dragon Age show they can no longer write decent characters or stories.

Any future Mass Effect game will only shit on the legacy of the original trilogy.
The main writer of Veilguard, formerly known as Patrick Weekes, worked on all of the Mass Effect games, including the best DLCs, and was responsible for superbly-written characters like Mordin Solus. Clearly something went wrong between then and now, though.
 

Nydius

Member
Publishers don't care about preserving legacy. They care about profits.

And that's why we get games like Veilguard. If they don't care about the legacy of the original Mass Effect trilogy, the sequel will be a massive, epic flop. They're already shitting on the very thing that made the trilogy special (player choice) by canonizing specific events and a specific ending so they can continue the Shepard story.
The main writer of Veilguard, formerly known as Patrick Weekes, worked on all of the Mass Effect games, including the best DLCs, and was responsible for superbly-written characters like Mordin Solus. Clearly something went wrong between then and now, though.

Patrick Weekes is no Drew Karpyshyn. Also, Weeks didn't create Mordin, he merely continued him after Karpyshyn left.
Mordin was originally written by Karpyshyn in ME2.
 

LectureMaster

Gold Member
The main writer of Veilguard, formerly known as Patrick Weekes, worked on all of the Mass Effect games, including the best DLCs, and was responsible for superbly-written characters like Mordin Solus. Clearly something went wrong between then and now, though.
Patrick also was the main writer of the Trespasser DLC of DA:I, which was why I had a sliver of hope with veilguard in the beginning. Damn, those talent really got poisoned fast in the agenda focused environment.
 

EN250

Member
This must die so Mass Effect can live.

This is the gangrenous leg that must be removed before the poison gets to the heart.
The idea that throwing DA under the bus will somehow improve the quality of ME (I guess to dedicate more time to it?) is delusional, it's the same clueless devs doing crap way above their capacity

Game looks pretty damn good, imo. Here are some screenshots, performance and fidelity side by side. Performance mode runs very smooth.




This is something it stuck in my mind while watching Shillup review, dude said the world is graphically beautiful but awful to explore and the characters not only look bad from the start but also like they were taken out of some DreamWorks movie with generic humanoid characters 🤣

Also, how are you dealing with the dialogue? From the video review the examples were atrocious, like MC role is of a teacher figure trying to explain stuff to a bunch of kids with attitude 🤦‍♂️
 
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Chairman Yang

if he talks about books, you better damn well listen
And that's why we get games like Veilguard. If they don't care about the legacy of the original Mass Effect trilogy, the sequel will be a massive, epic flop. They're already shitting on the very thing that made the trilogy special (player choice) by canonizing specific events and a specific ending so they can continue the Shepard story.


Patrick Weekes is no Drew Karpyshyn. Also, Weeks didn't create Mordin, he merely continued him after Karpyshyn left.
Mordin was originally written by Karpyshyn in ME2.
At least according to this interview, looks like Weekes did the writing for Mordin for Mass Effect 2 as well:

Karpyshyn's involvement seemed to be the basic concept and then telling Weekes to go write the character.

Anyways, the Weekes we knew is clearly gone.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
The idea that throwing DA under the bus will somehow improve the quality of ME (I guess to dedicate more time to it?) is delusional, it's the same clueless devs doing crap way above their capacity



This is something it stuck in my mind while watching Shillup review, dude said the world is graphically beautiful but awful to explore and the characters not only look bad from the start but also like they were taken out of some DreamWorks movie with generic humanoid characters 🤣

Also, how are you dealing with the dialogue? From the video review the examples were atrocious, like MC role is of a teacher figure trying to explain stuff to a bunch of kids with attitude 🤦‍♂️

The best way I can describe the characters is.......plasticy. Yeah.....some weird hybrid of Dreamworks characters and people. It isn't horrible, but I'm not loving it. The environment, however, looks fantastic, imo.

Can't really comment on the dialog at this point. I'm still early in the game.
 
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