Mass Effect's Casey Hudson Will Leave BioWare

[mechalynx]

Was this the guy who decided to write the ending to mass effect 3 by himself

Pretty sure that was Mac Walters who is still there.

No he left before the end.

Mac Walters wrote the gurren lagann ending that got scrapped.

Hack Walters is still with Bioware, as evidenced by his presence in the "ME4 HYPEHYPEHYPE" vid from E3. According to the intenet he and Hudson shut themselves in a room after the leak and wrote the ending we got pre Extended Cut.

You may be thinking of Drew Karpyshyn, the lead writer on KoToR, Jade Empire and ME1/ME2, who left before ME3 to write The Old Republic and then bailed alltogether after penning a dreadful resolution to Revan's saga.

 

[Zombie Badger]

Unlike some here, I don't hate the guy for ME3. That game was very obviously rushed (the lack of sidequests and how ridiculously straightforward the final levels were) and there's no way the series could ever have ended well. No-one writing the first two Mass Effect games ever planned ahead, which is why the Collectors, the Illusive Man, Crucible etc all pop out of fucking nowhere at the beginning of their respective games. No-one ever came up with a motivation for the Reapers or a way to stop them, so they were working with what they had for most of it. The ending was clearly written in a blind panic too, likely to get it out the door on time.

 

[Pinky's Brain]

If you're going to panic any way, why not give the players what they want? A true victory over the antagonist. Kotor 2 was a cluster**** but at least we won and the antagonist lost.

A bad ending is the artistic way out ... I don't want art, I stopped reading high literature after high school because of that shit.

 

[CriticalMiss]

I wonder which colour of paper he chose to print his resignation on, it's an important decision after all.

 

[J Tyran]

In some ways most of the old staff leaving might be a good thing (it also might not be ofc), Bioware games have become formulaic and every one of them is the same just with a different skin and sometimes different execution gameplay mechanics (shooting rather than sword fighting etc).

If they can keep the theme of having character stories that develop and change and those little character moments that help to make Bioware games good but inject some new blood into the staff and bring new ideas maybe they can recapture some of that greatness, we will see with Dragon Age: Inquisition I guess.

As for ME3, seriously I mean all these years later people are still butt hurt over the last 15mins of the game... ME3 was great overall because the explosion at the end wasn't the ending, the whole of Mass Effect 3 was the ending.

It resolved many of the character arcs, the Krogan, the Quarians and the Geth, the Council and Udina. Everything, so the last 15 mins was disappointing yeah I get that. The eternal and immortal Reapers turned out to be just another rogue AI made by an over arrogant species (talking about the "fixed" extended cut ending that answered the questions about the exploding relays, WTH the Normandy was doing and everything else along with the revelations from the Leviathan DLC here), sure it was a disappointment and Shepard didn't get to live happily ever after even though the recurrent theme of the series was sacrifice and loss but it didn't go back and ruin all the hours of fun you had with the other games.

I just find really strange to leave a studio when a new IP is ready to go on production... Worse it's his creation.
Speculation for everyone: EA let him finish his work before showing him the exit ?

Maybe Dragon Age: Inquisition is going to be another disaster and he cannot face going through all that again lol.

 

[hazydawn]

No he left before the end.

Mac Walters wrote the gurren lagann ending that got scrapped.

Edit : I'm wrong and confused Walters with Drew Karpyshyn. >_>

What's the gurren lagann ending?
Does Shepard destroy the reapers with the giant drill of his normandy-crucible mecha?

 

[Agayek]

What's the gurren lagann ending?
Does Shepard destroy the reapers with the giant drill of his normandy-crucible mecha?

The Gurren-Lagann ending is that the Reapers were killing everyone to stop them from using Element Zero, because doing so accelerated entropy and the heat-death of the universe somehow. So Shepard and his buddies banded together into a team, a brigade if you will, and proceeded to tell the Anti-Sp- Reapers to fuck right off and let them handle it.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

This news alone has got me interested in (maybe) buying Mass Effect 4. Funny that.

 

[hazydawn]

What's the gurren lagann ending?
Does Shepard destroy the reapers with the giant drill of his normandy-crucible mecha?

The Gurren-Lagann ending is that the Reapers were killing everyone to stop them from using Element Zero, because doing so accelerated entropy and the heat-death of the universe somehow. So Shepard and his buddies banded together into a team, a brigade if you will, and proceeded to tell the Anti-Sp- Reapers to fuck right off and let them handle it.

Ah yeah, I remember hearing about this ending ^^
The overall plot is really pretty similar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAmVVAjZZeM&list=UUTQnO5AuzTXKjxKMFD9DwZA
Made me got over my initial grief and helped me to built my own canon ending >.<
Some day I'll have to replay all parts with the happy ending mod installed... not that it's only about a happy ending. What I hated most was the starchild and everything it stood for... and the three ridiculous choices.

 

[squid5580]

Oh, it's that guy who managed to do that thing I previously considered impossible, namely singlehandedly making a whole series of games into shit [em]retroactively[/em]. That was hella impressive. Hope he finds work he is actually suited for, like working grill in Burger King.

Maybe he will end up on Masterchef like the dev from Darksiders

 

[Kungfu_Teddybear]

Upon leaving, Hudson thought on which farewell speech he should use: blue, green or red

 

[Machine Man 1992]

Unlike some here, I don't hate the guy for ME3. That game was very obviously rushed (the lack of sidequests and how ridiculously straightforward the final levels were) and there's no way the series could ever have ended well. No-one writing the first two Mass Effect games ever planned ahead, which is why the Collectors, the Illusive Man, Crucible etc all pop out of fucking nowhere at the beginning of their respective games. No-one ever came up with a motivation for the Reapers or a way to stop them, so they were working with what they had for most of it. The ending was clearly written in a blind panic too, likely to get it out the door on time.

The whole game was more rushed than late WW2 German aircraft design. Personally I would have preferred the Reapers had no motivation other than EXTERMINATE, EXTERMINATE. It would have kept them mysterious and scary, and would have kept them somewhat compelling. They were shooting for "mechanical cosmic horror", and they had that at first with Sovereign, but over time they mutated into "Daleks crossed with the Borg."

Plus, with the benefit of hindsight, ME2 was completely pointless; Nothing you did in ME2 amounted to shit. Mass Effect as a series should forever be held up as an example of how not to write a trilogy with an interconnected storyline.

 

[Zombie Badger]

Plus, with the benefit of hindsight, ME2 was completely pointless; Nothing you did in ME2 amounted to shit. Mass Effect as a series should forever be held up as an example of how not to write a trilogy with an interconnected storyline.

The funny thing is, ME1 is a self-contained story that precludes the possibility of a sequel. The entire reason for Sovereign's attack on the Citadel is that he has no other way of contacting the other Reapers, so they wrote themselves into a corner that they could only get out of by introducing other Reaper agents like the Collectors, whose phone Sovereign could have just asked to use.

 

[DarkhoIlow]

I will never forgive/forget this guy for ruining ME3's ending with Mac Walters without consulting the other writers.

God speed..maybe the next Mass Effect supposed trilogy (speculating) won't go through the same shit the the old one did.

 

[MatsVS]

Good. Excellent news. Hopefully he'll find a new job for which he's better suited. Far, far away from video games. Or books. Or films. Or television.

 

[Tien Shen]

I am still a bit salty from ME3's ending, but credit were it's due. He's given the WRPG community a lot of great experiences and memories and I wish him luck wherever he goes.

 

[Crazy Zaul]

oh noes. What a shame. The guy who ruined Mass Effect is leaving. What will we do now?

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

This thread is proof of one thing. "It takes a lot to build a reputation, but very little to destroy it."

Been there practically since the beginning, starting with Neverwinter Nights? Has been a part of the entire Mass Effect Trilogy, along with the RPG sacred cow called KOTOR?

None of that matters, because of the ending of Mass Effect 3. Not that I'm defending the ending as written (I didn't mind the EC, but the original ending was bollocks). But seriously, people are celebrating, saying good riddance to someone who has been with Bioware since MDK 2, back in 2000. You say you want the old Bioware back? Well, one of old guard just left. But hey, he helped make a shitty ending, so who cares what else he contributed, right?

Oh, and what's this? "Having led the team through 4 major titles..." 4 major titles? It almost sounds like he did a lot more than "the Mass Effect 3 ending", doesn't it? Oh, wait, he was ALSO project director for KOTOR and the entire trilogy. Guess that explains why those games were so shit, right? No...wait...those are some of the best received Western RPGs, if the ending is not taken into account.

But because of that ending, he is now one of the most vilified people in the RPG business today. It's a damn shame.

 

[nevarran]

Some awesome games were born during his time in BW, he'll be missed.
Wish him all the best in whatever he decides to do next.

 

[Rodolphe Kourkenko]

This thread is proof of one thing. "It takes a lot to build a reputation, but very little to destroy it."

It's the way our world work.
To be honest, ME3 was an average game at best and i don't mind the ending. It's badly written, dialogues too shorts and misrepresented, nothing more to say.

It' more the half truth and blatant lies said BEFORE the game launch (even when he knew he was lying) that i would remember about him. And i don't speak about Bioware's actions AFTER launch ("we don't listen to fans anymore" from a director during a convention and so on).

The past don't really matter, it's always the most terrible part that will be remembered, and it'll always be because our brain is made for.