Mass Effect

[Vargras]

[Cyber Rat]

  On 3/16/2012 at 2:28 PM, Vargras said:

 

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Some people wanted a concrete ending, a true and definite finale to the three games that also wrapped up and involved every choice they had ever made (which seems a little unrealistic. That's a LOT of variables if you were to include every choice).

 

 

 

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I still don't understand where everyone is coming from with the "it's unrealistic to expect different endings with so many variables"? Did these people start playing RPGs when the Xbox360 came out?

 

[Vargras]

  On 3/16/2012 at 2:42 PM, Cyber Rat said:

 

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I still don't understand where everyone is coming from with the "it's unrealistic to expect different endings with so many variables"? Did these people start playing RPGs when the Xbox360 came out?

 

 

 

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It's more because there's people expecting the ending to take into consideration choice X that you made back in Mass Effect. Not even a major choice either, just something really silly and minor. I'd be fine if it went over the major choices, but including the minor ones just seems silly.

 

I'm honestly not that pissed over the endings. I'm just sorta indifferent - while I think the endings were a bit of a let-down, I do like all the fan theories it spawned.

 

[Cyber Rat]

  On 3/16/2012 at 2:49 PM, Vargras said:

  On 3/16/2012 at 2:42 PM, Cyber Rat said:

 

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I still don't understand where everyone is coming from with the "it's unrealistic to expect different endings with so many variables"? Did these people start playing RPGs when the Xbox360 came out?

 

 

 

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It's more because there's people expecting the ending to take into consideration choice X that you made back in Mass Effect. Not even a major choice either, just something really silly and minor. I'd be fine if it went over the major choices, but including the minor ones just seems silly.

 

I'm honestly not that pissed over the endings. I'm just sorta indifferent - while I think the endings were a bit of a let-down, I do like all the fan theories it spawned.

 

 

Fallout 2 spoiler:

 

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The ending dedicated one line based on whether you had sex with a random sidequest NPC or not. BioWare couldn't even do previous major decisions right.

 

[Eleven]

 

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Are you talking about the one who you had to marry? Because i don't think it mentioned what happened when I slept with Angela, or Mrs. Bishop, or that poor single mom in front of Vault City. I want to know if I had kids with them!!!

 

 

Sorry, was just trolling. However, related to your point, what the hell is the difference with the collector base being saved or not? Because I see these articles saying if you saved the base you get this ending, if not, this ending (same blue ending for example). That was one of the reason for the 16(?) different endings. What exactly does it do differently?

 

Edited March 16, 2012 by elev3n

[deanb]

It's hardly like you're having to take every single conversation answer and minute detail into account. Main choices are as such:

 

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• Ashley/Kaiden?
  
• Wrex - Shotgun to face Y/N
  
• Rachni Queen - Alivr/dead
  
• Council - Dead/alive?
  
• Uldina/Anderson (not that this mattered in the end, Uldina magically became councillor anyway)
  
• Collector Base - Destroyed/intact?
  
• Squad - Dead/partially dead/alive (This is taken into account throughout the game mind, I think this is where they shot themselves in the foot)
  
• DLC - Did you buy it? Y/N? (another one not taken into account at all)
  
• Geth - upgraded/or not? Destroyed/or not?
  
• Genophage - Cured/not cured?
  

 

 

 

That's roughly 9 or so fairly chunky choices.

 

Explained in pokemon the endings are:

 

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Oh n here's Fallout New Vegas and it's 1,001 different ending conclusions:

http://fallout.wikia...w_Vegas_endings

 

There's nothing infeasible about the amount of endings they could produce. Especially when all they did for the most part was change the colour of the renders.

[TheMightyEthan]

Nothing, it just affects War Assets. Like every other decision.

 

*Edit* - This was @elev3n re: collector base.

Edited March 16, 2012 by TheMightyEthan

[deanb]

  On 3/16/2012 at 5:22 PM, TheMightyEthan said:

Nothing, it just affects War Assets. Like every other decision.

 

*Edit* - This was @elev3n re: collector base.

See that's what made most of the choices across several games seem cheap, in that pretty much the only thing that these major decisions did was to tag a "50" onto your war assets. Was that really the only way they could think to take the collector base into account is "wooh, 100 war assets". Yes RPGs involve a lot of numbers but that was just taking the piss.

[Vargras]

Speaking of endings...

 

Taken from: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2012/03/16/bioware-to-discuss-mass-effect-3-endings.aspx

  Quote

Following fan outrage and a number of online petitions, BioWare said today it will discuss the endings to Mass Effect 3 in due time.

 

BioWare said its listening to what fans are saying and are waiting until more people finish the game. "We appreciate everyone’s feedback about Mass Effect 3 and want you to know that we are listening," BioWare community manager Chris Priestly wrote on the official forums.

 

"Active discussions about the ending are more than welcome here, and the team will be reviewing it for feedback and responding when we can. Please note, we want to give people time to experience the game so while we can’t get into specifics right now, we will be able to address some of your questions once more people have had time to complete the game.

 

"In the meantime, we’d like to ask that you keep the non-spoiler areas of our forums and our social media channels spoiler free. We understand there is a lot of debate on the Mass Effect 3 ending and we will be more than happy to engage in healthy discussions once more people get to experience the game.

 

"We are listening to all of your feedback."

[source: BioWare]

[Maritan]

Your discussions are too serious for me, so...

Funny pictures time!

 

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Oh, btw...

 

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Remember when that blue kid said that organics and synthetics can't coexist? The last time I heard from Rannoch, GETH HELPED QUARIANS to rebuild

 

[Eleven]

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Is that really it, re: collector base? Why is it being phrased as something that has an effect on the ending? Planet scanning, then, should be talked about like this if that's the case.

Edited March 16, 2012 by elev3n

[Maritan]

  On 3/16/2012 at 5:34 PM, Vargras said:

Speaking of endings...

 

Taken from: http://www.gameinfor...-3-endings.aspx

  Quote

Following fan outrage and a number of online petitions, BioWare said today it will discuss the endings to Mass Effect 3 in due time.

 

BioWare said its listening to what fans are saying and are waiting until more people finish the game. "We appreciate everyone’s feedback about Mass Effect 3 and want you to know that we are listening," BioWare community manager Chris Priestly wrote on the official forums.

 

"Active discussions about the ending are more than welcome here, and the team will be reviewing it for feedback and responding when we can. Please note, we want to give people time to experience the game so while we can’t get into specifics right now, we will be able to address some of your questions once more people have had time to complete the game.

 

"In the meantime, we’d like to ask that you keep the non-spoiler areas of our forums and our social media channels spoiler free. We understand there is a lot of debate on the Mass Effect 3 ending and we will be more than happy to engage in healthy discussions once more people get to experience the game.

 

"We are listening to all of your feedback."

[source: BioWare]

[Vargras]

You're on a roll with these pictures today, Maritan.

[Waldorf and Statler]

those pictures are fucking great, especially the one of the vent.

[Vargras]

  On 3/16/2012 at 5:47 PM, Waldorf And Statler said:

those pictures are fucking great, especially the one of the vent.

 

The tiers picture was my favorite.

 

 

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Particularly STEEEEEEEEEEEEVE TIER.

 

[Waldorf and Statler]

STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVE

[toxicitizen]

  On 3/16/2012 at 2:42 PM, Cyber Rat said:

 

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I still don't understand where everyone is coming from with the "it's unrealistic to expect different endings with so many variables"? Did these people start playing RPGs when the Xbox360 came out?

 

 

 

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I'm not saying it's unrealistic in general. I'm saying it was unrealistic to expect it considering the current state of Bioware.

 

It's painfully clear that EA buying them out had a HUGE impact on how they operate. I mean, shit. Dragon Age Origins was in development for how long... 5-6 years? Took me over 60 hours to beat it, and I still feel like I fucking rushed through it. Then they put out Dragon Age II a mere 16 months later and people complained about how short it was, how much they re-used assets, etc..

 

ME2 and 3 also came out relatively fast. 2 years apart from each other. Think about it, that's the same amount of time between the Call of Duty releases coming out of a single studio (2 years between IW games and 2 years between the Treyarch ones). It seems obvious to me that EA's been putting pressure on them to release faster. And that means much simpler games and narratives. It fucking sucks but it's hardly a surprise then that the ending of ME3 turned out this way.

 

Edited March 16, 2012 by FLD

[deanb]

Oh totally forgot. a convo from last night in steam chat:

 

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03:11 - Mr. Pantaloons: describe how shitty the ending was, without giving anything away

03:12 - Mr. Pantaloons: use as much colorful language as you can

03:12 - Mr. Pantaloons: gogogogo

03:12 - topeka: There is a chance the ending was a fake ending

03:12 - Mr. Pantaloons: it's a challenge. rant about it without ranting about it

03:12 - topeka: Its a clusterfuck

03:12 - Dean [PXOD]: describe the end using colourful language?

03:12 - Dean [PXOD]: Red green n blue colourful enough?

03:12 - Mr. Pantaloons: OH SHIT YO

03:13 - topeka: mixed in an enigma shit out by a mad god

03:13 - Mr. Pantaloons: WATCH YO MOUTH

 

 

He thought I was making a joke

 

Also PA have covered the stuff about the ending in a comic

 

Nice to see they missed the point by miles.

[Eleven]

I can't imagine reading that with Wrex voice. But I thought the ice cream and segway thing fit Anderson's perfectly.

[Waldorf and Statler]

They didn't miss the point in the actual news feed. They just act like they're better than us at anything, like they always do.

[Vargras]

You know, part of me was wondering why I couldn't carry heavy weapons around in ME3. Then I suddenly got the mental image of Adam from Other M telling me I didn't have clearance to do so.

 

EVEN NOW, OTHER M CONTINUES TO PLAGUE ME.

[Eleven]

[deanb]

  On 3/16/2012 at 6:58 PM, Waldorf And Statler said:

They didn't miss the point in the actual news feed. They just act like they're better than us at anything, like they always do.

The news feed more conceded that maybe folks complaining on the ending are alright to complain, but they never really dispute their view that people are being silly about it.

Not really helped by yesterdays post by CW "I don't know/understand" Gabriel. (Though Tycho was also a balancing voice of reason there, even pointing out a few examples of an ending change in games before now)

[Eleven]

Also, this one is very old. But Harbinger's one liners are awesome so it deserves to be posted. Had me laughing the whole time.

 

[jimmuhpage]

Devil's Advocate Hat, Activate!

 

Both Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins were in production for about 5 to 6 years since the teams had to create a fully realized galaxy/world before continuing the development process. Once they had an engine and the lore set up, it's simply a matter of upgrayedding the engine and continuing the story for subsequent games. Both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 were released 26 months after their preceding game, which is a whole 60 days more than a Call of Duty studio has to make theirs.

 

Also, I seem to recall from that IGN link a few pages back destroying the Collector base changes which options you have at the end of the game. In fact, if you save the Collector base and have over 5,000 EMS (the highest tier of choices), your only option is to

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destroy the Reapers. Which makes me wonder: if the indoctrination theory is correct, why would Shepard be forced to choose the "right" option only when giving a huge resource to Cerberus?