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Bioware is all about the sophistication.

Zarniwoop

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All you Negative Nancies out there, take note. Mass Effect 3 is being made for the discerning, sophisticated, monocle-wearing gentleman. In an interview with Game Informer, Casey Hudson explains away all your fears of it being a dumbed-down popamole dating sim in space. Some of the groundbreaking, never-before-seen features he mentions include:

-Sophistimicated Gameplay: Objectives CHANGE WHILE YOU'RE PLAYING!!!!!. You can fall through corridors into another corridor!!11!!
One of the things we wanted to address, for example, was in Mass Effect 2 often you would see where you’re going down at the end of the hallway and know, that’s settled, that’s where I’m going. In Mass Effect 3, we constantly try to change your perception of what you need to do. You’ll be at point A, and you’ll look over at point B and think that’s where you have to go, but halfway there something changes – there’s a redirect, or people come in from a different direction, or you fall through to a lower level.
-Sophistimicated High Fidelity Digital Acting: Characters look like their feelings are hurt.
It’d be a lot easier to develop something like this if it were built more as a system, and you saw characters that technically did things and responded to different situations, but what’s really cool is when you see that a character remembers something that you did, and their feelings are hurt. It’s really high fidelity digital acting. All these things play out with extremely high production values for where we’re at in the game industry. That’s something that I think is really cool
-Sophistimicated Endings: Having the exact same ending just with different characters dying worked so good in ME2, they're doing it again.
It’s more like there are some really obvious things that are different and then lots and lots of smaller things, lots of things about who lives and who dies, civilizations that rose and fell, all the way down to individual characters. That becomes the state of where you left your galaxy. The endings have a lot more sophistication and variety in them. It would be interesting to see if somebody could put together a chart for that. Even with Mass Effect 2’s...
-Sophistimicated Narrative: Because after all, the only reason we bother with playing games is to get through a story. And because Bioware are so awesome at stories.
I think gameplay is certainly key, but the way I would look at it is that the reason you care about gameplay – whether it’s the inventory system or combat or exploration or whatever – the reason you care about it is the narrative. Arguably, you don’t need a great narrative. Great gameplay can still make for a fun experience. But what we see in Mass Effect and the way people respond to it is that – for example, when you’re modding weapons, you think differently when you’re giving that weapon to a squad member that is your love interest, that you just had a conversation with and you think she likes you. That makes giving her that weapon have a little bit of a different meaning versus putting it all on the stats and numbers.
-Sophistimicated Emotional Journeys: Because there's no deeper emotional experience in human existence than is possible with a bunch of pixels on the screeen.
We’ve got missions for people to play, but I think afterward what people will remember it for is the emotional experience and the fun that they had with exploring their own ship and walking around it and coming across conversations with unique characters – these little things that you get to do. There’s also the emotional journey of the story. Those are the things that I’m most excited for people to try out.
-Sophistimicated Bad Guys: Because normally in Bioware games, the bad guy is never stereotypically evil enough. Don't worry - they've got it sorted!
In the first one we had Saren. In the second one, we wanted to introduce some mystery into who’s doing what, and that was supposed to be the Illusive Man. In the third game, yeah, I think we’re introducing a clearer target for Shepard, a clearer foil.
-Sophistimicated DLC: Because we all hate complete games and prefer buying it piece by piece.

See, Codex? All your criticisms were for nothing! The game will be the deep experience we've all been waiting for. Truly a great moment in the history of RPGs.
The whole interview:
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/featu...fdsafdhudson-interviewae.aspx?PostPageIndex=1
 

Multi-headed Cow

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One of the things we wanted to address, for example, was in Mass Effect 2 often you would see where you’re going down at the end of the hallway and know, that’s settled, that’s where I’m going. In Mass Effect 3, we constantly try to change your perception of what you need to do. You’ll be at point A, and you’ll look over at point B and think that’s where you have to go, but halfway there something changes – there’s a redirect, or people come in from a different direction, or you fall through to a lower level.
This whole quote just staggers me. Firstly the way it's worded makes it sound like Bioware takes offense at players having a plan for how things are going to play out, even to the point of knowing the end of a hallway is the end of a hallway. No, NO YOU FOOLS, THIS IS A BIOWARE CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE NEVER THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE, LIVE IN THE MOMENT, GET CONFUSED WHEN YOU PAUSE THE GAME TO LEVEL UP DURING COMBAT AND FORGET WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Secondly, he isn't looking at his original example as "Gee, maybe we shouldn't make linear corridor shooters and should introduce alternate paths", he's specifically talking about masking the fact that it's a linear corridor but not actually changing the gameplay result.

I realize I probably should stop being amazed by how stupid Bioware is these days, but they really are declining faster and faster.
 

catfood

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But what we see in Mass Effect and the way people respond to it is that – for example, when you’re modding weapons, you think differently when you’re giving that weapon to a squad member that is your love interest, that you just had a conversation with and you think she likes you. That makes giving her that weapon have a little bit of a different meaning versus putting it all on the stats and numbers.

Now I'm not a hardkkkore gamer with a mondblut/assburger-type fetish about numbers and shit, but this quote just made me facepalm.

But at least they know perfectly well what their target audience wants to hear. I'll give Bioware credit fot that. The whole interview reads like something of a Bio fanboy's wet dream.

This whole quote just staggers me. Firstly the way it's worded makes it sound like Bioware takes offense at players having a plan for how things are going to play out, even to the point of knowing the end of a hallway is the end of a hallway. No, NO YOU FOOLS, THIS IS A BIOWARE CINEMATIC MASTERPIECE NEVER THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE, LIVE IN THE MOMENT, GET CONFUSED WHEN YOU PAUSE THE GAME TO LEVEL UP DURING COMBAT AND FORGET WHAT YOU'RE DOING. Secondly, he isn't looking at his original example as "Gee, maybe we shouldn't make linear corridor shooters and should introduce alternate paths", he's specifically talking about masking the fact that it's a linear corridor but not actually changing the gameplay result.

I realize I probably should stop being amazed by how stupid Bioware is these days, but they really are declining faster and faster.

Sad thing is, some people actually believe that Bioware are pushing the envelope with cheap tricks like this one. I mean, really, a scripted sequence is something to brag about? What the fuck?
 

Semper

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biowhore said:
You’ll be at point A, and you’ll look over at point B and think that’s where you have to go, but halfway there something changes – there’s a redirect, or people come in from a different direction, or you fall through to a lower level.

after years of working with the unreal engine their retarded minds realized that it's nothing like their fuckin' inhouse engines with the plain 2d walkmesh. now they're using 3d movement at its best... actually that's sort of :incline:

unknown mongo said:
but I’m just not that coordinated with a shooter. I would play it if I could figure out how to do combat

as if popamole railroading gameplay with an awesome button would be complicated. biowhore should slap their majestic cutscenes on dvd and sell it as a movie for those handicapped morons.

biowhore said:
They love story. In fact, the story is so important to them that they feel the story choices are intimidating
VS
biowhore said:
they want to see what they would perceive as the best outcome

:hmmm:
 

Gragt

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That sounds so dumb. All this talk about emotional drive and attachement feels like they are talking about romance novels for teenagers.

Concerning the first quote, Mysteries of Westgate managed to play with my expectations very well by having quests play out differently than I was lead to believe, and it was even more effective because it was done in an understated way. For instance one quest would have you go to a cave full of trolls to retrieve a diamond, but upon getting there you'd find that most trolls are severely wounded and a band of mercenaries actually raided the cave first, killed the troll chieftain, and took the diamond. They would then teleport away and you'd have to track them down. What started as a simple "go to cave, kill trolls and retrive McGuffin" actually turned into a quest requiring you to first find the identity of the mercenaries and then their whereabouts. Most quests in that game played like this and flowed so naturally it was just brilliant, but I bet that if Bioware does it, the result will feel hamfisted and phoned-in.
 

waywardOne

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the reason you care about it is the narrative
:retarded:

Games are fully pop culture now, and pop culture -- as we know -- caters to retarded 10-year old girls. [edited for redundancy]
 

Xor

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The way I would look at it is that the reason you care about gameplay - the reason you care about it is the narrative. Arguably, you don’t need a great narrative. Great gameplay can still make for a fun experience.

This is the key to understanding Bioware.
 

Majestic47

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Terraria proved that statement correct. But it's Bioware, I kinda know what to expect by now.
 

felipepepe

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The way I would look at it is that the reason you care about gameplay - the reason you care about it is the narrative. Arguably, you don’t need a great narrative. Great gameplay can still make for a fun experience.
Thus lame gameplay requires massive narrative. I see what you did there, BioWare.

Terraria proved that statement correct. But it's Bioware, I kinda know what to expect by now.
Terraria? I think half of the games until the 2000's proved that...can''t think of anyone playing a Mario game for the story.
 

shihonage

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Bioware's environments look cool.

But their combat feels disconnected. Their dialogue systems accomplish the impressive goal of being insultingly simplistic and frustratingly counterintuitive at the same time.

Yet I could forgive that if their writing was engaging.

But it's not.

Most Bioware NPCs immediately crash through the 4th wall by coming across as muscular, medium-functioning, autistics with all the interpersonal skills of a vending machine.

It's no coincidence. No accident. Consistent between all their games, it is the sum total of all the creative talent that works there.

There's nothing to salvage, and nothing to hope for, from Bioware.
 

Infinitron

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"Gee, maybe we shouldn't make linear corridor shooters and should introduce alternate paths", he's specifically talking about masking the fact that it's a linear corridor but not actually changing the gameplay result.

It seems this has literallly never even crossed their mind. They can't even conceive of that kind of game design.
 

Valestein

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It seems this has literallly never even crossed their mind. They can't even conceive of that kind of game design.

The "Noveria" mission in ME1 had multiple ways of doing things and a few alternate paths but other than that ME1-3 is more of a linear popamole shooter than Gears of War.
 

Spectacle

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Bioware characters are so unique they all appear in each and every of their games!
 

Infinitron

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I agree with the newfag who doesn't try too hard. Baldur's Gate games were absolutely linear corridors.

Point taken, but the old Bioware is a different company as far as I'm concerned.

The "Noveria" mission in ME1 had multiple ways of doing things and a few alternate paths but other than that ME1-3 is more of a linear popamole shooter than Gears of War.

Yeah, Noveria was easily the most memorable area of that game. Great music, too.
 

Renegen

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Gaming is start to be like politics.

- People were duped into buying Mass Effect because it was the next awesome RPG, in space
- Then people were duped into buying Mass Effect 2 because it was better as described by everyone and won more GOTY awards
- And now people are being duped to buy Mass Effect 3 because it's super improved and will end the epic narrative

At some point, Bioware doesn't really care where the money's from as long as it's coming in. And of course these days "franchises" are just 3 games long, never to be touched again, so they will pull the same shit again next generation.
 

hoopy

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BioWare said:
One of the things we wanted to address, for example, was in Mass Effect 2 often you would see where you’re going down at the end of the hallway and know, that’s settled, that’s where I’m going. In Mass Effect 3, we constantly try to change your perception of what you need to do. You’ll be at point A, and you’ll look over at point B and think that’s where you have to go, but halfway there something changes – there’s a redirect, or people come in from a different direction, or you fall through to a lower level.
I've noticed a few times before that BioWare will take some really old concept and then present it as some groundbreaking innovation they came up with, like they're from Mars and have never played video games before.

It’d be a lot easier to develop something like this if it were built more as a system, and you saw characters that technically did things and responded to different situations, but what’s really cool is when you see that a character remembers something that you did, and their feelings are hurt. It’s really high fidelity digital acting. All these things play out with extremely high production values for where we’re at in the game industry. That’s something that I think is really cool.
So cool.

That sounds so dumb. All this talk about emotional drive and attachement feels like they are talking about romance novels for teenagers.

Concerning the first quote, Mysteries of Westgate managed to play with my expectations very well by having quests play out differently than I was lead to believe, and it was even more effective because it was done in an understated way. For instance one quest would have you go to a cave full of trolls to retrieve a diamond, but upon getting there you'd find that most trolls are severely wounded and a band of mercenaries actually raided the cave first, killed the troll chieftain, and took the diamond. They would then teleport away and you'd have to track them down. What started as a simple "go to cave, kill trolls and retrive McGuffin" actually turned into a quest requiring you to first find the identity of the mercenaries and then their whereabouts. Most quests in that game played like this and flowed so naturally it was just brilliant, but I bet that if Bioware does it, the result will feel hamfisted and phoned-in.
Thief/II is also good at this.
 

Zarniwoop

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Concerning the first quote, Mysteries of Westgate managed to play with my expectations very well by having quests play out differently than I was lead to believe, and it was even more effective because it was done in an understated way. For instance one quest would have you go to a cave full of trolls to retrieve a diamond, but upon getting there you'd find that most trolls are severely wounded and a band of mercenaries actually raided the cave first, killed the troll chieftain, and took the diamond. They would then teleport away and you'd have to track them down. What started as a simple "go to cave, kill trolls and retrive McGuffin" actually turned into a quest requiring you to first find the identity of the mercenaries and then their whereabouts. Most quests in that game played like this and flowed so naturally it was just brilliant, but I bet that if Bioware does it, the result will feel hamfisted and phoned-in.

I fear you're grossly overestimating Bioware here. Their idea of "playing with expectations" is to give you irritating obstacles which would slightly slow you down on your epic quest of shooting your way through corridors.

there’s a redirect, or people come in from a different direction, or you fall through to a lower level.

So in other words, some alien might try to flank you instead of running straight at your bullets as in the first 2 games, the corridor will suddenly collapse and you need to take another path, and at some point a reaper will blast a hole in the floor and you fall through (in an EPIC cutscene of course), walk down another corridor and find some stairs to go back up. Nothing as involved as that MoW quest. That would confuse and alienate the console "emotional journey" audience. If you read the whole interview, Casey goes on about how they wanted to make the game accessible to people too retarded to even play a shooter.

We also have a lot of feedback from people who say, "Your games look really cool, and I love the idea of the story and the characters. It looks awesome when I watch it on YouTube, but I’m just not that coordinated with a shooter. I would play it if I could figure out how to do combat."

:retarded:

The massive irony of course, is that Biofag made the game a shooter in the first place, because RPGs are teh hard.
 

RPGMaster

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WHY DO YOU PEOPLES DOUBT BIOWARE? THEY WILL REDEFINE CHOICE AND CONSEQUENCE!

osegbc.jpg
 

DraQ

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-Sophistimicated Gameplay: Objectives CHANGE WHILE YOU'RE PLAYING!!!!!. You can fall through corridors into another corridor!!11!!
Wow. In a few years they may even reach HL1 level of sophistication (optimistically speaking).

-Sophistimicated Narrative: Because after all, the only reason we bother with playing games is to get through a story. And because Bioware are so awesome at stories.
Well, they certainly have had a lot of practice telling that story.
:smug:
 

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