Hm.
How should I put this?
I am Bioware's #1 "it's complicated fan." I love going into critical tags, I love reading their choices for filth. I have happily complained for hours about every single Bioware game I have ever played.
But the thing is. I've played almost all of them since Kotor came out in 2003. I have lived through multiple development cycles, multiple shifts in direction, the dark energy controversy between ME 2 and 3, the way ME 2 took a whole different direction from ME 1, the way Inquisition took the set up and lore from DA2 out back and shot it in the face and threw the body in the garbage, the way DA2 changed not only the scope of the story but the aesthetics from DAO, not to mention the timeline fuckery from Awakening to DA2.
My god, I was there when the Revan novel came out, followed by SWTOR and nothing Bioware could do would match the betrayal and pettiness of undercutting everything Kotor 1 and 2 set up just because they contracted Kotor 2 out to Obsidian and decided they were gonna kill the Exile off in a little pissy fit and then drive Revan crazy for kicks.
I remember when Andromeda came out and there was no gay male full scale companion until we guilted them into patching one in.
And yet, I have played every one of these games multiple times. I have loved these games. Sure, it took me until the start of my third playthrough of Inquisition to forgive them for what they did to the story of DA2 (among other complaints I had), sure I sat there stunned at the end of ME 3 when I played it without DLC the first time, but I loved all these games anyway.
Which is to say.
You thinking fucking Veilguard is gonna phase me?
I love this game with my full chest, like I have loved all the other games, warts and all, that came before. I cradle Rook in my hands, and I treasure them the way I treasure all the others. I love the companions, the settings, the lore (which is there! Read the codexes and listen to the people, just like you have to in Inquisition), the plot, the missions, the world, just everything.
What honestly drives me the craziest about most of the critical posts that still come out is... y'all have ruined the Bioware critical tag for a while. But also. I'm starting to wonder if you ever played a Bioware game as it came out before because listen, everything y'all are whining about was whined about during Inquisition and DA2 too.
I am however excited to see how this game will be received in the next year, in the next three years, ten years, just like all the others have changed and matured over time. (And if you're going to insist but it's not! Well, they sure said that about DA2...)
