Video game news and reaction

[foproy]

i did find this to be an interesting read

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/122/1221597p1.html

[Krensky]

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Yes, I liked the ending. I take art as it is. It resolved what needed resolution and left what didn't need resolution ambiguous. I also reject hypercriticism as the cynical hipster bullshit it is and can't understand critiquing something under unrealistic or inappropriate standards. Complaining that a childrens story isn't complex or that it needed more sex and violence for instance. Or, you know, that a video game ending narrows down to 'you beat the game' with some curly qs on top. Here's something people have forgotten: with very few exceptions all computer RPGs boil down to two endings. You win, and game over. That includes all of Biowares games.

I know "everything sucks" is a popular post modern critical stance, that everything made to simply entertain without constantly screwing with the audience and beating them over the head with how cool and clever the creators were is worthless. I just find it sad.

The child wasn't messing with Shephard, it wasn't even the child. The citidel VI looks like the child because that's how Shephard sees it because he's near death and allowing the stress and trauma he's suffered, personified by the child who likely was a halucination from said stress from when he appeared in the beginning of the game to color his perceptions.

The Normandy bugged out because the assault failed and Hacket ordered a retreat of what could be saved. Not stated, but not a stretch. The timing is unknown since we don't know how long Shepard was out while his implants repaired him.

As for the singularity, we see the after for all of twenty seconds? Immediately after where there's a major Adam/Eve vibe with EDI (in Eva's body) and Jester, then far in the future where we see that what comes after is bipedal, tells stories, and exists in an enviroment with something that looks like a tree.

Yeah, there's enough there to say that it's no different then what we are now.

[foproy]

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i believe most are upset that the ending was not effected by your choices in the previous game. that would be true if you did not think of the whole game as a closure to the story. going through you see the choices you made all over. just because they did not manage to place everything you ever did into one cinematic is no reason to bring the game down.

[Krensky]

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i believe most are upset that the ending was not effected by your choices in the previous game. that would be true if you did not think of the whole game as a closure to the story. going through you see the choices you made all over. just because they did not manage to place everything you ever did into one cinematic is no reason to bring the game down.

Exactly.

[Antilles]

Read this document. We're upset because the whole ending sequence is a bloody self-contradictory illogical mess, not because we wanted a Fallout 1/2 style ending that showed the fate of everything and everyone we've ever met (though it would be nice...)

[Krensky]

I had. It would have failed any lit class I ever took. The argument boils down, again and again, to "I didn't understand X, therfore X is stupid and the result of idiots. Anyone who disagrees is an idiot and crazy"

It doesn't matter though. People whined and complained to Amazon and EA and the FTC and every two-bit "journalist" or "criric" (a profession the internet has rendered worthless) that Bioware is Tateing their own work. The next time some team at EA or some other company wants to do something artistic ME3 and the 'fan' backlash will be brought up to bludgeon it back into line with the bland pablum that is currently in favor.

[Crafty_Pat]

It doesn't matter though. People whined and complained to Amazon and EA and the FTC and every two-bit "journalist" or "criric" (a profession the internet has rendered worthless) that Bioware is Tateing their own work. The next time some team at EA or some other company wants to do something artistic ME3 and the 'fan' backlash will be brought up to bludgeon it back into line with the bland pablum that is currently in favor.

Amen to that. I'd rather companies take chances and "fail" every so often than have no experimentation at all.

[Krensky]

In less devsisive ME3 news.

Free multiplayer DLC on the 10th. 6 new characters including a Justicar, batarrian, geth and what looks like a Krogan battlemaster (Vanguard), two new maps, new weapons, gear, etc.

[Mister Andersen]

It's not that they tried and failed. We're used to the deaths and failures of creative vision, ranging from the premature cancellation of Stargate Universe to the spawning of Jar-Jar Binks to the kidified second season of the New Adventures of Flash Gordon to the ending of The Dark Knight. If the railroading arse-pull at the end of ME3 had just hit us cold, I suspect that there would have just been the sort of crushing disappointment we've come to expect.

The anger comes from the fact that the developers had primed us for over year with promises of wildly different endings that built meaningfully upon years of emotional investment and choices across 3 games.  The sort of thing you'd expect them to deliver with the conclusion of an epic trilogy. They knew the cookie-cutter cool aid ending was coming, and they lied through their teeth about it to sell it as something it's not.

A lot of people aren't looking at this as a failed experiment -- hell, the deep involvement of the audience in the narrative was a tremendous success; there wouldn't be this level of anger if it hadn't worked. They're looking at it as effectively a fraud visited upon them by a hugely despised monolith of the gaming industry, something not helped in the slightest by their excising the "explains everything" prothean character from the main game to flog as Day 1 DLC.

Personally I think that if they'd been clever they could have managed a Half-Life 2 episode 1/epsidode 2 set up with regards to DLC but this PR cluterfrak has permanently killed any hope of that.

Sadly, I agree that the devs are likely going to be taking the wrong message away from this. In much the same way that Dan Didio and his cronies at DC decided that because the readers voted with their wallets against the brutal and pointless character assassination one of his pet writers was visiting on Cassandra "Batgirl" Cain (turning her from someone more moral and less douchebaggish than Batman to a murdering assassin), what the fans actually hated was Cain herself so therefore the character should be benched.

[Crafty_Pat]

For the record, I'm not speaking directly to Mass Effect 3 with my previous comment, though I can totally understand how most if not all of you thought I might have been. I was responding in a vacuum to Krensky's comment about bravery and fear in creative enterprises - something I know about more than many, and have been slapped down by on numerous occasions.

Also for the record, I haven't played Mass Effect 3 yet, and I'm staying out of the conversation and avoiding all spoilers until i do. (This has nothing to do with my love for the game, but rather my distinct lack of time for a new game at the moment, and my hope that by the time I get back to it the bugs I've heard about will be settled. Not the story revisions, mind, but the actual bugs that appear to have cropped up with importing ME2 saved games, and graphic issues and the like.)

Anyway, carry on...

[Mister Andersen]

Yes, creative options aside, their decision to change the facecodes is simply unbelievable.

[Sletchman]

something not helped in the slightest by their excising the "explains everything" prothean character from the main game to flog as Day 1 DLC.

It's worth noting that he really doesn't explain anything.  You get a little bit of a sense of prothean culture, but there's no actual revelations or explanations of anything of significance.  You can happily play the whole game without him and not miss out on anything.  He's a powerhouse in combat though with the right PC (Javik, Liara and an Adept can pretty much faceroll the whole game on Insanity - but Biotics have always been fairly OP).

I don't disagree at all he should have been left in the core game rather then removed and turned into day 1 DLC though.  Especially after EA released a flagrantly false press statement claiming he wasn't in development until the game went gold.

[Krensky]

While sletch is right he's not 'explains everything' he does explain why the statues on Ilos don't look like the Collectors or Protheans. Which is such a non-useful bit of info. He also makes the mission on Thessia and Asari prehistory blatant rather then infered. I think he also slightly effects Liara's character growth.

But yeah, he has as much effect on the plot and story as Zaheed or Kasumi did in 2.

[Antilles]

I had. It would have failed any lit class I ever took. The argument boils down, again and again, to "I didn't understand X, therfore X is stupid and the result of idiots. Anyone who disagrees is an idiot and crazy"

Really? I admit I don't know much about literary analysis, but it seemed quite sound to me. Yes, a bunch of the issues brought up in that document are relatively minor on their own, and if it was just the one or two in the entire ending sequence I probably wouldn't have minded (or even noticed), but when they keep going off like some constant background fireworks of stupidity and nonsense it's hard to ignore them. And "I didn't understand X" is a valid complaint when it's a significant portion of the user base that didn't understand, that would indicate the authors did a poor job explaining the situation.

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I'm interested in hearing your explanations for several of the points outlined in the document, points that I (and others, judging by all the noise on the internet) found troubling.

1. Waking up after the harbinger-beam hits you. There are several oddities/unusual behavior in this (short) sequence. The area around you've suddenly sprouted the trees/bushes from your dream. Background chatter from the radio (that I'm surprised is still functional, given the damage to shepard's suit) indicates the other forces believe everyone's dead, yet there's at least 3 people still moving down there (you, admittedly in bad shape; the guy crawling towards you, admittedly in even worse shape, and Anderson, which judging from the condition of his armor on the citadel, isn't nowhere near as badly injured as shepard). Harbinger flies off, despite Shepard still being alive and kicking.

2. The Citadel and the short sequence up to the control room. How did Anderson get to the control room ahead of Shepard when he entered the Citadel after him, and how did he get there when there's apparently just one path towards it? Why does the area look like a blend of Citadel architecture, Collector Base/Ship architecture and the engine bits from the Shadow Broker's ship?

3. The confrontation with the Illusive Man. How can the Reapers control Shepard or Andersen if they aren't indoctrinated? Hackett seemed mighty sure Shepard was still alive even though he should've gotten reports that Hammer Squad was wiped out. Why was Anderson shot in the side, but at the end Shepard is the one clutching a fresh bulletwound in his side?

4. The God Child. He outright lies. Synthetics and organics is doomed to exterminate each other? Sorry Geth and Quarians, it looks like that peace I brokered a couple of days ago isn't happening after all. And Joker, I'm afraid you'll have to break up with EDI, the God Child said so. The other arguments are disingenuous, circuitous and often contradict what we've learned earlier.

The actual choices I'll skip, because even though there's some funny business there (robot dna?) it's pretty much overshadowed by my loathing for the whole 'Congratulations, you've completed the game. Press a button to select your ending.' bullshit. Pissed me off in Deus Ex, almost killed any interest in replaying the game for me.

5. The ending sequence. Singular, because let's face it, there's fuck-all difference between the three choices. Why has the Normandy turned tail and was already running when the space magic wave happened, and when did they have time to fetch your teammates who apparently stood back and watched as you charged down the hill towards the transporter-beam? What's up with that 'Shepard wakes up in rubble' clip that plays apparently only if you choose the destroy ending?

There, a brief summary of what I found problematic with the ending sequence. If you've some theory that adequately explains all these things, I'm all ears. I'm not even kidding, the ending killed all interest in replaying the game, and it wasn't until I read up on the indoctrination theory that I actually mustered enough enthusiasm to begin a second playthrough. The first two games I jumped straight into the second (and third...) playthough, and all up to the ending I was all set to do the same with number three.


Pat: I've no problems with experiments and out-of-the-box thinking/creating, but that doesn't give them a get-out-of-jail-free card. If their creative experiment ends up being actively harmful to the overall project, they can and should be taken to task over it. To draw similarity to another trilogy, imagine that instead of the drawn out, safe and predictable ending sequence to Return of the King we got some bold artistic experiment that unfortunately turned the gentle denouement of the trilogy into a confusing mess. I'd imagine the reaction would've been somewhat similar to what Bioware's experiencing, and IMO it would be just as deserved.

[Krensky]

Antiles, I'll do that when I'm at my computer rather then my phone.

In other news…

Xenoblade Chronicles.

If you're missing a classic Japanese console RPG and have a Wii, pick up a copy. No motion control, solid combat, lots of things to do and it's cool seeing a game with all (so far) British voice acting.