On Endings
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
- Start date
Also, yahtzee here is bumping against a big point without really addressing it:
Who the fuck gives away their best work for a multimillion dollar earning project,
while being paid 40 k a year? Nobody. They clock in, repeat the prescribed techniques and go home.
Who the fuck gives away their best work for a multimillion dollar earning project,
while being paid 40 k a year? Nobody. They clock in, repeat the prescribed techniques and go home.
Halo 3 actually has one of the best endings I've ever seen in a video game.imnotparanoid said:
"Wake me when you need me."
The legendary hero, sleeping until the day he is needed again. Very King Arthur-ish. It also bookends the beginning of the first game nicely.
I kind of get what the ending of AC2 was trying to do. It was supposed to provide some sort of bridge between the time you spent as Ezio and the future with Desmond. So presumably you'll play as Desmond in AC3. But it doesn't make the ending any less infuriating. I just don't see how stabbing a bunch of Templars is going to restore Earths magnetic field or whatever the fuck it was. Is the universe going to be happy once you've met a certain stabbing quota and save the world.
Bottom line: fuck you AC2 ending. good game, shitty ending
Bottom line: fuck you AC2 ending. good game, shitty ending
The Bioshock 2 DLC "Minerva's Den" had one of the best game endings I've experienced in a good while, so I'd recommend that if you haven't played it already. It's better than the main game itself.
And Final Fantasy games, however sometimes agonizing, usually have really good endings (I'm thinking 10 in particular, for me at least).
And Final Fantasy games, however sometimes agonizing, usually have really good endings (I'm thinking 10 in particular, for me at least).
AC2 had a shitty ending that tried to connect the time you spent as Ezio to Desmond and the future. I get that they had to somehow tie everything to Desmond, but how did that shit make any sense and left me pissed off. The game was good but the ending left me staring at the screen for an hour thinking "really, thats how you want to go out?" Seriously though, how is Desmond supposed to solve this problem. How can he and his scientist buddies restore Earths magnetic field or whatever it was? No amount of stabbing Templars in cool ways is going to fix that (unless the universe had a specific stabbing quota that Desmond must meet before it decides not to destroy the planet).
Bottom line: great game, terrible ending. How the hell are they gonna pull AC3 off?
Bottom line: great game, terrible ending. How the hell are they gonna pull AC3 off?
Somebody who hopes that penning a really good story will help them make it big. Writers, in general, do not make a lot of money. Writing is a lot like acting: tons of people want to do it, and are willing to work a day job while they try to make it. Most of them will never be able to make a living off of it. The ones who do know that there is a horde of people willing to take their spot if they don't work hard enough to keep it.oranger said:
Yea endings are important to the story, but, in my opinion, the story isn't all that important to the game. Most people play games to have fun and.....play a game. When's the last time you turned on a game and said "Oh my god I can't wait to find out what happened to so and so at the thingy majig?" (I don't think I've ever had such a reason to start playing) Even in games that have amazing stories start to finish, the story is second to the gameplay. I'd much rather have an insanely epic and challengeing final boss fight followed by credits and a game over screen than a nice neat literary ending.
I'm pretty sure he had at least some say in the endings, seeing how each one revolves around taking divergent actions in game.oranger said:
And my correlation still stands with or without Warren Spector.
A great example of mediocre games with good endings is PoP, Warrior Within... if you don't get all the weapon upgrades you kill the Empress (the original, mildly evil goal) and you're OK. If you get the final sword, you can be the nice guy and kill the demon that's been hunting you the whole game. Both are good endings, in spite of the game's other faults
Only got to read the Singularity bit, but while the endings were interesting, I'm not sure I feel they were well done. What dulled their effectiveness for me was that three such wildly different conclusions come about from ONE decision made in the closing minutes of the game. It's not like Fallout or even Marvel Ultimate Alliance, where it's the choices you make throughout the game that determine the ending.
It's just strange to see "moral" endings in a game where there are no moral choices to be made until the very end. You can't really play the game as a nice guy or a jerk. All your missions are the same, and you don't get to deviate to help the old lady cross the street or drive over her. So the endings are cinematic, about some character who isn't "you"; you don't feel like you've really influenced or "deserved" the ending you got, aside from that one big decision at the end.
No doubt this wasn't the first game to do this, and I'm sure I've even played other games where this happened, but Singularity is the most recent, and the only one I can recall right now.
It's just strange to see "moral" endings in a game where there are no moral choices to be made until the very end. You can't really play the game as a nice guy or a jerk. All your missions are the same, and you don't get to deviate to help the old lady cross the street or drive over her. So the endings are cinematic, about some character who isn't "you"; you don't feel like you've really influenced or "deserved" the ending you got, aside from that one big decision at the end.
No doubt this wasn't the first game to do this, and I'm sure I've even played other games where this happened, but Singularity is the most recent, and the only one I can recall right now.
I find that another contributor to "the satisfying ending" is the coolness factor. For example, Onimusha: Warlords had a fantastic ending, especially for its time, and it isn't because of its engrossing story finally reaching a conclusion. In fact, the story was not engrossing. It was essentially Super Mario in feudal Japan. Granted, it wasn't bad by any stretch, but it wasn't all that memorable. The ending was so great because it was so damned cool.
