Poll: When do you think Bioware started going downhill?

[Spearmaster]

For me it was the first Mass Effect that made me step back and question weather Bioware was making games I wanted to play any more.

The plot and setting was good but there did not seem to be anything other than the main quest and anything other than that was usually a lot of talking which is ok but you need to have something worth talking about, running around talking to team members to see which one you are going to sleep with is lame, you would think it would make the game more mature but in a lot of ways it seemed to make it way less. Also the speech options seemed to be pretty limited to the Good, evil, neutral paths without options that I felt Shepard would actually say in that situation. Then again I may be remembering it wrong by now.

Dragon Age:O was better with dialog in general but right off the bat it was the same three choice option with nothing creative, side quests seemed better but the main story was boring and it had the same layout as mass effect, go to set piece locale, do mission, go to camp and progress dating simm, rinse and repeat.

I may also be spoiled by baldurs gate where the chat options could lead to anything from a new ally to being attacked, Life and death first hand, not the fapping about and dating simm chat options in the newer games.

So its Mass Effect for me, used Dragon Age to confirm.

 

[Fappy]

I kind of regret creating that DA3 thread now... people haven't stopped talking about Bioware's performance/fan retention/reputation since then. So many threads!

No, I don't think I am giving myself too much credit.

 

[Garrett]

There is no "Neverwinter Nights" option. NWN is downright horrible. KotOR is barely good. Can't say much about Jade Empire because I never played it (though I probably missed that game for a reason). Dragon Age and Mass Effect, please. So yeah, definitely since NWN.

 

[Al-Bundy-da-G]

Somewhere about the time EA realised that Bioware had talent overflowing out their collective arses and decided to spread that shit as thin as possible over their bathroom wall other less talented studios.

fuckin EA sports...

 

[Sp3ratus]

No, I don't think I am giving myself too much credit.

Hey, being a part of Escapist history, as the founder of another "let's spawn a bazillion threads about the same thing" month is nothing to scoff at!

OT: I still like them, I still think they create quality games. Sure, DA2 wasn't as good it could be, because of a rushed development cycle, but the combat was stellar in that game, which is the primary reason I replay that game. Furthermore, ME3 was a fantastic game, ending and everything included.

 

[cjspyres]

While I still have faith in Bioware to improve, Dragon Age 2 is where I started to wonder the same thing as Spearmaster. I understood that DA:O was a work in progress, but I didn't expect the to make such a....Mediocre game.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Throne of Bhaal. Around that time.

 

[cjspyres]

Throne of Bhaal. Around that time.

That's quite a while back friend, hahaha! Didn't think I'd see that name drop. Most people tend to forget Baldur's Gate for some reason.

 

[Jarek Mace]

Throne of Bhaal. Around that time.

I'm going to go right ahead and go further back and say Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn

BG II was a brilliant game, as were all their games right up until the games after Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age: Origins (Both of which are great in my eyes).

I can sort of see the start of the dumbing down in Baldurs Gate 2, since I just went straight to BG 2 from BG1 recently.
Less dialogue, significantly easier combat, what feels like a lot more rail roading, a really shit beginning (you just randomly woke up in a bald mages sex dungeon, oh, and all your stuff is gone ), and at times it felt lazy (You need 20,000 gold, so go earn it!" Felt a lot like Bioware saying "Go play some side quests").
The dumbing down was incredibly obvious with Mass Effect 2, which was a good game but it still felt downhill in my eyes.

 

[Esotera]

I never really liked any of their games apart from the original Mass Effect, so there isn't a massive hill for them to go down in my opinion. I suppose that Mass Effect 2 would be the threshold, I thought it was a good game but seemed to have quite a lot of EA influence squashed into it.

 

[More Fun To Compute]

Throne of Bhaal. Around that time.

I'm going to go right ahead and go further back and say Baldurs Gate II: Shadows of Amn

BG II was a brilliant game, as were all their games right up until the games after Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age: Origins (Both of which are great in my eyes).

I can sort of see the start of the dumbing down in Baldurs Gate 2, since I just went straight to BG 2 from BG1 recently.
Less dialogue, significantly easier combat, what feels like a lot more rail roading, a really shit beginning (you just randomly woke up in a bald mages sex dungeon, oh, and all your stuff is gone ), and at times it felt lazy (You need 20,000 gold, so go earn it!" Felt a lot like Bioware saying "Go play some side quests").
The dumbing down was incredibly obvious with Mass Effect 2, which was a good game but it still felt downhill in my eyes.

Having to reload a combat encounter and replay until you get good enough dice rolls is not that hard.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

I blame EA, it isn't their fault.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

It wasn't any actual game, but more of a gradual decline brought on around the time EA bought the company.

 

[The Last Nomad]

Well since their fourth ever game was quite possibly the greatest game of all time and certainly one of my favourites, they've technically been going downhill ever since for me. But that's not much to say since many many amazing games are downhill from Baldur's Gate 2.

But I think EA may have pushed them down the hill a bit too.

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

When their dev times started getting shorter and shorter. So after Origins and the first ME. EA is squeezing them pretty hard.

 

[TheSteeleStrap]

How could you forget the "The second they started working with EA" option?

 

[malestrithe]

Right after Torment, Bioware stopped innovating and started making the same game over and over again. Changing the setting for every game sure, but they did not change character's motivation, overall plot and general ending.

 

[voltair27]

Most people have only played Mass Effect 2 and up. I have played some of the earlier games and found them to be pretty good. Particularly KOTOR and the original Baldur's Gate. Mass Effect was okay, loved DA:O, liked ME2, thought DA2 was pretty terrible, liked ME3, and thought SW:TOR was a horrible, horrible, mistake.

Personally, it was DA2. ME3 was pretty good though, discounting original endings. DA3 will make or break the company in my eyes. If they screw it up, they are dead.