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So hey, an LP of Mass Effect 1 is what sold me on the series in the first place, and I still have some fond memories of most of the series (even chunks of 3). I'm interested in the direction you're going with this, and will probably have some things to comment on when they come up. As for the first video, I do think the originally planned trial would have been a better choice. Bring new players up to speed, have the Vermire Survivor be a witness for the defense, something like that, and then get it interrupted by the Reaper invasion to shock players into how urgent things are. I think London would have been a better choice of location, though. It's in the trailers, it's notable to modern day and has iconic features, it'd give a sense of "oh poo poo Earth is getting ripped a rear end in a top hat" a bit more weight, and, well, last reason would be a spoiler but people who've played the game can probably guess what it is. The Child... I'll have more to say later, as I'm sure others will as well. Jams Vengeance is the best/worst character. Why? He's David Ryder. He's Buff Drinklots, Smash Lampjaw, Big McLargehuge. Even in just the introduction you can make a number of guesses about his character, most from design alone, and most of those guesses will end up correct. On one hand, he's a bit one-note and predictable, but on the other it's almost cheesy enough that you can tolerate/make fun of it. Hack Blowfist. Beat Punchbeef. Splint Chesthair. Blast Hardcheese.
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Jul 24, 2014 08:27
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:2 is the outlier when it comes to Cerberus. In 1 they were straight up space Nazis. 2 tries to make them seem like misguided folk and then 3 reminds you that yes, they are still space Nazis. ME2 gave the impression that they were economically sufficient but somewhat understaffed Double Space Nazis attempting to make a good PR campaign with Lazarus Shepard. The number of times Shep has to stop some experiment gone awry in 2 alone reinforces the fact that yeah, these assholes cannot be trusted what are you even doing Shepard do not give them that powerful alien artifact even Grunt thinks this is a bad idea. Still, them showing up as a major antagonistic force in 3 is like finding out Section 31 from Star Trek is suddenly as well-armed and dangerous as the entire Romulan Star Empire. ME3 KINDA addresses this later down the line but it still can be a bit jarring. On the topic of tutorials, another game series that's done them really drat well, I'd say, is Metroid. The opening segment in Super Metroid, for example, allows the player to get used to the controls and hits you with a "boss" almost immediately, then gives you a gameplay pop quiz with the Self-Destruct timer, all with minimum dialogue. Prime is much the same, and while introducing the game's mechanics it also gives the player a taste of what's to come, "resetting" at the end to give the player some incentive to get their powerups back and explore the hellhole they landed on. The segment on Mars in ME3 is decent, but coming off the segment on Earth it kinda gives the feeling that it's dragging its feet in finishing the "tutorial" part of the game. At least some better parts of the game are coming up soon.
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Jul 24, 2014 22:11
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Precambrian posted:It's a dollhouse in space. Don't forget to find and buy all these fun little accessories/weapon components, to go with your new dresses/armors. They'll go well with your house's/ship's new add-ons/equipment. Then Ken/Garrus can pretend to work on his car/calibrate weapons all day. 
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Jul 25, 2014 23:10
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 Hey Traynor. Boy, the new gay romance options. I don't really have too much dislike towards either of them, but they aren't all that engaging as characters. Traynor I have a bit of a bigger issue with since I'm a lesbian myself and it's like, wow I don't much care for like a good third of her dialogue in the game. That isn't how ANYONE talks, regardless of orientation, but it comes off as something from some sterile "yes this is how gay people make small talk right?" conversation in a board meeting put in just to fill quotas. The Citadel DLC, for all the fun it was, doesn't help much in the "Samanta Traynor is socially awkward teehee" department either. (For the record I stuck with Liara in my Femshep playthroughs, so take that for what you will?) On the issue of space and how it's used, the comments you made on how cramped the Citadel feels ring pretty true, I think. Huerta Memorial just brings up memories of trying to bump my way through things to complete sidequests/check on the V.S./buy some things. Some other parts don't feel AS needlessly cramped, but I still think they lack the openness that 1 and even 2 had that emphasized just how large the Citadel is. There's a point later on that rectifies it somewhat but I have... other issues with that. The dream sequence still feels laughable to me. I get what they were trying to do there, I get why it's placed where it is and has what it has, but it's a lot of effort that I'd say is really trying to force the player to feel something instead of actually presenting it well enough for the player to feel the intent on their own. It's all the more jarring when contrasted with, well, a lot of moments in the series that have some impact on that level. Compare it to something like, oh, "Shepard! My friend!" back in ME2.
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Jul 28, 2014 04:03
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Mr. Soop 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. 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). Bah, this is making me feel like I'm coming down on her a bit hard. I wouldn't say Traynor's a bad character or an offensive portrayal, just... disappointingly sub-par? MartianAgitator posted:Oh, wow, is that true? Male Shep's so-bland-it-makes-Saltines-seem-like-wedding-cake voice acting drives me up the loving wall. Seriously, every aspiring voice actor should listen to him so you know why making decisions about your character is absolutely necessary for any kind of drama. Every scene he's in he ruins by dodging all inflection and completely deflating the scene - his voice strikes the weird uncanny valley almost as hard as the dirty, shiny Barbie doll character models that Bioware can't animate naturally. Honestly I'd say Meer does his best performance of his Shepard in this game, he's given some leeway to really emote. Maleshep of ME3 is leagues better than he was in ME1. I'd still say Hale does a better job but Meer's performance has improved substantially.
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Jul 28, 2014 08:36
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anilEhilated posted:I'm not very far into ME2, but every single Batarian I met so far was a dick. This could be fun. ME2 has a grand total of ONE batarian that isn't hostile towards the player/humanity. ME3 is at least a bit more balanced, does help reinforce their government's position as "Space North Korea" though.
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Jul 29, 2014 20:36
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I have to say that I actually miss the heavy weapons a bit. Well, more that I miss having them around? I always used them as convenient "Boss-Killers" and not much else, but the lack of them always makes me feel like I'm missing something, even if functionally they're rarely used. Of course there was only one weapon I really ended up using most of the time anyway, bless its clip-less little particle accelerator of a heart. 
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Jul 31, 2014 22:08
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In the video you make a comment that I've thought about so, so often: what if EDI didn't take over the body of... well, a "sexbot" as certain people (and the game itself, if I'm remembering correctly) describe it and instead a YMIR, or hell just... anything else? There are a lot of things that I want to like about EDI, and there are some that I still do like about her as a character, but there are a number of decisions made either in writing, character design, or otherwise, that just make it difficult to. Let's take EDI's status as the Normandy's AI for example. She still inhabits/"is" the Normandy, but has taken control of the Eva Core body as an auxiliary, basically putting it on the comparative level of Engineer to Drone. Yet people start addressing her as if she's the body vs. she's still the ship. EDI comments on this and finds it somewhat odd herself, but as the game progresses it comes to be recognized as some sort of "progression" in terms of EDI's character when it really isn't. On a completely different scale, let's talk about what-ifs and combat and how they could help to rectify this disparity between EDI "the mech" and EDI the ship's AI a bit. What if the Eva Core body wasn't the only one she could "possess," and you'd get an option of it and say, a LOKI/Rampart, geth Trooper, and something else one as "costume" options in combat, each with a bit of a different set of bonuses like the other characters' costumes? What if one of EDI's in-combat powers (or at the very least situational cutscene/event things) would be her painting a target for a Normandy airstrike? Especially since, mechanically, that kind of thing is in the game. As far as the suggested topic of the portrayal of women in videogames goes (hoo boy is that ever a topic), I'm only going to make a few comments about this: videogames can portray them in a positive manner. It's sadly rarer than it could be but it's something that isn't impossible to do. A problem that I think comes up people get caught up on what to emphasize about the character; should focus be on the character-as-female, female-character-as-a-character, or something inbetween? Perhaps an example of this contrast is Samus Aran in most of the Metroid series vs. the Samus Aran of Other M. Samus' gender in most of Metroid is a non-issue; she's female, yes, but that's not what's important about her. She is the last of the Chozo, the Hunter that scares the Space Pirates shitless, the being that's blown up two planets, an entire alternate dimension, and actually killed a planet in the process of keeping the galaxy at peace, along with a hint of Space Batman, that is what's important about her. That is Samus Aran, the female-character-as-a-character. Other M is the polar opposite. Other M's Samus Aran is written with a character-as-female in mind, and it shows. When the game focuses on its story, it's all about either Samus the woman concerned about "the baby" and motherhood or Samus the "rebellious teenage daughter" of Adam Malkovich. Metal Gear's Boss is probably a good example of it being somewhere inbetween, because her character has a number of layers of complexity to her and a part of it is the theme of her being the sort of "mother" of Snake/Big Boss (as well as being the actual mom of a different character). As far as Mass Effect goes, Femshep is most certainly written with female-character-as-a-character in mind, which is probably a given. Shepard no matter the gender is Commander Shepard first and foremost, and while people probably have their preferences as far as actors and physical features go, there's very little difference in terms of writing. The biggest writing differences are honestly in terms of romance options, and... well, yeah. Hoo that's a lot... I'll probably have something to say in regards to the krogan, Wrex, Wreav, the Genophage cure, Eve, and a little thing that bugs me about how choices work in Mass Effect and the knowledge of their consequences can affect them later on.
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Aug 3, 2014 23:40
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Neruz posted:I don't think you'll have much to talk about Wrex since hes dead because Lt. Danger is terrible at Mass Effect. That's actually WHY I have something to talk about concerning him. 
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Aug 3, 2014 23:58
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All right, so. Wrex. Shepard. Now comes the time to talk (start talking about?) about why people consider his absence to be the "wrong" choice. Beyond personal attachment (which the series as a whole sort of has as a staple, all things considered), there's the issue of choice and knowledge of the consequences. It's more than everyone's crazy headbutting uncle being dead, it's that they see what the alternative is: Wreav. Unlike Wrex, Wreav never really left Turchanka to go exploring/merc-ing his way across the galaxy like Wrex did, never got the grander perspective on both his own species and the aliens that Wrex got, and more importantly, never got the personal connection with and respect of Shepard/the player that Wrex earned. And all this leads up to Wreav being a "typical" krogan. He isn't really in this for the sake of the galaxy or even the krogan, he's in this for himself and clan Urdnot's rise to power. He wants a legacy, he wants power, and he wants everyone else in his debt. His dialogue with other characters, his treatment of "Eve", everything points to him being... well, in the long term, potentially dangerous as the "face" of the krogan. He's a bad choice. Unlike Wreav, Wrex is a radical, and thanks to Shepard's influence has a sense of restored idealism and grander perspective. Wrex doesn't want the krogan to dominate the galaxy as top dogs, he knows that they can't, not without a repeat of the Rebellions. Wrex is willing to change the very culture of the krogans to make sure that doesn't happen. Wrex has friends and allies and while not exactly on best terms with the rest of the species has a sense of respect towards them. Even the difference between his treatment of "Eve", where Wrex's actively worried about her, personally, compared to Wreav's "SHE'S MINE, STEP AWAY." Wrex, to the player, isn't potentially dangerous. He's the better choice as leader of the krogan. This may be on a meta level but I'd say that's exactly why people would choose Wrex over Wreav, consider Wrex's absence to be "wrong." It is, on a meta level, a failure that stays with the player until the end. You made a choice and you chose wrong. It will happen to a number of other characters/choices later on in the game, but none to the same degree, I'd say. One of them is Maleon's cure data. You're already seeing the difference between Eve's health in the related video. You have, on a meta level, the hindsight/foresight of making a potentially wrong choice. I'm also surprised you didn't mention Morinth, my personal second most reviled character in the entire Mass Effect franchise, among the "obviously evil" characters there, Lt. Danger. Unless there's something you have to show later down the line for it.
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Aug 6, 2014 19:49
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Lt. Danger posted:I both agree and disagree, but I'll save it for the Tuchanka mission proper. And that's one big issue I have with her. The choice to let her live tries to pretend she's a character on the level of Samara, when she really isn't. Morinth is an unrepentant monster that makes it abundantly clear that she literally wants to kill Shepard and gently caress her corpse. She doesn't even help Shepard in any regard in ME3 if that doesn't happen. She's one-note and Samara herself bluntly explains that note to Shepard; while Morinth may have a supposedly tragic backstory there's not a single thing about her that's sympathetic. The game is so abundantly clear that letting Morinth live is one of those "wrong choices." Arglebargle III posted:Morinth represents the gay menace. This is actually pretty hard to escape, hilarious and unintentional as it may be. And... that's the other big issue I have with her. The implications you can draw from her and the Adrat-Yakshi in general. They most certainly weren't intentional (I'd hope) but... wow can you see it if you think about it. They're either forced to spend their entire lives in monasteries deprived of any romantic involvement in the slightest, or they turn into unrepentant space vampires who exist only to feed their lusts. You can probably guess why I'd have issues with that kind of thing because of my own orientation, unintentional as it may be. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I'd recommend those unfamiliar with it to look up the earlier part of the mission involving Morinth, especially the part about Nef and her mother.
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Aug 6, 2014 20:51
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Sombrerotron posted:It seems to me that, functionally (as it were), the Ardat-Yakshi are more like child molestors. Of course, it must be admitted that homosexuality and pedophilia are often conflated, so I can see how the Jack-Chick-tract-reading type would be quick and keen to identify Morinth as representative of lesbian women in general. Honestly, though, the entire asari species is rather problematic to begin with in that respect. Here's the point that drives it home: Nef. You really start to see the implications there talking to the girl's mom and seeing her diary. So... yeah. Different subject before I start frothing at the mouth over this, the other ME2 character whose name beings with "Mor-". Mordin was probably my second favorite character in ME2 and sadly the only death in my first playthrough, so I got to see Wiks' actions before I got to see Mordin's actions in the game. I'm actually OK with Wiks as a character, even if he has shades of "what 'Hollywood' understands about scientists" in regards to his science, but I think he did his job fairly well. I still personally prefer Mordin over him and sort of like his end being the more ironic one of the two, curing the thing he re-engineered due to what he says is a change in circumstances surrounding it.
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Aug 6, 2014 21:35
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Geostomp posted:I see Morinth as a predator in general, not any sort of statement about homo or heterosexuality. Nef may have been discovering her sexuality, but nothing says she was wrong for being with a woman. Just for that one particular woman exploiting whatever vulnerability she could find in the girl to secure another victim. Morinth isn't that picky, she's equal opportunity gender-wise when hunting for new toys. It's the domination and control she gets off on, not the sex itself. That's why we know it isn't intentional. It's not really some Jack Chick message on how the gays are evil and also servants of the Pope (who is also pagan and responsible for D&D and tummy-aches etc). If it were it would be more... blunt, given Bioware's track record. It's the unfortunate implications one can draw from the scene. Shy, young, artistic girl who is slightly uncomfortable about her orientation (be it homosexual or xenophile or whatever) gets seduced by an older woman who drags her into clubbing, drugs, and promises of sex. Girl ends up spending all her free time with woman, is obsessed with her. Eventually ends up murdered by the sex itself. Morinth is most certainly just supposed to be a Space Vampire, and while Carmilla she is not, you think about it for a while and you start to realize how it can be taken.
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Aug 7, 2014 00:07
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Arglebargle III posted:Solution: Shepard's cyberware had been infected by the Geth "black mamba" virus. When not in a mission he can only dance from place to place. Geth software allows him to dance very rapidly, but only if the player masters this rhythm mini game. I'm pretty sure anything that makes Shepard dance non-stop constitutes as some sort of war crime.
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Aug 8, 2014 21:54
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SirSamVimes posted:Edit: The scene at the end of the video is a perfect example of how Liara has improved as a character from the first game. Back in Mass Effect 1, it felt like her only real character trait was her naivety and getting swept up in things. It wasn't until the second game that she started to get depth in her hunt for the Shadow Broker, and I wouldn't say she is an outright good character until the Shadow Broker DLC. Since most of the stuff I'd want to say in regards to Javik and his "recruitment" mission have already been said (and I probably shouldn't write three paragraphs drooling over the Particle Rifle), I'd like to reiterate this point. That scene was probably one of the better ones in the whole game, showing Liara's development as a character. She has, using her own resources and archaeological knowledge, taken the initiative to guarantee some sort of hope for the next cycle, so that even if they fail here they'll be able to make some difference in breaking it. I'd also say that her showing it to Shepard is more than just making sure the player knows about it, it's showing how close she is to Shep and how much she values Shep's judgement, if not as a LI then at least as a close friend. I'd say she's come quite far from the naive little alien girl rescued back in ME1, and that scene is what cements it. Then again maybe I'm just a bit biased and overplaying its significance in the grand scheme of things. Ah well. 
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Aug 10, 2014 22:14
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:Instead of the cereal killer we got. God I hate that guy. It's funny how the more you know about his character, the worse he gets.
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Aug 13, 2014 06:57
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So we're at this again. Honestly all this discussion really brings to my mind is reinforcing my own opinion on cutting the Godchild entirely. Let the conflict play itself out and let the player draw their own conclusions based on what the game provides, not dictating conclusions that should be drawn and presenting flawed choices as solutions.
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Aug 14, 2014 02:46
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Koopa Kid posted:Which reminds me, did anyone complain about how ugly and empty Javik's flashback scenes in the facility were? I like to imagine that he's discovered by Cerberus just chilling in a box dead centre on the floor in the middle of a spacious beige corridor. They probably didn't even think it was a Prothean at first. They might have just figured it was some ancient Prothean cooler bin and wanted to get at the Prothean beer inside.
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Aug 14, 2014 06:55
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I gotta say, the analysis of ME1 being the "Paragon" game and 2 being more "Renegade" does work to a point, even if it kinda undersells the ambiguity in each game a bit. The Genophage especially is a point in ME1 that's brought up constantly, if anything it's an important piece of background in maybe around a fourth of the missions in the game, from Noveria to Virmire to even Wrex's family armor mission. I'd say that, comparatively, 1 is a bit more subtle about it, showing less how it affects the krogan up front and more how it affects the relations the krogan and the rest of the galaxy have. 2 is more blunt, showing the measures the krogan have had to take to survive (either Wrex's unifying and attempt at damage control or Wreav's "gently caress YOURS GOT MINE" behavior) and the entire plot about Mordin's modification and the his own internal struggles. In regard to the setting comments though, I find this is the best way to put it: Mass Effect is to Sci-Fi stories what Gurren Lagann is to mecha anime, one gigantic love letter to the settings that the respective series' creators loved so much. That's why you have moments have a Star Trek or Star Wars or Blade Runner or Aliens feel to them in Mass Effect, because they were made with those things in the developers' minds, while all being made to fit in the series' overall tone. Fandom attitudes towards Mass Effect and TTGL both are kinda funnily comparable, in terms of how some references go over people's heads, leading them to think those things as something made by the series in a vacuum. Which kinda makes this thing that showed up in the Mass Effect anime a tad funny, in retrospect. Also don't watch the Mass Effect anime. Ever. StrifeHira fucked around with this message at 20:51 on Aug 14, 2014 |
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Aug 14, 2014 20:44
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Also, since this is the last time he'll show up in this LP, I gotta say I'm still really impressed with how much effort went into Grunt's character model. I'd honestly wager to say he's one of the best-designed models in the game, to the point where I'd say he's more "realistic"-looking than most others.
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Aug 14, 2014 21:04
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The story, especially in an interactive medium like videogames, does not exist in a vacuum. I think it's more than a little problematic to try to look at it that way. In order to have the story, you need the themes, characters, setting, mechanics, etc. all bundled into one package. And because it's an interactive medium, people will naturally become attached to characters. In fact, in this case, they're designed with that in mind. They are designed for the player to have some form of attachment to them, to make the player care about them, personally. To care if they chose Liara or Sheppy the volus as Love Interest. To care if they live or they die. Because if they die, it is more often than not the player's fault. It is a failure to the player, a "less than optimal" run if you will. Actually, I'll use that point as a mechanical comparison. In most of the Metroid series, there are a few ways of going about completion, a good chunk of the time people will try for a 100% run or some form of speedrun. Complete the game as fast as possible or as completely as possible. The player is rewarded in some way for this extra effort put in, be it "oh hey SAMUS WAS A GIRL ALL ALONG, see you next mission!" or "here is Samus without armor good job, see you next mission!" or in the case of the Prime series especially "Metroid Prime/Dark Samus/somejackass is sill out there and they want blood, see you next mission!" 100% runs have the added benefit of making the player basically unstoppable, rewarding the extra effort the player puts in by making the player stronger. It's the same deal in Mass Effect. Sure Grunt has more dialogue than an Energy Tank and Maleon's cure is functionally more important to the story than a Power Bomb expansion, but you need both to "100%" the respective games. You keep Grunt alive, good job, Grunt lives. You keep Wrex alive, good job, he isn't replaced with his rear end in a top hat brother. You keep Wrex alive, saved Maleon's cure data, and weren't going to backstab the krogan? Congradulations, you have an optimal condition and the full support of the krogan people against the Reapers. Here are extra Funtime War Bux, er, "Galactic Readiness points" to add to your total. The game and story both reward caring for the characters of it and putting in the extra effort to keep them alive. Compounding this is how easy such things are for the player. ME2's "failure" ending is actually more difficult to achieve than its "perfect" ending. The intention is to have the player win in some manner, which makes perfect sense given how the often throughout ME2's gameplay you were reminded that there will be a third game. Yes, your choices matter. But because you can go back and correct mistakes, what it functionally turns into is "You made a choice and you chose wrong. You monster. You better go fix it or FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES, John Shepord." I apologize for bringing this next subject up but since you had to mention MEHEM, I couldn't let it exist on its own, there's a comment someone made a while back about the ending that ties into what I'm talking about. Spoilered this for that reason. Someone mentioned a few posts ago that if Shepard could talk down the Godchild Catalyst being and convince it that it's wrong, people would only go for that option because it would be the best result. It would be the "perfect victory." And I agree. Because that's what has been present throughout ALL of Mass Effect as a series, a possible "perfect run" of the games where you stop the Reapers thanks to everything you, Shepard, the player, did. Speaking in those terms, the MEHEM is that same kind of "perfect victory" for those who felt that the ones presented in the vanilla game (and especially without the Extended Cut) to them were not, with additional pieces added to it like Harbinger going back to his ME2-style taunting rather than the Angry Reaper Honks. Yes people will be drawn to characters living, but they'll also be drawn to having, in no uncertain terms, "won" in a manner they feel more satisfying, more "perfect," than what the vanilla game presented. "Themes" be damned. Of course, in the true canon ending is where the Catalyst turns Blasto into the Legendary Super Specter and defeats all the Reapers, anything else is a pointless endeavor.
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Aug 18, 2014 02:09
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You know, when put against the likes of Kai Leng, a number of other "expanded universe" characters that made the cross into the main games come off far better. Jacob and Miranda probably being the best of the lot, even if they were less... flat in their own game. Jacob's character arc in 3 can have some rather bad, if unintentional implications for those Guess the prriiiiiizzee wasn't worth it after all.
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Aug 18, 2014 18:24
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Hitlers Gay Secret posted:You're like someone who can't take criticism of their own criticism. But that's like juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust my opinion man. Is that what you've been hearing? Ha ha ha haa... oooh that's a good one. Whoever's been telling you that has a sense of humor.
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Aug 18, 2014 19:06
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Covok posted:I didn't buy any of the DLC for ME3, but, hearing there is an arena, makes me interested in Citadel. I like the combat system in 3 and I liked the arena in ME1 so getting to play tactical battles whenever I want sounds fun. It does work that way, right? Basically yes. It's more like Mass Effect 3's multiplayer with different locations and you playing as Shepard. You also get to choose from any surviving squadmates during the matches.
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Aug 18, 2014 20:42
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Arglebargle III posted:How could Miranda be less flat?! wish there was a combination of gonk and swoon You've obviously never seen the concept art.  Good god it almost makes you appreciate the finalized design.
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Aug 19, 2014 04:45
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Grunt is Shepard's adopted son who thinks he's cool but really is just a dumb kid hitting puberty.
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Aug 20, 2014 05:19
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I'll sidestep this debate with some remarks I have about the points you've brought up: Mechanically, the lack in variation on Reaper forces could probably be boiled down to lack of development time. Give a simple search and you'll be able to find a number of enemy designs for Reaper forces that could have made it into the game. Husk-ified walking volus bombs, quarians with drone weapons, elcor tanks with volus operating the turrets, even a drat (Terran) dinosaur. These could have presented a number of interesting combat options and given the Reaper forces some variety, but there simply wasn't enough time design, test, and finalize everything for the release date. An issue, however, comes in an enemy that was present in 2, and was eventually added to the Multiplayer and as an option in Citadel's Armax Arsenal Arena: The Collectors. In spite of destroying their base, they were still both around and proven enemies and had/could have gotten additional decent combat options. They too could have been axed simply due to lack of development time, but I feel that they should have been prioritized as an option for the base game. Story-wise I will agree to some points on the games being less about the Reapers themselves and more about Shepard and the Galaxy. A problem that comes when trying to portray the Reapers in a standard warfare sense is one I've seen people make about "statting Cthulhu" or the Lord British Postulate, whatever you want to call it. If you really give Dread Cthulhu stats beyond "devours 1d6 Investigators per round" the threat it poses becomes minimized; if you stat it, people will find a way to kill it. Look up the tale of Old Man Henderson if you want to see what lengths people can go to to accomplish such feats. I'd wager this was something on the design team's mind when setting up both mechanics and story, so Shepard, the player, was kept away from the Reapers (at least, the bigger, kilometer-sized ones) for as long as possible. I'd say it's not a successful attempt in the end due to the Reapers still getting nerfed/marginalized in different ways, and due to marketing. Way, way too often was "take Earth back from the Reapers" and "Destroy the threat to the galaxy" and even just "poo poo poo poo poo poo THE REAPERS ARE HERE WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE SAVE US SHEPARD" was emphasized over, well "Save/unite the Galaxy!" ...all right this seems a tad too serious. Something something Harbinger joke, something something Let's Play's Genetic Destiny, cycles. There.
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Aug 20, 2014 23:57
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Xander77 posted:Of all the ways the opening was botched, having dozens of Reapers descend upon a single city was possibly the biggest. The absolutely best way to make them as nonthreatening as possible. Again, not saying it was successful. Just attempted. Covok posted:Doesn't some of your statement become moot when you consider Shepard and two other squadmates were able to take down a reaper using their normal equipment in Mass Effect 2? I mean, once you do that, it's hard to undo the effect. We killed a reaper, with collector minions, just using normal weapons, why can't the galaxy beat them with ships? Terminator baby was incomplete and like, half the size of Godzilla. And also goofy and silly and just kinda dumb. And I had a nuke gun. Sovereign by contrast was 2 kilometers and needed a whole armada to take out.
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Aug 21, 2014 00:17
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Lt. Danger posted:I think I actually agree. Talking about the genophage, we've already seen it in how Mordin luckily changes his mind completely and the only people advocating the genophage now are the mean old dalatrass and that arsehole Lt Tolan. A complicated ethical dilemma becomes a black/white good/evil decision where only one choice is presented as morally correct and the other isn't and even backfires in most cases. I think StrifeHira was also driving at this same point earlier in the thread. More or less, yes. But I'll emphasize that it's the corner that Bioware wrote themselves into and the expectation built up by the player by taking the "optimal path." If you have a number of solutions, and one of them far outweighs the other ones, people will go for that optimal solution. And that keeps building up as the games go on until you've either done it all right or you are given the knowledge that you, the player, hosed something up you monster. There are very few "Vermire" choices in the games, ones that you can't Paragon/Renegade/Paragrade/Renagon/Purple/Green your way out of. The Lone Gunman posted:In regards to Night10194's post, wasn't that the actual original plan for Mass Effect? I can't recall any direct sources offhand, but I'm pretty sure one of the writers that worked on 1 and 2, but was kicked off by 3, was going in that direction of "copying the ancients was a poo poo idea, and the Mass Effect is somehow polluting spacetime", and that the Reapers were doing their thing to keep the species from accidentally tearing the universe apart. Maybe I'm misremembering everything, but I'm pretty sure there actually was some sort of other narrative plan that was abandoned and restarted into what we have here, now. I'll spoiler this just in case it gets a bit too much of a distraction, but here: The earlier plan was that the usage of the "Mass Effect" itself was speeding up the Heat Death of the Universe with an overabundance of Dark Energy, causing stars to die early like the one in Tali's ME2 recruitment mission. It eventually meant having to destroy the Reapers and trying to find another way or agreeing with them and sacrificing humanity to save the galaxy. Does this sound familiar? Yeah, I made that earlier comparison with that anime entirely on purpose. In the end it wasn't used, so take this how you will.
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Aug 21, 2014 21:53
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Bioware made fun of them in 2. You guys probably know that scene. But let's just agree that those people are dumb and move on from the topic.
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Aug 25, 2014 17:53
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In defense of the "perfect" ending to that mission, I will say this: it's consistent. The trilogy is always full of "easy ways out" that reward the player for making the "right" decisions, usually determined by how many Paragon/Renegade (usually Paragon) points they have. And I'll also say that the absence of Wrex/death of Eve/etc. doesn't really make the moral choice all that more grey. You have two "optimal" solutions, either Genophage is cured and the krogan join the galaxy under Wrex's leadership and Eve's guidance, or the cure is sabotaged and Mordin/Wiks lives to tell the Dalatrass, meaning full salarian support and slightly reduced krogan support. Any middle ground between this is, mechanically, failure in some regard. You lose Mordin/Wiks to stop the cure, the krogan discover the sabotage and pull support, etc. You make the wrong decision. Hell, I'll take this a step further; Cure is the Max Points Paragon option, Sabotage is the Max Points Renedage option. Taking anything inbetween is, in a meta perspective, "wrong." Funnily though, your mention of the player going out of their way for storycrafting, such as in the case for FailShep, brings me to an RPG that's many things that Mass Effect is not. Pokemon. Specifically, a method of play known as Nuzlocke, a self-imposed challenge that operates on a number of rules with many variations, but the core ones usually being things like "If a Pokemon faints, it is dead. You cannot use it again. Box/release it." and "You must catch the first Pokemon you see in an area." This is intended to turn a regular game of Pokemon into a "hard mode" of sorts, where you have a lot of risk and reward, a lot of actual choice and a lot of that choice that matters. Players end up bonding with their monsters in unique ways, because with every single battle there comes the chance that they won't see them ever again. It's similar to those low percentage runs in Metroid I mentioned a while back, but with a more narrative focus, one reason why a number of Nuzlocke challenges end up as comics made by the players in some form or another, retelling those tales, the good and the bad, the victories and the losses. But really, with all this in mind, I'll present these responses for the questions you've posed. Lt. Danger posted:Samara will attempt suicide so that she won't have to execute her sole remaining daughter for having a predatory genetic condition. Live or die? Live. Why? Because the "sacrifice" already happened. Samara's daughter killed herself in order to stop the Reaper forces invading her quote:Miranda can potentially die while rescuing her sister from Cerberus and her father, in the process giving us a lead that will take us to Cerberus HQ. Live or die? Live. Why? Because the "sacrifice" necessary to stop the experiments comes not from her, but from the refugees that Cerberus was tricking into coming to Horizon. Miranda dying brings no real benefit to the narrative. Also Kai Leng's string of failures should always be present and he should be made fun of at every opportunity. quote:What's more important: the life of an Admiral or the lives of his crew? Admiral. Why? Because sacrificing his crew in order to save him, one of the few level-headed quarians in a high position, fits in with the best of results coming from drastic costs. The quarians need him, the galaxy needs him. quote:Steve Cortez. Romance? Romance. Why? STEEEEEVE!
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Aug 26, 2014 04:30
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Covok posted:I'm fairly certain that only Wrex notices the sabotage. I believe Wreav remains in the dark about it for the rest of the game. So, the krogans never pull their support if you screw Wreav over. That's what I meant. You lose some potential Wartime Funbux, er, "Galactic Readiness" points, if you stray beyond the "optimal" paths. However, here's something to chew on: I believe there's implications that Wrex got his info on the betrayal from the Shadow Broker.
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Aug 26, 2014 04:55
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Arglebargle III posted:Man I just realized Liara sits down and plays the Mass Effect title screen music on the piano in the Citadel DLC. I knew it sounded vaguely familiar. Said title screen music is actually the Vigil theme.  Mass Effect did a lot of neat little things with its soundtrack, for example, Saren's theme is the same thing as the Game Over music. 2's main title theme is much the same as the Suicide Mission track, and compare 3's opening theme with An End, Once And For All.
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Aug 31, 2014 19:45
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Comment on the child and the dream sequence: another suspension/illusion-breaking part of it is that he "runs" in a way that looks like you described a human child running to an alien, and the alien failed horribly at animating it. The derp-face he has as he's consumed by flames only makes him hit the uncanny valley even harder. That's not the face of terror or even disappointment, that's the face of a kid trying to decide if they want hot dogs or hamburgers for dinner. As for Kai Leng, he would be more funny if Bioware's reputation didn't precede it. Honestly, the reactions more or less everyone but his creators had is either vitriolically hating him or laughing at him relentlessly. And he only gets worse/"better" the more you know about him/see the lengths people went through to make him seem "badass." Watch out, he'll take your Lucky Charms! On the point of Religion, if you want to look a bit more into messianic archetypes to avoid the Christ allegory that every westerner and their pet dogs know, I'd suggest taking a look at the Saoshyant of Zoroastrianism and the Maitreya of Buddhism. Their involvement with their respective religions' eschatology might have give you a point to draw a connection with Mass Effect 3's supposedly intended apocalyptic tone. Or you could go with the ever-popular Ragnarok angle. After all, even the greatest of gods and heroes must die in the final battle against their foes. Since you like to try to follow the victory-through-sacrifice theme, you could probably draw connections there.
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Sep 3, 2014 04:36
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Xander77 posted:If you can make your way to the galaxy map within a minute of Hackett shutting his trap, you are a better Shepard than me, Arglebargle. ME3 on the 360 took maybe a minute and a half, two minutes tops, depending on if you checked on conversation options/ the Wartime Funbux meter. I don't get why this ever became an issue, does it really take THAT much longer on the PS3?
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Sep 6, 2014 16:42
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Geostomp posted:Given what I heard of Conrad's Paragon scene in ME2, they did us a favor. Would you rather see a crazy fan politely ask for help with a charity or said crazy fan delusionally try to mimic Shepard? Nah, it's pretty much the same as the "Renegade" version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pQd3pHKO4k
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Sep 7, 2014 00:40
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FullLeatherJacket posted:Again, this is one of those player agency issues (in a game ostensibly built on the idea of player agency as a USP). When you first meet Aria in ME2, she goes on a long and quite pompous speech where she talks about how cool and important she is and tells you, "don't gently caress with Aria". And the only option the game gives you is to nod along politely and acquiesce to whatever nonsense she's going on about. This is in comparison to the Council or the Illusive Man, both of which give you a lot of dialogue opportunities to insult them, mock them and cut them off mid-transmission, if you choose to do so. Sydin posted:I think people dislike Aria simply because she's yet another example of Bioware's "you have full player agency until we need to railroad you further along our plot" issue. The plot requires that Shepard need Aria's cooperation, and she's written in such a way that she wouldn't help a hostile Shepard, and so the player cannot be confrontational to her in any way. Even if the player has no desire to even be confrontational in the first place, the lack of an option can be annoying. These two posts basically sum up my feelings over Aria. I don't have any great antipathy towards her, I'd even admit there are some interesting ideas, but the way she's presented just makes me roll my eyes. Too much tell, not enough show. Honestly most points I'd like to bring up about the video have already been said. I guess I could say that at the very least, Garrus' "favorite spot on the Citadel" joke isn't really as forced as some of the other fandom-referential ones. You could even argue that it is because Garrus who's doing it, it seems a bit more genuine. Acknowledging some of the dumber things Shep does but in the manner friends will poke jabs at each others' faults. Probably wasn't the writers' intention, but hey, it's at least somewhat consistent.
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Sep 21, 2014 04:22
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Soricidus posted:There's nothing funny about it and there never was; the word "comedy" itself did not particularly imply jokes in those days. Most Laconic humor is pretty timeless, too. quote:Philip II of Macedon sent a message to Sparta: "If I invade Laconia you will be destroyed, never to rise again." The Spartan ephors replied with a single word: "If"
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Sep 22, 2014 00:48
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So... yeah. Really can't say much else on the subject of Morinth. Horrid writing decisions from several perspectives, taking some of the worst aspects of the asari as a race and throwing another heaping load of unfortunate implications on top of it all. She's bad and I hate her as a Imagine if that potential was used over the bisexual/xenophile-amazon-space-commando-strippers that you're given so gratingly often. You could have fascinating dialogues with beings that literally cannot go a lifetime without a major galactic conflict breaking out, that have personally witnessed the rise and fall of nations and empires play out before them. Less Orions and sexuality, more Vulcans and dialogue, I guess is what I'm saying.
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Sep 27, 2014 10:18
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Lt. Danger posted:Hmm, fair point. A problem I already see coming with this line of thinking is how such a reconciliation can take place, what form it will take. What kind of force would you need to accomplish this? And just how willing will the parties involved be towards reconciling, will you have to force one or both of them into accepting it? Can that really be called... "right?" To use an example of this playthrough you have, Wiks may have done some reconciling with the krogan, but under Wreav's leadership there will be severe opposition by the salarians in the long run. Can they really reconcile under these conditions? Reconciliation might have to be forced on them by stronger powers, to ensure galactic peace, baring some magical intervention event. I know now probably isn't the best time to go into this in detail, but it's something to think about when that time comes. Now the big question is if I can resist all the "UNDERSTANDING" jokes and criticisms I've stored up as a Gundam fan...
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Sep 28, 2014 07:25
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