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Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene

Alain Post posted:

It was the best game Bioware ever made.

This is a conversation that is likely to turn into a debate about the meaning of the word "best" ...... but Dragon Age Origins had a better plot, an obviously (at this time looking back) better constructed universe and lore, deeper and more interesting characters, arguably better and at least more tactical combat (there's more to life than a bad cover system and a Rock Paper Scissors game with shields armor and barriers) and more meaningful plot variations. The scope was also significantly larger.

ME2 was a tight little narrative that had fun gunplay and some interesting characters. It had better graphics. But it took the ME story nowhere and did nothing interesting with the narrative. It severely gimped many of the interesting systems from ME1 and these were somewhat reverted in ME3, one of the few things it got right. In fact, ME3s actually gameplay is so much better than ME2s that it's a flat out indictment of the ME2 gameplay. And obviously this is in retrospect but the most interesting story elements ME2 advanced were discarded and are thus less meaningful now, which Imho really hurts the game from today's point of view.

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Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene
The suicide mission mechanics were extremely well done, but the mission itself fell flat with the dumb boss and dumb plot reveal. And apparently they were going to have actually meaningful choices instead of bowing to sperg pressure and letting you metagame it, which is too bad.

They clearly weren't prepared to handle the complexity of such choices moving forward. Oh well.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
Mass Effect 2, maybe the first Bioware game to actually challenge the formulaic way Bioware had been laying out its RPGs since at least Baldurs' Gate, is possibly the Bioware game least suitable for the accusation of doing "nothing interesting" with the narrative.

THE BIG DOG DADDY
Oct 16, 2013

Rasheed was, with Aliases, the top 7 PvPers in Bone Krew.


No one talks about this.
I loved ME3 and found the ending to be both satisfying and gratifying

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.

YA BOY ETHAN COUCH posted:

I loved ME3 and found the ending to be both satisfying and gratifying

Hell same. And I actually agree that ME3 had better mechanics than ME2 (except for the general lack of difficulty) and I also think that this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't made the decision to tear all the RPG mechanical tropes in ME1 down so they could be rebuilt.

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene

Alain Post posted:

Mass Effect 2, maybe the first Bioware game to actually challenge the formulaic way Bioware had been laying out its RPGs since at least Baldurs' Gate, is possibly the Bioware game least suitable for the accusation of doing "nothing interesting" with the narrative.

Maybe I was a little unclear.

They did something very interesting with the narrative structure of the western RPG (if you can still call ME2 one) which was good.

The game itself did nothing with the narrative of the ME series and you could have entirely cut the game and the story could have picked up at ME3. Nothing major happened. Anything that could have been an interesting open story point was walked back.

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene

Alain Post posted:

Hell same. And I actually agree that ME3 had better mechanics than ME2 (except for the general lack of difficulty) and I also think that this wouldn't have happened if they hadn't made the decision to tear all the RPG mechanical tropes in ME1 down so they could be rebuilt.

Anyone who likes the ending of ME3 (I'm not talking about the better mechanics, which I agree with you about) is retarded, is in denial, or has a severe blind spot.


It's an all-time screwed pooch.

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene
You guys remember Harbinger from ME2? He was cool and I liked the way he interacted with the protagonist in ME2. Where'd he go in ME3? Why did they drop everything good about him and not even acknowledge it?

Lt. Danger
Dec 22, 2006

jolly good chaps we sure showed the hun

Whoa! Somebody spilt a load of bad opinions all over this thread!

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.

A Buff Gay Dude posted:

You guys remember Harbinger from ME2? He was cool and I liked the way he interacted with the protagonist in ME2. Where'd he go in ME3? Why did they drop everything good about him and not even acknowledge it?

Harbinger wasn't in ME3 because the reaper threat would have been lessened by there being an explicit "leader". They are a swarm.

Poops Mcgoots
Jul 12, 2010

A Buff Gay Dude posted:

You guys remember Harbinger from ME2? He was cool and I liked the way he interacted with the protagonist in ME2. Where'd he go in ME3? Why did they drop everything good about him and not even acknowledge it?

Probably on some no name planet Shepard never goes to, just seething about how all the other reapers get a chance to kill Shepard, but no, his job is to melt a bunch of farmers.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
John effect! The readers have one weakness. If we destroy Harbinger all the other Reapers will die. Why nobody else discovered this is an exercise best left to the reader. This is badass

OtherworldlyInvader
Feb 10, 2005

The X-COM project did not deliver the universe's ultimate cup of coffee. You have failed to save the Earth.


The main reason I play RPGs is for the narrative (these days the gameplay is often archaic, poorly implemented, or both), but I'm increasingly finding that having good characters you care about is really important to delivering a good narrative.

ME3 might have improved on ME2's gameplay, but I actually enjoyed playing ME2.

OtherworldlyInvader fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Nov 27, 2016

Moola
Aug 16, 2006

Mymla posted:

Wrex was loving terrible, though. The only good thing you can say about him is that at least he's not Grunt.

A Buff Gay Dude posted:

Also ME2 wasn't one of the greatest game of all time lmao. It was fun and certain aspects were very well done but come on.

YA BOY ETHAN COUCH posted:

I loved ME3 and found the ending to be both satisfying and gratifying

! :siren: BAD OPINIONS DETECTED :siren: !

Lt. Danger posted:

Whoa! Somebody spilt a load of bad opinions all over this thread!

I loving know right?!

Poops Mcgoots
Jul 12, 2010

This is probably a bad and wrong opinion, but I think that while it was disappointing and misunderstood what people wanted from an ending, ME3's ending (especially with the extended cut dlc) was ultimately serviceable.

However if you are so angry at it that it drives you to insult people on the internet over their opinions on the ending, then maybe you got a little too invested in a video game story.

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene

Alain Post posted:

Harbinger wasn't in ME3 because the reaper threat would have been lessened by there being an explicit "leader". They are a swarm.

Lmao then why was he even in ME2?

Also the thing that lessened the reapers was actually ME3.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
ME3's ending is, to say the least, flawed, but it was also extremely ballsy, and I prefer "flawed but ballsy" over "well done but unimaginative" as a general rule. Like the "conventional war victory" ending that people seemed to want would have been significantly worse for me.

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene

Poops Mcgoots posted:

This is probably a bad and wrong opinion, but I think that while it was disappointing and misunderstood what people wanted from an ending, ME3's ending (especially with the extended cut dlc) was ultimately serviceable.

However if you are so angry at it that it drives you to insult people on the internet over their opinions on the ending, then maybe you got a little too invested in a video game story.

Normally I'd agree with you about getting mad about video games on the internet, but the ME3 ending is the one exception. People who think it was anything even approaching serviceable should be fired into space and prevented from breeding.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
Harbinger should have died in Arrival and then none of the dumb rear end Harbinger complaints would have been possible.

Moola
Aug 16, 2006
"Well I say! Replacing this chocolate ice cream with literal cow poo poo was a pretty bad move, but it's ballsy so I'll take it!!!!"

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene

Alain Post posted:

ME3's ending is, to say the least, flawed, but it was also extremely ballsy, and I prefer "flawed but ballsy" over "well done but unimaginative" as a general rule. Like the "conventional war victory" ending that people seemed to want would have been significantly worse for me.

Lmao you're confusing ballsy with bad.

It takes balls to kill yourself but that doesn't mean anyone should do it.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
Ballsy but bad is Dragon Age 2. Ballsy but flawed is the ME3 ending.

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene


Alain Post posted:

Harbinger should have died in Arrival and then none of the dumb rear end Harbinger complaints would have been possible.

Actually they would have because the first game also established that reapers are individually malevolent. ME3 completely discarded this to turn them into giant spaceships.

Moola
Aug 16, 2006
this thread is ballsy

Pozload Escobar
Aug 21, 2016

by Reene

Alain Post posted:

Ballsy but bad is Dragon Age 2. Ballsy but flawed is the ME3 ending.

DA2 wasn't even ballsy. It was Fantasy ME2 but rushed.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.

Moola posted:

this thread is ballsy

Your posting, is balls

OtherworldlyInvader
Feb 10, 2005

The X-COM project did not deliver the universe's ultimate cup of coffee. You have failed to save the Earth.


ME3's ending was so bad it overshadows how bad the rest of the game is, and people trick themselves into thinking just the end is bad.

ME3 was maybe my most anticipated game ever. I cleared my schedule when I got it, I installed it, fired it up, and was ready to spend the next 10 hours or whatever engrossed in mass effect. I loving alt tabbed out after 15 minutes and didn't come back to it for like a day. It was immediately obvious the game was bad from the start.

That's not to say the game didn't have its good parts, but it really dropped the ball on way more than the ending.

Zzulu
May 15, 2009

(▰˘v˘▰)
It shoulda been dialogue with harbinger at the end.

no starchild and skip the ultra weird syntethis ending and I woulda been fine with it.

I really liked the last talk with Anderson and then "ascending" to that view where you can see the spacewar in the background, the whole time feeling like no matter what, this is the end for Shepard

Too bad about the dogshit dialogue after that and the horribly voiced little starchild

Zzulu fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Nov 27, 2016

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
I thought it was fairly badass. In fairness thinking the opening to ME3 is bad is understandable because the opening hour or so is by far the shittiest part of ME3, at least from a writing perspective.

Moola
Aug 16, 2006

Alain Post posted:

Your posting, is balls

Bitch I'll suck your dick!

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
It's incredible how unclear very important things like "when did the reapers invade the galaxy and are people aware that they have" are for like the first few hours of ME3.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.

A Buff Gay Dude posted:

Actually they would have because the first game also established that reapers are individually malevolent. ME3 completely discarded this to turn them into giant spaceships.

Literally the last image in Mass Effect 2 is a massive swarm of Reapers about to wreck the poo poo out of the galaxy. They even look like a swarm of locusts which is probably not an accident.

CottonWolf
Jul 20, 2012

Good ideas generator

A Buff Gay Dude posted:

DA2 wasn't even ballsy. It was Fantasy ME2 but rushed.

This is wrong. DA2 wasn't trying for an ME2 narrative. It was attempting to be the character-focused arthouse film of one persons continual failings. It definitely was ballsy, but undeniably undercooked.

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.

CottonWolf posted:

This is wrong. DA2 wasn't trying for an ME2 narrative. It was attempting to be the character-focused arthouse film of one persons continual failings.

Merrill's?

Lt. Danger
Dec 22, 2006

jolly good chaps we sure showed the hun

Hmm. Another day, another set of mild hysterics over the ending to Mass Effect 3, Bioware's second-best game ever.

Moola
Aug 16, 2006
I'm sexually attracted to the Citadel

Feels Villeneuve
Oct 7, 2007

Setter is Better.
Have they released any new fuckable aliens yet

Mymla
Aug 12, 2010
This thread gave me cerebral ballsy.

Moola
Aug 16, 2006

Alain Post posted:

Have they released any new fuckable aliens yet

new concept art of the robot squadmate

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OtherworldlyInvader
Feb 10, 2005

The X-COM project did not deliver the universe's ultimate cup of coffee. You have failed to save the Earth.


The art direction was the first sign ME3 was bad.

In ME1 you're presented with this gleaming ceramic i-future, where everything is slick and polished. This isn't particularly inventive, but it was executed well and fits and is appropriate for the setting of a well established and prosperous galactic civilization. It works with the narrative because you're confronted by an enemy that is threatening to bring this glittering future all crashing down, while the bureaucratic leaders are burying their heads up their own rear end pretending nothing bad could really happen.

In ME2 that future still exists, but now you see the dirty grout between the tiles and it offers an interesting contrast. Again, this ties in with the narrative and themes of the game, where you're no longer an elite agent reporting to council members in the capital, but a rogue agent out in the fringes of outlaw space.

In ME3 everything is overwhelmed in ornate detail and desaturated color. You've got people walking around in dress uniforms so decked out in gold fringes and medals and trim they look like they should be standing on the deck of a sailing ship. Shepard's armor looks like something out of the medieval ages, and you're swinging around a sword. It never feels like there's enough loving light, even outside in the day. Now sure, you can say this is a dark chapter in the games story and the visuals have been made darker to go with it. Yeah except the last game just loving did that, and now they're just hamfistedly making poo poo grimdark because this whole game is a rushed hack job that feels more like warhammer 40k than mass effect at times.

OtherworldlyInvader fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Nov 27, 2016

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