New Mass Effect 2 Character

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

By the way, probable spoiler: Subject Zero is

Rahna, the girl from Kaidan's more or less traumatising bionetic classes. After he killed the turian instructor she stopped talking to Kaidan and probably turned into this... thing.

Aw, gee... huge spoiler.

 

 

Yup. I'd recommend /spoiler tag that

Keep in mind I said "probable", so it's not confirmed, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was basically her big secret.

 

I can't go back and edit in a spoiler tag, though.

Edited September 28, 2009 by Gorth
Spoiler tags added

[Purkake]

Not making it up as they go along CONFIRMED!

 

It will all come together in ME3.

[Maria Caliban]

Laughed a bit there, sorry. I don't know how anyone can really think they have more than two or three choices in how "their" Shepard acts.

 

No of course your right. Trying to have a character in your mind when your playing a game like this is all about trying to compartmentalize the bits that dont work with your vision of the character. And in many cases (at least for my character) there is something that is close enough to what you want to achieve. The less bits that are completely at odds with your character the better (and having to pick up this gangbanger certainly is one of those).

 

I'd say the problem is that BioWare created an undefined predefined character. The appeal of a predefined character like JC Denton or Geralt is that you don't have to have the same generic and bland personality and options that dominate more open-ended RPGs. Two of the most interesting scenes in the Witcher for me was when Geralt goes drinking with his dwarf friend and they talk about romance, and when Geralt expresses his frustration and feelings of helplessness that he's a monster hunter in a world where the worst monsters aren't lurking in crypts and swamps waiting to be slaughtered.

 

Both of them rely on the developers sitting down and saying 'this is how Geralt is,' which is something BioWare will not do. Instead we end up with a predefined character whose only traits are a vaguely

Edited September 28, 2009 by Maria Caliban

[mrmud]

I'd say the problem is that BioWare created an undefined predefined character. The appeal of a predefined character like JC Denton or Geralt is that you don't have to have the same generic and bland personality and options that dominate more open-ended RPGs. Two of the most interesting scenes in the Witcher for me was when Geralt goes drinking with his dwarf friend and they talk about romance, and when Geralt expresses his frustration and feelings of helplessness that he's a monster hunter in a world where the worst monsters aren't lurking in crypts and swamps waiting to be slaughtered.

 

Both of them rely on the developers sitting down and saying 'this is how Geralt is,' which is something BioWare will not do. Instead we end up with a predefined character whose only traits are a vaguely

[Purkake]

How to know your ad sucks? When even the supposed target demographic ridicules it.

 

It's pretty funny that even NeoGAF, one of the largest mostly-console forums, doesn't like it and games journalists mock it.

[Maria Caliban]

As far as I know, Will's spoiler is nothing but fan speculation.

[Purkake]

Even if true, it's super trivial and totally unrelated to the story.

[Slowtrain]

I'm trying but I really don't see the horrible writing in anything Bioware does. It seems pretty comparable to the writing in most games and better than some major titles that sell a lot of copies.

 

Bioware may not be breaking new ground in dramatic narrative in games, but they're not doing anything so awful that it merits an eruption of criticism.

[Purkake]

We just tend to have higher standards for them because they are doing RPGs and used to make awesome games at one point in time.

 

People just need to lower their expectations and all will be fine in the resulting gray-ish mediocrity.

Edited September 30, 2009 by Purkake

[Slowtrain]

We just tend to have higher standards for them because they are doing RPGs and used to make awesome games at one point in time.

 

It's probably just me, but I don't see a huge difference in writing "quality" from BG/BG2 generation of games to Bio's current crop. There are definitely gameplay differences, but writing differences...?

 

Maybe I'm just not as big a fan of the older games as some people are so I tend not to place them on a pedestal.

[Calax]

We just tend to have higher standards for them because they are doing RPGs and used to make awesome games at one point in time.

 

It's probably just me, but I don't see a huge difference in writing "quality" from BG/BG2 generation of games to Bio's current crop. There are definitely gameplay differences, but writing differences...?

 

Maybe I'm just not as big a fan of the older games as some people are so I tend not to place them on a pedestal.

Honestly, I think it'd be really hard to change the quality of writing for games unless you actually went out and found a new writer.

[Purkake]

Back then they were heads and tails above most other game designers, now it's pretty much the same, which is kind of the problem.

[Oner]

I still crack up every time when I remember a random barbarian in NWN OC saying "complex".

[Slowtrain]

Back then they were heads and tails above most other game designers, now it's pretty much the same, which is kind of the problem.

 

 

Maybe other developers are simply a little better at writing now.

 

Again, to me, the problem at the moment is that the game industry doesn't, for the most part, seem to feel that great writing is important to making a game. Maybe they are right, maybe not. I'm not judging that assessment.

 

 

My only point is that Bioware is no more or less a problem than others, and they are still better, in some cases much better, than some.

[Purkake]

I'm not saying it's bad.

 

My point is that more is expected of them because of their history, which is why people are whining about their writing and not, for example, Halo: ODST's.

Edited September 30, 2009 by Purkake

[Slowtrain]

I'm not saying it's bad.

 

My point is that more is expected of them because of their history, which is why people are whining about their writing and not, for example, Halo: ODST's.

 

 

Ok, Cool.

 

Like I said, I guess I just doesn't see their history as one of great writing. It all seems pretty similar. But that's probably just me.

[Purkake]

It's more of perception thing. Writing is one of the most important/memorable parts of most RPGs and since Bioware is pretty much a RPG developer(that made good RPGs) they are associated with good writing.(whether it actually was or not)

Edited September 30, 2009 by Purkake

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Well it reached the point where you just don't listen to the dialogue because it's incredibly boring.

[Purkake]

Well it reached the point where you just don't listen to the dialogue because it's incredibly boring.

 

So they're making JRPGs now?

 

[Wrath of Dagon]

I don't think it's a question of "Bioware writing" like all their writing is the same. Some of ME1 writing came off pretty bad, but it could be for reasons other than the writer, like it's pretty hard to write a quest when you're told it can't use any resources. This SZ video was just plain awful.

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

No, JRPG dialogue isn't boring. It's hilariously bad.

[Purkake]

No, JRPG dialogue isn't boring. It's hilariously bad.

 

I meant the skipping it part.

 

Also enough "hilariously bad" will eventually turn into "boring".

[HoonDing]

Writing in adventure games has only become better as the years progressed.

 

As for BioWare, they seem to be some people's favourite whipping boy along with Bethesda. I don't really know why. I've enjoyed pretty much every game they churned out from the beginning. *shrug*

Edited September 30, 2009 by virumor

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

I enjoyed their games too. I just think ME's dialogue was the least memorable I've seen in years.

[entrerix]

to me, the problem is that bethesda and bioware are sort of the Big Dogs of the western rpg world. So when the elements are not top notch, or even that great (ie decent, but overall ho-hum and boring writing) it's kind of a big let down. they are the only companies spending this amount of time and $ on rpgs, so my expectations are very high. if mass effect was created by a brand new studio with almost no experience and a small budget i would be HUGELY impressed. instead it was "pretty good", and I don't get to see anything better come out that year because we really only get on average one big budget AAA rpg a year.

 

i know this reasoning isn't wholly logical, its more of a gut thing. its all about your expectations.