Mass Effect 3

[MechDeus]

This guy thinks they should supplement the ending too. You'd know that if you had watched the thing.

Where? I watched it (had to skim a couple parts because he rambles so much about his fanfiction which I don't care about) and all I saw him say was how they ending was terrible, needed to be removed, and could not be fixed with DLC. Which is not supplementing it.

I don't think the original script sounds much better. It makes the ending of ME2 work nicer but that's about it, since they pretty much dropped the whole angle about making Reapers out of other species. It also trivializes the other alien races, pretending that they're all oh so uniform and that humans are uniquely special for no fucking reason. I particularly hate when writers rest on that aspect, where somehow humans are the most capable or unique species in existence while all other races/species are just specialized concepts. It's okay when it's limited to game balance aspects but as a major plot point... ehhhhhhhhhh. It's pretty stupid. It fits neatly but I don't think it's necessarily better.

I also disagree with his other point about teaming up. He's right about the whole build-up and how big a thing that is for the series, but what I liked about it was that - no matter what - we all knew that after the Big Fight there would be breakdowns in the diplomacy and eventually many of the species would hate each other. They would likely be different partnerships and different enemies but it would be there nevertheless. I like the idea of that (not that ME3 discusses such a thing) more than I do about his stressing of how it's all about the power of friendship.

He also seems to have missed that all the people he said died can live. He doesn't base any point on that, I'm just saying. He also takes what he wants the epilogues to be really far and stresses this is the end of the series, apparently missing that Bioware said that this isn't the end of the series about a year or two ago and his epilogues would most likely end up as contradictory to future content (since that will also likely be shaped by players). He just seems to be masturbating to the amount of fanservice he wants.

3/10

[Error]

Also, amen, Ken Levine, a voice of reason from someone who knows a tinnnny bit about what they are talking about.

Ken Levine should stick to remembering what he knows he did wrong at the end of Bioshock.


"I didn't think they became that invested in what was going on," he said. In BioShock "you have this great mystery of your own identity and once it is solved the story is over."

"I think it was a miscalculation on my part."

http://kotaku.com/357273/levine-agre...-ending-failed

I love how many people keep making Matrix references who probably haven't seen the ending sheet from their final hours app which explicitly states that on it.

I wasn't, by the way, directly comparing the two. The Matrix trilogy is just an excellent example of a failed story which I wish had been different, but which I accept as being the vision the two crackheads wanted to show us.

[AaronChance]

My previous post was dumb. I was fighting with my air conditioner at the time, and reading it back now it seems almost completely stupid. Not as stupid as having three endings whose only difference are colored lights, but close.

[bVork]

Ken Levine's argument is dumb. Story is one part of a game. Nobody argues that bugfixes compromise a developer's "vision." Balance patches for competitive games like fighters or strategy games aren't seen as going against authorial intent. Or official texture updates for something like Skyrim or Crysis 2. Why should story be privileged above any other element of a game? If it can be improved, if there is demand for it, and if the developer bows to the demand, then it should be.

[JBNagis]

do you get anyone from part2 in your squad? i ran into Samara, stopped her from suicide, and i was really hoping she would join me. Liara's nice, but Samara has reave for gods sakes. oh and fuck banshees.

[Rumpy]

No.

[Anal Kaboom]

Ken Levine's argument is dumb. Story is one part of a game. Nobody argues that bugfixes compromise a developer's "vision" Balance patches for competitive games like fighters or strategy games aren't seen as going against authorial intent. Or official texture updates for something like Skyrim or Crysis 2. Why should story be privileged above any other element of a game? If it can be improved, if there is demand for it, and if the developer bows to the demand, then it should be.

Exactly. The main difference comes in pricing the DLC. Since when it comes to a multiplayer balance patch, there really isn't anything you can do about it until users get their hands on the product. The ending to a game is something that should be included with the regular price of the game. And judging by the pop up screen after the ending, it seems that they expected to have to add on to the ending with DLC, and if they charge for that shit they can go get fucked. That's grimey as hell.

[bVork]

That's true. All of the examples I used do not cost any money, and there would be massive uproar if they did. Making a proper ending to Mass Effect 3 (and I should clarify that I have yet to finish the game, so I may find that the ending is just fine, but for the sake of argument here I am assuming that it is not) only available for a fee would be bullshit. A few years ago, people were joking about how you'd be paying extra for the ending of a game. It's frightening to think that it may actually be happening.

[MechDeus]

I didn't take the hilariously transparent "BUY MORE STUFF PLEASE" message at the end to specifically mean that they were shortchanging the ending and planning to charge for an explanation, I just figured it meant the usual DLC missions and hopefully some post-endgame content like ME2 had.

And now for some deleted scenes. Naturally, there are spoilers:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3PQT4c_r7Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrekghBHU5o (this one is hilarious because it just has placeholder voices)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EtgulDPOXE

[Chux]

my god
save us