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The Mass Effect 3/BioWare Thread

Grimlorn

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http://kotaku.com/5892074/why-mass-effect-3s-ending-doesnt-need-changing-spoilers

After the credits rolled and the final scene faded, I sat up until well after two in the morning, unable to sleep, haunted by the outcome of a video game.
I didn't actually read all of it because my eyes started sliding off the text.
Jaesun hasn't been to the codex since the release of ME3. I bet he's sitting naked in a corner, curled up, shaking uncontrollably, traumatized by what Bioware did to his Shepards. Either that or he's replaying the gay sex scene over and over while masturbating vigorously to it.
 

skuphundaku

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Not that I've finished ME3 or anything, but that whole indoctrination theory sounds stupid as hell. It's just the desperate attempts of fans hopeful that there is a better ending than the one they experienced. But lets face it Bioware isn't smart enough to pull something like that off. The ending is what it is. Sure Bioware could change it by copying some of the fanfics of their fans who hate the ending but it would still piss even more people off because the Shepard storyline didn't end in ME3 like they said that it would.

That's pretty much my interpretation as well. Bioware just threw together a bunch of shit trying to be "deep" and fans are looking for meaning where there is none.
Yes, I think that too. The thing is that the legion of Bioware and ME fans (so as not to call them "biodrones" even though most of them deserve it) are now past denying that the information in the leaks is true and hoping that it is going to be better in the final release, and are desperately clinging to any thread of hope that the whole thing is just Bioware being very, very smart with the ME3 ending. However, that's just delusional. Bioware hasn't shown that it has the ability to plan and execute something like that. If they pull a fast one with some DLC based on delirious fanfiction, it won't be because they planned it in advance, but because they saw an oportunity to extract another pound of flesh from the suckers.
 
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Of course, they should have gone full japtard and gave us an option where if you manage to clear several flags including some you can only get to by playing the first two games (e.g. if you don't pick up certain pieces of information on the dead Reaper back in ME2, you miss a critical flag, for instance), you do find out that the whole Citadel ending is indoctrination, you unlock a new dialogue choice that allows you to break free, and enter the super secret final dungeon to defeat the super final Reaper boss.

Wait...

Didn't TTGL had a part where our heroes were trapped in the Multiverse Labyrinth? I... think I see where this is going.

The next DLC will have Shepards travelling into the dreams of all his companions who are currently being 'indoctrinated' so we can play space psychologist one last time, break them free, and reunite for the final final battle against the Reaper boss in dark space.

Did I say next? I meant next multiple. One DLC for each character.

Thinking too small. The DLC will all be chained together in a way that makes no sense story-wise but 100% sense profit-wise as players must by previous DLC to unlock later characters. The last squad member to receive their DLC will, of course, be Tali :troll:
 

Phelot

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BTW, can you specify what Shepard's first name is or is it just Shepard S. Shepard (or Sheparda S. Shepard for female?)

Honestly, I gotta know.
 
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Yeah you can name him/her, but it never gets used anywhere since "Shepard" is the stand-in, like "Warden".

FemShep is Jane Shepard, but I don't remember if that's what showed on the chargen screen or if it's fandom-created.


Jaesun hasn't been to the codex since the release of ME3. I bet he's sitting naked in a corner, curled up, shaking uncontrollably, traumatized by what Bioware did to his Shepards. Either that or he's replaying the gay sex scene over and over while masturbating vigorously to it.

He's obviously sitting naked in a corner, curled up, shaking uncontrollably while masturbating vigorously to the gay sex scene, since it was so emotionally engaging it overloaded his senses.
 

Commander Xbox

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from what ive seen most people dont even seem to be upset with the ending because it was so poorly written, came out of nowhere and made no sense (as well as being extremly limp dicked and lame in its explaination), they seem to be most upset about the fact shepard didnt get to ride off into the sunset with wifu tali and everyone doing a song and dance. amazing :lol:
 

Kashrlyyk

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http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9809289/2

BSN are grasping at straws so hard that they're hoping that Shepards dreams and exposure to reapers are all building up to the "real" ending in which the god kid reaper was trying to indoctrinate Shepard. In his mind, Shep was hallucinating that he was on the citadel and the fans are speculating that the destroy ending means that Shep overcomes the indoctrination because the other endings all kill Shepard regardless of EMS count. In other words BSN are denying the ME3 ending and substituting it for Peter fucking Chimaeras Doom fanfic.
...
In ME 1 and 2 indoctrination only works if you spent a long time INSIDE a reaper. For the fans idea of what the endings mean Bioware had to change how it works and with that destroy the stories of the first two games. And if the last part of the story only works be doing that than it is badly written and shit.
 

Aldebaran

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I suspect some writer thought that ending the series with a little bit of in depth Shepard indoctrination was a good idea. He was probably right. Then the powers that be caught wind of what was happening and became very, very frightened of scaring away future customers with a non standard lead up to the end. More than likely, they demanded that the entire idea was to be scrapped, but, since significant resources had already been committed, that simply was not going to happen. So eventually, it was decided that they would make do with the hallucination as the ending and rush three slightly edited cut scenes for the finale. In the predictable event that players were outraged by the results, Bioware would fall back on the more "risky" method and then claim that they were making sure that all regions got the ending at the same time (avoiding spoilers), or that they wanted enough development time to do the ending justice, or some other nonsense. At this point, it looks like they might even be able to make people pay for this.

While I would be able to ignore all of the hints on the account of this being Bioware, there seems to be one other critical clue: I have not heard anything about a poorly implemented, underwhelming, solo boss battle that completely ignores the mechanics of regular combat. I don't think Bioware would miss that opportunity unless something very terrible happened during development.

In ME 1 and 2 indoctrination only works if you spent a long time INSIDE a reaper. For the fans idea of what the endings mean Bioware had to change how it works and with that destroy the stories of the first two games. And if the last part of the story only works be doing that than it is badly written and shit.

I'm not sure that is correct. Couldn't you encounter indoctrinated scientists on Virmire? And if I recall Vigil mentioned that there was widespread indoctrination among the Protheans, which would be difficult if you had to be inside a reaper.
 

Kashrlyyk

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....
In ME 1 and 2 indoctrination only works if you spent a long time INSIDE a reaper. For the fans idea of what the endings mean Bioware had to change how it works and with that destroy the stories of the first two games. And if the last part of the story only works be doing that than it is badly written and shit.

I'm not sure that is correct. Couldn't you encounter indoctrinated scientists on Virmire? And if I recall Vigil mentioned that there was widespread indoctrination among the Protheans, which would be difficult if you had to be inside a reaper.
Being close to a reaper artifact is necessary. Vigil only mentions that the player is not indoctrinated and that indoctrinated protheans were used as agents.

From this wiki: http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Indoctrination

A signal or an energy field surrounds the Reaper, which influences people's minds.....Over days, perhaps a week of exposure to Sovereign's signal, the subject stops thinking for themselves and just obeys, eventually becoming a mindless servant.

Still in ME 1 and 2 you had to be very close to a reaper or a reaper artifact 24/7 for a long time to be indoctrinated, which is what most likely happened to those scientists on Virmire. Because otherwise the story makes no sense. Why not just indoctrinate Shepard or everyone from far away if it is possible?
 

treave

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Shepard is a Reaper and probably has an artifact or two in his body. Remember Ashley/Kaidan on Mars saying "who knows what Cerberus put in you", and the foreshadowing of the husk-like Cerberus operatives. Therefore being around Shepard is indoctrination. Especially if you fuck him.

:troll:
 

Valestein

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from what ive seen most people dont even seem to be upset with the ending because it was so poorly written, came out of nowhere and made no sense (as well as being extremly limp dicked and lame in its explaination), they seem to be most upset about the fact shepard didnt get to ride off into the sunset with wifu tali and everyone doing a song and dance. amazing :lol:

That's precisely what the main cause of the butthurt is. They wouldn't have given a damn if Shepard was marooned with Tali or whatever waifu/husbandu for no reason as long as they're together. They don't give a shit that the rest of the game is atrocious when it comes to player choice from past games or that it's a linear popamole shooter with shitty animations and a host of other issues.
 

Valestein

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I really don't understand the point behind the dream sequences in the game. Was that AI kid mindraping Shepard?
I believe that the kid has been a sign on indoctrination all along. Notice how Anderson doesn't even ask Shepard about the kid in the vent (which vanishes without explanation when Shepard looks away), then the kid boards a shuttle and the marines don't even notice him there. Then the dreams.

Note sure if this was on purpose or not, but Bioware now holds the key to getting back a lot of their fans if they pull something good with a DLC/Expansion/ME4.

Bioware simply doesn't do subtlety or leave things open to interpretation. It's just not something they do.
 

dextermorgan

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IGN shill rises in defense of Bioware (namely Day 1 DLC and endings). Turns out he can't even fool his own readership (judging by the comments).

http://www.ign.com/videos/2012/03/12/mass-effect-3-opinion-video

I swear, every time I hear this "entitled customer" complaint I have to ask - Are these people new to capitalism or something?

Also, the little hipster piece of shit takes a potshot at this rather excellent fellow.
 
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I can see Biowares alternate ending DLC now: Harbinger indoctrinates Shepard and harvests civilization, but not before Shepard records a motivational speech for the Normandy which crash lands on a jungle planet somewhere deep within the uncharted regions of the universe far from the Mass Relays. With the freed Geth helping the Normandy survivors rebuild civilization, the Reapers come back in 50,000 years to be crushed by an alliance of Geth and the millions of robot/human hybrids spawn of joker and EDI who thanks to the Geth preserving Shepards message and history of the reaper intact have been preparing for the Reapers return the whole time.
 

Kashrlyyk

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Shepard is a Reaper and probably has an artifact or two in his body. Remember Ashley/Kaidan on Mars saying "who knows what Cerberus put in you", and the foreshadowing of the husk-like Cerberus operatives. Therefore being around Shepard is indoctrination. Especially if you fuck him.

:troll:
Then he can't survive the destroy ending no matter what your war readiness is. And AFAIK that is the only one he can survive.
 

waywardOne

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Forbes is still paying attention to this and making Casey Hudson and Christina Norman look like the talentless corporate slaves they really are.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...iowares-mass-effect-3-day-one-dlc-from-ashes/


There have been a number of industrious gamers who have dug into the code on the actual Mass Effect 3 discs and have found evidence that the ‘From Ashes’ DLC may have been coded into the original game and then removed.

The nature of the day-one DLC is also problematic. The extra mission adds a new crew member: a Prothean named Javik. Protheans are an ancient race, and their history and technology play a crucial role in the series. Javik is the only Prothean in the entire trilogy, and excluding him from the game’s release raises serious alarm bells, especially since you probably want the context and the crew member on your first play-through of the game.

BioWare may argue that this is why they released “From Ashes” on the first day – so that fans could play that side mission alongside every other – but that doesn’t make any more sense than simply releasing that story-line as part of the main game itself. Some critics have said that only “fanatics” will really care or be impacted by the day-one DLC.
But doesn’t that just translate into “biggest fans?”

In other words, if only the game’s biggest fans would care about this, then BioWare is effectively punishing them by charging more for content only they would care about. One can quickly begin to see how fans might feel screwed over. Especially the game’s “fanatics.”
When guys like Casey Hudson say that the content wasn’t developed alongside the rest of the game, and then hackers find the files on the disc itself, well, trust goes rushing toward the window. Other problems have surfaced as well, such as sloppiness with graphics, possible pieces of the plot lifted from other games, and very peculiar uses of photo-shopping for both in-game content as well as advertising for the game.

EDIT: Meh. No authority, just a blogger on the Forbes site. Still, bleedover into an actual business community.
 

treave

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Shepard is a Reaper and probably has an artifact or two in his body. Remember Ashley/Kaidan on Mars saying "who knows what Cerberus put in you", and the foreshadowing of the husk-like Cerberus operatives. Therefore being around Shepard is indoctrination. Especially if you fuck him.

:troll:
Then he can't survive the destroy ending no matter what your war readiness is. And AFAIK that is the only one he can survive.

Shepard only has synthetic parts, he isn't a synthetic (not run by A.I.) and therefore doesn't count, which is the assumption that would need to be made for the ending to even make sense in the first place. I mean, it's a magic beam that can destroy just synthetics or create a new synthetic-organic DNA (whatever that means).

If the Destroy ending destroys all synthetic parts, then the galaxy is well and truly fucked because they can say goodbye to all technology.

edit: Things would be much clearer if they'd used 'carbon-based lifeforms' and 'silicon-based lifeforms' as a term rather than using something as vague as 'synthetic'.
 

dumuh

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Shepard is a Reaper and probably has an artifact or two in his body. Remember Ashley/Kaidan on Mars saying "who knows what Cerberus put in you", and the foreshadowing of the husk-like Cerberus operatives. Therefore being around Shepard is indoctrination. Especially if you fuck him.

:troll:
Then he can't survive the destroy ending no matter what your war readiness is. And AFAIK that is the only one he can survive.

Shepard only has synthetic parts, he isn't a synthetic (not run by A.I.) and therefore doesn't count, which is the assumption that would need to be made for the ending to even make sense in the first place. I mean, it's a magic beam that can destroy just synthetics or create a new synthetic-organic DNA (whatever that means).

If the Destroy ending destroys all synthetic parts, then the galaxy is well and truly fucked because they can say goodbye to all technology.

edit: Things would be much clearer if they'd used 'carbon-based lifeforms' and 'silicon-based lifeforms' as a term rather than using something as vague as 'synthetic'.

You know there are more semiconductors than just silicon right?
 

treave

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Yes, so? I was just illustrating that their definition of what exactly about 'synthetics' that are targeted for destruction could be written in a clearer manner, rather than just hand-waving it with "all synthetics go kaput." and leaving it up to the player to figure out what that means.

If you have DNA, for example, you have biochemistry. And since the Catalyst brings up 'DNA', I would assume synthetics have biochemistry. Which can be silicon-based, or nitrogen-based, or whatnot. Doesn't really matter. It's something to target, at least. It's good practice for me trying to justify Bioware writing too.
 

dextermorgan

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EDIT: Meh. No authority, just a blogger on the Forbes site. Still, bleedover into an actual business community.
I wouldn't be so sure about his lack of relevance. His articles have prompted hasty responses from Bio and EA, which means that his writings are being taken seriously at some level. And shouting down a Forbes-based blog is far harder to do than is the case with other sites/places (notice how clean the comments section is).
 

circ

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Uuugh. That's fucking hilarious. Now a portion of the codex is seriously debating that indoctrination isn't that bad an idea to wing some shitty story by instead of just calling BioWare shit. Yeah ok.
 

Achilles

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Honestly, your first 4 points look like you're trolling. I mean aside from "sci-fi plot that had a clear beginning, middle and end", which is objective fact, but then I am a little harder to impress than this. The rest however: cool plot? story full of promise? great villains?

I can see how one might think that :D I have a simple answer to that, my point of comparison was other modern games (so not really that high a bar)and... I guess I am easily amused. I never expected "hard sci-fi" or an original story from Mass Effect, it's a mainstream game after all and cliches are used because most people like them. However, those cliches were decently executed in Mass Effect 1, resulting in a "good for what it is" game when it came to story and characterization.

Then comes Mass Effect 2 in which Bioware improves on the popamole combat system but the oveerall story collapses. Now many people said "Yay, combat in ME2 is so much better and there a couple of good characters!" while others said "meh, the story is now nonsensical, the world feels smaller and I don't care that much about the combat". I'm in the latter camp.
 

Grimlorn

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I thought they did a good job giving the classes unique abilities and making them have more variety like the Vanguard's charge and the Infiltrator's cloak. But that's the only good thing I think they did with ME2. Everything else was a step backwards or removed.
 

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