In the mail: N7 Hoodie!

BEHOLD.

It is not identical to my beloved original hoodie. The drawstrings are different, the cut is close but not identical, and the fabric is of a somewhat different type. …But I’ll take it!

Moe Lane

PS: Bioware is once more now dead to me. Although I doubt they care, since I bought something during their brief reanimation/.

Mass Effect N7 Hoodies are back in stock!

…He carefully said, after buying one, and confirming the sale. I know that people have issues with Bioware. So do I. The company was dead to me; and as soon as I get my new hoodie, it will be dead to me again.

Counterpoint: my current N7 hoodie has been worn down to the point where tailors and dry cleaners give me pitying looks when I try to get it repaired. I wear it anyway. Those of us with the hoodie will stop each other in the street, just to make conversation. This hoodie has gotten me sales at conventions. So it’s a blessed miracle how Bioware resurrected itself just long enough to sell me a replacement hoodie, isn’t it?

Just let Dragon Age 4 die already, Bioware.

This says it all, really: “Dragon Age 4 has been a long time coming and BioWare still doesn’t have much to show for all the years it has spent developing the RPG. And even though there still isn’t much to reveal about the game, the team gave an update on its development, which coincided with another lead leaving the team.

I know the franchise is dead, or at least better off that way. ComingSoon does, too. Shoot, even Bioware itself must realize this by now. So… kill it. Kill it, and Mass Effect, and have done with the whole sorry affair.

…You [expletive deleted]s.

:Gingerly poking head out from behind blast doors: So… how is Anthem?

I have seen some of the reviews for Anthem, but they reinforce my expectations so I’m being wary. Gabe linked to this one review, in fact, that so panders to my sour expectations that I instinctively mistrust it. What do people who are actually playing the game thinking of Anthem?

Moe Lane

PS: Bioware is still dead to me. I just, you know, was curious and stuff.

…Nope, Bioware’s still dead to me.

I didn’t even bother to watch the entire N7 Day teaser video.  I don’t believe that Bioware particularly cares about the Mass Effect IP at this point, and after the way they blew off Andromeda DLC I’m not inclined to wait around for them to come to their senses.  And I say that as a man with a N7 hoodie and a N7 mousepad.

Here. Watch this if you want to watch something involving N7 Day. From 2012. Continue reading …Nope, Bioware’s still dead to me.

Bioware suddenly realizes that they set their fan base on fire.

(Via Gametyrant) I feel for Bioware GM Casey Hudson. I really do.  He’s not the one who defecated in Bioware’s bed with Mass Effect: Andromeda — that would be EA. He’s just the guy who has to flip the sheets and pretend that EA’s washed them.  It’s gonna be a cold day in Hell before I spend full price on Anthem, though. “[D]esigned to continue delivering new stories and experiences” or not.  I just don’t believe that EA cares enough about the actual games and IP involved to do more than the absolute bare minimum here. Continue reading Bioware suddenly realizes that they set their fan base on fire.

I’m pretty much done with Bioware now.

The news that Bioware won’t be releasing single-player DLC for Mass Effect Andromeda doesn’t make me angry; it just makes me tired of Bioware’s [expletive deleted].  I am what you’d call a hardcore Mass Effect fan. Got the games, got the hoodie, got the t-shirt, got the mousepad. I have the soundtracks on my iPod. I didn’t have a problem with the way ME3 ended, especially after Citadel (which was hours of DLC nigh-perfect fun, and for me the true end of the game).  I was even ready to forgive the animation problems in Andromeda, because I figured that they’d fix them.

So when I say that I’ve had enough, I like to think that it means something. IP loyalty goes only so far, and it’s gone far enough. So, no pre-orders of Anthem for me, and I’ll be skipping future entries in Dragon Age. Mind you, I’m just one dude, and I have no illusions that Bioware/EA even cares, or that they even should. And I’m not yelling; I’m just disappointed in the company. They could have done things better.

Huh. They’re doing the first ten hours of Mass Effect: Andromeda for free.

All platforms. It’s enough to get you fiddling around with the first planet (EOS) in Mass Effect: Andromeda.  I swear to God, though: I wish that Bioware would either defecate, or get off the pot.  There are, in fact, two big cliffhangers in-game, so there are obvious hooks for DLC; but the game stumbled badly in getting out the door*.  So it’s justifiable to pull the plug on the game.  But if they’re going to do that, then they should cut their losses and stop fiddling with it.  Develop it or don’t develop it as they please, but they should please choose one.

Moe Lane

*Which is, ultimately, a mistake of management.  Oh, the developers clearly didn’t do their jobs — but it was management’s to make sure that the job got done anyway, and Bioware’s suits fornicated the canine on that action item pretty danged thoroughly. Some things you just can’t wing and a prayer.

I suspect Bioware itself of originating the Mass Effect Andromeda DLC rumors.

Seems easy enough: first, set up a rumor from a shop purporting to be doing Mass Effect Andromeda DLC that there actually won’t be any story-based DLC (which everybody is largely assuming to be true, so why is it a rumor).  Then, let the rumor spread.  Finally, put out a response saying:

Boom! Instant buzz.  Or not.  I don’t care: if reporting this gets interest up in ME:A DLC, now that they’ve patched the animation bugs and everything, I will happily report away. I want to know what happened with the quarian Ark, dagnabbit.

Bioware’s Drew Karpyshyn writing for Anthem.

And if Bioware is smart, they’ll do what I originally wrote in the title and make Drew Karpyshyn lead writer for Anthem.  Why? Because these are his writing credits:

  • Baldur’s Gate II: Shadows of Amn
  • Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal
  • Neverwinter Nights
  • Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
  • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
  • Jade Empire
  • Mass Effect
  • Mass Effect 2
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic

Continue reading Bioware’s Drew Karpyshyn writing for Anthem.