...Only to have their masters brutally decimate the results....As long as Bioware (Which BTW, they've actually earned that title) is still being pimped out by EA, all efforts in creating a successful RPG will result in mediocrity...I wouldn't even accept their game if given away for free!


If ANYONE deserves an arrow to the knee....

Look how far EA has dragged every successful company they have purchased threw the mud, they clearly do not have a good business sense in regards to other game companies. They want to disintegrate any superb franchise they acquire threw any business venture.

I'm shocked to read that people didn't like Mass Effect 2. Mass Effect 2 was a masterpiece.

I've not played either game; I plan to play DaO when I can... But I saw DA2 on Newegg for $5.
*(Perhaps it was $15, I dunno... but I really think it was actually $5, and they were desperate to get rid of it.)

I first saw this with the brutal decimation of the best RPG series ever, when they destroyed Ultima 9, of which even the massive community patch was unable to fix the still present game-breaking bugs! Then the greedy filths locked up that series to never see the light of day! My god, I want them to die a fiery death like you wouldn't believe! <--A simple emote, is insufficient enough to express the volcanic hatred that I have for this company!

They have ended several great things in the industry.

To me it seems mainly they have their sights locked on RPGs mainly, and they want to blow them out of the water.

Agreed, they should simply stick to Frakkin' Madden and be done with it! Apparently, you wouldn't want to http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Electronic-Arts-Reviews-E1628.htm there as well, unless you're upper management and love long hours cranking out mediocre titles...

Altough I generally agree, that Bioware turned their back on the old fanbase, ME2 is one of the best games I evre played. It is no RPG in the traditional sense, but it IS a really, REALLY good game. I am aware of the fact that you can not really discuss taste, but saying it is a bad game is plain wrong. Saying that you think it is a bad RPG is something different.

Dragon Age 2 was a horrid rush job of a game with an uninspired, choppy storyline and repeated areas galore. I tried it, and absolutely detest it to the point I cannot even play it.

As for Skyrim, it's great, but there seems to be a game missing in this line of 2011 comparisons (which in hindsight makes Dragon Age 2 look even worse than it did originally). The missing game in the OP?

The Witcher 2. If you ask me, it's almost the perfect balance (except for those damn QTEs) between an open world and a great story with interesting characters.

My hat is off to both Bethesda and CD Projekt. They made 2011 a terrific year for gaming.

That just farther proves they are garbage.
Oh yes the CEOs and all that, the top of the food chain if you will benefit while the people that actually make all their money suffer.
I agree they should stick to what they do best Madden.

""[The next Dragon Age] is gonna have the best of features from the prior Dragon Age games, but it’s also gonna have a lot of things I think players are gonna find compelling from some of the games that are out now that are doing really well with more of an open world feel," Muzyka said. "We’re checking [Skyrim] out aggressively. We like it. We’re big admirers of [Bethesda] and the product. We think we can do some wonderful things."


Mayhap when their contract is up, they might consider joining the winning team!

I think you're being a little generous courtesy of the fantasy world in your head; your opinion says it's above average at worst; the repeating tilesets for the dungeons alone take that above average right out of the ring. It was a rookie mistake; or contempt for the player base. Pathetic. Below average since even the small gaming houses manage to give you different map sets in this day and age. Hell, they could have reaused map sets from DAO if they were that fracking lazy to create some new ones for that turdfest. Dogcrap compared to games they've made before. That's my opinion.

At this point im surprised nobody has mentioned SWTOR.....

About how a series was ruined with another MMO.

RIP

KOTOR

Reminds me of how Warcraft is dead.

Bingo. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the highest grade which is where we'll start), the repeated areas alone bring DA 2 down to a 7 (an average game by the way current grades are handled for AAA titles). You throw in the wave attacks and ninja drops we're all of a sudden at a 5. The graphics (especially the model renders)? We're at 4. The lack of immersion is stupendous. Has any city ever been more stagnant than Kirkwall and what is up with the people not reacting to a battle taking place mere paces away and what about...I could go on and on about the lack of immersion. We're at 3. The narrative story removes the player even more. It's being told from the point of view of someone besides the player (something I really don't like with the Witcher series is that the journal is Dandelion's POV). Take off another point. We're at 2. Choices not affecting the outcome of the story? That takes this game down to 1. Seriously, we're that low, and I almost feel as if I'm being kind. I could actually grade this game below zero considering you cannot interact with your party when you like and you cannot alter their armor.

There are, however, some things for which Dragon Age 2 should be rewarded, so I'll tack on an additional two points for the things they tried and almost succeeded with.

After all that, I end up at 3.

One of the lowest grades I've ever given a game.

"Well... That's like... Your opinion, okay?"

Mass Effect 2 was great, I'll admit that. It is not an RPG, though, not by the most stretched definition of the term. It has RPG elements, yes, but the focus on player skill in combat rather than character skill makes it more of a third-person shooter than an RPG. It's a great game, but not a worthy followup to ME1's RPG side. Had ME1 been billed as an action sci-fi game, I wouldn't have minded the streamlining in ME2. But ME1 was supposed to be a space-opera RPG, and it delivered that experience. ME2 does not.

DA 2 was obviously a huge letdown compared to Origins, but I think it's svckiness is overstated.

It still had a good story, good storytelling, and well written and likable characters.

But the gameplay was a letdown obviously, the re-use of the same dungeon dozens of times especially.

Sometimes I think about how amazing it would be if the people on forums like these could work on these games. It'd be astonishing. I've seen some pretty amazing ideas on here, and developers just don't seem to know what they're doing anymore. A boy can dream.

On a side note, I've been writing game manuscripts my whole life. I'm horrible with programming (no patience for the stuff), but I've been writing up all sorts of game mechanic ideas and notes stored on my hard drive ever since I first played Super Mario Brothers.

You are not the only one. I loved Mass Effect 2.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. ME1 had a better story and deeper RPG options. ME2 had better combat, better graphics, more squadmates, etc.

Both are great games. I don't think the ME franchise was ever meant to be a "deep" or "old school" type of RPG. It is really an Action RPG or a FPS with RPG elements.

I at least decided to try and do something about it. Novels and other stories now, game later. See http://www.calasade.com

Mass Effect 2 was a wonderful interactive movie. Although I am personally more fond of Mad Dog Mccree, Sewer Shark, and Dragon's Lair, that could just be the nostalgia goggles talking.

LOL, "nostalgia goggles talking". I like it (and suffer from it as well regarding some games I played long ago).

Interactive movie? I guess its an "extremely interactive movie" then! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PE56V5sVj28&feature=related

The best part about ME2 was the combat.

Since we are talking about interactive movies... Sewer Shark was ok. I prefer Ground Zero Texas or Double Switch.

I liked DAII, although the fact that you were stuck in one city really was a bombshell-failure, along with the constantly reused cells and the returning to every part of the game three times.
I liked the speed of it over DA:O especially, as well as the dialogue. But Skyrim has set the bar, I agree