Games The RPG thread

[benelori]

@benelori

Spoiler: major mass effect 3 spoilers

Totally with you on Mordin's death. That was the highpoint of the game for me. I wish Shepard had been able to go out like that.

You can make peace between the Geth and Quarian's; it's actually pretty good. And Legion has some really good moments along that quest-line.

You missed some great stuff with Garis. His mid-mission dialogue is some of the best dialogue in the game in my opinion. Lot's of jokes and awesome bravado. He's the next best thing to a Krogan.(though I really wish I had the option to get a Krogan.....)

----------------------------------------------

I'm fine with Shepard dying, but it was just the way it all happened that sucked. I mean, I obviously couldn't destroy all cybernetics(not with the badass stuff that happened with Legion) I couldn't control the Reaper's that would have gone against the whole moral grain thing, and the third option was to destroy all the mass relays and merge cybernetics and organics into something new which again not even close to what my Shepard was trying to do.(not to mention creates like a million plot holes)

So in the end I feel like the whole crucible plan was a great big fail.

No matter which option you choose your doing that little chode's bidding and I don't like that.

In a game about choice in the end I feel like I had none, I really wanted to say "Screw you you ghostly little douchebag!" and shoot him in his translucent face for creating the reapers and making me run around a forest in slow mo but yet Shepard just had to play along. Grrrrrr.

Spoiler

For some reason I never liked him...I liked the more aggressive Krogan type bravado, or the punctual and scientific behaviour of Legion or EDI...and I always had a full biotic in the squad, so Garrus had and has little chances....I might try him out though, it never really occurred to me to use him during the Krogan genophage arc...weird...

And that's good news...I actually kinda expected that peace is possible, but never had it because Tali was missing...but that's it, and that was the beauty of the choice heavy environment, and entire huuge war asset was denied in addition to the death itself...which brings me to the main problem with the end which was pretty narrow, and as you said never offered any real choice...

The thing is, that for an end of an entire trilogy this might be a bad ending, but who knows, maybe later Mass Effectt projects or DLC might tie in the endings and start in a new direction...so basically if Bioware makes it so that the ending counts somewhere, or if Shepard's entire life and the ending will count somewhere, then it will take off the heat.

---------- Post added at 09:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 PM ----------

If you seduce Jack being conciliant she actually has a turn of heart/personality. It can be interesting for ME3. I don't know.

It is....actually her personality changes are even more visible during ME3....though the old Jack is definitely there

 

[Jammin]

Spoiler

For some reason I never liked him...I liked the more aggressive Krogan type bravado, or the punctual and scientific behaviour of Legion or EDI...and I always had a full biotic in the squad, so Garrus had and has little chances....I might try him out though, it never really occurred to me to use him during the Krogan genophage arc...weird...

And that's good news...I actually kinda expected that peace is possible, but never had it because Tali was missing...but that's it, and that was the beauty of the choice heavy environment, and entire huuge war asset was denied in addition to the death itself...which brings me to the main problem with the end which was pretty narrow, and as you said never offered any real choice...

The thing is, that for an end of an entire trilogy this might be a bad ending, but who knows, maybe later Mass Effectt projects or DLC might tie in the endings and start in a new direction...so basically if Bioware makes it so that the ending counts somewhere, or if Shepard's entire life and the ending will count somewhere, then it will take off the heat.

Spoiler

I don't think anything is going to take off the heat to be honest. And it's not because all 3 endings are depressing, for some reason or another, it's because Mass Effect was about shaping the universe and all 3 endings take that away from gamers. So there is a lingering sense that a story we all shaped with our own hands was taken out of our hands at the end.

I mean, the outcry has already started for Bioware and it's that's going to get worse before it gets better.

In the poll from Bioware's website, that there is a screenshot of in that article, only 700 people out of almost 28,000 are ok with the endings.

I can't imagine anything will actually result from fans attempts to get Bioware to "fix it", not because an "extra ending dlc pack" couldn't be done or wouldn't be profitable but because it would be like very publicly admitting that they screwed up; and that just doesn't happen very often.

-------------------------------------------

The only thing that gives me hope that Bioware might actually do something to try and remedy the situation is that they haven't said much of anything defending the ending. So perhaps internally some of them were not entirely on-board with ending the series this way or are at the very least now questioning this creative direction.

Because the only word to come from anybody involved as of yet is from the producer Michael Gamble via twitter and all he said was...

"By the way... I am reading all of your thoughts. Just not ready to comment yet."​

If they really are reading what's being said by fans maybe it isn't too late because not all of the feedback is just incoherent fan raging. Some are rather eloquent and concise. Like this bit from the original poster of that poll. It's pretty much a calm, rational, and specific explanation of exactly why so many are so disappointed.

 

[Shinsatsu]

Just finished Mass Effect 3. Also, finished reading all of your thoughts.
I can understand how some of you aren't big fans of such endings... I liked the ending I got. The last choice part was amazing and it felt like a true RPG. I never expected ME3 to be better than all the previous ones!
The story was great except for some details that you guys mentioned. The races separate issues and stories were terrific... The game-play was awesome too ^^ especially those huge fights.

I ended up spending a lot of time on this game. Insanity difficulty made me lose so much time too -_-

If I were to rate this game, I'd say 9.5/10.
Considering what Bioware did with Dragon Age.

 

[Jammin]

I think 95% of it was the potential of the series fully realized.

I really can't say enough good things about it with the exception of the about 5% but to me that 5% somehow miraculously managed to not only taint ME3 but all the previous games as well.

Spoiler: This sums up perfectly why I think that *Mass Effect 3 SPOILERS*

I don't really expect Bioware to change the ending though. In the end all the choices I made, over the course of 3 games, were utterly meaningless; which to me removes the entire appeal of the series as a whole. It is what it is. I think it sucks but what's done is done. Time to move on.

If I was to rate ME3 I would have to give it a 7/10, and I would caution any who are going to play it to rent(not buy)if they can.

 

[Gats]

Huh there are some people who rate it 4/10 or less only because of the ending, while the rest is exceptionnal for them. I guess testing games is really not something which can be shared.

 

[Shinsatsu]

Spoiler

I think a lot of people like those "boom you win, and happily ever after endings"... But ME3 had to have a similar ending. The enemy is too powerful to be beaten in the old fashioned way. And the main character is too perfect to stay alive. That's why I think that the ending of ME3 was good.

 

[Jammin]

Spoiler

I think a lot of people like those "boom you win, and happily ever after endings"... But ME3 had to have a similar ending. The enemy is too powerful to be beaten in the old fashioned way. And the main character is too perfect to stay alive. That's why I think that the ending of ME3 was good.

Spoiler: Mass Effect 3 Spoilers

Opinions differ, I realize that, and that's fine; I am happy for you.(the fact that you are not experiencing the same sense of disappointment is definitely a good thing) The criticisms I have for the ending of Mass Effect 3 are in no way ever meant to criticize those who do like it but.....

The issue for me is there is only one ending with slight variations and none of my decisions played into it. I would not mind if the ending didn't suit my tastes,or if Shepard died. In fact the whole crew of the Normandy could have died and I would have been fine with it; I could probably even get past all the plot holes which that video I linked to goes over.

What I can't be fine with, or get over, is the fact that nothing you do matters in the end. Making all the decisions across the series completely pointless and reducing replayability of all 3 games to near zero. A narrative defined by choice is to me what elevated Mass Effect above being just a pretty but mediocre 3rd person shooter but if the choices don't matter...... then they aren't really choices at all. So where does that leave the series?

 

[benelori]

Just finished Mass Effect 3. Also, finished reading all of your thoughts.
I can understand how some of you aren't big fans of such endings... I liked the ending I got. The last choice part was amazing and it felt like a true RPG. I never expected ME3 to be better than all the previous ones!
The story was great except for some details that you guys mentioned. The races separate issues and stories were terrific... The game-play was awesome too ^^ especially those huge fights.

I ended up spending a lot of time on this game. Insanity difficulty made me lose so much time too -_-

If I were to rate this game, I'd say 9.5/10.
Considering what Bioware did with Dragon Age.

Spoiler

I haven't played on Insanity yet, and I'm sooo looking forward to those "zerg" rushes in the last battle on earth....awesome...but I'm really afraid I won't be able to defeat Kai Leng's phantoms

---------- Post added at 05:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:02 PM ----------

Spoiler: Mass Effect 3 Spoilers

Opinions differ, I realize that, and that's fine; I am happy for you.(the fact that you are not experiencing the same sense of disappointment is definitely a good thing) The criticisms I have for the ending of Mass Effect 3 are in no way ever meant to criticize those who do like but.....

The issue for me is there is only one ending with slight variations and none of my decisions played into it. I would not mind if the ending didn't suit my tastes,or if Shepard died. In fact the whole crew of the Normandy could have died and I would have been fine with it; I could probably even get past all the plot holes which that video I linked to goes over.

What I can't be fine with, or get over, is the fact that nothing you do matters in the end. Making all the decisions across the series completely pointless and reducing replayability of all 3 games to near zero. A narrative defined by choice is to me what elevated Mass Effect above being just a pretty but mediocre 3rd person shooter but if the choices don't matter...... then they aren't really choices at all. So where does that leave the series?

Spoiler

Funnily enough the ending didn't kill the replay value of the game for me...even in previous games I always ended up with the perfect paragon ending, except my very first Shepard....and that's whom I used in ME3...
Of course I will wait for some additional DLCs, the import face bug-fix, and some patches, and then I'm gonna replay the entire game, but this time with Tali in it, as a love interest too...cuz my original Shepard lost Tali in the suicide mission....

But after the face import bug-fix arrives....I will finally be able to bring my baldy Shepard into action

 

[Shinsatsu]

@bene: I played as a sniper with tactical cloak and everything. Combined with my aiming skills, I defeated him in a single try

 

[zelllogan]

Just finished mass effect 3 right now.
Good parts:
- just epic & spectacular: The mission about the genophage is one of the most impressive run I had in a game. The game is really impressive
- Good dialogues, Great choices to do

Bad Parts:
- No gamepad support on PC. Seriously ?
- Import a save from mass effect 2 can be a nightmare
- And the very worst: Multiplayer which affect the offline story ? WTF ? Plus, the multiplayer game is just not good enough. I don't even think it's possible to have the perfect ending without multiplayer, DLC or whatever

Note: A massive 17/20. Not perfect but a game I will remember for a long time. There are some games I know I will remember for years & it's one of them. And I'm also glad that Bioware didn't pull a "Dragon Age 2" on us.

About the ending:

Spoiler

I choose the middlepath between the 3 options at the end because I thought it was the most logical ending. Everyone in peace, synthetic & organic life merged. And I felt kinda bad about what I had to do to the entire Geth race ...
I never expected a true happy ending anyway with everyone going back to home happy & in one piece. It wouldn't fit.

But I would have liked to know what happened to all allies & species after the end game.
Example:
- I cured the genophage. I expected some remarks about it. At least some text at the end.
- Tali & Garrus were together ... so a small remark about children or something

But I did love the small sequence after the credits: Shepard is a legend: the shepard.

 

[Gats]

Just finished mass effect 3 right now.
Good parts:
- just epic & spectacular: The mission about the genophage is one of the most impressive run I had in a game. The game is really impressive
- Good dialogues, Great choices to do

Bad Parts:
- No gamepad support on PC. Seriously ?
- Import a save from mass effect 2 can be a nightmare
- And the very worst: Multiplayer which affect the offline story ? WTF ? Plus, the multiplayer game is just not good enough. I don't even think it's possible to have the perfect ending without multiplayer, DLC or whatever

Note: A massive 17/20. Not perfect but a game I will remember for a long time. There are some games I know I will remember for years & it's one of them. And I'm also glad that Bioware didn't pull a "Dragon Age 2" on us.

About the ending:

Spoiler

I choose the middlepath between the 3 options at the end because I thought it was the most logical ending. Everyone in peace, synthetic & organic life merged. And I felt kinda bad about what I had to do to the entire Geth race ...
I never expected a true happy ending anyway with everyone going back to home happy & in one piece. It wouldn't fit.

But I would have liked to know what happened to all allies & species after the end game.
Example:
- I cured the genophage. I expected some remarks about it. At least some text at the end.
- Tali & Garrus were together ... so a small remark about children or something

But I did love the small sequence after the credits: Shepard is a legend: the shepard.

I fail to see how a gamepad is supposed to be better for TPS on PC.

 

[zelllogan]

I fail to see how a gamepad is supposed to be better for TPS on PC.

For comfort reason, I always prefer a gamepad. keyboard + mouse is giving me pain at my wrist.
Plus, if you play an adept or someone who fight in close quarter, it's hardly a TPS.

 

[Gats]

A Mass effect 3 DLC is coming for....Final Fantasy XIII-2.
So we'll have FF characters with clothes/armors from ME3.



Ready to pay for that ?

 

[Jammin]

I've played a little Tales of Graces F this week. It's an fine game. I think critics are overrating it big time though.

The combat system doesn't feel as customizable as previous Tales games. Mainly because you have 4 heavy attacks(or B artes) that you can choose in the conventional style and the rest are lighter attacks that you can't tweak at all (A artes) and there are no normal attacks anymore. So there really is no penalty for throwing your strongest technique out 20 times a fight. Artes instead use quickly regenerating CP, but only really to prevent pure button mashing.

The lack of legit world map also detracts quite a bit from the experience for me because you can't really get a feel for the landscape, but it is a port of a Wii game so that's to be expected I suppose.

It had quite an extensive crafting system too, but it was a little unbalanced. Making it very easy to make uberweapons and uberarmor pretty early on and upgrade the hell out of them.

It's also yet another Tales game without any kind of affection system, like tales of Symphonia had, so player actions have no effect on how characters regard the main character.

Another interesting creative decision was the titles. Basically all artes and major ability upgrades are gained through by devoting SP to titles, you still level but that seems to be base stats only. Each title has 5 tiers, and each tier awards you with an ability, arte, or extra costume. I like this idea but the sheer number of titles kind of diminishes their value. I think they would have been better off with 25 titles with 20 tiers instead of 100 with 5 which is about how many there are per character.

Overall I thought it was a reasonably fun but extremely easy game that doesn't quite live up to the hype.

A Mass effect 3 DLC is coming for....Final Fantasy XIII-2.
So we'll have FF characters with clothes/armors from ME3.



Ready to pay for that ?

How was Final Fantasy XIII-2 anyway? I kinda just ignored it because I hated Final Fantasy XIII so much.

 

[Gats]

I didn't play FF XIII-2, Jammin, just read the test/review and saw some videos. From what I understood, the developers corrected (or tried) everything they did wrong (sometimes overdid it) in the first one.

So you don't have 20h of corridors and stuff like that. Since the story is based on time travel, you're visiting the same places (I don't know how various they are) at different times. It seems that the fights are easy, you even can avoid most of them. The male hero who is with Sera's sister has no personality flaws, which is annoying for me, but not for the guy who tested it...well. Other than that... I don't remember.

 

[Shinsatsu]

did you guys read the letter from ME3 to the fans? lol they said they were shocked by the feedback about the ending and it looks like they are sorry lol

 

[Gats]

did you guys read the letter from ME3 to the fans? lol they said they were shocked by the feedback about the ending and it looks like they are sorry lol

They say we'll see additionnal content for the game which would complete the end in way or another. Quite vague.
If it turns to be a DLC you have to pay...I think that fanrage will be more than infinite.

 

[Jammin]

They say we'll see additionnal content for the game which would complete the end in way or another. Quite vague.
If it turns to be a DLC you have to pay...I think that fanrage will be more than infinite.

I think fans will take what they can get at this point. There is a thread on the Bioware forums that's called "what would you pay for an additional ending dlc" Two of my favorite quotes from that thread are....

"I would throw $10 at them just to make this ending go away!"
and
"I would mail them my credit card."

Still, I think free DLC is definitely the smart move from a PR standpoint.

---------------------------------------------------------

The whole altering a games ending thing is not as big a hallmark moment as media outlets are making it out to be either. Bethesda did it for Fallout 3, and then sold DLC packs off of it and nobody even remembers.

---------- Post added at 11:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:03 PM ----------

By the way I think regardless of how one feels about the Mass Effect ending they will find this hilarious.

Spoiler: *Video contains Mass Effect 3 ending spoilers*

Also great...

 

[Gats]

Game of Thrones...Everywhere...Everywhere !
It's VOSTfr so you can watch it.

I don't know what to expect from this game, I fear the usual stupid licenced game but I don't know.

 

[Shinsatsu]

Did anyone here play Disgaea series? If so, please tell me if it's good cuz I don't trust internet reviews anymore.