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Can Bioware be redeemed?

#1

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Dragon Age 3 is coming eventually. Mass Effect 4 after that.

The last entries in each of these series have been either lame and shitty, or disappointing and pathetic. The key Bioware people have left. EA is still pressing the people left to squirt out DLC for Mass Effect 3. Supposedly Bioware is listening to its fans for the next games. I'm not getting my hopes up. In fact, a lot of people seem done with Bioware. I don't think I could buy either new game in good faith.

I'm curious--is there any way you'd be convinced to buy one of these games? What would Bioware have to do to convince you? Disregard whether that's something possible under the EA idiots. I'm just curious if anything could get the jaded players back on Bioware's side, or would it not matter if these games ever came out at all?


#2

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

I didn't even buy DA2 or ME3 after demoing them and reading into some of the more indepth reviews.

Would I buy DA3 or ME4? No. Would I give a new IP they made a try? Sure, depending on what they created. The company as a whole hasn't been turned off for me, just the two franchises.


#3

Gared

Gared

I would happily buy the next games in these series, if they were released by a new studio founded by the now-departed key Bioware people, under new game names that 'just happened' to revolve around eerily similar backgrounds/lore. Otherwise, there's no chance in hell that I'd buy anything more in either of these series.


#4

Frank

Frank

I doubt it. Unless some major gears change, it's going to be the same super mass produced rushed garbage they've spent the last 3 years doing.


#5

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Gilgamesh said:
I didn't even buy DA2 or ME3 after demoing them and reading into some of the more indepth reviews.
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Once I got on the Mass Effect train, I was probably going to buy ME3 no matter what.

But DA2 was avoidable 100%. I wish I'd listened to Jay.


#6

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

It used to be any bioware game was an instant preorder from me.

Now, I spit at the name, like a jilted lover.


#7

GasBandit

GasBandit

Ravenpoe said:
It used to be any bioware game was an instant preorder from me.

Now, I spit at the name, like a jilted lover.
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My sentiments were/are similar. The final straw that put them over the event horizon for me was when EA fired everybody at Mythic and put Bioware in charge of the floundering Warhammer Online, who then proceeded to finish driving the final nails into the coffin. Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse, it so very, very did. It was like watching Wile E. Coyote, in midst-plummet, get fired out of the cannon into the Arizona desert floor, and then have the cannon land on him, fire again, the recoil causing it to shoot up to remount on its original trolley, the impact of which dislodges the rock outcropping the trolley was sitting on, and then the cannon, trolley and rock all fall on the coyote again.


#8

LordRendar

LordRendar

That....was....beautiful. *Wipes away single tear*


#9

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

After getting kicked in the balls by Old Republic, I've pretty much given up hope. DA3 as of now is a no thanks. They'd have to do something really amazing to get me anywhere near that hype train again after DA2.[DOUBLEPOST=1361573731][/DOUBLEPOST]Also, I think what was so criminal about DA2 was, at the very start of the game, you already see that everything in DA:O is a fucking side-story to what you're doing now. DA:O builds the Blight as this huge menace, but DA2 tries so hard to make a bunch of whiny mages and templars seem like the real threat. I didn't sign up for politics, if I wanted that I'd play a sim game. On top of that the stupid truncated dialogue choices ("No thanks" turning into "OI FUK U M8 HOOK U IN THE GABBER WOT") annoyed the hell out of me.


#10

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

I couldn't really expect them to continue the Darkspawn as the main enemy since Blights are only supposed to happen every few hundred years, but the way time passed in the game made it seem like nothing mattered. There are other aspects of Thedas worth exploring, but the game needed to focus on one, and instead it just dithered around in some tiny nothing town with half-realized concepts, and then at the end said "And now the church is in peril and so is the world!"

It's like Varric's story was just a prologue, and they could have truncated that shit of a game into a prologue cutscene so you could get on with playing something else. Preferably a game where you're not exploring the same five maps over and over.


#11

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Yeah, I've actually played through as every class, just to see if anything improves the experience. Warrior is stupid OP most of the game, Mage is OP the whole game, and Rogue is boring. You barely need your party because you're such a Goddamned powerhouse. The streamlining of party equipment was pretty bad, too. Having those certain items for each character that you just had to buy/find upgrades for instead of just getting them new equipment. I had that Guard Captain woman decked out within the first couple hours and she was an indestructible wall.

I miss DA:O's customization. Hell, on PC you could get a mod to allow the re-spec of any party member, meaning Morrigan could be something useful instead of a Shapeshifter.


#12

bhamv3

bhamv3

I neither purchased nor played DA2 and ME3. This means there's probably nothing that'll compel me to buy the next installments, given how Bioware loves to ass-ream players who haven't loaded a previous save.

I mean, sure I could just download a save, but still.


#13

Dei

Dei

Unless someone that I trust tells me that DA3 is amazing I'm not getting it. Also... ME4 wut?


#14

Jay

Jay

xDXBl.gif


#15

Tress

Tress

If DA3 is good, I'll buy it. If not, I'll pretend it doesn't exist the same way I pretend DA2 doesn't exist. It's that simple. There's no way in hell I'm going to preorder the game. Then again, I don't preorder anything for just this reason.


#16

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

You know the sad thing is this thread makes me want to play DA:O and Awakening, and then DA:2, just to remind myself how no dev is truly untouchable forever. Also, I still love DA:O.


#17

bhamv3

bhamv3

DA:O is awesome, no question about it. Though if you get all the DLC, you end up with so many sets of heavy gear, you run out of warriors and arcane warrior mages to put them on.

I need to reinstall it sometime.


#18

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

bhamv3 said:
DA:O is awesome, no question about it. Though if you get all the DLC, you end up with so many sets of heavy gear, you run out of warriors and arcane warrior mages to put them on.

I need to reinstall it sometime.
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Yeah I tried not to do too much of the DLC stuff early, because you get all sorts of powerhouse items that really make the game easy, especially going back for Duncan and the King's stuff.


#19

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I am, however, going to use this Skip the Fade mod, because fuck that part of the game. Fuck it.


#20

bhamv3

bhamv3

I use Skip the Fade too, but I've always been a bit torn about it. I mean, there are other parts of the game that drag too, so where do I draw the line? Skip the Deep Roads? Skip the Brescilian Ruins? Skip Fort Drakon at the end and head straight to the Archdemon?


#21

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

bhamv3 said:
I use Skip the Fade too, but I've always been a bit torn about it. I mean, there are other parts of the game that drag too, so where do I draw the line? Skip the Deep Roads? Skip the Brescilian Ruins? Skip Fort Drakon at the end and head straight to the Archdemon?
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The main reason I hate the Fade moreso than Deep Roads or other areas is it's just boring. At least I get some enjoyment in the atmosphere of the Deep Roads and the ruins. I think the biggest strike-out is in the various shapechanging and backtracking, along with the weird teleport maze at the end. It just takes too long, especially if you want to collect all the stat/skill bonuses.


#22

Bowielee

Bowielee

I still find it so weird that everybody went ga-ga over Old Republic at launch and after about 3-4 months, everyone turned on it. Is it the late game that sucks so bad?


#23

phil

phil

I dunno. I mean dragon age origins was solid, mass effects 1 and 2 are solid. I don't actually know anything about dragon age 2, but have yet to hear a truly positive review of it and mass effect 3 I've heard is great except for the ending.

Honestly I'm excited at the prospect of new games. With each series the worlds are so big there's a lot you could do with them. I'm not ready to write them off, yet.


#24

Vrii

Vrii

Bowielee said:
I still find it so weird that everybody went ga-ga over Old Republic at launch and after about 3-4 months, everyone turned on it. Is it the late game that sucks so bad?
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At least at the time I quit, yes. After playing through the class quest up to the level cap and legitimately feeling like everything you do matters, you walk into a raid and get nothing. 5-6 lines from an NPC vaguely setting up the idea, then no interactions at all between your characters, the NPCs, or the events and actions taking place. Add to that the fact that the raids were almost embarrassingly easy, pvp was limited to a handful of poorly-balanced warzones, and the class quests were finite, and there was no justification to keep playing.


#25

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bowielee said:
I still find it so weird that everybody went ga-ga over Old Republic at launch and after about 3-4 months, everyone turned on it. Is it the late game that sucks so bad?
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All the early stuff is fantastic. Dungeons (called flash points) are all unique and have story and branching paths and dialog depending on what your group decides to do, the individual class stories are fantastic, everything feels epic. And then all that stuff ends and becomes super generic and unpolished.


#26

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

phil said:
mass effect 3 I've heard is great except for the ending.
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Eh, sort of? For being the most linear of the Mass Effect games, the story direction felt the most haphazard. Or maybe the two are related; in the other games, we can choose what order to do the middle parts of the story, so we don't expect it all to gel together exactly. In ME3, there is no choice, so the parts feel disjointed, but likely they're not any more disjointed than in the other ME games.

That said, I feel the game left a lot to be desired. It never feels like the galaxy is at your disposal like in the last two games. It was bullshit that if a character was dead before the game began, some other character would take up the same role. I'd rather there have been consequences to a character's absence. Same goes for the Rachni situation. Plot elements from the previous games are dropped or disposed of poorly, and new ones suck (that ninja guy). Then there's the climax, where little of what you did matters--compare that to the climax of Mass Effect 2, where EVERYTHING matters.

Had the ending been at all satisfying, I don't think anyone would care about those other shortcomings, because it's still a good game even if it's not as great as its predecessors. But the ending is such bullshit that it starts a chain reaction and you can't help noticing the flaws throughout the game.

DA2 essentially tricks you. You think that what you're doing is just the beginning of the game and all the buildup to the Deep Roads expedition leads you to think something big is going to happen. Then ... it doesn't. And the game cuts ahead three years and says "So this OTHER problem was happening". It's like the writers couldn't figure out what to do next, so they just did the same shit in three segments throughout the game.


#27

Frank

Frank

More eloquently than I would have put it.


#28

Espy

Espy

If DA3 truly gets itself in shape like they seem to imply it will I'll buy it, but I won't pre-order it and I won't buy it right away. I will wait till it's half price. If the reviews are terrible and it suffers from what DA2 did then I will probably not.


#29

Frank

Frank

Espy said:
If DA3 truly gets itself in shape like they seem to imply it will I'll buy it, but I won't pre-order it and I won't buy it right away. I will wait till it's half price. If the reviews are terrible and it suffers from what DA2 did then I will probably not.
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That's the shitty thing. Dragon Age 2 was definitely money-hatted into it's reviews, they were universally glowing.


#30

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

DA:O - A return to old school pc rpgs with a focus on tactical combat.

DA2 - Fuck you nerds, Call of Duty rules!


#31

Jay

Jay



#32

Espy

Espy

Frank said:
That's the shitty thing. Dragon Age 2 was definitely money-hatted into it's reviews, they were universally glowing.
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Well, I meant more that I would decide between reviews and waiting to see how players like it.


#33

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Vrii said:
At least at the time I quit, yes. After playing through the class quest up to the level cap and legitimately feeling like everything you do matters, you walk into a raid and get nothing. 5-6 lines from an NPC vaguely setting up the idea, then no interactions at all between your characters, the NPCs, or the events and actions taking place. Add to that the fact that the raids were almost embarrassingly easy, pvp was limited to a handful of poorly-balanced warzones, and the class quests were finite, and there was no justification to keep playing.
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Exactly this. It was a great one-player game.[DOUBLEPOST=1361655310][/DOUBLEPOST]To expand a bit: the storylines were, for the most part, fun and engaging. I loved my Jedi stories and even the Sith ones were good. Sadly, once you hit the level cap anything like that was over and done. You had the same thing as every other MMO out there, but done in a much less enjoyable way. Raids were too easy, even on higher difficulties, warzones were fun on paper but there was zero class balance (Sith Sorcerers were insanely OP and Soldiers were pretty useless), and dailies were spread out over one of the most boring-looking planets in the game.


#34

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Quotemander Prime said:
DA2 essentially tricks you. You think that what you're doing is just the beginning of the game and all the buildup to the Deep Roads expedition leads you to think something big is going to happen. Then ... it doesn't. And the game cuts ahead three years and says "So this OTHER problem was happening". It's like the writers couldn't figure out what to do next, so they just did the same shit in three segments throughout the game.
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Then you have the problems of massive recycling. In the first game you basically traveled around a whole kingdom, from the wall the Darkspawn overtake, to the forests with the elves and the werewolves, to the main capitol city, the mage tower, and all the little places between it, which is not even counting the Fade, or how expansive the Deep Roads was. DA2 was basically the same city zone, with like four "outside" cells that were used over and over again whenever they wanted to have stuff take place outside.

I am also still angry that they turned the Darkspawn, who looked badass and threatening, into something more befitting a Power Ranger enemy fodder, because they didn't want to give them customizable armor a second time.


#35

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

I will never pre-order another Bioware game.

I might... "might" buy a ME4 or DA3 if certain sources (like Jay and Frank) give them glowing reviews.

Otherwise. Fuck that shit.


#36

Necronic

Necronic

Only Bioware game I really liked in the last decade was Bioshock. ME was always an awful series imho. It was a sub par fps that was touted because you "could make choices". But to me the only games that allow you to make choices are open ended sand-box games like Skyrim and their like. ME was as about as open ended as a Star Trek away team mission.

I did like many of their older games of course, but I haven't liked them in years.


#37

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Necronic said:
Only Bioware game I really liked in the last decade was Bioshock.
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BioShock was 2K/Irrational. Apparently, you haven't liked a BioWare game in over a decade. :p


#38

Necronic

Necronic

WHELP. (why did I think that System Shock was a Bioware game.....)

Ok so the only games I liked were Jade Empire and KoTOR. For some reason the 30 other games they made that simply copied this formula endlessly seemed a bit.....formulaic.


#39

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Yeah, it's basically Jade Empire, KotOR and KotOR 2 for me.


#40

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I found Jade Empire boring as hell, personally. I think I got about 6-7 hours in and just didn't care anymore.


#41

Jay

Jay

If you didn't like Dragon Age Origins, your opinion on this subject is invalid.


#42

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

From the DA3 buzz so far, I feel like they can be redeemed, but they're not getting one cent out of me until they prove it.


#43

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

SpecialKO said:
From the DA3 buzz so far, I feel like they can be redeemed, but they're not getting one cent out of me until they prove it.
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If it doesn't blow DA:O out of the water I won't be impressed enough at this point.


#44

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

CynicismKills said:
If it doesn't blow DA:O out of the water I won't be impressed enough at this point.
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I wouldn't go quite that far. I thought DA:O was fantastic, and I'd be perfectly happy with that level of quality again. I'm just not pre-ordering (or buying day 1) like I did with DA:O. I skipped DA2 because I happened to be a bit short of cash when it came out, and then everyone told me it stunk.


#45

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

I too would be quite pleased with a DA:O level of quality for DA3. I just have no confidence in that happening.


#46

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

SpecialKO said:
I wouldn't go quite that far. I thought DA:O was fantastic, and I'd be perfectly happy with that level of quality again. I'm just not pre-ordering (or buying day 1) like I did with DA:O. I skipped DA2 because I happened to be a bit short of cash when it came out, and then everyone told me it stunk.
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I'm exaggerating a little, but yeah if it were Baldur's Gate II/DA:O good I'd be satisfied. Just being better than DA2 wouldn't be enough.


#47

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Jay said:
If you didn't like Dragon Age Origins, your opinion on this subject is invalid.
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To be fair, I haven't played that one yet. Maybe next time I see it on sale.


#48

bhamv3

bhamv3

DA:O is awesome, though Bioware fans will recognize pretty much every common Bioware trope in it. Doesn't stop it from being awesome though.


#49

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe




This man here is more awesome than you will ever be.


#50

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

DA: Origins and Awakening are fantastic.


#51

bhamv3

bhamv3

Ravenpoe said:
This man here is more awesome than you will ever be.
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"I'm Warden Commander Duncan and this is my favorite Ogre in Ostagar."

duncan-slays-ogre.png


#52

Jay

Jay

AshburnerX said:
To be fair, I haven't played that one yet. Maybe next time I see it on sale.
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Dude, wow.[DOUBLEPOST=1361851833][/DOUBLEPOST]I've said it before and I've said it again, the major reason why Dragon Age 2 was such a bad game was far beyond the lacking of the game itself but moreso the complete and utter disappointed it gives you after such a great debut title of DA:O.

As far as Dragon Age 3 goes, I'll be honest. I haven't paid attention to the game whatsoever and won't until the game comes out. No pre-order, no interest, if it's a hit game I'll see if it's on special sometime in 2014 (GOTY).


#53

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Just to remind people how terrible most video game reviewers are, let's take a look at what IGN had to say about Dragon Age 2.

There are a few things I'm certain of in life: Darkspawn must die, dragons must die, and, from a technical perspective, Dragon Age II is the best game in BioWare's fantasy role-playing franchise. The gameplay, user interfaces, and conversation system have all been modified to the point where the game is much more functional and fun than before. Yet despite all these improvements, there are still some issues with the story and setting in the sequel.
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#54

Telephius

Telephius

Ravenpoe said:
Just to remind people how terrible most video game reviewers are, let's take a look at what IGN had to say about Dragon Age 2.
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Maybe he lost a dare? :awesome:


#55

GasBandit

GasBandit

I was liking DA:O until the goth chick I'd nailed started giving me grief about "spending time" with the redhead and I was all "What? Bitch, you said there was nothing to this! Is there something?!" and then shit got all dawson's creek, and in my version of the story, I stalked off disgustedly into the night shedding pieces of armor and weapons as I went, middle finger extended behind me.


#56

bhamv3

bhamv3

GasBandit said:
I was liking DA:O until the goth chick I'd nailed started giving me grief about "spending time" with the redhead and I was all "What? Bitch, you said there was nothing to this! Is there something?!" and then shit got all dawson's creek, and in my version of the story, I stalked off disgustedly into the night shedding pieces of armor and weapons as I went, middle finger extended behind me.
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Probably made that moment when she came crawling back to you begging you to get freaky with her the night before the final battle all the sweeter, huh?


#57

Jay

Jay

You had a casual fuck friend with a hot raven haired wild hot thang and you just got greedy man.

Work on your Stealth skills while you're banging multple hotspots in camp.

My warden was a sly motherfucker.

Heck, he banged the readhead, isabella before her bewb job and Antonio Bandaras for shits and giggles.


#58

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I'm pretty sure I had a foursome with the red head. I think one of the participants was a dude, but he was an elf, so... you know... enough wine and its all the same.


#59

GasBandit

GasBandit

Why should I have been stealthy? The witch said right from the get go "don't go thinking any of this means anything, we're just having fun," so like a chump I took her at her word. Then she gets that pouty look on her face later that made me want to split her down the middle.
bhamv3 said:
Probably made that moment when she came crawling back to you begging you to get freaky with her the night before the final battle all the sweeter, huh?
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Actually I never finished it. The whole thing soured me to the game and I said "screw it, I'm going to go shoot guns" and I left that world to be destroyed as it deserved.


#60

Tress

Tress

You've got issues.


#61

bhamv3

bhamv3

GasBandit said:
Actually I never finished it. The whole thing soured me to the game and I said "screw it, I'm going to go shoot guns" and I left that world to be destroyed as it deserved.
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Oh... well, you missed the crawling and begging then. Or, rather, what passes for begging for a person like Morrigan.


#62

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Morrigan is so tsundere.


#63

Telephius

Telephius

GasBandit said:
Why should I have been stealthy? The witch said right from the get go "don't go thinking any of this means anything, we're just having fun," so like a chump I took her at her word. Then she gets that pouty look on her face later that made me want to split her down the middle.

Actually I never finished it. The whole thing soured me to the game and I said "screw it, I'm going to go shoot guns" and I left that world to be destroyed as it deserved.
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Well if it makes you feel any better,


My friends playthrough he promised Morrigan that he would protect her from her mother's plot to posses her body, so he went to go kill Flemeth(without Morrigans prescence) but in the end allowed her to live and flee(IIRC for loot buyoff no less.) He then proceeded to go back to camp tell Morrigan he killed Flemeth and everything would be alright to at which point they had freaky witch sex or something like that ontop of the bed of lies he built for her.


#64

GasBandit

GasBandit

Tress said:
You've got issues.
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Hey, I thought I was playing a game called Dragon Age, not Seasons of Sakura: Platemail edition.


#65

bhamv3

bhamv3

GasBandit said:
Hey, I thought I was playing a game called Dragon Age, not Seasons of Sakura: Platemail edition.
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Psht, if you really wanted no-strings-attached sex, you should've just gone for the gay elf.

... I dunno if this is going to end up summoning Charlie.


#66

Frank

Frank

Ravenpoe said:



This man here is more awesome than you will ever be.
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Is also the voice of Splinter from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.


#67

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Frank said:
Is also the voice of Splinter from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.
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Holy fucking shit I knew I recognized him from somewhere.


#68

bhamv3

bhamv3

CynicismKills said:
Holy fucking shit I knew I recognized him from somewhere.
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I recognized his voice as Al-Mualim. Made me distrust him throughout my whole origin story.


#69

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

This thread is making me want to play through DA:O again.


#70

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

SpecialKO said:
This thread is making me want to play through DA:O again.
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Me too.


#71

GasBandit

GasBandit

Oh, and it occurred to me that I hadn't mentioned that when Morrigan got all Laina on me, I hadn't yet engaged in any romance with said redhead, just gone through a couple of her conversation trees.

(waiting for someone to say something to the effect of "is that what the kids are calling it these days")...

Anyway, point is, I hadn't even pursued her romantically up to that point, just had a couple conversations, and suddenly Morrigan goes all Dere Dere on me.


#72

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Morrigan was supposed to be fickle and irrational. For all her cool evil bitchitude, she was still someone that lived most of her life isolated and lacked people skills.


#73

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Her and Isabellea in DA2 have a lot in common for the romance. It seems like the easiest one to pursue, but there's a point or two in it where you can royally fuck it all up because they're both so loaded with baggage.


#74

GasBandit

GasBandit

Yeah, that's probably what annoyed me the most. I have rice-paper thin tolerance for baggage even in real life, I won't stomach it in a game I play for fun.


#75

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Hell, in my current playthrough I got Morrigan on accident. Just taking an interest in her life makes her all ga-ga for you.

In DA2 I went with Merril first, and then Isabella the second play. I wasn't a fan of the staggering of the romance/personal story in DA2, it was done in a really jilted fashion compared to other BioWare games. Or felt like it, anyway. The points when you could progress seemed to pop up at random intervals in the main story.


#76

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

The worst romance I had was Jack in ME2, mostly because it was entirely accidental. I was just picking the nice, conversational options, all the while wanting to romance Tali. However when I went to do the final romance with Tali, she was like "But you are with Jack". My eyebrows raised right off my face in surprise.

I had to go "break up" with Jack to finish my Tali romance, and Jack was basically super pissed off. After breaking it off for the rest of the game she wouldn't even talk to me, clicking on her just making her say "Fuck you!". Sheeesh.


#77

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I forgot, Jack is another one you can fuck up pretty easily. If you agree to sleep with her early on she'll resent you or something and the romance won't move on to the next tier.


#78

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Jack to my femshep: "Sorry shep, I'm not a girl's girl."

Femshep: ".... really?"


#79

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

CynicismKills said:
Her and Isabellea in DA2 have a lot in common for the romance. It seems like the easiest one to pursue, but there's a point or two in it where you can royally fuck it all up because they're both so loaded with baggage.
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Like STDs in Isabella's case.


#80

Bowielee

Bowielee

Speaking of ME, does anyone know of a really good save-game editor for ME2. I want my choices from that game, but don't want to play all the way through again. If you start ME3 without a save game, it gives you 2 options. Lots of people died, or a few people died, and that's it.

Screw Miranda, I let her die on purpose in the ME2 finale and saved everyone else.

Also, responding with ME3 sucks anyway is not a valid response.


#81

Frank

Frank

If this site can't help you, I don't know anything that can.

http://www.masseffectsaves.com/


#82

Bowielee

Bowielee

There are, like 10 paragon saves with no romances and really weird choices. . I guess if I really want my decisions carried over, I'll have to play through. I thought there were actual editors out there where you could adjust the decisions made.


#83

Frank

Frank

There should be an editor on the site too.

http://www.masseffectsaves.com/tools.php


#84

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Yeah, find a save closest to the one you want, use the editor to tailor it to what you need.


#85

Jay

Jay

Been playing DA:O again, been 2 years.

It goes down well with fine wine. So good.

When I close the game and go to bed every night, I shed a single tear at the memory of how Bioware used to be.


#86

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe



#87

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Ravenpoe said:
Click to expand...
Difference in scores between people paid to give good ratings and people who pay for the game.


#88

Telephius

Telephius

ScytheRexx said:
The worst romance I had was Jack in ME2, mostly because it was entirely accidental. I was just picking the nice, conversational options, all the while wanting to romance Tali. However when I went to do the final romance with Tali, she was like "But you are with Jack". My eyebrows raised right off my face in surprise.

I had to go "break up" with Jack to finish my Tali romance, and Jack was basically super pissed off. After breaking it off for the rest of the game she wouldn't even talk to me, clicking on her just making her say "Fuck you!". Sheeesh.
Click to expand...
That kinda happened to me in ME 1, I wanted to get with Tali for like 2/3rds of the game but I didn't realize how Bioware was dueing it's romance mechanic ques as opposed to DA:O so I did not get any romantic dialogue. HOwever I got into a romantic relationship with the human girl in ME1(I can't even recall her name lol) by accident but just went with it because I was so close to finishing the game I didnt think I would have time to correct it.

However certain events happened that prevented human chica from surviving to ME2 so I played it she was kept in Shepard's heart but he went to pursue Tali in the second and third installment now that I knew how to get the proper dialogue options to appear.


#89

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Telephius said:
That kinda happened to me in ME 1, I wanted to get with Tali for like 2/3rds of the game but I didn't realize how Bioware was dueing it's romance mechanic ques as opposed to DA:O so I did not get any romantic dialogue. HOwever I got into a romantic relationship with the human girl in ME1(I can't even recall her name lol) by accident but just went with it because I was so close to finishing the game I didnt think I would have time to correct it.

However certain events happened that prevented human chica from surviving to ME2 so I played it she was kept in Shepard's heart but he went to pursue Tali in the second and third installment now that I knew how to get the proper dialogue options to appear.
Click to expand...
Tali wasn't a romance option in ME 1. She was like 16 then.


#90

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Ravenpoe said:
Tali wasn't a romance option in ME 1. She was like 16 then.
Click to expand...
Totally legal in Space Alabama, or the fleet as the Quarians call it.


#91

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Yeah I didn't realize Tali wasn't an option in ME1 until nearly the end of the game, so I went with Liara. Dumped her for Tali in ME2, though.


#92

Telephius

Telephius

Ravenpoe said:
Tali wasn't a romance option in ME 1. She was like 16 then.
Click to expand...
LOL I did not even realize that! :confused:


#93

Cheesy1

Cheesy1

pedobear_too-old692.jpg


#94

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Telephius said:
LOL I did not even realize that! :confused:
Click to expand...
11.jpg


#95

bhamv3

bhamv3

"So the quarian you were talking to over the extranet was sixteen quarian years old, you say? Well, given the differences between quarian and human physiology and maturation rates, as well as the time dilation effect the quarian would go through due to the Migrant Fleet's constant FTL travel, that'd make her... in human years... let's see... I'll just plug these numbers into the converter on my omni-tool here...

Okay, the omni-tool doesn't seem to be working...

All right, can this wait? This omni-tool needs some calibrations."


#96

HowDroll

HowDroll

Aw, hell. At least a few of you guys need to buy DA3/ME4. I'll be anxiously waiting your feedback to see whether I should waste money on it. (If Bioware fucks with my husbando Alistair, shit's gonna get real.)

Also:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/368/index/14795358/1

This mod makes the Mass Effect series playable again. No more Starchild, no more RGB. If I close my eyes and pretend really hard, I can go to a happier place where Bioware didn't royally fuck up one of my favorite trilogies. But seriously, between that and the Extended Cut, the ending feels pretty OK -- good enough that I decided to do a second playthrough right away so I could tap some blue ass, anyway.


#97

bhamv3

bhamv3

Someone... someone modded out the bad ending? I didn't even know that's possible!

I may end up getting ME3 someday.

Also, is there a regenerating ammo mod for ME3? IE, a return to the heat sink system from ME1. I ask because thermal clips are STUPID and DUMB.


#98

HowDroll

HowDroll

bhamv3 said:
Someone... someone modded out the bad ending? I didn't even know that's possible!

I may end up getting ME3 someday.
Click to expand...
Yup. It's totally gone. They also added a little bit to the Extended Cut that Bioware released:

Shep's still alive, reunites with crew (including super brief scene with LI, if they're on the Normandy), EDI/Geth still alive


#99

Bowielee

Bowielee

Brad Shoemaker from Giant Bomb held off playing ME3 until he could play it with all the DLC and his opinion of the game is WILDLY different from those who played it straight out of the box. So much so, he put it on his game of the year list. That being said, he realizes, as do I that for DLC to be required (some of which is paid DLC to boot) for a story to be good is just horrible. I still haven't played through ME3 yet, and will be doing so with all the DLC, so I'm interested to see if I will hate it as much as those who played through it at release.

And isn't that really the danger of DLC? Making games that are incomplete unless you buy additional content. Asura's Wrath apparently did the same thing. The actual finale of the game was paid DLC.


#100

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

HowDroll - As someone who's not played ME2 or ME3, should I get this mod when I install ME3?


#101

HowDroll

HowDroll

Gilgamesh said:
HowDroll - As someone who's not played ME2 or ME3, should I get this mod when I install ME3?
Click to expand...
YES. Yes yes yes! Spare yourself the pain of experiencing Bioware's shitty ending altogether.

EDIT: Make sure you install both the Extended Cut (which is free) and this mod pretty early on in the game. There's a point of no return toward the end of the game, and if you don't install them before that point, you'll have to reload an earlier save.


#102

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

HowDroll said:
YES. Yes yes yes! Spare yourself the pain of experiencing Bioware's shitty ending altogether.

EDIT: Make sure you install both the Extended Cut (which is free) and this mod pretty early on in the game. There's a point of no return toward the end of the game, and if you don't install them before that point, you'll have to reload an earlier save.
Click to expand...
So just install it all at the beginning of ME3? Sounds easy enough.


#103

HowDroll

HowDroll

Yessir. The installation process is kind of a pain in the ass, but definitely worth it.

Also, if you haven't played ME2, you should probably get (at the very minimum) Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. Arrival is pretty good, too. Both add a lot to the overall story and are quite fun. Whether you should get the rest of the DLC depends on how big of a fan you are and how much money you have ;)


#104

Bowielee

Bowielee

Project Overlord isn't important to the overall story, but was the best DLC for ME2, IMO.


#105

bhamv3

bhamv3

For the paid DLC, I'd rank them as:

Overlord: Great
Shadow Broker: Great
Arrival: Decent
Kasumi: Decent
Firepower pack: Non-essential, but the weapons do mix things up a bit.

Everything else is Bioware going "I can haz moar money please?" Especially the alternate appearance packs.


#106

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Is it wrong that when I buy a game with DLC I tend to buy it all before ever playing it? I mean I've done enough research on the game to know I want to buy it, the DLC seems to be icing on the cake, and when I finally do buy something, it's been out for a long time and the total cost isn't even what the base game costs when it's first released.


#107

Bowielee

Bowielee

I heard Arrival was bad, so I never got it.[DOUBLEPOST=1362384383][/DOUBLEPOST]
Gilgamesh said:
Is it wrong that when I buy a game with DLC I tend to buy it all before ever playing it? I mean I've done enough research on the game to know I want to buy it, the DLC seems to be icing on the cake, and when I finally do buy something, it's been out for a long time and the total cost isn't even what the base game costs when it's first released.
Click to expand...
Lots of people wait for the GOTY edition before buying games because they will include all the DLC at a fraction of the cost of the original game.


#108

Gilgamesh

Gilgamesh

Bowielee said:
I heard Arrival was bad, so I never got it.[DOUBLEPOST=1362384383][/DOUBLEPOST]

Lots of people wait for the GOTY edition before buying games because they will include all the DLC at a fraction of the cost of the original game.
Click to expand...
Has ME even had GOTY editions though?


#109

bhamv3

bhamv3

Arrival's not bad, it's just not awesome. It's "merely" decent. They tried to mix things up by having Shepard go it alone, and attempted what passes for stealth in a Mass Effect game. They weren't entirely successful, but the add-on still provided me with a few hours of fun.

The Object Rho achievement though... that was pretty bullshit.


#110

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Gilgamesh said:
Has ME even had GOTY editions though?
Click to expand...
No, not yet... hence why I never bought Mass Effect 2. I'm not paying more than the price of the game in DLC to get a complete experience.


#111

Bowielee

Bowielee

To be fair to ME 2, absolutely none of the DLC is needed to make it feel like a complete game. As I said, the best DLC is Overlord and it's completely tangential to the main story.


#112

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Bowielee said:
To be fair to ME 2, absolutely none of the DLC is needed to make it feel like a complete game. As I said, the best DLC is Overlord and it's completely tangential to the main story.
Click to expand...
True, but you need to buy at LEAST two pieces of DLC to get the full story for Mass Effect 3.


#113

Bowielee

Bowielee

AshburnerX said:
True, but you need to buy at LEAST two pieces of DLC to get the full story for Mass Effect 3.
Click to expand...
Agreed from what I've read. I think that's shitty. I just feel like people are retroactively ragging on ME2 because of ME3, when ME2 is actually one of the best games I've ever played.


#114

Jay

Jay

bhamv3 said:
Arrival's not bad, it's just not awesome. It's "merely" decent. They tried to mix things up by having Shepard go it alone, and attempted what passes for stealth in a Mass Effect game. They weren't entirely successful, but the add-on still provided me with a few hours of fun.

The Object Rho achievement though... that was pretty bullshit.
Click to expand...
IMO, what made arrival horrible was the cannon way of ending the mission.

YOU GOT OPTIONS TO STOP THIS WHAT DO YOU DO???

1. Stop it
2. Don't stop it.

YOUR CHOICE IS IRRELEVANT, THE SAME THING HAPPENS LOLZ


#115

Jay

Jay

HowDroll said:
Yessir. The installation process is kind of a pain in the ass, but definitely worth it.

Also, if you haven't played ME2, you should probably get (at the very minimum) Lair of the Shadow Broker DLC. Arrival is pretty good, too. Both add a lot to the overall story and are quite fun. Whether you should get the rest of the DLC depends on how big of a fan you are and how much money you have ;)
Click to expand...
For those of us who don't give a shit about re-installing the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?annota...&feature=iv&src_vid=KU7XJdaz08I&v=SQEofXDuxAQ


#116

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

HowDroll said:
Aw, hell. At least a few of you guys need to buy DA3/ME4. I'll be anxiously waiting your feedback to see whether I should waste money on it. (If Bioware fucks with my husbando Alistair, shit's gonna get real.)

Also:
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/368/index/14795358/1

This mod makes the Mass Effect series playable again. No more Starchild, no more RGB. If I close my eyes and pretend really hard, I can go to a happier place where Bioware didn't royally fuck up one of my favorite trilogies. But seriously, between that and the Extended Cut, the ending feels pretty OK -- good enough that I decided to do a second playthrough right away so I could tap some blue ass, anyway.
Click to expand...

I'm definitely going to have to give this a try... thanks for sharing!


#117

Jay

Jay

Bowielee said:
Brad Shoemaker from Giant Bomb held off playing ME3 until he could play it with all the DLC and his opinion of the game is WILDLY different from those who played it straight out of the box. So much so, he put it on his game of the year list. That being said, he realizes, as do I that for DLC to be required (some of which is paid DLC to boot) for a story to be good is just horrible. I still haven't played through ME3 yet, and will be doing so with all the DLC, so I'm interested to see if I will hate it as much as those who played through it at release.

And isn't that really the danger of DLC? Making games that are incomplete unless you buy additional content. Asura's Wrath apparently did the same thing. The actual finale of the game was paid DLC.
Click to expand...
0I8gB.png


#118

Bowielee

Bowielee

Some games have done DLC perfectly, ME2 being one of them. Shadow Broker and Overlord are great, but just add to the universe, but don't have a major impact on the main story.


#119

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Bowielee said:
Some games have done DLC perfectly, ME2 being one of them. Shadow Broker and Overlord are great, but just add to the universe, but don't have a major impact on the main story.
Click to expand...
The skyrim dlc has all been fantastic. Well, hearthfire is kinda pointless, but at least it was cheap (and I actually do like the houses it adds).


#120

HowDroll

HowDroll

Jay said:
IMO, what made arrival horrible was the cannon way of ending the mission.

YOU GOT OPTIONS TO STOP THIS WHAT DO YOU DO???

1. Stop it
2. Don't stop it.

YOUR CHOICE IS IRRELEVANT, THE SAME THING HAPPENS LOLZ
Click to expand...
A portent, perhaps? One we all ignored, I'm sad to say.

I haven't played ME3 without playing LOTSB/Arrival, so I'm not entirely sure how the game changes without them. I have a feeling that, unless BW added on a fair amount of dialog to the game or changed things pretty substantially, anyone who started ME3 without playing at least those two DLCs would get a "Previously on Mass Effect..." feeling. Overlord was fun too (as were Kasumi/Zaeed) but seemed less mission-critical in ME3. You get to see characters make cameos but that's about it.[DOUBLEPOST=1362420286][/DOUBLEPOST]Well, shit. If this is any good, I might end up buying some DLC after all.



#121

HowDroll

HowDroll

Bah, it's $15. Fuck you, EA.


#122

Frank

Frank

If it's anything like that shitty Omega DLC, it'll be 2 hours long.

The ME3 DLC is either shitty, day-1 ripped from the main game content or shitty, shits all over the series even further lazy, bullshit, short DLC.

Both are terrible. Fuck that game.

I'll rate them like (sort of) Bhamv did ME2 DLC

Prothean - Insultingly ripped from main game content shitty
Extended Ending - Insultingly fuck you, our endings weren't shitty so we'll add nothing useful to the endings shitty
Reaper origin - We decided to lame-ass the Reapers even further shitty, also it's super expensive and short shitty.
Omega - Remember how we hinted at Omega in the vanilla game? It's 2 hours long and 15 dollars shitty, also we were too lazy to record any new dialog except for Shepard so you can't bring any crew members with you...not even Joker, he doesn't fly the Normandy in this.
Citadel - I don't know, but I do know if there's anything I've learned about Mass Effect 3 so far, it will be shitty and short. And holy shit I just watched the trailer. Fuck this fucking game. HEY, YOU NEED TO BE HELPING EARTH. NOW BUY SOME DLC WHERE YOU GO ON DATES ON THE CITADEL. FUCK.

I would have paid for DLC that removed Kai Leng from the game. He is the worst fucking character in all of Mass Effect.


#123

ncts_dodge_man

ncts_dodge_man

HowDroll said:
Click to expand...

Holy shit - Miranda's outfit at 1:43... :unibrow:

Though the guy at :46 is funny - "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight's performance is brought to you by random acts of violence."


#124

GasBandit

GasBandit

Jay said:
IMO, what made arrival horrible was the cannon way of ending the mission.
Click to expand...
Just so you know, "cannon" is a weapon.
"Canon" is accepted standard, or approved as true.


#125

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Man, the facial animations in that Citadel trailer are awful.


#126

Bowielee

Bowielee

I hated the Jersey Shore lookin' characters that they added in ME3. I haven't played much of it, but I know that much.


#127

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I haven't even played ME3, to be honest. I just can't bring myself to do it.


#128

Jay

Jay

How many times I finished Bioware games :

Balder's Gate 1 - 4
Balder's Gate 2 - 8
Neverwinter Nights - 1 (I did put up hundreds of hours on RP persistent world however)
KOTOR - 5
Jade Empire - 2
Mass Effect - 3
Dragon Age Origins - 3 (currently playing my 4th and all playthroughs include Awakening)
Mass Effect 2 - 6
Dragon Age 2 - 0.6
SWTOR - A month
Mass Effect 3 - 1 (with some MP)


#129

ncts_dodge_man

ncts_dodge_man

GasBandit said:
Just so you know, "cannon" is a weapon.
"Canon" is accepted standard, or approved as true.
Click to expand...
Well, they kinda shoved you into their canon, so it could have come from a cannon.


#130

bhamv3

bhamv3

A cannon way to end a mission would be something more like this:

s3-cnz-objectsimg3.png


#131

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

HowDroll said:
A portent, perhaps? One we all ignored, I'm sad to say.

I haven't played ME3 without playing LOTSB/Arrival, so I'm not entirely sure how the game changes without them. I have a feeling that, unless BW added on a fair amount of dialog to the game or changed things pretty substantially, anyone who started ME3 without playing at least those two DLCs would get a "Previously on Mass Effect..." feeling. Overlord was fun too (as were Kasumi/Zaeed) but seemed less mission-critical in ME3. You get to see characters make cameos but that's about it.
Click to expand...
Well said.

As for the DLC, if you didn't do Shadow Broker/Arrival, ME3 acts like they happened anyway. Doesn't even fill you in. The Batarians were going "you blew it up!" and I was like "what the fuck are you talking about?" I had to go read about Arrival to catch up.


#132

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

Jay said:
How many times I finished Bioware games :

Balder's Gate 1 - 4
Balder's Gate 2 - 8
Neverwinter Nights - 1 (I did put up hundreds of hours on RP persistent world however)
KOTOR - 5
Jade Empire - 2
Mass Effect - 3
Dragon Age Origins - 3 (currently playing my 4th and all playthroughs include Awakening)
Mass Effect 2 - 6
Dragon Age 2 - 0.6
SWTOR - A month
Mass Effect 3 - 1 (with some MP)
Click to expand...
Like Jay, I've logged a LOT a time into Bioware games. I bet you can spot the bad trend at the end. Here's my number of playthroughs:

Baldur's Gate 1 - 3 (Includes Tales of the Sword Coast)
Baldur's Gate 2 - 4 (Includes Throne of Bhaal)
Neverwinter Nights - 2
KOTOR - (working on it now... I know I know)
Jade Empire - 1
Mass Effect - 5 (Working on another playthrough so I can try out the modded ending for ME3 that HowDroll recommended)
Dragon Age Origins - 2 (Like Jay my playthroughs include Awakening)
Mass Effect 2 - 8 (Soon to be 9)
Dragon Age 2 - 1 (I barely finished this. Almost quit)
SWTOR - (Never tried it)
Mass Effect 3 - 1 (Played some MP with fellow halforumites)


#133

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Watched the mod ending. It was good. I wouldn't have been all rage if that had been the ending. My preferred finale would always be along the lines of ME2's finale, where all your choices drastically changed the final hours of the game.

But the mod's is still a better ending than ME3.


#134

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Azurephoenix said:
SWTOR - (Never tried it)
Click to expand...
SWTOR is probably worth at least two 1-50 runs through the game, one Republic and one Empire. I'd also recommend doing the Taral V/Maelstrom and Boarding Party/Foundry raids to get closure on the Darth Revan storyline.

Republic side, I'd probably do Jedi Knight to get the full story from that angle, as it deals with the Sith Emperor and his plans. This ties into the Revan stuff.

Empire side, I personally like the Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter stories.

I think it's kinda sad that TOR is a great single player game, but it fails as an MMO.


#135

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

AshburnerX said:
I think it's kinda sad that TOR is a great single player game, but it fails as an MMO.
Click to expand...
The problem was that BioWare literally had the wrong company "DNA" to make an MMO. They've never worked quickly, and they thought they would need to do something like what WoW did 7 years previously, but the modern MMO market has changed so drastically since then.

The only reason why WoW gets away with their slow content delivery schedule is because they've got such a massive built-in audience that likes WoW the way it is. No other MMO on Earth gets that privilege.


#136

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

It didn't help that EA all but demanded it become a run-away hit right out of the gate. It just didn't have the content for it. Once you hit 50, there was so little to do... it's ether PVP on the same 4 maps, rerun the same flashpoints on hard mode, or do TWO raids. Why would anyone stick around for that?


#137

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

AshburnerX said:
It didn't help that EA all but demanded it become a run-away hit right out of the gate. It just didn't have the content for it. Once you hit 50, there was so little to do... it's ether PVP on the same 4 maps, rerun the same flashpoints on hard mode, or do TWO raids. Why would anyone stick around for that?
Click to expand...
EA of all companies should know an MMO can't be an instant-hit when it's released against WoW, considering their own failure with MMOs in the past.


#138

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Quotemander Prime said:
EA of all companies should know an MMO can't be an instant-hit when it's released against WoW, considering their own failure with MMOs in the past.
Click to expand...
They really didn't have much of a choice. They dumped SO MUCH MONEY into TOR. It's never going to make it all back.


#139

Azurephoenix

Azurephoenix

AshburnerX said:
SWTOR is probably worth at least two 1-50 runs through the game, one Republic and one Empire. I'd also recommend doing the Taral V/Maelstrom and Boarding Party/Foundry raids to get closure on the Darth Revan storyline.

Republic side, I'd probably do Jedi Knight to get the full story from that angle, as it deals with the Sith Emperor and his plans. This ties into the Revan stuff.

Empire side, I personally like the Imperial Agent and Bounty Hunter stories.

I think it's kinda sad that TOR is a great single player game, but it fails as an MMO.
Click to expand...

I may give it a try after I finish KOTOR. TOR is free to play now right?

You know, I look at the insane amount of time I've logged in Bioware's games and that just makes me so sad when I see the direction the company is taking now.


#140

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

AshburnerX said:
They really didn't have much of a choice. They dumped SO MUCH MONEY into TOR. It's never going to make it all back.
Click to expand...
If only they'd do it so much as to sink themselves.


#141

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

Azurephoenix said:
I may give it a try after I finish KOTOR. TOR is free to play now right?

You know, I look at the insane amount of time I've logged in Bioware's games and that just makes me so sad when I see the direction the company is taking now.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it's F2P, but I don't know how gimped you'll be right now.


#142

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

Play ToR for the class stories, don't expect anything else out of it. Endgame is a joke, PvP is completely imbalanced, and last I saw you have to pay extra for more hotbars and to remove your helm graphic (they might have changed that, though).


#143

bhamv3

bhamv3

Azurephoenix said:

You know, I look at the insane amount of time I've logged in Bioware's games and that just makes me so sad when I see the direction the company is taking now.
Click to expand...
QFT man. I used to be a massive Bioware fanboy, they could do no wrong for me back in the days of ME1/2 and DA:O.


#144

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

bhamv3 said:
QFT man. I used to be a massive Bioware fanboy, they could do no wrong for me back in the days of ME1/2 and DA:O.
Click to expand...
Yeah, they had me hooked with Baldur's Gate, was the first PC RPG I saw to completion. I ate up anything they put out until Jade Empire, which I didn't much care for, but overlooked as a fluke. Then DA2 happened. I bought it, I played it, I died a little inside.


#145

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

I loved Jade Empire. It may have been a failed experiment, but it was still awesome and charming and had Nathan Fillion doing a terrible chinese accent.


#146

Frank

Frank

I remember one Asian game reviewer back in the day referring to how Jade Empire is the kind of racist only Canadians who don't think they're racist could achieve.

Then he said something about how if it was a take on African culture it would have characters named Spear-Chucker Motumbo or something to that effect.


#147

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

I wish I could remember what it was about JE that I didn't like, because I wanted to love the game. Chinese kung-fu RPG by what was then one of my favorite companies, coming off the success of KotOR? It sounded like a perfect game.


#148

HowDroll

HowDroll

I'm not terribly optimistic about Bioware's future, but the Extended Cut went a long way toward repairing a lot of the hard feelings I had after DA2/ME3. Yeah, the ending is still bullshit, and their handling of the initial outcry was just fucking awful, but they were willing to spend what was probably a fairly substantial amount of money to try to make it better. That tells me they still care about their fans on some level, so I'm at least willing to consider giving DA3/ME4 a chance. Not on release, and not until I hear that they're not complete shit, but I'm not writing them off entirely either.

RE: Citadel DLC, one of the biggest complaints about ME3 was that you really never got a chance to say a proper goodbye to your squadmates. I think the review here sums up my feelings on it pretty well (although I haven't played it yet): http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...t-3s-citadel-dlc-at-last-the-perfect-goodbye/ (Also, how weird is it that I now trust Forbes for gaming reviews more than IGN et al?) I realized the other day that I have a bunch of Bioware points on my account still from when I bought them in bulk a few years ago; I may end up picking "Citadel" up, since it's not technically costing me anything and I sort of want to throw a bender and get my squad drunk. (Cue "emergency induction port" joke.) I'll let y'all know what I think in a few weeks when I have the chance to get to it.


#149

bhamv3

bhamv3

Do you think there's any truth to the conspiracy theory that the Extended Cut was the original intended ending, but had been deliberately held back to be released as DLC later? Possibly paid DLC?


#150

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

bhamv3 said:
Do you think there's any truth to the conspiracy theory that the Extended Cut was the original intended ending, but had been deliberately held back to be released as DLC later? Possibly paid DLC?
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Honestly, that just sounds like EA hate run amuck. Anyone who has ever met Casey Hudson could tell you that the original story that he railroaded the original ending in sounds pretty much exactly like him.


#151

Frank

Frank

HowDroll said:
I'm not terribly optimistic about Bioware's future, but the Extended Cut went a long way toward repairing a lot of the hard feelings I had after DA2/ME3. Yeah, the ending is still bullshit, and their handling of the initial outcry was just fucking awful, but they were willing to spend what was probably a fairly substantial amount of money to try to make it better. That tells me they still care about their fans on some level, so I'm at least willing to consider giving DA3/ME4 a chance. Not on release, and not until I hear that they're not complete shit, but I'm not writing them off entirely either.

RE: Citadel DLC, one of the biggest complaints about ME3 was that you really never got a chance to say a proper goodbye to your squadmates. I think the review here sums up my feelings on it pretty well (although I haven't played it yet): http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...t-3s-citadel-dlc-at-last-the-perfect-goodbye/ (Also, how weird is it that I now trust Forbes for gaming reviews more than IGN et al?) I realized the other day that I have a bunch of Bioware points on my account still from when I bought them in bulk a few years ago; I may end up picking "Citadel" up, since it's not technically costing me anything and I sort of want to throw a bender and get my squad drunk. (Cue "emergency induction port" joke.) I'll let y'all know what I think in a few weeks when I have the chance to get to it.
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I wouldn't call a little extra VO and some still images a substantial amount of money, at least not compared to the development costs in whole.

Also, why you should never feel weird about not trusting IGN about anything.

ign.com/videos/2012/03/13/mass-effect-3-opinion-video

Fuck that fucking site.


#152

Terrik

Terrik

Frank said:
I remember one Asian game reviewer back in the day referring to how Jade Empire is the kind of racist only Canadians who don't think they're racist could achieve.

Then he said something about how if it was a take on African culture it would have characters named Spear-Chucker Motumbo or something to that effect.
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I have never understood this. Did anyone here playing through Jade Empire think to themselves, “Holy shit, this is racist?"


#153

Frank

Frank

I think you're misunderstanding what I meant poorly paraphrasing what he meant (which is entirely understandable). It's not purposefully racist, but like, un-PCishly racist in a slightly ignorant way.


#154

T

The_Khan

Frank said:
I think you're misunderstanding what I meant poorly paraphrasing what he meant (which is entirely understandable). It's not purposefully racist, but like, un-PCishly racist in a slightly ignorant way.
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Ugh fuck the PC police. On the one hand, "there are no parts for asians in hollywood and video games." On the other, "you had asian characters in your thing that were not 100% accurate with asian history. You racist mother fucker."


#155

HowDroll

HowDroll

Frank said:
I wouldn't call a little extra VO and some still images a substantial amount of money, at least not compared to the development costs in whole.

Also, why you should never feel weird about not trusting IGN about anything.

ign.com/videos/2012/03/13/mass-effect-3-opinion-video

Fuck that fucking site.
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Not compared to the development costs as a whole, yeah, which probably ran between 50-100 million, but writers/voice actors/artists/developers/testers/bandwidth costs/etc. all had to be paid. I bet it still ran in the upper six figures, and with no real ROI aside from the possibility of slightly higher DLC sales. It was mostly a P.R. move.

And yeah, absolutely, fuck IGN -- but what I meant by that was I never thought Forbes would be a trusted gaming site for me. Just goes to show the pitiful state of the gaming journalism industry.


#156

Frank

Frank

The_Khan said:
Ugh fuck the PC police. On the one hand, "there are no parts for asians in hollywood and video games." On the other, "you had asian characters in your thing that were not 100% accurate with asian history. You racist mother fucker."
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http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455965/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Shit's pretty yellow face.

It's as white coopting culture as things get.


#157

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

They've already stated they'd love to do another Jade Empire game, they just haven't gotten a greenlight to do it yet, thanks mainly to TOR and Dragon Age.


#158

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

AshburnerX said:
They've already stated they'd love to do another Jade Empire game, they just haven't gotten a greenlight to do it yet, thanks mainly to TOR and Dragon Age.
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Last I saw the ones who were most interested were the two running BioWare who left recently.


#159

T

The_Khan

Frank said:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455965/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

Shit's pretty yellow face.

It's as white coopting culture as things get.
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I have no idea what you posted. IMDB is blocked in china.


#160

CynicismKills

CynicismKills

The_Khan said:
I have no idea what you posted. IMDB is blocked in china.
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I think he's talking about most, if not all of the voice cast being white/not Asian. Not something that bothers me, really, but I guess it falls in the same camp as the Avatar: Last Airbender "whitewashing."


#161

T

The_Khan

CynicismKills said:
I think he's talking about most, if not all of the voice cast being white/not Asian. Not something that bothers me, really, but I guess it falls in the same camp as the Avatar: Last Airbender "whitewashing."
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is it like how most of the time if there is a white guy speaking mandarin in a Chinese movie he is most likely being dubbed over by a Chinese guy even if their mandarin is great?

And the fact that most Asian voice actors in America will have to fake an Asian accent?


#162

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

The_Khan said:
I have no idea what you posted. IMDB is blocked in china.
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That seems like an odd choice of things to block.

Then again, there's the comments section.


#163

Bowielee

Bowielee

Frank said:
I wouldn't call a little extra VO and some still images a substantial amount of money, at least not compared to the development costs in whole.

Also, why you should never feel weird about not trusting IGN about anything.

ign.com/videos/2012/03/13/mass-effect-3-opinion-video

Fuck that fucking site.
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God forbid someone's personal opinion be different from the hive mind.


#164

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Bowielee said:
God forbid someone's personal opinion be different from the hive mind.
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The problem is that the reviewer's opinion is irrelevant. EA isn't going to pay ad money to a company whose reviewer is giving them a bad review. There was some scandal about this a couple years ago where some reviewer was fired because he wouldn't give some game a positive review, a game by people who paid ad money to his employer. Hence why Frank didn't say "fuck that reviewer" or even the more popular "fuck EA." It's dictated by the company that doesn't want to lose its advertising revenue.

GameInformer's the same story. You won't see an EA game with a bad score.


#165

LordRendar

LordRendar

I think it was the Cane & Lynch review on Gamespot,where that dude got fired for giving a honest review of a terrible game.


#166

GasBandit

GasBandit

PA even did a comic of it.



#167

AshburnerX

AshburnerX

The guy who was fired from Gamespot for the Kane and Lynch II review later went on to found Giant Bomb, one of the few good gaming sites out there.


#168

SpecialKO

SpecialKO

Anyone going to the big review sites like IGN for games journalism needs to be rescued. :p

I love GiantBomb and Rockpapershotgun for reviews. Forbes is a little hit and miss for me. Erik Kain is great, and while I like how Paul Tassi writes, the extent to which his articles are good is clearly defined by how passionate he is about liking or disliking an aspect of a game. This isn't a bad thing, but since he's not introspective about that presence or lack of passion (why is he excited or not excited about something), games that he's less interested in talking about get a bit of a short thrift in his reviews.

I think Ben Kuchera at PA Reports is pretty decent, but he suffers in the same way as Tassi and he's not quite as articulate. But when he's on, he's really on.

For larger industry analysis, I recommend gamesindustry.biz. They're a bit inside baseball, but have excellent independent analysis by actual experts and experienced indie developers. Nicholas Lovell and Rob Fahey in particular are spectacular.

Gamasutra.com is also decent, but it's a bit more indie dev hangout/blog site than journalism/analysis site. But Lovell also does pieces there, and Leigh Alexander is all kinds of awesome.


#169

T

The_Khan

Quotemander Prime said:
That seems like an odd choice of things to block.

Then again, there's the comments section.
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China says it only blocks pornographic containing websites: Facebook, imdb, youtube, twitter, a whole bunch of other random shit (and a lot of not so random shit).

sites not blocked in China: pornhub, youporn, porn porn porn porn porn!


#170

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

The_Khan said:
China says it only blocks pornographic containing websites: Facebook, imdb, youtube, twitter, a whole bunch of other random shit (and a lot of not so random shit).

sites not blocked in China: pornhub, youporn, porn porn porn porn porn!
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Well, I can understand why IMDB is blocked, Michael Bay is on there.


#171

T

The_Khan

Ravenpoe said:
Well, I can understand why IMDB is blocked, Michael Bay is on there.
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and Richard Gere


#172

Ravenpoe

Ravenpoe

Also, can you imagine trying to control a population that has no access to porn?

You block that and there'd be a revolution.


#173

Terrik

Terrik

No access to porn, he says.

*waltzes off to a 'karaoke'*


#174

T

The_Khan

Terrik said:
No access to porn, he says.

*waltzes off to a 'karaoke'*
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A friend of mine said, "My husband really likes singing at the ktv by himself."


#175

Jay

Jay

The_Khan said:
A friend of mine said, "My husband really likes singing at the ktv by himself."
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You should do a "CRAZY STUFF from China" AMA somewhere on these forums.


#176

Bubble181

Bubble181

Just to reply to a conversation from half a page ago, I liked Jade Empire, but wasn't crazy about the fighting system. I really did prefer the KOTOR approach - more semi-turn-based, less forced one-on-one-dueling-style thingie. Dunno why.


#177

Bowielee

Bowielee

Loved Jade Empire. I've probably played through that game 4 times.


#178

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx

Jade Empire was one of my favorites.

It was also the only Bioware game where they allowed you to romance both the main women sidekicks so successfully, you get a three-way. Even Dragon Age, in which both women were slutty as fuck, never let you romance/sleep with both at the same time.

(The Isabella/Zevran/Leiliana/Warden four-way does not count, since it never involves Morrigan)


#179

Bubble181

Bubble181

ScytheRexx said:
Jade Empire was one of my favorites.

It was also the only Bioware game where they allowed you to romance both the main women sidekicks so successfully, you get a three-way. Even Dragon Age, in which both women were slutty as fuck, never let you romance/sleep with both at the same time.

(The Isabella/Zevran/Leiliana/Warden four-way does not count, since it never involves Morrigan)
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Damn me and my playing-a-woman ways! I never knew!


#180

ScytheRexx

ScytheRexx



Just in case you don't want to play though again. (Best to skip to around 2:20) Though remember, this was before they ever had real "sex scenes" so all you get is the implied triple romance.


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