RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Gorgon]

 

Anyone know the latest on Dishonored 2. Was the PC port fixed?

Check out the latest Steam reviews, mentions of bad performance are actually fairly rare. Apparently, for some people, framerate dips still happen, but aren't nearly as severe. The game ran okay for me on launch and runs perfectly now so not much to complain about.

 

As it always is with these things tho: YMMV

 

More or less fixed for Nvidia cards I would say. They really should have waited, they must have known how dire things were. 

[Azdeus]

You can see footage of the cancelled DOOM game here:

 

 

Great Documentary.

 

I really would like to see DOOM 4 1.0, just not as DOOM, then again, I did like Hellgate London. Looking forward to the next part of it.

[Fenixp]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwE24fwZAOQ

Okay, hearing that WH40k: Inquisitor will be an action RPG made me go "meh", but this got me interested again. 

[rjshae]

I imagine Andromeda won't put you in the condition to make earth-shattering choices, just so that they can contain the scope for the future.

 

Perhaps the eventual survival of the human race will be at stake? *shrug*

[Azdeus]

Okay, hearing that WH40k: Inquisitor will be an action RPG made me go "meh", but this got me interested again. 

 

Looks good enough to try it

Edited December 13, 2016 by Azdeus

[Sarex]

http://www.pcgamer.com/mass-effect-andromedas-creative-director-says-you-should-probably-keep-your-saves/

 

They sure have a thick skin.

[Hurlshort]

That's good to hear, ME was amazingly good at making me feel like my decisions were carrying over to each title.  Best character development over a series since Quest for Glory.

[Zoraptor]

 

 

The obvious answer is going to Andromeda means they don't have to detangle the end of the original series.

 

The funny thing is that they will have to address this in the games to come, if any more are made at all after this.

 

Timetravel. I bet the next Mass Effect series after Andromeda will be about timetravel. Just so that Bioware don't have to do choice and consequence from previous games or come up with new setting.

 

 

Going by current industry direction there'd be remasters of the original Mass Effect series, then remasters of ME: Andromeda after that...

 

As it is if they do want to revisit the Milky Way they'll have best part of a decade (assuming an Andromeda trilogy) between the end of ME3 and any revisiting. Most will either have forgotten what they chose or not have save games by then, so problem solved and they can just pick whatever one they like. Can't say I really care much either way, so long as they don't go the Deus Ex: IW route and decide that all the endings happened despite it making no sense.

[Fenixp]

If they finally released them with full controller support for PC and brought them as GOTY editions with all DLC, I would not be mad at all.

 

The actual next step for ME series is a new game called Mass Effect.

"We really tried to capture the ... Spirit of what made Mass Effect great, while working on its shortcomings. Like when you look at the Citadel station, you see a vast city floating around in space with a vaguely phallic shape. We at Bioware thought this was just not enough - it's just a city after all, floating in space - so we thought long and hard on how to improve it. So in the new Mass Effect, Citadel station will look like an actual p**** which contains a city floating in space. And yes, I know what all of you are thinking: You can romance the p****."

Edited December 13, 2016 by Fenixp

[Hurlshort]

I don't get the whole hubbub over the ending of Mass Effect.  It was a solid series throughout, people make way too much about the last 20 minutes.  The cannon ending is pretty simple, the Reapers were dealt with and the universe isn't all that much different than it was before they arrived.

[Gorgon]

People will generally start a ****storm over very little.  You know, the internets. 

[Gorgon]

Remember back when the greatest crime on earth was that Obsidian redacted a backer's dirty limmerick from a plaque that maybe a hand full of people had even noticed. 

[Hurlshort]

It's just weird how quick people are to try and diminish their experiences.  It's interesting because the ending of KotOR 2 is actually what brought me to this forum.  It was a head scratcher and I was looking for more analysis, and I found some great discussions here about it.  I would never say that ruined the game for me though, on the contrary, the game was so good I wanted to know more at the end. 

[Zoraptor]

I don't get the whole hubbub over the ending of Mass Effect.  It was a solid series throughout, people make way too much about the last 20 minutes. The [redacted] ending is pretty simple, the Reapers were dealt with and the universe isn't all that much different than it was before they arrived.

 

I agree, more or less- and especially because a lot of the same people seem to like Deus Ex Original's ending, which was functionally identical- but there are some pretty big differences between the endings with respect to AI and the like. Having the Reapers stay around to help with reconstruction and everyone (?) being part synthetic is one ending, that's hugely different from having all AI destroyed which is another.

 

..cannon..cannon..cannon..

 

triggered

[Fenixp]

Eh, the ending of Mass Effect 3 was rather bad - even the logical gaps could be explained away by the Reapers actually being a bunch of idiots, but the ending itself was just the cheapest way to cut the story. However, for a trilogy as massive as Mass Effect, creating an ending which would not end up underwhelming would surprise me and I never really expected it to be anything groundbreaking, considering the main storyline itself wasn't.

 

And that's probably the most important bit - Mass Effect games were never about the main storyline anyway, so the uproar about the ending ruining the trilogy are entirely beyond me. It was always a game about characters, and I don't think I've ever seen a continuous videogaming trilogy which would give its characters as much space and such insane amount of reactivity through the games.

[WorstUsernameEver]

The ending of ME3 is pretty bad for a lot of reasons, but it's true that it shouldn't diminish the experience. The problem is that the stories of the Mass Effect series have been bad since 2, with issues that range from pacing, to theming, to simple logic. The series banked largely on its character arcs, and those character arcs were concluded unceremoniously with a (later to be retconned in the Extended Cut) "they probably stranded over a primitive planet and might have died there?"

[Wrath of Dagon]

Since 1 you mean. It's hard to think of a more ridiculous story line, children's cartoons do better.

[Tale]

Since 1 you mean. It's hard to think of a more ridiculous story line, children's cartoons do better.

I still can't get over a galactic government that consists of three people. And how screwed up even the idea of Spectres is. I get that they wanted to have their own version of Jedi, but it came across as a transparent rogue cop power fantasy. Complete with them taking away your badge later when they ground your ship.

 

At least there should have been some self-awareness when one of them turns out to be evil. But no, they just make another one and throw that at the problem. And then you've got Garrus whose entire character is to complain about red tape holding him back.

[marelooke]

I don't get the whole hubbub over the ending of Mass Effect.  It was a solid series throughout, people make way too much about the last 20 minutes.  The cannon ending is pretty simple, the Reapers were dealt with and the universe isn't all that much different than it was before they arrived.

 

The ending wasn't the worst part of ME3 imho. Most of the game just felt rushed (as in, they tried to pack too much into one game, not as in "unfinished"), like they suddenly went on a tour of all the "homeworlds" because they felt obliged or some-such and in doing so short-changed pretty much all of them except Tuchanka (that questchain was downright epic which made the others stand out even more). Especially Thessia was a massive letdown, for me at least. The Quarian questline, well, can be argued I guess, but they never explained why that sun was so important in ME2, I guess they had something more elaborate thought out, but couldn't fit it into the time constraints and dumbed it down to the cliché we got in ME3.

 

The way the original human companions (Kaidan/Ashely) were put in was also pretty ham-fisted to be sure (but merely continued the trend of them being idiots that was started in ME2, I guess).

 

The combat also felt "off", superficially it would appear to be the same as ME2, but it isn't, somehow, or maybe the general level design is worse, I'm not sure. Either way I finished ME2 multiple times on the highest difficulty (which I generally avoid in games as most games are very much unenjoyable on the hardest difficulty) while in ME3 I regularly found "normal" to be frustrating, or at the very least annoying.

 

Harping about the bad ending is just easy pickings, putting the other things that felt "off" with the game into words is just much harder. Overall I felt they should have done everyone a favour and broken their promise by splitting ME3 into multiple parts with more depth each. Or, dare I even suggest, made it episodic so proper care could have been given to fleshing out the major "pillars" of the story.

 

ME2 arguably had a weaker (almost entirely ridiculous) main story but still I played through that game multiple times, but I only played through ME3 once (on normal difficulty) and a recent attempt to finish it again, but with all DLC installed, just fitzed out.

 

But of course all imho ymmv etc.

 

EDIT: spelling

Edited December 13, 2016 by marelooke

[Gromnir]

am not sure why one would use children's cartoons to highlight ridiculous story.  stories used in kids cartoons is frequent better than adult fare, particular in fantasy and scifi context.  write for kids means you can't use anime inspired wacky plot nonsense to compensate for poor developed characters. can't trick a kid with fake depth or kewl concept.  we will gladly hold up the hobbit, spirited away, the last unicorn, song of the sea and the phantom tollbooth (and a host o' other kids fare) 'gainst storytelling in so-called adult offerings.  heck, virtual the entire chuck jones catalog is pretty much a slap in the face to those who would discount kid's cartoons.

 

HA! Good Fun!

[Keyrock]

The complete nonsensical idiocy of the ending to Mass Effect 3 aside, and boy was it a trainwreck, my main issue with the ending to ME3 was that we were lied to by BioWare.  They stated, many times, including just weeks before release, that all the choices you made throughout the trilogy mattered and that you would get a personalized ending based on the choices you made.  Turns out, that was a bold faced lie, a lie that was used in marketing to sell the game.  As far as I'm concerned, all the **** they got for the ME3 ending was completely justified (minus death threats, those are never justified).  

 

In lee treading over ground we've all been over news, Yooka-Laylee now has a release date and a new trailer:

 

Edited December 13, 2016 by Keyrock

[Hurlshort]

Your ending certainly was personalized, as people who died in 1, 2, and 3 did not suddenly come back to life at the end.  I would say it would be an unreasonable expectation to have personalized slides for every decision made over the course of three games.

[Humanoid]

I loathe ME3 and it's nothing to do with the ending because I'd given up in despair long before then. It's a little too convenient for its defenders to readily dismiss complaints with the throwaway "only the ending is bad" argument which attempts to sweep the myriad other issues with the game under the rug. The ending may have been the part that made the most waves, but no, the project had problems all the way to its inception, right back to the cynically parochialism it appealed to (which resulted in the cringeworthy "Take Back Earth" marketing).

[Keyrock]

Your ending certainly was personalized, as people who died in 1, 2, and 3 did not suddenly come back to life at the end.  I would say it would be an unreasonable expectation to have personalized slides for every decision made over the course of three games.

Oh come now, don't give me that ****.  Yes, technically a few of the choices you made, particularly in the suicide mission at the end of ME2, SLIGHTLY changed the ending cinematic (I can't possibly capitalize and boldface the word "slightly" enough).  The characters you met are glossed over so quickly at the end that it barely makes any difference whatsoever, the differences are just enough that, from a strictly legal standpoint, they did not falsely advertise.  The fact of the matter is that no matter how you chose over the course of 3 games you got 98% the same exact cutscene with you choice of 3 colors of explosion.

 

Yes, making a unique cutscene for each and every set of choices during the trilogy would be impractical, which is why they would have been much better off doing text and stills at the end, like what Obsidian did with Tyranny.  But big flashy cutscene at the end is what sells to the mainstream, I guess, even when said flashy cutscene is terrible.

Edited December 13, 2016 by Keyrock

[Tale]

I loathe ME3 and it's nothing to do with the ending because I'd given up in despair long before then. It's a little too convenient for its defenders to readily dismiss complaints with the throwaway "only the ending is bad" argument which attempts to sweep the myriad other issues with the game under the rug. The ending may have been the part that made the most waves, but no, the project had problems all the way to its inception, right back to the cynically parochialism it appealed to (which resulted in the cringeworthy "Take Back Earth" marketing).

My biggest disappointments were the derailment of Legion's character into the very cliche he was originally written to defy and the lack of any character arc aside from the DLC guy and the robot I forget the name of (whose arc was also pretty much the same as Legion's new derailed character).

 

A great ending could have made those something I just shrugged at. Endings can do that, it's just the way they are. But yeah, it's hardly the only problem it had.