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Pattonesque posted:several of the optional zones have interesting main stories (the dwarven tomb riddle in the Hissing Wastes, the budding revolution in the Emerald Graves) that are hamstrung by bad/bloated sidequest design and a lack of connection to the main quest The story ideas behind them are kind of cool, but the execution sucks. I went back and played through Hissing Wastes post ending one night, and while it was cool at first, it quickly became way too formulaic. Oh look, more mumble wizards. Oh look, more dinosaurs. Oh look, read these passages in the right order to unlock McGuffin. I did give Hissing Wastes this, it's the one zone where I actually used my horse because it's so freaking huge. The zones are real pretty but at some point they have to stop relying on their level design tool and actually put some content in.
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Feb 17, 2016 18:10
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wookieepelt posted:I have to disagree. Mass Effect one had some of the best writing of any Bioware game. The setting alone kicks any other Bioware game's rear end. drat... the best writing of any Bioware game... such high praise!
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Feb 17, 2016 20:01
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Rhjamiz posted:I liked DAO, but then I came at it from the angle that it was an homage? Revival? of the old Infinity Engine D&D games BioWare used to make, so from that perspective it was all very fun. I can't even imagine how tedious and awful it must have been on the console, yikes. It never occurred to me that it had gotten a console release, it was so unsuited to it. I'm one of the dumbasses who played DA:O on consoles (to be fair my computer was really lovely back then). Words almost fail to describe how goddamn clunky that port was.
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Feb 17, 2016 22:09
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2house2fly posted:drat... the best writing of any Bioware game... such high praise! They're better at writing than Bethesda.
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Feb 17, 2016 23:27
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I hate Bethesda so much.
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Feb 17, 2016 23:30
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wookieepelt posted:They're better at writing than Bethesda. High. Praise.
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Feb 17, 2016 23:34
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wookieepelt posted:I have to disagree. Mass Effect one had some of the best writing of any Bioware game. The setting alone kicks any other Bioware game's rear end. What the gently caress is happening.
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Feb 17, 2016 23:58
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My favorite part of ME is when you can yell at a woman until she has an abortion.
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Feb 18, 2016 00:14
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Waltzing Along posted:My favorite part of ME is when you can yell at a woman until she has an abortion.
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Feb 18, 2016 00:43
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SubponticatePoster posted:Considering what happens on/to the Citadel you're just doing her a favor. Speaking of which, the game really glosses over the entire Citadel being taken (with the Reapers still refusing to use it to shut down the Relays for no reason) and everyone on it (12 million+) being horribly slaughtered at far as we can tell.
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Feb 18, 2016 00:48
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You literally wade through their remains.
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Feb 18, 2016 00:51
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there was a tweet a while back shortly after release where one of the writers said something like "you can reasonably assume that every important NPC on the Citadel lived through the assault" which, lol
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Feb 18, 2016 00:57
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Dan Didio posted:You literally wade through their remains. Why would Geostomp let mere facts stop them now?
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Feb 18, 2016 01:01
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I think these days that Mac Walters/Casey Hudson/whoever were not given enough creative control rather than being given too much. All the other writers at Bioware kept saying "no, everyone you like got off the Citadel, all your friends escaped in the Normandy, everything was fine" when really they should have been trotting Mac out to say "that's right bitch, everyone on the Citadel died and it was grim as gently caress, your friends got vaporised by Harbinger and it was loving agony, you marched to your death because that's sacrifice"
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Feb 18, 2016 01:03
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Cross-Section posted:DAO's epilogue didn't have too many actual slides, though? I've said it before and I'll say it again, ME:A should literally just be New Vegas in space
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Feb 18, 2016 03:02
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Bioware already tried to do New Vegas and we got Dragon Age 2.
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Feb 18, 2016 03:08
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Tried in the "let's make an RPG in like 10 months" sense?
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Feb 18, 2016 03:14
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Geostomp posted:(with the Reapers still refusing to use it to shut down the Relays for no reason). To be fair, they'd pretty much won by that point. All the homeworlds were conquered/being conquered and the fleet you spend the whole game building is by their own admission basically a stalling tactic so you can
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Feb 18, 2016 03:17
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Pattonesque posted:there was a tweet a while back shortly after release where one of the writers said something like "you can reasonably assume that every important NPC on the Citadel lived through the assault" which, lol Lmao I remember that. Didn't some random-rear end writer or community manager attempt to confirm the dumb-rear end indoctrination theory too?
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Feb 18, 2016 03:19
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Alain Post posted:Lmao I remember that. Didn't some random-rear end writer or community manager attempt to confirm the dumb-rear end indoctrination theory too? I think so! they were in damage control mode and being very coy about what they had planned for DLC (probably because they were panicking a bit) I do remember some poor besieged community manager tweeting that for all we knew, the Normandy had crash-landed on Earth. the nerds were furious because Mystery Planet had, uh, two moons
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Feb 18, 2016 03:25
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Pattonesque posted:I think so! they were in damage control mode and being very coy about what they had planned for DLC (probably because they were panicking a bit) That was a pretty horrible few weeks to be associated at all with Bioware. Bunch of nerds yelled at you for saying anything.
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Feb 18, 2016 05:14
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Alain Post posted:Tried in the "let's make an RPG in like 10 months" sense? I have severe doubts that the bulk of the problems with Dragon Age 2 would have been fixed by a proper development cycle. I meant more 'tried in the sense of having a smaller, more personal story focused on inter-factional fighting and greater choice and consequence in an area linked to, but not dependent on, the previous titles'.
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Feb 18, 2016 05:19
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Kibayasu posted:That was a pretty horrible few weeks to be associated at all with Bioware. Bunch of nerds yelled at you for saying anything. yeah man the RPG nerd scorned is a vicious beast Dan Didio posted:I have severe doubts that the bulk of the problems with Dragon Age 2 would have been fixed by a proper development cycle. I meant more 'tried in the sense of having a smaller, more personal story focused on inter-factional fighting and greater choice and consequence in an area linked to, but not dependent on, the previous titles'. I don't think modern Bioware has it in them to make something as considered as New Vegas
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Feb 18, 2016 05:23
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Pattonesque posted:I don't think modern Bioware has it in them to make something as considered as New Vegas I agree, though I think if they were firing on all cylinders, they could offer something pretty dang good, and probably close.
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Feb 18, 2016 05:25
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Kibayasu posted:That was a pretty horrible few weeks to be associated at all with Bioware. Bunch of nerds yelled at you for saying anything. Didn't one of the writers tweet something about comparing ME to the bible? Literally saying that shortcomings in the story involving Shepherd and his crew were also present with Jesus and the apostles.
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Feb 18, 2016 05:30
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Even though Obsidian had the advantage of existing assets, everyone else should be ashamed that they made New Vegas in less than a year imo.
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Feb 18, 2016 05:32
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Macdeo Lurjtux posted:Didn't one of the writers tweet something about comparing ME to the bible? Literally saying that shortcomings in the story involving Shepherd and his crew were also present with Jesus and the apostles. Iscariot and Of Nazareth storming the gates of Heaven
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Feb 18, 2016 05:33
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Alain Post posted:Even though Obsidian had the advantage of existing assets, everyone else should be ashamed that they made New Vegas in less than a year imo. 
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Feb 18, 2016 05:36
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Dan Didio posted:I agree, though I think if they were firing on all cylinders, they could offer something pretty dang good, and probably close. Alain Post posted:Even though Obsidian had the advantage of existing assets, everyone else should be ashamed that they made New Vegas in less than a year imo. I mean is there any Bioware game that lets you resolve a main quest in as many ways as, say, this completely optional sidequest on the Strip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM1yR7WYqgM it's a DANG MIRACLE I'd love it if they could come close, because for all their faults Bioware's games hit a sweet spot for me that few others do
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Feb 18, 2016 05:40
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2house2fly posted:I think these days that Mac Walters/Casey Hudson/whoever were not given enough creative control rather than being given too much. All the other writers at Bioware kept saying "no, everyone you like got off the Citadel, all your friends escaped in the Normandy, everything was fine" when really they should have been trotting Mac out to say "that's right bitch, everyone on the Citadel died and it was grim as gently caress, your friends got vaporised by Harbinger and it was loving agony, you marched to your death because that's sacrifice" As much as I hate the ending I would much rather this have been the case
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Feb 18, 2016 08:28
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I don't know, I don't think anything happy would have been good. At best I could se the ending being a pyrrhic victory but anything that was like "Shepard beat the Reapers" wouldn't have fit within the story they had already told.
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Feb 18, 2016 08:59
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RenegadeStyle1 posted:I don't know, I don't think anything happy would have been good. At best I could se the ending being a pyrrhic victory but anything that was like "Shepard beat the Reapers" wouldn't have fit within the story they had already told. I blew up all the reapers so I won
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Feb 18, 2016 15:14
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See, yeah, I totally disagree, the last two games were all about Shepard overcoming the odds and powering through because they're a super special badass. It wouldn't have been out of place at all for them to defeat the Reapers and ride out into glory. It was the bizarre tonal shift into "everything's super serious now guys" that didn't fit, because they were trying to fit the low point of the story at the end instead of the middle. I've said it before, but really they needed to switch ME3 and ME2, have the middle game be the "poo poo's all hosed, what are we gonna do" chapter, and then have the last game be about getting the team back together for one final push to win the day once and for all.
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Feb 18, 2016 15:37
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http://forum.bioware.com/topic/569831-oki-know-how-this-is-gonna-sound/ supposedly a minor leak of gameplay information. I think he misheard "Drack" (what the krogan squaddie was called in the leaked survey) as "Drake"
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Feb 18, 2016 15:42
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Couldn't someone else have died to save the galaxy? It was only Shepard because every other fucker deliberately looked the other way for years. Almost as if they knew what would happen. Well played, everyone else.
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Feb 18, 2016 15:42
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sassassin posted:Couldn't someone else have died to save the galaxy? It was only Shepard because every other fucker deliberately looked the other way for years. Almost as if they knew what would happen. Renegade option to destroy the Reapers by throwing the Turian councilor into the power generator.
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Feb 18, 2016 15:44
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Crappy Jack posted:Renegade option to destroy the Reapers by throwing the Turian councilor into the power generator. His years-old corpse.
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Feb 18, 2016 15:47
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sassassin posted:Couldn't someone else have died to save the galaxy? It was only Shepard because every other fucker deliberately looked the other way for years. Almost as if they knew what would happen. should have been Javik pulling a Randy Quaid from Independence Day "Kill the Reapers and commit suicide at the same time" is basically all Javik ever wanted to do
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Feb 18, 2016 15:50
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Kibayasu posted:That was a pretty horrible few weeks to be associated at all with Bioware. Bunch of nerds yelled at you for saying anything. Yeah, that was brutal. I don't remember anything like that ever before or since in gaming. I mean, I was in the mob myself, I just remember reading somewhere 'the ends are bad' and saying 'oh, no it's just nerd internet hyperbole' and then holy poo poo was I wrong. We were literally clinging to any raft we could get.
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Feb 18, 2016 15:59
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Lt. Danger posted:I think the ending is rushed in implementation, not in design. The thing to remember with Mass Effect is that, over the trilogy, they went through several lead writers, and the allegations at the time were that Hudson and Waters literally locked themselves into a conference room and rewrote the ending, at the last minute, from their own ideas. So yes, what the reapers were, what they represented, what their goals and methods were, really did change from game to game. The ending really was rushed in implementation, and had little to nothing to do with the preceeding story. For me, the ending was basically where Shepard and Anderson are lying there, dying. Anderson may already be dead. Haskett comes on the comm, whining that it's not working. Jennifer Hale's work in that one line, 'What do you need me to do?' so full of pain, and resignation, and determination, and the refusal to give up, and the intrinsic knowledge that only she can do it, as she levers herself up, should have won her an Oscar. Anywho, there should have been a button. And there should have been a tactical display that would show that the Crucible was a big-rear end bomb. The idea being that the reapers always gathered at the Citadel, so blow that poo poo up. Only, ohes noes, the reapers have dragged it into Earth orbit. So now Shepard has a choice. Blow it up, drat you all to hell, or not.
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Feb 18, 2016 16:13
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