Mass Effect 4 protagonist...

[sunsetspawn]

Aren't opinions grand? Say one thing and someone immediately sees it as a personal attack. Gosh, I'll make sure to refrain from saying anything that comes to mind, from now on. Wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, after all.

More passive aggression? Unfortunately I won't be responding in kind because I don't use passive aggressive speech when I'm belittling someone; I do it with aggressive aggression, and on this board that's a bannable offense, so I choose not to attack people at all lest I sound like a whinging sissy. I guess some people don't mind sounding that way...

wait a second, I see what's going on here. You've goaded me into being a passive aggressive washwoman because that's all that the board allows. Well played.

Really, Sunsetspawn? Passive aggressive? I just honestly think that considering how shareholders are all more or less salivating while staring in the general direction of every Modern Military Shooter made to date, we're seriously lucky to get what we have. It could be worse, believe you me. We could still be ten years ago, when "The Fast and the Furious" was still permeating EA's collective brain matter and pushed them to insert as much of the thug culture into Need for Speed as possible, for mass brand appeal. That was the lowest of all lows, in my opinion.

You mean they're not still doing that?

At the very least, Mass Effect has been around to give us a story, however thin it's become. Of course it's going to lose some of the first game's spirit along the way - the shareholders spotted a gold nugget and wanted to maximize it. Why do you think we ended up with Star Control-esque mechanics in the first place? Why Tank and Boobs? Why clunky quest design that involves Shepard being a creepy weirdo around the Citadel, listening to every Joe and Jane's private conversations?

Yes, the game has been casualized to no end. I cannot deny that in any shape or form. What I also can't deny, however, is that outside of that and maybe Skyrim or The Witcher 2, we haven't gotten that many quality narrative-driven experiences lately. I'll take what I can get, in the face of the industry being apparently busy catering to teenage fantasies about military life as dreamed up by boys who seem all too eager to go and blow themselves up for one flag or another.

I'm paraphrasing, but what you're saying is, "it's better than nothing," which is unfortunately true. I just feel that Bioware used to be a bastion of greatness, however cliched the games were, and now they're dead. I can only hope that some rouge studio can step up and fill the void, or maybe Obsidian can, but I'm still not totally sold on them as New Vegas didn't ring my bell enough and I haven't played anything else they've done. I won't touch Skyrim though because of the level scaling that Oblivion handed me. I guess I'm lucky in that I don't play video games much, so I still have plenty of old material I'm going through so I can verbally smash the shit out of all of the new stuff when it irritates me. I'm currently on a fully patched Gothic 3, Nehrim, and DA:O

And before you claim that I'm a jaded shithead, I am REALLY liking DA:O and I'm on my first playthrough. I can't wait to get through it so I can attack the 2nd one (better late than never). No really, I'm kidding, I'm going to give DA2 a fair shake, but I will crucify it if need be.

Prometheus stunk? I'm sorry you feel that way. It was Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi and considering that, I thought it was pretty good. Noomi Rapace isn't a Sigourney Weaver substitute by a long shot, but it's clear that they weren't aiming for that, either. I, for one, was glad to see the first movie's initial locale reused to explore something other than the main series' premise.

Spoiler

Actually, that WASN'T the first movies locale, which is just one of dozens of little irritating details that bothered me. The moon names were different (LV223 and LV426), and I'm sure that was decided late in the writing process because everything seemed set up for that to have taken place in exactly the same spot on the same moon some years prior but BOOM, trying to have a story end in a precise manor isn't easy. They would've needed the end to have been the engineer sitting in his big-ass chair with a chest-burster ruining his day. AND, there couldn't have been the wreckage of the Prometheus sitting there. But unfortunately, the engineer wasn't even in his own ship, and what was left of the Prometheus was sitting right next his ship

Believe you me, I REALLY wanted to like it, and even if we put aside all of the nitpicky things that bother me, the writing still isn't there there (because that dummy from Lost wrote it) and it was obvious that they were shoehorning in HORROR STUFF OMGS!!!1 but used CGI and it just wasn't scary. The characters are weak, the plot is weak, there are too many homage shots, and the black goo is far too much of a versatile, whatever it needs to be, plot device macguffin.

At least Mass Effect in its weakest moments had some likable characters, cause who didn't like Tali and Garrus, but Prometheus? I could not have possibly given less of a fuck about any of them.

The Star Wars prequels stunk? Yeah. I'll give you that one. As I've said in another thread, Lucas has lost whatever drive and care he had somewhere in the long hiatus between both trilogies. The first one is a labour of love at least to a degree, the second trilogy is a turgid mass of exposition, excessive CGI and clumsy pandering to an ill-defined target audience.

YES!! Holy cow did they stink, and it's because "yes men" were too afraid to tell Lucas the truth. To be honest if I were working on that project I would probably have been the same type of weasel. Just think about that cushy job with a salary that's well into six figures all while building your resume to include 3 Star Wars movies.

"Yes sir Mr. Lucas"

I can't speak of Stargate Universe or Battlestar Galactica, not having seen either of those. All I know is that the marrow was sucked right out of Roland Emmerich's already anemic premise in the movie, and that the last two series were mostly writers stumbling around, trying to stick Stargates where "Sliders" stuck portals ten years earlier.

Ohhh snap, I'm with you on Emmerichs getting robbed. I really liked that movie, but maybe that's because I was a tater tot back then. And yeah, the first two Stargate series were extremely uneven. SG-1 had its moments, but almost always only in the plot episodes.
The last two seasons were actually the best, and I know that sentiment usually pisses off the MacGyver fans because he wasn't in them, but the villains seemed much more real and terrifying.

Universe was very solid, with a slowly unraveling mystery that had me hooked. It also used actual physics in a lot of the stories. I was just very impressed with how everything connected seamlessly, from the small character interactions that cause the altered course of the ship, and the subsequent issues that arise from both. It's hard to explain, but when that show hit some grand slams in terms of plot webs. I still have the last episode on my DVR and I haven't watched it yet. How about that. I don't recommend watching it because of the massive disappointment of the cancellation.

Who knows, maybe it would've fallen apart in the final act, and speaking of which...

Battlestar Galactica was fantastic UNTIL it started coming to a close. Somewhere in the middle of the last season I realized that nothing was going to be resolved, but I stuck with it only to be horribly, but predictably, disappointed. Hope is for fools, I say. Battlestar Galactica is one of the contributing factors of my pessimism.

Oh, and I forgot to mention just how much I liked Farscape. In a world where it seems everyone is doing sci-fi wrong, that was done right.

And since you seem to know the genre, I have EVERY EPISODE of Babylon 5 that I inherited from my stepfather. Is this the pinnacle of the genre? How stoked should I be?

YAY! thread derailing

 

[Lrbearclaw]

EDIT: I would honestly love it if there was some easter egg hidden in it that gave some indecation of what happened to Shepard after the end of ME3--granted he doesn't die.

Think it through. With "Destroy" you basically send an EMP through the Relays. You also kill life on Earth. Logically, this would also knock out Life Support on the ships, meaning even though it shows him survive the blast(s), he would just sufficate in space with everyone in the fleet (and therefore the Normandy).

 

[Lrbearclaw]

Have you even seen the endings? The "Destroy" blast only knocked out all AIs (Reapers, Geth, EDI) and disabled the Relays.

Which were swiftly fixed. It didn't destroy ships, knock out life support systems, or do anything of the sort.

And as far as Shepards fate goes, if the games continue on the timeline (instead of being a prequel or a midquel) and use the Destroy ending (which is the only ending that leaves the future up to debate) then Shepard was found alive in the rubble of London (or where ever that 3 second scene of him gasping for breath was taken) if he survived at all.

So probably, the best easter egg for that would be a codex file that says Shepard was found blah blah blah retired from combat blah blah blah lead the galaxy into a new future. And then died. Because he's human.

Beatten all three. Finished #3 last week actually. Problem with "Control" and "Destroy" are they are both results he fought against. "Synthesis" is the 'best' ending because it gave hope and didn't end with a clusterf**k waiting to happen.

Personal opinion? Yup. But then again, if you are logical about it, the arguement makes sense. Why would he fight against Illusive Man trying to control the Reapers to do so himself? Why would he fight to end a war of Synths vs Organics just to wipe out all Synths himself?

 

[triggrhappy94]

EDIT: I would honestly love it if there was some easter egg hidden in it that gave some indecation of what happened to Shepard after the end of ME3--granted he doesn't die.

Think it through. With "Destroy" you basically send an EMP through the Relays. You also kill life on Earth. Logically, this would also knock out Life Support on the ships, meaning even though it shows him survive the blast(s), he would just sufficate in space with everyone in the fleet (and therefore the Normandy).

Going by the original ending, everyone wouldn't die. The massive EMP was just to whipe out AI. The catalyst even said it would kill only the Geth and Reapers.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Why not go back to Old School Bioware and let us make whatever we want: Alien, Human, Male, Female, And return the awesome custom background of the first game, but with some more depth based on our race.

I'd hop back on Bioware's side if they went with this.

 

[TaintedSaint]

Next Game

MASS EFFECT: Citadel Custodian
Follow the adventures of Janitor rick as he tries to figure out how a Vorcha got his head stuck in a toilet all the while trying to fill his 401k

 

[crazyrabbits]

Going by the original ending, everyone wouldn't die.

The intended effect was that the galaxy was destroyed, according to most of the people that played it. It was clearly stated that (much like the ME2 Arrival DLC) the relays would be destroyed no matter what Shepard picked. Not only that, but we clearly see the relays breaking apart in all endings - people like to fanwank that the relays didn't completely blow-up on-screen in the Control ending, but that's just semantics.

Thus, even if the relays were just irreparably damaged and didn't kill everyone, the people left behind either had to travel for years just to get home (Krogans/Asari/Quarians), with the disadvantage of several logistics/supply problems, and for the Normandy crew stranded on the planet, there was the question of whether they had enough food to survive. No matter how many times BW tried to "Twitter-canon" their way out of it, the ending (much like the rest of the game) was a complete narrative failure. It made the series a shaggy dog story.

The EC clearly retconned their condition so that they were clearly seen and mentioned to be merely damaged instead of destroyed (along with a host of other things).

 

[Arif_Sohaib]

I know XCOM Enemy Unknown is already out but I would like to see Bioware's version of an invasion of just Earth(not the whole galaxy) by an enemy that can be negotiated with, Mass Effect: First Contact.
The game taking place before the discovery of the first relay, leading up to it and culminating in the First Contact Wars.
The main character could be a normal soldier and then be chosen as part of a team being sent to Mars. This would also allow Buzz Aldrin a better part, as himself, giving a speech at some point near the beginning of the game.

So basically a human spacemarine versus inhuman 'evil' aliens. (because since the story would be told from a human perspective the Turians wouldn't be characterized or shown as anything other than an invading force to be shot)


honestly, I could see Bioware/EA doing this

It's boring, simple, bland and easy to make. Not to mention it lets them get on the Halo/gearsofwar/every other spacemarine game ever train


I mean, the interesting setting, complex non-human characters, vast exploration theme were just boring filler between the shooting!

Let's strip all that away and make a game about a human spacemarine with human space marine friends set entirely on earth with only an "us vs them" background.

that should be waaaaay more interestin

I said an enemy that we can negotiate with. The Turians will LOOK like mindless monsters earlier but as the story progresses we learn what they are really like.
In the original Mass Effect, it was the Turians that had the most to do with building the original Normandy, other than humans.

It would be interesting because, lets name a few Bioware games and their main enemy:
Mass Effect, end of the world because Reapers are about to show up
Dragon Age, end of the world because of the Darkspawn
Jade Empire, end of the world because a dragon is imprisoned between life and death
KOTR, end of the world because Sith are about to use Doomsday weapon

Notice a theme emerging, especially in Mass Effect and Dragon Age?
I want a Bioware game where the world is not about to end. In First Contact, humans will not know they can talk to Turians but some characters should be shown as smart enough to want to try and so will part of the Turian side.

 

[Paranoah]

A different race would be cool maybe get a story told from another perspective.

 

[deathbydeath]

Oh yeah all that "experimenting" they did. Like the god awful vechile system, samey loot only exascerbated by a garbage inventory system, laugahable combat which was just like Gears of War with all the visceral joy, and boring/annoying charecters (the 2nd least intresting group of Bioware charecters only outdone by DA2's legion of high fantasy wankers).

As much as I hate to make this awkward, I enjoyed the Mako sections. The bouncy-bouncing made popping beth in the face with rockets really fun. On a similar note, I didn't have a problem with the inventory system. I just went with the items that had the most green, then spammed "sell". On the combat being like Gears of War, I think you're one game ahead here (relatively speaking). As to the boring/annoying characters, they're pretty similar to characters from previous Bioware games. Comparisons to ME2's cast in a minute.

I'm getting real sick and tired of people saying how much they "dumbed the games down" when really all they did was remove all the superfluos, poorly designed nonsense, and clutter drowing the original game into a morass of inventory screens and cheap deaths.

Well, it's the truth, so take it as you will. However, I never said that ME1 was better than 2. All I said was that ME1 had the most potential in the series, and that was squandered in the following installments.

I liken the situation when people started complaining about the addition of the fast travel system back into Oblivion. Is samey loot and a novel but poorly designed exploration mechanic so important to you that the rest of the game is just instantly just another dumb 3rd person shooter without it.

I don't see how the first sentence is necessary, and the second one doesn't make much sense.

So what did they do for the sequel remove all of that nonsense and focus on, holy shit a plethora of intresting charecters with arcs and complexity (except Jacob, I have to get a bumper sticker considering how many times I have to preface my damn statements involving ME2's charecters). Yeah I do wish they could have found a way to salvage all the novel but poorly crafted mechanics from ME and tied the two games narratives together as opposed to just make ME2 one giant interlude but guess what? I don't care.

Actually, while some of the characters were interesting or had a neat premise, very few were done well. The ratio of "good" characters that had well-done arcs to shitty characters was 5:7, maybe 6:6. (I haven't played the Kasumi dlc). Contrast to ME1, where Garrus, Wrex, Ashley, and Kaiden had good arcs (haven't spent that much time with Tali and Liara), and each character also serves to showcase a key theme in the game (e.g., Garrus showcases the conflict between a restrictive justice system and uncontrolled vigilanteism).

To both mildly support and take the piss out of your argument, I thought that the best moments in ME2 weren't on your ship, such as Matriarch Aethyta, that one Baria Frontiers asari, and the two asari without a passport on the Citadel. These vignettes were fantastic because they each examine themes, with the three above examining the effects of war on civilians.

Also, if you don't care, why are you posting?

 

[Woodsey]

I hope there is not a Mass Effect 4? That's my thoughts.

Good point, personally I want them to focus on Dragon Age 3.

Different teams in different studios for Mass Effect and Dragon Age.

OT: I wouldn't mind a DA:O set up either.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

1) You play as Baron Vakarian on medieval Palaven. They attacked his castle, murdered his family, now hes out for justice, Turian style.

2) Mass Effect Pirates! Purchase and upgrade your own ship(s) from 30 possible variations. Travel the terminus systems recruiting crew members. Engage in space battles before boarding enemy ships for a unique experience each time. Fight your way to the engines to disable them first, or try to take the bridge, the experience is yours.

3) Sim Asari Titty Bar. You run the day to day operations of a bar on Omega and it's up to you to advertise for it to bring in clients, hire the dancers, the bar tenders, set the prices and keep the clients coming.

4) Noir Effect. A Krogan detective on Tuchanka discovers a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top of Gatatog clan. Desperate for answers and betrayed by those he thought he could trust; he goes on the run searching for answers one bullet at a time on a world that does not care for justice. Cue acid rain.

5) Elcor Vanguard: More Tank Than Elcor. This really does not need a plot to it.

 

[blackrave]

I stand besides my first guess
Shepard3
[yes, 3 and smile face might be a part of the name ]