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Witcher 3 is a whole other can of worms and it's a game people hold to an impossible standard because people are obsessed with "IT'S MORALLY GRAY REEEEEE" and they forget that there's large chunks of Witcher 3 that are fucking boring as sin and the combat and movement were atrociously clunky. BioWare games and The Witcher 3 are for very different audiences, it's just that people put them both under the WRPG umbrella along with Elder Scrolls and Fallout.
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A fourth Drake diss has hit the tower.
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Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown
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I'd like to think I've matured with age but then on weekends I watch cartoons and eat too much sugar cereal in my pajamas so if anything I've stayed the same.
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I've watched the trailer for The Marvels a dozen times already you can't stop me I've needed this this is my heroin and my herione. Wordplay.
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How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, Seabiscuit
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Look, I got lost on the way to getting some jajangmyeon and it'd be foolish to leave now.
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@Dynamo Frokane I feel like I've said my piece for now. But I will step in to offer a view on something right now.
This right here is what makes the Reapers so good and what made Leviathan such an upsetting piece of content. The Reapers are essentially cosmic horror in a sci fi fashion. The conversation with Sovereign in the first game sums up all you NEED to know about them.
Cosmic horror works at its best when people don't know exactly what it is they are seeing/dealing with precisely because they can't possibly conceive of such a thing existing to begin with. It's a similar concept to horror in general, that fear of the unknown and why when you start to explain something it becomes less and less frightening and menacing; that obsession horror movies had with gore and blood was because the cavalcade of slasher movies and horror movies explaining things meant that the genre had to resort to new ways to frighten. Gore porn movies aren't exactly scary. It's why the found footage genre saw a rebirth within horror because while Paranormal Activity might come off as boring, the first one explained very little and played on that fear of the supernatural and unknown. And then sequels went on to try and explain things and thus ruin it.
It's the same with the Reapers and, well, cosmic horror. When you only know that the Reapers are a cosmic entity beyond any possible understanding that this galaxy can know, it's harrowing. It's a legitimate threat because how the hell is anyone supposed to stop something they can't begin to know? Look at the effort it took to take down ONE of them. Nor multiply that by thousands. The Reapers are a constant threat because their whole existence is terrifying.
Leviathan then came along and pulled the curtain back and ultimately made them less interesting because they felt the need to boil it down to digestible chunks of understanding, which is exactly the OPPOSITE of effective horror, cosmic or otherwise. The Reapers are intriguing BECAUSE of their unknowability and taking that away ruins them as antagonists and cosmic beings. Not everything needs answers.
I know that has nothing to do with this particular discussion but I thought it needed saying.
over crazy robot cthulhu beasts that aren't even particularly intriguing because they're so unknowable in their unknownness
This right here is what makes the Reapers so good and what made Leviathan such an upsetting piece of content. The Reapers are essentially cosmic horror in a sci fi fashion. The conversation with Sovereign in the first game sums up all you NEED to know about them.
Rudimentary creatures of blood and flesh, you touch my mind, fumbling in ignorance, incapable of understanding. There is a realm of existence so far beyond your own you cannot even imagine it. I am beyond your comprehension. [...] My kind transcends your very understanding. We are each a nation - independent, free of all weakness. You cannot grasp the nature of our existence. We have no beginning. We have no end. We are infinite. Millions of years after your civilization has been eradicated and forgotten, we will endure.
Cosmic horror works at its best when people don't know exactly what it is they are seeing/dealing with precisely because they can't possibly conceive of such a thing existing to begin with. It's a similar concept to horror in general, that fear of the unknown and why when you start to explain something it becomes less and less frightening and menacing; that obsession horror movies had with gore and blood was because the cavalcade of slasher movies and horror movies explaining things meant that the genre had to resort to new ways to frighten. Gore porn movies aren't exactly scary. It's why the found footage genre saw a rebirth within horror because while Paranormal Activity might come off as boring, the first one explained very little and played on that fear of the supernatural and unknown. And then sequels went on to try and explain things and thus ruin it.
It's the same with the Reapers and, well, cosmic horror. When you only know that the Reapers are a cosmic entity beyond any possible understanding that this galaxy can know, it's harrowing. It's a legitimate threat because how the hell is anyone supposed to stop something they can't begin to know? Look at the effort it took to take down ONE of them. Nor multiply that by thousands. The Reapers are a constant threat because their whole existence is terrifying.
Leviathan then came along and pulled the curtain back and ultimately made them less interesting because they felt the need to boil it down to digestible chunks of understanding, which is exactly the OPPOSITE of effective horror, cosmic or otherwise. The Reapers are intriguing BECAUSE of their unknowability and taking that away ruins them as antagonists and cosmic beings. Not everything needs answers.
I know that has nothing to do with this particular discussion but I thought it needed saying.
[quote=@Dynamo Frokane]
[quote=@Fabricant451]
I do indeed think the first one is the best. Mass Effect 1 had the most...let's call it realized...vision. It's not perfect, no game is, but there was nothing quite like it in video games at the time. That sense of exploration, that sweeping space opera style narrative and presentation, the way the world felt realized and lived in with politics and conflicts showing that this idyllic looking galaxy wasn't exactly pristine. The story was the most consistent and contained with things like the conversation with Sovereign and the use of the song Vigil being highlights not just for the series but gaming as a whole.
Mass Effect 2 comes off as a filler arc in its own trilogy with no real purpose or relevancy other than the Collector reveal. It introduces concepts and lets them go nowhere. It improved the shooting but at the expense of dropping the deeper RPG mechanics and exploration. It offered a view of the non-Citadel aspects of the galaxy but all the areas felt less...immersive since they were clearly divided into combat arenas and not. That the game pretty much forced players to stick to Paragon/Renegade to ensure the best possible result turned interactions and roleplay into a binary option. Why would Miranda or Jack not give it their all because the other hurt their feelings and you didn't invest enough Blue/Red points to say something? It made a lot of the decisions hollow. ME2 has some okay character moments but it's pretty inessential as far as sequels go.
Mass Effect 3 improved upon the gameplay and the paragon/renegade system but sort of neutered the conversation aspect further. Mass Effect 3 attempted to tie up pretty much everything even if it meant it came at the expense of established characters and plots. Illusive Man became just a simplified villain. Ashley/Kaiden returned to their "DON'T TRUST YOUUUU" ways for most of it. Their attempts to add depth to Shepard's struggle was laughable. But it also had genuine moments that were only possible because of the characters built up over the games. Like Mordin and the elevator or just shooting guns with Garrus. It is a deeply flawed game but like ME 2 it has good character moments, which is why Citadel is such a wonderful piece of DLC and the perfect coda to Shepard and Friends.
Both 2 and 3 lost, to me, what made Mass Effect 1 such a fantastic experience. It improved the moment to moment gameplay but it came at the expense of the charm and sense of awe that came with every location in Mass Effect. You lost that in 2 when side quests were just shuttles down to a combat arena and in 3 side quests boiled down to scanning and eavesdropping. 2 and 3 felt less like Mass Effect and more like a shooter in space. They are both good games in their own right, it's just that Mass Effect 1 is such a great experience.
[quote=@Fabricant451]
<Snipped quote by Fabricant451>
Mass Effect 2 is fun filler with a witty script and a thrilling-ish final mission a 'great' game does not make.I didn't say Mass Effect 2.
I said "There has been one great Mass Effect game". I stand by that.Maybe 20 seconds wasnt convincing enough.
No no, I've seen the meme videos and everything and I still think the game isn't a dumpster fire of a disaster of a travesty because it's not Witcher 3 or whatever it is the popular gaming culture subreddits and boards cream the jeans over while spouting off about cuckoldry.
Andromeda is on par with what BioWare has been putting out since, oh, Dragon Age 2. Except the shooty shooty bits are an improvement. When a new team comes together and deals with leavings and layoffs and the collective pressure of people that put 10/7/5 year old games they put on pedestals breathing down their necks well here we are. That people are being all "7/10 WORST EVER" speaks to why gamers are the worst people with the worst hobby.
Do you think the first one is the best? The action aspect of the gameplay is barely functional but its my favorite out of the trilogy. I wouldn't say its a great game but its definitely an important game to the genre. 3 has the best gameplay but the plot is extremely newcomer unfriendly and some of the story telling is a bit weird.
I dont think for second ME Andromeda is a shit game, I think its an average to enjoyable game that has more problems than it really should. I do think Dragon Age 2 is a piece of shit though but thats a discussion for another time.
I do indeed think the first one is the best. Mass Effect 1 had the most...let's call it realized...vision. It's not perfect, no game is, but there was nothing quite like it in video games at the time. That sense of exploration, that sweeping space opera style narrative and presentation, the way the world felt realized and lived in with politics and conflicts showing that this idyllic looking galaxy wasn't exactly pristine. The story was the most consistent and contained with things like the conversation with Sovereign and the use of the song Vigil being highlights not just for the series but gaming as a whole.
Mass Effect 2 comes off as a filler arc in its own trilogy with no real purpose or relevancy other than the Collector reveal. It introduces concepts and lets them go nowhere. It improved the shooting but at the expense of dropping the deeper RPG mechanics and exploration. It offered a view of the non-Citadel aspects of the galaxy but all the areas felt less...immersive since they were clearly divided into combat arenas and not. That the game pretty much forced players to stick to Paragon/Renegade to ensure the best possible result turned interactions and roleplay into a binary option. Why would Miranda or Jack not give it their all because the other hurt their feelings and you didn't invest enough Blue/Red points to say something? It made a lot of the decisions hollow. ME2 has some okay character moments but it's pretty inessential as far as sequels go.
Mass Effect 3 improved upon the gameplay and the paragon/renegade system but sort of neutered the conversation aspect further. Mass Effect 3 attempted to tie up pretty much everything even if it meant it came at the expense of established characters and plots. Illusive Man became just a simplified villain. Ashley/Kaiden returned to their "DON'T TRUST YOUUUU" ways for most of it. Their attempts to add depth to Shepard's struggle was laughable. But it also had genuine moments that were only possible because of the characters built up over the games. Like Mordin and the elevator or just shooting guns with Garrus. It is a deeply flawed game but like ME 2 it has good character moments, which is why Citadel is such a wonderful piece of DLC and the perfect coda to Shepard and Friends.
Both 2 and 3 lost, to me, what made Mass Effect 1 such a fantastic experience. It improved the moment to moment gameplay but it came at the expense of the charm and sense of awe that came with every location in Mass Effect. You lost that in 2 when side quests were just shuttles down to a combat arena and in 3 side quests boiled down to scanning and eavesdropping. 2 and 3 felt less like Mass Effect and more like a shooter in space. They are both good games in their own right, it's just that Mass Effect 1 is such a great experience.
[quote=@Dynamo Frokane]
<Snipped quote by Fabricant451>
Mass Effect 2 is fun filler with a witty script and a thrilling-ish final mission a 'great' game does not make.[quote]
I didn't say Mass Effect 2.
I said "There has been one great Mass Effect game". I stand by that.
No no, I've seen the meme videos and everything and I still think the game isn't a dumpster fire of a disaster of a travesty because it's not Witcher 3 or whatever it is the popular gaming culture subreddits and boards cream the jeans over while spouting off about cuckoldry.
Andromeda is on par with what BioWare has been putting out since, oh, Dragon Age 2. Except the shooty shooty bits are an improvement. When a new team comes together and deals with leavings and layoffs and the collective pressure of people that put 10/7/5 year old games they put on pedestals breathing down their necks well here we are. That people are being all "7/10 WORST EVER" speaks to why gamers are the worst people with the worst hobby.
Ryder is not Shepard and Shepard also had his share of lines that weren't exactly Shakespeare. Shepard was never exactly the most fleshed out character until they tried to make him more human in ME3 to disastrous results. He was effectively a blank slate for the player with only the briefest of personal histories that didn't really impact anything outside of incidental dialog. Ryder is a far more realized character, both Scott and Sara have different backgrounds and pasts that relate them back to the Initiative and their dad. Their dad is effectively Shepard. Ryder, in contrast to Shepard, is not a blank slate.
Shepard was a badass military man even before he was a Spectre. Scott was just a grunt man stationed at an outpost watching others do better in the military than him. Sara was pretty much a geek that did Prothean archaeological digs with her team. Sara's literally like ME1 Liara in that she's a nerdy awkward person. Only Liara never had the pressures of lives depending on her in the same way Ryder does. Both have parent issues. Both are awkward around the people they want to bone.
Not everyone in the galaxy has the monotone charisma of Shepard.
<Snipped quote by Fabricant451>
Mass Effect 2 is fun filler with a witty script and a thrilling-ish final mission a 'great' game does not make.[quote]
I didn't say Mass Effect 2.
I said "There has been one great Mass Effect game". I stand by that.
Maybe 20 seconds wasnt convincing enough.
No no, I've seen the meme videos and everything and I still think the game isn't a dumpster fire of a disaster of a travesty because it's not Witcher 3 or whatever it is the popular gaming culture subreddits and boards cream the jeans over while spouting off about cuckoldry.
Andromeda is on par with what BioWare has been putting out since, oh, Dragon Age 2. Except the shooty shooty bits are an improvement. When a new team comes together and deals with leavings and layoffs and the collective pressure of people that put 10/7/5 year old games they put on pedestals breathing down their necks well here we are. That people are being all "7/10 WORST EVER" speaks to why gamers are the worst people with the worst hobby.
And apart from being asleep for 600 years I'm pretty sure shepard was a 20 something with the universe on his/her shoulders, managed to have conversations that didnt seem to be lifted out of an early episode of Stargate SG1
Ryder is not Shepard and Shepard also had his share of lines that weren't exactly Shakespeare. Shepard was never exactly the most fleshed out character until they tried to make him more human in ME3 to disastrous results. He was effectively a blank slate for the player with only the briefest of personal histories that didn't really impact anything outside of incidental dialog. Ryder is a far more realized character, both Scott and Sara have different backgrounds and pasts that relate them back to the Initiative and their dad. Their dad is effectively Shepard. Ryder, in contrast to Shepard, is not a blank slate.
Shepard was a badass military man even before he was a Spectre. Scott was just a grunt man stationed at an outpost watching others do better in the military than him. Sara was pretty much a geek that did Prothean archaeological digs with her team. Sara's literally like ME1 Liara in that she's a nerdy awkward person. Only Liara never had the pressures of lives depending on her in the same way Ryder does. Both have parent issues. Both are awkward around the people they want to bone.
Not everyone in the galaxy has the monotone charisma of Shepard.
<Snipped quote by Fabricant451>
I disagree.
I'm not surprised.
<Snipped quote by Ace of Hearts>
Its many problems go beyond 'the mythos'
twitter.com/TypeANumber2/status/843424..
Ryder, the 20-something dork who is stepping into shoes she can't possibly fill who has spent 600 years asleep and has millions of lives on her shoulders, is not suave. More at 11. Game sux.
Well I haven't bought it -- not because of any SJW bullshittery (hell I enjoyed Rogue One), just because reviews are pretty genuinely awful. But allegedly you can't make a custom white guy.
You can absolutely make a custom white guy. You can make a custom <insert skin color here> guy. It's also like the rare game to get Asian characters right in terms of customization.
The game's fine, it just starts off pretty poorly and there's only been one great Mass Effect game anyway. Andromeda is pretty much the evolution of BioWare story telling since they realized more people care about who they can fuck in the game rather than anything else. But also there's the most hilariously awful and tone deaf trans character in Andromeda that I almost have to give them credit for doing something so poorly written and handled.
But you can fuck a female turian so it's a 5/5
Kenzi right now:
also i did it i posted okay see you in a month
also i did it i posted okay see you in a month
Location: Where Am I?
Interacting with: Who Are You Again?
I'm scared I'm a loser aware of my face. My father was a user and I'm afraid I'm just the same.
Kenzi wasn't even sure what time it was. It was a bitch sometimes, that lack of awareness, but today was just one of those days...Kenzi was at school but she wasn't exactly at school. The last thing she actually remembered was fellow students getting way too ambitious about their desires for a class trip. Maybe some of them had Swiss bank accounts or rich uncles or whatever it was the popular crowd had in all those cliche situations. Kenzi didn't exactly pitch in - let the girls who gave a shit wash cars and realize how little money that actually makes. Kenzi was a girl scout once. For about three hours. In that time frame they only had four cars come in and two of them left with cracks in the windshield; but in Kenzi's defense, or so she explained to the scout leader, she didn't know the rocks in her sponge were that sharp.
Mornings were often like that. Come in, ignore the sounds of friends being friendly and having very unrealistic and lofty goals and then just zone out until something happened. Like a test or being called to answer a problem; most days Kenzi could get away with barely paying attention, at this point the teachers knew what to expect from Kenzi though that didn't stop them from trying to make an example of her. Today was something of an exception in that when she got to her desk and leaned back a bit in the classic zoning out stance, she somehow lost track of time. It was like that old thing of not watching a pot while it's boiling or looking up at the clock in school after half an hour and learning it's been five minutes. In Kenzi's case, however, the one time she glanced up at the clock told her exactly what she needed to know.
It had been about four hours and she hadn't done a damn thing.
Was there a test? Homework to be turned in or assigned? A project? Shit, she didn't know. She didn't even seem to care, really, and it wasn't as if anyone was around to poke her or snap her back to reality. Her mind was elsewhere, gone, off on its own sort of adventure of wanting to be anywhere else. Some called it daydreaming but that wasn't exactly it. Kenzi wasn't dreaming, she was just...uncaring. What difference did it make if she was attentive in class anyway? Everyone, teachers and students and fucking janitors, all had their minds made up about Kenzi from the jump. If she was caught studying in class it was because she was up to something and trying to hide it, if she wasn't paying attention then it was to be expected because she's Kenzi Lin. It's hard to care about anything when the people that are supposed to inspire have already written you off as a failure doomed to flip burgers or sling dope.
Shit, that's job security though. People need their cheap burgers and trans fats.
Kenzi's reputation preceded her. She wondered if any of the students knew her actual G.P.A. or if they all assumed she was straddling the line between C Minus and D Plus. It didn't matter. Few of them really talked to her for any actual reason other than pretending to be cordial and once graduation rolled around it would most likely be the last she saw of any of them. Not that she was being overly negative or anything, that was just a simple fact of life. Plenty of them wouldn't get out. They'd get suckered into staying in town, marrying young because they couldn't wait to fuck on prom night behind the dumpsters or in the bathroom, and the next thing they know mom's having some skinbeast sucking her youth and beauty through a teat while dad's trying to impress a part timer at the Wal Mart staff room. That fuckin lie they feed to kids, about doing anything they can put their minds to...inspiring but hollow. No kid aspires to be a teenage bride with a baby inside but there's always one.
It wasn't as if Kenzi breezed through the day's lesson or whatever happened, it was more that she just couldn't be assed to do much of anything. Everything was just so...muted. It was only because there was the loud sound of a locker being slammed shut that Kenzi finally snapped to the present, that her vision cleared and her hearing returned to normal. Spend long enough wafting through the haze of life and life becomes hazy. This was the locker room. Her feet didn't betray her, they knew their way around the place even if the body was millions of miles away. So...gym. Physical education, as they called it, but what was the education in running laps or suicides? The only education was learning who hated you whenever dodgeball came around. Dodgeball was as close as schools came to allowing hazing and bullying. And Kenzi was going to have no part in it.
Presently she was sat on one of the benches in the locker room as some of the girls decided to put on a uniform because doing physical activities in three hundred dollar clothes was, like, ugh, so not happening. For a moment, Kenzi wondered if anyone in the locker room was aware of her preferences and if they assumed the locker room was like some sort of buffet for the eyes. That was the old fashioned sort of shit, wasn't it? When ignorant sorts assumed that because someone was x they must assume all x's are fuck worthy, as if an actual human being wasn't in charge of their bodies. Just more random thoughts to carry her through the day.
Kenzi stood up and thrust her hands as deep into the pockets as they could go. She didn't give a fuck about a uniform and she gave even less of one about whatever activity was scheduled under the very flimsy umbrella that was 'physical education'. Kenzi marched, more of a stomp really, into the gymnasium proper and, not so much as glancing to the coach, marked her territory on the bleachers.
She'd like to see someone try to remove her from them.
Wren held the grip on her dagger all the harder when the stranger in the robe spoke up. She hadn't asked questions. She COULDN'T ask questions, merely think them. And yet he spoke to her as if she had spoken as easily as the others around them. That was unheard of. No one could read minds, no one could look into the head of someone unless it was on the chopping block and the axe has been brought down. Who was this person? More importantly, who were these people? She heard the voice speak, but she understood even less than before. There was talk of worlds. Of saving them? Helping them? Wren was skeptical. How could she not be given what she was hearing. The one that believed words from strangers were the ones that wound up taken advantage of.
Wren only took a cursory glance at the others gathered. She didn't know their strengths, their weaknesses, or anything beyond the physical, but already she was thinking of ways to make their lives shorter. There was something to be said of civility, yes, but it was the soon to be dead that didn't plan ways to take out the people you met in these situations. Some of these people looked dangerous, but Wren did not see any who had the same eyes as her. The eyes of someone with true remorse. With an empty heart. How could any of them truly consider themselves killers otherwise.
It was only when the high pitched sound reached her ears that Wren flinched and loosened her grip. It wasn't deafening but it was noticeable. Audible. And alarming. Once she regained her composure from the sound, the grip tightened further. Was this a test? A target? Some threat? There were others around but Wren had gone so unnoticed. WOuld continue to be. And it would be easy to Sing her way closer, to slide her Talon across whatever neck was responsible. But instead she gasped and nearly dropped her dagger to the floor. Blinking didnt change the scene. Nor did closing her eyes and re-opening them.
Whatever conversation the robed figure was having with the new arrival was lost on Wren's ears, for her eyes were already taken, quite taken in fact, by the blonde woman whose siren call alerted her arrival. Wren had felt something like this before, an affection from a glance, but it was rare that it caught her off guard. Rare that it made her nearly drop her weapon. Rarer still that made her sheathe it. And yet she did, putting her Talon back in its nest. The last time Wren had felt something like this, she was forced to take the other's life.
Wren was still curious as to why she was here. Why any of them were. But the answer was secondary now. For Wren, for that ever foolish girl, she only wanted to get closer. But for now, she remained behind. In the shadows. Watching. Observing. Hoping that this time...would not end in tears.
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