Mass Effect 4 survey suggests BioWare are paying attention to Dark Souls, Diablo and Dota
85 replies, posted
[QUOTE=G3rman;45414672]Read: suspension of disbelief.
No choice in any game matters.
You have to give weight to your decisions yourself. Sounds like you a burnt out.[/QUOTE]
Its more the fact that a trilogy advertised as "every choice matters", both choices lead to the same outcome.
So no choice matters.
[QUOTE=JeanLuc761;45414714]To an extent. The whole premise of the Mass Effect series was that your decisions do, in fact, matter. And while one could easily make a case that any particular Shepard's story could still be dramatically different from another, Jackald is right in that the ball was really dropped on a lot of the bigger decisions. It doesn't help that the ending to the entire trilogy fell flat on its face, with 3 DLCs (Leviathan, Extended Cut, and Citadel) still not quite managing to fix that.[/QUOTE]
In a traditional sense, that large of a branching story would be insanely expensive. Not just to incorporate into one game but an entire series.
We are talking about EA, so in theory unlimited resources. But they took creative control, and Bioware's decisions were about "telling their vision", not what players necessarily wanted.
Why is it whenever a game under EA screws up it's their fault, but when it's good they get no credit?
[QUOTE=Novangel;45415006]Why is it whenever a game under EA screws up it's their fault, but when it's good they get no credit?[/QUOTE]
Because that's how bias works. When they do something right, it's because that's the normal thing to do.
But in the past it's been shown EA's influence has made developers incorporate questionable features and mechanics that make the games worse, simply because EA believed they would make more money that way.
[QUOTE=G3rman;45414925]In a traditional sense, that large of a branching story would be insanely expensive. Not just to incorporate into one game but an entire series.
We are talking about EA, so in theory unlimited resources. But they took creative control, and Bioware's decisions were about "telling their vision", not what players necessarily wanted.[/QUOTE]
Come on, freaking Chrono Trigger had multiple endings, it wouldn't be hard to make a game with multiple story branches if they didn't waste everything on marketing.
[QUOTE=chunkymonkey;45413000]Thermal Clips was a fucking shitty idea and I fucking hate it. Instead of refining the existing system they were fucking lazy cunts and went "let's just do what every fucking 3rd person shooter since GoW has done!"[/QUOTE]
I don't see how thermal clips was such a bad idea. Thermal clips or cooldown system, it works the same way: shoot and make pauses. How you can extrapolate from that, that BioWare killed Mass Effect is beyond me.
Besides, they re-implemented one gun that uses the ME1 cooldown in Citadel, and it handles the same. If you have an idea on how to "refine the existing system", I'd be glad to hear it. Because mine is: let's go with the traditional reloading system since it's much less frustrating, which was also BioWare's conclusion.
[QUOTE=Loadingue;45416416]I don't see how thermal clips was such a bad idea. Thermal clips or cooldown system, it works the same way: shoot and make pauses. How you can extrapolate from that, that BioWare killed Mass Effect is beyond me.
Besides, they re-implemented one gun that uses the ME1 cooldown in Citadel, and it handles the same. If you have an idea on how to "refine the existing system", I'd be glad to hear it. Because mine is: let's go with the traditional reloading system since it's much less frustrating, which was also BioWare's conclusion.[/QUOTE]
It's a bad idea, because it's a step back from the much superior cooling system. I'd rather they balance the weapons cooling time and introduce the thermal clips as a item that you can use in order to bypass the cooling wait time.
Also, there's no way in hell the entire galaxy, even lowlife mercenaries would just ditch all non-thermal clip weapons in two years.
[QUOTE=Ragekipz;45416687]Also, there's no way in hell the entire galaxy, even lowlife mercenaries would just ditch all non-thermal clip weapons in two years.[/QUOTE]
It's a gameplay-related change, you shouldn't pay too much attention to its actual significance within the game universe.
BioWare [I]almost[/I] added a Codex entry about it, but they finally decided against it because they assumed the players would understand that any justification would sound ridiculous.
[QUOTE=Codex entry]Over the last two years, firearms have undergone a major enhancement to manage their waste heat. When the Systems Alliance analyzed detailed battle telemetry, they found that the geth were able to keep up a more sustained rate of fire, giving them a significant advantage over Alliance marines. So the Alliance retrofitted every weapon in service, making a full conversion to the thermal clip system. Thermal clips hold disposable universal heat sinks. Instead of waiting for an overheated weapon to cool down, combatants simply eject the spent heat sink and the clip feeds in a new one. This allows for a greater sustained rate of fire and more numerous impacts on targets down range. Armorers are hurriedly adapting to this increased lethality with new defensive technology like self-sustaining barrier amps, hardened shield generators, and mass field-integrated armor. But for the moment, the aggressor has the advantage, resulting in the clips' widespread adoption by the galaxy's arms manufacturers.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Loadingue;45416789]It's a gameplay-related change, you shouldn't pay too much attention to its actual significance within the game universe.
BioWare [I]almost[/I] added a Codex entry about it, but they finally decided against it because they assumed the players would understand that any justification would sound ridiculous.[/QUOTE]
But that's bullshit. Gameplay elements being disconnected from the narrative is the mark of bad game design and bad storytelling.
[QUOTE=Ragekipz;45416829]But that's bullshit. Gameplay elements being disconnected from the narrative is the mark of bad game design and bad storytelling.[/QUOTE]
Is it? What about The Elder Scrolls or Fallout then? When skill books become extremely rare in Fallout New Vegas in comparison to Fallout 3, that's the mark of bad game design and bad storytelling?
What about Oblivion and Skyrim, obviously the sudden lack of crossbows show how badly they're designed.
Anyone could find many more examples.
[QUOTE=Loadingue;45417162]Is it? What about The Elder Scrolls or Fallout then? When skill books become extremely rare in Fallout New Vegas in comparison to Fallout 3, that's the mark of bad game design and bad storytelling?
What about Oblivion and Skyrim, obviously the sudden lack of crossbows show how badly they're designed.
Anyone could find many more examples.[/QUOTE]
That's two diffent things. Crossbows(and spears) not being in Oblivion and Skyrim because they couldn't do it is bad storytelling and bad game design.
The reduction of skill books in NV is a balance choice, it's not like they suddenly said "And all them magazines vanished".
Still, if you were to apply logic to the situation, you could still find a reason such as "the magazines aren't as avaliable in the mojave".
Changing a game mechanic that doesn't have good lore, gameplay or logic reason to back the change is retarded.
The survey felt very generic and I wonder what they will use the data for.
As for ME games, I agree with the opinion that ME3 had the best combat (powers, weapon sounds and enemies). But I would kill the guy that made the running animation. I enjoyed the weapon upgrades in ME1 more though, you could make some hilarious weapons. High Explosive rounds anyone? That's the only good thing I can say about ME3. There were some graphics upgrades, too, but also some embarrassing graphical solutions.
For me the best will be ME1. It had it's flaws but it made me interested in the universe while the sequels started add stuff that put me off more and more. ME2 did one great thing to the combat and that was making each class interesting to play thanks to class-specific abilities. This groundwork was then improved upon in ME3. As for ME2 story, it was fun and all but ultimately when I looked back the whole game seemed like one huge filler/detour. I liked the variety in companions but it would have been so much better with different main plot.
[QUOTE=Loadingue;45416416]I don't see how thermal clips was such a bad idea. Thermal clips or cooldown system, it works the same way: shoot and make pauses. How you can extrapolate from that, that BioWare killed Mass Effect is beyond me.
Besides, they re-implemented one gun that uses the ME1 cooldown in Citadel, and it handles the same. If you have an idea on how to "refine the existing system", I'd be glad to hear it. Because mine is: let's go with the traditional reloading system since it's much less frustrating, which was also BioWare's conclusion.[/QUOTE]
Thermal clips negatively affected game design. When you know the player has unlimited ammo you build encounters around putting pressure on the player, forcing them to manage their rate of fire against their weapon heat. When you have thermal clips you have to spawn in waves to give players time to reload and gather fallen ammo.
In ME1 you often had to fight a room with 15 guys in it, which meant constant heat management and controlling where fights took place. In ME 2 and 3 you fight about 5 enemies at once, with more waves spawning in as the previous wave is defeated. Not only does this mean that players have less control over how they fight (constantly scavenging for ammo), it also means there's no way to tell what kind of force you're facing until you already defeated it.
You have no way to know if you should use your more expensive, powerful weapons, or save them for potential tougher situations later on, even in the same battle.
That's a good point, Janus Vesta. In the end, it was a game design change that some players will like, some won't, and some won't mind. I belong to that last category.
I remember someone made a mob for ME2 where they brought back weapon cooldowns (that was pretty easy iirc, something residual left in the game by bioware :v:) along with thermal sinks you could eject at any time from a reload or automatically by overheating the gun
it was pretty great, although the abundance of heat sinks in the game itself ruined it because you could only hold a few and you'd literally never run out
[QUOTE=Novangel;45415006]Why is it whenever a game under EA screws up it's their fault, but when it's good they get no credit?[/QUOTE]
It IS their fault you nonce, they wanted a call of duty alike to slot in, they appointed people with backgrounds in marketing and LAW as department heads, they ran the game a year and half early to fill an empty quarter to make shareholders happy.
BW hasn't been particularly quiet about this either, check ex employee blogs.
BW can share the issues with endings and seriously questionable character carry over choices, but turning an RPG exploration game into CAWADOOTY GET IT DONE QUARTER ONE SHAREHOLDERS NEED MONIES NAOW WAGEBITCHES NAOW is squarely under EA's aegis.
It's like the last ten years of EA's track record have somehow eluded you.
[QUOTE=Loadingue;45416416]I don't see how thermal clips was such a bad idea. Thermal clips or cooldown system, it works the same way: shoot and make pauses. How you can extrapolate from that, that BioWare killed Mass Effect is beyond me.[/QUOTE]
I don't know how you "extrapolated" that that was the sole reason I think that. You're welcome to point out exactly where I explicitly said such a thing.
I just hope that things that we do actually impact the game this time
ME3 felt like shit not because of the story, but because it felt like nothing you did in the first 2 games even mattered at all
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