Cyberspark

Too true, it was good by virtue of being the only modern game in the genre since nwn2 and basically no competition. It's good, but nothing incredible.

Between Owlcat's pathfinder modules, Pillars of Eternity and Wasteland 2/3 we have plenty of strong contenders, but it's still a genre lacking in games. I don't think a DAO remaster does anything for that though.

The issue is doing DLC for an open world game is hard. The way it's been done in the past is broadly one of the following:

• add a new zone that doesn't interact with the rest of the world
• add a new location, a few new maps that link to the original zone and some quests The issue is that that's not enough to necessarily make an entirely new playthrough worthwhile, but also an existing near-end save might trivialise loot and content.

The solution is so some combination of the following:

• Make the content spread throughout the world
• Balance the game so that new gear are choices rather than straight upgrades.
• Add new systems to engage with.

Fundamentally Bethesda as discounted the latter. It's done with classes, it's not added races, or new systems or new skills in years. They can't add content throughout, that would require creating the space for the content to exist in ahead of time.

Not that it can't be done, but that they don't have the future awareness to make room for it.

The unemotive faces is the real issue. Facial animations from bioware seem really bad.

Except the complaints about Veilguard are about the pixar-like characters with very little expressiveness. So even if that were what he meant he's still actually not addressing the real issues

The mantra from the devs is basically sub when you want and stop if/when it's not worth it. They've never been really fighting to keep subs there's plenty for people to do on an ongoing basis and they're fine with people seasonally subbing for the updates. I don't think they're concerned about monthly value.

Server costs.

The issue is you provide production/team lead more artists and they can dedicate them to cinematics, environment, character and costume design and have them improve and make the process behind the stuff that already exists better, or put them into a fan-requested feature that's a potential time sink that won't really gain them any subs.

Alternatively you can end up in a too many cooks situation. For instance if you have 30 new armour designs putting more than 30 artists on the task sees diminishing returns.

The financial side can also be an issue. If your budget equates to having 6 months for the next patch, hiring more people reduces the time available, but might not speed up the process significantly enough to make the effective time loss worth it.

The problem is that DA:O was promised to be the spiritual successor to BG 1 & 2. They then immediately threw that away in the sequels because they realised the experience in console suited action combat better.

I've never been more disappointed than the point where I realised nothing I did affected the story in DA2 and again when I realised that not only was it not a return to form, but it doubled down with time gates mechanics and a level of grind that would make a subscription game proud.

That's on top of the fact that DA:O wasn't even that great in the first place. It was decent for its time, but is still incredibly linear and binary in its execution.

They're all deeply flawed games in the way they strayed from their supposed roots. They might be good when each considered alone, but as a journey as a fan they burned me at each step to the degree that nothing can convince me to buy DA4.

Did you know approximately 1-4% of the population are projected to be sociopathic?

True, but you do learn what you're good at and what you're not. You don't play as a child or teen still learning their place, though you could, but generally that's not what's done. People generally have a decent grasp on their capabilities, though they can surprise themselves it's rarely orders of magnitude out like it would not having a sheet.

Making it so holding a fire source sets any surface you stand on on fire is so cursed tactically.

Obsession with character sheets comes from pen and paper and a desire to simulate every aspect of the world. Without the tools to tweak your ability to interact with the system you can pretend to be a master thief, but unless the game reinforces that with its behaviour you're just pretending. Like you can pretend to be a vampire in Skyrim, sure, but it's more fun when you've actually got the curse and the game reinforces that.

Fundamentally a stat sheet is just a way to tell the game what your character is like in a way that it understands and can reinforce that's more granular than definition by class or by what skills you've used. And every game has one, whether you can see it and change it or not.

It's why "everyone" ends up as a stealth archer in Skyrim. Because stealth and ranged attacks are something every character would try to do, Skyrim's design means if you as much as try something it makes you better at it, even if you want to be a clumbsy barbarian.

Which ironically makes it so you can't just roleplay, you have to avoid trying anything that isn't what your character is best at. It means you can't hide from a patrol you can't handle, you have to just charge in and swing, because the game will change your character otherwise and you can't tell it not to.