|
Mister Bates posted:I still think the best possible thing for them to have done with the Crucible would be to have it fail to do anything at all - since this has apparently been designed by millions of years of different scientists without having any idea what the gently caress they were designing/adding to/building, who's to say that some vital part wasn't accidentally left out/lost/mistranslated? The Crucible itself shouldn't have been the plot device that ends the story, it should have been a sort of placebo - something to unify everyone and give them hope that they can actually defeat the Reapers, which they then do on their own with horrific casualties if you make the right choices. It should have been nothing more than a piece of solid physical proof that the galaxy can do loving anything if they set their collective minds to it; if you can complete that massive thing, you can defeat the Reapers conventionally. Here's a better idea. Rather than dedicating countless resources to a project that nobody understands, how about having the Crucible be an example of the entire galaxy pooling all their resources and knowledge for the first time to build/crew as many ships as possible? How about instead of attempting to build some random thing that has reportedly never worked and which we do not know what it does, we build a hundred more ships? How about we defend the Citadel and figure out the mechanism to manipulate the mass relays? Perhaps we could cut off the Reapers? Turn their own strategy against them? The final battle can be one huge space battle over Earth. Our efforts would determine whether or not we could take down Harbinger, a central coordinator of the Reapers, without massive losses. Game ends on a happy or sad note depending on our efforts. Nope. Lets go for the awful Deus ex Machina.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:43 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 08:15 |
|
|
tehllama posted:You know in the scheme of things what Forbes writes is far more important than what Kotaku writes. No one is going to Kotaku for investment data. Being that Bioware is owned by EA, this little bit is probably far more important than millions of us nerds calling the company out on their bullshit. Some upper level management type who doesn't give a poo poo about games is going to find out that a negative article about their company has been put on Forbes. The content is irrelevant, because it's a negative article on Forbes website. He's gonna freak out a bit wondering what the lower level fuckheads have done that would get attention in a place their shareholders might actually pay attention to. His irritation is going to travel down the chain of executives with each trying their best to tell their own underling to 'fix it!' in the most vague terms possible. Finally it will get to the devs superiors who will look at them and tell them to stop screwing around and just give the masses what they want since we'll make a shitload of money doing it anyway. Then the devs will do something, but in the most passive-aggressive way possible, to appease the community.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:46 |
|
|
The Unnamed One posted:The difference between Control and Destroy is somewhat negligible (in one the Citadel is still around, in another Shepard is possibly still alive - nevermind the potential Endor Holocaust scenario). Synthesis seems like a completely different deal. I think they've mentioned that this is the end of Shepards story and the story we started in Mass Effect 1. If they release new games within the franchise it will probably not allow any sort of "import character" options because it will be a new story with new characters and angles
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:46 |
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:Yeah, I fully expected horrendous losses up to and including your entire squad, the Normandy, love interest, and you coming into this game. I never expected them to gently caress over the entire game universe. If Bioware wanted to troll its fans, having Shep's love interest get the Reaper treatment and become a boss fight near the endgame would have been a pretty fantastic way to do it. I mean, it's established that forcing people to fight those closest to them is what Reapers do, so why not actually follow through on that premise? (If Shep didn't date anyone, then just do it to Traynor I guess, I dunno.) On a more serious note, I've been thinking a little more about ME3's plot problems and it strikes me how many of them would have been fixed if ME2 and ME3's plot structures had basically been switched around. Cut out most of the Collector stuff: they come out of nowhere for ME2 and they don't need a whole game devoted to them, even if they are the Protheans. Instead, just have the entirety of what was ME2's plot be the first 25% of the game, with your team for that part being a small handful of Cerberus agents and recruits and the suicide-mission angle downplayed. Have the Reapers show up straight after the Collector base and make the remaining 75% of the plot basically what we got for the middle 75% of ME3, with Shep cutting ties from Cerberus (along with your squadmates and crew) and trying to build a galactic alliance against the Reapers while they proceed to ruin everyone's poo poo. End on some kind of cliffhanger that leaves Earth under siege and your crew scattered to the winds: it's the second game in a trilogy, nobody's gonna complain too hard if you can't come up with a neat ending. Then, for ME3, do something like what was done with the ME2 we got: travel around the galaxy tracking down your old squadmates and maybe a couple of new ones, while preparing for a last-ditch assault to get inside Harbinger and send a shutdown signal to the Reaper fleet or whatever. (I guess you could still go with the Citadel/Crucible/Catalyst thing, but that whole subplot was a little dumb right from the start, so why would you?) I'm not saying that'd be some grand flawless plot, and there are still some bumps that I've sort of glossed over, but it'd have better pacing than what we ended up getting.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:47 |
|
|
Zzulu posted:I think they've mentioned that this is the end of Shepards story and the story we started in Mass Effect 1. If they release new games within the franchise it will probably not allow any sort of "import character" options because it will be a new story with new characters and angles I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a developer reportedly recommended that players keep their saves from ME3. Take that as you will.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:48 |
|
|
The synthesis ending is so dumb and out of place I had to choose it. I could live with the rest of it if we got some sort of fallout/dragon age epilogue showing what happened to the various species. Even still images, or gently caress it even text. How are the krogan/rachni/geth getting on with everyone after I helped sort their poo poo out? So here's my dumb ending fanfic: The crucible is a bomb or something so you can choose to use it to blow up earth and all the reapers and yourself and maybe send out a pulse that weakens the remaining reapers?? You warn your armies and friends and they flee to the relay. If your war rating is low they die in the escape otherwise they make it out. Then you get a cool cutscene of the various people and places you dealt with in the games. Krogans with babbys, Geth and Quarians hangin out. If your friends escaped they are in the cutscenes which makes it better. or You hate aliens and help TIM. He reprogams the reapers or something to make them spare humans/earth so they fly away. They still kill the other advanced races and will be back in 50,000 years. Cutscene of aliens and your friends fighting reapers on various planets, more positive scenes if your war rating was good. or The crucible just makes the reapers blow up and shepard high fives anderson. Freeze frame and credits roll.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:49 |
|
|
Mr. Pumroy posted:Maybe 1 and 2 aren't, but sacrifice is definitely a theme throughout ME3. Many of the missions end with the death of someone, and those are deaths in the name of some greater good. Mordin, Eve if you don't have Maelon's data, that Victus dude, Thane/Kirrahe if they're available to save the salarian councilor and many more, not just named characters. Sacrifice for the sake of others is definitely a big part of ME3, and it was pretty obvious that Shepard was also being set up for a sacrifice. We agree sacrifice is a theme- and I expected there to be three 'styles' of endings- bad ending (player didn't do enough, Shepard dies), good ending (Shepard did just enough, but Shepard has to die) and ultimate good ending (Shepard did nearly everything he could, and lives!) Plus, there is no logic in the endings. It's pretty much the equivalent of BioWare saying "Hey, here's a chocolate chip cookie we baked just for you! The game doesn't end with you enjoying the cookie. The game ends with three trash cans. Pick which one we'll throw the cookie in. And then, castrate yourself for good measure." At this point, all I can hope is BioWare says "The three trash cans were cleverly disguised cookie jars! But you'll need to pay extra to access the jars, and then you can access to cookie! Sorry about your junk, though. No replacements on that."
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:50 |
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:"There are no happy endings, because nothing ends." Name that movie.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:51 |
|
|
Thuryl posted:If Bioware wanted to troll its fans, having Shep's love interest get the Reaper treatment and become a boss fight near the endgame would have been a pretty fantastic way to do it. I mean, it's established that forcing people to fight those closest to them is what Reapers do, so why not actually follow through on that premise? (If Shep didn't date anyone, then just do it to Traynor I guess, I dunno.) Yeah you do make a good point. Why exactly was assaulting the collector base an infinitely more difficult and extensive process then assaulting Earth mid Reaper invasion? You had to plan out strategy and crap in ME2 yet in 3 it's just eh go shoot em.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:51 |
|
|
Plus, to me, Shepard's death should, like, put an end to the oncoming shitstorm. Shepard's been resolving the genophage and the quarian/geth war and all that. Closing the books on all the major bullshit the galaxy has gotten itself in. Ending the Reapers should have been like that. Bam. I killed them all for you. The rest is up to you. Instead, the ending just created more issues by needlessly bombing the mass relays. It was like, yeah okay you stopped the Reapers BUT... and this is a big but... we're still pretty screwed. Thanks!
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:51 |
|
|
Merry Magpie posted:I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a developer reportedly recommended that players keep their saves from ME3. Take that as you will.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:52 |
|
|
Merry Magpie posted:I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a developer reportedly recommended that players keep their saves from ME3. Take that as you will. Perhaps for DLC?
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:52 |
|
|
Erz posted:The synthesis ending is so dumb and out of place I had to choose it. Don't even get me started on what the gently caress synthetic DNA means. quote:Oh, right, that movie with A HAPPY ENDING where one of the heroes dies and is brought back to life with unicorn magic. The same magic that destroyed the bad guy and his castle without catastrophic collateral damage. So what you're saying is that a magic unicorn is going to bring Shepard back to life. Again.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:53 |
|
|
Merry Magpie posted:I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a developer reportedly recommended that players keep their saves from ME3. Take that as you will. Optimistically, maybe this is because he knew the ending was poo poo and wanted to tell players "don't delete your save games out of disgust, we plan on fixing it."
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:54 |
|
|
tehllama posted:So what you're saying is that a magic unicorn is going to bring Shepard back to life. Again. I am patiently awaiting the upcoming photo of "horny" Miranda.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:54 |
|
|
tehllama posted:Don't even get me started on what the gently caress synthetic DNA means. I have an idea: 
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:56 |
|
|
tehllama posted:So what you're saying is that a magic unicorn is going to bring Shepard back to life. Again.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:56 |
|
|
I just thought of something, I apologize if it's already been brought up. So there's, like, thousands of people working on building the Crucible, right? They had construction crews manually build those arms that come out and grab the Citadel. Their bosses had to have had blueprints to know how to make those things. The Citadel has been the center of galactic civilization for thousands of years, it's home to millions of people, presumably some of these Crucible workers are from there. So how did no one with any kind of access to the blueprints of this thing realize, "Oh wait, these grabby arms extend to the exact diameter of the Presidium! The Crucible is supposed to attach to the Citadel!" Surely there's someone, some foreman or scientist or something that would have made that connection, right?
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:58 |
|
|
I remember in ME1 when you're talking to Vigil you can ask him what the Reaper's motivation is. He responds with "Who cares? You just have to stop them, not understand them." I wish they stayed with that in regards to explaining what the Reapers want.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:59 |
|
|
Thuryl posted:If Bioware wanted to troll its fans, having Shep's love interest get the Reaper treatment and become a boss fight near the endgame would have been a pretty fantastic way to do it. I mean, it's established that forcing people to fight those closest to them is what Reapers do, so why not actually follow through on that premise? (If Shep didn't date anyone, then just do it to Traynor I guess, I dunno.) I really, really thought when Anderson turned around and gave that half-smile that he was going to be indoctrinated. That he was going to tell Shepard that they got it all wrong and that they can control the Reapers blah blah blah everything TIM said, and then she would have to shoot him. I especially thought this since why else would he get there first considering he got to the citadel after Shepard? They foreshadow this so well and it never happens. I was honestly surprised.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:59 |
|
|
Torsade de Pointes posted:The citadel's arms are closed, but there has to be an opening where that beam is aimed at. There is no equivalent of star trek transporters in this setting. They should just land Hammer team on the Citadel itself and make for that opening like how Shepard and crew climbs to the Council chambers at the end of ME1.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 00:59 |
|
|
Mr. Pumroy posted:Maybe 1 and 2 aren't, but sacrifice is definitely a theme throughout ME3. Many of the missions end with the death of someone, and those are deaths in the name of some greater good. Mordin, Eve if you don't have Maelon's data, that Victus dude, Thane/Kirrahe if they're available to save the salarian councilor and many more, not just named characters. Sacrifice for the sake of others is definitely a big part of ME3, and it was pretty obvious that Shepard was also being set up for a sacrifice. As I said earlier in the thread, the ending would have been fine had it ended there. It also wouldn't necessarily be a messianic sacrifice, since he would die watching his actions come to fruition, rather than sacrificing himself before the final moment.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:00 |
|
|
The Conduit is just a reverse engineered Mass Relay, it operates the same as any other.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:00 |
|
|
Ash1138 posted:Replace that stupid kid with a unicorn and ME3 gets way better. Shepard dreams about unicorns. "How do I know I'm not just an AI that thinks he's Commander Shepard?"
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:02 |
|
|
Merry Magpie posted:I am patiently awaiting the upcoming photo of "horny" Miranda. If you've seen the old ME2 threads, chances are there was probably a picture that was like this. There was a lot of furry/crossover/porn pictures in that thread, and they were insane.  There was also one guy which did really impressive fan teasers of characters, Patryk Olejniczak. http://i.imgur.com/R1cGB.jpg is the most recent picture he did, of Legion; his website and series are at http://garrettartlair.blogspot.com/ . To be honest, I'm shocked that they either didn't hire him for a poster/teaser image series or as a concept artist.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:03 |
|
|
thetrin posted:"How do I know I'm not just an AI that thinks he's Commander Shepard?" I had that same thought when that line came up.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:03 |
|
|
Kongming posted:The Conduit is just a reverse engineered Mass Relay, it operates the same as any other.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:03 |
|
|
8-bit Miniboss posted:I had that same thought when that line came up. I'll admit, I hoped the game would run with that line at some point, but then the next surveillance entry just has TIM going "NOPE YOU'RE SHEPARD" It's such a missed opportunity. Having a battle of wits about the existence of the self with SpaceKid could have made for a compelling and ambiguous moral choice at the end. What can I say? I really really loved that line when Shep said it, and it seemed like an avenue they wanted to go, but then left on the cutting room floor at the last minute.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:07 |
|
|
Fray posted:Which instantly transports you tens of thousands of light years and through solid matter, so how is that not functionally identical to a teleporter?
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:08 |
|
|
I think that once you get all the pieces of the Star Forge at the Landsmeet you should be able to get Logain to take your place and impregnate Darth Treya to make the Reaper-baby, obviously.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:08 |
|
|
Party Plane Jones posted:If you've seen the old ME2 threads, chances are there was probably a picture that was like this. There was a lot of furry/crossover/porn pictures in that thread, and they were insane. I am happy I missed that. That Tali image was creepy enough. Also, Olejniczak is really talented. I think he has no problems securing work judging by the Game Informer cover. Thank you for the link.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:11 |
|
|
After 45 seconds of thinking of new endings, this is what I came up with: Option 1: Troll option. poo poo on the face of everything you've been fighting for. Renegade or paragon. You see the logic of the reapers and stand by idly, watching your fleets get decimated above earth. The cycle continues, advanced civilisations are harvested, and the reapers will be back in 50,000 years for the next guys. You roll over and die. Option 2: Control the reapers Paragon: You become the ghostkid for the rest eternity. You take the reapers to sleep and have brotimes in dark space, but to come out of hiding to prevent the extinction of organics at any point in the future should the need arise. Requires high/highest paragon. Renegade: TIM style option. You become the ghostkid, and wipe out all non-human species. All humans get reaper-ised and become ultimate-super-cool-power-robots under your leadership. Requires high/highest renegade. Option 3: Destroy the reapers. Paragon: Cripple the reapers using deus ex machina, but do not destroy them. This leaves mass relays and synthetic life intact, but allows your fleets to finish the reapers. Losses/outcome of this rely heavily on your war assets. If your assets are too low, you lose, bad ending. Renegade: You destory all reapers, synthetic life, and mass relays because you are renegade Shepard and gently caress the police thats why. War assets determine whether or not humanity has survived the conflict and has a chance to rebuild. Naturally, each ending has its own 1 minute long epilogue scene, or equivilant.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:11 |
|
|
Holy poo poo Admiral Gerrel! Quarians about to get Genocided. Don't take my dashing good looks as a sign of weakness, Renegade Shep is your space bro right up until you cross him. After that, he is the meanest bitch in the galaxy and doesn't care about poo poo other than ruining your poo poo. Geth gonna win some space fights, Tali gonna cliff jump. You loving idiot. On topic: yes the endings do indeed suck, there is no defense for this that does not involve significant producer meddling and/or major deadline shifts, and DLC to fix it is sorely needed and would be a day 1 purchase regardless of retcons. As it is, I really don't see why I should give a gently caress about DLC helping Aria take back Omega, like, any fucks at all. Here, have Omega with your fine blue self *blows up all relays* What makes me even more mad about this is that there are so many individual scenes that are so moving (Mordin, Tali, Thane, etc.) that they clearly can tell a story on an individual level, they just irreparably hosed up the big picture. Or maybe the successes were mostly due to good voice acting?
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:17 |
|
|
It's something telling and will most certainly grab BioWare/EA's attention. All of the debate is focused on 1% of the game, and the feelings are nearly unanimously 'FIX IT YOU FUCKS'. (case in point, BSN, where Communist BioWare rules all, is consumed by debate) I'm going to remain hopeful that BioWare/EA adheres to their god, the almighty dollar, and fixes the problem. Not that I didn't expect it anyways. But it's good to know that we're not alone in this fight.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:19 |
|
|
8-bit Miniboss posted:Be sure to import your ME3 save to find Shepard's message to the next cycle! "I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel" We may never know what this enigmatic message means!
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:20 |
|
|
The voice acting is really good. I didn't even like Shepards VA in ME1 but it really grew on me and I loved it by ME3
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:20 |
|
|
Mahuum Aqoha posted:I hate that "sense of entitlement" argument. Where does it come from? I mean, sure we all have laughs at the expense of gamers that are severe manchildren, but how is it a "sense of entitlement" to complain about a completely nonsensical ending and hope that the company makes a DLC that fixes it? I'm not at all for the democratization of game production in terms of Tali photos and sexbot EDIs, but when a vast majority of fans all agree that something is totally hosed up then asking for a fix isn't entitlement, it's having a spine as a consumer. Buying three games in a row is an investment.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:21 |
|
|
Haledjian posted:Yeah, they sold a shitload of preorders and first-day purchases to people who had an expectation of what kind of experience they were going to get, and who ended getting something seriously unsatisfying. This is true. I have less faith in BioWare fixing it because of the comlpaints and more hope of them fixing it because it will sell like crack in the middle of a crack addict rally.
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:23 |
|
|
Surec posted:"I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite store on the Citadel" [There seems to be a recording here] *Watch the first entry* "It's a big, stupid, jellyfish!" [Turn off the device]
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:23 |
|
|
|
| # ? May 24, 2013 08:15 |
|
|
People don't really demand new endings to movies with bad endings do they?
|
| # ? Mar 13, 2012 01:24 |
|
