generalgrey

Not sure how I feel about this yet. It's probably for the best that they're not retconning the whole thing - puts all those people screaming about "dangerous precedent" in their place. Still, I can't currently see how any amount of additional footage could cure the stupidity of the final choice.

I really think that this article represents the tone that all sides of this debate should be striving to emulate. Well done, Patrick.

I had a fantastic time playing through SWTOR basically as a single-player game. There are at least two fully-fledged Bioware RPGs in there (Empire/Republic); 8 if you count all the classes (which I personally don't as the vast majority of the time is spent on faction-specific quests). That said, once you hit 50 on both sides, there's not a whole lot left to do right now, particularly if you're not interested in the large group operations. The PvP is decent but nothing special, the flashpoints get old after a while, and, given the length of the game, it's pretty painful starting an alt if you've already gone through all the faction quests.

Fortunately for me, I received my subscription as a gift and don't have to make that renewal decision myself. I'd be pretty conflicted. Certainly worth the initial investment, but I'm not so sure about continuing it.

As for the companion email, I don't really see what the big deal is. Sure it's silly, but gross? Gotta disagree.

I'd love to join. Gamertag: GeneralGrey

For me, DA2 is a potentially great game that unfortunately suffered the ill-effects of being rushed out the door. Yes, the incessant environment recycling is inexcusable, the enemy spawns are irritating, and the overall lack of variety is disheartening. I'll give you all of those. But the characters are memorable and interesting, the combat is more active and exciting, the art-style is more distinctive, and the writing is still fantastic, particularly given the length of development. Remember that DA:O had at least a 5-year dev-cycle while DA2 had less than half that. Given that, I'm sure that if DA2 had more time to incubate, it would've been absolutely incredible. As it is, it's merely good. Hopefully, Bioware (and the more likely-responsible EA) takes that to heart for DA3.

Happy Birthday, Jeff! Hope it's a good one!

I completely agree with the original post.  It's as though they built the game and then went in and literally removed content to fit a DLC strategy.

" Good stuff, and good playing against both of you, Lukeweizer and GeneralGrey! "

Looking forward to this - should be a lot of fun!