Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser #2

[Jack Brickman]

Time will tell. Disney seems to be really into protecting the brand, so if EA makes a bunch of poop then I'm sure they'll go elsewhere. There aren't really a lot of other third party AAA publishers though, so I think we're stuck with this.

The problem was them giving the rights to one publisher in the first place. The smart move would have been to deal out the rights to individual developers based on the quality of their prior releases and their vision for a Star Wars game.

Christ was that an awesome game. If there was gaming HOF KOTOR and the original dragon age would be at the top of the heap

If i was a really rich guy id try to get tahy group from Bioware and just start it over again

KOTOR is definitely an all-time classic, although I don't know if I'd put it in my top ten simply because its gameplay doesn't hold up nearly as well as a lot of other classics.

Difference between publishers and developers though.

The problems with EA are entirely due to EA, not really Disney. EA could hire a competent development studio to handle these games. Dev studios can also approach EA (happens all the time with other publishers).

This is more of an EA internal issue than one to do with Disney or the publishing market.

Thankfully, game makers are moving away from this paradigm as it is.

The big publisher model in video games is one of the worst things about it. Activision and EA ruin franchises and studios by consuming them and then assimilating them. How many once great studios has EA ruined? It's sad to think about. Meanwhile, Activision is doing their best to destroy Bungie.

Completely off topic, but I still dont get why Dragon Age Inquisition is so beloved. Who cares how big the world is when it's incredibly empty and boring. I think some people even prefer it to the Witcher 3, which boggles my mind. The Witcher 3 is literally a better (and similar) game in every possible way.

Edit: and i say that as someone who has played almost every bioware game.

Yeah, I really don't understand why Inquisition was so highly-rated, other than EA paying big advertising dollars to all the sites that reviewed it, of course. It's a solid enough game, but the world is just so generic and there's not much interesting to do. The story is pretty bland too.

Really, that's the problem with making your main character a cipher. When done poorly, you end up with a totally uninteresting character. It didn't help that the supporting cast wasn't nearly as strong as in prior games in the series, and you really need strong supporting characters if you're going to make your main character a cipher.

The Witcher 3 is the vastly superior game, though, I agree. It's also why I prefer games that have you play as an actual character rather than trying to make you the main character. Geralt has a personality and a history in the world. Many people know him and either like or despise him, and that impacts interactions in the game. You can still make choices and develop him in a manner you see fit, but none of it really seems out of character.

I think Inquisition just lacked any semblance of an interesting main character, and when you couple that with boring supporting characters that's why it was such a forgettable game.

 

[gourimoko]

Story for kotor 2 never came close to the original though.

I disagree. I think KOTOR 2 had a deeper story, better dialogue, and more interesting antagonists.

KOTOR I was the more accessible story; simpler. You're the hero, there's the bad guy, kill him = win.

KOTOR II, there were no winners and losers. It's just a much more complex story.

 

[spydy13]

Difference between publishers and developers though.

The problems with EA are entirely due to EA, not really Disney. EA could hire a competent development studio to handle these games. Dev studios can also approach EA (happens all the time with other publishers).

This is more of an EA internal issue than one to do with Disney or the publishing market.

Thankfully, game makers are moving away from this paradigm as it is.

Yeah, I just lumped them together because I assume that EA will keep the games in house at one of their studios.

But you're right that Disney could ultimately decide to pick developers they like and publish the games themselves rather than license the brand out to EA, Ubisoft, or Activision (I seriously doubt that they would go console specific even though there are some great devs there).

 

[Pioneer10]

I disagree. I think KOTOR 2 had a deeper story, better dialogue, and more interesting antagonists.

KOTOR I was the more accessible story; simpler. You're the hero, there's the bad guy, kill him = win.

KOTOR II, there were no winners and losers. It's just a much more complex story.

I thought KOTOR story was great: your actually a Sith Lord and what do you decide to when you learn your true identity?

 

[Pioneer10]

The problem was them giving the rights to one publisher in the first place. The smart move would have been to deal out the rights to individual developers based on the quality of their prior releases and their vision for a Star Wars game.



KOTOR is definitely an all-time classic, although I don't know if I'd put it in my top ten simply because its gameplay doesn't hold up nearly as well as a lot of other classics.



The big publisher model in video games is one of the worst things about it. Activision and EA ruin franchises and studios by consuming them and then assimilating them. How many once great studios has EA ruined? It's sad to think about. Meanwhile, Activision is doing their best to destroy Bungie.



Yeah, I really don't understand why Inquisition was so highly-rated, other than EA paying big advertising dollars to all the sites that reviewed it, of course. It's a solid enough game, but the world is just so generic and there's not much interesting to do. The story is pretty bland too.

Really, that's the problem with making your main character a cipher. When done poorly, you end up with a totally uninteresting character. It didn't help that the supporting cast wasn't nearly as strong as in prior games in the series, and you really need strong supporting characters if you're going to make your main character a cipher.

The Witcher 3 is the vastly superior game, though, I agree. It's also why I prefer games that have you play as an actual character rather than trying to make you the main character. Geralt has a personality and a history in the world. Many people know him and either like or despise him, and that impacts interactions in the game. You can still make choices and develop him in a manner you see fit, but none of it really seems out of character.

I think Inquisition just lacked any semblance of an interesting main character, and when you couple that with boring supporting characters that's why it was such a forgettable game.

Witcher 2 was such a great game: I'm wary of playing Witcher 3. I barely have enough time for games nowadays and I refuse to play any Dragon Age games after Origins because I don't want to waste my time wondering why is that games so bad compared to it.

 

[gourimoko]

Yeah, I just lumped them together because I assume that EA will keep the games in house at one of their studios.

But you're right that Disney could ultimately decide to pick developers they like and publish the games themselves rather than license the brand out to EA, Ubisoft, or Activision (I seriously doubt that they would go console specific even though there are some great devs there).

I mean that EA and Activision can do the same thing.. They can hire teams to do development for them, or teams can approach them since they have the licensing agreements.

The problems with EA are really internal to their own company. I've never seen a more poorly run publishing firm than that.

 

[gourimoko]

I refuse to play any Dragon Age games after Origins because I don't want to waste my time wondering why is that games so bad compared to it.

None of them really compare from what I've played.. Origins is still far and away the best of them all.

 

[MD13]

The problem was them giving the rights to one publisher in the first place. The smart move would have been to deal out the rights to individual developers based on the quality of their prior releases and their vision for a Star Wars game.



KOTOR is definitely an all-time classic, although I don't know if I'd put it in my top ten simply because its gameplay doesn't hold up nearly as well as a lot of other classics.



The big publisher model in video games is one of the worst things about it. Activision and EA ruin franchises and studios by consuming them and then assimilating them. How many once great studios has EA ruined? It's sad to think about. Meanwhile, Activision is doing their best to destroy Bungie.



Yeah, I really don't understand why Inquisition was so highly-rated, other than EA paying big advertising dollars to all the sites that reviewed it, of course. It's a solid enough game, but the world is just so generic and there's not much interesting to do. The story is pretty bland too.

Really, that's the problem with making your main character a cipher. When done poorly, you end up with a totally uninteresting character. It didn't help that the supporting cast wasn't nearly as strong as in prior games in the series, and you really need strong supporting characters if you're going to make your main character a cipher.

The Witcher 3 is the vastly superior game, though, I agree. It's also why I prefer games that have you play as an actual character rather than trying to make you the main character. Geralt has a personality and a history in the world. Many people know him and either like or despise him, and that impacts interactions in the game. You can still make choices and develop him in a manner you see fit, but none of it really seems out of character.

I think Inquisition just lacked any semblance of an interesting main character, and when you couple that with boring supporting characters that's why it was such a forgettable game.

One of the reasons why I love Planescape Torment so much is that they used Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber as a base and delivered a main character who was the best of both worlds. As an amnesiac he was a cipher for your actions, but he'd also been interacting with everyone around you pre-amnesia and you had a ton of great interactions based on past events.

I disagree. I think KOTOR 2 had a deeper story, better dialogue, and more interesting antagonists.

KOTOR I was the more accessible story; simpler. You're the hero, there's the bad guy, kill him = win.

KOTOR II, there were no winners and losers. It's just a much more complex story.

Kotor I was superior in every aspect (mostly because of development time) except story. Longer, more environments, more detail in the locations and side quests, etc.

But Kotor 2 took star wars in a direction that it has rarely gone and did it better than just about anything else in the EU. Overall though, I'd stack kotor 1 and 2's story with just about everything else, even the films.

On a side note, doesnt it seem like Kylo Ren is based at least a bit on Revan?

 

[Chris]

I disagree. I think KOTOR 2 had a deeper story, better dialogue, and more interesting antagonists.

KOTOR I was the more accessible story; simpler. You're the hero, there's the bad guy, kill him = win.

KOTOR II, there were no winners and losers. It's just a much more complex story.

Kotor 2 bored me to tears in that department. Original kotor had way more going on than you give it credit for and it was not that simple at all. Thought the plot twist was well done.

 

[gourimoko]

One of the reasons why I love Planescape Torment so much is that they used Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber as a base and delivered a main character who was the best of both worlds. As an amnesiac he was a cipher for your actions, but he'd also been interacting with everyone around you pre-amnesia and you had a ton of great interactions based on past events.

We agree 100% on this.. Planescape Torment is probably the Top 2-3 PC RPGs of all time.

Kotor I was superior in every aspect (mostly because of development time) except story. Longer, more environments, more detail in the locations and side quests, etc.

I disagree.

KOTOR II had fewer quests, but the dialogue was also much improved. There were fewer environments, but again, the interactions in those environments were far more meaningful. Yes there were more side quests in KOTOR1, but, the gameplay in KOTOR2 was vastly improved. The configurability of your weapons, armor, and party; the fact that you can train various companions to be Jedi, the Master classes, etc... The detail and complexity of the gameplay makes KOTOR2 much more replayable for me.

But Kotor 2 took star wars in a direction that it has rarely gone and did it better than just about anything else in the EU. Overall though, I'd stack kotor 1 and 2's story with just about everything else, even the films.

On a side note, doesnt it seem like Kylo Ren is based at least a bit on Revan?

Lucas himself borrowed from KOTOR and even talked about Revan before. Those stories are, by far, the most important of the EU. Only Thrawn is as well known as Revan and the Exile; and a lot of that has to do with the games he was in (starting with TIE Fighter).

Many might not be familiar with the games, Clone Wars, etc; but they're really missing a huge portion of the EU if that's the case.

 

[Chris]

I can hardly remember kotor 2. Just what i thought of it. Wasnt memorable to me at all. But you guys seem to think it was incredible so im tempted to go back and play it again.

Wish theyd make a true KOTOR 3 not this MMO crap.

More of a topic for the gaming threads but since you were talking anout CRPGs curious who has played Pillars of Eternity.

 

[gourimoko]

Kotor 2 bored me to tears in that department. Original kotor had way more going on than you give it credit for and it was not that simple at all. Thought the plot twist was well done.

Again, I think it's a great game, but yes, I do think it was exactly that simple.. at least compared to KOTOR 2...

The plot twist was obvious... You really didn't know you were Revan by the time they revealed it?

The twist in KOTOR 2, IMHO, was a lot more meaningful.. And I don't think anyone saw it coming (playing a light side playthrough, at least).

 

[gourimoko]

I can hardly remember kotor 2. Just what i thought of it. Wasnt memorable to me at all. But you guys seem to think it was incredible so im tempted to go back and play it again.

It's a LOT of dialogue, and it is a much more subtle story. They just re-released it for Steam, and adding the content mod is a click of a button. It's definitely worth playing.

Wish theyd make a true KOTOR 3 not this MMO crap.

Totally agree.

 

[Chris]

Again, I think it's a great game, but yes, it was exactly that simple..

The plot twist was obvious... You really didn't know you were Revan by the time they revealed it?

No...but i was probably 13 when i played it. But grats on knowing the twist before it happened. That doesnt make it a bad plot point. It was awesome.

 

[gourimoko]

No...but i was probably 13 when i played it. But grats on knowing the twist before it happened. That doesnt make it a bad plot point. It was awesome.

It was awesome. Again, I absolutely loved the game. If you liked it, you really should play KOTOR 2; just understand that it's a completely different game, and yeah, it's much slower paced.