Oblarg

Kreia, HK-47. TBH, I can't find an example of bad writing. Shouldn't the credit for HK-47 be given to Bio, Obs is just continuing the same shtick? Kreia was indeed a stand out character in K2, but the only one on par with characters in K1, plus she's a crazy old bitch with an incomprehensible philosophy and constant whining, how anyone can believe the PC wouldn't strangle her in the first 10 minutes is beyond me. Gromnir is right, Visas was the worst, by far. "On par?" The characters in KotOR1 were all flat and boring, with some *really* insipid dialogue (Carth, I'm looking at you), with the possible exception of Jolee who was legitimately well-written and even subverted a few of the standard Star Wars tropes. KotOR1 in general is lacking in insightful dialogue, and generally just plods along the beaten path of the "light side good dark side bad" with each character reflecting their alignment. Kreia blows every character in KotOR1 out of the water, and if you really didn't like the character I guess that's too bad for you, because I found Kreia's dialogue to be absolutely outstanding, every line of it. Then, in addition, you have Atton, who is an incredibly interesting character and a really cool take on the Han Solo-esque scoundrel, HK-47, who goes far beyond what he was in the first game (yes, it's a continuation of the personality, but the lines are unequivocally better written and the character is more fleshed out in the second game), Mira, and Atris. Even Handmaiden, Mical, and Visas, while not as good as the rest, have their moments. And, if you want to include all the cut content, Bao Dur has some really cool stuff towards the end. The fact that you think Kreia is out to destroy the PC means you didn't really pay attention to any of the dialogue at the end of the game. She's *much* deeper than that. And one of the great additions Kreia added to the game was by offering an alternative motivation for Revan's actions in the first game, retroactively adding depth to what was previously a pretty binary character.

Except for the fact that KotOR2 has better writing than pretty much any game BioWare has ever made.

I'd rate KotOR and ME about equal. Neither are as good as KotOR2. Both are better than ME2.

No.. it wasn't that they couldn't get home, it was that they had to be notified. The reapers are in darkspace (as in BEYOND THE GALACTIC RIM) and are currently in stasis (to conserve power given the only other source they'd have would be starlight and their internal fuel). The idea of the reapers is that one reaper stays hidden in the galaxy and wakes up every so often to check the standard tech level of sentient species, if they're at a specific point it triggers a pulse that causes the keepers to basically summon the other reapers to cull the galaxy and start the cycle over. As to the distances and tech thing... the only time we've seen a fight involving battleships has been the Citadel fight where most of what we saw was the ships being surprised and bum rushed. Although part of that is also dramatic license as most people wouldn't find two black dots sending light beams at each other very interesting. As to the "cultural individuality of tech", I think at some point in ME1 Soverign mentions that the Reapers specifically designed the Mass Effect Relay system to channel species along a very specific technological and Sociological lines so that they become dependent on the tech that the Reapers gave out. So Aesthetically things would probably be different, but in terms of mechanics they aren't to different. Basically it's how guns are now, you always know that one end goes bang and should be pointed at the enemy. I don't know, I think space battles in which you couldn't visually see the other ship shooting at you could be really suspenseful if done right. It's an opportunity they missed out on.

No one ever buys BioWare games for good dialogue, or at least no one with any sense does.

What's ridiculous about it? You're construing it as "evil monsters accidentally got lost and can't find their way back," which isn't at all the way it was presented. They had a calculated plan which had worked time and time again and which makes a fair bit of sense, regardless of you denying it, and the story is about the breaking of the cycle. There's nothing silly about that.

So? ME is an infinitely inferior attempt to copy KOTOR in a lot of ways, that doesn't speak well for ME. I'm not talking about flaura and fauna, I'm talking about the society of each planet and their distinguishing characteristics, that was the interesting part. As far as star forge being stupid, that's a matter of opinion, I was quite interested in finding out what that thing was. It was certainly a lot less stupid than a giant evil space toaster. It worked pretty well according to the game, but their system was completely idiotic. Considering how hard it was to defeat just one Reaper, all they had to do was come in and blast away all the navies and then do whatever they wanted. Also, how come the Protheans that survived on the Citadel didn't leave some kind of pictogram to warn everyone else? Don't even get me started on Saren. There are literally dozens of obvious plot holes in that game. There are dozens of plot holes in *lots* of games, it doesn't necessarily make the plots terrible. Most of them were fairly minor. And they did leave a warning, of sorts, in the beacons. The Prothean's didn't survive on the citadel, they survived on Ilos, and the way I understood it is that they just barely lasted long enough to finish the conduit. How Saren first encountered Sovereign is unimportant in the scope of the first game and intentionally left unexplained. It didn't bother me - I was hoping they'd expand upon it in a future game. They didn't.

So? ME is an infinitely inferior attempt to copy KOTOR in a lot of ways, that doesn't speak well for ME. I'm not talking about flaura and fauna, I'm talking about the society of each planet and their distinguishing characteristics, that was the interesting part. As far as star forge being stupid, that's a matter of opinion, I was quite interested in finding out what that thing was. It was certainly a lot less stupid than a giant evil space toaster. I found the Star Forge to be about on the same level of cliche as the reapers. I still enjoyed both plots.

They were a bunch of bumbling fools to start with, Simon bar Sinister could come up with a better plot to take over the galaxy than them. They weren't "plotting to take over the galaxy," and their system had worked pretty damn well for a very long time. Unfortunately, they waited too long/got unlucky with the Protheans, and a few managed to survive and cause an interruption. I see nothing overtly wrong with that. However, when it then turns out that they have no backup plan at all (other than making a human reaper to do...I have no ****ing clue, tbh, they never bothered to explain what good it would have been to fling another reaper at the citadel), the plot takes a serious turn for the worse. There were a number of directions they could have taken the series, some of them possibly quite good, but they ****ed it up, introducing the Collectors when they already had a perfectly good villain, and then not even bothering to make the Collectors particularly imposing (they have a grand total of *one* ship that can be destroyed by a frigate designed for stealth). It really just seems to me that they introduced the Reapers in ME1 without really having thought out a reasonable way for them to ultimately be defeated.

Of course it didn't. Or were you expecting the Reapers to abide by the same doctrines as the Citadel fleet and not rush in so it can take control like it actually did? The Citadel makes perfect sense, even with the codex statement. It wasn't a conventional fight, and was, as stated, unique and desperate. What other space battles in the game feature dreadnought class ships going at it? It's been a long time so I do not remember. Or is the only one you have to go on the Citadel fight, which is a situation where one should not expect that standard doctrines be adhered to. Space battles themselves are a relatively small part of the entire experience in the Mass Effect games. Unless you're hoping for the cutscene to actually include downtime during the cooling of the weapons. Might as well nitpick why people don't use the bathrooms. Oh come on, look at the distance the relay is from the Citadel itself - that's not at all realistic, especially according to the figures given in the codex. In addition, it's not following any "doctrines," the numbers follow logically from the projectile speeds and ship speeds (which is mentioned in the codex) - it makes no sense for dreadnaughts to ever be on top of each other.

Yes, the Citadel fight was cool and epic and all, but it made absolutely no sense with the figures given for the distances involved in space combat in the codex. Also, it would be nice if the entire "limiting factor in space battle is heat buildup" were to pop up at least once.

There's more than that, too - some of the scenes are directly contradictory to the codex. The space combat is supposed to take place at extreme distances, with dreadnaughts slowly pounding away at each others barriers while moving relatively slowly. This is in direct conflict with every space battle we've ever seen in the series, where the ships are nearly on top of each other and accelerating at absurd rates. I think it would have been really cool if the space combat took place with the ships far out of visual range - that's something I've never seen in a sci-fi game.

Yes, that bothered me too. I liked the emphasis of the first game, where humans were newcomers and not respected in the galaxy. They should have continued in that vein for the entire trilogy, it would make for a much more interesting setting. Hell, there was even all that nonsense about "genetic superiority" of humans in the second game. What the hell?

I disagree. It wasn't amazing, but it was good enough. There was nothing overtly wrong with it. There are lots of the standard genre tropes, sure, but things don't have to be gushing with originality to be good. The main premise - that there's a cycle of extinction in the galaxy driven by an ancient race of sentient machines - is perfectly fine and could even be somewhat great if they had taken it in a more interesting direction. Unfortunately, they shat all over it with ME2 and made the Reapers look like a bunch of bumbling fools. And now, despite the entire "trapped in dark space" thing which was the entire driving force behind the plot of the first game, they're attacking earth? Completely moronic.

No musical score is going to fix what they've done to the series' plot at this point. This is the worst possible direction they could have taken the trilogy.

Does "hyperbole" mean nothing to you? It was a very annoying mechanic that popped up again and again and again and serves as a great example of just how horrid the encounter design was.

Your attention to detail and use of specific examples is admirable. 1. Walk into room. 2. Enemies spawn all around you. 3. Die 4. Reload, position correctly for coming fight, win. 5. Repeat in next room. That was the *entire goddamn game.* It was painful.

How about encounter design which isn't absolutely horrible, to start?

It didn't depict the act about to happen. There's just as much atmosphere from there being a brothel than from directly showing a woman kneeling in front of a man. Sorry, there's no excuse for this.

Oh, come on, what purpose would that serve? It doesn't build atmosphere, that's for sure. The *only* reason BioWare would include a blowjob scene is for the sex appeal and the controversy. There is no possible legitimate narrative-based reason to include one, unless their narrative is really, really ****ing bad (knowing BioWare, though, this could be the case).

I really don't see any possible legitimate use of a blowjob to further the narrative. If true, the only purpose this would serve is to sell with cheap sex appeal and generate publicity through controversy.

For me at least, reading books is as much a tactile experience as an intellectual one. I don't think I'll ever really be able to use a kindle without feeling that something is missing. I'm sure, though, that in a generation or two paper books will be obsolete and unused.

Requires online validation every few days? There's another reason to not buy it. Stardock does fine with absolutely no DRM. Why can't EA do the same?

I don't see how this is necessarily a bad thing. China's leadership know that (eventually) cleaning up their industry is in their (and everyone else's) best interest, and if done right there's nothing innately wrong with a large city - in fact, it seems that it certainly could be a lot more efficient than many smaller cities.