Apparently, employees from Bioware have been inserting Dragon Age 2 reviews with 10/10 and 9/10 scores in a desperate attempt to increase the game's global review score and influence the public opinion:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.270793-BioWare-Employee-Busted-in-Dragon-Age-2-Review-Scandal-UPDATED

Truly shameful stuff. It's bad enough that Dragon Age 2 is what it is... Bioware and Electronic Arts didn't need to bury down their own names in the mud like this...

Yeah I agree with the OP, Gamespot's review is waaay off target. Yes the game had bugs on releases which shouldn't have, but at its current state it's now very enjoyable.

The simple fact that it's a quality turn-based game, alone, makes it superior and far more interesting than most other games out there, so even with the bugs it should have received a higher score, and also maybe it should have been reviewed by someone who knew what he was talking about. Dunno what's wrong with the reviewers on this site recently, they all DO come across as casual players on their reviews, which don't dwelve into the game mechanics in any depth. Sometimes I even have difficulty in just understanding what kind of game is being reviewed, because they write about irrelevant things and not about what really matters i.e. the game engine, gameplay mechanics, how it compares to other games as reference etc.

Yeah good year... we get 2 or 3 games that we can enjoy, after several years of desolation. There seems to be no difference between gaming and movies anymore :P

Elemental is also in my list of games to watch for (so now the list has a total of 3 including Civ5 :P ).

I'm obviously not talking about any silly FPS type game that'd put shame to the memory of X-Com/UFO (and Laser Squad before it :) ), like certain recent abuses of the brand name.

I'm talking about a genuine, fully fledged turn-based tactical combat game in the vein of the original, the kind of game we haven't seen in a while and which some of us crave so much.

It's supposed to be launched next Christmas by UK-based independent game developer Goldhawk Interactive, and it's currently titled under "Xenonauts". The game's official site:

http://www.xenonauts.com/

They're taking ideas and bits in their forums, so if you appreciate quality gaming you might want to check them out and join the brainstorm!

I thought I'd let you people know about it, since Gamespot may be too busy right now marketing the current batch of big corporation FPS games, and will probably be too busy reviewing the next batch of big corporation FPS games by the time Xenonauts becomes available (we don't even have a game entry for Xenonauts here at Gamespot, apparently).

Cheers.

Jesus.

Think "The Great Escape" from the ZX Spectrum, and "The Sting" PC. That kind of gameplay mechanics. That means no first-person crap and no needless eye candy, obviously.

What makes a game very good is everything that 99% of the games made in the past 10 years don't have, and which can be summed up very easily:

Passionate developing out of love and fun, instead of a commercial job to pay the rent and fill some big company's pockets.

This just in from a clearly disappointed player in the official Bioware forums:

And now, for the really big one... the master question... the one question everyone wanted an answer for during all these years of developing of what Bioware called "the spiritual successor of Baldur's Gate".

The question that makes all the difference. The question that will finally, publicly decide whether Dragon Age, the most expected game of the decade, is a fully blown proper CRPG or a god damned FIASCO!

The question that will define whether Bioware has looked in the mirror while considering the feedback of its public, and stood true to its origins as an honest, quality developer, OR if it is now irreversibly stepped to the ugly world of corporate lies, incompetence and total despise of its customers.

Dragon Age - defacto CRPG standard for the new age, OR the final lost opportunity to revive the genre ?

Bioware - the last serious CRPG developer, OR a ghost of everything that it once, in a remote dream, ever was ?

And the question is: WHERE ARE THE AUTO-PAUSE OPTIONS ?

ARE THERE AUTO-PAUSE OPTIONS ? CAN I SET THE GAME TO AUTO-PAUSE WHEN A CHARACTER IS HIT ? WHEN A CHARACTER IS FATALLY WOUNDED ? WHEN A SPELL IS CAST ? WHEN A CHARACTER DIES ?

YES ?!!!! OR NO ???!!!!!

Let the public and Bioware answer. I hear you. We hear you. The world hears you.

I'll answer that for him: there are NO AUTO-PAUSE OPTIONS, except for a lame pause when a battle starts. Nothing else. No battle tactics or maanagement. It's Neverwinter Nights v1.3, NOT Baldur's Gate. It's not even Icewind Dale. And much less Planescape Torment. Run around, flashy lights and textures, click and kill. Another good console portable product.

They could have made the best game in the decade. Instead, they dropped the ball and made Dragon Age into a FIASCO !

Shame.

I thought that "real life" currency is just a virtual way of representing actual goods ? Money is just pieces of paper. Then again, you don't really use money anymore, you use "digital credits" under the form of credit cards and online banking.

So effectively you trade virtual goods for virtual products or virtual services, isn't that normal ?

So ? :P