Firstly, we probably need a thread on a game from the much (formerly) beloved Bioware. I actually really like Anthem, I thought it was brave and beautifully put together in bits (I've been playing it recently with my son). Going back a bit further, I'm a Mass Effect 1 mega fan, I like 2, 3 is fine. Andromeda isn't that bad (just a bit weird). The Dragon Age franchise passed me by a bit, I liked 1 (but it was very brown), 2 was fine and I think 3 is a good game, if a bit sprawling. I was playing it recently and it still stands up well.
Post BG3, it's a really tough environment to release an RPG. A bit of a damned if you do, damned if you don't design nightmare. BG3 does pretty much everything well, so where do you compete? DA:V I think takes an intelligent step to cut down on open world bullshit and recreate something of the ME2 "get a team together" storytelling that works pretty well in videogames. It also goes a bit more arcade combat, the same way the Final Fantasy series has been slowly getting to over the past 10 years.
I picked it up for PS5 today and I've only done the character creation. A lot of the UI design and particles flying about really reminds me of Forspoken (which I liked, especially the traversal). I'll report back later on the game.
But, what is fascinating is the usual angry white douchbags on the internet getting themselves into a froth over it. There have been some very positive reviews, from IGN and Eurogamer, and then a few extremely negative reviews from some neckbeards. But also from some non-neckbeards who genuinely seem to dislike it. Yes, it allows you to play a woman, romance between the same sex and mix genders, so clearly the usual crowd will be BOYCOTTING it, but I don't think I've seen a recent game with such a wildly varying set of opinions on it. Even the graphics seem to be wildly splitting opinions. I personally think it looks nice and I like the slightly cartoonish look to the characters, but it's not universally popular….
Again, maybe we're just post BG3 now, and the bar has been set so wildly high it'll be years before anything passes it…
I'm in the 'not a fan of the graphical style' camp, it stands out but I'm not sure in a good way.
My initial feelings are pretty positive.
I think the environmental graphics are stunning. Though I'd say they feel more like a super HD Sly Cooper environment than a fantasy one. The hues and vivid colours are absolutely breathtaking in bits. The character models are a bit of an odd choice - again, I like them, but I'd have expected if you went for a cartoon style you'd have more expression potential in the facial animations. But it's still very videogame face and lip sync (i.e. shit). The overall impression though is very sumptuous, but I absolutely see a lot of huge similarities between it and Forspoken, from gameplay through to visuals. And I'd argue Forspoken's animation, traversal and monster design is a lot better, even if the environments are a lot worse.
The opening chapter is suitably bombastic, though quite videogamey in its set up. And also, for a game that doesn't really have a morality Paragon/Renegade thing going on (you have to be good) the opening seems quite a nuanced one in terms of working out why bad shit is happening. There's a lot of blame being thrown around which I felt a bit of a spectator to - like being at a dinner party with an arguing couple. The voice acting is interesting - it's good, but it does feel like voice actors doing voice acting.
Once the opening sequence calms down, it is pretty videogamey. There's a lot of little nods to making things easy to play - everything is a corridor, navigation is clear, doors open before you get close to them etc. Nothing feels especially real, as a chest explodes open spewing particles you are very much in videogame land, but it is quite a cohesive art direction.
I really, really like the Veilguard art style, i think it looks fantastic. It's got a ton of personality, and the slight exaggeration on features means it avoids the uncanny valley. Photorealism is overrated, and the most boring thing to aim for - not to mention basically impossible, and attempts to get there dates things so goddamn fast. I'll take a strong style over "the thing you see IRL all the time" any day.
I haven't been able to play any of it yet, not even character creation - I bought it digitally, so I'm waiting for it to unlock at 4pm before I have a poke at it.
Not sure what combo to play yet; my previous "canon" heroes have been Human Warriors (DA:O and II) and a Dwarf Rogue (Inquisition); is it time for an elf? A mage? An elvish mage??
I'm playing mage and it's quite interesting as you can be a spellsword. So you mage them from afar, then go in close to batter them with a magical sword. Seems to be the best of both worlds.
I think the strong style works beautifully for the backgrounds. It genuinely looks wonderful, a tremendous sense of scale and cohesive weight to everything. And just walking through it is lovely (even if the game absolutely cranks the colour of everything up to 200%). I also think the art design of the main characters fits quite well, it's just strange that the facial animation and general animation couldn't have been improved a bit. Surely by now, with AI assistance, we can get better lip tracking for voice lines? I mean, how old is Detroit: Beyond Human? 2018? Six years old and still massively better than this.
Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum got might be something to review in a year or two, especially by people who enjoy DA:V as I really don't think DA:V is a million miles from either. And both also have far better lip sync….
The lip sync looked okay in the clips I saw, but then again, I am coming to it from Star Wars Outlaws…
The lip sync is truly awful.
Ninchilla - when you get to the first dual door opening "puzzle" I dare you to not roll your eyes at the entire sequence.
That said, I'm sorta enjoying it. I do appreciate them repeating the core plot points every 5 minutes.
I started Origins for the first time a couple of days ago so I’m about 800 hours behind you all. I know Alastor would get all the games done in a week but I’m not so speedy! I’ll revisit this thread in 2027 or so.
Just got to the first place I could save after spending about 45 minutes in the character creator, and I've already decided I don't like my character's face.
I mean, I tapped out of Inquisition after a while partly because of how big it was! (In addition to other stuff)
You know the Fremulon "not a doctor" thing, for some reason this game has two "gods" who are not gods as the main villains. At one point the player character just agrees to call them gods for some reason. But they clearly aren't. It has strong Good Place vibes where Janet repeatedly has to say she's not a robot.
I genuinely don't quite know what going on with the plot. It seems very odd and tonally all over the place. There's just been a bit where the game has tried Resident Evil 4 horror vibes, after previously looking like a Matisse painting. There's a Northern Mayor who seems entirely unbothered by the fact he's being held by gigantic pulsing tentacles. Eeee up duck, thar tentacle's proper buggered me day up as ah live un breeeethe.
As a Yorkshireman, I love it when we pop up in random games. My personal highlight was Ni No Kuni 2 which, for no reason whatsoever, had an entire fishing village voiced by people from Barnsley.
Very excited for Veilguard. I've always loved CRPGs, and Origins was one of my favourites when it first came out. But I'm not gatekeepy about it, and I'm happy that this new direction seems to have worked.
The only problem is, I have about fifteen games on The Pile.
There's been a lot of talk about the Inquisition choices that carry over (or don't…) did I miss the part where I set that up, or does it happen partway into the game?
EDIT: Found it. Well, fuck. That was a waste of a few hours… 
Restarted with my Inquisitor (and a slightly improved face). Still in Minrathous. Only about 3 hours lost, which probably isn't too bad in the long run, plus I can spam-skip through the cutscenes to get back to where I was a little quicker. And I'll be much less frustrated later on when the Inquisitor turns up and isn't some random elf.
I see this has been a really successful launch, even with the moaning neckbeards saying it has too muck woke stuff in it.
I am continuing to enjoy it. Though as I said on 'muk I think it's a 7/10 game with 10/10 environments.
I've almost caught up with my first attempt - still bimbling about in Spoiler - click to showArlathan with Bellara.
I'm starting to see what you mean about the lip-sync, but I'd say it's more variable than outright bad; some bits are fine, others are quite poor. It's not too distracting for me, though. Not as much as Rook v2's nose is… I might have to go back to the mirror again to see if I can tweak it a little more.
The environments are pretty impressive - and getting around them is a vast improvement over Inquisition, where you could get stuck on barely-visible rock assets sticking through the floor - but if they're a 10, the hair is a 12. It's phenomenal!
I've just realised, about 10 hours in, I'm playing Kingdoms of Amalur.
Slowly working my way through, punching slightly above my weight in fights and completing (I suspect) rather more of the side quests than the game expects me to have done so far - with the caveat that I have no idea how far through I am.
The next main quest is Spoiler - click to showWeisshauptbut I've already done Spoiler - click to showeverything available in the Crossroads bar the Blighted Dragon - which is still 15 levels above me, and proving tough even with help from Mythal.
Really enjoying it so far, and have respecced my mage from Spellblade into Death Caller so I'm life-draining the heck out of everything and having a great time. I can't quite find a party combo I like, though. I'd like to take Neve or Bellara everywhere (ooh, matron), but the primer/detonator system seems designed for having a mage/rogue/warrior combo, so doubling up isn't super-useful.
