Mass effect Trilogy

[Tigranes]

Volourn, you are timeless.

 

Let's maintain the vaguest pretense of remaining on ME, all.

[NOK222]

What do you guys think of the original ending Drew had in store?

 

Where the Reapers were actually trying to save the universe from entropy and dark matter (hinted at in ME2). And your decision would amount to: killing the reapers but possibly dooming the universe or letting humanity complete their ascension into reaper. Now I'm sure there would have been more variations, but I'm not too sure how I feel about this.

Edited October 22, 2012 by NKKKK

[Gorth]

It's hard to guess, as it would very much depend on how the story and idea implementation was executed. On paper, it would have helped to make more sense of the stuff that happened in ME2, i.e. human shaped reapers, weapons of mass (effect) destruction found on planets etc. If it would have been better or worse is a different (dark) matter... (oh,the puns!) I never really played ME1 (apart from a brief stint on an xbox360), so I don't know how events there would tie in with ME2&3. As it is, ME3 feels more like a replacement for ME2 than a continuation.

[Tale]

What do you guys think of the original ending Drew had in store?

 

Where the Reapers were actually trying to save the universe from entropy and dark matter (hinted at in ME2). And your decision would amount to: killing the reapers but possibly dooming the universe or letting humanity complete their ascension into reaper. Now I'm sure there would have been more variations, but I'm not too sure how I feel about this.

Different. Not worse or better, different. I say this as a guy that hates the ending to Mass Effect 3, so I think that would be pretty bad just in new ways. It still ignores the player's choices, one of the endings leaves absolutely no resolution, it brings in the question of "if mass effect and using dark energy is causing the heat death of the galaxy, why are the Reapers spreading around mass effect technology?" The ending of that is still the Reapers asking Shepard whether he wants to win or not instead of Shepard taking the reigns and just winning. But hey, it doesn't require godkid (to be fair, godkid isn't even required by the existant ending) or the Crucible.

[GhostofAnakin]

What do you guys think of the original ending Drew had in store?

 

Where the Reapers were actually trying to save the universe from entropy and dark matter (hinted at in ME2). And your decision would amount to: killing the reapers but possibly dooming the universe or letting humanity complete their ascension into reaper. Now I'm sure there would have been more variations, but I'm not too sure how I feel about this.

 

Depending on how it was implemented, or whether there would be more variations to choose from, I don't think that's any better than the ending we got.

[Volourn]

"7 times? Where did you come up with that number? I simply asked if you've finished Alpha Protocol even once."

 

It's a Codexian thing. Anyways, no, I didn't complete it. I don't like the game and I don't finish games I dislike.

 

 

"Let's maintain the vaguest pretense of remaining on ME, all."

 

re ME4: I doubt it, but I hope they all you to pick your race in ME4 and just go with a nice space exploration type game where you eventually discover a 'big baddy' (b/c all games need a big bad I guess). Make it more ST than SW. Keep the same character and combat systems but with more added depth.

[Amentep]

I have to say, I liked Mass Effect 1 enough (and to some degree ME2 and parts of 3) that I'd be willing to give a ME4 a shot, particularly if its not touted as the first of a universe changing trilogy.

[AGX-17]

Are there DLC that adds weapons and stuff to multiplayer only?

 

I so hate DLC...

 

They add "free" content updates to multiplayer pretty frequently, but acquisition is done in a collectible card game format. You earn points by playing and completing MP missions (or pay real money for Bioware points) to pay for booster packs that have random contents. So you do 6-7 missions (the worst part is that these rounds last upwards of 20 minutes and aren't all that fun, being a horde mode and all,) earn 100000 credits and buy that elite spectre pack hoping to get a new character or good weapon. The more expensive the pack, the higher chance of acquiring rare items. The top tiers "guarantee at least one 'rare' and a chance for an 'ultra-rare'!" that sort of thing.

 

I'm surprised they haven't gone with the Team Fortress 2 model and just put everything up for sale on an in-game store so players can specifically buy the items and characters they want. Valve has made so much goddamn money on that game since switching to the F2P model...

 

What do you guys think of the original ending Drew had in store?

 

Where the Reapers were actually trying to save the universe from entropy and dark matter (hinted at in ME2). And your decision would amount to: killing the reapers but possibly dooming the universe or letting humanity complete their ascension into reaper. Now I'm sure there would have been more variations, but I'm not too sure how I feel about this.

 

The story was around Dark Energy, the real-world physicists' theoretical driver of the universe's real accelerating expansion. Dark matter is a term referring to unseeable matter which makes up the bulk of the mass of galaxies we can see looking into space. Dark Energy will eventually win and the Universe will just keep expanding until there are no stars in the sky. One day, all the stars will burn out and the empty black void will just get bigger and emptier. All life and creation will end. This is the real-world theory for the universe's fate.

 

Anyway, the only way the original ending makes sense is if Reapers are some sort of Dark Energy sink, which makes no sense. The idea of forcing us to choose to save the universe for all time or save ourselves in the moment is an interesting one, one I'd like to see in a game, but the Reaper variation is simply nonsensical.

 

If it revolved around a choice between activating some machine that will reverse Dark Energy and result in what physicists call a "big crunch," returning the universe to its primordial state before the Big Bang (and thus allowing a new big bang to occur,) I think that would be best. Have the Reapers do what they do to guarantee the reversal as well as preserve the sentient races of each variation of the Universe for posterity while allowing the universe to continue existing indefinitely.

Edited October 22, 2012 by AGX-17

[Tale]

I'm surprised they haven't gone with the Team Fortress 2 model and just put everything up for sale on an in-game store so players can specifically buy the items and characters they want. Valve has made so much goddamn money on that game since switching to the F2P model...

Because lottery systems generate more money than explicit sales. They create addiction behaviors even when people don't get what they want.

 

They sell those booster packs instead using Bioware points, which are sold with real money.

[Orogun01]

The story was around Dark Energy, the real-world physicists' theoretical driver of the universe's real accelerating expansion. Dark matter is a term referring to unseeable matter which makes up the bulk of the mass of galaxies we can see looking into space. Dark Energy will eventually win and the Universe will just keep expanding until there are no stars in the sky. One day, all the stars will burn out and the empty black void will just get bigger and emptier. All life and creation will end. This is the real-world theory for the universe's fate.

 

Anyway, the only way the original ending makes sense is if Reapers are some sort of Dark Energy sink, which makes no sense. The idea of forcing us to choose to save the universe for all time or save ourselves in the moment is an interesting one, one I'd like to see in a game, but the Reaper variation is simply nonsensical.

 

If it revolved around a choice between activating some machine that will reverse Dark Energy and result in what physicists call a "big crunch," returning the universe to its primordial state before the Big Bang (and thus allowing a new big bang to occur,) I think that would be best. Have the Reapers do what they do to guarantee the reversal as well as preserve the sentient races of each variation of the Universe for posterity while allowing the universe to continue existing indefinitely.

[AGX-17]

I'm surprised they haven't gone with the Team Fortress 2 model and just put everything up for sale on an in-game store so players can specifically buy the items and characters they want. Valve has made so much goddamn money on that game since switching to the F2P model...

Because lottery systems generate more money than explicit sales. They create addiction behaviors even when people don't get what they want.

 

They sell those booster packs instead using Bioware points, which are sold with real money.

 

It looks like you've never played TF2, because TF2 items are purchased with real money exclusively. You don't get in-game points to spend on items. The only non-commercial way to obtain items is through random drops (unavailable to free players, thus incentivizing an in-game purchase,) or to permanently destroy them and use the resulting "metal" for trade or crafting (which is itself a roll of the dice.)

 

They also have a lottery system similar to the booster pack concept (which, by the way, was very likely the inspiration for ME3's system,) in the form of crate drops. This is also the main driver of the TF2 economy. Players will get "mann co. supply crates" randomly given to them while playing, and the only use they have is if you use a key ($2.49 US, the only way to generate a key in the game is by purchase,) to open them.

 

Why bother opening them? It's the only chance to get an Unusual hat. A cosmetic item that provides no gameplay advantage yet can be sold for up to hundreds of dollars in real money. The prospect of making a real-world profit is a much greater driver than the chance to get an untradable MP character class or item. It has been widely publicized that Valve has actually hired a real economist to study and deal with this burgeoning in-game market. As far as I know, EA has yet to hire a full-time economist to track booster pack sales.

 

I would not hesitate to bet that Valve's Mann Co. Store has generated orders of magnitude more revenue than Bioware points strictly for ME3 booster packs (because Bioware points are also necessary to buy DLC for PC versions of Bioware games, those revenues should be omitted.) I don't think either company will make public the sales figures, but the fact that TF2 has a thriving, ludicrous real-cash economy surrounding it (and a real economist analyzing it,) is strong evidence that it's a more successful system than ME3's comparably simple lottery.

Edited October 22, 2012 by AGX-17

[Tale]

It looks like you've never played TF2,

You wot mate?

 

Team Fortress 2

817.3 hrs on record

 

Of course TF2 makes more money than Mass Effect 3. TF2 has been out for years longer. And the active multiplayer base is likely larger. Valve makes science knows how much money off key sales, which are, yes, a lottery system. They're probably the single largest source of income.

[Cariannis]

I have two major complaints about Mass Effect 3. The highly over used auto-dialogue. Every time I turned around Shepard went on and on without my input. My femShepard said things I would never have picked for her to say (like flirting with Vega while in a relationship with Liara). Especially her interaction with Ashley, my femshep hardly ever acted in character or personality I gave her in ME1/2.

 

My other problem was the really (really) bad clichéd ending(s?) for Mass Effect 3. Everything that can be said about that crap ending has already been said. Only Shakespeare (or maybe

?) could come up with something new about that failure of an ending.

 

Besides those two things Mass Effect 3 had a crap ton of bugs. Mass Effect 3 had so many bugs I had to look on the game box to make sure that Bethesda wasn’t responsible for the QA. Why did my Shepard change guns after every cut scene? Why did I lose ammo powers after cut scenes also? Freezing up and shutting down of the game happened more than Dragon Age 2.

[NOK222]

Why did my Shepard change guns after every cut scene?

 

This isn't a bug, this is how the game is. It annoyed me how we had cool weapons and on cut scenes we had mother****ing Avengers and the crappy pistol. This happened in Mass Effect 2 only like three times, all other cut scenes had the weapons we had equipped.

[Mamoulian War]

Why did my Shepard change guns after every cut scene?

 

This isn't a bug, this is how the game is. It annoyed me how we had cool weapons and on cut scenes we had mother****ing Avengers and the crappy pistol. This happened in Mass Effect 2 only like three times, all other cut scenes had the weapons we had equipped.

 

Are you serious? What a bunch of clownshoes to allow something like this into the final release and not patch it yet :D

[Gorth]

I usually skip cutscenes as fast as the program allows, so I don't pay attention to such details. What did bother me (gun related) was that I kept pressing 'H' all through the game to make my guy holster his gun and run faster. Of course, it never worked

[alanschu]

Team Fortress 2

817.3 hrs on record

 

Of course TF2 makes more money than Mass Effect 3. TF2 has been out for years longer. And the active multiplayer base is likely larger. Valve makes science knows how much money off key sales, which are, yes, a lottery system. They're probably the single largest source of income.

 

I'd bet mountains of money that Steam trumps it by several orders of magnitude. And I agree that TF2 is likely a big money maker too!

 

 

@Gorth: You need to pull out the OmniTool in order to run faster.

Edited October 23, 2012 by alanschu

[Gorth]

@Gorth: You need to pull out the OmniTool in order to run faster.

 

 

 

Well, I'm setting myself up for a play through of ME2 and ME3 once I finish DA2 and the DLC's. I'll keep that in mind

[Oner]

@Gorth: You need to pull out the OmniTool in order to run faster.

 

 

 

Well, I'm setting myself up for a play through of ME2 and ME3 once I finish DA2 and the DLC's. I'll keep that in mind

Hm.. I think you didn't get it.

[Humanoid]

In the the latest instalment, I vaguely remember seeing a weird variant of the cutscene weapon problem. Whereas previously it'd be a simple matter of it switching weapons automatically, it seems ME3 has a thing where you're, for example, holding an assault rifle but the game uses the animation set for the pistol. Guessing it's an issue caused by all weapons being optional now?

[Gorth]

Hm.. I think you didn't get it.

Oh, I thought he was taking a jab at my computer

 

 

[Oner]

Hm.. I think you didn't get it.

Oh, I thought he was taking a jab at my computer

It's a Counter Strike feature/meme.

[Gorth]

Hm.. I think you didn't get it.

Oh, I thought he was taking a jab at my computer

It's a Counter Strike feature/meme.

Never played Counterstrike. That one went over my head

 

[HoonDing]

Mass Effect 4: Rise of the Necrons

[Nordicus]

It's a Counter Strike feature/meme.

*snip*

Huh, and I thought it was a Witcher 1 reference