Why does everyone love *Blank*? I don't understand *Blank*!

[Spencer Petersen]

Bioware =p.

Boy, gona get a lot of hate for this, I'm sure... Well maybe not, now that I said it...

I second this. The way Bioware tells its stories is the most verbose and forced storytelling method in gaming. They have yet to realize that there is a way to make the player understand a plot point/detail/conflict without having an NPC drone into your ear for 15 minutes as you stand ramrod stiff in one place, occasionally stopping to click on colorful text.

I know the topic of "Is ME2 an RPG?" has been done to death, but I still have to ask, Is there a single choice in the game that actually effects how you behave in combat? You never have to choose between upgrades, never trade stats for other stats, never change your accuracy, never see how much damage you are really doing, never shoot for anywhere besides the head, never use stealth, you never make a choice in how you tackle combat. Its all go behind cover and shoot people. The levels are so linear you cannot escape this, and the way in which you interact with NPCs is so restricted you cannot make critical decisions when you need to. Why cant I shoot this guy in dialogue before he runs off and becomes an enemy later? Oh right, because the shoot option didn't come up. After playing Alpha Protocol, I guess I'm spoiled by a game where there is more than one option to combat than just cover based shooting and where the dialogue actually affects your abilities in combat.

As far as DA2 goes, the combat was fun, but the tedious pace and respawning enemies made it a chore to play and I never bothered to play past the deep roads mission. My tone in dialogue didn't make any difference with my allies, and the party system made it so I only seemed to interact with 3 of my companions for the entire time. DA:O wasn't a very good game either and suffered from the same problems of tedious pace and linear story with verbose and overemphasized exposition ramming (protip: the addition of a codex does not help your game, it just makes it more for the player to read).

I guess the main problem is Bioware trying to have its cake and eat it too in regards to its relationship with EA. In the end, EA owns all of the Bioware franchises and is in total control over hiring and publishing. Bioware tries to play it off like they are in charge of thier property but its not the case. They need to either get out from under EA or admit that they are at the whim of EA and their marketing department.

 

[ImSkeletor]

Everybody loves Christopher Nolan. I hate Christopher Nolan.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

You talking to me? I'm pretty sure you arent, because if you were talking to SomeBoredGuy, you quoted the wrong guy.

Both of you, him for attacking and you for agreeing.

I wouldn't say he was attacking, he was annoyed and was complaining about people in general who declare themselves unique because they hate X game.

It was a general complaint to a group of people, not singling anyone out and hoping for a fight.

Oh, and there's multiple people who agree with BoredGuy's original post.

 

[crudus]

I don't like regenerating health. The only difference between difficulty at that point is how much I need to use cover. It also takes away from people who like to explore levels.

I really never got that complaint about regenerating health, it isn't like the game forces you to not explore the area and stay behind cover. Hell now that you have regenerating health it means you can explore a lot more without the chance of getting shot to death when you have one HP from a lone grunt that you missed.

Well the game really can't reward you for exploring other than using guns (which it can't repeatedly do unless it takes your guns away at the begging of the level). Sure it can reward you with power-ups but most of the time it is just more shields or invisibility. Neither of which you actually need in any recent FPS.

I don't like regenerating health. The only difference between difficulty at that point is how much I need to use cover. It also takes away from people who like to explore levels.

This my friend.
I hate regenerative health which pushes designers to simply have you duck and cover instead of fighting.

I want to rush in!
I want to be Rambo!
Nope, not in Gears of War you can't. - It takes all the fun away from being a BAD ASS Space Marine.

Alternatively you get all the fun of a normal space marine, but those jackasses don't get names so they aren't important enough to have a game centered around them. In games like Halo you can rush in if you set the difficulty low enough or some other bullshit.

Well I'll see you regenerating health and raise you a save-scumming. Regenerating health gets tiresome, but I'd rather have that than breaking flow after every encounter to make a new savegame, just in case at any point I cross the unwinnability event horizon, or having to metagame my way through a tough fight because of low health. Health packs didn't promote exploration so much as they promoted obsessive-compulsive behavior.

That isn't a flaw in the design or anything like that. That is just player behavior(also why the quicksave button was made). I also never had a problem with something like that unless I threw the difficulty to the masochistic level which is kind of what you have to do in any game no matter the health system. Just replace every quicksave button press with a chest high wall.

 

[mechanixis]

Well I'll see you regenerating health and raise you a save-scumming. Regenerating health gets tiresome, but I'd rather have that than breaking flow after every encounter to make a new savegame, just in case at any point I cross the unwinnability event horizon, or having to metagame my way through a tough fight because of low health. Health packs didn't promote exploration so much as they promoted obsessive-compulsive behavior.

That isn't a flaw in the design or anything like that. That is just player behavior(also why the quicksave button was made). I also never had a problem with something like that unless I threw the difficulty to the masochistic level which is kind of what you have to do in any game no matter the health system. Just replace every quicksave button press with a chest high wall.

Chest high walls aren't really analogous to health bars though. You can have a cover system with a health bar system, it's just never done because cover became popular around the same time health regen did. I don't really have anything against cover if its done right, but the overly prevalent Gears of War model is a complete pain.