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[mxgt]

They were spoiling the intro.

It all makes sense now

 

[FieryBalrog]

I only said that Bioware did not make cannon choices.

 

[EmCeeGramr]

oh my god shepard is dead...

*ten minutes later* oh he's alive again and according to Science, dying and coming back to life literally has no effect on you or your humanity other than Evil Sith Face, so let's just shelve any possible meaning or exploration of this topic for the rest of the game

 

[Mindlog]

Calibrating.

We're going to find out that the trial takes place at Gethsemane Courthouse.

 

[G-Fex]

I'm going to make a Femmy Shepard.

I only hope she can have the same dance moves as Male Shepard.

 

[Emitan]

oh my god shepard is dead...

*ten minutes later* oh he's alive again and according to Science, dying and coming back to life literally has no effect on you or your humanity other than Evil Sith Face, so let's just shelve any possible meaning or exploration of this topic for the rest of the game

But you can grind for hours to get enough Space Rox to make yourself all pretty again!

I'm going to make a Femmy Shepard.

Good man.

 

[The Technomancer]

You mean HUELEN's green eyed Sonic? That was hilariously obsessive, but this is simultaneously obsessive and terrifying.

GAF is incredibly lucky that our only "exposure" to Sonic obsession was HUELEN. HUELEN was downright tame.

 

[Rodney McKay]

oh my god shepard is dead...

*ten minutes later* oh he's alive again and according to Science, dying and coming back to life literally has no effect on you or your humanity other than Evil Sith Face, so let's just shelve any possible meaning or exploration of this topic for the rest of the game

Hey, you can't expect that level of deep level of self exploration in a VIDEO GAME!

Film is the only way these themes can be explored, like RoboCop or Terminator: Salvation.
You can't do that in a video game! lol

 

[Vamphuntr]

Miranda is supposedly a genius of medecine that is in charge of the Lazarus Project but yet she's absolutely incompetent in finding a solution to the paralysis induced by the collectors' swarm. You need another genius of medecine to do so. She brought back someone to life whose corpse has been completely pulverized but cannot find way to prevent a simple paralysis.

 

[Emitan]

Miranda is supposedly a genius of medecine that is in charge of the Lazarus Project but yet she's absolutely incompetent in finding a solution to the paralysis induced by the collectors' swarm. You need another genius of medecine to do so. She brought back someone to life whose corpse has been completely pulverized but cannot find way to prevent a simple paralysis.

Not to mention "they leave no trace", but "lol they left a bug behind to do research on"

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

oh my god shepard is dead...

*ten minutes later* oh he's alive again and according to Science, dying and coming back to life literally has no effect on you or your humanity other than Evil Sith Face, so let's just shelve any possible meaning or exploration of this topic for the rest of the game

And people disagree with me that 1 is the better of the two.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

You know, without the interwebs, I would have been able to enjoy Sonic the Hedgehog and Tali in my own completely innocuous and "normal", non-nauseating way.

Wrex, Garrus, and Tali were the only characters I liked in ME1, and I think I played Tali, Legion, Zaeed, and... maybe Samara?... in 2.

Tali was interesting in 1 just because she was in a suit for an actual interesting, reasonable reason, and the fact that she was a she didn't even matter. Thanks to the freaks I read about regularly now, I can barely stomach to include her in my squad on my current playthrough of ME1.

All I know is without a flowchart I managed to save everyone but the fish dude in my first save in ME2, and haven't felt much like going through the game a second time.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

And people disagree with me that 1 is the better of the two.

They might not care about the story of either game.

 

[Ponti]

Not to mention "they leave no trace", but "lol they left a bug behind to do research on"

A bug that got onto the ship as if by magic.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

They might not care about the story of either game.

Or scale. Or mechanics.

 

[Emitan]

A bug that got onto the ship as if by magic.

Cerberus has teleportation tech. They just forgot to tell us.

Or scale. Or mechanics.

Goddamn. ME1 gets better every time I think about ME2.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Tali was interesting in 1 just because she was in a suit for an actual interesting, reasonable reason

So you just like Quarians and she wins out by being the first one you meet as well as the only one in the game?

 

[mxgt]

ME1 first play through gave me a feeling of pure awesome that ME2 could never touch, sadly.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

So you just like Quarians and she wins out by being the first one you meet as well as the only one in the game?

Well, I guess, yeah.

I'm far more drawn to whatever characters in games are the least human. Mass Effect is yet another sci-fi universe full of mostly humanoid aliens, so I just had to take what I could get. I'd have dropped her in a second if rachni were playable. ;p

I don't think most people could legitimately argue that she had much other than an interesting character design (and decent VA) going for her in ME1, as Garrus and especially Wrex were the best personalities.

I'd say for ME2 that her loyalty mission was one of the better ones also.

 

[hateradio]

if(forum === 'bioware')
   for(character in all_bioware_characters){
      echo 'I want to be able to do '+character.name+'! Because '+character.name+' is so smexy. :3';
   }
}

 

[B_Rik_Schitthaus]

Or scale. Or mechanics.

Or music.

 

[jim-jam bongs]

ME1 first play through gave me a feeling of pure awesome that ME2 could never touch, sadly.

I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while, but ME2 suffers from the "design by statistics" mentality in a huge way. When I start a good RPG it should give me the same feeling I get when I arrive in a city I've never visited before; that feeling of exploration, and the certainty that whatever is around the corner is something new.

Sometimes this means hiding content from your players though, otherwise there's no pay-off for discovering it. But what's happening these days is that studios like Bioware and Blizzard are getting the finance team to look at how much was spent on developing each piece of content and then compare it with the percentage of players who actually saw that content. Then they use that to inform future decisions about where to put resources for their future projects.

The thing is, I don't give a fuck if only 1% of players explored distant planets with the Mako because I was one of that 1% and I enjoyed it. I completely understand doing what it takes to bring your development costs down but removing the hard to reach content which is often the very reason your most dedicated fans enjoy your games is completely asinine.

I'll finish my kinda off-topic polemic with an example of the kind of thing I love. I've played about 110 hours of The Witcher according to Steam, and the last play-through I discovered a side-quest in the first chapter I'd somehow missed the two other times I'd played the game. That side-quest also happens to be extremely significant to the lore of the series, and it's going to be missed by 90% of the people who play the game. To me that's not a bad thing, it's why I play RPGs.

 

[Emitan]

What's that Witcher sidequest?

 

[Typographenia]

if(forum === 'bioware')}

You just made the bioware forums 300% more efficient.

I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while, but ME2 suffers from the "design by statistics" mentality in a huge way. When I start a good RPG it should give me the same feeling I get when I arrive in a city I've never visited before; that feeling of exploration, and the certainty that whatever is around the corner is something new.

Well, we already have the complaint thread. Unless the thread would actually lead to something that isn't very redundant.

Spoiler

I'd still read it.

 

[Glix]

I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while, but ME2 suffers from the "design by statistics" mentality in a huge way. When I start a good RPG it should give me the same feeling I get when I arrive in a city I've never visited before; that feeling of exploration, and the certainty that whatever is around the corner is something new.

Sometimes this means hiding content from your players though, otherwise there's no pay-off for discovering it. But what's happening these days is that studios like Bioware and Blizzard are getting the finance team to look at how much was spent on developing each piece of content and then compare it with the percentage of players who actually saw that content. Then they use that to inform future decisions about where to put resources for their future projects.

The thing is, I don't give a fuck if only 1% of players explored distant planets with the Mako because I was one of that 1% and I enjoyed it. I completely understand doing what it takes to bring your development costs down but removing the hard to reach content which is often the very reason your most dedicated fans enjoy your games is completely asinine.

I'll finish my kinda off-topic polemic with an example of the kind of thing I love. I've played about 110 hours of The Witcher according to Steam, and the last play-through I discovered a side-quest in the first chapter I'd somehow missed the two other times I'd played the game. That side-quest also happens to be extremely significant to the lore of the series, and it's going to be missed by 90% of the people who play the game. To me that's not a bad thing, it's why I play RPGs.

Doesn't Bioware kind of go in a different direction though? I mean, they see how most people don't make a femshep, yet they keep the option in the game, and embrace it even.

 

[Typographenia]

Doesn't Bioware kind of go in a different direction though? I mean, they see how most people don't make a femshep, yet they keep the option in the game, and embrace it even.

How did they embrace it exactly? The recent vote on the femshep design?
edit: Oh, you mean more male romance options or something?/edit

Besides, there's a big difference between giving people the option to play as a male/female and removing gameplay components.

 

[kamspy]

 

[Emitan]

I actually laughed out loud. LOL

 

[jim-jam bongs]

What's that Witcher sidequest?

Spoiler

Declan Leuvarden asking you to recover his associate's body then get permission to bury it under the chapel, which leads you to an encounter with The King of the Hunt. It's really easy to miss because Leuvarden only shows up for a short time each day in the inn, the creatures in the cave can be extremely tough on hard and you only get a brief window between being allowed to bury the body and the point of no return at the end of the chapter which basically ceases all NPC activity.

Well, we already have the complaint thread. Unless the thread would actually lead to something that isn't very redundant.

Spoiler

I'd still read it.

Hmm I guess we could talk about our favourite bits of hard to reach content?

 

[kamspy]

I seriously canceled it.

 

[Emitan]

Spoiler

Declan Leuvarden asking you to recover his associate's body then get permission to bury it under the chapel, which leads you to an encounter with The King of the Hunt. It's really easy to miss because Leuvarden only shows up for a short time each day in the inn, the creatures in the cave can be extremely tough on hard and you only get a brief window between being allowed to bury the body and the point of no return at the end of the chapter which basically ceases all NPC activity.

Wow. Mind blown. I'll have to do that because I lost my save file.

 

[Typographenia]

Hmm I guess we could talk about our favourite bits of hard to reach content?

That might actually make for a pretty interesting thread, but I hope it doesn't become a "that's not difficult to find! I found that without even trying!" thread.

 

[Salsa]

Jesus fucking christ.



Jesus fuckin christ.

 

[tiff]

I really need to play through ME1 again. My first playthrough I'm pretty sure I could tell you what didn't work, but despite that I enjoyed the game because the story was reasonably paced, and it had a lot of nice ideas that maybe weren't executed well, but hey, they were nice ideas. My second playthrough attempt soured my opinion on the game completely.

 

[TheSeks]

If you died at the end of ME2 you should get to play as Conrad in ME3. In the end it turns out it's just Conrad's dream and he wakes up just as the reapers take over the earth.

Fuck that. The game should end with Conrad not waking up and the reapers taking over the Earth.

 

[mxgt]

I've been meaning to make a thread about this for a while, but ME2 suffers from the "design by statistics" mentality in a huge way. When I start a good RPG it should give me the same feeling I get when I arrive in a city I've never visited before; that feeling of exploration, and the certainty that whatever is around the corner is something new.

Sometimes this means hiding content from your players though, otherwise there's no pay-off for discovering it. But what's happening these days is that studios like Bioware and Blizzard are getting the finance team to look at how much was spent on developing each piece of content and then compare it with the percentage of players who actually saw that content. Then they use that to inform future decisions about where to put resources for their future projects.

The thing is, I don't give a fuck if only 1% of players explored distant planets with the Mako because I was one of that 1% and I enjoyed it. I completely understand doing what it takes to bring your development costs down but removing the hard to reach content which is often the very reason your most dedicated fans enjoy your games is completely asinine.

I'll finish my kinda off-topic polemic with an example of the kind of thing I love. I've played about 110 hours of The Witcher according to Steam, and the last play-through I discovered a side-quest in the first chapter I'd somehow missed the two other times I'd played the game. That side-quest also happens to be extremely significant to the lore of the series, and it's going to be missed by 90% of the people who play the game. To me that's not a bad thing, it's why I play RPGs.

Exploring the Citadel was one of the best things about ME1.

ME2 was too restrictive and really had nothing anywhere near as memorable. I was so annoyed when I found out the presidium couldn't be accessed and all we got is some basement.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Fuck that. The game should end with Conrad not waking up and the reapers taking over the Earth.

The end of Mass Effect 3 should be the galaxy falling to the reapers, everyone dying, and as a reaper runs Shepard through, she wakes up in bed, hears the shower running, goes into the bathroom, pulls the shower curtain back, and Conrad is in there played by Patrick Duffy.

 

[TheSeks]

The end of Mass Effect 3 should be the galaxy falling to the reapers, everyone dying, and as a reaper runs Shepard through, she wakes up in bed, hears the shower running, goes into the bathroom, pulls the shower curtain back, and Conrad is in there played by Patrick Duffy.

...And then in a cruel twist of fate, the reapers take over the earth.

Spoiler

I love bad ends.

 

[Emitan]

Conrad is the new Saren. He works with the Reapers to become stronger because he thinks he can beat them. You kill Conrad and the game ends with you giving a speech at his funeral.

 

[RustyNails]

I must admit, I was creeped out by those posts. But I understand that there are way worse creepo subcultures out there, like posting about your real dolls and shit. I remember that forum where people treated their real dolls as real humans, like having dinner with them and what not. That was crazy.

 

[Emitan]

I must admit, I was creeped out by those posts. But I understand that there are way worse creepo subcultures out there, like posting about your real dolls and shit. I remember that forum where people treated their real dolls as real humans, like having dinner with them and what not. That was crazy.

I need to stop reading this thread. Seriously. I will NOT Google that forum. I swear it.

 

[Vamphuntr]

I need to stop reading this thread. Seriously. I will NOT Google that forum. I swear it.

The fun is just starting. Don't leave now.

 

[Kayo-kun]

I wonder what Bioware will do when the Old Republic bombs.

And I seriously think it will, since they seem to have wasted so much money on it and have too high expectations.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

I wonder what Bioware will do when the Old Republic bombs.

And I seriously think it will, since they seem to have wasted so much money on it and have too high expectations.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438630&nojs=1

They're obviously happy about the pre-order numbers, how long it needs to survive to be profitable is probably less than 6 months I'd guess.

And in a thread about freaky fans, Star Wars fans are possibly the most dedicated and scary.

 

[Typographenia]

I need to stop reading this thread. Seriously. I will NOT Google that forum. I swear it.

You won't have to, because bioware fans are already on the case.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

You won't have to, because bioware fans are already on the case.

*chokes on coffee*

 

[Emitan]

You won't have to, because bioware fans are already on the case.

 

[Uriah]

You won't have to, because bioware fans are already on the case.

Oh. My. God.

 

[Emitan]

Oh. My. God.

 

[Kayo-kun]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=438630&nojs=1

They're obviously happy about the pre-order numbers, how long it needs to survive to be profitable is probably less than 6 months I'd guess.

And in a thread about freaky fans, Star Wars fans are possibly the most dedicated and scary.

Wow... that was surprising..

I might have underestimated the SW fans I guess.