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 EA’s «review manual» — complete with the tagline of the year: «a return to form».
Apparently, it’s a form so standardized that you’d think IGN and friends are all running on one big copy-paste algorithm. And players aren’t buying it. As they scroll through glowing reviews awarding Veilguard 8s, 9s, and even 10s, their eyebrows arch higher than the game’s so-called «Disney dialogue» 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 «bold» and «refreshing» — and according to fans, it’s worth rolling their eyes at. Gone is the dark, nuanced storytelling. Instead, we’re 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 aren’t making the fanbase feel any better.
And it’s not just about Veilguard. A little déjà 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 «press guidelines» 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 «return to form» for BioWare? Or maybe just a «return to uniform» for gaming sites? Fans sure think so, and they’re having a field day with the idea that EA isn’t only funding BioWare’s development but maybe a few editors’ dinner plans too. IGN, GamesRadar, Eurogamer — all we’re asking for is a little variety. Perhaps next time, drop the cliff notes and surprise us!
