Bioware General (Mass Effect/Dragon Age/Other)

[Dragaros]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acSr9Ki7P_w

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Dragaros]

[Alienmorph]

"Yes,we're still alive and making stuff, look at all this concept art that is in no way confirmation of what the final game will look like, because that's kind of the point of concept art."

[Vol]

On the plus side, quite a few of those pieces all but scream "Tavinter." Albeit, the crew in charge doing a magical take on the late Eastern Roman Empire might be thorny at best, but it's the last place in the setting I really care to experience. Minus the Black City.

[TTTX]

On the plus side, quite a few of those pieces all but scream "Tavinter." Albeit, the crew in charge doing a magical take on the late Eastern Roman Empire might be thorny at best, but it's the last place in the setting I really care to experience. Minus the Black City.

let's just hope they don't make the leader of Tevinter look like Trump, that would be dumb on so many levels.

[magnuskn]

"We're going to build a wall, a giant wall against the Darkspawn. It's going to huge, tremendous. They are sending their worst, not their best."

[TheodoricFriede]

There is a 1000% chance of a cringe-worthy Donald trump caricature in their next game.

[TTTX]

"We're going to build a wall, a giant wall against the Darkspawn. It's going to huge, tremendous. They are sending their worst, not their best."

well it it's Tevinter so more like against the qunari, Darkspawn is more of a Warden thing in general.

There is a 1000% chance of a cringe-worthy Donald trump caricature in their next game.

as long as it's out of sight, like a back ground character we don't interact with at all I can at least live with it.

[Vol]

Honestly, I could live with a parody, if it's at least witty, and taken seriously in the context of the setting.

Dorian was a yuge surprise to me in Inquisition. I was expecting the absolute worse from a camp gay mage from Tevinter. But other than his personal quest being ridiculous, he was one of the best teammates, easily. Lore dump on Tevinter was cool, he was cool, had cool opinions, and I was ready to drop this Inquisitor shit and go see the siege golems guarding the capital's entrance instead.

[TheodoricFriede]

Dorian was a yuge surprise to me in Inquisition. I was expecting the absolute worse from a camp gay mage from Tevinter. But other than his personal quest being ridiculous, he was one of the best teammates, easily. Lore dump on Tevinter was cool, he was cool, had cool opinions, and I was ready to drop this Inquisitor shit and go see the siege golems guarding the capital's entrance instead.

David Gaider is loooooooooooooooooong gone. You wont be seeing a character like that again any time soon.

[TTTX]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rlkevkctf4&ab_channel=LucasRhodan

Well found this little fun video will probably not happen in the game though.

Edited and for some reason it doesn't work here.

so let's see if the link works.

[FrozenShadow]

Frankly, considering the current state or Bioware, and that they are part of EA, I don't even want Bioware making anymore Mass Effect games. It's guaranteed that they will fuck it up.

Now, resign or get independence back from EA (like Bungie) and get rid of most of the people still working in the company and then we expect something decent to come out it.

But even then I won't hold much of hope. Only real way to continue ME franchise is to make something that is set after ME3. Yet, that won't ever happen as developers don't have balls to choose of the 3 endings as base starting point. Nor they have enough creativity to actually create a story, where basics are the same, but the details are different based on which of the 3 endings player(s) chose in ME3.

And the saddest part of this is that it's so easy to make story that is the same for all 3 endings, yet completely unique experience based on those endings.

[Alienmorph]

What most people don't get is that Bungie had a PARTERSHIP with Activision, they were never outright bought, and thus they could get away and regain their independence.

BioWare on the other end, cannot. EA owns them, and their IPs. There is no "getting independence". The closest thing to that would be people quitting BW, and opening a new, independent studio. But it wouldn't be BioWare, and it most certainly wouldn't be able to make new Mass Effect games, good or bad.

Basically... Mass Effect is stuck in a corner it won't be able to get out of, likely ever. Can't make new ones unconnected to the main trilogy, because Andromeda made that unprofitable in the eyes of EA (even tho a good chunk of ANdromeda's failure is on them and on their guddamn graphic engine), can't make a direct continuation of the trilogy because BW and Casey Hudson in particular is too stubborn to admit the finale fucked up the whole universe, quite literally, and picking a canon outcome would mess up their "creative vision", and even if they were to remake/reboot the whole series, chances are it would be one big clusterfuck anyway, because all the good talent the company had either quit after ME3, or was crunched into oblivion and then quit, and the ones left writing stories and characters are mostly Twitter-twats more concerned to please the likes of Aneeta Sarkeesan than with making a good interactive sci-fi tale.

So basically... we have the remastered trilogy to look forward to (hoping they don't fuck that up too), and then it's best to assume that is it for Mass Effect, as sad as that is.

[Vol]

Really, need to get some greybeards involved. Guys who barely know what modern culture is like. Put them in charge of story and characters, with Weekes, I suppose, as the filter.

See that in a lot of creative endeavors. It's the people who grew up enjoying the original working on the sequel, and they don't have that historical appreciation for the root inspirations to recapture the intent. I.e., George Lucas and his inspirations compared against Disney writers, ME:A compared against ME:1.

[magnuskn]

I still have some slight hope that Hudson and Hack Walters will leave one day and then a new writing team will take over. It's a slight chance, but there it is. Otherwise, I keep fond memories, except for the ME3 ending.

[TTTX]

I still have some slight hope that Hudson and Hack Walters will leave one day and then a new writing team will take over. It's a slight chance, but there it is. Otherwise, I keep fond memories, except for the ME3 ending.

perhaps, but that won't help if the leadership is still crap.

[magnuskn]

I still have some slight hope that Hudson and Hack Walters will leave one day and then a new writing team will take over. It's a slight chance, but there it is. Otherwise, I keep fond memories, except for the ME3 ending.

perhaps, but that won't help if the leadership is still crap.

Yeah, my hopes are pretty minimal at this point. Too many SJW's on the writing staff, it seems. To be fair, Bioware writing hasn't been really good since Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was the first game which really, really felt bland and obviously was trying to be all-inclusive and inoffensive.

[TTTX]

Yeah, my hopes are pretty minimal at this point. Too many SJW's on the writing staff, it seems. To be fair, Bioware writing hasn't been really good since Dragon Age: Inquisition, which was the first game which really, really felt bland and obviously was trying to be all-inclusive and inoffensive.

well the cracks did show in writing as far as back as DA2 (although this could have been blamed on the very tight schedule they had) and ME2.

Although to be fair with the games like DA:I, ME:A and Anthem fell flat especially in the writing is that they were mismanage to hell and had to use a new gaming engine not suit for the games they were making.

[Vol]

At this point, probably just need a new generation of talent. The current crop is pretty well spoiled by the times. But I imagine there's young men with a penchant for creative works, who cling to the old material that inspired Mass Effect and others, that would love to work on one.

That said, DA:I, ME:A, Anthem all had moments of good writing. As we've found out later, leadership was fucked, but there's still some talent there. It needs to be structured and led away from contemporary issues, but there's some magic left in the tank.

[magnuskn]

It's actually pretty fucking pathetic looking back at the writing in earlier Bioware games compared to now. Yes, there were "moments of brilliance" in the later games as well, but they were far and between vast tracts of mediocrity and cringe. To be honest, I don't think I remember a single "moment of brilliance" in ME:A and Anthem at all. DA:I still had some good stuff in-between.

Also, I think the cracks started to show in ME3's plot not making much sense, if you just looked at it with a critical eye at all, but the game had so many of those "moments of brilliance" that it was so really, really easy to get lost in the narrative (until it comes crashing down like the Executor on the Death Star at the very end). DA2 was rushed as hell by EA and therefore has at least an excuse, but the narrative of it does hold up well, overall. In regards to ME2, I don't agree at all that it was the first game to show cracks in the writing. It was really excellent. Aside from the tedious planet scanning. ^^

[TTTX]

It's actually pretty fucking pathetic looking back at the writing in earlier Bioware games compared to now. Yes, there were "moments of brilliance" in the later games as well, but they were far and between vast tracts of mediocrity and cringe. To be honest, I don't think I remember a single "moment of brilliance" in ME:A and Anthem at all. DA:I still had some good stuff in-between.

Also, I think the cracks started to show in ME3's plot not making much sense, if you just looked at it with a critical eye at all, but the game had so many of those "moments of brilliance" that it was so really, really easy to get lost in the narrative (until it comes crashing down like the Executor on the Death Star at the very end). DA2 was rushed as hell by EA and therefore has at least an excuse, but the narrative of it does hold up well, overall. In regards to ME2, I don't agree at all that it was the first game to show cracks in the writing. It was really excellent. Aside from the tedious planet scanning. ^^

I mean, ME2 main plot doesn't make that much sense if you actually think about it, Shepard dies by crashing into a planet and somehow can still be bought back from the dead (with all their memories) even though there shouldn't be a body left to revive, Cerberus opposes the Collectors despite having way more motivation, reasons and a leader under the influence of the Reaper to actually work with them (The Shadow Brokers reason was basically "I don't want to die, spare me and I'll work for you") and the Collectors is basically just building a Reaper and they apparently need to attack earth just in order to finish the thing and according to the lore they have like 2 ships.

So there were cracks, they are just hidden under the good and excellent recruit and loyalty missions (and the loyalty missions doesn't really do much for the main story other then "solve my Daddy issues or else I will just let myself and the other die on the suicide mission, because I'm not professional enough or have a survival instinct to keep myself or others alive").

[magnuskn]

For Shepard dying, that was an interesting creative choice I thought. Him not burning up in the atmosphere... eh, what do we know how good space suits are in the future. Him getting revived with his memories was kinda iffy, but again, sci-fi. There are FAR more unbelievable things we take for granted in classics like Dune, etc.

The Illusive Man wasn't under the influence of the Reapers yet during ME2, as far as I know. Not sure about how many ships the Collectors have, although it'd be really stupid writing to have them "attack" Earth with only two. I'd be down with them raiding Earth for captives, though.

And the loyalty missions were there so the characters were not distracted by their "daddy issues". They didn't let anybody die through their own decisions, it was due to deep personal distractions that they couldn't fully focus on what was at hand.

[TTTX]

For Shepard dying, that was an interesting creative choice I thought. Him not burning up in the atmosphere... eh, what do we know how good space suits are in the future. Him getting revived with his memories was kinda iffy, but again, sci-fi. There are FAR more unbelievable things we take for granted in classics like Dune, etc.

The Illusive Man wasn't under the influence of the Reapers yet during ME2, as far as I know. Not sure about how many ships the Collectors have, although it'd be really stupid writing to have them "attack" Earth with only two. I'd be down with them raiding Earth for captives, though.

And the loyalty missions were there so the characters were not distracted by their "daddy issues". They didn't let anybody die through their own decisions, it was due to deep personal distractions that they couldn't fully focus on what was at hand.

enough to know you will still cook or freeze if the planet is to hot or cold and even if the armor didn't burn up the impact would have turned their body into well moss, the armor wouldn't have protect against that.
Yes sci-fi you can get away with a lot, however there are generally rules and well you should come up with semi reasonable explanation as to how it happen even it sounds dumb it's better then ME2 "we threw money at the problem and don't question it" and there is also the whole question as to why Shepard was revived by Cerberus, TIM claims it's because they are a symbol, but it's never really used by Cerberus to their advantage outside of creating rumors.

TIM has Reaper eyes, the same ones Saren had and he has had Reaper tech inside since shortly after the first contact war (comic book information, but it is cannon according to BW) it's implied it's that what pushes him to create Cerberus so they can play the role they did in ME3 because Reapers play the long game.
Also it is pretty common stuff to know among fans that the only reason why Shepard is working with Cerberus is because the lead writer pretty much fell in love with the idea of working with an all human Terrorist group (I can't remember the reason why he loved the idea, but he did and pretty pushed the other ideas of work with Shadow Broker or even work with the Geth of all things).

from story perspective some of those characters shouldn't be bothered because some of them are professionals (yes I know people, but some of them have already been in life and death situations before even meeting Shepard, so it shouldn't make any difference now) and a possible one is a machine so it doesn't make sense for everyone to act like that, then again why Cerberus even choose some of those people is questionable as we have zero information about the Collector base, it's not like until the very end that information is reveal which kind raises the question as to how TIM knew you needed these exact people to be succesful (maybe the animated movie answers gives a possible answer to that).

[magnuskn]

And the loyalty missions were there so the characters were not distracted by their "daddy issues". They didn't let anybody die through their own decisions, it was due to deep personal distractions that they couldn't fully focus on what was at hand.
enough to know you will still cook or freeze if the planet is to hot or cold and even if the armor didn't burn up the impact would have turned their body into well moss, the armor wouldn't have protect against that.
Yes sci-fi you can get away with a lot, however there are generally rules and well you should come up with semi reasonable explanation as to how it happen even it sounds dumb it's better then ME2 "we threw money at the problem and don't question it" and there is also the whole question as to why Shepard was revived by Cerberus, TIM claims it's because they are a symbol, but it's never really used by Cerberus to their advantage outside of creating rumors.

Again, sci-fi tech. Yes, it's unbelievable from our technical point of view, but it got enough of my suspension of disbelief to let it through.

As for "why Shepard", Shepard basically is the most competent person in the galaxy when it comes to Reapers and a person who can persuade anybody. The symbolism aspect seemed overrated, but Shepard was the leader needed to get things done.

TIM has Reaper eyes, the same ones Saren had and he has had Reaper tech inside since shortly after the first contact war (comic book information, but it is cannon according to BW) it's implied it's that what pushes him to create Cerberus so they can play the role they did in ME3 because Reapers play the long game.

Alright, I didn't know that, although since the comic books don't factor into ME2 (I assume they came out much later and any kind of shit gets added into "canon" by comic book writers), I don't know how that factors into the writing of ME2 at the time it was released.

Also it is pretty common stuff to know among fans that the only reason why Shepard is working with Cerberus is because the lead writer pretty much fell in love with the idea of working with an all human Terrorist group (I can't remember the reason why he loved the idea, but he did and pretty pushed the other ideas of work with Shadow Broker or even work with the Geth of all things).

Again, that doesn't diminish the integrity of the story in ME2 itself.

from story perspective some of those characters shouldn't be bothered because some of them are professionals (yes I know people, but some of them have already been in life and death situations before even meeting Shepard, so it shouldn't make any difference now) and a possible one is a machine so it doesn't make sense for everyone to act like that, then again why Cerberus even choose some of those people is questionable as we have zero information about the Collector base, it's not like until the very end that information is reveal which kind raises the question as to how TIM knew you needed these exact people to be succesful (maybe the animated movie answers gives a possible answer to that).

Well, a super-scientiest, a super-biotic, a super-thief, a super-engineer, a super-assassin and some of the very best soldiers in the galaxy seem like a pretty solid selection to me to deal with a situation which needs some serious firepower and where you also need to deal with unpredictable situations. Legion, who was picked up by basically accident also doubles as a super-hacker (as does Tali, because hypercompetence).

As for being somewhat distracted by honestly fucking terribly disruptive events in your life, even if you are a professional... have you had to deal with such a situation, where you were constantly concerned about something terrible having possibly happened to someone you deeply care about and had to concentrate only on another task at the same time? Not easy, I can tell you. I can absolutely respect the choice of the writers to say that even professionals would feel distracted by cataclysmic events in their private lives. Although of course there were varying degrees of severity in those events (Samara was pretty "eh", overall, while I absolutely understand Tali's problems with being accused of being a traitor to her home).

Another word to the bullshitty-ness of technology in the ME universe, at its most basic I can forgive it much easier than with, say Horizon: Zero Dawn, because the time scale is just vastly different. Yes, the Reapers using bio-slurry to build new Reapers seems retarded from our perspective, but they basically had five billion years to come up with this. If we'd just show someone from medieval times (or, hell, maybe just the nineteenth century) some of the things we've come up with just with tech, we'd be accused of witchcraft, because from their perspective it would seem just as unbelievable. "What, you can call up someone on the other side of the Earth and talk with them as if they were in the room next to you? You can SEE the person as well?"

[TTTX]

Again, sci-fi tech. Yes, it's unbelievable from our technical point of view, but it got enough of my suspension of disbelief to let it through.

As for "why Shepard", Shepard basically is the most competent person in the galaxy when it comes to Reapers and a person who can persuade anybody. The symbolism aspect seemed overrated, but Shepard was the leader needed to get things done.

armor is armor even in Sci-fi the laws of physics applies unless there is an explanation for for dropping at great heights and not suffering death or turning into moss and ME doesn't.

think it like bulletproof vest, the bullets can't put holes in you now, but you can still feel the impact of the bullets (and well it can hurt a lot and leave marks).
now imagine a force that turn into moss that is basically the force Shepard body felt, armor or no, they would have turned into moss.

Only when the plot demands it, Shepard can/is pretty dumb and incompetent in ME2 and onward, I mean the Reapers are coming and Shepard doesn't even try to do something about it, Shepard has already died once for 2 years and not much has been done to prepare for the Reapers and claims they are going to win the war at the end of ME2, but well Shepard just turns themselves to the Alliance and sits in imprisoned for 6 months (Facepalm doesn't even begin to cover how dumb Shepard can be at planning) and once again Shepard has even tried to make plans with his squadmates to try and maybe get the local alien governments to go behind the council to at least try get them to prepare, at least try and do something, hell Garrrus was way better at this then Shepard (Garrus got a token force in ME3 and tried do something which is better then what Shepard ever did in preparing for the Reapers, something is better then nothing).

Alright, I didn't know that, although since the comic books don't factor into ME2 (I assume they came out much later and any kind of shit gets added into "canon" by comic book writers), I don't know how that factors into the writing of ME2 at the time it was released.

He still has Reaper eyes so he is under their influence regardless, so it was planted early that Cerberus would be an enemy in ME3 (no matter how much BW destroyed writing in order to make them a galactic threat).
and yeah the comics was made after ME2 however the comic book series Mass Effect Evolution (which is the series that tells the story) was announced July 15, 2010 and the first issue came out January 19 2011 so I would say it had been planted that TIM was a Reaper agent all along pretty early on.

Again, that doesn't diminish the integrity of the story in ME2 itself.

it does, because it's those kind of decisions that well doomed the series everything ME2 didn't do (like not preparing for the Reapers, I mean Shepard literally went on hunting Geth because the Council said so despite the whole ME1 ending where Shepard said "I'm going to find a way to stop the Reapers" and maybe set up that Super weapon ME3 introducerede, further the main story of the Reapers and other stuff) and did do (like showing the Reapers can just enter the Galaxy whenever they want without the Citadel Relay, which is a death sentence according to ME1) pretty much meant ME3 had to pick up the slack and basically go balls to the walls to just try and finish the series (including breaking the story, lore and other stuff just so the plot can happen)
Also in the ME2 doesn't do anything to further the overall plot when it comes to Reapers it is more of Spin off game story wise (doesn't make the game bad, but it hurt the trilogy because of it), Because the Collectors plan was basically build a reaper (even then they would have to attack earth to ever get enough humans to even finish the thing) and do something (we never get an answer to that what the collector plan was after the Reaper was finished).

Well, a super-scientiest, a super-biotic, a super-thief, a super-engineer, a super-assassin and some of the very best soldiers in the galaxy seem like a pretty solid selection to me to deal with a situation which needs some serious firepower and where you also need to deal with unpredictable situations. Legion, who was picked up by basically accident also doubles as a super-hacker (as does Tali, because hypercompetence).

As for being somewhat distracted by honestly fucking terribly disruptive events in your life, even if you are a professional... have you had to deal with such a situation, where you were constantly concerned about something terrible having possibly happened to someone you deeply care about and had to concentrate only on another task at the same time? Not easy, I can tell you. I can absolutely respect the choice of the writers to say that even professionals would feel distracted by cataclysmic events in their private lives. Although of course there were varying degrees of severity in those events (Samara was pretty "eh", overall, while I absolutely understand Tali's problems with being accused of being a traitor to her home).

Another word to the bullshitty-ness of technology in the ME universe, at its most basic I can forgive it much easier than with, say Horizon: Zero Dawn, because the time scale is just vastly different. Yes, the Reapers using bio-slurry to build new Reapers seems retarded from our perspective, but they basically had five billion years to come up with this. If we'd just show someone from medieval times (or, hell, maybe just the nineteenth century) some of the things we've come up with just with tech, we'd be accused of witchcraft, because from their perspective it would seem just as unbelievable. "What, you can call up someone on the other side of the Earth and talk with them as if they were in the room next to you? You can SEE the person as well?"

problem is that well no one in ME2 knew what was behind the omega four relay until the very end of ME2 which means it was a a pretty big gamble to only collect people instead of an army especially if there had been a fleet on the other side and an army waiting on the other side.

People can do that, it doesn't applies to every squatemate in ME2, but some of them should have been able to do it (Legion especially, you know since it is a machine and Grunts issue doesn't bother him when he is on the field, not to mention his reason was pretty weak), I still get why the Loyalty missions was a thing and they are great/good, but again it's more of a ME2 execution problem (which ME2 does here and there).

HZD has problems sure, so does ME2 we can choose to ignore them (doesn't mean they aren't there), however HZD doesn't have sequel yet that shits on what came before, the ME trilogy already have ME2 and ME3 that both took a shit on what came before, ME2 for the most gets a pass because the characters was so well executed.

I think this guy said it best about the story.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xc7xHvxvCI&ab

In my opinion ME2 is like a Micheal Bay movie, just with better characters, the plot have flaws but they feel minor because the good stuff is well good/great that it outshines the bad/illogical stuff, unfortunately it did come crashing down once ME3 was released because well you skip ME2 and not miss much and that's not good in a trilogy

mind I'm biased because ME3 really got close to push over the edge in a really dark period in my life so I'm harder on the ME trilogy then HZD (There is only one game out at the moment) however that might change with future sequels we'll see.

[magnuskn]

armor is armor even in Sci-fi the laws of physics applies unless there is an explanation for for dropping at great heights and not suffering death or turning into moss and ME doesn't.

think it like bulletproof vest, the bullets can't put holes in you now, but you can still feel the impact of the bullets (and well it can hurt a lot and leave marks).
now imagine a force that turn into moss that is basically the force Shepard body felt, armor or no, they would have turned into moss.

No, that is not the same principle. Armor in the ME universe has force fields and space walk capacity. It's not comparable to a "bullet proof vest". That's a laughable comparison. Again, it's sci-fi, there was enough recoverable material to reconstitute Shepard, that's enough for me. We take all sorts of (for us, at this time) impossible shit for granted in sci-fi, like, y'know, FTL travel, the lack of time dilation due to FTL travel, artificial gravity. "Shepards body wasn't completely unrecoverable, due to future tech" is not a bridge too far for me.

Only when the plot demands it, Shepard can/is pretty dumb and incompetent in ME2 and onward, I mean the Reapers are coming and Shepard doesn't even try to do something about it, Shepard has already died once for 2 years and not much has been done to prepare for the Reapers and claims they are going to win the war at the end of ME2, but well Shepard just turns themselves to the Alliance and sits in imprisoned for 6 months (Facepalm doesn't even begin to cover how dumb Shepard can be at planning)

"... after genociding an inhabited system, which is why he had to explain himself to be not declared a war criminal to the galaxy". You forgot to mention that part.

and once again Shepard has even tried to make plans with his squadmates to try and maybe get the local alien governments to go behind the council to at least try get them to prepare, at least try and do something, hell Garrrus was way better at this then Shepard (Garrus got a token force in ME3 and tried do something which is better then what Shepard ever did in preparing for the Reapers, something is better then nothing).

Yeah, the squadmates tried to do something (very probably as instructed by Shepard), while Shepard was off not being hounded through the galaxy by all civilized society for war crimes. Not sure how that makes him "dumb"?

He still has Reaper eyes so he is under their influence regardless, so it was planted early that Cerberus would be an enemy in ME3 (no matter how much BW destroyed writing in order to make them a galactic threat).
and yeah the comics was made after ME2 however the comic book series Mass Effect Evolution (which is the series that tells the story) was announced July 15, 2010 and the first issue came out January 19 2011 so I would say it had been planted that TIM was a Reaper agent all along pretty early on.

I always saw them as "weird mechanical eyes". The Reaper stuff about them was added later on, so it doesn't impact the ME2 writing.

it does, because it's those kind of decisions that well doomed the series everything ME2 didn't do (like not preparing for the Reapers, I mean Shepard literally went on hunting Geth because the Council said so despite the whole ME1 ending where Shepard said "I'm going to find a way to stop the Reapers" and maybe set up that Super weapon ME3 introducerede, further the main story of the Reapers and other stuff) and did do (like showing the Reapers can just enter the Galaxy whenever they want without the Citadel Relay, which is a death sentence according to ME1) pretty much meant ME3 had to pick up the slack and basically go balls to the walls to just try and finish the series (including breaking the story, lore and other stuff just so the plot can happen)

That is not remotely true. Yeah, Shepard went hunting for some Geth, i.e. he did a side mission in ME1, takes about an hour of time. Then he got bushwacked by the Collectors. You are assuming that he did nothing else in-between to try to stop the Reapers.

Then he got ressurected, went on the suicide mission to a.) stop the abductions and b.) find out more about the Reapers, including stopping a new Reaper from being built.

Then he needs to not be hounded across the galaxy for war crimes, which is a pretty bad thing to happen to you while you are trying to find information on how to stop the Reapers.

Also in the ME2 doesn't do anything to further the overall plot when it comes to Reapers it is more of Spin off game story wise (doesn't make the game bad, but it hurt the trilogy because of it), Because the Collectors plan was basically build a reaper (even then they would have to attack earth to ever get enough humans to even finish the thing) and do something (we never get an answer to that what the collector plan was after the Reaper was finished).

It actually does further the plot in multiple ways, if only by getting Liara into position to be the Shadow Broker, Tali as a new admiral to replace her father, Garrus into the better grace of the Turian government. I presume the Collectors would have used the new Reaper to call the other Reapers in even faster. After all, they made it well alone, they just took longer.

problem is that well no one in ME2 knew what was behind the omega four relay until the very end of ME2 which means it was a a pretty big gamble to only collect people instead of an army especially if there had been a fleet on the other side and an army waiting on the other side.

Yes, that's why it was a suicide mission, not a military expedition.

People can do that, it doesn't applies to every squatemate in ME2, but some of them should have been able to do it (Legion especially, you know since it is a machine and Grunts issue doesn't bother him when he is on the field, not to mention his reason was pretty weak), I still get why the Loyalty missions was a thing and they are great/good, but again it's more of a ME2 execution problem (which ME2 does here and there).

Yeah, not all reasons were equally good, that's a fair point.

HZD has problems sure, so does ME2 we can choose to ignore them (doesn't mean they aren't there), however HZD doesn't have sequel yet that shits on what came before, the ME trilogy already have ME2 and ME3 that both took a shit on what came before, ME2 for the most gets a pass because the characters was so well executed.

HZD had a lot of problems in the story department, way more than Mass Effect overall.

[TTTX]

No, that is not the same principle. Armor in the ME universe has force fields and space walk capacity. It's not comparable to a "bullet proof vest". That's a laughable comparison. Again, it's sci-fi, there was enough recoverable material to reconstitute Shepard, that's enough for me. We take all sorts of (for us, at this time) impossible shit for granted in sci-fi, like, y'know, FTL travel, the lack of time dilation due to FTL travel, artificial gravity. "Shepards body wasn't completely unrecoverable, due to future tech" is not a bridge too far for me.

I can't go on anymore I have some issues in my family I have to focus on that so let's just agree to disagree and leave at that.

[magnuskn]

Fine by me.

[Dragaros]

https://twitter.com/BiowareGear

[Dragaros]

"INDUSTRY Rumor: Mass Effect Legendary Edition remaster collection delayed to early 2021; Original Mass Effect game reportedly at fault."

"Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, the purported name for the rumored Mass Effect remaster trilogy including Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3, has slipped from its previously planned October reveal and release to early 2021, according to a VentureBeat report citing “people familiar with the development.”

The main reason for delay is reportedly the original Mass Effect game, which does not live up to the quality of the rest of the package and may make a poor impression on new players who would not go on to experience the upgrades for Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3. These problems are said to come down to both graphics and gameplay.

The report also states that the multiplayer mode from Mass Effect 3 will not be included in the collection, which will be a single-player-only affair. It will, however, reportedly include all of the downloadable content for all three titles."

[Alienmorph]

Yeah, I can belive pretty much all of that. I liked ME3's multiplayer a surprising lot, but don't see EA going through the trouble of setting multiplayer servers and polished netcode and all of that for a re-release. And ME1 is so notoriously broken, that frankly it could use a full-blown remake more than a remaster...

[TheodoricFriede]

Meanwhile Mass Effect 1 is the easiest to go back to for me.

[Alienmorph]

There's still good things about ME1, and I really dig the old-school sci fi feel and look of it. But in terms of gameplay and general polish it was very broken since day 1. It's weird... the better the games got on a technical level, the worst the story and the RPG elements got.

I'm guessing we can expect a mode shooty-shooty half-remake thing, possibly with the exploration aspect of the game also drastically reduced, if it proves too much of a pain in the butt to handle. It's not like the sequels didn't do that already anyway...

[TheodoricFriede]

I'm guessing we can expect a mode shooty-shooty half-remake thing, possibly with the exploration aspect of the game also drastically reduced, if it proves too much of a pain in the butt to handle. It's not like the sequels didn't do that already anyway...

Saves me money. Not that I was particularly planning on buying what is obviously just going to be a texture upgrade anyway.

[Mazder]

I mean, TBH Mass Effect 1 has the same exploration aspect as Early Elite Dangerous.
Lots of rocks to go to but not MUCH to do there other than the odd Thresher Maw attack and the same bases copy-pasted.
So, TBH I am not really saddened by that exploration being cut when it was ultimately pretty useless/pointless IMO.

Maybe the remake/remaster can make ME1 less buggy and run a little smoother.

Honestly not having the MP is fine, we can always go and play the actual ME3 MP if we want to, and this might bring new life to it, but it honestly doesn't matter to me.

[TTTX]

There's still good things about ME1, and I really dig the old-school sci fi feel and look of it. But in terms of gameplay and general polish it was very broken since day 1. It's weird... the better the games got on a technical level, the worst the story and the RPG elements got.

probably because of the tight schedule, well the lack of a plan for the story and basically disregarding previous games plot points, lore and even common sense just to justify the story to continue.

from a main story standpoint it's not that different from new SW trilogy, however thanks to the medium that ME is told most of the characters doesn't suffer from the same problems cast of new SW suffered, at least as long as you decide to do their content.

[Vol]

Thinking about it earlier, did the genophage actually make most female krogans completely infertile, so that the fertiles one reproducing at their standard rate would keep the population level with other races, or did it tweek the viability rate of any clutch so that there were only a few live births from any pregnancy?

[TheodoricFriede]

Thinking about it earlier, did the genophage actually make most female krogans completely infertile, so that the fertiles one reproducing at their standard rate would keep the population level with other races, or did it tweek the viability rate of any clutch so that there were only a few live births from any pregnancy?

The second one.

Mordin specifically says "Not a sterility plague."

[SciFlyBoy]

Watching the news on the remaster. Whenever it actually does come out, most likely they'll offer a download or a you can purchase the disks. The disk are most likely going to be blueRay, so they'll be one disk per game. With that maybe being the case, do you think that since ME2 won't be split amongst two disks that they'll make it so that Tali can be recruited before Horizon, like they originally planned? I've only ever seen those scenes play from the PC games.

[TheodoricFriede]

I mean that would be nice, but I doubt it.

Theyre going to do as little work as possible.

Besides that, I asked a developer about that once and they got weird and pissy with me.

[SciFlyBoy]

Oh, well damn. I heard MP was cut from the list too. So there goes two things I was looking forward to.

[TheodoricFriede]

Oh, well damn. I heard MP was cut from the list too. So there goes two things I was looking forward to.

The fact that they delayed the re-release to apparently 'update' ME1 (which I DONT really want) may work more in favor if fixing a few things. Who's to say?

But Mass Effect 2 had already been released on a single disk, and they didn't change anything. I doubt they would change it now.

[Mazder]

I fully doubt the work put in is solely going to make the combat across ME1 and 2 more like 3's a bunch or texturing and animation updates (but not any changes to any actual skeletons) and maybe some better optimisation.

Other than that not much will change.

MP is definitely out, but if they keep the ME3 servers alive the remaster might bring players back to that.
Or they'll just link the new games to the old servers and have them load into the old game if you own it or something weird like that.

[TTTX]

Thinking about it earlier, did the genophage actually make most female krogans completely infertile, so that the fertiles one reproducing at their standard rate would keep the population level with other races, or did it tweek the viability rate of any clutch so that there were only a few live births from any pregnancy?

The second one.

Mordin specifically says "Not a sterility plague."

pretty much this.

however the writing can sometimes make it seem like sterility plaque, because it's apparently very hard for the krogan females to become pregnant even though Krogan females is suppose to make clutches close to 1000 (or atleast that's how I understood it) so they should have at least one kid per clutch.

it feels like a small writing mistake on the lore part as it's not suppose to the fertility that is the problem, but the Krogan lift style, which is hard even for young Krogans (you know Like Grunts Trail is good example of it).

[Vol]

Yes, that's what had me thinking. If any given pregnancy results in 2 live tadpoles/eggs, then their species fatalism makes far less sense. Don't kill them with bullshit suited for pre-contact lifestyle, and you're fine. Whereas widespread total sterility, adjusted for the societal level, so only _some_ women can bear live young, but has a thousand kids each time, would absolutely make sense of their ennui. No normal krogan man is ever going to get a shot with them, and because of the imposed birth rate, virtually no normal krogan woman would get to have kids. But the implications as to which went both ways, as I recall.

[TTTX]

Yes, that's what had me thinking. If any given pregnancy results in 2 live tadpoles/eggs, then their species fatalism makes far less sense. Don't kill them with bullshit suited for pre-contact lifestyle, and you're fine. Whereas widespread total sterility, adjusted for the societal level, so only _some_ women can bear live young, but has a thousand kids each time, would absolutely make sense of their ennui. No normal krogan man is ever going to get a shot with them, and because of the imposed birth rate, virtually no normal krogan woman would get to have kids. But the implications as to which went both ways, as I recall.

yeah the Krogan life style didn't change because of krogans like Wrex's dad who was stuck in the old ways and the females also put out breeding requests on the strongest males as seen if you kill the maw in Grunt's trail which probaby doesn't help much either for Krogan male moral as they have to risk their lives just for the right to breed.

[SciFlyBoy]

Yes... No normal krogan man is ever going to get a shot with them, and because of the imposed birth rate, virtually no normal krogan woman would get to have kids. But the implications as to which went both ways, as I recall.

Damn, that'll make me want to be a mercenary too.