Calax

From Geoff Keighly... who I can't take seriously since I worked at gamestop and heard his voice "I'm Geoff Keighly!" every 20 seconds for a little PR vignette for some new game coming out.

If that's true (and I'm not sure we'll ever know for sure), then it certainly paints Casey Hudson and Mac Walters with massive egos. It would also explain why an entire writing team would actually think that ending was good. I refuse to believe that a full team of individuals whose job it is is to write for a living, would all think that was an awesome ending to the trilogy. However, I could very well see one or two egos who think quite highly of their own work could. Yeah. I know somebody who says thtat Casey comes uff with a huge pile of "SMUG^tm". And I dont' know if this happened to anyone else, but when me and Der first finished the game, we couldn't skip the credits until Casey's name had shown up as "Project Director" (the prompt would come up and everything, but it'd just ignore you until after Casey's name had taken off). So him changing the endings because it has to be grimdark(!) is in character. Didn't really feel any attachment to most of the characters this time. Possibly exception being my "romance" option from ME2, but then she was the only one who ever cared about my Fish (and she didn't want to go back to the Normandy) I'll never understand why they dumped more or less the whole ME1 cast in ME2. The ability to play some of the same characters over the course of the trilogy is what made them so endearing in BG. But then the only memorable character from ME1 was Garrus, so it was probably for the best. Liara and Wrex. Liara is probably a more personal choice, but Wrex was arguably THE memorable character. Garrus was just the "Good cop confined by red tape" archtype, and it wasn't until ME2 where he gained a PILE more complexity.

Well you only ever see him what, once each game?

This is the internet... and besides, there have been people screaming at the top of their lungs that if Bioware gives in and changes the endings, they're setting a terrible precedent and will ruin the industry FOREVAR!

Happy endings ultimately leave the player feeling like they completed their quest. Evil is vanquished, good triumphs, and everyone goes home and has fun. Dark endings, if done badly, leave the people feeling like they didn't really succeed. Sure, they fulfilled the "Stated" goal of everything, but at the end of the day they still had everything they worked for die painfully.

When he learns he's being bumped for N7 and you chat with him, he'll doubt himself while talking to you and it turns out he's being bumped into N7 because he managed to pull off a PHENOMENALLY difficult mission (losing his entire team in the process). So he's sitting here arguing with shepard about "Am I ready" and you can either dissuade or encourage him into N7 (no real payoff either way...)

Thank you Canada, you've made my day.

And I'm saying it is. A major facet of the plot is based around the Genophage cure, which you only knew about because you met, and affected Mordin in ME2. And he wasn't even trying to see this, or the cure itself, without your intervention. And Maelon would probably have killed all the females before he had a chance to cure it anyway. Basically what I'm saying is, the first 1/3rd of the game would be impossible without ME2. Except the genophage thing isn't actually a part of the main quest of ME2. It was part of Mordin's loyalty quest and therefore optional. The main plot of the ME2, all the quests that you have to do, not the quests that you can ignore if you want, are not important for ME3. Thing is ME2 wasn't built as a plot driven piece. It's a character driven piece, and thus, all of the important parts of the game are entirely character pieces. And just because of your involvement with Mordin being optional, doesn't mean that it doesn't still happen. Maelon and Wilkes use the same research, and the game IN DEFAULT MODE assumes you did the loyalty missions, so I don't think you can just say "LAWL it's optional" and hide. Hell, Lair of the Shadowbroker was "Optional" and is still considered to have happened (although it's Liara alone instead of her and Shep), and Arrival most CERTAINLY happened. Except it's more like stumbling into DS9 during the season that the Federation was kicked off. You know that the guys in colored shirts are good because of pop culture, but why does the story keep flipping back to those annoying side characters? Why do they matter? Well, a viewer who saw every episode would know that those are actually part of the main cast, and their station is occupied territory at that point. Yes, a viewer could say that they understood the episode, and got the story, but they would have only gotten the stick figure version, while somebody who had a clue about the meta-arc would have enough info to be able to see the intricate tapestry found withing the series. Edit: and for the record, ME hasn't ever really had a mod scene The only thing I've seen, even on a quick google skim, is basic texture updates. That analogy is completely wrong since you would not understand the main plot of the episodes without seeing previous episodes. You would though. If I'd said Battlestar Galactica you'd be correct, but DS9 was a show designed around having self contained storylines with a meta-arc slowly chugging along in the background. Specifically for syndication. Thus each episode had a story contained within, and the average viewer could follow it without having to look up Memory Alpha in order to get the context for everything that is happening.

Every man has a breaking point... and when you've done three previous tours, you're probably teetering on the edge. http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/us/afghanistan-shooting-soldier/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

And I'm saying it is. A major facet of the plot is based around the Genophage cure, which you only knew about because you met, and affected Mordin in ME2. And he wasn't even trying to see this, or the cure itself, without your intervention. And Maelon would probably have killed all the females before he had a chance to cure it anyway. Basically what I'm saying is, the first 1/3rd of the game would be impossible without ME2. "Nice to have" is not the same as "crucial to the story." It's like the difference between Lord of the RIngs and Star Trek. You miss some very important plot information if you watch The Two Towers without watching Fellowship of the Ring. You can watch The Next Generation without knowing anything about the original series just like how you can watch DS9 without knowing anything about the two shows that came before it. Having watched the shows that came before help give you context and improve your experience but it is not necessary to understand what's going on. Except it's more like stumbling into DS9 during the season that the Federation was kicked off. You know that the guys in colored shirts are good because of pop culture, but why does the story keep flipping back to those annoying side characters? Why do they matter? Well, a viewer who saw every episode would know that those are actually part of the main cast, and their station is occupied territory at that point. Yes, a viewer could say that they understood the episode, and got the story, but they would have only gotten the stick figure version, while somebody who had a clue about the meta-arc would have enough info to be able to see the intricate tapestry found withing the series. Edit: and for the record, ME hasn't ever really had a mod scene The only thing I've seen, even on a quick google skim, is basic texture updates.

There's no reason why the Illusive Man and EDI couldn't have been introduced in ME3. Their actions in ME2 had little impact on ME3's plot. As for the Reapers the Collectors were building, they've been doing that for two years and EDI says that they still need millions of people to complete it. It's highly unlikely they would have been able to complete it by the time the Reapers invaded. Even then, instead of earth getting attacked by 1,000 Reapers, it gets attacked by 1,001 Reapers, big deal. I thought there was like 2 years between the suicide run and ME3....or something. And I don't think you could have gotten away with EDI and TIM being introduced in ME3 and had them be as effective. And not without SERIOUS retooling of the ENTIRE secondary plot of the game (that is "OMG CERBERUS!") Besides, two of the biggest deciding factors within the game are created specifically because of what happens within ME2. Maelon and the Genophage. And Legion. They should be self explanatory, but one thing I think should definitely be pointed out is that you could remove certain plot elements and establish them in ME 3, but all you'd basically be doing would be making ME3 into ME2 with less character work, and more "primary plotline" stuff.

I'll show up for 2/3 characters. As to the boss thing, I think it (at least on my Guardian) is more that a lot of your damage is based off having a good start. 90% of your boss fights will begin with him looking you in the eye and you can't use your leap attack. Meaning that some of your abilities won't get the procs from that they normally would.

No, we wouldn't. The collectors had negligible military force (one cruiser, which loses in a pitched fight to a frigate), and thus they never could have really competed that human reaper. They were a non-threat. More than one cruiser, and the cruiser tracked down and mopped the floor with the best frigate in the entire alliance fleet.

The thing is that ME2 provided two things to the story (well three if you count Miranda's family issue). It provided the Illusive man as a set up, and it provided EDI to the game world, which are fairly important in ME 3 (also gotta laugh at 7 exobytes I'd adult images hacked int Cerberus computers after they tried to recover her). However the thing with the collectors was still kind of important because it removed them from the equation. If we hadn't eliminated the collectors, we'd have half the fleet being wiped out by the collectors and a giant human reaper striding around earth like a Titan of Greek myths

Karzai might have been a puppet in the beginning, but he's managed to drag up a huge pile of support and slip his leash (so to speak) He's actively stated that he would back Pakistan if America went against them, is quite actively corrupt in maintaining power, his brother is the most notorious opium farmer in the area, and he's basically only paying lip service to requests from the US government that put him in power. What I said about the dude going nuts and killing 17 civvies was that the soldier was stated to be there to help rebuild the nation, and train it's own police force (we all clear on this?). Well, the issue pops up when a few weeks ago, somebody accidentally started burning Qu'rans because it's how they deal with unwanted trash there, when news of this reached the media, there were riots and killings of American nationals in a variety of Islamic countries, including Afganistan. So basically the US army expected the guy, who was already suffereing PTSD I bet, to smile and defend the very same people who were, a week before, screaming "Death to America" and flinging trash. It'd be like ordering volo to fend off trolls from a person who despises bioware, or Gromnir to fend off Grammer Nazi's from a 15 year old girls twitter account.

You want nerdrage? Forumites have decided to go to the FTC and file false advertizing complaints against Bioware over it's treatments of the ending.

Vega isn't a romance interest. He tries to be. And I'm gonna disagree with gorth. ME3 is railroaded in the sense that in every situation there's only really one start and one end point (with variation), but there is a HUGE variety of between points. While ME2 was more a start, middle, and end linear segment, with different strings of stuff to do (in a straight line) in any order.

I don't think they want to have to wear brown pants for six weeks.

I'd guess either he had a bad trip or an episode in a long running psychiatric series (maybe he's technically on meds, and the press junkets etc have all thrown him off meds)

One of the issues is that on this wide thing called the internet, it's very easy to be divorced from the realworld implications and consequences of your actions. The Lulzsec guys were basically a pack of **** who were yutzing around. They claim it was to show just how easy it was to crack 'net security, but honestly, when you read that their leader was using his skills to also live using four different identities and will hack a computer system to get free stuff, you can't help but think he wasn't just in it for "the lulz" or for "the betterment of mankind and the internet". Wikileaks is a different matter. They're VERY aware of the consequences, and are running through them right now. The issue is that the main/lame/sheep/whatever you call it when you're pissed off stream media exists to serve those in power (in the US anyway). We have Fox News basically fellating the conservative mindset, and everyone else is to worried about the possibility of "burning" a source that they won't actually report any good major story. That Rolling Stone piece from a few years ago about what was actually going on in General Patreyus' HQ is a good example. A few other news outlets probably had the story, but were refusing to print it because they didn't want to "loose their contacts" within the HQ. I think it's this daily show clip that digs into the idiocy about the Media.

do NOT kill me.

He'll be put in charge of the Department of Homeland Security knowing our luck... and all of a sudden the FBI has permission from him to bug your computer and watch all your salacious pornz. The thing about the 2 party system, and the closed primary system in general, is that the most extreme candidates will end up winning (after all, you have debate audiences yelling "LET EM DIE" to a question on dropping medicare), and then promptly have to reverse half their rhetoric in order to even have a chance of winning the general election. That's why the recall election in California was so interesting. You had candidates trying to be middle of the road, and in general being more moderate, in the election because they weren't filtered out by the polar parts of the parties they represented. Admittedly Arnie did get a surprise when some of his more... interesting propositions got killed both in the legislature and in the initiative system (which is broken as hell) showing that the population still had a leash on the government.

Reads the thing... I think you're right in saying that the entire thing was a character piece, and the developers treated it like a Plot driven game from the start. And agree with many of your points, but will fight you to the ends of the earth on "invalidates all the work you did" (In that "YES, it invalidated everything.

Well the reapers aren't acting like villains anymore... Well not as character villains