18 réponses à ce sujet

[Solica]

Several hours after finishing the game, I'm partially able to reach past the shattering sense of disappointment, that the end instills. I go back to memories. Memories of the game, parts which I liked. I have lots of screenshots, so they help as I try to regain the feeling for the game. ...Yes, beautiful...

I never particularly think in terms of ”rip off” for products which I (to large parts) enjoy, and which obviously have to be made by someones (if I'm to have them at all), who need to be paid for their work. It doesn't become a rip-off just because I'm annoyed at certain ”features”. I don't mind complaining about things I don't like, but as long as I'd rather have it than have not, it's not exactly a rip-off. Because somewhere behind it all, there is the thing of ”what is possible”.

Now, that said...: The shortness of Awakening is annoying, and not particularly good value. Now that also being said, there are other things about Awakening which annoy me much more. Bugs have been mentioned. Yes it crashed a LOT. I made it a habit to almost continuously save. Sometimes even that didn't help much. During a couple of big battles, the game crashed repeatedly. Like the final battle, for instance. I had to do that four times, before I reached the end without a crash. Now, those EA managers who are responsible for this (and EA's poor reputation in general), do they have ANY idea at all, of how ANNOYING that is? Can you imagine how livid I was? How angry?

Then comes the end: I've ****ed about these kinds of endings since Baldur's Gate (and god knows I haven't been alone...). And I kinda wonder about how much the feeling of ”rip-off”, which others have expressed, is inflated, enhanced, magnified, by this type of ending?

: Just as, what evidently was, the end-Boss dies, the game abruptly stops. It made me just as annoyed and angry as if the game had crashed again. Actually my feelings were pretty much exactly the same, as when the game crashed. The same disruption and dissatisfaction. A splendid and beautiful game ended with an empty feeling of unfulfillment.

...And then I get these silly tales about ”what happened next” for a thousand years, as consequences of my choices. Since these are never going to matter anyway, ever, in this game or any sequel ever, you could have done so damn much better by leaving the details after to my imagination. Most books and movies do. I don't need your take on it. It's even YOU, the Bioware lead designers and writers, who always wave away protests against your stupid, abrupt endings (you don't listen well, do you?) with the emphatic ”but the STORY ends there, it's a story-driven game, bla, bla”. - Well, then - bloody well let this story end there! That would also be so much less limiting and trouble later for your sequals.

I was never one of those who, on these forums, asked for having ingame choices matter, for the game world. Because I always felt those were really asking for (in their mind and imagination) an implementation which is actually impossible (or at least very undesirable for all the side-effects which will badly impact other sides of the game/story), and that any possible implementation (as an effort to satisfy those requests) would necessarily be utter garbage and crap. I think I was right all the way. The point here, I think, is that all those stories we get as aftertexts, doesn't really matter one iota at all, anyway. Not for this game, and not for any other game either (not that I would want that anyway, or is able to see any value at all in such). So it's not really what people asked for and it's all crap anyway, and can never be anything else. I feel fairly sure that all those who did ask to see how deeds and choices affected the game world, envisioned something completely different. I can't speak for them, of course, but I really believe they asked for an ingame EXPERIENCE. I think that was really what they wanted, not little texts which fence in what we're allowed to think about the game afterwards. People do ask for the impossible, you know.

Now, all I've ever asked for (regarding endings), is to be able to walk around the corpse of the final foe, loot it, heal and walk my party out of the dungeon, walk down the road towards home, exchanging some final dialogue with my party. THEN, you can freeze and start rolling the credits. That ain't hard to do. It involves no extra work at all, since the immediate surroundings already exist. You could even do those silly, ever irrelevant what-happened-after texts, even if I don't appreciate them. SO WHY IS IT THAT YOU THINK THIS IS SUCH A BAD IDEA? AND THAT YOUR LAZY, ABRUPT SEMI-CRASH IS SUCH SUPERIOR GAME DESIGN? STILL? AFTER ALL THESE YEARS AND COMPLAINTS?

Modifié par Solica, 16 juin 2010 - 10:15 .

[Gaxhung]

Actually you can in fact speak with all your companions after the final battle, at the post coronation before you head out to meet the cheering crowd, simply click on the companions.

Modifié par Gaxhung, 17 juin 2010 - 12:06 .

[Last Darkness]

And another one went into Awakening thinking it would be Dragon Age 2 and 10-20 hours later feels dissappointed.

[2papercuts]

Gaxhung wrote...

Actually you can in fact speak with all your companions after the final battle, at the post coronation before you head out to meet the cheering crowd, simply click on the companions.

what?





do you own awakening?

Modifié par 2papercuts, 17 juin 2010 - 04:32 .

[Gaxhung]

I fell asleep reading solica's diatribe, somewhere in there it became origins for me

[Erani]

I enjoyed playing Awakening, even with crashes/bugs/annoying conversation style, but the ending...omg was I pissed.

[Kail Ashton]

Proberly coulda summarized that into a "i didn't care for it much" instead of the wall of text that it became



Still Aside from the aforementioned meh ending and crashes/bugs(which should be fixed in 3 weeks) i liked awakening well enough

[Solica]

Erani wrote...

I enjoyed playing Awakening, even with crashes/bugs/annoying conversation style, but the ending...omg was I pissed.

Indeed!

Various wrote...

Actually you can in fact speak with all your companions after the final battle, at the post coronation before you head out to meet the cheering crowd, simply click on the companions.

And another one went into Awakening thinking it would be Dragon Age 2 and 10-20 hours later feels dissappointed.

Proberly coulda summarized that into a "i didn't care for it much" instead of the wall of text that it became

You not read? - Don't comment. Go Youtube.
You no attention span? - Don't comment. Go MTV.
You not comprehend? - Don't comment. Train reading.
You syndrom? - Don't comment. Take medicine.

Modifié par Solica, 17 juin 2010 - 05:42 .

[Gaxhung]

Maybe you should just write less.

Modifié par Gaxhung, 18 juin 2010 - 02:26 .

[yummysoap]

"I didn't care for it" would have summed it up nicely. I mean, I don't know how long you've been around on the forums but every complaint you made has already been stated about a million times in a million different ways, and it's no real surprise that people aren't going to bother giving you the time of day anymore.

[Solica]

Gaxhung wrote...
Maybe you should just write less.

Maybe if the writing was commercial and I depended on having as many as possible to read it, and understand what they were reading. But that's not the case at all. I don't care who or how many reads it. It just annoys me slightly to get irrelevant comments from individuals I seemingly did not write the piece for, not even the title. As I said, just slightly. It annoys me considerably more when comments try to change my message to something different, try to make themselves 'interpreters' for me. That's all.

yummysoap wrote...
"I didn't care for it" would have summed it up nicely.

No it wouldn't. That's a distortion and a lie. That's not what I said at all. And it doesn't bother me the least if people don't have "the time of day" for me. I don't care. And if you're not interested, don't have the time, can't comprehend, you don't have to comment. You can just ignore me. I'd much prefer that than having you try to change what I wrote.

Modifié par Solica, 18 juin 2010 - 06:14 .

[yummysoap]

You can just ignore me.

Righto, then.

[Lucy Glitter]

Awakening was fun as a standalone adventure.



It sucked if you had any attachment to your old companions. Like me.



It also sucks knowing you got the brush off with LIs.

[Ander167]

What you have to understand is that it was an expansion pack. It was not meant to be Dragon Age 2. Yes, the ending was crap, but you have to think of this as a really big, expensive piece of Downloadable Content. Its sole purpose was to give you a quick adventure to play as we all wait anxiously for DA2.

[Arthur Cousland]

Expensive, indeed.



Awakening was obviously rushed out the door, with all of the bugs, abrupt ending and all. Hopefully if Origins gets another expansion, it won't have the same issues. It wouldn't hurt if it didn't almost cost as much as a stand alone game too.

[NasInTheOven]

tl;dr

[GeorgeZip]

Solica's post was constructive criticism meant to hopefully improve future Bioware games. It was long but well written.



I didn't buy Awakenings because of the cost versus hours of gameplay. These quickly produced expansions and DLC's are a mixed bag. It's nice to have new content so fast but I think I'd prefer they hold off a year and produce a massive and polished sequel. These little DLC's damage the brand in my opinion and gives you the feeling you're being squeezed for every dollar they can get from you. This is probably an EA issue.



When I finished Origins I felt like wow, this game was huge and immersive, in the ballpark with the legendary BG series. The potential for expanding the story in a sequel was exciting and with the game engine it seemed like you could make 2 or 3 big sequels, one a year for several years. These DLC's of debatable quality and size seem to cut into this excitement a bit and possibly limmit the potential for future full size expansions.

[TheMadCat]

Ander167 wrote...

What you have to understand is that it was an expansion pack. It was not meant to be Dragon Age 2. Yes, the ending was crap, but you have to think of this as a really big, expensive piece of Downloadable Content. Its sole purpose was to give you a quick adventure to play as we all wait anxiously for DA2.

See, I disagree with this type of thought. To me an expansion should not automatically equate to a subpar experience, we should not come to expect it's overall quality to be less then it's original title. It's going to be short no doubt about it, but ultimately length has no bearing on quality. Plenty of expansions have been of excellent quality, Mask of the Betrayer being one of a similar style and that makes the "It's an expansion what did you expect" pill impossible to swallow.

I also disagree on the notion that it's sole purpose was to give a quick adventure until DA2. From everything I've gathered from BioWare it's a direct continuation of the story meaning it's a direct extension to Origins. This is what it was hyped as, this is what it was advertised to be, this is what they sold it to us as. This is why they constantly bragged about our decisions making a serious impact in Awakening, this is why they allowed us to port our character, so on and so forth. Darkspawn Chronicles is a quick adventuere, Leliana's Song to me seems like a quick adventure. Awakening was a continuation of our Origins sotry and to me it fell short in that regard. 

Modifié par TheMadCat, 20 juin 2010 - 05:26 .

[Solica]

GeorgeZip wrote...
...I didn't buy Awakenings because of the cost versus hours of gameplay...

I'd buy Awakening again. It was overall a good experience that I wouldn't want to be without. ...But I understand every point of your argument.

What bothers me about Awakening is that many of its most annoying flaws, are of a kind that doesn't really cost any time, any work, any money to avoid. The end, for instance, only thing they'd need to do is to change the breakoff point to some later map transition. Like the missing letters... I mean, this is nothing. Meanwhile, countless of hours are spent on artwork and environments.

It's like the person in charge, the decision maker, has no personal committment or understanding for the game or its players at all. Doesn't care. Thinks such details are irrelevant or inconsequential.

And it's very alarming, because it's EA, you know. This is what they do. To franchise after franchise they buy. To developer after developer.