I was flipping through old manuals while poking through some boxes trying to find an old game to boot up the other day and I found something amusing enough to want to share...
Dr. Ray Muzyka, Joint CEO of Bioware wrote a nice length introduction to the game manual for Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn. It was touching, and while almost all of it remains currently relevant and is worth a read for Bioware supporters of any stripe, in light of the current debacle, I found this particular section rather ironic....and depressing. (spelling errors are my own)
We have been careful not to break what was not broken, but we have worked on many areas in the game. Some highlights include:
- we improved the story in Baldur's Gate II to make it much more immersive; characters interact with their worlds and other characters make the roleplaying aspects very compelling, and very satisfying.
-combat is more exciting than ever with the realtime strategy interface improved from the original game and the incorporation of dozens of new character classes, over a hundred new spells (to a total of over 300 in Shadows of Amn), an experience point cap of 2.95 million XP [resulting in maximum AD&D character levels of 17-23 level], new weapon proficiencies such as dual-wielding, and hundreds of new powerful monsters and villains.
-turn-based fans can play the game in turn-based mode with new autopause settings
-the scripting and design in Shadows of Amn represents the very best of what we learned in developing Baldur's Gate and its expansion pack, Tales of the Sword Coast.
-the art in Baldur's Gate II is uniformly beautiful and represents everything we learned during the development of Baldur's Gate and Tales of the Sword Coast.
- the graphic user interface has been improved in many ways such as adding in 800x600 resolution, 3D support for spells and background effects, dropaway side and bottom panels, a new color scheme, improved journal functionality, and map notes.
-the multiplayer experience is very solid in Baldur's Gate II, with non-pausing dialog in stores and non-critical dialog.
-you can start a brand new character or import your characters from Baldur's Gate or Tales of the Sword Coast; the tutorial included with the game shows new players how to get started.
Unfortunately, we don't get more four lines in a manual introduction anymore (see manual for current product). And it certainly doesn't come written personally by someone like the CEO, but I just want to know two things...
At what point did the Bioware "greats" become convinced that doing the exact opposite of all these things was the optimal way to develop a sequel to a great game?
When did all you folks who are so determined to love this game, who yell and scream and who call anyone who voices concerns about the dragon age 2 product "trolls", who tell those of us who feel betrayed by this release that we're out of touch with gaming or that we're stuck in the past....well, at what point did you become so willing to compromise? So willing to accept an inferior product? So convinced that a game offering less features can in any way, shape, or form be "innovative"?
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