General Video Game Thread

Testament · Apr 4, 2019, 4:52 PM

@Ghost It's not a new thing. It's never been a new thing. Mass Effect 1 and KORTOR did the exact same thing. But for some reason DA2 is pointed out when it's brought up.

Really, go back into ME1 and take note of how many recyclable environments there are. There's, what, three? No, I take that back, there's at least five. Around three layouts of a base, and two layouts of a cave. Granted, yes, these apply to side missions and main storyline stuff it is different. But it's still there.

And in KOTOR, how many times do you find yourself in a sewer? I felt like I was in one all the time.

Jaded · Apr 4, 2019, 4:53 PM

@Testament
I think the big difference between KOTOR and Mass Effect 1 though is that you rarely, if ever, saw these same maps back to back.

My experience with DA2 was encountering the same "outdoors terrain map" multiple times in a row. I can not recall that ever happening with other games that I have played including ME1 and KOTOR.

Ghost · Apr 4, 2019, 4:55 PM

@Jaded Yeah, I was like FOR FUCKS SAKE PUT SOME GUARDS ON THAT STRETCH OF SEWER.

I imagine that stretch of sewer was in-game this well-known part of town that you don't fuck around in. Like in Phoenix? If a guy stops you asking for a ride around 7th street and Van Buren? DO NOT

peasoupling · Apr 4, 2019, 5:03 PM

I feel like I probably like DA2 best, because it's a more personal story. DA:I is the worst, because the stakes are high, but only generically high. Your character has no real personal stake in the actual plot, up until Trespasser, and mostly if you were (trying to bang) the racist egghead.

But then I kinda also enjoyed Andromeda more than ME:1-3 in some ways, for pretty much the same reason. If you compare the whole trilogy, sure, your character has a lot of personal stakes in stuff, largely because of the relationships you've built along the way, but if you compare ME:1 to ME:A I'll take the awkward kid out of her depth over Jane "Badass From the Start" Shepard. But that's me.

Ghost · Apr 4, 2019, 5:09 PM

@peasoupling Agreed. DA2 had the best story elements but suffered when it came to environment. Andromeda got an unfair hand dealt. I actually very much so enjoyed it and was looking forward to the single player DLC.

I eventually had to nope out when EA announced that they were stopping all development on story DLC but heyyyyy development on our microtransaction-driven multiplayer environment is alive and well!

Fuck whoever made that call. Fuck them right in the eye.

ETA: Not to rant, but I am/was thoroughly annoyed how EA/Bioware basically went: "Let's take these award-winning fan favorite RPG story-driven franchises and dial-back on the story driven RPG content and add in microtransaction multiplayer stuff." They basically shit in everyone's corn flakes.

Jaded · Apr 4, 2019, 5:08 PM

@Ghost
See it is shit like that, which makes me glad that I have not bought anything from EA or off Origin since ME3 came out.

Testament · Apr 4, 2019, 5:09 PM

@Jaded said in General Video Game Thread:

@Testament
I think the big difference between KOTOR and Mass Effect 1 though is that you rarely, if ever, saw these same maps back to back.

If you play side missions like me, you will. Get a whole bunch and then kick them out one after another. But that's just me and that might be endemic of ME1 itself. Play the game and have a good time of it, but any side mission that I pick up that's not on the three main hub worlds or the Citadel I just leave to languish in my mission que. And then before the endgame, just go and hammer them out because they'll have effects in ME2.

Is it weird that I have a written list of the only side quests in ME1 that had an actual effect in ME2 and didn't bother with the rest?

Oh, something I didn't really add from my mouth vomit last night, which doesn't read as well as I'd hope, because again, I had just gotten home from work.

SUPER HOT TAKE: The Legacy DLC from DA2 may in fact be better than the vaunted Lair of the Shadow Broker from ME2.

fite me

saosmash · Apr 4, 2019, 5:10 PM

@Testament Wow I love both of those DLCs, that's a hard call for me.

Ghost · Apr 4, 2019, 5:12 PM

Andromeda brought back bouncy space rover truck with a gun on it. BOIIIING!

God I loved that thing. I liked the planet scanning stuff primarily because I'd sing "Scanning for life-forms cha cha cha" like Data from Star Trek, but bouncy Death Jeep was the bomb*.

*Note: Especially when you bounced over an incoming missile.

Jaded · Apr 4, 2019, 5:12 PM

@Testament
Shenanigans! I will claim false equivalency. They are different genres and so are not comparable and you are wrong for trying to make us fight you over the best.

Yes. That is the best answer to dodge any other response to your challenge.

peasoupling · Apr 4, 2019, 5:14 PM

@Testament said in General Video Game Thread:

SUPER HOT TAKE: The Legacy DLC from DA2 may in fact be better than the vaunted Lair of the Shadow Broker from ME2.

I feel like this depends on whether or not your Shepard was romancing Liara.

Testament · Apr 4, 2019, 5:15 PM

I would go so far as to even add Trespasser from DA:I into the conversation. IF ONLY because it adds so much to the game and I personally believe that it pretty much redeems the base game for a lot of its story-based faults. Also, it's just written so damn sharply.

saosmash · Apr 4, 2019, 5:18 PM

@Testament I loved the fuck out of that DLC, too.

Ganymede · Apr 4, 2019, 5:44 PM

@saosmash said in General Video Game Thread:

I loved the fuck out of that DLC, too.

Legacy for DA2 good.

Lair of the Shadow Broker for ME2 better.

Citadel for ME3 best.

Kanye Qwest · Apr 4, 2019, 5:45 PM

DA2 was, objectively, a bad 'game'. It was rushed, they ran out of budget/time for new areas, new encounters...basically everything was a cut corner EXCEPT the most important parts of a bioware game, to me. The story, and the characters.

Varric Tethras is a perfect porcelain kitten and I will never hear otherwise. Isabella was amazing. Aveline was amazing. Their development was amazing. Fenris was wonderful. Merril was wonderful. The DLC prince dude was completely forgettable, your siblings were whatever, and Anders was there, too. Purple Hawke was amazing. Any other Hawke was...but why. Why would you do that?

Testament · Apr 4, 2019, 5:48 PM

@Ganymede Funny how I keep forgetting Citadel exists. Probably because of its association with ME3, for which I still refuse to give Casey Hudson any shred of respect.

Beyond that, Citadel was very good. If it had been ME3's real epilogue, it would be the best.

Ganymede · Apr 4, 2019, 5:54 PM

@Testament said in General Video Game Thread:

Beyond that, Citadel was very good. If it had been ME3's real epilogue, it would be the best.

Because I got Citadel after I finished the game, I do consider the DLC to be the real epilogue.

Also, I couldn't find a GIF for Grunt falling passed the hospital window. Let's get it together, internet.

Edit: hell yeah found it

Editted again: and this moment

Testament · Apr 4, 2019, 5:55 PM

@Ganymede I'm conflicted on this thought. Because on the one hand I totally agree with you and the same happened to me.

On the other hand, I know what ME3 was supposed to be until the story or script(I forget which)got leaked which resulted in BioWare changing a whole bunch of stuff at the 11th hour. Which, looking back at Andromeda and Anthem, ARE WE SEEING A TREND.

It was supposed to be so different, but it got changed and we're supposed to just gloss over the whole 'suns going out/dark energy' stuff that was pressed so hard on us in ME2'. You know, that massive plot hole.

I will always have a love/hate opinion on ME3. Which I could go in depth about, but I'll refrain.

I have to go.

I...have to go.

I have to go.

Do I really sound like that?

Ghost · Apr 4, 2019, 6:05 PM

Question: I watched a video on YouTube eons ago that went into detail on their interpretation of the RED, BLUE, GREEN ending of ME3 to actually be a trick question.

It basically said that the intended ending was the one where you deny the reapers, the reaper technology explodes, and the Geth die. The reason being that ever since ME2, Shep had Reaper tech implanted in him/her and by ME3 you saw what the Reaper tech was doing to the Illusive Man. So at RGB ending, it was really the Reapers trying to trick Shep by presenting "saving all life by melding biology+reaper tech."

That "Reapers take control" was never the intended selection, and that "the reapers die but everyone is fucked" was made to sound scary enough to be hesitant to choose, but that melding Reaper+biology was their plan all along...and everyone would basically end up like the Illusive Man (implanted, controlled, taken over like the Borg).

Is this pretty much everyone's interpretation of the ending? I dont know if thats how the general ME community viewed the ending, but ever since I saw this video that's been my take; that the RGB Shep ending is ultimately about Shep fighting internally against the Reapers

Ganymede · Apr 4, 2019, 6:08 PM

@Ghost said in General Video Game Thread:

Is this pretty much everyone's interpretation of the ending? I dont know if thats how the general ME community viewed the ending, but ever since I saw this video that's been my take; that the RGB Shep ending is ultimately about Shep fighting internally against the Reapers

My interpretation is that you should stop analyzing wrestling.

Sometimes, it's fun. Sometimes, it's dramatic. Sometimes, it's fucked up and fake. But if you ask too many damn questions, you lose sight of being entertained. And it is supposed to be entertainment.

This is the true ending of ME3: