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Green Intern posted:I agree. It felt so hamfisted to have the kid run away from Shepard to start with, then get exploded by a Reaper. It's just laying it on so thick when there's clearly enough devastation going on to make it clear that Earth is totally boned. This is a good example of one of the more subtle things about the game that thankfully isn't constantly present. That whole thing makes me roll my eyes during the intro on the basis of that from a storytelling standpoint, killing off a child is a pretty cheap way of trying build emotion and is doubly cheap when it's not even a character we really know or care about. Like you said, we get enough information that Earth is boned through things like the Reapers blowing up the Earth council, them frying London in the distance, and blowing up an enormous ship to understand that they're kind of bad news.
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Jul 21, 2014 04:39
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:I liked Vega actually. I liked calling him out on his flirting towards Fem-Shep. I agree. With Male-Shep he's just kind of another soldier bro, and doesn't exactly stand out amongst the previous ME squad members in terms of personality. But with Fem-Shep he's a lot more charming and interesting, in an adorable kind of way.  Makes him more likeable overall.
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Jul 23, 2014 18:34
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Section Z posted:Zaeed and I share opinions on old guns. My engineer would give up so much to have my old infinite ammo doomsday pistol. "oh, I used up all my Carnifex ammo again. Maybe if I take the ammo capacity armor part?... +1 bullet. Okay, but at least ammo pickups are plentiful right?... I've picked up three pistol bullets... Out of a maximum of 6/18, 6/19 with armor pack Yeah. I'm literally replaying ME2 right now and one of the things that consistently bugs me about ME2 is that with pretty much any weapon you feel as if you're running low on ammo. I know it's probably a design decision to get you to use different weapons/powers on a more regular basis, but I feel kind of pigeonholed into a play style I'm not exactly fond of. One thing ME3 got right was the primary gameplay mechanics. It's evidenced by a lot of people on here complimenting the Multiplayer mode. In the main campaign ammo is never really an issue either, unless you're playing with guns that specifically have small ammo reserves because they're more gimmicky weapons.
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Jul 24, 2014 06:49
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" SMG got the job done... Once I got the only non DLC upgrade. But I had to reload an old save because I triggered a cutscene and point of no return before I picked it up, realizing this after blowing up the Geth colosus.
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Lt. Danger posted:
I want to say that I'm really loving your analytical commentary. It puts a different prospective on the game, and it's giving a fresh look on things that I've seen multiple times on multiple playthroughs. Whereas the previous tutorial section more sterile in terms of just about everything, the Mars section feels much more organic as a tutorial. As the player you're allowed access to more weapons and powers, as well as the weapon modifications. Like you said in the video, the enemy types reflect the devs wanting you to learn offensive tactics and I think it works very well. From a story standpoint, more is going on here with exposition but yet it doesn't feel forced. You're getting bits and pieces of info that set up the events of the rest of the game, character introductions with the Illusive Man and his new right hand, and it gets established that despite your early differences with Vega, he's still part of the team. Artistically speaking there's a lot going on here as well. The giant storm on the Martian surface obviously symbolizes the oncoming galactic threat, but it also adds tension to the situation as a whole and also establishes that hey, you really are out on Mars. It's a little thing that they didn't need to include as a kind of set piece (they could have shown the Reaper invasion or a big Cerberus ship), but I like that they did. There's a little tidbit I rather appreciate when Ash gets hauled back to the medbay of the Normandy. Shep is so momentarily overwhelmed with things that Liara has to snap him out of it. This is something that we haven't exactly seen before; a vulnerable, overwhelmed Commander Shepard. Whereas the previous two games had you feeling like a supersoldier who could overcome anything, here in the first real area of the game we get a Shep who finds himself doubting. It's a a very subtle thing (for a Bioware game) and I find that it lets me bond more emotionally to the situation and story rather than the Reapers vaporizing an anonymous child. I like the link to the Dead Space 2 intro. That intro is very streamlined. You get to see the bizarre looking enemies, learn the basic controls, learn about item pick-ups, ect. It also establishes what kind of game and story you're in. You get to know that your character has encountered the Necromorphs before, that it's a horror yet action game, that there's an outbreak of the monsters, and what your objective is. It's interesting to play without seeming too hand-holdy, which is something the Earth tutorial of ME3 unfortunately has in spades.
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Jul 24, 2014 17:31
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FullLeatherJacket posted:It's a bit moon-on-a-stick, but I would have loved to have an RPG-style game element where it actually gave you a choice between the Alliance objectives and Cerberus objectives, and it actually affected the way the game plays out and the ultimate results you get. Instead they just exist as an arbitrary combat roadblock between you and all the poo poo you're supposed to be doing, even, in a lot of cases, when there's no real benefit to them to even show up at the same place you are. Given the morality system that came about in ME2, I was really surprised that Bioware DIDN'T implement something like this. Depending on the ending of ME2 after all you could either diss and leave the Illusive Man entirely with the Paragon Shep, or have a begrudging respect for him with Renegade Shep. Star Ocean 2 for instance has an affection system that dictates which of 80+ different ending cutscene bits you'd get to see depending on how you interacted with characters. While those 80+ bits are just different variations of characters and dialogue, it's neat that they put so much effort into that. And given that Star Ocean 2 was released in 1998, it's not exactly a new concept by any means. Heck, Shadow The Hedgehog did it if you want a less obscure and more recent example. I'm not saying that ME3 needed 80 different scenarios or endings going into the game, but being forced to fight for the Alliance because plot when your Shep could have been in bed with Cerberus at the end of ME2 when that the series was built upon the whole idea of freedom of choice with storytelling, it irks me. I dunno though, I think that just in general Bioware wrote themselves into a corner and had to do the best with what they had given their time constraints.
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Jul 25, 2014 00:26
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The discussion here has been pretty good so far too. The more analytical commentary is the only way to do this game proper justice without it devolving into the "STILL A BETTER ENDING THAN MASS EFFECT 3" type of stuff we're all tired of hearing over and over again.
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Jul 26, 2014 01:43
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Man, that episode was getting deep. There's a lot to talk about with all the points you bring up, but I'll just say a couple things. The structure in this game of the Citadel always has irritated me. Very little of it feels organic in a way where the Citadel is obviously structured for the player rather than to emphasize it being another place. Sure, the Citadel of ME1 was a pain in the butt to get around, but it spoke to just how large it is and another level of immersion. ME3's Citadel feels very sterile, and as the hub area that's a poor trait to have. Like you said, it's very claustrophobic, and in terms of handing out sidequests with how crowded areas are, it can lead to the player feeling overwhelmed very easily. Later on when the Citadel gets more crowded with refugees, it feels more interesting as a player. You get a visual representation of how the Reapers are affecting the galaxy as a whole. Getting lots of sidequests feels justified with the story at that point, as the atmosphere of it feels more dire. I feel as though that the area was designed more with that in mind first and foremost. I do like the design of the Spectre office, as the black, tactical look of it makes it a little more memorable. It's also the only place on the Citadel where you can sort of slow down and relax in without NPCs in the background to make everything seem busy. In terms of how level geometry can say something, I find Doom to be the easiest example of it. There's a great video where John Romero plays a few rounds with an IGN guy, and he talks about the importance of level design in a video game. He talks about how E1M1 introduces a lot of things to the player, such as game mechanics like secret areas and the various enemy types, or just the overall feel of the game with the backgrounds and textures. How combat works in closed-in areas and larger, more expansive ones. Also, that glitch with Liara and the Turian is just the game doing its thing. I find that glitches like that occur more often the more save files you have, but that could just be my 360 being wonky.
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Jul 27, 2014 21:11
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StrifeHira posted:
It's interesting to get a POV from someone who actually is lesbian on Traynor. As a straight male, I always thought she was just kind of bland. I like Cortez much more as a character between the two of them because he actually has emotions and a character/story arc of him trying to move on from his deceased husband. Traynor just plays the whole "Oh, aren't I a silly little thing who's never seen real combat before!" character throughout the game and while she isn't exactly annoying, she isn't exactly anything to write home about either because her character never really develops beyond that. While she's quirky, that's about all there is to her.
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Jul 28, 2014 07:37
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StrifeHira posted:Cortez more or less sticks to his job and acts like how someone with his background would, romance aside (though to be fair he's not alone in that department, Bioware awkward conversation romance is basically a trope at this point). He's nothing much to write home about compared to the game's other characters, but he's not especially jarring either. Lt. Danger brings up the point of Traynor's Whedonesque dialogue, and I think a point that think really stands out is the mention of the writing makes people sound like "snarky incoherent teenagers." I think that's the bigger problem I have with that third of all of her dialogue in the game, if it's not some forced pointing out of "THIS IS FEMSHEP LOVE INTEREST SHE WANTS TO RUB TACOS" it's that it makes Traynor sound like she's ~17 years old. The other two thirds were fine, what you'd expect for someone who while not experienced with frontline combat is trying to make the best of the situation (said situation being Commander Shepard and Friends' Crazy Galactic Party Bus). Nah, I'd say that's a pretty fair assessment of her. You're right in that they went out of their way to make her dialogue sort of revolve around her sexuality rather than letting it just sort of play out more fluidly. She's just not very well written overall. And since you said you went with Liara for your romance pick, you made the better choice anyway. 
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Jul 28, 2014 08:53
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double nine posted:let's be honest here: bioware does not write subtletly. It's not in their MO. They may do one neat plot twist and call it a day, but never more than that. I figured the same thing too. Plus you can be a total douche with your decisions like saving the Rachni Queen to them and as upset as they are about it, they still respect your Spectre authority of executive decision. In the same way Udina is there to provide some plot antagonism for you, the Council fulfills that role as well to a certain, slightly different extent. They're also cool with you being associated with Cerberus enough to reinstate your Spectre status anyway if you opt for it in ME2.
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Jul 31, 2014 00:01
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BioMe posted:This is completely incongruous with what we are actually shown. You are seeing entire coastlines of Palaven burning and characters are even pointing it out, so it's not definitely just the art direction getting carried away. And that's in addition to the game constantly reminding you how hosed the turians are during that mission. Indeed. I never quite understood some of the story driven art direction decisions for this game. Earth is getting taken over, but we're only told this and not really shown it. Meanwhile, having a huge section of Palaven burning in the background on Menae really illustrates better than the generic space battle cutscenes just how destructive the Reapers are. Even when we do see Earth, it never quite looks as hosed as Palaven does. I keep thinking they should have reversed that part with Menae. Instead of being on Manae with Palaven burning in the background while trying to evacuate the Turian Primearch, what if Shep had to find and evacuate Anderson or Hackett instead off of a Luna base with Earth burning in the background? That would have made for a pretty epic mission, both showing the immense power of the Reapers and pumping the player up to help defend and retake Earth. In any case, I mean, it still works alright for setting up a more blunt reason why the Turians don't leap at the chance to help the other civilizations besides space racism, but within the overall narrative of the story it somehow feels much more like a footnote than it should be as things continue to transpire, especially after Act I is over.
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Aug 1, 2014 20:37
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Sombrerotron posted:The real trouble with the ME series, you might say, is that by its very nature it's highly focused on small-scale combat encounters. This works very well when Shepard's just up against manageable groups of infantry, but breaks down when there's a threat that requires the intervention of a proper army or fleet. Though it's perfectly possible to show it (by way of pre-rendered sequences, if necessary - see also the space battles at the end of ME1 and ME3), the series' setup and mechanics aren't very well-suited to directly involving Shepard beyond black-ops-type missions or having Shepard dictate how others should fight. That's not to say that ME3 couldn't have benefited from some more scenes that at least depict the actual war going on, of course. This really nails it as to where some of the largest story vs. setting problems come from. It's very difficult to have a character who's essentially a top Spec Ops operative who specializes in discreet operations with small teams in a game about all-out, mass scale galactic warfare. About all you can do as a writer is to incorporate the overall conflict into the background as much as possible while keeping it separate, both thematically and visually in order to not have it overwhelm everything. I'm not saying it was necessarily the right decision with the writing and storytelling they went with, but I feel as though it was the "safest" one.
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Aug 2, 2014 21:04
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FullLeatherJacket posted:Hence why there's a complaint about EDI where there wasn't particularly with Jack or Miranda. The art design should fit with the character that's being portrayed, as a minimum. Everything beyond that becomes increasingly silly posturing. This is true. The looks fit the characterization. Miranda was created by her father with "genetic perfection" in mind both physically and mentally, so it makes sense that she would ooze sexuality while being the brains of the group. It's right out of a Michael Bay movie, but it more or less works. Same with Jack. She's a gal who flaunts her sexuality in a way that makes her feel powerful, and the backstory and romance go into why that is. Again, not the best writing but it gives a reason for it. With EDI, there is no reason. The Illusive Man could have made a robot of anything, but he chose a woman. Okay, fine. But then once the Terminator skin comes off of it, it's some inexplicably overly sexualized robot underneath. Okay...whatevs. And then it just happens to be that EDI chooses to jump into it. It's way too convenient, and the whole thing reeks of nothing other than being an excuse to have a sexy robot in the game for more T & A. As for the FemShep redesign, I'm not a fan either. Like the EDI design it feels too much like it's catering to fanboys who wanted to see a "cuter" FemShep rather than a more realistic one. "Realism" here being completely subjective, but you know what I mean.
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Aug 3, 2014 23:51
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Aces High posted:probably around the time you have to fight a human-looking proto-reaper as a final boss? How could you not enjoy fighting the 3rd boss from Contra 3 again? 
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Aug 6, 2014 07:04
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Neruz posted:Garrus is popular because he is well-written and snarky and nerds love well-written snarky characters because they like to imagine that is how they would sound if they were a super awesome space knight. Blunt... But correct. I really couldn't have put it better myself. BioMe posted:Morrigan was annoying for completely unrelated reasons. Morrigan is actually an Objectivist. 
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Aug 6, 2014 17:16
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Neruz posted:I'm not neccessarily saying it is a conscious thing, but I've noticed that a super common nerd power fantasy is basically being Garrus in various shapes and forms. I have my own opinions on why this might be but it is a surprisingly widespread theme and it crops up again and again in video games and movies; the characters that nerds (and thus the people on the internet) like the most are the snarky ones who always have something witty and relevant to say and never take poo poo from anyone. He's somewhat like Shepard in that respect. Part of the appeal of Garrus overall isn't just Garrus's character, it's the idea of BEING Garrus's character.
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Aug 6, 2014 17:37
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Lt. Danger posted:It's a non-ruined Ilos. Do you mean from a design perspective or a story prospective? Because if I'm remembering correctly, Javik says in other dialogue that the facilities on Ilos were only a rumor or something in his cycle. Could be wrong though since I stopped talking to him like, long ago on my New Game+ runs.
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Aug 14, 2014 08:31
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The Ghost of Ember posted:ME2 was actually my favorite ME game and I felt it was the strongest cohesively themed of the three. The theme is not just fathers, but whether or not fathers have to right to shape the future of their children. and whether children should remain loyal to their fathers. Each story examines this from a different angle, sometimes placing to in the position of the father, sometimes putting you in the position of the child. The entire story itself is Harbinger Dad telling Humanity to grow up and be a Reaper and Humanity going 'gently caress you dad.' Shepard is reborn as the Illusive Man's son through death and rebirth and he's the one more or less calling the shots, and the real moral compass of the game isn't necessarily renegade or paragon, but how often you say 'gently caress you dad' to him. So essentially the story theme of ME2 is "No dad, YOU shut the gently caress up!  "In all my plathroughs of ME2, I've never once noticed the father/parent motif going on in the story.  Thanks for laying it out in a easy-to-get way.
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Aug 17, 2014 17:11
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Neruz posted:Goddamnit Bioware. See now, you're free to choose whatever course of action you want in ME2. Sure, straying from anything less than an optimal run results in negative consequences for the final mission and things that happen in ME3, but you're "free"  to do whatever you like! 
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Aug 18, 2014 05:33
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BioMe posted:The arena was alright. The social-life simulator was hilariously/uncomfortably pandering. The non-romance meetup with Traynor is creepy as gently caress and genuinely made me uncomfortable watching it. 
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Aug 18, 2014 21:54
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Soricidus posted:Among my people there were avatars of many traits. Bravery, strength, cunning; a single exemplar for each. I ... am the embodiment of fisting. Just replace all of Javik's verbs with fisting. "I will never tire of fisting the primitives!" "Fisting is the goal... Suicide is not." "It will be my first fisting. But not the last." I'm down for Lt. Danger romancing Cortez, simply because I've never done it myself during any of my runs.
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Aug 25, 2014 04:05
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Iamblikhos posted:Biotic fisting is best fisting. "I WILL DESTROY YOU!  "Dear god, that takes on a whole other meaning now.
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Aug 25, 2014 05:48
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Aces High posted:I didn't like her because I got a distinct dev This is pretty much par for the course as to why Miranda gets a lot of flak. She isn't exactly very likeable with her smugness, and she's such obvious fanservice that a lot of folks tune her out. While she is more of a coherent character among the crew of ME2 when it comes to how she was written, that's also her weakness. She's kind of a Babe-Sue at the end of the day, and she represents strongly the narrative/character departure that ME2 took from ME1.
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Aug 25, 2014 08:42
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vibe from her character. In fact considering that the first shots of her in ME2 were rear end shots I was pretty miffed and benched her as soon as I could. That and Jack's whiny BS was far more entertaining than Miranda's I am perfect at everything 
and that's why my face looks like pudding
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2house2fly posted:The last video has convinced me to kill Mordin in ME2 if I play through the series again. Wiks's little satisfied "for eternity" before blowing up was a good way to go out, and felt less cheesy than Mordin humming The Song the whole time. Mordin has other death dialogue for that scene were he comments on the Krogan and everyone having a new future, which is nice if still cheesy. Good luck getting it to activate though; I'm not sure what triggers it still even after multiple playthroughs other than maybe NOT hearing The Song in ME2 or not talking to Mordin when he's on board the Normandy in ME3.
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Aug 30, 2014 17:00
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ungulateman posted:I just wanted to chime in rather late on the opening scene of ME3 in Vancouver, since I've just gotten there in my replay of the series. No, you're right and your idea would be pretty effective. It would set up Shepard for a more emotional tie-in with the Reapers actively taunting him/her, and sets the stage for self-doubt by Shep and the galaxy at large. If they also showed maybe the Earth fleet fighting hard against the Reapers but one or two slipping past in orbit it would also create tension; humanity CAN fight these things, but for how long? In the actual game though the Alliance fleet is seemingly torn to shreds above Earth, which always bothered me because it's like "So the Reapers seemingly just marched right up to Earth almost unopposed? So... how will Humanity last more than a week if their primary Earth defense force is gone and the Reapers seem to be that powerful?" A great example of similar storytelling is what happens in Halo Reach. The Covenant arrive at Reach in a single super-carrier, and the first half of the game is showing how it's an uphill battle against them for the humans with just that relatively small Covenant invasion fleet. Then once the plan to destroy it works, more than a dozen other super-carriers warp into orbit. And it's kind of a huge "Oh poo poo... " moment because you know that the human population on Reach are really, really screwed at that point.ME3 doesn't do a good job in terms of showing how vicious and unstoppable the Reapers are. Stuff gets blown up, and its implied that they conduct horrible experiments with the Reaper enemies you fight, but a lot of their large scale destructive prowess is implied more than anything else. You hear about them being bad guys... but because you mostly only hear about them being bad guys, they don't exactly feel like the most threatening thing.
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Sep 1, 2014 16:51
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Lt. Danger posted:It's a subtle joke (for Bioware) and they play it completely straight. The equivalent scenes in ME2 or 3 have a lot more mugging for the audience. This pretty well reflected in how Wrex transitions between the 3 games. In ME1 he's a sort of grizzled, bitter, darkly sarcastic, fairly intelligent warrior guy overall. In ME2 he's a little less dark, and a little more macho-warrior for what little we see of him. Makes sense for the most part; he has to flex his reptile muscles now that he's the big cheese for his clan. Then in ME3 he just turns into a macho meathead and they use him as a vehicle for delivering some lame jokes based around that. "We'll name one of the kids after [Mordin], maybe a girl!" HA HA, SO FUNNY. THANK YOU FOR HUMOR, BIOWARE.  He's a bit more amusing to me in the Citadel DLC, but that's a pretty subjective viewpoint. (As is everything I just said.)
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Sep 21, 2014 23:43
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Widestancer posted:How is Morinth "The Gay Menace" and how are the writers misogynistic? Yeah, I'm not getting any of that vibe either. All I take away from Morinth and everything is that the squeaky clean Asari have a dark side they'd prefer not to let the other races know about, and that Morinth just happens to be a really bad apple. 
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Sep 29, 2014 21:04
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:Yeah, it would've been nice for him to be a larger threat than he really is but that would require all players to have played the second part in a trilogy and they wanted gamers to be able to play the game without having to do that. That's screenwriting 101. Whenever you have a seriously story-driven series with multiple installments, make sure to have it so they have as little continuity as possible between them all so as not to intimidate newcomers. 
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Oct 1, 2014 21:31
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