Recent reviews by Siri

You are a cat, and you fish, you can even be a dog. What more do you really need?

Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Spoiler free review

Gameplay: 10
Combat: 10
Story: 9
Romance: 7
Companions: 9
Level Design: 8
Graphics: 10
Optimization: 9

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is great send off to the series so far and leaves me both wanting more and satisfied with how things wrapped up. The story is great, had a good amount of twists, some I saw coming, others I did not. Despite the 10 year wait I would say it was worth it, though it is not without its flaws

Pros:
Story is masterful, it ties together lots of loose ends and reveals so much lore its mind boggling how they kept it quiet. At the same time it also shows new parts of Thedas well and in a way that feels organic, like you can see how each part fits into the world

Each of the companions are wonderful and unique, and their stories feel meaningful and the paths I chose felt fitting.

Combat is amazing, at least for mage, its very 2018 God of War in all the best ways. Loot is meaningful and effects how you play not just how hard you hit, leading to some very fun builds depending on how you want to play

The levels are great, despite claiming not to be an open world game, most of the level are huge with many secrets to discover, there are many puzzles but only one or two were challenging in anyway

Graphics are incredible and the game has some amazing sights and effects, especially the final missions, they really went all out cinematically there.

The fact the game managed to be this bug free, this well optimized and space efficient considering its complexity and development cycle is incredible

Cons:

Romance is lacking, and varies in quality depending on the companion ( I liked Neve's but wish there was more). I think what holds it back is the lack of ability to interact with companions whenever, only able to talk when prompted events come up, with timing being odd, leading to confusion when you should or should not go back to base and see if they have anything new.

Choice, the lack of choices from other games is a let down. It works well enough as the game takes place in an entirely separate part of the continent there were a few times I wish my old decisions showed up, or old characters made an appearance. Sadly I don't think they had a choice, 10 years is a long time and with covid and the Anthem disaster getting VA's on board and writers to line everything up would have been extremely difficult if not impossible. In a world where EA did not consider live service and covid did not happen, this could be an easy GOTY, but sadly that is not the world we got.

Some factions and locations definitely got more love than others, each faction felt unique but 2 or 3 really felt left in the dust when it comes to content or choice.

Final remarks:

Overall I am happy with how the game ended up but do find myself wanting more. Despite claiming no DLC plans I hope they follow a BG3 style patch system and slowly add more things the community wants, like they did with DAI with difficulty modifiers and the Golden nug.

I highly recommend the game especially to other Dragon Age and Bioware fans and am excited to see what Bioware has in store, especially outside Thedas

*The poisoned fruit ripens*

Honestly, I do like the game but it definitely does not have the same hook and "feel" of other Bethesda games

Pro's
-Followers are great at interacting with the world. Felt like they had something to say for every quest. Even some of the side companions had commentary when I would not expect it
-Story and side quests were actually really fun and cool. Almost all of them had me hooked and interested in what happened as well as being fun to play.
-Outposts were actually way cooler than I thought they would be. Finding planets with the right resources to make what you need then connecting them to your other planets was cool and very Satisfactory esque.
-Ship combat and flying feels great, I love it, I just wish there was more.
-SHIP BUILDING, OH MY GOD I LOVE IT SO MUCH. I have made countless ships, even downloading mods to let me make more. I can not wait to see how its expanded on.
-Speaking of expanding, this game has so so so much potentially either from modders or Bethesda and I am excited to see what this game looks like in a few years
-I was surprised at how many of the quests I completed were actually referenced by other quests. The vanguard questline especially will lead to a lot of new commentary once you complete it
-The Sysdef/Crimson fleet quest line. It needs its own bulletpoint its so good

Cons
-The main towns feel, off. New Atlantis is so empty and bland (and a pain to traverse) Neon is cool but small and does not have the atmosphere all the NPC's pain it as. Hopetown is not even a town. Akila city felt the best but even then it felt almost as empty as New Atlantis.
-Performance, they are finally getting to fixing it now but before you needed to a mod to make it at all playable constantly, I had a 4090 and it struggled to even get 60 most of the time without mods
-Companion affinity. There are no "evil" companions and all the main companions WILL nag you for doig anything bad, even on accident. A few times I had no idea why Sarah was mad at me, only to find out I somehow killed an NPC in a firefight.
-The map, why the hell is there basically no map, its impossible to use it to have any idea where you are I don't even know why they bothered
-Skill challenges, why do I need to level up AND complete random challenges just to unlock skills? Its annoying
-You are way to slow and the worlds are waaay to big to expect you to just walk. The game needs some kind of land vehicle or something
-No animal companions. Let me have a weird alien cat or something
-Despite ship building being amazing, the weapon system is dumb and confusing. You can't customize the looks and particle weapons are really the only weapons you should use as it makes the shield/hull damage system with physical and laser weapons pointless

I really do like the game, but I also have no interest in playing it again until more is added (unless to build more ships). CI think Bethesda really dropped the ball on this game, but they still have plenty of time to pick it back up. And while sure you can not expect mods to fix the game, or say the game is good just because of mods, I do think the modding potential is INSANE for this game and I am very excited for the tools to come out.

Overall I recommend it, but also recognize its not nearly good as it could be

Honestly, I love it, Its a fantastic game all around with good twists and a strong narrative. My only hope is we get a bit more control over our MC's personality in the next game, we really did not have much control this game, but it makes sense given the context of the world and story. If we could take more control both of the story and maybe even the RO routes and how they go. Overall I give the story a 8.5/10 and really can not wait for the next one

Fantastic game, the shooting feel great, movement is so smooth and the revive and drag system really adds to how effective a squad or team can be. I don't use building often but those who do can be very effective with it. The squad leader system really expands on what games like battlefield have done and makes it feel rewarding and effective. My only complaint is I feel weapon variety at the beginning is too limited and locks people into using the same weapon as they unlocked all attachments on it. While the new progression system helped this a lot I feel having one weapon from each weapon class unlocked would help people have more flexibility and find a weapon they like, rather than everyone using the M4. I highly HIGHLY recommend the game if you like shooters and want to scratch that battlefield itch

So, I see lots of reviews here giving mixed or bad reviews but really I just want to say, this game is so enjoyable.
Its got bugs, most that have workarounds, the story is fun, combat is good. I feel too many people went in not knowing/understanding it is an RPG at its roots, not a driving game not a shooter. People are saying that it should have been delayed, when just weeks ago they were saying to release it, regardless of the state. If you honestly think the game should have been delayed, then Delay it for yourself. No one is forcing you to play, take a break, come back in a year and play it then, but there are plenty of people who are fine with the state its in, buggy, but wonderful in story, capability and Role Play. Most importantly Play the game and with only one thing in mind, Are you having Fun? I know I sure as hell am

What day is it again?

Its meh