• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard | Review Thread

What scores do you think Dragon Age: The Veilguard will get?

  • 60-64%

    Votes: 14 4.9%
  • 65-69%

    Votes: 14 4.9%
  • 70-74%

    Votes: 23 8.1%
  • 75-79%

    Votes: 59 20.8%
  • 80-84%

    Votes: 107 37.8%
  • 85-89%

    Votes: 53 18.7%
  • 90-94%

    Votes: 8 2.8%
  • 95-100%

    Votes: 5 1.8%

  • Total voters
    283
  • Poll closed .

Sentenza

Member
Steam reviews will be pointless; game is divisive without even people playing it yet. I’m going to watch a live stream and make up my own mind as to the quality of the dialogue and world building.
If nothing else Steam reviews have as a requirement that someone actually owns the game in his library.
Which isn't true in a lot of other platforms for aggregated reviews etc.
 
Is the woke stuff here cherry picking to get some reactions or is it really all over the place Concord Style?
I really don't know.
I think it depends more on person at this point.

Some people see purple hues in art style and take offence at that. While others are scratching their head at whats issue with the game?
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
This is just a shot in the dark, but my guess would be it is a spin on the Chad meme, you know the ultra powerful man,
Man Body GIF


the alpha who looks down on the beta that's used a lot in right wing stuff so my guess is that it was meant to be a twist on that
Creature Feature What GIF by Arrow Video


Edit, this game looks like it has some of the most atrocious writing I think I've ever seen it takes a lot to make me cringe, I'm a 4chan veteran I have been around the internet long enough that I have seen almost anything things that would crack weaker men and have, and this made me cringe Within 30 seconds

Every single line of dialogue, every single character interaction in that brief 30 minutes that was posted earlier let alone these other clips, it was so ham-fisted, so ignorant of anything and everything outside of its Social Circle.

So poorly constructed from any purpose of plot or character, so into lecturing and talking down to the reader rather than taking them through a journey, and so up its own ass that it can no longer pick up on the scent of methane as it inhales its own emissions on a level of toxic positivity where you walk on eggshells that allowed to offend anyone...

That it REALLY feels like poor right wing parody

Donald Trump GIF by CBS News


And I will just say I predict this is going to flop on a very large level, the majority of people who actually enjoy Dragon Age, are going to reject this and rightfully so you couldn't pay me to play this
It seriously reminds me of Daniel Tiger and other educational young children’s programming. Like its purpose is to teach you how to get along and be nice, as if it’s preparing you to go to kindergarten and start interacting with other children for the first time.

Really makes you think about what the culture at BioWare must be like nowadays in order to produce something this weak and infantile.
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
I don't know who is worse: the overly woke crowd or the butthurt right-wingers who basically fill their entire existence with anti-woke content, posting to indulge in their hate for different opinions and lifestyles.

I can tell which one you think is worse.

Y'all are both equally insufferable and contribute to the destruction of our beloved hobby. Absolutely mental what people write on here. Get a life.
Steady on.

People should be free to be critical of the tone, writing and plot points of this game, just as people should be free to praise them as well.

I agree that people might go a little too far, but just ignore them.

The gaming industry has a lot of issues, but this issue won't be its downfall.

its a work of fiction. And creators get to choose what they create. Thats called creative freedom.

100% agree. Any developer should be free to create whatever they please (within reason of course). If Bioware wanted to add these plot points then more power to them. However....

You dont like what they produce? Dont buy it. Simple as that. Nodboy ows you anything. Even if you are a fan.

It does mean that of people are not a fan of the content then they won't buy it. Look at Dustborn. The developers wanted to go deep into a certain political view point. Gamers voted with their wallet and rejected it. Consumers are free to do this, just like the developer was free to add what they wanted into their game.

However, just because I'm not buying it doesn't therefore mean I can't express my opinion on what I've seen, or discuss why I'm not buying. We should all be equally free to do this.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
Shill up also completely ignored the woke shit.

I know people have an hard on for that guy, but not informing a potential buyer that the game is progressive as a whole fuck is terrible for a reviewer, the dude try to not make everyone mad but it's his fucking job to tell me that the game is the most egregious woke piece of trash ever created.
If you listen to his review you would think that being childish and without edge is the major problem of the writing...

True.

In his defense, though, I think Ralph (Skill Up) knew that if he called attention to the liberal progressive ideology stuffed into the game, his review would become easy to dismiss on that grounds, and all the points made in his review would get sidelined by arguments over whether Ralph was an alt-right transphobe bigot. That's the predictable reaction to people calling out woke shit. Everything the person says gets dismissed on the grounds that they are a no good, bad person. I think he knew that if he called out the woke shit, his review would have become too divisive on that grounds, and what he had to say (which is pretty substantial) would have gotten swallowed up in the attack/defense around that issue.

And of course, Ralph is an access journalist. He knew that his review was going to piss off EA and Bioware and threaten future access. He knew the review was devastating enough as is. Piling on criticisms of woke might push it over the edge. His livelihood is linked to his access. He can only be so honest. I mean, they don't call him Shill Up for nothing (a label he humorously uses himself). He probably figured that he had covered the subject of "bad writing" thoroughly enough and this was just a subset of that category, one that it was best to ignore.
 
Last edited:

JayK47

Member
I don't know who is worse: the overly woke crowd or the butthurt right-wingers who basically fill their entire existence with anti-woke content, posting to indulge in their hate for different opinions and lifestyles.

Y'all are both equally insufferable and contribute to the destruction of our beloved hobby. Absolutely mental what people write on here. Get a life.

its a work of fiction. And creators get to choose what they create. Thats called creative freedom. You dont like what they produce? Dont buy it. Simple as that. Nodboy ows you anything. Even if you are a fan.
If I wanted a lecture, I would buy the shitty game.

Personally I find these types of posts insufferable. To each their own. You are welcome to buy the game and tell us how it is a return to form.
 

Humdinger

Gold Member
Is the woke stuff here cherry picking to get some reactions or is it really all over the place Concord Style?
I really don't know.

It's not all over the place. What will be all over the place is bad writing. The woke stuff will be sprinkled here and there - character creator, character design, occasional bits of dialog. No doubt there is some selection going on, rage-bait for clicks, confirmation bias, and exaggeration. For example, I suspect that the Grummz clip above is something that will not be forced on everyone but only seen by people who choose to use pronouns they/them earlier in the game - in which case, they've asked for it. Non-wokies will not choose to use they/them pronouns and will not be subjected to that embarrassing lecture.

But where there's smoke there's usually fire, and there's plenty of smoke here. How much woke is baked into the cake, it's hard to say. All we've heard from so far is access journalists who have been specially selected for being favorable to the game, so they're not going to be critical of the woke stuff. I'd look to user reviews and to non-access journalists you trust for a better idea about the scope of the woke.
 

Darchaos

Member
But thats the point. A lot of the people on here are not "calling it out" or "even the playing field" they are insulting and beat down on a certain group of people. The amount of crazy shit I have read the last couple of days is just insane. You are not fighting "the good fight" You are fuming over a fucking videogame on a videogame forum. Get a grip (not directed to you personally
Have you been on for example resetera and seen what they say about people with "other opinions and what they want to do to them? And all the threads made to hate on games that dosent fit in, or not even hate on them, straight out banning any discussusion on it. So yeah, before opening youre mouth, maybe take a look around what is happening on every "side", not one.
 

Zacfoldor

Member
I don't know who is worse: the overly woke crowd or the butthurt right-wingers who basically fill their entire existence with anti-woke content, posting to indulge in their hate for different opinions and lifestyles.

Y'all are both equally insufferable and contribute to the destruction of our beloved hobby. Absolutely mental what people write on here. Get a life.

its a work of fiction. And creators get to choose what they create. Thats called creative freedom. You dont like what they produce? Dont buy it. Simple as that. Nodboy ows you anything. Even if you are a fan.
Hey brother, I hear this said by both sides all the time. They can put out what they want but that doesn't mean people can't comment on it.

It sounds to me like you are the one who doesn't like the criticism the game is getting. Nothing is destroying the hobby. There are hundreds of great games that came out this year with no woke, and several other woke games as well. We don't see woke in most games, perhaps at least partly because we complain if we do see it. Just because a game is woke you can still play it. Nobody cares. Do what you want. You can even disagree that it is woke. We can all just do what we want and give our opinion.

I think you just see how many of us dislike some of the game's modern politics that were inserted, and that is okay. You can like them if you want and no one will be mad at you. If the game fails or succeeds is based on its appeal, not our comments, so it will all work out in the end.

In the end, I think the game will probably do okay just because of the meta and ip. Perhaps not another rare incel victory I'm afraid, so in this case your darkest hour may become your greatest triumph. Stick with it. We are not enemies, we all just want good games.
 
Last edited:
I don't know who is worse: the overly woke crowd or the butthurt right-wingers who basically fill their entire existence with anti-woke content, posting to indulge in their hate for different opinions and lifestyles.

Y'all are both equally insufferable and contribute to the destruction of our beloved hobby. Absolutely mental what people write on here. Get a life.

its a work of fiction. And creators get to choose what they create. Thats called creative freedom. You dont like what they produce? Dont buy it. Simple as that. Nodboy ows you anything. Even if you are a fan.
I'm a Marxist and I find this stuff insufferable. If you look at some of the scenes circulating from this game and think to yourself "this is just artistic freedom, it's not indicative of any broader more worrying trend in our society" your brain simply doesn't function properly.
 
XboxEra review says BioWare's best, it's in his game of the year rankings but not only that, it's also in his best games of all time rankings. Says BioWare has finally matched their excellent third person combat with some of, if not their very best storywork to date.

I mean, that's his opinion of course but jesus that is some praise.
Biowares best?

Spider Man Lol GIF

Did they somehow forget that Bioware were responsible for Knights of the old Republic, Mass Effect trilogy and fucking Baldur's Gate 1 and 2? Of course I assume that all of those developers left eons ago, but that kind of statement is retarded. Modern reviewers are absolutely clueless.
 
Biowares best?

Spider Man Lol GIF

Did they somehow forget that Bioware were responsible for Knights of the old Republic, Mass Effect trilogy and fucking Baldur's Gate 1 and 2? Of course I assume that all of those developers left eons ago, but that kind of statement is retarded. Modern reviewers are absolutely clueless.
Even Mattyp who destroyed the game said final 20% of the campaign is incredible.

Sometimes people get very strong impressions of a game if it ends strong.

Eg: Ico.
 

delishcaek

Member
I wanted to give this a shot on deep discount but the more I see about it, the less I want to play it.

I really don't mind a little bit woke here and there, but them apology push-ups really give me the creeps. This is exactly what people mean when they say they hate woke shit in their games. They are literally trying to "educate gamers" with this. No nuance, no subtlety... right in the fucking face with a sledgehammer. I actually can't believe that this is in the game.
 
What’s hilarious about that non-binary scene is the game lecturing the player that if you apologize for misgendering someone, you’re either not really sorry and just want to move on, or you are sorry and are trying to make it about yourself. But “pulling a barve” (aka pushups) shows that you’re truly willing to atone for your mistake. How exactly is breaking out into pushups not making it about yourself, and bringing 100% of the attention to you?

Have we gone beyond Full Retard? Is this the next level? Have we reached Ultra Instinct Tardation?
The cycles of the outrage industry are moving faster and faster. In just a few years we've gone from "you need to apologize" to "you need to apologize in this specific way" to "apologizing is bad, actually." And every time, they act like it's some timeless, eternal truth that is just inherently obvious to all good people; remember that it's both "please do better" and simultaneously "you're in trouble for something we dug up a long time ago."

I can't wait for the next game that will tell me how I can be a good person in some completely different way 6 months from now.
 

Sleepwalker

Member
What’s hilarious about that non-binary scene is the game lecturing the player that if you apologize for misgendering someone, you’re either not really sorry and just want to move on, or you are sorry and are trying to make it about yourself. But “pulling a barve” (aka pushups) shows that you’re truly willing to atone for your mistake. How exactly is breaking out into pushups not making it about yourself, and bringing 100% of the attention to you?

Have we gone beyond Full Retard? Is this the next level? Have we reached Ultra Instinct Tardation?
Funny of them to assume one would apologize in the first place.
 

DarkBatman

SBI’s Employee of the Year
Even Mattyp who destroyed the game said final 20% of the campaign is incredible.

Sometimes people get very strong impressions of a game if it ends strong.

Eg: Ico.
The problem is that the chocolate pudding at the end of the gaming dinner no longer tastes so great when I was constantly served shit with the previous courses.
 

Dazraell

Member
Has anyone else noticed that only half a dozen more reviews were added since the embargo lifted on Monday? A big release like this, embargo lifted a few days ago, and there's only 57 reviews.
Apparently there was very limited supply of review codes. So more reviews will most likely start popping up in the next few days as reviewers are waiting until official launch
 
The problem is that the chocolate pudding at the end of the gaming dinner no longer tastes so great when I was constantly served shit with the previous courses.
If game is insufferable, they wont be able to reach the end and will drop it in a few hours.

I imagine anyone finishing a game this long should find some enjoyment out of it.
 

Madflavor

Member
so? Movies, music, arts in generel, and offcourse video games are made by people. And all of them will always have political ideas, preferences, believes etc. Why is the mere mention of these kind of aspects/topics already enough for you to dismiss the whole product? I really dont get that. Every single medium created has some kind of underlying agenda. Thats how it works.

I see what you're saying. But there's a difference between creating something wholly new that reflects your life experiences and ideologies, and taking an existing IP and using that as your platform to push your agenda. I'm not naive to the fact that you'll have people complain about both of these things. But the latter is the one I find particularly troubling. People want to be immersed in the world of Dragon Age, and when you have a bunch of scenes with the writer/director clearly speaking to the audience about LGBT issues, it breaks immersion and pulls us out of the experience. Obviously there are some people who don't care, but many people do.

See Star Wars and Marvel to see how this strategy has been going for them.

The other thing is that human beings are trained to recognize patterns. If all this woke shit wasn't happening, and Veilguard was just this one isolated thing, I don't think it would get this much attention. But we've been putting up with this for a long time now. We've seen many beloved IPs that have never dipped their toes into hard left leaning progressive ideologies, suddenly being riddled with them. And they're doing it very hamfistedly. Actual talented writers are being replaced by activists, and these IPs are suffering for it.
 
There is a YouTube play though posted online. Watching it now.

Gameplay and exploration reminds me of God War than Dragons Dogma, the most recent RPG I’ve played.
 
Last edited:

Cyberpunkd

Member
so? Movies, music, arts in generel, and offcourse video games are made by people. And all of them will always have political ideas, preferences, believes etc. Why is the mere mention of these kind of aspects/topics already enough for you to dismiss the whole product? I really dont get that. Every single medium created has some kind of underlying agenda. Thats how it works.
This game has dragons and undead things. Also, the world is ending. But wait, we need to talk about trans issues first, two elder gods can wait.
 

DonkeyPunchJr

World’s Biggest Weeb
Apparently there was very limited supply of review codes. So more reviews will most likely start popping up in the next few days as reviewers are waiting until official launch
They invited the press for preview events some weeks back, then they sent review codes only to those outlets that had the most glowing and positive previews. Check out Fextralife’s video about it.
 
I’ve been watching for almost 2 hours, but I don’t think I’ve seen any signs of life in the village/city? The story is to save the world from imminent doom but it’s told entirely through your party members and yourself roaming through empty areas and streets thus far.
 

Topher

Identifies as young
They invited the press for preview events some weeks back, then they sent review codes only to those outlets that had the most glowing and positive previews. Check out Fextralife’s video about it.

I'm not one to jump on shit like this, but we have folks like this Dantics guy trying to throw water on that narrative by claiming his negative preview is proof that it isn't true. Turns out that was a ridiculous lie and his "negative" preview was just blaming the games marketing for not generating the hype that he thought the game reserved. You couple this a bit of shilling with what Fextralife said and there seems to be a clear pattern of manipulation going on behind the scenes. Could it all be bullshit? Sure. Do I think EA is capable of trying crap like this? lol....absolutely.

91s6Kno.png


Why is that guy pretending that video is critical of the game? It isn't. It was being critical of the marketing and says none of the negative early impressions of the game were deserved at all.

ooAhSGN.png




 

Topher

Identifies as young
I don't know who is worse: the overly woke crowd or the butthurt right-wingers who basically fill their entire existence with anti-woke content, posting to indulge in their hate for different opinions and lifestyles.

Y'all are both equally insufferable and contribute to the destruction of our beloved hobby. Absolutely mental what people write on here. Get a life.

its a work of fiction. And creators get to choose what they create. Thats called creative freedom. You dont like what they produce? Dont buy it. Simple as that. Nodboy ows you anything. Even if you are a fan.

That doesn't make sense. The stuff that folks are hating on here is the very stuff from, what you call, the "overly woke crowd" that you say contributes "to the destruction of our beloved hobby". I'm usually one to overlook socio-political takes in games and I've loved Dragon Age games in the past. This game, however, takes this "woke" shit too far and is damn close to sheer trans propaganda. If you are going to talk about shit that destroys our hobby....I'd say that starts with the game, not the folks criticizing it. Criticism is also a "freedom" you know.
 
Last edited:

Neofire

Member
I was thinking about getting this but the reports of the feminist/ABC agenda put me off.

I all I was hoping for was something like origins was.
 

PeteBull

Member
But thats the point. A lot of the people on here are not "calling it out" or "even the playing field" they are insulting and beat down on a certain group of people. The amount of crazy shit I have read the last couple of days is just insane. You are not fighting "the good fight" You are fuming over a fucking videogame on a videogame forum. Get a grip (not directed to you personally
We arent on era, we can call them alphabet ppl or clowns, its fine, basically ppl who dont use reality and biology as basis of their worldview but pretend that for example a man with cut off balls and dick is a woman coz he feels like it, but guess what- reality is still there no matter if some1 aknowledges it or not.
He isnt a woman, he is an eunuch, they were ppl like that in ancient china, tousands of years ago, its fine to call spade a spade.

U can challenge that skewed worldview in 100 different ways:
Child cannot be a grown up when it feels its a grown up.
White person cant decide he or she is suddenly black. Doing blackface is considered racist af actually, at least in the US afaik.
5'2 short dude cant claim to be 6'5 giant, any girl will call out that stupid liar the moment she meets him irl, or even earlier based on his IG or dating app profile pics/facetime etc ;)
Broke bum who lives in his parents basement cant decide he is a multimilionaire. His bank account brings him down to his sad reality superfast :p
120lbs anorexic wont be believed by his doc when he says he is 400lbs wilderbeast and gotta hop on a diet no matter how he feels and no matter if he thinks he looks fat af when looking in the mirror.
Baby tigress doesnt become lil calv even if it was born in a barn and is living among calves/thinks of itself as a calv either.
And so on...
 
Top Bottom