“Reboot” can mean either a remake (a new take on a pre-existing premise in a new continuity, like Battlestar Galactica) or a continuation but one that perhaps eschews heavy continuity references in favour of a fresh approach (such as with the 2005-present Doctor Who).

I’m not sure it can be seen as a proper 100% sequel. It’s made by a completely different team 17 years after the last game in the setting, in a completely different time period and location with completely different characters.

Yes, but if you don’t pick him, you have to pick one of the other pre-made characters.

And Jarlaxle and Artemis Entreri. The absence of Regis from the core group is rather notable, even if he wasn’t usually front-and-centre in combat in the books.

I was hoping that the direction of the Square DX games would be several new games and then a remake of OG DX in the same engine. Unfortunately, the muted commercial performance of Mankind Divided put paid to that.

The only games Sony have ported so far are Horizon Zero Dawn and Days Gone, and that’s 3 and 2 years after PS release, respectively. Days Gone isn’t a console-shifter and Horizon is only really a borderline one. The real test will be if Sony will bring Spider-Man, The Last of Us (even the first, eight-year-old one),…

It was no shorter than the original game. I have one playthrough apiece sitting on my Steam list right now (my first playthrough of Human Revolution was on OnLive, of all things) and they’re running at 28 hours for Human Revolution (including DLC) and 27 hours for Mankind Divided (not including DLC), and it’s not like…

I believe it was the first game in a planned trilogy (with the catchy title Deus Ex Universe), with the entire trilogy serving as a sequel to Human Revolution. That’s why the game ends almost in mid-stream (there is a final battle of sorts, but a few loose ends as well). However, because it was mostly setup, there…

Third game? It’s either the fourth (after Deus Ex, Invisible War and Human Revolution) or fifth (if you add The Fall, which not many do).

The two games are about the same length; technically Human Revolution is slightly longer with the Missing Link DLC installed than base Mankind Divided, but Mankind Divided is somewhat longer with the DLC for that game installed.

The Alien: Resurrection thing is interesting because that’s where Firefly was born (he was so annoyed by the treatment of the script that he reworked it, removing the Alien IP references, and adding some other bits like the Southern aesthetic and people speaking Chinese).

Yup. Remake’s bananas ending makes that particularly clear.

I wouldn’t rule out a PC port. Some of the recent remakes/upgrades of the older games are based on their mobile ports.

Not entirely sure if “fans fixing the game for you” really counts.

I hated DA:I with the heat of ten thousand suns. I think Dragon Age II had a ton of problems but understanding it was made under ridiculous time pressures from EA with no money and a gun to their heads, and it actually turned out pretty well (who the hell orders an AAA game made in 2010 with a deadline of just ten…

BioWare aren’t exactly scrabbling in the dirt for change. They have reasonable legacy sales, The Old Republic apparently makes a reasonable profit (for a game you can play for free) and Inquisition was reportedly the biggest-selling game they ever made. Andromeda turned a profit, if only just (it reportedly made $110…

Based on various reports, it sounds like Respawn negotiated a very favourable deal with EA that gives them much greater autonomy and creative control versus other studios (including BioWare), so they can just get on with stuff versus dealing with corporate drama (unsurprising given their experience with Activision).

Most of The Talent left BioWare years and years ago, and what’s left is a shell of what was there before. They still might make a good game, but the constant changes in direction, shifts in corporate directives and their own lack of focus seems to be a repetitive problem going back to at least DA:I (if not Mass Effect…

They have both Dragon Age IV and Mass Effect 5 in development, so no, I would not expect mass lay-offs, more people moving onto those projects.

Yeah, that’s another issue. Blizzard-Activision lawyers are probably looking at this with a fine toothed microscope. I don’t think there’s an issue there, but there is likely some areas they’ll want to look at carefully.