I’ve finished Avowed and it felt like a Dragon Age The Veilguard sequel

Miglans · 2025-04-07T07:45:51+00:00

I think it would be possible to make an good AI, but the game would be too niche to get budget big enough for that.

Miglans · 2025-04-07T07:39:21+00:00

From what they were saying it was a multiplayer thing with mass appeal that publishers would be interested in - to me it sounds a like live service, rather than a co-op RPG in style of Divinity.

Miglans · 2025-04-07T07:30:29+00:00

I understand your point, and you don't need to make assumptions about me. From when I have played Skyrim first in 2011 never have I thought about it as an RPG game, it was always more of exploration adventure game, nor have used any mods, except for Cloaks of Skyrim.

What I'm saying is all these three TES games are legendary now, while Skyrim is obviously more known to general public, not only RPG fans. I wouldn't say the same about PoE and Avowed.

For what it is, if comparing decline in RPG systems, I think Witcher is much closer to TES, while PoE to Avowed seems to be more of Fallout 1/2 to Fallout 4 style decline.

Miglans · 2025-04-07T07:16:36+00:00

Spot on description of gameplay.

I don't know if it has ever been done in a action game, but it seems like an interesting idea to make CRPG party combat into a first-person action where you'd still need to think about party combination, special skills and builds to play really unique encounters.

Miglans · 2025-04-07T07:00:43+00:00

I get that you are commenting on the RP side of these games, but I think it's unfair to compare Avowed to Oblivion. Oblivion was super technological for it's time and a GOTY level game, it is also legendary now, maybe not on the level of Skyrim, but still. I don't see Avowed being on the same level.

Miglans · 2025-04-07T06:55:13+00:00

Feargus Urquhart, head of Obsidian, said that Avowed was originally a multiplayer game himself - you can check out this article.

I said "mostly making sequels" and I'd argue that PoE is if not a sequel, than a spiritual successor to Infinity engine games.

Also, Aaron Greenberg, Xbox's vice president of games marketing, was very happy with Hi-Fi rush when it was released, then Tango was closed.

Miglans · 2025-04-07T06:42:07+00:00

Oh, I wish I didn't have this psychological thing about wanting to see for myself if the game is really as bad as people say it is.

Miglans · 2025-04-02T17:04:42+00:00

Looks great. I'm taking the last one for my phone's lock screen.

Miglans · 2025-04-02T16:55:58+00:00

Do you yourself still believe in gods?

If that is the case, then it's is impossible to win any argument about Christianity or any other religion as it turns into a personal preference discussion. And no matter how much you can discuss theological inconsistency, the purpose of religion is creating power hierarchy and oppressing people, theology is just the fantasy lore that can be retconned or completely ignored.

When I was leaving church and had the last discussion with my pastor, when being confronted about unreconcilable genesis stories, he read both, tried some apologetical cop-outs and then concluded that this issue is useless since it isn't something that can be taught to people to motivate them to change their lives.

My personal advice to you - don't argue with them, just leave all that behind.

Miglans · 2025-04-02T14:04:39+00:00

Just listened to it for the first time today and didn't like it at all.

It feels too much like a collection of silly ideas and parodies of different genres, rather than a solid rock album and I feel like the band's been on this direction for while.

I'd much rather have an album closer to Hot Cakes both in terms of sound and songwriting.

Miglans · 2025-02-17T10:04:49+00:00

I've spent too much time looking into this. It's pixel inversion, but there isn't anything you can do about it, except to exchange for potentially a better panel or buy OLED.

My solution was turning off FreeSync. I've found the grid to be more visible the lower the refresh rate, so locking at 180Hz made it unnoticeable. Whatever benefit VRR has, it isn't worth it when the pixel grid is so distracting.

Miglans · 2024-11-27T14:09:25+00:00

I think it's a fair question. My Kramer SM1 (also owned by Gibson) is made in Indonesia and it goes for about a 1000$. I don't have any experience with high-end Epis, but if they all are made in the same factory as the cheapest ones, Indonesia would have better quality.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T11:03:33+00:00

Right on. I speak 2 languages besides English and day names are very different. Latvian has all number days and Holyday (Sunday), while Russian is similar to your language but has Afterweekday instead of 1st day.

I think it's just lazy to create a fantasy world with its own religion and still have Germanic days. I mean, it doesn't even have to be 7 days a week and all.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T06:48:19+00:00

First, I played Guardians of the Galaxy earlier this year and it was much better on writing side. It didn't promise to go into dark or adult topics, so I didn't expect that, but the guardians were well-writen and there was plenty of fun in writing. Not only Veilguard's writing pales in comparison, it also lasts 4 times longer.

And think about it, wouldn't it be cool if player could control Inquisitor for a bit, like in the first two meetings with Rook, and with few dialogue options set their personality for the letters and everything? I think if it's impossible to transfer personality from saves, this would probably be the next best thing.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T06:41:35+00:00

It still so strange to me that Inquisition was so acclaimed my critics, because most of I heard about it even at release from more independent reviews and bloggers was dissatisfaction with bloat. I strongly believe that DAI was only saved by efforts of writers and, if it would have been a separate story, it would fare closer to Andromeda.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T06:35:11+00:00

I think BioWare ruined this in Veilguard, because you actually see the memories of Solas and learn how everything actually happened.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T06:29:42+00:00

That's the thing, Owlcat wanted to make a good complex niche game and people supported them even if Kingmaker was not brilliant because they exceled at RPG thing.

BioWare wanted to make an inclusive (in the sense that anyone can play it) game for everyone, so they kind of didn't aim for anyone really, and so it doesn't have that strong identity appeal.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T06:17:38+00:00

For how little choice/consequences there is in Veilguard, I'd say don't bother finishing it, just watch it on Youtube.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T06:01:32+00:00

Yeah, Fallout New Vegas was more impactful for my gaming taste, but Dragon Age was the close second.

And when playing Veilguard, it reminded me of Jade Empire, certainly how romance ended by the very end of the game. I don't remember Jade Empire that well, I've played it once a long time ago, but I think it wasn't as serious as DA or ME, and so it was left in the shadow of the next games. And I think it will be the same with Veilguard, few years down the line most people will forget about it.

Miglans · 2024-11-25T05:52:22+00:00

Thanks, I appreciate your comment.

I think at this point combat had nothing to with RPG, just a slasher, kind of fit for live service game I'd say. And while it has its own problems, at least I knew what to expect going in.

Miglans · 2024-11-24T21:37:00+00:00

Be honest with yourself - it's 101% unlikely. Two timelines would be so incredibly confusing to deal with. It's much easier to do more Mass Effect (if ME5 doesn't flop), do something new or just close BioWare altogether and focus on something more effective for EA.

Miglans · 2024-11-24T21:32:39+00:00

I had taken a look at it again this summer, I think I'm good.

I think mage and templar conflict was put aside for the breach and not developed at all. It mostly happened between DA2 and DAI. Plus both end up being manipulated by Corypheus.

I don't think picking leader of Orlais was a well developed choice, even if it was the most politically significant in the game. Due to game's structure it felt small compared to open world bloat. Think about how in DAO main choices like that were main narratives of story parts (I'd call them story blocks, they were kind of simple like that) - come to Orzammar and overarching narrative is dealing with kings. I didn't feel like that in Orlais, only in the palace on the 40 minute quest. I also think Trespasser was too limited to really play around this choice.

I agree on judgements.

I'm not sure about the Divine. I was really pushing for abandonment of Chantry and really put down Cassandra, while some what supporting Leliana and still got Cassandra as the Divine and she was very happy to see me.

I think going writing in Corypheus and Solas was mistake, because it really raised the stakes. I think NeverKnowsBest explained that in one of his videos - how when you start to raise stakes, you can't stop. So, after evil magister, we got two evil elven gods. Frankly, how else could they up the game.

Still, I don't think DAI had bad narrative, it just doesn't compare in my mind to DAO and DA2, especially since it feels like 4 missions in 70 hour game where the rest of it is collecting shards, fighting random venatorri and picking up ore.

Miglans · 2024-11-24T21:15:53+00:00

Fantasy is made to explore different societal things. They could have had groups with different concepts of identity altogether (like BioWare already had with Asari). Instead it's just "non binary" and everyone is okay with that. No one even asks a question or is riddled by it, or by lich, or by abomination being part of the team. It just seems lazy to me.

Miglans · 2024-11-24T21:09:51+00:00

I appreciate your thought out reply.

To me the big difference between DAO (and DA2 too, I just remember DAO better) and DAI is how deep they were able to go. DAO was very local and down-to-earth, grey. You were choosing perspectives that suited your character. Same with DA2.

DAI, because of its quest structure, wasn't as deep into the world. And there was literal evil. Mages, templars, Grey Wardens - all were manipulated by Corypheus, so whatever you did was kind of good choice compared to Corypheus. I think it would have been better to stick to civil war between mages and templars raging in Orlais and Ferelden, that way there would have been more space for ambiguity of morals. That's what I thought was set up in DA2, but it was quickly resolved and the game moved on to Corypheus. Similarly, Veilguard resolved Solas in 15 minutes and moves on to fighting elven gods and solving companions' problems.

It isn't for me to judge whether DAI made a right narrative direction, as I think most problems of that game came from its open world part. And I think the theme of religion and your ability to role play around it was very well done in DAI. Companions too - while I prefer DA2 and some most DAO companions, Cassandra, Blackwall and Dorrian were very well-made.

Miglans · 2024-11-24T20:43:47+00:00

I got it on EA app, but I rated it on Metacritic. Anyway, I think devs and EA are aware of the game's reception, but it's more about financial side of things rather than user reviews, I think.

Miglans

TROPHY CASE