George Oscar Bluth II
Banned
One good thing about the new game is that they said the character will be a stranger in a strange land, which gives me vibes of ME1.
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Mass Effect 4 dev "...studying and replaying the trilogy for research" (Sequel?)
- Thread starter EatChildren
- Start date
kingofthedead45
Member
Play lots of ME1 Mr.Game Developer. Lots, and lots of ME1.
Vargavinter
Member
Best story ever, so yes.
I really hope he does this. The world needs more AAA space RPGs.
Garrus Vakarian
Member
I am so glad I was half alseep when I played that part, I absolutely enjoyed the "95%" as you put it and it had great pacing throughout. I haven't played the ending since then so that probably explains why I don't understand people going batshit crazy over it.
Is the patched ending meant to be better?
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
My running theory is that before Mass Effect 3 wrapped up production (or during the tail end, when it was decided Montreal would handle the next game) the plan was for Montreal to work on a First Contact War prequel or midquel or something with zero intention to follow up Mass Effect 3's ending. Then the ending backlash happened and it became pretty clear (and has continued to be) that fans very much want a game set post-trilogy versus prequel/midquel, and so plans were changed and Montreal is now working on a full scale continuation of the franchise instead of a side story or some such shit.
I also think that regardless of whether they pick a canon or craft a new one, the idea is that this new story is in a specific universe state that isn't particularly relevant to whatever your Shepard did. Could be seen kind of like Abrams' Star Trek where instead of starting fresh right from the series beginning the starting point is just after the trilogy ends. Doesn't matter what your choices were. They matter for your trilogy, but they're not relevant to this universe state, as it's not a sequel to your story so much as a sequel to what the trilogy was.
If the PAX leak is correct (and I suspect it is) then Montreal specifically cited exploration and "stranger in a strange land" themes as a focus of the new game, with intention to bring back the atmosphere that fans remember from Mass Effect 1.
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
As long as they don't bring back the terrible mechanics and design from it they should be fine.
It extends some of the things happend after Shepards decision. But anyway, it only gives a bit more insight to an already great ending. I understand the outrage but storywise the original ending was one of the best endings in gaming.
I hope so, as those themes made ME1 so special. The streamlining in ME2 and 3 were good for fast action and gunplay but killed anything that made ME1 so special. I hope Bioware has enough room to focus on more RPG rather than action but with EA as publisher and thse sales expectations I'm a bit reserved with my hype.
ComputerMKII
Banned
Oh come on.
GlamFM
Banned
Why? ME1 while having the best story had the worst mechanics and overall really crappy gameplay.
Vlodril
Member
After ME3 and DA2 i have no faith that bioware can learn from their mistakes. They will probably choose to double down on them. And to be fair it seems to be working for them sales wise so...
I never had a company i liked so much fall so much in my estimation so fast. They went from probably the only buy unseen company to avoid at all costs in a span of 3 years or so.
Luckily CDProject Red rose up to take their place.
I never had a company i liked so much fall so much in my estimation so fast. They went from probably the only buy unseen company to avoid at all costs in a span of 3 years or so.
Luckily CDProject Red rose up to take their place.
spectyre
Member
The series didn't seem that way to me. More like humans were the 2nd class citizens. You had to fight to earn your place at the table.
The original plot (in ME1/ME2) wanted to present humans as the most important race (dark energy/human reaper...). They dropped that idea pretty late and I still felt as if they focused too much on humans the whole time - regardless of their importance.
Sentenza
Member
Then I guess we don't have much to talk about.
Not anywhere near as bad as the alternate option, actually.
Bingo.
Doctor_Thomas
Member
When you change writers half way through the story, it's always going to conflict with original intentions.
I just hope they make it an interesting story because ME2 was painfully dull and ME3 just lost it right at the end.
I just hope they make it an interesting story because ME2 was painfully dull and ME3 just lost it right at the end.
velociraptor
Junior Member
I hope Bioware finally include PC controller support otherwise I will be pissed.
Sentenza
Member
Precisely.
Not to mention the unlikeliness of having several advanced civilizations ready to interstellar travel going to populate an ancient gigantic alien ship like hermit crabs for centuries, without bothering inquiring about how it works in a very detailed way.
The whole premise of "the Conduit was a backdoor and the Citadel a massive trap" is so stupid in itself, it doesn't even need ME3's ending to collapse.
spectyre
Member
I can see that point, however focusing on humanity does make it easier to let the player empathize with the main character. I would not object to a deeper alien experience but Mass Effect being a AAA game published by EA, I don't see them making that jump.
I would like them to do away with dream sequences and gaming nerd celebrity cameos that showed up in the last game.
GardenSirens
Banned
I smell a remake!
ThoseDeafMutes
Member
There's lots of little stupid things in the game too. One of the bigger ones is probably something that a lot of people say is their favorite moment in the game, the discussion with Sovereign on Virmire where he basically reveals his own nature, declares his evil intentions outright, and generally gives them a completely unnecessary amount of intelligence, bond-villain style. It's so stupid for something that an allegedly superior machine intelligence is doing. All Sovereign had to do was stay quiet for 15 seconds and Shepard would have walked away none the wiser. There is literally no reason to even respond to Shepard in any capacity.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
This bugged a lot of people initially, then it was sort of lost in a sea of odd decisions. Pretty insanely stupid to let the galaxy know you're coming when your entire stated plan is one of surprise. The writers needed an info dump to set up the plot, but they borked it about as good as they borked Saren.
PolarGamer
Member
Superior elevator tech from ME1 was never replicated in the sequels. Hope they fix that for the next game =)
On a serious note, I enjoyed much of the first game as it was more rpg-y. Especially the space station thingy was better since you had open access to all parts of it at all times - least until the end.
On a serious note, I enjoyed much of the first game as it was more rpg-y. Especially the space station thingy was better since you had open access to all parts of it at all times - least until the end.
Most stories start to crumble when you introduce a super intelligent villain. Writers really need to stop doing that, seeing as they have problems with villains with average intelligence behaving with some semblance of rational taught.
That said I have learned not to look for too much logic in video game stories and just roll with it.
Not the Mako....Heck 343 should take a HUGE page out of ME1's book on for the next warthog. The Mako has grip as it should for the type of vehicle it is. There is no excuse for why the warthog drives like its ice skating.
spectyre
Member
I hate to admit this but I never even thought about it. After so many years of playing video games I just let plot holes slide by unnoticed at this point. Oddly enough, I won't give the same pass for movies. A good example is A Few Good Men. A smart, well disciplined colonel just has to stick to his story and remain calm on the stand and everything is okay. Nope.. I'll just incriminate myself because I lost my temper.
It was thinking like this that led to the stupid kid in ME3. Walters felt players would be unable to empathize with aliens, so he shoehorned in the stupid kid to show Shepard's guilt.
The mako has no momentum or physics. The wharthog while driving like ice skating, at least has a more natural feel that you are actually driving something. The wharthog is leaps and bounds ahead of the mako.
spectyre
Member
I'm not defending their thinking. Simply analyzing it.
truestatic
Member
In their defense, the stated plan is a baited trap. At this point, galactic civilization has long taken the bait.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
With a giant surprise attack being the pivotal point in springing said trap. Citadel being a mass relay, etc.
I think you might have missed the point to that scene sir. The colonel simply reached his boiling point with the young generation. He just voiced out what a lot of people his age were thinking about the people of of TC's age. By confession time, he had already reached his boiling point with the young whipper snapper. It was a beautiful exchange between the two. Simply beautiful.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
Also, he was so arrogant that he thought the court would side with him against the young, effete JAG officer. Because he was part of the old guard and goddammit, they owed him their lives.
No way. I got stop you right there. First off. They are both guilty of this by the way, but the Mako does this better. They both use the sticks to accelerate and steer. Dumb design for an wheeled axle assault vehicle and there is nothing no-one can say to convince me otherwise. The difference though is at least the Mako uses one stick for both actions (On top of having that grip I mentioned before) feels like I actually have control of the vehicle. It's not not going anywhere I dont want it to go. Period.
Now the Warthog? What In The Hell is up with this thing? You have to use both sticks to accelerate and steer, which already felt unatural to begin with (Since H1), but the mofo has NO GRIP! How in the hell can you justify an assault vehicle having no grip on any terrain? I am literally all over the freaking place when I have to drive that thing. No. we simply couldn't have tradition vehicular controls (The triggers). That would be too much like right. Seeing as how the driver of the warthog can't use firearms, I see no justifiable reason why tradition vehicular controls is NOT at least an option for the player. But hey, some people just got conditioned to that mess I guess.
spectyre
Member
I disagree. A man of his age and experience would understand that emotion is the enemy. He would have seen through such a transparent attempt to break him. He would have gotten far more satisfaction beating TC at his own game.
Edit: I didn't mean to derail the topic... I just wanted to relate my perception is dumbed down by video game plots so much that I don't even realize it anymore.
Oddly enough, with all the things wrong with ME, I still find it one of the most satisfying experiences from last gen.
I see your point. It was definitely a game for both, but TC did call pull his card on some points that he could'nt explain away. They were pretty much doing this thing the whole movie, it's just TC finally hit a nerve. Everybody has their buttons. TC just finally found his. Oh and besides....it was a movie.
I find it funny how some people are still so pissed off and angry about ME3 ending that they think ME4 isn't even worth a look. It's been almost 2 years now, you guys realize its just video games right? Yes, the ending was rushed, incomplete and didn't make any sense, but that doesn't mean the rest of the franchise was just as bad.
And I already see some people quoting me and saying the ending wasn't the only bad thing about ME3(scanning planets instead of landing on them for sidequests, journal that doesn't update, etc.), but most of them were due to rushed development(ME3 was developped, in what, less than 2 years?), something that isn't happening with ME4.
And I already see some people quoting me and saying the ending wasn't the only bad thing about ME3(scanning planets instead of landing on them for sidequests, journal that doesn't update, etc.), but most of them were due to rushed development(ME3 was developped, in what, less than 2 years?), something that isn't happening with ME4.
spectyre
Member
That was my point. I guess I was pointing out my own flawed logic. I can forgive huge plot holes in games without a second thought, but any discrepancy in a movie plot will ruin it for me.
I can believe you're saying it, because it's a rational thing to do. Implementing save import feature would be a disaster at this point; it would either once again be limited to meaningless background stuff (and people would rage that all you've got is few emails and radio news) or there would be some major condradictions every now and then (because it would be an impossible task to implement all three version of the world that were created due to Shepard's final decision). Let them start a fresh story without all that baggage.
You're not the only one.
Sentenza
Member
On a related note, the whole Mako thing really highlights Bioware's way to handle issues.
- "Oh, those planetary missions with the Mako may be cool at first, but they feel all the same and become a bit boring after a while. What can we do about it?"
- "Let's ditch them entirely! That surely will make everything better!"
And they did the same with the inventory and so on. Why improve when you can cut off things?
Same reason as Halo 3 maybe. Shepard is an icon anybody recognizes with ME. I also think that the main lead is going to be Shepard again (in some way). This is no Dragon Age were we had a random protagonist in the first place. Its risky for EA to allow a new face for this series.
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Because BioWare shit the bed with everything in the ending. It didn't mean anything because their entire angle was IMAGINE THINGS THAT MIGHT BE BUT ALSO MIGHT NOT BE, LOTS OF SPECULATION FOR EVERYONE, and combined this with obvious intentions that there would never, ever be a post-trilogy game. You were just supposed to imagine what it might mean in a non-existent future.
The Shepard trilogy is over in every sense, from playing as Shepard and his cast to the Reaper story arc. BioWare has said it, and Montreal reiterated it. Their direction with Mass Effect 4 is to forge something totally new.
They cant drag out Shepard forever, and I think the entire point of Mass Effect 4 will be to establish a new identity for the series. Part of this will be nuking Shepard everything from the narrative (new lead, new characters, no Reapers), and part of this will be setting it post-trilogy in a chosen or created canon, both choices giving Montreal limitless headroom to grow the franchise how they see fit on the new generation of consoles.
Shepard is iconic to the Mass Effect trilogy, and I believe it's Montreal/BW's objective to move on from that.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
It's totally not though. Shepard isn't an icon, because there is no singular Shepard. Everybody had their own version. Halo has a central protagonist and singular image in the story campaign.
The main character of ME was the player, the sidekick was the universe.
Fair enough but not in the sense of marketing. I'm talking about the franchise and I think that I read on this board that EA expected ME3 to sell more than 5 million units. That made many things get even worse I think and male Mark Vanderloo Shpeard is the face of the series.
I hope so and I hope they have the balls to execute this but there is still EA as publisher and they pretty much fund this game so I'm just cautious because for me the downfall from ME1 is tied with Electronic Arts.
Sentenza
Member
I disagree. While there is an option to customize your character and many seem to like female Shep more, we all should admit that the canon version that everyone recognizes as Shepard is the standard male model.
And I'm going to add "in the Paragon version", too.
Pretty much this. The only draw I have to go back to it is most of the side stories were handled infinitely better than the meta story was(ending of the 2 conflicts that the series featured, Geth/Quarian and Krogan/Solarian). The thing keeping me from playing them is the rest of it.
Characters are king, and the ME handled most of them pretty well at points. 3 being a mostly human crew was incredibly disappointing, and the overall story of 3 was just stupid. The whole game would have felt better if the beginning wasn't the Reapers already on earth, but getting there and would be there "soon". Of course it also would have been better if the main writer didn't change hands partway through the trilogy, as it's certainly evident.
ME was my favorite new series this gen too, after Assassin's Creed. That was another series that bombed spectacularly for me going after a meta plot that wound up being garbage too after writers changed hands, funny how that works.
WanderingWind
Mecklemore Is My Favorite Wrapper
I really don't see how you can say this. They picked one version of Shepard to sell the game. More people played as a male but most people still customized the looks of their Shepard. It's not a male vs. FemShepard thing, it's the fact that the entire game revolved around a player created and customized character, which is wholly different than Halo. That's just me stating the facts of the series.
However, the opinion piece comes in with how much the face on the box helped moved units. I don't think it helped anywhere near enough for that face, that Shepard to be the face of the series.
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