I litrally just heard today that the new Dragon Age game came out, and not just last week, but more like a month and a half ago.
Dragon Age Was Great
When I first played Dragon Age: Origins, I fell in love with it, the writing, the story, the world; everything was great and it had me hooked from the moment I put it on.
Back then - I don't know if it was me, the time, or both but - I'd just go out on a whim and pick any game up based on the box art, and the synopsis on the back of the box. Typically I would buy second hand, unless it was something I was really looking forward to and in that case I would buy new on the day of release. GTA, The Gears sequels, COD (up until Block Ops 2) the Mass Effect Sequels, Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and pretty much every Halo Game.
It seems like a lot, but really, that was it. Every other game I played, including Dragon Age: Origins was a second hand discovery made on the day of purchase.
Reviews weren't that big, I remember finding Angry Joe because I bought Risen and was so disappointed that I returned it, then I looked up the game afterwards and found his review of it. From there I became a fan of his and became a bit smarter with my purchases, vowing to never buy a game I didn't know again, without first watching a review of some kind.
Dragon Age 2
Because of Dragon Age: Origins I went out and bought the second game upon release, and while it didn't really grab me the same way the first one did, I still enjoyed it.
It was smaller in scope, and I remember being disappointed I couldn't revisit some of the old locations of the first game, but none the less, I enjoyed and completed it.
I actually saw that Dragon Age 2 wasn't well received by fans of the franchise, and looking back at it, I can see why, but I didn't hate it when I played it and wouldn't mind revisiting it sometime.
Dragon Age: Inquisition
This one, I didn't complete, but I'm pretty damn far into it and have been for a few years now.
I can tend to play the hell out of a game, stop for an extended period of time for whatever reason, only to get another burst of inspiration to go back and finish it off.
I've wanted to go back to this one now for a while, but I think one thing that kind of killed my enthusiasm was that I went out of my way to complete every available quest, and hours into the game doing that takes its toll because there is a hell of a lot of quests to complete.
Again, it didn't really grab me the same way the first one did, but I did enjoy it. There were some cool characters, the combat system - as far as I was concerned - was great, and the graphics were very good. The writing was decent, but a lot of quests felt very like fetch quests thrown in as padding.
But, the idea of forging a kingdom and micro managing all aspects of that kingdom was kind of cool, and fit the narrative of saving the world and building a force capable of doing so effectively.
I know very little about the new Dragon Age game, but considering I had no idea it was out is a bad sign. Also, their sales are in the toilet, obviously the marketing wasn't there and they just assumed the fan base would just know it was out and buy it.
I'm a fan, and while I knew it was coming, I didn't know it came out. Also, an IP that is what, 15 years old now, the last game released 10 years ago... yeah, they have an aging fan base who have kids and responsibilities now, so that could kind of account for the slump in sales after their extended slump in making games for this series.
It seems as though these great IPs and Franchises now have to take into account the age of their fans and how long it has been between titles. The games industry moves fast, so how can these studios keep up if they're not constantly creating and releasing games, while also innovating and moving with the times.
Certain franchises will always be popular, like GTA for example, but GTA Online is always active, has new content added all the time and has a very dedicated following who will all bounce to the next game like flies on shit and anyone who stopped playing GTA V will return to any new title quickly, because it's GTA.
Elder Scrolls hasn't released a new game - apart from ESO - in nearly 14 years, but they too will have a massive audience waiting to pounce when a new title drops.
But, that's not the case for many franchises out there. Also, from what I've heard, the new Dragon Age game is laced with the message, and from screen shots I've seen it looks fairly bent, so I won't be rushing out to throw money at a studio who is clearly pandering to a very different demographic.
If it comes out on Gamepass I would install it and give it a go, but even at a severe discount I'd be thinking long and hard if it's something I want to buy.
It could be amazing, everyone hated Andromeda, and I actually enjoyed it while also kind of hating it too. I don't know really, I'll have to look into it and see if it really is as bad as people say it is, but just going by the sales, yeah.
Mass Effect: Andromeda, Antham, now this... Bioware (who used to be one of the best) Bioware (who literally produced some of my favourite games which I still play today) Bioware, is probably about ready to say bye bye and it's their own fault.