Head to geolog.ie/WOLFHEART70 or scan QR Code on the screen and use code WOLFHEART70 to get an exclusive 70% off of Geologie’s award-winning skincare trial set. What do you all think about all this? Hoping for a good future from all of these games / companies but it's hard to tell these days.

Save us Larian, you are our only hope

“You can explore 1000 mountains each with nothing on them, it just works.”

I am so very worried about Dragon age 4. I love the franchise, but none of their games have held a candle to Origins. And now all the original creators of the franchise are no longer with Bioware. And that is kind of sad :(

You're right about the names of studios being only names when people who created those legendary games are not there anymore

The thing about Elder Scrolls is that Bethesda seemed happy about how Starfield turned out, which I think shows that they won't have learned anything. At this point I'm more optimistic about DA Dreadwolf because Bioware at least realized how much of a failure Anthem was, which means they might have learned from it

The problem is that VTMB2 as completely re-written by The Chinese Room isn't a Bloodlines game. It's a Vampire the Masquerade game, but not a Bloodlines game.

This is the kind of commentary we need: informed, honest, and skeptical, but also fair and *not* filled with exaggerated negativity or outrage. Keep up the great work!

I was concerned 2 years ago. After everything that's gone on the past 2 years though, that concern was killed because it's a surety they're going to be very bad.

Dragon age is crazy to me, in a 6 year span they released origins, 2, inquisition, trespasser, and more dlc. It will probably be almost a decade since trespasser released when 4 comes out.

The fact that BioWare were so stupid as to let Drew Karpyshyn go is mind boggling. Probably one of the best game writers the last decade really.

I'm not concerned at all. I am almost 100% certain they will all be terrible.

BioWare and Obsidian used to be the RPG GOATs. How times have changed...

I'm so glad you made this video. No one's really talking about these of course due to the lack of information but they shouldn't be forgotten until near release. A good chunk of people get hoodwinked when they don't know enough about a product.

I would offer this advice on any game period, don't pre-purchase. Take your time and wait a bit until you can make an educated decision based on reviews and gameplay.

Who's here after the Dragon Age trailer?

For thousands of years, people have been captivated by a good story. We are those people.

I don’t think the direction change with Avowed is going to work well FOR it.

I'm excited for Kingdom Come 2 from Warhorse this year

7:58- "...create a combat system that appeals to as wide of an audience as possible at the cost of depth of course" I agree with your worries! Though, you literally just described Mass Effect 2 in a nutshell, lol.

Was excited for Avowed before the change in direction, I am no longer optimistic about it. Won’t be buying it right off, will be waiting for lots of feedback. Obsidian doesn’t seem to thirst for greatness nor have the stomach for risk now. They just seem to try to play it safe. Hopefully it’s good.

The bigger the game “company” at this point, the less I expect from them while the more I expect it to co$t me to be let down.

And i know its maybe not a RPG or not in the traditional sense, but who else is hyper for KENSHI 2 ? If you have played Kenshi 1 you know Kenshi 2 has the potential to be something VERY special.

I know there's not much info on it but I'm most hyped for Light no Fire. I used to love rpg's but I like to spend my limited gaming time playing multiplayer stuff with friends. Light no Fire is being designed with that in mind and sounds pretty awesome. Just hope Hello Games can pull through.

I really would have liked to play HSL's version of Bloodlines. It looked better than TCR's version IMO.

Concerning the Elder Scrolls, at least we will have Skyblivion next year which looks like it will be amazing for sure!

Where game development and the entertainment industry in general are at, there are reasons to be worried for every upcoming product.

Outward 2 gonna be amazing ❤

One of the bad things about working on the game development field is that now I know some stuff from Bioware that makes me sad. Don't meet (or hear about) your heroes or something. Love the video, Wolf. Always really well researched and well said. Not a fan on the full action instead of tactics for DA4 too...

Warhammer 40k Rogue Trader is getting DLC this soon.

Ah Bioware, with their Awesome Button and Crunch Magic. Never forget.

Wolf great video showing the reality of some of our former beloved devs. I'm watching you play games first before i even make a purchase. Too many red flags over the years made me fully armored up on these companies. Time will tell.

I share your concerns for DA:D when Mary Kirby was 'released' I lost all hope on the lore being in tact. She wrote Varric the story teller of the saga. I love Dragon Age but not What EA has done to Bioware, I've been a long time Bioware supporter and this just hurts.

Was that Richard Ayoade in the Fable footage?

saying elder scrolls is upcoming is optimistic

I think my current thoughts on Dreadwolf can be simply summed up by Cassandra Pentaghast.... "Ugh!" with all the writers that have left, there is no real heart left in that shell of a company that was Bioware.

Good thing kingdom come deliverance 2 will be released this year. Atleast some hope

Yeah... I'm not getting the warm and fuzzies with the lack of info coming from Dragon Age. It's supposed to come out at the end of the year, and they have shared anything.

Oh God, I hope Larian will still plan to make Baldur's Gate 4. Larian, you are our only hope!!!

Skald against the black priory may 31.

I'm super excited for Avowed. Coz it's not a big empty open world game like many others, rather it's being divided in some large open zones. The graphics and art style of this game looks fantastic and artistic like very unique and handcrafted unlike other so called photorealist game. The thing Obsidian need to do is take time and polish the game and also improve the impact of combat. It's a elder scrolls like single player action adventure fantasy game finally we're getting after Skyrim and we better be excited and positive about it.

There is kind of schism in Dragon Age community, I think, or even "feel" like it is. Because community as a whole can't figure out "what is" a Dragon Age game gameplay wise. I know it is more of a banal point by now, but with genre-specific games you know what it would be like, even more so, you expect certain systems to be there in the game in the specific genre. Going even further, with early access games like Hades or Larian games (DOS and BG3), you can try a good chunck of the game and how it plays, for a price, yes, but still, you can try, while also knowing that it is a game in a specific genre (roguelike and cRPG, respectfully). All I know about DA is that Solas will be there, that people on social thirsting about Solas and Lavellan as a specific protagonist (no one mentions qunari, humand or god forbid neglected dwarf Inquisition) and posting same 4-6 pics from previews (some of which are years ago). Ok, it releases, what the gameplay would be, not just combat, I mean dialogue system (wheel/or fixed lines), exploration, itemization, progression system? It is much more important, in my opinion, than hyping Solas romance into oblivion. And btw, as a fan of Dragon age lore and world they've built, I am extremely interested in Dreadwolf (and as a fan of Origins as a game, which was innovative for its time).

10:23 what are you doing man? You should drop whatever you are doing right now and go play it. It is one of the goat! :)

Damn hearing the scale of departures from BioWare I am even more worried about Dragon Age. I knew it was bad but this seems catastrophic. Great Video as always wolf.

Honestly, I've written off Dragon Age and Elder Scrolls 6 already. BioWare is not Bioware anymore, and Todd Howard has definitely lost his way. But where there is decay there is also new growth. Larian is rising, and I'm hoping some other studios can surprise us.

The first Bloodlines is one of the best CRPGs of all time, I'm so disappointed with what they showed. From Bioware I expect nothing, so they might surprise me.

DA4 is going to be hardcore for the modern audieance.

What was the let down from Starfield, I loved that game. I had a blast playing it well over 100hrs, exploring, outpost crafting, ship modifications and fighting Spacers and pirates. It was awesome.

I would say your concerns are fair and likely mimic all of the consumer base, but that's why channels like yours are so popular, we need people who can properly report on these games and let us know if they are any good.

BioWare ain’t BioWare anymore

I share these concerns. It’s hard to get hyped about games when there’s so much doubt… though I am excited for KCD 2… so there’s that. Basically I get one game a year to get genuinely excited for! 😂

I agree with all of these, im worried they certainly look like “wait for deep sale” games.

I'm actually scared for Avowwed ngl.

Avowed is by far my most anticipated game of 2024 and maybe 2025 (if it gets delayed). I really love pillars of eternity 1 and 2 and have been wanting more games set in Eora for a long time!

Eventually a masterpiece will come out again, plenty of great studios out there to bring something good on the table. We will just have to endure the shitshow first, which I don't mind. A good RPG is something you can play for years to ease the pain while waiting, Owlcat and Larian Studios have made sure of that. I am not worried at all about the genre to be fair.

I've just started a new Dragon Age Inquisition play-through. I was surprised to see I have 480 hours in the game. I'm looking forward to DAD's unveiling coming up, I'm hoping it doesn't suck.

What was that music at the end of the video?

Dragon age Dreadwolf is the last chance for Bioware to do a good game. If it's a fail, Mass Effect 4 will be sh*t.

I think that Microsoft has nothing to do with Avowed’s problems, most likely Obsidian simply did not have time to rebuild correctly, the studio has grown a lot, they are making and servicing many games at the same time, but the management most likely remained like that of an indie studio

Hi Wolf, great video as always, but I have to say, hands down, you are literally the best content creator I follow that actually makes the sponsored ads watchable!!

I'm concerned when the biggest announcement for a rpg is that "you can use two kinds of weapon"

I was slightly concerned about Avowed. Then I played The Outer Worlds and now I'm really concerned. I genuinely hope they take some different approaches than in TOW and really pay attention to the feedback TOW got. There are some excellent long form retrospective reviews on YT that go deep into what worked and most prominently didn't work in TOW.

The Wayward Realms is going to have a Daggerfall sized map, currently it is the only grand scale rpg predicted to rival or succeed Baldurs Gate 3.

Bioware is Ship of Theseus, really are what they were in the past? No.

I dont even care about them, well... first one maybe, but not sure I like visuals. So when they gonna fail I wont be very sad, and if by some miracle one or more gonna be usable... well, nice and pleasant surprise. So problem solved.

I've not enjoyed a bioware game since me3. And I only liked the first dragon age. Played the hell out of it. I'm probably going to skip this one.

The problem after an acquisition is that the parent company will be mostly focused on return on investments. That may be why good studios goes downhill after they got acquired.

Drew Karpyshyn is responsible for some of the best video game narratives of all time. I saw the canary in the coal mine when he wrote the Revan novels though. They honestly made no sense based on what was previously established and although I don't know this for sure, I feel like he was given plot points and forced to write around them for the Revan books rather than creating his own story. It's honestly sad.

With how you talked about BioWare, it really does explain with what happened with andromeda… 😰

Not concerned with Avowed, Obsidian always delivers.

well to be fair. if its sand box instead of just open world it means the maps will have no loading screens and be much more complicated and dynamic. so it is a good news i thring

I think the industry got absolutely rocked by the rise of consumer pushback that started in the late 2010s-early 2020. Battlefield 1, Mass Effect Andromeda, Last of Us Pt. 2, Starfield, Fallout 76, Cyberpunk. And I think big publishers took the wrong lessons from those games and found fault in dev teams specifically when the issue was largely with overhead push towards maximizing profits. The industry has felt totally off since about 2016 in terms of large, prominent studios creating GOOD games FOR THE FANS. However I do think the structure of how video games get made doesn’t work anymore. People can’t afford to live and they especially can’t afford to live working crunch

Trying to teach something that you take away after viewing it is literally what art is all about.

Agreed. Quality and depth vs manufactured by the focus groups games is a huge concern nowadays, the second one, real world politics is no less big and no less concerning, just because some states have gone nuts in letting their extremes dictate the norms doesnt mean it should be in everything. Just focus on good story, good characters and good combat, no need to complicate it, give people a way to roleplay in a vast fantasy world with interesting backround and likeable/hateable characters and success will come. Just the fantasy of being able to influence the story and the world, saving people is more often than not enough of a lure for most gamers if done well.

The RPGs we grew up playing will never be back. There are anomalies like BG3. But we'll have games with RPG Elements rather than RPGs themselves

I have hope for games that are a bit further out since BG3 will have a bigger impact on what devs do now. BG3 is the new consumer standard. Only company not named Larian that will be able to achieve that standard right now is Fromsoft.

The whole reason I was excited when Bloodlines 2 was announced was the involvement of some of the original Bloodlines creators and writers. When they were fired, I completely lost interest.

wayward realms and avowed are the only games im looking forward to at the moment. if avowed sells, it can have dlc and mods 😎. all the other games are dead studios and using their ip like a weekend at bernies. You cant make Fable without Peter Molyneux, you can't make a Vampire Masquerade without Troika.... As a huge fan of redemption and bloodlines... no, game looks like a day never buy from. As far as BGS goes and ES6. I'll stick to Skyrim the new mods skyblivion skywind and beyond skyrim all look amazing.

I hope you will be playing Greedfall 2 early access and help spiders make the perfect game. I’m really excited for that game because they are going old school BioWare combat “dragon age origins” old school 🥳

Dragon age trespasser was great I think I’m one of the very few people who’s optimistic about Dreadwolf.

I'll give Avowed a run if they just show Improvement in narrative and storytelling since Outer Worlds, that's what I look for in Obsidian games. I'm really afraid it'll suck though. 😢

I am so extremely scared for Elder Scrolls 6

All these games now have the BG3 problem..:that is they will be torn to shreds unless they are close to the new standard larian set. I imagine studio heads seeing BG3, it’s reception and acclaim and asking their dev team “how close are we to that?” If the answer isn’t equal or better do you really want to keep working with millions already spent and millions more in dev time ahead?

plz dont mess up fable :/

that "kinda odd" was so perfect, haha

Look to Indies for cool future games. Big corp games aiming to appeal to everyone are going to be watered down pap.

My biggest fear is for Avowed. Depending on the internal predictions and expectations of MS it could hurt Obsidian. Pentiment was amazing. Poe1+2 are some of the best RPGs imo. Even if Avowed is "just" a streamlined spin-off and does well, will MS ever have it in them to make a POE3 with Baldurs Gate resources ? The world and lore of Pillars can absolutely rival DnD and the Elder scrolls.

2:10 I'm onboard for streamlining in 1st person game, but if you don't have depp rpg mechanics, you should instead have very good feel with the combat. Not sure if Obsidian can deliver that. Well, at least the story and the world will be good.

Avowed looks awesome - that's what my 4 year old son said. I believe him.

I'm on my knees praying Bloodlines 2 is good...

I worry too T_T I want them all to succeed, but for the right reasons and passion behind them. Not… money.

back in the day games where hard to make so they put alot of effort in them, these days with todays tech its alot easier so less effort = less effective games and more focused on visuals

I am not worried at all. When that games will be released, I will watch/read reviews of the authors I trust and watch some gameplays showing later parts of game. Maybe they will be good, maybe not, time will tell. We shouldn't care about studios that make each games, becuase for example Deck13 or Spiders were making medium tier games and now making pretyy solid games, it sitll changes over the time.

Agreed, surprised you didn't include KOTOR remake here though.

I'm am really concerned about TES 6 since Skyrim is probably the game that actually got me into gaming as a hobby I really don't want to this game fail but my expectations are still quite low considering Bethesdas recent releases, besides that I'm pretty sure none of the games will really be great and will just be more of the same slop we're already used to.

I’ll watch your gameplays and reviews of these games before getting excited, meanwhile I have lots of old rpgs to entertain my brain :) btw, I saw in the DA4 trailer that in Antiva there is a place called Treviso and I’m currently living near a little city in Italy called Treviso xD so weird!!

Great video wolf. Honestly, I’m worried not just for RPG’s but this entertainment industry in general. Games, movies, shows, all of it. And the worry is based off of a consistent pattern that is problematic. The worry I have stems from the complacency and normalization that we as consumers have fostered for the past decade or so. We have allowed companies in this industry to focus on non-entertainment priorities. That’s the source of the problem and it’s easy to see how that kind of prioritization could cause horrible issues for a so-called entertainment industry. Entertainment at its core is quite literally escapism. It’s why it’s so universally loved because it offers us a break from our 24 seven daily lives and routines. It gives us a momentary breath of fresh air to speak. You have your entertainment, industry, full of companies that are shifting focused towards non-entertainment priorities… Then entertainment stops doing the very thing you originally go to it in the first place, which is escape! These companies now, prioritize, heavily profit, exploitation, and cultural relevancy I.e. using the product as an extension of their social media page. There is no entertainment value with those priorities, but because of consumers complacency and normalization to social media relevancy in our daily lives to a saturated affect… We give it a pass more often than we give it rejection. And this only incentivizes more of this wrong priority focus that only ever results in astronomical amounts of wasted potential. Here you have multi billion dollar companies with limitless resources and finances and it’s all wasted. Typically, either investment in the product is not there to any real effort and that laziness shows or those finances and resources are put towards non-entertainment priorities and the product still suffers. I think the start contrast is more evident because of recent results coming from Larian in my opinion. Larians an approach and priorities are not the vast majority of this entertainment industry. Larians priorities were unapologetic authentic escapism. And honestly, that was so refreshing of experience that was so authentically entertainment. That is the kind of priorities we should be incentivizing in our entertainment industry, but as I’ve said… We’ve allowed our boredom or instant gratification, addictions to run rampant which caused our complacency and normalization of non-entertainment priorities to take in this industry. I can only imagine what so many projects in so many mediums in this industry would have turned out like if these resources and finances were put behind Larian priorities A.k.a. entertainment priorities. But even I have found myself saying it is what it is and gave access to my eyeballs and wallet when I should not have. The wrong priorities were presented and I instead rewarded those wrong priorities. The only thing the wrong priority decision makers care about….. my eyeballs and wallet. If we’re being honest with ourselves, I think we make excuses when none should be made. We encourage the wrong thing instead of promoting the right things. It requires us as consumers to have a higher standard. Higher not because it actually is… But because our complacency has removed our standards completely. We have no standards now and the only one that benefits from this are the multi billion dollar companies running this industry at the expense of both the consumer and more importantly the product itself. If we want to get back to originality, to authentic escapism/entertainment… We have to stop making excuses. We have to stop being complacent and telling ourselves It is what it is. We have to stop giving our boredom or instant gratification addiction. We have to stop settling and demand that these multi billion dollar companies invest in the right priorities for their entertainment products. doesn’t mean these top dogs will ever care… But they will hire and develop whatever is required to access our eyeballs and wallets . So consumers… let’s start rewarding the right priorities instead of the wrong ones. Let’s get back to entertainment, back to escape.👊

I'm not excited for any of these. But I will be paying attention to the reviews.

My main problem with Avowed is that every time I see it I remember The Wayward Realms and think "they went in a drastically different direction with this game. When did things change?" Then I realise I'm thinking of two different games and spend a long time remembering the title of the Wayward Realms.

I'm looking forward to wayward realms. I need an rpg I can get lost in and these others don't look like they're going to do that