Mass Effect universe discussion thread

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I'd agree, at least based on current trends. I've watched video games get consistently more impressive on all fronts over the last ten years. With TV it's been basically the opposite. You have to look really hard to find something not on a Pay TV channel that's worth watching these days, and chances are when you find it it'll be canceled after 2 seasons, or on the bubble through it's entire run, because everyone else would rather watch the 3rd weekly hour of American Idol.

Well the stuff on Pay Tv is really pushing the boundaries. Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, Band of Brothers, Deadwood, the Wire and hopefully in the future Game of Thrones to mention just a few are not only the best in tv, I think they outperform most movies. But the other half of tv on the normal networks is going to pieces. About the only show I like off a major network from the U.S like CBS is Blue Bloods, and I think that’s a fluke caused by the fact they managed to nab a writer off the Sopranos and Tom Selleck. I watch the Hawaii 5-0 remake really just to laugh at how crap it is, its bad movie quality. On UK tv, with the exception of SKY (who are, you guessed it, pay tv) the drama put out by channels like the BBC is often worse than the stuff from America. It’s all so earnest, but feels like it’s been done by a committee afraid of offending anyone. You compare something like Boardwalk Empire to BBC drama, and the BBC stuff looks like a school play in comparison. To be fair they can’t afford the budget, but the acting, writing, direction, none of it has any flair or imagination either.

To link this back to Mass Effect, I think a tv series set in the universe could work, a movie could work. But I don’t trust them not to screw it up, they don’t have the complexity any more. While games like Mass Effect dares to put heavy emphasis in character drama and high concept scifi like Bioshock flourishes, many tv shows and movies are just by the numbers crap seeking to appeal to the lowest common denominator. This is why I think Hollywood struggles to make a good videogame adap, with the exception of Call Of Duty , many videogames are prepared to treat their players as intelligent, by comparison, Hollywood just wants to spon feed us crap.

[g.o.d]

video games are really pushing forward. The biggest advantage they have over tv is, that they're interactive, we change the story, live with our characters, we can gods and some of them are almost like movies (f.e. Heavy rain). If there's something good and interesting on tv, it's almost always cancelled and replaced by some idiotic reality show.

great games can and do make a profit, great tv shows very often don't

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

video games are really pushing forward. The biggest advantage they have over tv is, that they're interactive, we change the story, live with our characters, we can gods and some of them are almost like movies (f.e. Heavy rain). If there's something good and interesting on tv, it's almost always cancelled and replaced by some idiotic reality show.

great games can and do make a profit, great tv shows very often don't

Well I think HBO have made a tidy profit out of their shows, and with some exceptions most of their shows have lasted a good number of years.

Games are great, but their interactivity in my opinion is also a weakness. You have to create a game as well as a story, the player has to be given something to do. That makes it harder in some ways, while tv can approach areas that would be impossible to make games out of.

That being said tv shows often have their hands tied behind their backs because of network demands, budget and so on. I personally believe at its core tv is superior to film, over time you can develop a better story, but they need the budget and talent to surpass film. And unless you’re on HBO or similar channels, you ain’t getting it.

Games often have a much easier time getting the time and budget to tell their story.

[gotthammer]

I think at the very least we should push for a video games board, or scifi videogames board. We have at the moment a fair number of videogame threads. I think if we show enough demand for one we’ll have our way, though it’ll take some work. Still a near 40 page thread is pretty good. And of course as long as this thread keeps alive for enough time, it will really increase when we have DLC and Mass Effect 3 to talk about properly.

Yeah. It kinda sucks having to look for the closest possible thread (in topic) to post an off-topic post in.

Like...I finished Dead Space 2 yesterday (see! it's a sci-fi game, published by EA. Closest thread: Mass Effect ). Not the greatest game, but still fun for the 10 or more hours that it gave. The ending was also quite 'satisfying' (unlike, IMHO, F.E.A.R. 2's). I wish the suits/armor were a bit 'bulkier', but they still looked nice. I love the plasma cutter. (kinda wish the DA2 armor from DS2 actually looked closer to one of the suits, like the security or vintage suit. Oh, and I wouldn't mind a plasma cutter in DA2. )
What I wish Isaac's suit/armor were closer to in looks (and capabilities, I guess? ):

Spoiler:

So, yeah, a sci-fi/fantasy gaming (video and 'analog'...not that I do much of the latter anymore) sub-forum would definitely be nice.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

The ending was also quite 'satisfying' (unlike, IMHO, F.E.A.R. 2's).

I dunno, it was certianly unique, not every game ends with the player character being raped.

[gotthammer]

I dunno, it was certainly unique, not every game ends with the player character being raped.

Hehehe. True, that.
Still, after FEAR 2, I was kinda excited for news of FEAR 3. Unfortunately, what I've seen from the vids of FEAR 3 kinda dampened said excitement.

In any case, unique doesn't necessarily equate to satisfying.
I guess I was hoping for more from FEAR 2? *shrugs*

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Hehehe. True, that.
Still, after FEAR 2, I was kinda excited for news of FEAR 3. Unfortunately, what I've seen from the vids of FEAR 3 kinda dampened said excitement.

In any case, unique doesn't necessarily equate to satisfying.
I guess I was hoping for more from FEAR 2? *shrugs*

Well it was for Alma.

But it certainly doesn’t help that F.E.A.R 3 is not being developed by Monolith any more, but by Day 1 Studious who did the console conversions of the previous games. Based on that and the footage I've see, it looks rather crap, rather like a Direct to DVD sequel to a popular film. This is despite John Carpenter apparently being involved.

Imagine if Bioware decided not to do Mass Effect 3, there’d be outrage. But to be honest the F.E.A.R series was always so fractured anyway. There were disputes over who owned the franchise that caused multiple canon’s and F.E.A.R 2 barely resembled the first one.

Incidentally I think at the very least we need a general Scifi and Fantasy videogame thread on the board, before we derail topics any further. I guess our saving grace is that mods like Skydiver would be at a loss what was on and offtopic in a thread anyway.

[DigiFluid]

Don't underestimate the squidgy empress

I think a separate VG board could be fun. I'm just not totally sure how well we'd be able to keep it afloat is all.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

I think a separate VG board could be fun. I'm just not totally sure how well we'd be able to keep it afloat is all.

I think it would do ok, plenty of other sub boards that could hardly be said to be thriving, eg the Farscape Board.

[gotthammer]

I think it would do ok, plenty of other sub boards that could hardly be said to be thriving, eg the Farscape Board.

*gasps, and runs off to post stuff at the Farscape board*

re: Alma
Gah. Just...gah.
That ending was just...wrong.
Wrong, but 'unique'.

re: FEAR 3
John Carpenter? Ooh. Interesting. As for the change in devs: I didn't notice that. Interesting.
Another point of disappointment: the P90-ish SMG seems to be gone. I know it's not a big thing, but I loved that gun in FEAR 2.

re: If Mass Effect 3 weren't going to be made by Bioware
Hehehe. Yeah. I could imagine the distraught fans.
BUT if Bioware were to hand it off to another dev, for some (weird) reason or another, which of the other EA-published devs would you want to see handle something like ME3? DICE? Visceral? A dev outside EA?

[DigiFluid]

CroTeam?


Nah seriously, I wouldn't be interested in an ME title if BioWare weren't behind it.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

CroTeam?


Nah seriously, I wouldn't be interested in an ME title if BioWare weren't behind it.

This. I’m happy for a good developer to make Mass Effect spin off games, eg FPS or RTS, but the main trilogy is Bioware’s baby.

[The Mighty 6 platoon]

Incidently PC Gamer has an article, 15 things they want to see in Mass Effect 3.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/16/15...mass-effect-3/

Can't say I agree with all of it, especially no Cerberus who were actually interesting and far more fascinating them the boring old alliance.

[hart37]

Incidently PC Gamer has an article, 15 things they want to see in Mass Effect 3.

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/02/16/15...mass-effect-3/

Can't say I agree with all of it, especially no Cerberus who were actually interesting and far more fascinating them the boring old alliance.

14 - A female Shepard on the box? Wtf is wrong with these people?

As for no Cerbius I think maybe we should be able to choose between them or the alliance to side with, but once chosen that's it you have to play with them for the rest of the game. I personally liked the alliance better.

[DigiFluid]

*EDIT* Found this little gem. Someone on the Bioware social network had a little experiment and put one of the Mass Effect 2 missions to one of Clint Mansell's pieces, I think it works very well.

Even though I'm still a little put off by the departure of Wall/Hulick, I enjoy this clip more each time I watch it. While I'll probably remain forever miffed at the change, that doesn't mean that Mantsell's score can't be a brilliant match for Mass Effect. This clip is proof positive of that.