On Endings

[Dhatz]

as I'd expected singularity turned out as most games with such atmospheric trailers do, have good start and endings and the middle would require a sequel to fix. not gonna hapen it seems. but I enjoyed it more than any GoW clone or generic "TPS in cover"

 

[Nomanslander]

I thought I'd cite an example of games with good endings, and I got half way through typing the words Prince of Persia Sands of Time and Silent Hill 2 before stopping myself. I've cited these games so much it's getting boring for me.



....



THANK YOU, thank you for finally joining the rest of us on how we (at least I) feel about you mentioning those damn games every other time like some broken record.

=)

 

[Misterian]

Well, I thought the Fallout 3 main quest ending was alright in that sense; SPOILER ALERT.

Without Broken Steel: You're faced with a choice that truly defines what you think your fate, and fate of the Wasteland should be. Sacriface yourself to activate the water purifier, or let someone else do it and die in your place. Infect the purifier so it kills everyone in the Wastes, or not.

Broken Steel: the project purity choice becomes less concerning as you witness the aftermath of your choice yourself. But in the end you still make a choice that effects the fate of the Wasteland and the Brotherhood's war with the Enclave.

The Broken Steel expansion makes the end of the Project Purity quest abit lofty, but it doesn't bother me that much somehow. Either way, I still think Fallout 3 is my idea of 'best game I ever played', and I'm not only looking forward to Fallout New Vegas meeting the standards of it's predessessor, but I'm hoping to see how the Canon Lone Wanderer approached the choices to be made in Fallout 3's storyline.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

I always thought that The Suffering and its sequel The Suffering: Ties That Bind had good endings. Or maybe its just because i played them both so much as to see all the endings. Nevertheless an even more recent example would be Dead Space. Even though it was obvious that it was leading up to a sequel, it still left me with a feeling of fulfillment, all the while keeping me intrigued as to what will happen next. Thats probably why i have been following Dead Space 2 like a hawk ever since it was first announced.

 

[dunnace]

Ocarina of time has a deadly ending. Tear jerking indeed.

Also, Brutal Legend had a pretty amazing ending in my opinion, the twist was good and the acting superb.

 

[Casual Shinji]

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?

The whole "Desmond: man of the future" crap should never have been in AC to begin with. It's the anchor around this franchise neck.

 

[Captain Epic]

Ocarina of time has a deadly ending. Tear jerking indeed.

Also, Brutal Legend had a pretty amazing ending in my opinion, the twist was good and the acting superb.

Brutal Legend YAY! The story in that game is so damn perfectly constructed and brilliant. That, and it can be hilarious at times. My favourite ending is still RDR though. I've never hated a fictional character as much as I did at the end of that game.

 

[Ringo666]

You had to finish mafia 2 and K&2?I thought you had one of the(2-other is rockstar,one word)last fun jobs on earth.you're a dream crusher and it works

 

[mandrilltiger]

I don't think any one mentioned Portal and Braid.

Portal's was awesome cause it provided closure and still allowed for their to be a sequel.

 

[Silencer217]

Is it just me, or does this have a lot of spelling errors? I wonder if it's somehow on purpose? (and if he'll address this at any time)

Also, Reach anyone?

 

[mechanixis]

Halo Reach's campaign was a mediocre excursion (Bungie is pretty clueless about storytelling) that actually ended really well - not so much the finale, but the epilogue after the credits. There's a very sublime little secret level that I found very moving.

 

[SirCannonFodder]

When I said "you can't make it big..." I meant there is and will be no great game writers until something in the field changes. As it is, a potential Van Gogh level writer will simply have his "paintings" thrown out instead of being passed from gallery to gallery until they achieve acclaim,
because there is no interest in a writer becoming great. That won't line the pockets of the corporations and trends that currently control the industry.
That's objective reality.

No it isn't. Van Gogh didn't "line the pockets of the corporations" either, yet, somehow, his work got by.

Art having to work within such a system is not new. You know Shakespeare, the OMG greatest write of all time? His plays were considered popular entertainment in his day. They were written for the crowds.

Great writing in video games exists. It has managed to sell. It has even managed to sell well enough to get people to buy suplimental fiction.

But the difference between a painter and a game writer is that even if the painter never achieves popularity in their life-time, they still have completed works that can be appreciated as they are. Unless the game writer makes their own games, then any stories that are rejected will never see the light of day, since they won't have a game to be a part of, and without a game to go with it the story can't be enjoyed or appreciated in any meaningful way.

 

[Vzzdak]

snip

(Excerpt from the article. Naturally.)

Reminds me heavily of Deus Ex's ending(s). Proof that Warren Spector actually did know what the hell he was doing.

Warren Spector didn't write them, did he? I heard he designed the game, and hadn't written it.

Based on interviews. He did, and the rest of his design team needed to drag him away from the keyboard in order to get him to scale down some of the intended set-pieces into something manageable.

That makes sense. I was always under the impression that Spector was a major proponent of the Deus Ex and Deus Ex:IW backstories, which is why he's afforded a somewhat celebrity status. Indeed, the DX:IW story was quite a broad and logical extension to that of DX, and it was mainly the claustrophobic level design that was a let down in the sequel.

Here's a relevant quote from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex_(video_game)

The initial idea of Deus Ex was originated by Warren Spector in 1994 while he worked for Origin Systems. His original conception of what would become Deus Ex was entitled Troubleshooter. After finishing development of System Shock, Spector had tired of straight fantasy and science fiction and he "got obsessed with this sort of millennial weirdness" leading to the conspiracy focused storyline for the game. He stated in April 2007 to PC Zone magazine:

I was a huge believer in the 'immersive simulation' game style, exemplified by games like Ultima Underworld, and I wanted to push the limits of that sort of game further. But I could never get the project off the ground at Origin or, later, at Looking Glass. (I think it was lack of interest at Origin/EA and it was mostly a lack of money at LG!) But then John Romero and Ion Storm came along and said, 'Make the game of your dreams. No limits.' It took me about two nanoseconds to say 'Yes!'

 

[BloodSquirrel]

But the difference between a painter and a game writer is that even if the painter never achieves popularity in their life-time, they still have completed works that can be appreciated as they are. Unless the game writer makes their own games, then any stories that are rejected will never see the light of day, since they won't have a game to be a part of, and without a game to go with it the story can't be enjoyed or appreciated in any meaningful way.

Writers do have their stories made a part of games, many of which have been widely praised. The notion that a corporation being involved, doing some kind of vague, "the man" stuff, is going to prevent writers from getting their work out is baseless.

 

[Jezzy54]

I completely agree that the ending should be the best part of anything.

 

[duchaked]

the ending(s) concept to Singularity is rather fascinating to me, I don't know why haha

 

[duchaked]

Ocarina of time has a deadly ending. Tear jerking indeed.

Also, Brutal Legend had a pretty amazing ending in my opinion, the twist was good and the acting superb.

Brutal Legend YAY! The story in that game is so damn perfectly constructed and brilliant. That, and it can be hilarious at times. My favourite ending is still RDR though. I've never hated a fictional character as much as I did at the end of that game.

good grief, yes to RDR

like for the ahem revenge mission... man I was glad to do that
not satisfied because a life had to be taken oddly enough... but for justice

 

[XMark]

The thing about Kane and Lynch 2 is that in addition to being a lame and unresolved ending, it's the end of a criminally short game.

Halo Reach had a pretty good ending - you have to wait until after the credits for the real ending though.

Halo 3 as well, and ditto for the after the credits thing.

What other games have good endings... hm....

The Darkness, Red Dead Redemption and Shadow of the Colossus both had quite emotional endings that left me feeling sad for the state the main character is left in.

Metal Gear Solid 3, the whole thing with The Boss, also quite emotional.

I'll add Portal to the list, but not particularly because of its ending. Just that it kept a constant level of quality from start finish. And there's the Still Alive song.

All the Final Fantasy games that I've managed to play start to finish had amazing endings as well (except for the first one). I especially like the FF6 ending.

That's all I got at the moment.

 

[perpetualburn]

There was a study that showed that people tended to think more highly of vacations if their last day was memorable. I wouldn't be surprised if this applies to video games as well.

 

[WolfThomas]

The Witcher had three decent endings, that were neither right or wrong, but yeah I guess Yahtzee never finished it.