Help Me To Not Hate Bioware Games

[MilesBeyond]

I cannot stand any game Bioware has made since BG2 for one reason and one reason only: The interface. Trying to get my party to do what I want them to do feels more like work than play. And yet I keep hearing about how awesome games like KOTOR and Mask of the Betrayer are. I try to get into them, but I just can't. Playing these games is like pulling teeth. Every time I switch characters the camera has a stroke. I tell a character to go do something and as soon as I switch to another character the first one stops whatever I told them to do and starts doing something else.

After a couple hours of messing around with NWN 2 (which I know is technically Obsidian rather than Bioware but it has most of the annoyances Bioware games have) I finally managed to get to a point where it's playable (it involved tweaking a bunch of options, only playing in Strategic view, and completely disabling any sort of party AI). Are there any things I can do to make the same happen for KOTOR?

How do I play these games without hating myself? (Cue barrage of responses telling me to play different games)

 

[Gregz]

These are bioware games worth playing:

Mass Effect 1 (the 2nd has better production but horrible 'cover shooter' mechanics and bullet 'skills', 3 is shit)
BG2 & Expac
KOTOR
DA:O

and that's it

 

[razvedchiki]

Uninstall exe

 

[Duraframe300]

Wrong forum

 

[CyberP]

Shit level design, shit RPG systems, shit writing, shit everything.

How do I play these games without hating myself?

Don't fucking play them you 'tard. There are thousands of games out there, and hundreds of better RPGs.

 

[Jaesun]

Joined: May 14, 2015

 

[TripJack]

alcohol

 

[Lhynn]

Kotor, ME1, jade empire are fun, but only good for one playtrough. nwn HotU and asorted fan made mods are the best that bioware has given us since BG2

 

[Immortal]

NWN is great if you play User created mods..
BG 1 is one of my favorite games by Bioware..
BG 2 is great as well

ME 1 & 2 (ME 2 is where things get a little faggy)
Dragon Age: Origins (Again.. getting a little faggy around here but totally avoidable)

Everything else is kinda Shit TBH..

EDIT:
By Kinda.. I mean pretty fucking bad.. Jade Empire is good for what it is.. I never played KoToR

 

[Turok]

Don't play any new game from then.

 

[pippin]

These are bioware games worth playing:

Mass Effect 1 (the 2nd has better production but horrible 'cover shooter' mechanics and bullet 'skills', 3 is shit)
BG2 & Expac
KOTOR
DA:O

and that's it

That's like half of their games.

NWN has the best interface of all Bioware games. I know, it has a MMO-like hotkey bar, but the wheel thingy is intuitive, easy to use, and the inventory is very comfortable. Sadly, the main campaigns are really meh; the OC is atrociously bland. Not bad, just bland, which is worse than being bad.
IE is good for party based games, but managing stuff like Bags of Holding and other containers can be a bit tiresome, especially by mid-late BG2, because you have tons of shit. Luckly ToB introduced ammo containers.
Dragon Age's interface is comfy as well but it's just NWN 2.0, and the story, while better than NWN, is still ASoIaF-fanfic tier.

Mass Effect 1's inventory is absolute garbage though. It's confusing, you don't get immediate access to the weapons' upgrades, and you have to micromanage third person combat without isometric camera options. It's as bad as it sounds. ME2 at least made combat more "dynamic", which meant corridor popamole. However 2 had this "brilliant" thing which makes you download all the story related DLCs if you want to experience the whole game.

In short: avoid everything after KOTOR with the exception of DA:O which had a zoomed-out, kinda-isometric camera option.

 

[DeepOcean]

I cannot stand any game Bioware has made since BG2 for one reason and one reason only: The interface.

The interface was the only reason...

 

[Dreaad]

I cannot stand any game Bioware has made since BG2 for one reason and one reason only: The interface. Trying to get my party to do what I want them to do feels more like work than play. And yet I keep hearing about how awesome games like KOTOR and Mask of the Betrayer are. I try to get into them, but I just can't. Playing these games is like pulling teeth. Every time I switch characters the camera has a stroke. I tell a character to go do something and as soon as I switch to another character the first one stops whatever I told them to do and starts doing something else.

After a couple hours of messing around with NWN 2 (which I know is technically Obsidian rather than Bioware but it has most of the annoyances Bioware games have) I finally managed to get to a point where it's playable (it involved tweaking a bunch of options, only playing in Strategic view, and completely disabling any sort of party AI). Are there any things I can do to make the same happen for KOTOR?

How do I play these games without hating myself? (Cue barrage of responses telling me to play different games)

Serious answer. If you really hate the interface or gameplay but you feel you must complete these modern day classics, then play on easy. No Bioware game is going to be fun to 'play' anyway, you're there for the one liners and friendship simulator. This way at least you can just ignore all tactical options and click to begin auto attacking.

 

[jaybirdy]

I have that problem myself, except it has to do with Bioware's writers. The writing is corny, unaware, and just retarded. Now I'm no storyfag, but when writing is so offensively bad that I'm cringing, I have to turn it off. I still haven't made much headway into BG2. Just in the opening hour, you get some of the most annoying characters ever. Jaheira and Imoen are cartoonishly melodramatic and Minsc is a cartoon and a bad one at that, and they just won't stop talking. Please, no more, I can't handle it.

What's odd to me is that Bioware has had a few different writers over the years, yet it all feels like it's written by the same guy. The dialogue is similarly unnatural and befitting of fan-fiction, what stands for character development is your party members whining about something in their past for you to solve later in a quest, and the player character is treated like the group's all-knowing father. Meanwhile, the actual plotlines are pretty good and engrossing, with nice pacing that gives a steady flow of new twists/information at the right moments. The Bioware Formula is real.

 

[Tytus]

Are there any things I can do to make the same happen for KOTOR?

You need to play it seven times to appreciate it's value.

 

[nomask7]

If you can learn to play games like Gothic 2 and Dark Souls, you shouldn't have trouble with the NWN series. You're right that they're not necessarily comfortable out of the box. But tweak them a little and get used to them, and they're just fine.

Hordes of the Underdark is my favorite of them. I recommend playing without map for enchanced atmosphere and challenge. You actually get a decent-sized party in that game (three).

Mask of the Betrayer was a lot of fun when I first played it, in a sort of speed-run manner suggested by the story premise. It was fun to try beating Okku right out of the starting dungeon (and succeeding). It was madness to fight the witch without protection from mind control, but I finally succeeded at that too. Stupid game wasn't designed for a fast playthrough though, is what that battle proves. But after that the game was manageable and pure fun. When I later tried a more measured playthrough where I explored stuff and whatnot, I got bored rather soon. *shrug*

In the NWN games (as opposed to NWN2 games), I'd say: focus on the atmosphere and just beating those games in a way that seems the most rewarding for you (I opt for some amount of larping and avoid power-gaming).

 

[hoverdog]

These are bioware games worth playing:

Mass Effect 1

no

 

[Cthulhu_is_love]

FIND THE AWESOME BUTTON, FAGGOT!!!

 

[Makabb]

Everything after Throne of Bhaal went decline by Bioware. I consider KOTOR to be their last decent game, although mechanicaly it is a big decline compared to BG 2.


Mass effect 1 is not a good game, it is not worth playing, i can vouch for this after finishing it 2 times.

 

[Trodat]

KOTOR is good for what it is.

 

[Ismaul]

Bioware games are, at best, popcorn games, to play while drunk/stoned, for the lulz.

KotOR is good for the hilarious evil one-liners / muahaha choices. A novelty at the time.

Jade Empire is asian KotOR with action fighting. Better story actually, maybe because it plays on an underused setting's tropes.

Mass Effect is only good for that nice art + music. Story goes full retard at the middle-end.

And all their D&D games are shit, because of really shit writing (not even hilarious evil choices, just fucking annoying companions and shit quests / world coherence) and unfriendlyness to play under influence.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Play NWN1 mods. At least Bio released toolset the alternative to which we don't really have to this day.
BG2 with mods is surprisingly decent.
ME1&2 are fun adventures. ME3 is shit tho'.
DAO was good for what it is™, DA2 and DAI are garbage tho'.
Well... that's it. Also, it's the RPG Codex:

Incline is a lie, there is only popamole.
Through popamole, I gain hate.
Through hate, I gain butthurt.
Through butthurt, I make floodposts.
Through floodposts, my brofists are rising,
Thus making me the Monocled One.

So embrace your hate, feel it, let it flood into you, fill you up completely, until it's crystallized and all what's left are the glittering gems of hatred.

 

[Morkar Left]

Reported for not hating.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

The trick to not hating Bioware games post Baldur's Gate series is not to play them. Unfortunately, once you pass over the bridge I am afraid to say that the damage is done. The only cure for you now is to develop Alzheimer's.

 

[rohand]

You have to keep in mind that Bioware you knew, from those games you liked, doesn't exist anymore.
When you remember that, you don't expect much anymore from "Bioware" new games.