MadCap's Mad Rantings - "The End of a (Dragon) Age"

I'm here today to talk to you all about a betrayal that has struck me so deeply that, even as I type this, I am shaking with rage. As those of your who are so inclined may know, the final DLC for Dragon Age: Inquisition came out yesterday. Trespasser looks pretty damn awesome from the trailer. Promising not only a finale to the story of the Inquisitor, as well as some explanations from Solas about his sudden disappearance at the of the Main Quest - more striking if you sparked up a friendship or a romantic path with him, which I did with my Human Mage Inquisitor Adaon and my Female Elf Mage Inquisitor Delsenora, respectively. So, naturally, between a Qunari uprising and a final story to play as the Inquisitor in, I thought it would be utterly spectacular.

So I went looking up the DLC on the Xbox Live Arcade.

...it wasn't there.

I didn't freak out, seeing that XBLA had had some delays before on occasion, so I went looking it up to double check when the release date was, see if there were any problems afoot...and that's when I discovered the above link, and discovered the thing that has enraged me so: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 were skipped over for this DLC.

That's right. The final part in a story that was released on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, but is entirely unavailable for them in lieu of the next generation consoles.

What. The. HELL?!

I've been with Dragon Age since the beginning. In fact, the first game that I ever reviewed was Dragon Age II on this very blog! Way back in 2011, I was inspired by it to take up game reviewing. And while I was far kinder to it than most critics were at the time, I praised many aspects of it - particularly combat that was actually involving in comparison to Origins.  I later reviewed Origins, which I loved. I mean loved. Even now, it stands as one of my favorite games of all time, largely because it gave not only the single-player experience in medieval fantasy (something which, otherwise, I have to go to Bethesda to get), but also it had a sense of urgency and scale that was sorely missing from Dragon Age II.

And coming off the coat-tails of Christmas 2014, I reviewed Inquisition, which brought back a great deal of the urgency that had been missing since Origins. And while I say this, these games were by no means perfect, not even Origins for all of its bright, shiny perfection. But all three of them had something unique, they actually made me care about the story and the characters.

Through brilliant writing and character development, Bioware created characters that I've come to love for one reason or another. Deeply nuanced characters who have a great deal more complexity than meets the eye (yes, even Isabela), which helped contribute to making the world all the richer for the experience. You care what happens to them (well, not Fenris) and, by extension, you care about the world around them and its fate. Through the player character, you get to share in that world, witness and experience their triumphs and their tragedies.

So, I think it's fair to say that I'd gotten invested by the point of Inquisition. The overall story was good, if dragged out a fair bit, and I wanted to see it through to its conclusion. And as the Inquisitor stood victorious within Skyhold following the defeat of Corypheus, I felt like I had completed the third piece of a grand trilogy that was leading into so, so much more.

Now? I'll never know, unless I hear about it second hand or play it from a used disc borrowed from a friend...which, given EA, might not even be an option in the future with all the goddamn DRM.  Electronic Arts, with all their wonderful business decisions of the past, have ruined yet another franchise that they hold. Good job, you lot! Good job indeed. You only suckered people into this world through three games and now that you're at the end do you hold the ending over the heads of those still in the last console generation going "nyaaaaah!" like a smug jackass of a schoolyard bully.

Now, I can already hear the people out there who will say "Well, Madcap, why don't you quit whining and switch to a next gen console just like everyone else?" Here's a simple answer for that: Shut the hell up. A slightly less simple answer is me answering your question with another question: "If EA didn't intend to release the DLC for the previous gen consoles, then why in the name of Andraste's flaming knickers did they bother to release a version of the game that was on the previous consoles?!" I would say it doesn't add up, but this is like subtracting any sort of sense that it might make to the point of sucking it and the entire matter into a black hole made out of the suckiness. No, I'm not going to slap down four hundred bucks to slap down another fifteen just for a single game...no, scratch that, the ending of a single game. No, scratch that, the ending of a single game after playing all the way through it again.

To compare this entire thing, people often still ask me about Aliens: Colonial Marines and why I'm still - almost three years after its release - ragging on about a game to the point that Randy Pitchford has me blocked on Twitter for it (no, I'm not kidding, he really does). It's because I had such love for the original Aliens film (I'm actually a big fan of the two Alien films that anyone cares to talk about), and I knew it deserved one hell of an adaptation. But it was even more than that. Randy Pitchford got up and lied to the gaming community for twelve solid minutes about what would be contained in Aliens: Colonial Marines.

Basically: He got up and lied, later said it was the gamers' fault for "imaging a perfect game", and yet he still has a job for reasons that will forever confuse me.

This, however...this is worse. That's right, worse. Dragon Age: Origins was, in its beginnings, a "dark" fantasy adventure classic, a genre that had been sorely dying and awash with mediocre attempts at it by lesser companies. With Bioware doing the writing and world building, given their pedigree with other games like Neverwinter Nights and Knights of the Old Republic, it was sure to be a slam dunk for Electronic Arts any way it went. And went it did, being such a slam dunk that it became a franchise.

But I was willing to fight for this one. I didn't immediately jump on the EA hate train just because. I liked Bioware from earlier projects and they once more came through with a great story that I enjoyed immersing myself into. Simply put, they created this world that was - while using facets from every fantasy adventure ever - was something relatively new and something I very, very much enjoyed. Again, outside of Bethesda, good single player role playing games are very, very hard to come by. So when the only other game in town puts something out, you go for it.

I won't be any more.

Electronic Arts has officially joined Gearbox Studios on my list of developers and publishers that I will never again purchase a product from. Without even doing anything that actually destroys the world I have come to know and love, or so much as harming a single character within it, EA has put a torch to Thedas for me, and the flames rise ever more.

Now, because of this, even if I can go back to Thedas...I won't. Sorry, Bioware. As long as you're with them...I can't do this anymore...there's nothing but ashes left, thanks to this.

For the latest from the MadCapMunchkin, be sure to follow him on Twitter @MadCapMunchkin.