How will they frick it up?
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How will they frick it up?
How will they frick it up?
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like how they frick up every game now a days
This.
>Less features than previous games.
>Bullshit story that completely ignores or destroy the lore.
>Focus and graphics and MUH REALISM instead of the actual game.
>Forced Black person/trans characters with no personality that no one likes.
>5-8hs of playtime.
>70$ price tag.
>Probably mtx as well.
What game did that list made you think of? It applies to most AAA releases these days.
It's like they purposely shitting up games just for the fun of it these days.
my guess would be that you could use your old save and whoever you chose as your love interest would've fricked a hundred guys already and have a black kid that you're supposed to take care of as your own.
Bioware will be dead after DA4 and this game will never come out
>DA4 will ever be released
That studio is dead. Laying off employees mid-development of a new game is a bad sign.
I don't know. People LOOOOVVVED DA:I, even though it was total garbage. Might tide them over to let ME4 kill the studio instead.
They won't cause DAD will be their last game.
>DAD
what he finally coming home?
>jarringly bad tech
>pushing THE MESSAGE like making Asari about modern gender fluidity or some shit
>shitting on old lore in some way
>jarringly bad tech
It'll look like Dragon Age Inquisition yet somehow manage to dip below 60fps at 1080p on 5090 ti. Oh, and it'll require a PCI-E 5.0 ssd to deliver 2 minute loading screens.
The deliberate collapse of western gaming studios, no surprise here, they will be replaced.
Never happening
They already did it with Andromeda. Mass Effect was concluded with 3 (even if its endings were horrible and lazy).
Also after all the stuff behind Dreadwolf I doubt BioWare will even deliver anything on time. But that's anyone under EA for you.
>(even if its endings were horrible and lazy)
the entire game was horrible, that's the problem
how can people dilate about the ending being bad and then claim the game literally starting with a sequence just as contrived and terrible is somehow good?
>how can people dilate about the ending being bad and then claim the game literally starting with a sequence just as contrived and terrible is somehow good?
Never underestimate the masse's taste for slop.
the middle of Me3 is the best part, when you're completely ignoring a reaper invasion and putting around in the mystery machine, it almost reaches the highs of Me2
>highs of Me2
an oxymoron if there ever was one
and no, 3 was still somehow better than 2
2 is such a substanceless game, while 3 has a lot of terrible substance, but it is all shit
>3 was still somehow better than 2
What an absolute dog shit opinion
the illusive man is probably the most interesting character in a AAA videogame ever, martin sheen is goated
Me2 did what modern games wish they could do with famous voice actors without facescanning
the illusive man was the only plot thread connected to the reapers that even tangibly existed, and creates a much more "pulpy" feel to the game, especially with the collectors. Me2 is probably the least likely game where listening to the dialogue doesn't make you want to ventilate your braincase
*least likely game where the dialogue makes you want to KYS*
>the illusive man is probably the most interesting character in a AAA videogame ever, martin sheen is goated
He's a great premise and great presentation, but as a character, in the games at least, he fails because he is not properly fleshed out and given the right amount of depth. It's all surface level with him. At least the devs had the sense to make his send-off respectful and even somewhat tragic.
Nothing about the reaper plot is fleshed out which is why the illusive man stands out because he's literally the only connection you have in the game to the reapers
Actually I shouldn't say that, harbinger is a good villain in Me2 too. Me2 had good villains and great characters, it's quite nearly a perfect game, probably 9/10
>harbinger is a good villain in Me2 too.
No, he's fricking awful. Total meme. He might have worked better if he just shut up. Sovereign might suck if it was taunting you all the damn time too. Harbinger totally contradicts Sovereign's nature. Reapers shouldn't ever waste much time talking to an organic.
Yes the gimmick does get old but it's an interesting idea, having a villain take control of regular enemies and power them up
The gameplay gimmick is fine, but Harbinger should have not spoken at all or spoken very little. Perhaps only speaking once Shepard's squads were dead and Shepard was also near death. Maybe.
Sovereign
>you can't even begin to comprehend what we are
Harbinger
>I KNOW THIS HURTS YOU >:)
The reapers were never that interesting imo, I was always much more interested in the things that happened around them. Especially the extinct races and whatnot. Imo they could've done a lot by just ending the reaper threat in 1 with them trapped in Dark Space.
I wish that the games didn't have the Reapers at all. Instead each game would be loosely connected and basically be an anthology about the first human Spectre's famous adventures. The games would all be centered around a different conflict in the galaxy.
One off adventures and a TNG style direction wouldve been a decent idea imo, it also frees you up from a frick up if you screw up down the line. Instead of everything leading to one big conclusion, if you screw one up you can just go haha sorry guys, that one was fricking moronic, ignore that one please.
Kind of difficult to do that when every entry is centered around and leads up to that conclusion. Now they're just fricked. Would also make carrying over saves less problematic since you'd have to account for fewer long term variables if most things are isolated to one entry.
>Would also make carrying over saves less problematic since you'd have to account for fewer long term variables if most things are isolated to one entry.
I think that decisions and carry-over should have been mainly restricted to personal relationships and/or decisions that pay off in the same game you make them. After that, in a sequel, that decision might be mentioned every now and then but at that point it is just lore.
Fair points, but I still think Karpyshyn's ideas for the trilogy's conclusion and the Reapers suck.
The original ME3 plot had something to do with Dark Space, which would have been kino
>The original ME3 plot had something to do with Dark Space,
No, Dark Energy, and it was not kino at all. The idea was that using the Mass Effect increased Dark Energy which would destroy the universe. So at the end of the game Shepard would either choose to sacrifice humanity to the Reapers to somehow fix this problem or else kill the Reapers and hope a solution could be devised. It's dumb.
the reapers were interesting in 1 and that's it. 2 was really pushing it.
>the games would all be centered around a different conflict in the galaxy
instead of trying to copy halo 3, the reapers should have been done as a major plotpoint after 2. after arrival they should have been locked in dark space for a few hundred years and the batarians should have declared war on the humans in 3. on top of the batarian war, 3 should have been about finding the leviathans to prove the legitimacy for blowing the relay while killing tons of batarians in the process. they also could have started to introduce the whole "dark matter accelerating the galaxy's doom" subplot.
boom. that sets you up for plenty of future spin offs and installments with their own seperate main plots and few reoccurring subplot points about the mysteries of the galaxy with each installment perhaps getting you a little closer to some answers.
I'd rather have the Reapers be the main plot or just not exist at all. I can't imagine the autism if you had them in the first game and then they are just some looming threat after that. Everybody would keep asking when they are going to show up. No, you don't introduce a plot point like that and not resolve it.
>Leviathans
Another choice that I can’t tell if it’s ludokino lovecraft horror or a complete and utter butchering of what the Reapers are (it’s the latter but I like the DLC anyways for it’s tone)
i never actually played levithan. i dropped 3 halfway in and haven't been able to convince myself to try again. the idea is pretty fascinating to me, an extremely ancient species that have been in hiding for god knows how long in fear or apathy of their own creation completely unwilling or more likely unable to stop it.
then it should have been 4 games with a couple reapers showing up from dark space at the end of 3. you could probably asspull a few of the reapers like harbinger were at the head of the pack in dark space and slipped thru the relay before it blew but got knocked out from the blast for most of the events of 3. because while it does need some resolution, you can't have the reaper threat be permanantly dealt with in one go when it's been established the protheans fought them for hundreds of years.
they work much better as a looming threat in universe to give the franchise some fricking breathing room. instead they wrote themselves into a gay little corner and nothing matters. any spin off is doomed to be gay as frick because they wanted to rush and finish the fight.
nobody gave a single frick about the consequences of 3 and now mass effect is dead forever because anyone that might have gave a frick is long fricking gone.
Well like I said, I don't think it would work too well having this looming threat over the whole series. It is true the Protheans took centuries to fall, but then the Reapers could also take their time with them. Having lost the element of surprise and automatic capture of the Citadel at the end of ME1, the war with the Reapers that Shepard will or will not fight would surely be different in its nature. The Reapers would have to face the entire galaxy at once instead of isolating each cluster by turning off the Mass Relays.
Granted, the Citadel should be the first target in ME3 and it makes no sense they aren't trying to capture it .
it's a head scratcher man. the reapers are kinda gay, but kinda cool and way too big to ignore entirely but way too op to deal with in just one game. i like the idea of putting off and letting it mature over time. i just want to explore the galaxy some more, shoot stuff, use cool space magic and bang more alien broads.
Theoretically, it would not be impossible to do both concepts. You'd have games about each of the major conflicts, and then at some point also have a game or two about the Reapers.
>Take the credits of every game Ganker loved
>Take the credits of every game that ruined the previous.
>Take names of first, subtract names from second.
>Print off list of remainder.
Would they be able to make a good game still? If anon had the money to fund it? Or is the industry too far gone, and politics too dug deep to ever have the vidya of our youth?
>Would they be able to make a good game still?
shit son mass effect is basically fricked. some in universe spin off games would be cool, but it depends on how well they can write the squad mates and villain. the main plot doesn't matter much as long as they don't touch the main trilogy's plot points. that shit needs to be quarantined.
a spin off about the first contact war or being a blue suns merc or a bounty hunter would be hot shit. frick bioware and frick ea
They could feasibly write a "Mandalorian" game for Mass Effect where the story is grounded and the scope is kept low but it would just be like the star wars mandalorian where it immediately gets ruined because they have nothing else and it doesn't actually seed any new stories in the world
You could write countless stories for Mass Effect. Make countless games. You could set entire series in just one location like a planet or the Citadel or a solar system. You could make detective games, open world city-exploration games, freelance spacer games, real time strategy games, ect...
I'm not just talking in terms of what would be good games, I'm talking in terms of business and corporate logic.
Sure, no argument there. What would you try to pitch? Describe your "Mandalorian" game in more detail.
Low budget
You have a normal space ship
You have party and crew characters, they are not ultra elite commandos or the most important people in the universe
You need to find three space gizmos on three different planets to go to the endgame planet. You can go to the three planets in any order.
simple, small in scope, focus on characters, touches on big stuff like politics in many ways but you are not in a position to influence it
Then EA would say great that sold pretty well given the small investment, now we've refreshed the ME setting and we can start pumping out AAA games again and it would all implode
I see.
I'd have loved in a tie-in game that was kind of a classic Battlefield game. You know, massive maps that two factions fight over on foot and in vehicles. You'd have the geth, Council, and Terminus as faction.
Geth are obvious, troopers, hoppers, armatures, and all the units you see in the trilogy, plus some more ships.
Council would have turians for basic soldiers, Alliance engineers, salarian STG for stealth, and asari commandos. Makos, shuttles, and fighters.
Terminus is batarians, krogan, and vorcha. Gunships, an APC, and those ground rovers you see around some areas in ME1/ME2.
The concept is a small war that took place between ME1 and ME2 in the Terminus Systems.
>You're a small independent merc team working with the Blue Sons/Insert color gang here.
>You were expendable canon fodder/found out something you shouldn't, team dies except for you.
>First 'real' party member is the person/reason you manage to survive this
>Story is getting revenge on Merc leader dude while being chased by his agents because you have Mcguffin
>Eventually defeat merc dude but then the reveal is he's working for butthole Spectre
>He has way more resources than you and outclasses any of your team man to man. You ruined/complicated his plans and running away isn't an option anymore
>Finale has you taking the fight to them, depending on your choices multiple party members could eat it. (note: has nothing to do with "loyalty missions" just the sum of your choices across the game)
>Side missions are smaller contracts and doing favors for your budding merc crew. No big "loyalty mission" for them, instead numerous smaller character centric missions across the game.
Basically a smaller scale game just focusing on your crew and their place in a "status quo" Mass Effect galaxy. Carried by character interactions and exciting handcrafted missions themed around different jobs.
Basically a Mix of Red Dead Redemption 2 and Cowboy Bebop
I've said it once and I'll say it again. Just make a game about being a space pirate in the mass effect universe. The timeline wouldn't matter much and the overarching political climate irrelevant. Just have a crew dick around space, fricking with people with the potential "big bad" being the possibility of ending up on some Spectre, Warlord, or Justicar's shit list.
>ust make a game about being a space pirate in the mass effect universe
God yes
i share equal enthusiasm but for the opposite. i want a space bounty hunter game where you hunt pirates
they had the main plot structure down in 1, formula for missions down in 2 and the combat features in 3 were great. basically don't need much innovation there besides new guns and powers once in awhile. don't even need too many new assets at once.
so they could pump out a lower budget AA tier spin off every 2-3 years.
>simple, small in scope, focus on characters, touches on big stuff like politics in many ways but you are not in a position to influence it
>You have a normal space ship
>You have party and crew characters, they are not ultra elite commandos or the most important people in the universe
super important aspects. as long as they nail the gameplay, squadmates and characters they can't really frick up.
I don't know why games can't scale back the scale of their stories. It's always some end of the world scenario or something insane like that.
Meanwhile (until it shit the bed) Phantom Pain was just your average revenge story, they tried to play up the parasites but the player knew that wouldn't go anywhere being a prequel, but it still stung when you had to kill your own men.
I'm honestly more invested in these smaller scale stories than big dramatic BBEGs.
Why can't we have small scale stories anymore?
>I don't know why games can't scale back the scale of their stories
Normies would complain maybe? Probably just corporate boardroom thinking. I'd love a new Mass Effect game set in a sort of dark-age after the Reaper War where the galaxy has become a more unstable and lawless face due to the destruction wrought by the Reapers. No galaxy wide threat, just some butthole warlord or something or criminal game or, I don't use your imagination.
Planets with strong military fleets also have strong armies and don't need krogan. It's. Stupid. It's. Fricking. Stupid. Stop defending it. I get you like krogan, but it's fricking stupid. They are a defeated, demilitarized, minor race. They are not of military significance to anyone at this point. The turians nor humans nor anyone else needs krogan soldiers.
>Planets with strong military fleets also have strong armies and don't need krogan.
Krogan are bigger, stronger, faster, more durable, and can go places where traditional Human or Turians can't without huge expenses. On top of that, they have proven success against the fricking Rachni. No General will ever turn down that kind of help and you believing its stupid doesn't make it so. The game established within the first hour of Mass Effect how the the Reaper operate and you're just too stubborn to admit you forgot.
>Why can't we have small scale stories anymore?
It's easier to sell a game to an executive by making it seem like a big spectacle. It's easier to walk into an office and get an Avengers game green lit then it would be to get a game about a goat destroying and doing random shit. Or a game about building shit with blocks.
It's funny how the only stuff that's easy to greenlit are basically all commercial failures/flops.
You know, the kind of stuff/business decisions that would be mocked a decade ago.
Course execs have gotten pretty good at not letting anymore of that self awareness shit seep into their media.
Its because most execs aren't knowledgeable about video games or care about them in general. They are just trying to use them as spring board to move up the rank at big companies so that they can have it on their resume to get high rank positions are other companies.
every AAA game needs to be appeal to the lowest common denominator and just has to be the next big thing, the grandest adventure with the highest stakes, the most epic thing you've ever seen. it just has to be this way because every AAA game gets so much fricking money pumped into development and marketing that it needs to be an epic blockbuster to make it all back. it's a vicious cycle.
i'd argue they'd make more money if they just made a few good games with a lower budgets instead of sinking all their resources into one abomination. they'd also garner more good will from the fans for actually doing something interesting instead of being bland. but they stop caring about the goodwill of the fans once that much money starts getting involved. the consumer just turns into resource to be exploited
it would make sense if the 'cure' for the genophage just cured the still births and kept the birthrate low (1 or 2 instead of literally a hundred or more offspring). in that regard i like the genophage plot point to win krogan support even if there aren't very many.
now it would make even more sense if the reaper war were a prolonged conflict. the protheans fought the reapers for centuries iirc but this cycle knocks them out in a couple months tops. if it were prolonged, then an increase of krogan forces as shock troops to take back lost territories on the ground in a few decades would make total sense, but like was said earlier the main fights are naval and krogan aren't much good on a ship.
You could tell the backbench writers that were left after ME2 were seething at how 2 handled Cerberus and their big Hollywood actor. So they completely kneecapped the collector base choice, illusive man was now a bizarre moron, and they made all reapers have the same form.
I guess it's a public corporation developer thing, no one has respect for the previous game because they don't feel any responsibility for it relative to impressing management with what they're working on right now.
*same way ME2 nuked the "human council" renegade thing from ME1 though
The all-human council thing was weird because why would all races collectively agree to let the council be entirely led by humans?
They don't have a choice because the Council fleets are wiped out in the battle and humanity can seize the Citadel, which is a largely impenetrable fortress. As well, humanity might be able to use the Citadel to turn relays on and off following the events of ME1.
The battle at the end of ME1 was supposed to show multiple Council dreadnoughts destroyed.
Who gives a shit if they agree?
The human fleet that saved the Citadel was also now in total control of it.
Because the Citadel fleet got destroyed.
Nothin personel kid, Shadow the Edgehog owns the Citadel now.
Should also keep in mind that the end of ME1 makes a full scale interstellar war against the geth very likely, so humanity would seizing control and leading the charge against that. The Citadel races would be paralyzed with fear and shock after having their 1000 year peace shattered and their military decimated. Even if they can rebuild, and they can, that means shifting to a full-scale wartime economy.
Human-lead Council scenario would be interesting if fleshed out and developed with some thought and care. Very tense situation.
You obviously couldn't do it with the way ME2 kept the status quo. If human council ME1 was done Shepard would be believed about the reapers and a galactic coup would be for the greater good. You'd go get the VI from the prothean outpost planet from the end of ME1 to prove it and you'd probably spend edgy ME2 putting down a bunch of rebellions from reaper denialists
Don't get me started on Cerberus.
This is also sth ME2 did though.
It's fricking hilarious, you literally drive up in military vessel to the capital of space with a giant terrorist logo emblazened on it.
A visual overhaul of Cerberus was fine, giving them a distinct look. They went overboard though with the emblem on EVERYTHING. Just limiting it to a decal on the collar of operative's armor and maybe one on the Normandy, and that's all that is needed. Instead you see it on windows and doors and coffee cups.
Cerberus was such a weird plot line in general...
I literally didnt remember them at all from 1, just vaguely remember the name from like some Mako exploration throwaway mission once or twice, then starting 2 and having to pretend that they were this big bad that I should be really angry about, but I just didnt give a frick.
Then, they turned them into an actual mustache twirling villain in 3, but people still didnt care because the reapers were just cooler
Me2 was them realizing oh shit we need to make a trilogy out of this. I really like the idea of space racism
>Cerberus was such a weird plot line in general...
There is just no consistent vision with them, so they keep shifting roles and abilities.
They are super secret but also widespread and well known and super competent but also super incompetent. The idea just keeps contradicting itself.
I think ME2's vision of Cerberus worked mostly well, though the writers unintentionally made them look clumsy and incompetent, which doesn't work for them as either allies or villains. None the less, establishing that they rely on compartmentalization and are few in number, was a good direction to go in. However the consequence of that should be that Cerberus doesn't have broad power projection. They'd have limited forces they could deploy surgically for maximum strategic effect, but otherwise need to stay out of sight to avoid being destroyed. The books supported this.
This also means that Cerberus don't work so well as primary antagonists. At least, not in the way ME3 did it. Not in that context. Cerberus shouldn't be taking over military bases or colonies or fighting space battles with their fleets of cruisers dreadnoughts.
ME3 cerberus was probably just a consequence of the multiplayer assets. I don't know if the MP mattered enough to EA at the time (I think it ended up being a way bigger hit than they anticipated) to actually have a suit say we want CoD enemies and force it on them or if it was just that the MP enemies turned out well and got yoinked.
>ME3 cerberus was probably just a consequence of the multiplayer assets.
That's possible, but even in ME3 nothing Cerberus does in the plot makes sense. They are indoctrinated, but working against the Reapers and so also being attacked by them? Not to mention it makes no sense for TIM to try and hinder Shepard since it is in his interest for Shepard to find people to work on Crucible as well as raise fleets to save Earth. TIM should not have become an antagonist in ME3 until the final act.
I think the batarians would have made more sense as the non-Reaper faction to fight in ME3.
cerberus is the "idea" of humanity personified in the illusive man and his space racism. He's the idea which is prevalent throughout the games, that humanity is the only one that can do anything because we're the only ones that can into hyper autistic military fascism. He's space hitler and sheppard is his ubermensch prodigy come to bring salvation to the space plebs, which is why your face starts melting when you kill too many plebs
Cerberus was meant to be Chaotic Good, the idea that the ends justifies the means and that Humanity should be first because only Humanity has the guts to do what's required even if it's morally wrong
That's why the final choice was supposed to be kinda grey
>destroy the collector base, the technology is too dangerous in the hands of anyone
>keep the base intact, the technology is dangerous but we need that technology if we are to defeat the reapers
not that it matters because cerberus ends up getting brainwashed in 3 and all your choices are reduces to numbers
>Reapers Brain
>110 war asset
>Chaotic Good
Cerberus is Neutral Evil. You CAN be evil and have good intentions
>the idea that the ends justifies the means
That's not Chaotic Good.
Cerberus' original concept was basically a rogue military deniable asset//secret Shadow government of the UNSC. Real illuminati shit where that admiral looks into it and immediately dies. Then you find out they have a finger in all of Saren's pies. Hell, ME2 even establishes EDI as the Rogue Moonbase AI you put down which shows how insidious Tim's influence is given they somehow managed to extract that AI without anyone realizing.
Basically, despite being generic enemies you killed in copy paste arenas, ME1 Cerberus was still an interesting enemy/faction
>ME2 even establishes EDI as the Rogue Moonbase AI you put down
That was ME3, not ME2.
was it? I didn't play 3 besides the multiplayer Demo so are you sure?
Not him but I think they reveal that info as late as Chronos Station, actual endgame stuff.
Yes, very sure. I don't remember where in ME3, but it's a ME3 retcon. I don't like it myself.
That said, I agree Cerberus were very interesting in ME1. Mainly for what they were doing off-screen and how it was all communicated to the player. It is hinted that they have people in Alliance who are obstructing Admiral Kahoku's investigation and spying on him. Hence how they catch him so quickly when buys information from the Shadow Broker.
Secondly, the way they lure the Marines to the Thresher Maw on Edolus shows us further how sneaky they are, defeating their enemies through manipulation rather than direct contact.
Then we have the hidden research bases on Depot-Sigma 23 and the Chasca pioneer colony.
Oh, and we shouldn't forget Akuze. If Cerberus are Alliance Black Ops who only went rogue recently then it means when the Marines were wiped out on Akuze years ago that Cerberus was doing the Alliance's work at that time. Same with Jack's abduction and experimentation that we learn about in ME2 (but then ME2 pretends Cerberus was never part of the Alliance)
Its only properly confirmed ME3, but in ME2 Miranda can refer to EDI via its original 'hannibal class' designation that it had when it was the moon VI. But that only happens if you pick certain dialogue options when EDI is first introduced.
>ME2 Miranda can refer to EDI via its original 'hannibal class' designation that it had when it was the moon VI
When or where does she ever do this? In ME2 we are told that EDI was created from the remains of Sovereign. Her being the AI on Luna that went crazy on tried to kill everyone is a stupid ME3 retcon.
I really thought I remembered it being said in ME2 in a convo you can have after Joker unlocks her
Nope. After she is unlocked she tells you more about Cerberus, namely their structure, # of operatives, and the fact that rebuilding Shepard and the Normandy consumed a majority of Cerberus' resources.
>backbench writers that were left after ME2
the same people that wrote 3 wrote 2
the exodus of writers was post-1
TIM is essentially Icarus flying too close to Reaper tech, which is complemented by his introduction and presence always being in that big sun room. Also Martin Sheen is great, in fact most if not all VA work in ME is great.
>the illusive man is probably the most interesting character in a AAA videogame ever
come on, come up with somebody cooler than chain smoking whisky drinking martin sheen telling you about space racism
this, IM is fricking kino
and i fricking hate 3 for what they did to him
>the entire game was horrible
this but the tuchanka arc was nice
>this but the tuchanka arc was nice
No, it's stupid. Curing the genophage is dumb. Pure leftist revisionism.
>No, it's stupid. Curing the genophage is dumb. Pure leftist revisionism.
It's not. It's a fair trade for asking for their help in saving the galaxy. Again.
No, it's stupid. Curing the Genophage will just cause another series of Krogan Rebellions. Secondly, the idea that the krogan would be needed in ME3 to help fight the Reapers makes no fricking sense. They have no fleet to speak of and this is not a ground war. They should be totally irrelevant to ME3.
>No, it's stupid. Curing the Genophage will just cause another series of Krogan Rebellions.
That's a problem for the future. It isn't something to worry about in an apocalyptic scenario. If the Krogan are the only thing to survive, then its not an issue. If everyone dies, its definitely not an issue.
> Secondly, the idea that the krogan would be needed in ME3 to help fight the Reapers makes no fricking sense.
You were shown in the very first game that the Reapers like to attack from above with support from below (Husk, Geth). This has been a consistent tactic in all three games (Collectors in 2) as a way to completely dominate. Javik's DLC elaborates that they do this to ensure a thorough purge. Ground troops are still a necessity.
>You were shown in the very first game that the Reapers like to attack from above with support from below
It's a matter of scale and logistics. It does not make sense for the krogan to be important in ME3. Their subplot should have been resolved in ME2.
>It's a matter of scale and logistics.
That's why they mostly only appear on Earth and Palaven, the homeworlds of the strong military fleets.
I lost hope of them getting their shit together when they included Andromeda in the fricking trailer, imagine wanting people to remember that shit
Are they probing that butthole?
>it’s le geth…again!
BioWare has not been relevant for close to a decade, and they will continue to live in squalor until they declare bankruptcy or get caught by a bigger fish
>t. TORtanic enjoyer
So, either control or synthesis endings are canon?
Destroy, because Indoctrination Theory was reál and the ending is gigabrained 9head, sequel will pick up where Shepard’s chest rose in le ebic secret cutscene trust the plan 2 more weeks before reveal
>
Knowledge unlock
But destroy wouldve destroyed or geth, no?
I feel like destroy is the most possible canon ending, cos they will definitely whant shep back, especially after everyone hated the andromeda dweebs, but that geth teaser makes no sense then
Truth?
>Shepard has been a victim of attempted indoctrination since ME2: Arrival at least
>the child from ME3 doesn’t exist, it’s the Reapers influence on Shepard preying on his guilt
>all of Shepard’s dream sequences are attempts by the Reapers to indoctrinate him, a la the Rachni’s “oily dreams” description of indoctrination and their somewhat random inclusion in the story of 3 otherwise
>when Shepard and Co. do the trench run to the big teleporter and he gets knocked out, everything after is in his head
>”TIM” is a manifestation of the Reapers in a literal sense, wanting to control but ultimately being a puppet in the end
>”TIM” is trying to kill Anderson, a manifestation of Shepard’s psyche and rationality
>once the reapers fail through TIM, they resort to their final trump card: using the child to convince Shepard into either control (they win) or synthesis (they also win)
>child preys on Shepard’s relationships through robomilkies and the geth, obviously and blatantly push control and synthesis, not destroy
>Control and Synthesis are the only two endings where Shepard’s eyes become mechanical, as seen with TIM and Husks
>Destroy is the only ending where Shepard’s eyes are normal, we see flashbacks of Anderson (not a very renegade individual hmm), we see Shepard survive, though that would be impossible if what was happening was literal, coupled with the debris surrounding him matching Earth, not the Citadel
>The ending was a midwit filter to see who would either: fall for Reaper lies after three games, or who simply play the games by choosing the “right” option.
In summation, don’t fall for Big Reapers’ lies, the ending is kino as Destroy and is the only time in the game where thinking about consequences is required beyond a color choice, which is complemented by the sudden inclusion of green out of nowhere. Also, definitely schizo but it’s at least a cope that lets you kinda somewhat maybe enjoy parts of 3
That sounds so fricking moronic that it might actually be true
Ignoring its 100% schizo-canon, within the greater context of 3 it works pretty well while not making any changes - Shepard being the target of Indoctrination makes sense (especially after Arrival), the Rachni inclusion in 3 makes sense when coupled with the introduction of Shep’s “oily dreams”, the inversion of the color tropes at the end is almost clever in a post-ironic way (a significant choice disguised as a simple one, though still not necessarily satisfying as a sum of the trilogy), the “right” choice at the end disguised as Renegade to fool 95% of the players who’s first playthrough is Paragon, etc. etc. My schizo-headcanon is that the end we got was the penultimate climax of the game, with the real ending being scrapped for time because EA/BioWare. It would make sense that there’s a final, ditch-effort fake-out by the reapers to indoctrinate Shepard; if players chose Control/Synthesis it’s game over, and when players choose Destroy they move towards the (cut) finale of the game - a subversion of the paragon/renegade system before rallying the sun of 1-3’s choices into an actual ending
The fact that devs have outright said indoctrination theory isn’t real tells you all you need to know about them. It works so well with so many parts of 3. Even if it’s not what they intended they could’ve left it ambiguous
This is the biggest sin of 3: They double-downed on their shit endings with the “extended ending” DLC that killed any possible notion of Indoctrination Theory being truly possible without them essentially retconning their own content in the same fricking game.
I still can't believe how badly they fricked up the ending. All the ending needed to be was three things.
1.) the outcome of the battle is shaped by past choices, namely the allies you have and how effective they are
2.) The Reapers are destroyed
3.) Shepard flies off into the sunset with his waifu
That's it, that's all the ending needed to do. There didn't actually need to be any choice at the end. The confrontation with TIM was an effective enough climax in terms of dialog options.
Yeah nah, Shepard should have died a heroic death stopping Reapers, ending that saga of the franchise. Him riding off into the sunset is gay as frick.
There is no narrative reason or justification to kill him off. Nor is the tone appropriate. Both previous games had upbeat endings and so the series should end the same way.
>There is no narrative reason or justification to kill him off.
Shepard goes through hell to protect the galaxy. He overcomes the odds despite some scenarios being suicidal. Problem is you can only fly too close to the sun for so long. When it comes down to it, Shepard would sacrifice himself to save the galaxy. We're talking about hypotheticals here since Mass Effect 3 is a mess anyway. The only fitting end would be Shepard sacrificing himself for the galaxy. I think heroes ending where they "walk into the sunset" are honestly shit. You don't go to war and come back happy. Even if you survive, you're stained by it.
It should be both: there’s no reason there couldn’t be a valiant-hero’s-sacrifice ending and a 100%-did-it-all-right ending like the game’s promo promised; the whole marketing of 3 was a culmination of one’s choices through the trilogy, so the endings should have varied to match this
>But destroy wouldve destroyed or geth, no?
EDI’s for sure dead but no one says it’s impossible the geth sent a small group of themselves outside the galaxy as a just in case contingency or something.
This is assuming that Reaper-Tulpa boy is telling the truth, which he’s most assuredly not because Reapers fricking lie and manipulate all the time. You can’t game them, Saren tried back in 1 and his reward was putting a bullet in his own head. Don’t trust Reapers, never trust Reapers, DESTROY (tm) all Reapers
Destroy is canon
They can easily bullshit some Geth surviving. Backup server, some in a location safe from the emp etc etc. I think there is some lore about some in dark space. Alternatively quarians just build more
It'll have 1000 planets and procedurally generated locations and sidequests.
>implying Bioware will even get to make a new Dragon Age
It will be much more woke than the previous games.
By either going bankrupt or cancelling it before release
Seriously how the frick is bioware still alive after the andromeda-anthem combo
EA will close the studio after Dreadwolf underperforms.
>Shepard returns
Wow, Shepard came back! Is that a thing? I guess that's a thing now!
no, they'll make what is expected of them, which is more garbage. nubioware produces nothing but garbage. this or the new dragon age will be the final nail in its coffin
It's legit amazing how many western IPs have just been irreversibly and totally sunk in the past like 10 years. Its truly insane, it's almost like a complete fricking genocide. I've never seen anything like it, suicide is another word I'd use. Its like a hemisphere wide mass cultural suicide.
And many will tell you video games have never been better.
So easy to debooooonk when every other game is a remake nowadays
Because these games were created by those with the capacity to create a memorable universe.
Then people with no creative capacity took over, but since they can't create something from scratch, they took old IPs and murdered them.
By merely existing
By making it, Mass Effect went bad with 2 and never stopped going worse. How people even question or think theres a glimmer of hope for this series is insane to me.
>By making it, Mass Effect went bad with 2
I agree. If the writers/director had taken more time to think about how the trilogy should logically progress, with some surprises, I wonder what we might have gotten. Or even if they had just thought out ME2's premise better
Time wasn't the issue, the director and main "visionary" behind the first game was forced to move onto TOR partway through 2's preproduction.
The series was then handed over to a miserable hack on the level of JJ Abrams named Mac Walters, who proceeded to shit it all up completely.
Nah, I'm not sure that Karpyshyn's vision was that much better with his whole "Reapers are trying to save the universe" thing. I think a mistake the writers made in the end was in trying to explain the Reaper's motives or give them motives beyond simple self preservation. They were best left as a force of nature.
As well, I'm not aware of Karpsyhyn having a great vision for ME2 either. I think the Collector abductions were creative and surprising. They're creepy and indirectly hint at the power of the enemy, which is intimidating. However after the first act of the game it falls flat. Freedom's Progress is one of the best moments in the game just because the intro to it is so foreboding and creepy. Shame the Collectors are a let-down and their motives are non-sensical.
I do think that Mac Walters sucks at writing the main plot to games, but he has good ideas and does good characters. He just shouldn't be in charge of how it all ties together. His ideas are solid, but he doesn't flesh them out properly.
>Nah, I'm not sure that Karpyshyn's vision was that much better
His tone and style is lightyears ahead of the shitfest Hack Walters produced, who is an insipid homosexual that seems to be obsessed with the Battlestar Galactica Deboot.
>his whole "Reapers are trying to save the universe" thing.
It may have come off rote in a way KotOR's stuff came of rote, but it would have been presented and conveyed in a way that isn't fricking insultingly stupid and poorly-thought out. The worst thing it would've been is shallow when put under a lense, like KotOR.
(Which was his previous project, ME was literally his SW+Babylon Five inspired universe.)
>explain the Reaper's motives or give them motives beyond simple self preservation.
It's all a matter of how it's presented and conveyed.
>I'm not aware of Karpsyhyn having a great vision for ME2 either.
At the most barebones sense it was what we got, Illusive Man, Collectors, etc. I even think he wrote some of TIM's dialogue that made it into the game.
But I have big doubts over the final handling of the main plot and the meandering nature of the game being his fault.
Remember, despite his "director" credit, he didn't work that much on the game. He seems to have been removed from the project early on and Mac was his replacament.
>Mac Walters he has good ideas and does good characters.
Nah, he's got the JJ Abrams problem where it's all bullshit melodrama and seething emo homosexualry.
He's as shallow as it gets.
>Trans character and gender spectrum front and center of the game
>Select pronoun
>No mako or exploration
>Shill liara as a romance character (she's mourning Shep and you get to be the rebound)
>No booty size slider during character creation
We'll get some troonshit about the Asari.
they will make it boring and filled with non white ugly characters.
There was a leak saying the plot was going to involve time travel back to Mass Effect 1 and using their advanced future technology to instantly deal with the reaper threat.
That sounds moronic as frick. Just make Destroy canon and move the frick on.
Theres no need to frick it up
Setting is permanently fricked up by me3
There is no coming back
>he doesn’t know
shut up space kid
>he fell for the eldritch space homunculi’s lies
Good bosh’tet
shut up space kid
>he’s a synthesoomer
sad!
It will never happen to begin with
Literally what the frick were they thinking with Andromeda? It's not just bad execution it's bad everything.
It's the most painfully mediocre games I've ever played. Everything is just interesting and the plot is basically a rehash of the collector's but less interesting. I would have rather the game have been straight up awful than mediocre.
*uninteresting
Andromeda was a mixed mess that was apparently reworked from the ground up multiple times and forced upon a team that didn't have any of the usual experience in Mass Effect's RPG style.
>forced upon a team that didn't have any of the usual experience in Mass Effect's RPG style.
a team that decided to throw out all the work the DA team had done with the new engine. Bioware's biggest problem has always been project management, they've consistently made dogshit decisions for literally decades.
>instead of expanding on the galaxy of Mass Effect, they left it to go frick with weird-ass purple muppets who are painfully uninteresting
>development hell since it’s inception
>EA
>BioWare
At least we got a female Turian romance, it was the single (1) good thing to come out of Andromeda, period.
they wasted two years trying to make proc gen content work, then ea demanded they start making a game. the pitch is actually pretty interesting but they pivot to tropey shlock midway through the first planet and just keep getting worse from there. there is no pioneering in the end.
best combat mechanics in the series, but when the encounter design is so lazy (ME3 tier spawning waves, and randomly dropped packs of mobs in open world areas) that can't save it.
What was EA thinking with forcing them to use Frostbite when it had zero shit for them to work with when making a RPG both for DA and ME team
I don't buy the frostbite ruined everything narrative, Bioware just sucks and it's been getting worse for years
The narrative was ruined by two simple things: not planning any of it out ahead of time, and just having bad ideas. Casey Hudson just doesn't have a mind for science fiction and Mac Walters really doesn't either. This was really well illustrated with Mass Effect 2.
One of the biggest problems with that game's main plot is how the Council and Alliance don't care much at all about the colony abductions. It is minor issue to them. This is baffling and it doesn't make sense but is runs contrary to their interests and established lore.
It is established within and without ME2 that the Collectors are a known quantity. The public might think they are a myth, but virtually every faction that operates in the Terminus Systems knows they exist and that they like to trade their advanced technology for strange biological specimens. This tech always gives whomever obtains it a strategic edge over their rivals, so competition to meet the Collector's demands is fierce.
In light of that, it would make sense if the Council races have all done deals with the Collectors in the past. So even if they at first don't believe the Collectors are behind the abductions, once it is proven that they ARE, the Council should become very, VERY interested. They should be concerned that the Collectors taking specimens on such an unprecedented scale as well as fear that other factions might be assisting them for great reward that imperils the Council's advantage in terms of technology and firepower.
Secondly, the colony abductions cannot be covered up for long. You have exponentially more people back on Earth and Alliance Space who will be friends and relatives of the missing colonists. They'll want answers. Once this goes public people will panic and demand more stringent protection of the remaining colonies and many more humans will refuse to join the colonial movements entirely, which drastically affects the galactic economy.
...but Walters and Hudson never thought about this.
Now with all that in mind, consider this. What if the Collectors AREN'T doing the abductions and are only the buyers? If they were employing the batarians to do this then the Council's initial lack of concern about increased slave raids might make sense. It is a problem, but not a military threat as long as it is not in their territory.
TIM insists the batarians are working towards some unknown goal. He says he has kept a close tab on batarian slave markets and the colonists are NOT turning up there. Yet Shepard and the Council naturally skeptical. It takes some investigation for Shepard to uncover who the batarians are selling their slaves to, and that is the Collectors.
In turn, the batarians are being given unprecedented amounts of advanced technology and quietly upgrading their military capabilities. So now we have two threats; the mysterious Collectors taking all these humans and a batarian armada quickly closing the gap with the Citadel and even threatening to overtake it.
That might, dare I say, set up ME3 having the batarians as secondary antagonists. Given advanced tech from the Collectors, which also indoctrinated their leaders, the batarians believe that if they help the Reapers subdue the galaxy then they will become its new masters, lording over the lesser races for the benefit of the Reapers. Thus when the Reapers finally attack the batarians open a second front. The truth is, they will be consumed like everyone else, but in the mean time...
>batarians
>
That would've been kino. And as an added bonus, Cerberus wouldn't have had to be lobotomized in ME3
Walters and Hudson were the worst thing about the ME series and when they got control of it without any actually talented voices left in the mix like Drew Karpyshyn, it was doomed
It's a real shame when you imagine what could have been.
They moved some of their best writers to work on SWTOR instead of Mass Effect, which is just an insane decision in retrospect. The biggest problem with Bioware was massive hubris after the success of ME, thinking they could do no wrong, and it predictably blowing up in their face. Hudson was unbelievably arrogant calling Anthem 'Dylan' internally (because it was going to be the Bob Dylan of video games). The modern company history is just a morality tale about never get too full of yourself and always stay humble, otherwise you turn into nu-Bioware.
Videogame writers start out mostly being nerds, but eventually start acting like TV writers that inevitably despise their cattle audience and consider everything they write to just be a ploy to get another season of employment. It's absolutely going to be that kind of cynicism at a public corporation like EA too.
I'd say the biggest issue with vidya writing is the dying out of classic nerd writers.
Or at least the dying out of the old greats in their mind.
I say this a lot here, but consider Arthas (Warcraft) and Elric of Melnibone. Tell me Moorwiener's series didn't influence the writers even a little.
Then you have Halo, its Biblical inspirations, the Archetypical ring straight out of Ringworld. and Nathan Brazil from Well World reseting the universe over and over again like how the Forerunner Humanity reset the universe with mass genocide via rings and resseding the planets. Master Chief is Nathan Brazil, the "luck" attribute leans heavily on it. UNSC is probably heavily adapted form Heinlein's Starship Troopers.
The best IPs had creators that were inspired by even greater source material. Nowadays you can see the heavy influence that Marvel has had on every IP, take MK1 and the ending straight out of the first Avenger's after credits scene.
All modern devs can do is recycle plots form previous games or rip scenes straight from Marvel. There's no other influences in their minds, it's why everything feels so derivative now.
Similar issue with anime/light novels in recent years, original creators who've gotten inspiration from multiple sources are now being replaced by younger people who are basically ONLY fans of anime/manga and only want to re-create the feeling they get from the stuff they read as kids without knowing the wider influences on that work. Things just spiral inwards until every work is just derivative schlock.
They literally tried to make Starfield before Starfield became a thing and failed so hard they had to start from scratch
It was a cash in on the name, EA always does it when they're about to scuttle a studio.
overambitious game that was never working gets a new corporate hatchetman director that just wants to get any garbage out the door to salvage some development
Don't believe these shilltards. the issue was the developers, simple as. inexperienced diversity hires who are capable of destroying not creating.
It’s bad for the same reason Star Wars Rise of Skywalker is bad.
They tried too hard to do damage control after the negative response the previous entry’s ending got.
It would have been so much better if they just had the game take place so far in the future that the events of the original trilogy can just be hand waved away.
Having the arks leave between ME2 and ME3 was them writing themselves into a hard corner lore wise and the story basically fell apart from that decision onward.
The writers just also didn't have good ideas. They didn't think through the implications of going to another galaxy and certainly didn't capitalize on the premise.
>mass effect andromeda
>what if mass effect but in a whole new3 galaxy with a whole new interesting roster of alien companions and hijinks
>add two completely uninteresting aliens for a whole galaxy and female turians
it's already DOA
I hope they add multiplayer because it was the best part of 3. Never played Andromeda's.
Who the Hell's left after the mass layoffs?
After all the studios EA has killed, I'm surprised they haven't taken Bioware out back and put them out of their misery at this point. They probably need it more than most of the companies EA has shuttered
Well they fired a bunch of people recently. Which I'm sure will make DA4 finally come out all the quicker.
>Geth poster
>the only ending where Shepard survives is the one where the Geth are destroyed
???
You believe Reaper ghost tulpas, anon?
I'm so glad some of you weren't involved with these games/will never be involved in the writing of these games. Some of you have awful ideas and moronic opinions. 2 & 3 may have some terrible shit in them, but 1 is a near perfect game. And that's mainly because the plot ripped of revelation space.
1 is really decent pulp sci fi but all the side content is trash and if you're just playing for the save file transfer you're usually rushing EVERYTHING because it's not worth taking in the scenery, if you ignore all the side content in both games 1 and 2 are probably equal imo
I enjoy ME1 more than ME2. It has more consistent quality and a better tone and writing. ME2 is more like pulp where-as ME1 is pure science fiction. ME2 is prettier and flashier and has more action, but also more melodrama. ME1 feels like an oldschool science fiction film from the 70's or 80's where-as ME2 feels like a comic book.
yeah I guess the story in 1 is tighter, they're like two completely different games
I will say though, that terms of its side content ME2 shines very brightly. It does do its characters very well, even if it feels like comic books, they are great comic book characters. Tali's loyalty mission is at least one point where ME2 meets ME1 and surpasses most of it.
That's why I said nearly perfect. The Mako stuff is crap and the side content is shallow trash that's basically the same thing over and over.
true.
ME1 has much better side content than ME2. In ME2 side content will still get you actual conversations with NPC's where-as in ME2 it's all ambient dialog and your squadmates never speak. Hell, even in a lot of the loyalty missions the secondary squadmate is mute which makes ME2 feel more unfinished to me. It's more jarring than the text box you can find on Eletania or that you get at the end of the Geth Incursions (which isn't how the quest ends anyway since you have short conversations with Hackett and Tali afterward).
That's also something to mention. In ME1 many side quests start with a message from Admiral Hackett and some end with one too. In ME2 there is usually just an email.
the difference is Me1 combat is poopy
ME2 combat is better over all with great feedback and more interesting abilities, but ME1 combat is actually more fluid and free form with way, way better use of biotics.
It's consistent with its world building and actually feels like futuristic and unique. Me2 is just one more cover shooter, and it's worse because nearly every single mechanic it has is in direct contradiction to the world and lore established.
>Mass Effect will continue
Should have thought about that before you shit all over the fan base and released Mass Effect 3 with that awful ending.
In retrospect you could see this coming after the Arrival DLC.
They wanted to shoe horn a story and frick your choices.
Which is exactly what happens in Mass Effect 3.
Bioware says frick your choices, none of them mattered.
>frick choices
That happened the minute 2 came out let’s be honest
It'll be the same tired ideology driven schlock used to force the message on a small number of morons that actually buys into it.
That is of course if the next dragon age doesnt fail, which it will cause it suffers from the same pozz problems.
if EA allows it to be developed by Bioware/lose the IP as a tax write-off
Remember when Mass Effect 1 would dump text on you describing what happens to you when interacting with something instead of a having cutscene
A cut-scene would be better and I had hoped the remaster would replace these moments. None the less, it at least tells a good story in those text boxes.
I swear I read or heard that the only reason that's like that is because they couldn't afford to make the cutscene for it because of the budget.
Mass Effect 1 was slapped together with duct tape at the last moment. I love the narrative, the atmosphere, and the music but when it comes to the gameplay and overall package ME2 blows it out of the water.
>ME2Black person: "Hello fellow ME1homosexuals, I love the game but can we all agree it was ackshually bad and ME2 good, UwU"
This is completely fine though, there should be cool flavor stuff here for things like the sphere that don't innately lead to anything, which would be okay with a small text box or description. Cutscenes are fine for just story moments or cool stuff
this was really cool. basic flavor text that pretty much confirms the protheans (probably) were studying humans and possibly uplifted them or something. they did have an installation on mars
he's right to say 2 has better polish packaging, but i can never decide which i like better.
it kinda makes sense in 2. you'd probably see cerberus do some heavy rebranding and also a bunch of rich ass humanists start funding them after sovereign so they could have their own version of the salarian stg instead of being basically moronic in 1. it's made believable enough through TIM's character in 1 being extremely pragmatic. i still got the feeling they weren't too big and had to operate mostly in the shadows in 2 and that's where it should have stopped
>You'd go get the VI from the prothean outpos
vigil is pretty much dead. the only ass pull they'd have on this is shepard's armor body cam if they want to go that route
>it kinda makes sense in 2.
It made sense in ME1 that they were Alliance Black Ops. It was a very interesting origin for them with lots of story-telling potential and never should have been dropped.
This, them becoming emblem-wearing cyber soldiers was dumb as shit from the getgo
Think about it. If they stayed as rogue Alliance Black Ops then you could start to cast doubt on that in ME2. Maybe they never went rogue and that is just a convenient cover once Shepard accidentally exposed them. It means they can do even more risky work and it wont risk implicating the Alliance.
However the politics in this is dirty. The non-human Councilors want to dig up dirt on Cerberus and use it to badger the Alliance into doing what they want. It's all politics and influence. If the Alliance is discredited some on the galactic stage then they lose political leverage, which Anderson warned about in ME1. Yet, at the same time Cerberus is totally willing to do unethical research and conduct renegade operations without regard to the law. The matter is very grey and it isn't clear if the best choice is to expose them or keep their secrets.
>they were Alliance Black Ops
i forgot about that, but it also still makes sense because they went rogue after being shut down and then got funding and are the small shadow organization we see in 2. a lot of the crew's testimony in 2 validate cerberus' existence, they were the only ones doing anything. it would have been fine if it stopped there. i could see them having a handful of spec ops dudes and maybe a couple ships and a few stations, you could even have them still be an enemy in 3 with a much smaller presence, like a boss fight with a couple operatives once in awhile and no kai leng, but they jumped the shark instead
>go ahead and retcon ME2
not all of it but some details i'd agree could use some repurposing if they were to retcon 3
>dogshit sequel
dogshit opinion
You're a moron if you don't think that ME 2 was an absolute failure of a sequel. All it says to me is that you started the franchise with 2.
You're an absolute failure
You know I'm right.
i did start with 2 B^) but i've played 1 at least half a dozen times. the only thing 2 fails at is the kinda dumb main plot not really moving things forward. it only werks because the rule of cool was in overdrive. the character writing and episodic quests were top tier sci-fi. just admit you're assblasted they changed the combat.
i love 2 but it's astonishingly clear they didn't plan a trilogy. if they were to retcon 3 there are many details in 2 that need to be downplayed, revised or otherwise retconned. however, since 2 doesn't really move the overarching plot along they could leave most of the rest it intact just fine. unfortunately that will never happen and they're gonna double down on all the moronic shit because nobody cares about 1 anymore
>the character writing and episodic quests were top tier sci-fi
The character writing is what I take specific grievance with. Not to mention all the other nonsensical bullshit they shoehorned in or changed.
>just admit you're assblasted they changed the combat
Wrong, the combat was one of the only things they improved. With the exception of the the stupid reloading bullshit which was a mechanical and writing failure.
>i did start with 2
Which explains your opinions.
>the combat was one of the only things they improved. With the exception of the the stupid reloading
we can agree on one thing at least
>The character writing is what I take specific grievance
why? that's what 2 excels at
>Which explains your opinions
it only explains why i don't have a problem with 2 being more of an episodic side quest. 1 does a much better job at being a complete package with better stakes, if not as shiny. 2's main plot is rather poorly written and the only excuse i can make is that it was a decent romp against C tier villains with cool spectacle. i can see why people who started with 1 dislike 2, i've done them back to back plenty of times. it's a bad sequel because it doesn't do shit for the overarching plot and after arrival i realized they didn't plan a trilogy for shit.
2 is a good sequel for exploring more of the galaxy and that's about it. i still love it despite it's flaws, 1 and 2 are some of my favorite vidya in existence.
in retrospect 3 had very little chance of being good because of 2's bullshit. even rule of cool couldn't save 3, especially with the changes in staff.
Yeah, I think Cerberus is fine in ME2 as they are described in that game. As a concept anyway. The writing is still not that good with the recurrence of the "experiment gone wrong" trope, which ME1 already used too much (anything more than once, really).
In every possible way.
>gender neutral option
>pick your own genitals
>ban all modders who try to remove those options
>50% LGBTQ cast
>90% of NPCs are POCs
>sell customization DLC on a cash shop
>online feature for a hero shooter multiplayer
>cut off support and stop updating the game after a year
that's what will happen
A modern Mass Effect will redesign quarians to wear those bulk Muslim robes instead of sexy latex.
It's honestly sad we'll never get a scifi rpg of the magnitude of ME1 ever again. One that isn't just some action cover shooter masquerading as an RPG. Most consumers are obsessed with explodey action bang bang bang shit. And it's fine to consume that every now and then, but sometimes you need more.
FAKKIN PRONOUNS
What the frick was the deal with the lack of music in some parts of ME2 and 3? Why were they so afraid of music? Compare that shit to 1 and you'll never unnotice it. Did they think lacking it was "immersive"?
>Dragon Age Deadname releasing over a decade later after the last game
They are gonna croak so hard after that comes out, employees keep leaving so the amount of people still working there is so small they cant even focus on making 2 fricking games at the same time without devs from the latter project having to come and work on the first one
just ridiculous
If I was them I would lead with ME4, Dragon Age was always the more schizophrenic series that didn't know what it wanted to be after the first game and it doesn't help that its gonna be compared to Bald Gay 3 or whatever fantasy rpgs copied old Bioware
on top of that it doesn't have a collection like Legendary Edition for ME so most people will be lost as to what's even happening
I still dont know who the frick TIM was. Apparently, he was a big character in the books, called Jack or something, but its always fricking terrible when video games keep big part of their lore in books.
And more importantly, he was obviously reaper cucked since the moment you met him, did no one notice his fricking eyed??k
The same way they fricked up Anthem and Andromeda.
>Spend like 3 years in pre-production, use none of that shit in the final release
>Spend two years working on the game, scrap it all and start over
>Spend another two years working on the game, scrap half of that shit
>Spend another year working on the game, release it, then shutter the studio and scatter its employees to the four winds
>Put IP back on ice for another decade until people forget how awful you are
Ugly female characters
current rumor is they are ditching the open world slop approach from Inquisition and Andromeda
downside is this supposed traveling between Milky Way and fricking Andromeda galaxy, who the frick wants Andromeda garbage to come back especially when it distanced itself so far away like 600 years from the main universe
I doubt it will have any andromeda, they will wantto bring shep and the crew back to gain some good will with nostalgia points after all the disasters they made
so why was writing good 10 years ago? lets not focus on the negatives and what they didnt do
what are some examples of decent winding plots that have a satisfying conclusion recently
Most winding plots fail regardless of medium tbqh, you have to be a quarter-decent writer to make them satisfying, and if vidya is known for anything, it is most certainly not it’s complex narratives
>inb4 VN
The last decent one was Project Moon’s Korean-SCP games
The people doing the game writing had actual life experience rather than going straight form high school to college to cushy white collar job.
Also it was probably being written by your programmer and his buddies with the entire universe being made up from "because it sounded cool"
I mean take the first Unreal, there's barely a story there, just an excuse to fight cool monsters on an alien planet and you get to save a bunch of four armed Indians and their big tittied Buddha-Goddess faith has you as their prophesized hero.
Despite this Ganker boomers will cry fricking tears of nostalgia when I post this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsNLZWKFBV8
That was a different era though when story didn't matter in video games and people were just excited by the novelty of hardware accelerated 3d graphics.
>"Story in a game is like story in a porn movie. It's expected to be there, but its not that important" - John Carmack
He was right at the time, but the industry has changed significantly since then. Writing is actually important nowadays.
True, but I think the transition period between then and now was probably the best time for vidya stories.
When games were getting just big enough for a big cutscene for pivotal moments, when they were trying for more "serious" stories but still had that amateur writer just putting in what they love feel to it. When games could play more fast and loose with the canon because they hadn't frontloaded the lore with several novels worth of codexes that'll write them into a corner. A lot of the time the game was written in such a way that the player's imagination filled in the gaps, now everything needs to be autistically explained in excruciating detail and it's killing the magic of the medium by cutting out ANOTHER point of interactivity on the player's part.
Basically: Bioware was a cancer on the industry. Everything they pioneered has irrevocably put us on the collision course we're on. The only mistake made was not giving them the Westwood special after Dragon Age.
couldn't agree more
Bioware didn't pioneer anything. Everything they used was based on natural progression of mechanics within the industry bolstered by having a big budget. Their whole selling point was just polished CRPGs with production value. That was all.
The damage you think they caused was just a cascading effect from PS1 games having big cutscenes and toying with the idea of being a movie. By the time Bioware got really rolling after cashing in on Baldur's Gate, games like Shenmue had already tried making games that were structured like a movie with a focus on story.
The difference is that if an idea is tried and doesn't succeed, the Industry will likely drop it. Bioware is the big success that shifted the course for games forever. I'd say the other big "villain" of the games industry was Assassin's Creed.
They fricked up by announcing it. This will further muddy its legacy.
>super excited for Mass Effect 4 after reveal
>watch a LP of Andromeduh to see how bad it is
>lose all hope for a 4th game completely
They would have to hire a completely new set of people because whatever team that were involved with Andromeda are awful at their job, especially whoever was responcible for dialog and the alien race designs because they somehow look worse than the previous games, especially the Asari. Rolled my eyes hard with that one homosexual/troony sounding Krogan. Shits embarassing.
Bringing Shepard back
This is what I want. As well as the choices carried over from the previous games.
>EA/BioWare declare bankruptcy
>literally anyone else gets ME IP
>mass effect 4
>takes place after 2, 3 and andromeda are retconned entirely with a little black screen and some white Times New Roman text before game starts
ludo
nah you can go ahead and retcon ME2 as well
That was a dogshit sequel
Awful choice.
Genuinely the most cowardly thing they could do writing wise and the fact it’s a very real possibility keeps me up at night.
Frick it, it would be funny and I like Mark Meer’s deadpan performance as Shepard. You can’t expect competency from EAWare, but you can expect spectacle
I'm not against this but I just think of the modern writers and how badly they handle and frick up most old characters they didn't make and the idea turns me off
It's a vegana.
how won't they frick it up? it's modern BioWare, there is quite literally not a single person with any amount of talent or who worked on any game of theirs you enjoyed in the past
it's time to let go
by switching the game to a crpg due to bg3's success
Practically guaranteed.
pretty much everything is guaranteed to be bad
>graphics
>character design
>story
>voice acting
>gameplay
>combat
>choices
>music
>level design
>new alien race designs
>lore being consistent with past games
Any and all ways you can imagine.
Wouldn't the Destroy ending have killed Shepard considering he basically was no longer human since the start of 2?
They stopped considering the ramifications of Shepard dying and coming back to life 5 minutes after they wrote the plot point
>destroys your fanchise
if its not at least as good as ME2 it'll be trash and forgotten about like all of the other ME games
Mass Effect 2 is a great game but a bad sequel to ME1. It doesn't actually advance the plot.
I think ME2 ending and Arrival were the biggest mistake of the franchise.
ME1 established that the Reapers only didn't return because they were trapped in dark space and could not return without the Citadel.
Yet at the end of ME2 they awake and make a mad dash for the Milky Way in a matter of months which begs the question why Sovereign had to do all that crap to capture the Citadel when the fleet could have just returned on it's own and crushed all opposition.
Really, ME2 should have ended with Cerberus capturing the Collector Base but getting indoctrinated by the Reaper Larva to try and capture the Citadel for the return of the Reapers.
ME3 should have been Shepard finding out about the Crucible being already build and hidden so he/she fights Cerberus to find and use it against the Reapers.
The ending would have been Shepard docking the Crucible on the Citadel, fighting a reaper enhanced Illusive Man with an elite Cerberus Platoon then blasting the Reapers to oblivion with the Crucible right as they arrive in the galaxy.
I guess the time that is bought in me2 by the reapers having to warp in from outside the milky way was that they were having to kill all the alien races every jump they made using the mass relays? or maybe they weren't using mass relays and had some other technology? Because I thought it was pretty apparent they were killing everything as they came to the citadel. all that leaves is the ending that's stupid because even though you stopped them in 1 and "built up your forces" the final fight with the reapers is the same every time, you lose, horribly, but you deus ex machina the machines to death.
That's just incompetence and screams development problems, Me3 was the beginning of the end of the industry with studios being too big to even function
Me fricking 2 was made by less than 200 people, poland and belgium are having to recruit every contractor in their country to shit out impacted turds.
>I guess the time that is bought in me2 by the reapers having to warp in from outside the milky way was that they were having to kill all the alien races every jump they made using the mass relays?
You see, one flaw in ME2 is that it should have explained how the Reapers will return without the Citadel as a major plot point. The Reapers having some kind of backup in case the Citadel is compromised is made sense. Like say, in the galactic core where it could be easily hidden away from prying eyes. Or someplace else, maybe.
To be fair, the current spacefaring races were seemingly the only ones to be able to de-activate the Citadel relay, so it makes sense that the reapers never really bothered to set up a plan B.
Also, as things were, they probably didn't think it mattered that much anyway. The Citadel relay thing was more a matter of convenience/efficiency for them so they could fracture the galactic community as quickly as possible, but we see otherwise that they'd still be able to defeat the spacefaring races without it, it'd just be a longer process.
Without the crucible, this cycle would've been basically just as fricked as the Protheans were.
>To be fair, the current spacefaring races were seemingly the only ones to be able to de-activate the Citadel relay, so it makes sense that the reapers never really bothered to set up a plan B.
Them not having a plan B is dumb if the Citadel is actually important. The problem with them having no plan B is that it suggests it isn't necessary and thus ME1's plot is somewhat diminished. Yes, the Reapers lost the element of surprise, but if they can fly to the galaxy in three years anyway then capturing the Citadel should still be trivial at that point considering their numbers and firepower.
That's why the plot demands that the Reapers have a plan B, since without one ME1 is almost pointless. By having a Plan B we have a means of weakening the Reapers, so that the question of "How can we possibly defeat them when one Reaper wiped out a whole fleet?" can be worked around. What is the COST to the Reapers to use this plan B and why didn't they use it right away at the end of ME1?
> The problem with them having no plan B is that it suggests it isn't necessary and thus ME1's plot is somewhat diminished.
I mean, even in ME1 they don't exactly beat around the bush with the fact that yes, the reapers ARE still coming, all thats happened is that they've managed to buy themselves some time, and therefore some tiny amount of hope that the current cycle will survive.
Honestly I would've liked it more if the hopelessness/inevitability was leaned into more in 2/3, all that triumph in the original was just a stalling measure. But even then, it still feels like it has some meaning because its still something the reapers didn't expect/have seemingly never encountered before, if they can affect that one variable, maybe they can do more, etc.
>I mean, even in ME1 they don't exactly beat around the bush with the fact that yes, the reapers ARE still coming
Yes, but how and when is an open question. There are limitless ways they could return, IF they return, and it all just depends on the imagination of the writers.
The thing is, if they can just fly here in a couple of years then there was no reason for Sovereign to attack when it did. It could have just waited for the rest of its kind to arrive and THEN attack. Or even just a portion of them to arrive and then attack and open the relay for the rest.
What I might have done, was have ME2 culminate in finding this hidden secondary dark space relay. However when Shepard attacks it in an attempt to destroy it... he fails. The mission is a disaster. The relay is opened and the Reapers pour through while Shepard is forced to flee.
> It could have just waited for the rest of its kind to arrive and THEN attack.
Again, its an issue of convenience/efficiency. If the reapers flew in the normal way, then attacking the Citadel at all becomes pointless since by the time they get there the council/other high ranking government dudes would most likely be evacuated already. It may not mean much in the long LONG run, but I guess the reapers don't want to frick up the timeline of the cycles too much, and the races having time to prepare/run and hide would easily extend the extinction from potentially a couple hundred years to a couple thousand.
>If the reapers flew in the normal way, then attacking the Citadel at all becomes pointless
So is it just a coincidence that it took Sovereign thousands of years to be ready to attack and also took thousands of years for the Reapers to reach the galaxy, and thus it was just by chance that Sovereign tried and failed and then three years later the Reapers arrived?
You are not thinking this through. You are trying to defend bad writing here. It does not make any sense for Sovereign to launch its attack when it did if the rest of the Reapers are just three years away. The Reapers aren't risking much if they just all arrive in force and attack the Citadel all at once. So what if the element of surprise is lost? It doesn't matter because they will still win.
>If the reapers flew in the normal way, then attacking the Citadel at all becomes pointless
That is fricking stupid and wrong. The Citadel is invaluable REGARDLESS. If the Reapers capture the Citadel they can shut down the relay network, which isolates all of the galaxy into individual clusters. Reapers win the war. It is a HUGE plot hole in ME3 that the Reapers aren't rushing the Citadel right off. It should be their primary target.
>guess the reapers don't want to frick up the timeline of the cycles
Why would this matter at all?
>and the races having time to prepare/run and hide would easily extend the extinction from potentially a couple hundred years to a couple thousand.
It's already been extended a few thousand years, but it doesn't matter anyway. If the Reapers capture the Citadel they can shut down the mass relay network. That is what wins them the war. THAT is what doomed the Protheans. Imagine if the Chinese invaded the USA and had some magic technology that isolated the entire country down to each individual city with no way to travel or organize between cities. Now instead of fighting the entire United States the Chinese just fight each city one at a time.
the somewhat miserable citadel in ME3 was good, but didnt go far enough, I wanted shit to be way worse, which would have been a far better story than the autistic cerberus garbage.
ME3 being about bringing together everyone to fight da reapers, even previous enemies, was a good idea for an ending, but they just bungled it so fricking badly. And then ME4 if they had to do it would be dealing with the now completely fricked galaxy with dozens of factions who had just worked together blowing each other up to fill the power vacuum
mac walters
Lol, drives every game into the ground and then peaces out once the studio is a dried husk
probably took the diversity pill
They're just hiring naive new grads out of tech schools in Canada and dropping them straight into the meat grinder of AAA games production because they can't retain any of their veteran talent due to the shocking culture and working conditions. Blaming diversity is lazy, the actual reason is Bioware has been a mental asylum of dysfunction for years and anyone competent left the first opportunity they could get, so you're getting games made by new grads doing their best with no experience.
that dude was the writing director, he told bioware writers to "just do what feels good" when they made andromeda, lol
probably a bunch of fat women
He's the same guy that wrote the star child ending for Mass Effect 3, after promising the ending wouldn't just be pick red/green/blue. How that guy has been allowed to keep his job after fricking up so massively for over a decade now is beyond belief.
When the founders of Bioware cashed out years ago, it was over, the current company is just a corpse masquerading as Bioware.
i forgot about the whole 'waking up' thing. you could probably handwave it as sovereign put them on standby when he penetrated the citadel but failed to activate it as a relay if that isn't already how it's explained. i forget exactly and that makes sense. it also makes sense they would have a backdoor just in case. it doesn't make sense they can not only fly thru dark space, but across half the galaxy to get to a working relay in like 6 months.
yea i agree. i don't really know how they'd do it, but they should have given us more games
All veteran talent already left long ago. The new ME is bound to fail.
1 Outsourcing to Pajeets
2 troony or Bluehaired feminazi lead writer.
3 Too many woke morons on the team in general.
Feels like it wont even release at this rate, wasn't there a bunch of layoffs/people quitting, even including some lead staff?
are they really going to use the same protagonist, the same enemies, the same characters? did they forget they can explore other parts of the galaxy?
Thats what they tried to do with andromeda, and everyone hated it.
Granted, that was because the new characters talked like they were in a marvel movie 24/7, but the fact remains that Bioware is under the impression that fans only like the original main character/main cast. So you can bet they're going to bring at least a few of them through. Even in the event of a big timeskip, Liara, Grunt and Wrex would most likely still be around for 'cameos'
so mass effect is now stuck in the same star wars loop, that's just great...
its probably a new squad of characters plus Liara searching for Shepard and doing other things if the concept shit is anything to go by.
My guess is Shepard being a squadmate but I rather he and the Normandy crew just be cameos cause I don't trust the writers to not make them Andromeda 2.0 yet they are like the most important individuals in the whole galaxy so just ignoring them would be weird
They won't because it won't come out
I doubt even the new DA game will flop dead out the door before EA shuts them down
ME will continue existing as an IP for N7 merch sales but the games themselves are dead
Bioware is going the way of Volition within the next 5 years
You have such a huge boner for EA shutting down Bioware. The reality is, if EA wanted them dead they would be gone already. They already had the flops and the economy is shaky enough to justify it.
>The reality is, if EA wanted them dead they would be gone already
Yeah they still want them around right now because they have hail mary projects on the go
When they flop it'll be over 10 years since Bioware last made EA money and there won't be any lingering goodwill towards them since they're a has-been company with no prospects
Legendary Edition was 2021.
You don't need an active studio to port an incomplete version of old games
But it made EA money and shows why Bioware is still around. EA needs them around and they are willing to deal with failures if they can land some hits. Bioware is long past the days of being considered "can't miss", EA drove that shipwreck themselves. But the name still holds weight, so EA has to give them a chance. Before they gets greedy and drive them into another shipwreck.
Unironically the best thing they could do is keep dangling this shit on a string for the next few years and then quietly cancel it, having never actually worked on it.
It keeps them semi-relevant and keeps the coping few hanging on forever, and the only effort needed is occasional cheap trailers and teasers, helpful given thats about the only thing they can do at this point without fricking everything up.
I loved ME1 and the universe that the other games expanded upon, I dont give a shit how much was stolen from other franchises, and now I just want it to die.
By making it in the first place.
It was over before they announced it.
They are only making it because they fricked up their new Andromeda spinoff so bad they need to try and nostalgia cashgrab the characters people know to keep Mass Effect alive.
remember the krogans from andromeda? good times
and by good times I mean holy frick what were they thinking
I don't think they will because I don't think the game is going to be made because EA is going to put a bullet into Bioware's head after whatever mess we get for Dreadwolf.
Yeah there's a realistic chance EA just gets tired of funding them hundreds of millions of dollars to make shit games and closes them down. Embracer is doing this (Volition), Square (Luminous Productions), Puny Human of Callisto Protocol imploded, I'm sure there'll be more before the end of the year. They rolled two gutterballs in a row (Andromeda, Anthem) - the end can't be too far away.
Geth are software. So they put themselves on solid state drives and unplugged them, saving themselves from destruction. Then they just rebooted the bodies and uploaded themselves back on. All with Quarrian help.
Just a reminder that Mass Effect 2 and the content around it made Cerberus the most powerful organization in the galaxy. They literally had more resources and technologically more advanced then entire galactic races.
>Jenkins gets gunned down.
>...
>Squadmate gets left behind to be blown up by an enormous bomb.
>...
>Shepard gets ejected into space and falls from orbit.
>...
>Collectors abduct the Normandy's crew who are loaded into vats to get reduced to slop.
>...
>The sheer amount of death and devastation witnessed throughout Shepard's entire life.
>...
>Some random kid dies during the routine culling of the galaxy.
>Shepard develops PTSD and cant stop having nightmares about this kid.
the ptsd nonsense about your actions could've been interesting but you only get the whispers in those gay slow walk dream segments, yet another interesting idea that game squandered
Imagine if the dream sequences were about all of the comrades that Shepard had lost in the past like Kaidan / Ashley during Virmire. That would've been kino
Someone made a mod that does exactly that. https://www.nexusmods.com/masseffectlegendaryedition/mods/1630
People that made the original good no longer work there. Most people working on it are millennials that grew up playing the original but don't really know why it worked.
Uhhh in no particular order of bullshit that will cause issues.
>rookie team of devs
>Way to long of a development time leading to major features taking x10 longer then it needs to and every secondary feature being side lined
>Aweful diversity hires
>In your face political takes on current era politics
>very few if any actual choices that impact the game later
>Watered down renegade and paragon system
>Massively cut back dialog
>Cut back and even more simplified combat/skill system
>Class choices will be soldier, engineer and adpet thats it.
>Followers are going to have no skill specing at all and you wont be able to control them.
>no mako
>Focus instead on "Cosmetic" customization
>Going to have an overly devoted amount of time to bullshit that does not impact game play, like being able to customize the normandy, or your armor.
Thats all i got so far
OH Microtransactions.
Not giving Liara a futa wiener
why does the poster reminds me of nu star wars?
Same quality. Same marketing strategy.
doesn't fricking matter. none of them will ever feel like the first game anyway.
Everyone who made ME1 is gone.
>will continue
So 10 years later as a shitty reboot
>SERIES CONTINUES
>SEQUEL
>PREQUEL
>REBOOT
>REWORK
>REVAMP
>RESELL THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER BECAUSE POSTMODERN CAN'T PRODUCE ANYTHING NEW
>YOU WILL EAT THE SAME 20 TITLES YOU HAD FOR THE LAST 2 DECADES TILL THE CIVILIZATION WILL COLLAPSE
Imagine if you lived in the universe of Mass Effect. All the cool VI generated porn you could consume with high fidelity.
I could have giant quarian women step on me forever.
Thermal clips.
by trying their best
I honestly hope that they don't bring Shepard back and you just play as his son/daughter. It wouldn't make sense for him to be alive because in the Destroyed ending, he would be dead because her kept alive by all the shit cerberus did to him. Yeah, I get it, Tali can't mate with humans, but just have her adopt and say it would have been THEIR child.
Or you could just NOT have the protagonist related to Shepard?
Just don't make them Ryder either. Generic military dude and cute girls worked for years for a fricking reason. Frick, just grab the ESG compliance list and do the opposite and you'll make people's heads explode.
can't say Game OF the Year with GOY
>Or you could just NOT have the protagonist related to Shepard?
You know damn well they're not gonna do that. It's either Shepard himself, a clone or someone related to him. I'm picking the least bad option.
>a hole
doesn't matter
normalhomosexuals enjoy literally anything
Accidental find, no markers on the catalog, no clues. I love this post.
>gaping so wide there's an ocean of shit (and a spaceship) falling out of it
heh
>goatsemind