Is EA the puppeteer pulling the strings of gaming reviews? Gamers think so! With Dragon Age: The Veilguard scoring suspiciously high ratings from sites like IGN, GamesRadar, and Eurogamer, fans are firing back, accusing these publications of reading from EAās Ā«review manualĀ» ā complete with the tagline of the year: Ā«a return to formĀ».
Apparently, itās a form so standardized that youād think IGN and friends are all running on one big copy-paste algorithm. And players arenāt buying it. As they scroll through glowing reviews awarding Veilguard 8s, 9s, and even 10s, their eyebrows arch higher than the gameās so-called Ā«Disney dialogueĀ» curve.
When did Dragon Age’s grim, gritty fantasy become a rainbow-colored RPG with what fans are calling a G-rated script? According to reviewers, this shift in tone is Ā«boldĀ» and Ā«refreshingĀ» ā and according to fans, itās worth rolling their eyes at. Gone is the dark, nuanced storytelling. Instead, weāre getting chirpy dialogue and sanitized choices that make Veilguard feel less like a Dragon Age game and more like a roundtable of squeaky clean Disney characters on a nature walk. Naturally, the high scores from major reviewers arenāt making the fanbase feel any better.
And itās not just about Veilguard. A little dĆ©jĆ vu has settled in from the days of Horizon: Forbidden West reviews, when publications magically coordinated to compare the game with Mass Effect 2. This uncanny harmony back then sparked a meme explosion, and now, fans are digging up old templates to joke about the EA Ā«press guidelinesĀ» once again. After all, who could resist mocking the idea that reviewers copy-paste these well-placed phrases instead of sharing their own thoughts?
So, is this really a Ā«return to formĀ» for BioWare? Or maybe just a Ā«return to uniformĀ» for gaming sites? Fans sure think so, and theyāre having a field day with the idea that EA isnāt only funding BioWareās development but maybe a few editorsā dinner plans too. IGN, GamesRadar, Eurogamer ā all weāre asking for is a little variety. Perhaps next time, drop the cliff notes and surprise us!
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