this

Meh.

BioWare need to impress me somehow before I even bother with this. Dragon Age was fantastic, Mass Effect was fantastic.

Mass Effect 2 is a TPS with small RPG elements. Dragon Age 2 is a dumbed down effort, garbage.

If Mass Effect 3 is the same, BioWare can go to hell. This can follow them.

zzzzZZZZzzzZ

I want to take issue with a whole host of comments in this thread, but it boils down to the same thing for most if not all of them. This notion that Bioware was a hardcore developer of role playing game is entirely erroneous. They have very much been a casual developer in the genre. They never got pulverized for this, because it was overlooked due to their focus on story development. That doesn't change the fact though that overall it was all pretty weak on the other fronts.

When you judge a Bioware game on the mechanics alone. You realize it is terribly uninspired, and totally outdated.
Really it is a facade that barely stands up to scrutiny. They aren't weakening strong systems, but are actually doing something far worse they are weakening already weak systems, and substituting their weak role playing elements for gasp even weaker action elements. Really it is hard to tell which is the greater sin. You see it wouldn't all be so terribly bad if they were doing a convincing job of hybridizing. Using both ends to enhance the other, but they are most often opposed to one another.

The cold dark truth of the matter is this. Their story building mechanic was all they ever had going for them, and with other developers adopting those methods. They should have put more emphasis into developing what was under the hood. Contriving unique leveling, character building, and inventory systems. Instead they continually dump more into story, and even then that mechanic is wearing mighty thin. I would go so far as to say others are actually doing a better job of that.

Really it is a tall order to be putting out a decent genre hybrid. When the reality is you do a lousy job of the whole affair on both ends. I think it is a fair assessment that they need to get good at doing one before they should even consider trying to do both. Their action elements are an embarrassment, and their role playing elements are just plain laughable. Like I eluded to earlier most of us muddle through for the story, and the pseudo choices, but in the end that never meant the games played all that well. Just ask yourself this if those story elements were just gone from those games you liked. Would the game play actually keep you coming back. The answer is simply no it is the story that raises these games out of mediocrity.

I personally don't see that as being enough anymore. The fact that more people are complaining is proof that the audience has lost its tolerance for the most part as well.

You make a reasonable point.

What I'm saying is that DA2 was slaughtered by Bioware's fans even though it wasn't a bad game at all. That said, it wasn't an epic like their previous efforts either.

I still think people should complain less and try and wait for 2/3 projects more before calling it a ''fall from grace''.

Must be said that I don't feel too strongly about this point.

Now Rare is certainly in that category IMO.

Baldur's Gate 2 = 2+ million copies on PC that's not really niche sales 

Dragon Age 2 = 1.58 million according to VGChartz on PS3, X360 and PC...

Aaaaaand; end scene...

Thats Great but....

Uncharted 2 = over 4.93 million sales

Gears of War3 = over 5 million in sales by end of year

Halo: Reach = almost over 9 million in sales

MW3 = 6.5 million in just pre-orders!

You cant blame Bioware from trying tp get a lil piece of the pie

Mario Kart Wii = 28.88m

Wii Sports Resort = 28.57m

Wii Fit = 22.73m

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare = 15.61

Just Dance 2 = 8.36m

looks to me like tey went after the wrong pie