Mass Effect 3

[Raithe]

No. The Shadows and Vorlons were pretty consistent throughout, and even the reveal of Lorien in the 4th season wasn't close to the level of Radiant Youth/Starchild/Godchild.

 

Because they thought it was going to be cancelled at the 4th season, JMS basically crunched the storyarc of the 4th and 5th season into one.. and then they got the notice that they were in fact getting a 5th year. So he stretched out the "post vorlon-shadow" war thing and sketched the "birthing pangs" of the Alliance. Kind of took a step back from that grand "elder aliens manipulating" and took a walk on "youngsters finally growing up" edge.

[entrerix]

is babylon 5 worth watching now? i've never seen it, but recently started watching star trek the next generation, and am finding it to be enjoyable enough.

 

i like some/most of JMS' comic book work, but have never seen any of bablyon 5 before

[Gorgon]

The effecs are laughable by today's standards, being what it is it's not really something you can look past.

[Raithe]

It's one of those things, the pilot episode has some really bad special effects by todays standards.. But at the same time, B5 as a whole helped break the ground for developing good special effects (for the 90's) on a tv series budget rather then needing a movie budget. I wouldn't say the effects make or break it, since a lot of it is more about the characters, the dialogue, and the effects of their actions more then big action flash. Although like any sci-fi show, they do have their action sequences and space combat.

 

It was also a break from standard shows in that JMS developed it with a plot that ran through 5 years. It wasn't episodic in the standard sense. There were a bunch of episodes you could enjoy watching on their own, but the majority of it was geared around a continuing flow of story and character growth - and that was one of the things that turned off some people from watching it.

 

There were some highly entertaining/enjoyable characters in it, especially as you watched them develop. It does come across more as an ensemble cast then strictly about a couple of heroic figures - although the networks insisted on one shift, that led to a bit more light put on the human Captain - But they still had the rest putting in a fairly equal shine in the long run.

 

The story runs from 2258-2262, based on the Babylon 5 space station. Set a little after an accidental war that nearly destroyed them, the humans try to establish a way to ensure that doesn't happen again by creating a place for all races to talk on neutral ground. The cast based around the human command crew, and the various "key" alien ambassadors and aides. So the five dominant races and then the assorted minor ones.. All shown with a fairly rich background and perspectives, all trying to get what's best for their species.

 

As expected, a fair chunk of politics kicks along, races that don't like each other, have gruge history, conspiracies and assorted fun and games. Throw in the reveal of a pair of "Elder Races" that manipulate the younger races in an ongoing war of philosophy (Pretty much the split of "Law & Order" vs "Chaos and Growth") and levels of xenophobia versus cooperative good. JMS hits a lot of political / social landscapes in the stories and does the usual sci-fi poke at "modern themes and events".

General exploration of war, peace, sacrifice, authoritarianism, free will, unrequited love, duty and all that.

 

JMS actually wrote around 90+ of the total 100 and someodd episodes, so it's all pretty coherent and tied together. And he put in a whole bunch of red herrings and emergency trap doors in the storyline so he could react to external pressures and demands (such as if an actor left or such like) and still have the storylines make sense.

[entrerix]

sounds pretty interesting, i'll probably get around to watching the first few episodes to see if i can get into it

[tripleRRR]

Babylon 5 is my favorite sci-fi TV series to date. While the effects are dated the story and characters are quite amazing. It's still definitely worth watching today.

[Raithe]

Babylon 5 is my favorite sci-fi TV series to date. While the effects are dated the story and characters are quite amazing. It's still definitely worth watching today.

 

Word of God is that the actors playing Londo and G'kar tossed a coin to decide who was going to be the "bad" guy ... and from a general perspective, they're both so well written with the way they evolve, it's hard to tell who you could say is "bad" or "good"...

[Giantevilhead]

That's pretty standard for a series about contact with various alien races. There would be imperialism, a VOC company, a senate and a council, xenophobia and racism, sattelite wars. culture wars, technology exchange, psionics.

 

How could you NOT have all those things.

 

You could do without the reapers since it's just a very tired shtick.

 

Except most popular sci-fi's don't have all those elements. Star Trek doesn't have them, neither does Star Wars, Stargate, Farscape, Andromeda, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Macross, Gundam, etc.

[Gorth]

Not just the popular ones, the best ones don't either (Lexx, Firefly, Blakes 7, Space 1999 etc.)

[greylord]

Just for irony, here's something of humor. Despite it's ending, you could actually GET to the ending of ME3 within the first day of release and it had at least a dozen (actually more like 20-30 at least) hours of gameplay to get there!

 

And they even had Multiplayer!

 

So how does Bio look now in relation to Blizzard?

 

(not that they really were ever competing, but it's interesting the outrage there was about ME3's ending, in relation to the Server issues for D3).

[entrerix]

server issues were expected by most people, no one was prepared for how bad ME3 was going to be

[Gfted1]

And there were Asians already on Hell level the first day. Diablo was killed within hours of release.

[Malcador]

Just for irony, here's something of humor. Despite it's ending, you could actually GET to the ending of ME3 within the first day of release and it had at least a dozen (actually more like 20-30 at least) hours of gameplay to get there!

 

And they even had Multiplayer!

 

So how does Bio look now in relation to Blizzard?

 

(not that they really were ever competing, but it's interesting the outrage there was about ME3's ending, in relation to the Server issues for D3).

 

Can't really see them as comparable though, Diablo 3 will stabilize and become playable as the issue is external to the produced game. ME3's ending is static.

[entrerix]

i know people who can get through diablo 2 normal difficulty in less than an hour

 

i went through normal difficulty last week, i finished off act 4 after about 31 hours.

[Oner]

server issues were expected by most people, no one was prepared for how bad ME3 was going to be

After Sovereign's "You're too stupid to understand our motives" speech, I did. And if you search long enough on this forum, you may even find the post I stated this too.

[GhostofAnakin]

Can't really see them as comparable though, Diablo 3 will stabilize and become playable as the issue is external to the produced game. ME3's ending is static.

 

This.

 

At least D3 can fix the major issues plaguing its release (ie. server issues, bugs, etc.). We're almost 3 months since ME3's release, and the ending still sucks donkey nuts.

Edited May 16, 2012 by GhostofAnakin

[213374U]

Can't really see them as comparable though, Diablo 3 will stabilize and become playable as the issue is external to the produced game. ME3's ending is static.

 

This.

 

At least D3 can fix the major issues plaguing its release (ie. server issues, bugs, etc.). We're almost 3 months since ME3's release, and the ending still sucks donkey nuts.

And the multiplayer problems haven't been addressed either. Poorly designed and unreliable store, ridiculous connectivity issues, mad lag, glitchy gameplay, etc. Most of those are in the game since day 1, and EA has done bugger all about it. Seriously, if anyone is still undecided, they should avoid this **** like the plague.

 

It's hard to imagine that Blizz will handle problems worse than EA has.

[Volourn]

"We're almost 3 months since ME3's release, and the ending still sucks donkey nuts. "

 

3 months later, ME3's ending is till better than most games including many other BIO game endings that don't get nearly the same flack. It's just cool to bash BIO noadays... yet still go out and buy/play their games. L0LZ

[zero_or_more]

After Sovereign's "You're too stupid to understand our motives" speech, I did. And if you search long enough on this forum, you may even find the post I stated this too.

As it turns out it should have been more like: 'Our motives are too stupid to understand.'

[Orogun01]

After Sovereign's "You're too stupid to understand our motives" speech, I did. And if you search long enough on this forum, you may even find the post I stated this too.

As it turns out it should have been more like: 'Our motives are too stupid to understand.'

The worst part of it is when I actually get into arguments with actual intelligent people I know IRL, that are defending the ending because they "perceive" the meaning. What I hear its "I'm using my own brain to make sense of this cluster****"

 

Can we put the Reapers on the Chaotic Stupid category?

[GhostofAnakin]

"We're almost 3 months since ME3's release, and the ending still sucks donkey nuts. "

 

3 months later, ME3's ending is till better than most games including many other BIO game endings that don't get nearly the same flack. It's just cool to bash BIO noadays... yet still go out and buy/play their games. L0LZ

 

Roofles.

[Blarghagh]

"We're almost 3 months since ME3's release, and the ending still sucks donkey nuts. "

 

3 months later, ME3's ending is till better than most games including many other BIO game endings that don't get nearly the same flack. It's just cool to bash BIO noadays... yet still go out and buy/play their games. L0LZ

 

I haven't complained, but then I haven't bought a Bio game since KoTOR.

 

EDIT: To clarify, no, I didn't pirate them either.

Edited May 20, 2012 by TrueNeutral

[HoonDing]

So, guys... what happened to that "true ending" DLC?

[Guest Slinky]

So, guys... what happened to that "true ending" DLC?

 

Coming later this year it seems.

 

[Nepenthe]

So, guys... what happened to that "true ending" DLC?

 

Coming later this year it seems.