Quoting: rustybroomhandleReminder: When supporting small developers, full price is the best price.

Strike "small". It goes for all. And is the truth! :)

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Quoting: AnxiousInfusion

Quoting: BeamboomHmmm... Text advert?

Just an honest account of my wildest experience in the game so far. I am not affiliated with Soldak Entertainment in any way.

Then all is cool! Great story. I love to involve myself on that level too, and BE in the game. Live it - love it!

Quoting: TheBossIt's a regular user writing a game-inspired short story, what's not to like.

None at all, I'm just worried about when we will start seeing fabricated submissions here, like the "user reviews" on Amazon & co. This is already the one major site for Linux gaming news (with barely any competition at all), and it's only a question of how big the platform must be before this open article submission will be (tried) exploited.

... And, well... This story instantly made me want to purchase that game. :)

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Hmmm... Text advert?

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Yeah happy new year - may 2016 be the year of the invasion of AAA flagships onto our platform! :)

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Quoting: PangachatNow this is my GOTY on Linux :)

Then we are two! :-)
I'm having a jolly good time this Xmas. My 4 year old girl are having a blast in Lego Online, daddy with Divinity.

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Quoting: KeyrockHowever, in terms of writing, it's plain to see (to me at least) how far BioWare has fallen off. The very game series you cited as an example, Mass Effect, serves as a perfect example of that very thing. Look at the writing from Mass Effect 1 to Mass Effect 3. Mass Effect 1 had a pretty good and concise story with a memorable and interesting antagonist. By Mass Effect 3 the story had devolved into a mess with little rhyme or reason other than to make Shepard into Space Jesus

This we agree with. The series took a dive in ME3 - so much so that I didn't even care to finish it, and that's a first for me with a BioWare game. Personally I do however think ME2 were the best of them overall, while the first had a better "rpg" feel. And the first two were, in my humble opinion of course, fantastic. No less. They were fantastic adventures full of surprises and magical moments.

But my main point is, to write off BioWare because of one-two titles (I assume you too have little good to say about DA2) of SIX latest releases just isn't fair at all, especially since it's not even the last two. So even though we essentially agree I have much, much more faith in BioWare than that. Everyone are allowed a misstep or two.

Quoting: tuubiUnless we don't have the budget or the skills to do it all. If we think we've still got something to give to the gaming public, we absolutely should try our best. Maybe we might even make enough money so that our next masterpiece might appeal to an even broader audience with its technical whizbangery and state-of-the-art visuals.

Ok hold on for a minute: You are one of the indie game companies? I was not aware of that, I thought you spoke as a regular gamer. Had I known that I'd never express myself this undiplomatic. Please accept my apologies.

Quoting: tuubiPlease don't be that guy and act like your way is the only way.

Quoting: throghThis is YOUR perspective and yours alone, but don't give up arguments as speaker for a greater group.

Ah but I only present my point of view - and only that. I am aware that I am in the minority of much of what I express. I'm ok with that. :)

I enjoy these discussions, and hope I am not too much of an annoyance to others. Thanks, Tuubi and Keyrock, for an interesting exchange of views. :)

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Quoting: tuubiA great game is a great game, even if it could have been made ten or twenty years ago.

Then it's outdated and cheap and could (should!) have been made better - cause now we can. Cause remember, the point'n'click 2d games of yesteryear was the bleeding edge of what we technically COULD do back then - they didn't make it like that just cause they felt like it. They pushed the hardware to the absolute limits. And we applauded that.

A game is, to a much greater extent than movies, music and obviously books a technical product. They are outdated much faster, faster than any other media I can think of from the top of my head.

Games are essentially like action movies. Have you seen again action movies you marvelled at decades ago? That once were hailed for their qualities? By far most of them look totally different through the eyes of today. Poor production techniques, bad editing, scenery that so obviously are made of cardboard, obviously poor special effects, etc. It can be better today! Why should we expect less?

Quoting: tuubiYou're seriously missing out if you pick your games based on their budget, but that's your prerogative. Naturally the game is even more enjoyable if it also looks and sounds nice, but these are just potential cherries on the cake, not the cake itself.

I haven't picked my games based on the budget. You simply can't be a Linux gamer if you do that. I've never played more indie games than the last couple of years. But during those years I've discovered my expectations are higher than what's been on offer on the cheap indie scene. I know I can get both - so why settle with less?

Like the METRO games. That's in my opinion a great example of a good, modern production with an interesting story and a very cool setting. That's what I want to see. I'm no big fan of shooters and stealth games but I kept playing simply cause the game had that special something to the atmosphere and story.
Now, had that same game been a retro thing with all dialogue as text on static faces, isometric view and poor animations it's not been the same at ALL, regardless if the writing had been the exact same - word for word.

Why sit there with Microsoft Paint if you can use Photoshop. Why read cheap digital novels written by amateurs when you can purchase great work published by professional houses. Why sit there with an old Casio keyboard when you can enjoy the full suite of Bitwig.

To care about the presentation doesn't mean you don't care about the content. But to excuse everything else if only you get a great story... Well then, buy a good book?

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Ok - I'm realizing you're the kind who thinks everything was better before (no offence intended).

But I gotta say that Mass Effect was one of the biggest and most epic trilogies in my years of gaming so far. I can't see for instance KOTOR or Neverwinter being better in any way (although I hold KOTOR high too). All right so the third game was disappointing after the masterpiece that was ME2 (the loyalty missions were fantastic), but overall? Oh boy what an experience.

I also found the first Dragon Age to be a great adventure - and that's quite the achievement considering my aversion to fantasy. So while BioWare also delivered great experiences in the past, and while DA2 and ME3 were indeed a bit disappointing (although DA2 were underrated imo), I still trust BioWare to deliver on the content - in particular on the characters (who I believe has always been their biggest strength). And everyone says DA Inquisition is a return both to RPG and storytelling for BioWare.

And I'm dying to get to know more about Mass Effect next year. If only... If only it would come to Linux too. I've not yet played neither Fallout 4, Dragon Age Inquisition or GTA5 cause of platform. Just in case it would come, eventually... But I still got my Windows partition reserved for those games.

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Keyrock,
I see your arguments everywhere so I'd be a fool if I didn't accept that they hold some merit. I just find myself, over and over again, being disappointed with low budget games. What I've found they can do best are simple concepts. Like all those arcade shooters, platformers, simple puzzlers, that kind of thing. Or the very short games where you essentially just walk around and discover a story. Nice to spice up your gaming mix, but hardly anything you'd want to invest hundreds of hours into. When they try anything more ambitious, they fall short either in length or in technical level. That's a general rule with far too few exceptions.

Much like indie films, really. Typically for indie films are that they can be good at doing technically very simple films, or very short films. Both has obviously to do with budget and thus sheer manpower. When they try anything more demanding, they fall short. And then you got the very very few exceptions that everyone use to prove otherwise, but what I say is true for more than 98% of everything produced.

Of course I too want great stories in my games. Of course. And I'd like to hold BioWare as one source for gripping scenarios and in particular fantastic characters (if a bit too "american" stories, but I've grown used to deal with that).
But I need to be delivered those characters in a modern way, and not have to use my imagination while reading text and staring at a still photo of an avatar. That's so far behind me and I do not look back.

I'm 46 years old and have been into computer gaming since I got my Oric-1 back in the mid eighties. I too grew up with point'n'click adventures. I've been through all those Sierra games, LucasArt, Larry and all that stuff. I wouldn't touch games like that today. The only reason we (I) enjoyed them back then was that we didn't have anything better. Keep in mind: It was the pinnacle of gaming at that time!

And back then all I did was to dream, "what if I could enter this world, what if I could BE there?". Tried my best to ignore the jaggy lines, poor collusion detection, invisible walls, ignore the choppiness of the three-frame looped animations. Used my imagination to think of how it could have been. I even enjoyed the "freedom" of Space Invaders, pretended that one of the bases at the bottom were "my" base.

Today we can get up close and personal. We can actually look at the tables inside a house, and not only that but read the pages on the book that lies on top of that table - it's not a 6x8 pixels white box any more. Today we can "enter" the imaginary worlds - and even more so with the upcoming VR technology. Today we build our own bases in huge virtual worlds - and design the whole thing as we please!

... So why the f* should we settle with the same shit we had to deal with thirty years ago? That's my stance on this whole subject of gaming. I look forward. And I want my games to keep up with the evolution.

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Quoting: KeyrockBut games have budgets and independent studios, in particular, have to work with rather limited budgets. Voice actors don't work for free, their services can become rather expensive when your game has a lot of dialogue. If budgets were unlimited then I would like to have everything voice acted also. But given the limited budget of smaller studios, I'd much rather do a lot more reading of quality writing than listen to voice actors read cringeworthy lines.

Keyrock, let me just introduce this reply by saying that I believe we in essence are quite in agreement - it's just our priorities as gamers that differs.

And the above quote is why I'm no fan of indies. They can only offer what they can offer and many of them go well beyond what the budgets realistically could do, but it's not enough. Video games today are not something made in a basement by a couple of buddies. It just isn't. For me, indie games are like the free "ebooks" available for Kindle & co by unsigned writers.
Sorry to say so, but they are crap. Some of them have a good idea for the book, some have good segments or plots, but oh my god how they need an editor and a professional publisher to push them to go that extra mile to polish the product. They are not what they could have been. It's the exact same with "indies".

Quoting: KeyrockI mean, the attempts at humor in D: OS are pretty damn ham-fisted, to put it mildly.

It's quite primitive. But then again I'm so used to crappy dialogue and poor plots in games that I hold my expectations low in that regard, and I'm easily charmed by the way they don't take themselves or the genre too seriously in this game.

Also, I'm quite forgiving as long as it delivers on more important parts (to me):
When I sit down to do some gaming it's to participate. To take part in a story, a setting, and shape that story myself. The main story becomes almost just the framework of my personal story within that frame. If a game is too linear, the story need to hold exceptional qualities for me to keep going. And not many games manages to do that.

If, on the other hand, I am left unshackled by the main story I'm a lot more forgiving, if I can have fun and get my gamer fix of that "illusion of freedom".

Yes, I love franchises like Fallout and GTA for that exact reason.

Quoting: KeyrockIf you feel a developer's money is better spent on voice actors than quality writers, that's your prerogative. I'd much rather have high quality writing in text form.

I'd then much rather have no story (or pay no attention to it), but fantastic freedom and just plain FUN in the games. If I have to choose between the two.

Quoting: KeyrockAs for the look of the game, I'm not keen on D: OS's particular brand of stylized art. I mean, the graphics are nicely high res and the particle effects are nice, I just don't much like the art style. I honestly found the Shadowrun games more pleasing to the eye.

I agree! Shadowrun has an excellent style - and a universe I really wanted to delve into. That's why I felt like banging my head into the monitor in despair of what it could have been, had they applied that very universe, artwork and atmosphere onto a more modern engine and way to deliver a story.

So yes - Shadowrun is a product that had huge potential, a masterpiece never unleashed due to technical foundation being too weak to carry it (and undoubtedly limited budgets are to blame).

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