Mass Effect 4 protagonist...

[redmoretrout]

I am amazed that Mass Effect still has a fanbase after the last two games. Whatever the next Mass Effect is, I sure as hell won't be buying it.

 

[DazBurger]

Hawke, with the game only taking place inside the Citadel.. Or Omega.. Perhaps both.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Oh, come on, Phlakes. Sunsetspawn's got a chip on his shoulder that might come from a somewhat defensible position, but I'm not as pessimistic as he is. Yes, BioWare is and forever will be stuck catering to the Dudebro camp for as long as EA wants to siphon the CoD crowd's precious, precious money. Despite James Vega and Diana Allers, ME3 was an enjoyable game. If you didn't want to deal with either of them, you didn't have to.

Pessimism comes from experience, and also, I just don't like my entertainment to be sub-par, and I will ***** about it when it is. You don't want to be in a room with me when someone brings up pop music.

And it isn't Tank and Boobs that bothered me really because I was, in fact, able to avoid them. The game just lost its spirit. It lost some in ME2, and more in ME3, and that still bugs me because I know where the series could have gone.

Anyone who complains is whining with a golden spoon firmly inset between molar and cheek.

Your passive aggressive name calling is noted.

The difference between us is that I'll call a spade a spade.

Prometheus stunk, the Star Wars prequels stunk, the ending to Battlestar Galactica stunk, and I'm not going to roll over on my opinions because people on the internet don't like it.

On a side note, Stargate Universe was actually pretty damn good, and THEY CANCELLED IT, so, you see where writing good sci-fi gets you. Dudebros for the win.

Aren't opinions grand? Say one thing and someone immediately sees it as a personal attack. Gosh, I'll make sure to refrain from saying anything that comes to mind, from now on. Wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, after all.

Really, Sunsetspawn? Passive aggressive? I just honestly think that considering how shareholders are all more or less salivating while staring in the general direction of every Modern Military Shooter made to date, we're seriously lucky to get what we have. It could be worse, believe you me. We could still be ten years ago, when "The Fast and the Furious" was still permeating EA's collective brain matter and pushed them to insert as much of the thug culture into Need for Speed as possible, for mass brand appeal. That was the lowest of all lows, in my opinion.

At the very least, Mass Effect has been around to give us a story, however thin it's become. Of course it's going to lose some of the first game's spirit along the way - the shareholders spotted a gold nugget and wanted to maximize it. Why do you think we ended up with Star Control-esque mechanics in the first place? Why Tank and Boobs? Why clunky quest design that involves Shepard being a creepy weirdo around the Citadel, listening to every Joe and Jane's private conversations?

Yes, the game has been casualized to no end. I cannot deny that in any shape or form. What I also can't deny, however, is that outside of that and maybe Skyrim or The Witcher 2, we haven't gotten that many quality narrative-driven experiences lately. I'll take what I can get, in the face of the industry being apparently busy catering to teenage fantasies about military life as dreamed up by boys who seem all too eager to go and blow themselves up for one flag or another.

Prometheus stunk? I'm sorry you feel that way. It was Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi and considering that, I thought it was pretty good. Noomi Rapace isn't a Sigourney Weaver substitute by a long shot, but it's clear that they weren't aiming for that, either. I, for one, was glad to see the first movie's initial locale reused to explore something other than the main series' premise.

The Star Wars prequels stunk? Yeah. I'll give you that one. As I've said in another thread, Lucas has lost whatever drive and care he had somewhere in the long hiatus between both trilogies. The first one is a labour of love at least to a degree, the second trilogy is a turgid mass of exposition, excessive CGI and clumsy pandering to an ill-defined target audience.

I can't speak of Stargate Universe or Battlestar Galactica, not having seen either of those. All I know is that the marrow was sucked right out of Roland Emmerich's already anemic premise in the movie, and that the last two series were mostly writers stumbling around, trying to stick Stargates where "Sliders" stuck portals ten years earlier.

 

[SpectacularWebHead]

Nah I say they should go Dragon Age Origins style and let you choose a race and class with their own tailor made backstories.

I actually thought an skyrim-esque adventure set in the mass effect universe would rock. So one main story and bajillions of side-quests, Getting to pick your own race, character and backstory and wandering around the galaxy. AND you should be able to buy and fly your own ship.

 

[deathbydeath]

I think the ending of ME3 shouldn't ruin the fact that the universe BioWare built really is ripe with opportunity and it'd be a shame if some publisher misstep ruined all that work by the development team.

You're right, the ending of ME3 didn't ruin the franchise. The pissing on the established lore, the jumping ship from an experimental rpg to a third-person cover shooter is what killed the series. But hey, they were critically acclaimed and won GOTY awards, so it must be awesome.

 

[Dragoon]

Nah I say they should go Dragon Age Origins style and let you choose a race and class with their own tailor made backstories.

I actually thought an skyrim-esque adventure set in the mass effect universe would rock. So one main story and bajillions of side-quests, Getting to pick your own race, character and backstory and wandering around the galaxy. AND you should be able to buy and fly your own ship.

It'd be interesting, especially if it was first person, but it just wouldn't feel like Mass Effect.

 

[Syzygy23]

With so many aliens, the last thing I want to be is human.

But all the aliens except the Hanar, Elcor and Rachni are pretty much humans with Hollywood rubber forehead make-up.

 

[Blunderboy]

Hmmm. They said no Shepard or Shepard 2?

Shepard 3.

What?

 

[mrkmil]

I think they should do a prequel about the turian team infected the krogran with the Genophage.

 

[fraszoid]

Having only played enough of ME2 to get the team together (also only have it because it came with DA2) I can safely say if I can play an Elcor for ME4, I'll buy it. The Elcor are the best race in the game, hands down.

 

[sunsetspawn]

Aren't opinions grand? Say one thing and someone immediately sees it as a personal attack. Gosh, I'll make sure to refrain from saying anything that comes to mind, from now on. Wouldn't want to hurt anyone's feelings, after all.

More passive aggression? Unfortunately I won't be responding in kind because I don't use passive aggressive speech when I'm belittling someone; I do it with aggressive aggression, and on this board that's a bannable offense, so I choose not to attack people at all lest I sound like a whinging sissy. I guess some people don't mind sounding that way...

wait a second, I see what's going on here. You've goaded me into being a passive aggressive washwoman because that's all that the board allows. Well played.

Really, Sunsetspawn? Passive aggressive? I just honestly think that considering how shareholders are all more or less salivating while staring in the general direction of every Modern Military Shooter made to date, we're seriously lucky to get what we have. It could be worse, believe you me. We could still be ten years ago, when "The Fast and the Furious" was still permeating EA's collective brain matter and pushed them to insert as much of the thug culture into Need for Speed as possible, for mass brand appeal. That was the lowest of all lows, in my opinion.

You mean they're not still doing that?

At the very least, Mass Effect has been around to give us a story, however thin it's become. Of course it's going to lose some of the first game's spirit along the way - the shareholders spotted a gold nugget and wanted to maximize it. Why do you think we ended up with Star Control-esque mechanics in the first place? Why Tank and Boobs? Why clunky quest design that involves Shepard being a creepy weirdo around the Citadel, listening to every Joe and Jane's private conversations?

Yes, the game has been casualized to no end. I cannot deny that in any shape or form. What I also can't deny, however, is that outside of that and maybe Skyrim or The Witcher 2, we haven't gotten that many quality narrative-driven experiences lately. I'll take what I can get, in the face of the industry being apparently busy catering to teenage fantasies about military life as dreamed up by boys who seem all too eager to go and blow themselves up for one flag or another.

I'm paraphrasing, but what you're saying is, "it's better than nothing," which is unfortunately true. I just feel that Bioware used to be a bastion of greatness, however cliched the games were, and now they're dead. I can only hope that some rouge studio can step up and fill the void, or maybe Obsidian can, but I'm still not totally sold on them as New Vegas didn't ring my bell enough and I haven't played anything else they've done. I won't touch Skyrim though because of the level scaling that Oblivion handed me. I guess I'm lucky in that I don't play video games much, so I still have plenty of old material I'm going through so I can verbally smash the shit out of all of the new stuff when it irritates me. I'm currently on a fully patched Gothic 3, Nehrim, and DA:O

And before you claim that I'm a jaded shithead, I am REALLY liking DA:O and I'm on my first playthrough. I can't wait to get through it so I can attack the 2nd one (better late than never). No really, I'm kidding, I'm going to give DA2 a fair shake, but I will crucify it if need be.

Prometheus stunk? I'm sorry you feel that way. It was Ridley Scott's return to sci-fi and considering that, I thought it was pretty good. Noomi Rapace isn't a Sigourney Weaver substitute by a long shot, but it's clear that they weren't aiming for that, either. I, for one, was glad to see the first movie's initial locale reused to explore something other than the main series' premise.

Spoiler

Actually, that WASN'T the first movies locale, which is just one of dozens of little irritating details that bothered me. The moon names were different (LV223 and LV426), and I'm sure that was decided late in the writing process because everything seemed set up for that to have taken place in exactly the same spot on the same moon some years prior but BOOM, trying to have a story end in a precise manor isn't easy. They would've needed the end to have been the engineer sitting in his big-ass chair with a chest-burster ruining his day. AND, there couldn't have been the wreckage of the Prometheus sitting there. But unfortunately, the engineer wasn't even in his own ship, and what was left of the Prometheus was sitting right next his ship

Believe you me, I REALLY wanted to like it, and even if we put aside all of the nitpicky things that bother me, the writing still isn't there there (because that dummy from Lost wrote it) and it was obvious that they were shoehorning in HORROR STUFF OMGS!!!1 but used CGI and it just wasn't scary. The characters are weak, the plot is weak, there are too many homage shots, and the black goo is far too much of a versatile, whatever it needs to be, plot device macguffin.

At least Mass Effect in its weakest moments had some likable characters, cause who didn't like Tali and Garrus, but Prometheus? I could not have possibly given less of a fuck about any of them.

The Star Wars prequels stunk? Yeah. I'll give you that one. As I've said in another thread, Lucas has lost whatever drive and care he had somewhere in the long hiatus between both trilogies. The first one is a labour of love at least to a degree, the second trilogy is a turgid mass of exposition, excessive CGI and clumsy pandering to an ill-defined target audience.

YES!! Holy cow did they stink, and it's because "yes men" were too afraid to tell Lucas the truth. To be honest if I were working on that project I would probably have been the same type of weasel. Just think about that cushy job with a salary that's well into six figures all while building your resume to include 3 Star Wars movies.

"Yes sir Mr. Lucas"

I can't speak of Stargate Universe or Battlestar Galactica, not having seen either of those. All I know is that the marrow was sucked right out of Roland Emmerich's already anemic premise in the movie, and that the last two series were mostly writers stumbling around, trying to stick Stargates where "Sliders" stuck portals ten years earlier.

Ohhh snap, I'm with you on Emmerichs getting robbed. I really liked that movie, but maybe that's because I was a tater tot back then. And yeah, the first two Stargate series were extremely uneven. SG-1 had its moments, but almost always only in the plot episodes.
The last two seasons were actually the best, and I know that sentiment usually pisses off the MacGyver fans because he wasn't in them, but the villains seemed much more real and terrifying.

Universe was very solid, with a slowly unraveling mystery that had me hooked. It also used actual physics in a lot of the stories. I was just very impressed with how everything connected seamlessly, from the small character interactions that cause the altered course of the ship, and the subsequent issues that arise from both. It's hard to explain, but when that show hit some grand slams in terms of plot webs. I still have the last episode on my DVR and I haven't watched it yet. How about that. I don't recommend watching it because of the massive disappointment of the cancellation.

Who knows, maybe it would've fallen apart in the final act, and speaking of which...

Battlestar Galactica was fantastic UNTIL it started coming to a close. Somewhere in the middle of the last season I realized that nothing was going to be resolved, but I stuck with it only to be horribly, but predictably, disappointed. Hope is for fools, I say. Battlestar Galactica is one of the contributing factors of my pessimism.

Oh, and I forgot to mention just how much I liked Farscape. In a world where it seems everyone is doing sci-fi wrong, that was done right.

And since you seem to know the genre, I have EVERY EPISODE of Babylon 5 that I inherited from my stepfather. Is this the pinnacle of the genre? How stoked should I be?

YAY! thread derailing

 

[Lrbearclaw]

EDIT: I would honestly love it if there was some easter egg hidden in it that gave some indecation of what happened to Shepard after the end of ME3--granted he doesn't die.

Think it through. With "Destroy" you basically send an EMP through the Relays. You also kill life on Earth. Logically, this would also knock out Life Support on the ships, meaning even though it shows him survive the blast(s), he would just sufficate in space with everyone in the fleet (and therefore the Normandy).

 

[Lrbearclaw]

Have you even seen the endings? The "Destroy" blast only knocked out all AIs (Reapers, Geth, EDI) and disabled the Relays.

Which were swiftly fixed. It didn't destroy ships, knock out life support systems, or do anything of the sort.

And as far as Shepards fate goes, if the games continue on the timeline (instead of being a prequel or a midquel) and use the Destroy ending (which is the only ending that leaves the future up to debate) then Shepard was found alive in the rubble of London (or where ever that 3 second scene of him gasping for breath was taken) if he survived at all.

So probably, the best easter egg for that would be a codex file that says Shepard was found blah blah blah retired from combat blah blah blah lead the galaxy into a new future. And then died. Because he's human.

Beatten all three. Finished #3 last week actually. Problem with "Control" and "Destroy" are they are both results he fought against. "Synthesis" is the 'best' ending because it gave hope and didn't end with a clusterf**k waiting to happen.

Personal opinion? Yup. But then again, if you are logical about it, the arguement makes sense. Why would he fight against Illusive Man trying to control the Reapers to do so himself? Why would he fight to end a war of Synths vs Organics just to wipe out all Synths himself?

 

[triggrhappy94]

EDIT: I would honestly love it if there was some easter egg hidden in it that gave some indecation of what happened to Shepard after the end of ME3--granted he doesn't die.

Think it through. With "Destroy" you basically send an EMP through the Relays. You also kill life on Earth. Logically, this would also knock out Life Support on the ships, meaning even though it shows him survive the blast(s), he would just sufficate in space with everyone in the fleet (and therefore the Normandy).

Going by the original ending, everyone wouldn't die. The massive EMP was just to whipe out AI. The catalyst even said it would kill only the Geth and Reapers.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Why not go back to Old School Bioware and let us make whatever we want: Alien, Human, Male, Female, And return the awesome custom background of the first game, but with some more depth based on our race.

I'd hop back on Bioware's side if they went with this.

 

[TaintedSaint]

Next Game

MASS EFFECT: Citadel Custodian
Follow the adventures of Janitor rick as he tries to figure out how a Vorcha got his head stuck in a toilet all the while trying to fill his 401k