Poll: When do you think Bioware started going downhill?

[Spearmaster]

I don't think they have at all. Yes, they may not be making the games "you" in particular like playing anymore, either because what they are doing has changed and/or because your own tastes have changed, but that doesn't instantly mean they are making worse games.

That is why I wanted a poll format to get the opinion of everyone, fans, haters, former fans and yes even fanboys.

I liked playing their older games and don't really enjoy the newer ones which means they changed, I'm sure my taste haven't, weather its for better or worse is based purely on the taste of the individual.

If I could do a more in depth poll paralleling this poll's results against which games people thought were Bioware's peak I think I could get a more clear picture of people's thoughts on Bioware but this is but a simple forum post and the poll has limited options.

As a side note the void vacated by Bioware in my gaming has been filled with games like the Drakensang titles, The Witcher and The Witcher 2. Yes I am mainly a PC gamer, mainly because of early Bioware games but I hold nothing against people who play on console.

 

[maxmanrules]

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.

BG2 remains one of my favourite games, and I thought BG1 was pretty good, but not as good as 2, going from BG2 back to BG1.
The start actually ends up making legitimate sense in both terms of the gameplay, and storyline. It introduces the enemy, by him kidnapping Imoen, and he brought you there to save himself and that other person from their curse, as you learn later in the story. It also reveals the strict control of magic in the city, establishing the world and things like that. In gameplay it gives you a nice overall objective, with a nice closed off tutorial-ish area where you can familiarise yourself with the game, as well as allowing the main character to be refreshed (by losing all his items and skills) which can be an arse for someone who clocked BG1, but allows them to rebuild their character.

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Apart from the lack of multisexual characters and classes in Mass Effect, their biggest misstep was in DA2, especially with how wide and varied DA:O was. Though, a case could be made that Awakenings was the small rocks shifting around the big rocks before the avalanche. Don't get me wrong, I still love Bioware, they're on a whole a great developer, they just get caught up in nonsense from time to time. And David Gaider doesn't get that people actually like dwarves, want to play as them, and want to romance them. You go from DA:O, a great, stand up, high quality RPG, to DA2, where they removed most of the RPG elements for all but the main character, almost obliterated the class/race combo choices, destroyed all exploration and discovery that comes with RPGs, and intercut three different stories, each the prequel to something else we'd have to buy. So we end up with an RPG developer that isn't making RPGs, but action titles with some customization? How silly is that?

 

[MegaManOfNumbers]

Nah, Capcom is going downhill; Bioware is doing just fine.

The latter has made a few dumb mistakes the past few years; the former, however, has made stupendously incoherent catastrophes the past 4 years and HAVEN'T learned from them.

 

[Vhite]

Neverwinter Nights
That and anything that they made after that with exception of first Mass Effect couldn't keep me playing.

 

[Contradiction]

DA3 will make or break the company in my eyes. If they screw it up, they are dead.

This is more or less my stance. Personally I thought the company went south with DA2 which I never bought despite LOVING DA:O. The Mass Effect series averages out to good for me... Never really dug the first one but I think that's because I played it later on and it just seemed really old 'n' clunky (I'll probably retry it one of these days) Mass Effect 2 AND 3 were great

Spoiler

I didn't even mind the original endings and the game itself was still polished and smooth as all hell but it sit right with me entirely either

I'd be lying if I said I was excited for DA3 but if the stars align and it isn't bad I'd jump back on the wagon with that franchise at least.

 

[Nami nom noms]

Honestly, I don't feel they have gone downhill... I just also think they were never 'that' good in the first place. The problem is that now they do some things better then they used to (thanks to practice, new technology and funding) and so the flaws, bad patches and design choices they always had are far more noticeable in the modern age.

The main problem only comes from viewing BioWare as the god of games in the first place.

 

[Volafortis]

I feel like Dragon Age 2 and Jade Empire were both somewhat weak by their standards (Hell, Dragon Age 2 was just bad), but I wouldn't say they've had a solid "downhill" trend in game quality. TOR and ME3 were both really good, IMO.

 

[daniel the immortal]

they went down when they were brought by EA

 

[RedDeadFred]

I am mildly shocked, and happy, to see that my choice is currently the second most popular pick.

I still like Bioware. They aren't perfect, but they've proven, through the EC and the wealth of free updates to the multiplayer, that they still care about the fans.

My thoughts exactly. The EC fixed a lot of plot holes and just made the whole game that much better. The fact that they realized their fans were unhappy and then fixed the situation for free shows their dedication.

 

[NotALiberal]

Since I played the Witcher series. The gameplay in the first was godawful, yet still charming in its own quaint way. If you have not played it, go play it now. Get some good mods to clean up the visuals a bit, and get the scabbard mod. Then go play a game where your choices actually matter, there are no "right" and "wrong", only choices that have consequences. The sheer amount of character dialogue is immense, and by the end of the game, your mind is blown at having played a game where the world actually feels alive, as opposed to the static "artificial" worlds Bioware creates. The second one improves on the gameplay, but still isn't as good in terms of characters or dialogue.

You will never be able to play another Bioware game again.

 

[endtherapture]

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.

Nah.

BG2 was vastly superior to BG1. BG1 had just the same amount of railroading in the game, you had to complete certain areas before others, first Nashkel, then bandit camp, then more Mines, then Baldur's Gate, then Candlekeep, then Baldur's Gate then endgame. It just had more open areas which were less in depth than the big side quests in BG2. The NPCs were significantly less in-depth, and the combat was frankly rubbish - I know it's D&D but it was so dependent on your rolls and any enemy could kill you in one hit at the beginning. Reloading to get good rolls to get through combat is not very fun. BG2 was more tactical and better, and the increased linearity in the end of the game just gave a more tight narrative, either way all the areas were richly detailed.

 

[veloper]

Whatever came after BG2. BG2 was Bioware's high point.

Kotor has terrible gameplay with very little tactics or action involved.
NWN only works as a toolset. The OC was bad with a poor plot and worse dialogue.
DA:O failed as a BG successor and was only a step into the right direction. Then DA2 throws away what little tactics remained, while the action part is still much too weak to be enjoyable.

I also reckon that Bioware may be climbing out of their hole, but now as a developer of shooters. Don't get me wrong, the shooting in ME1 was poor, but the action in the sequels is gradually getting better. Story driven shooters seems to be the direction they are heading.

 

[Kargathia]

I'll be going with the "stop turning this into a hill analogy" option. They make games. Which used to be extremely dialogue-heavy RPG's, and gradually evolved to more action-oriented TPS/hotkey brawler games.

Either like them, or don't, but complaining about how the apocalypse is near because they're not catering to your specific needs anymore is downright retarded.

 

[Agayek]

-snip-

It's not a specific game that signifies it. Rather, it was the acquisition by EA that started their downward spiral.

There's still some small remnant of what made them great, but it's getting increasingly buried under massive piles of bullshit EA keeps heaping on it in the name of homogenization and broader appeal.

 

[Tippy]

For me Mass Effect 2 was the pinnicale of the Bioware work. Everything after that was pretty much downhill.