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Game News Daily Mass Effect 2 News Bundle

VentilatorOfDoom

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Tags: BioWare; Mass Effect 2

During my valiant quest to bring only the most significant and interesting news to the Codex I'll continue to inform you about RPG of the Year 2010: Mass Effect 2.
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I'll start out with some reviews, but I don't have much time, so I just link to our <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/96864-mass-effect-2-reviews.html">Codex News Agency (outsourced).</a>
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Feel free to comment on the quotes over there.
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The main focus of this newspost is the <a href="http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=7004">indepth</a> <a href="http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=7006">3-part</a> <a href="http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=7007">analysis</a> of the ME2 plot(holes) at Twenty Sided. Here is an excerpt:
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<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;">But even if you accept all the events that I’ve nitpicked in this series, the worst part of Mass Effect 2 is that nothing happens. The plot does not move forward. It moves sideways, loops through a cul-de-sac, and ends right where it began. By the end of the game we’ve got the same captain, same ship, same problems, same setup. Council is still useless. Alliance is still apathetic. Shepard & Co are the only ones who care. The Reapers are still out there. And if you did the paragon ending, you don’t even have any proof or tech to show for it. (Which means that the choice will very likely have minimal consequence in the next game.) None of the important questions posed in Mass Effect 1 are addressed.
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In a trilogy, I don’t think Act II is disposable like this.
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Yeah, so: The plot doesn't make much sense or so he says.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#14397">The site that hates the Codex</A>
 

Hoaxmetal

Arcane
Joined
Jul 19, 2009
Messages
9,157
Both ME and ME2 had terrible final bosses. Okay, maybe cyber-Saren was acceptable but human reaper made no sense + I couldn't thing of anything else than Terminator when shooting it.
 

Silellak

Cipher
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Tucson, AZ
I guess no one else at the Codex really cares about this sort of thing - especially when it's a Bioware game - but is there a reason end-game spoilers for a recently-released game need to be posted right on the front page?
 

Andyman Messiah

Mr. Ed-ucated
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It's probably because we're a cesspool.

Also you may not want to read excerpts from an "in-depth 3-part analysis about ME2's plotholes" if you haven't finished the game yet.

Also 2: you can't really spoil a Bioware game.
 

Silellak

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Andyman Messiah said:
It's probably because we're a cesspool.

Also you may not want to read excerpts from an "in-depth 3-part analysis about ME2's plotholes" if you haven't finished the game yet.

Also 2: you can't really spoil a Bioware game.
I've finished the game, I'm just speaking for a (probably imaginary) demographic of people who actually come to the Codex for RPG-related news and not the Stimulating Intellectual Discussion. Obviously people who haven't finished the game shouldn't read the article, but they still might glance over the story description on the main page.

VentilatorOfDoom said:
happy Sillelak?
Rarely.
 

Andyman Messiah

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Silellak said:
Andyman Messiah said:
It's probably because we're a cesspool.

Also you may not want to read excerpts from an "in-depth 3-part analysis about ME2's plotholes" if you haven't finished the game yet.

Also 2: you can't really spoil a Bioware game.
I've finished the game, I'm just speaking for a (probably imaginary) demographic of people who actually come to the Codex for RPG-related news and not the Stimulating Intellectual Discussion. Obviously people who haven't finished the game shouldn't read the article, but they still might glance over the story description on the main page.
Well, if they still haven't played ME2 that quick glance may very well convince them to save their time (and money), but I suppose I see your point.
 

Andyman Messiah

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Volourn said:
Please. All Codexers ahve played ME2 by now.
We might be visited by people from RPGWatch.com

Certainly we have to protect them from the horrors of the Codex, Voltorb?
 

Silellak

Cipher
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Messages
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Tucson, AZ
Andyman Messiah said:
Silellak said:
Andyman Messiah said:
It's probably because we're a cesspool.

Also you may not want to read excerpts from an "in-depth 3-part analysis about ME2's plotholes" if you haven't finished the game yet.

Also 2: you can't really spoil a Bioware game.
I've finished the game, I'm just speaking for a (probably imaginary) demographic of people who actually come to the Codex for RPG-related news and not the Stimulating Intellectual Discussion. Obviously people who haven't finished the game shouldn't read the article, but they still might glance over the story description on the main page.
Well, if they still haven't played ME2 that quick glance may very well convince them to save their time (and money), but I suppose I see your point.
I would hope their entire opinion of the game wouldn't be swayed by a silly aspect of the main plot revealed at the end of the game. I would also hope the people who play Bioware games have realized by now that the main story in their games is very rarely (if ever) the high point.
 

Andyman Messiah

Mr. Ed-ucated
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VentilatorOfDoom said:
I'd put it in spoiler tags but I don't know how to do it in newsposts.
Meh, just post the entire article and edit the post title to "Don't read this!"

Silellak said:
I would also hope the people who play Bioware games have realized by now that the main story in their games is very rarely (if ever) the high point.
Personally I would be happy if someone could tell me exactly what the high point in any Bioware game is. :smug:
 

Volourn

Pretty Princess
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"Certainly we have to protect them from the horrors of the Codex, Voltorb?"

Since when does the Codex protect anyone?
 
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Andyman Messiah said:
Personally I would be happy if someone could tell me exactly what the high point in any Bioware game is. :smug:

Usually some variation of this:
dragon_age_origins_070.jpg
 

Jason

chasing a bee
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Doesn't really work that way. Both DU and myself have played very, very few of the games in the news (other than FO3, Bloodlines, & assorted Spiderweb titles myself). The Codex is something within you, like an infection or horrible disease that causes random body parts to swell up and rot away.

I've tried to play ME1 but get that infinite loading screen issue.
 

Shagnak

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Jason said:
The Codex is something within you, like an infection or horrible disease that causes random body parts to swell up and rot away.
Oh, I wondered what that swelling was. I was going to have it lanced.

Honestly, the last RPG I played that I had no reservations about was Nethergate Resurrection. And the last RPG I spent a lot of time on was FO3. Nothing else has interested me all that much. These days I'm playing stuff like the Stalkers, when I have the time.

I have to admit I actually own ME1. I found it so dirt cheap that I couldn't resist, but I've yet to muster the enthusiasm to do anything beyond install it. Same with Jade Empire. Yeah, I suck - I'm supporting companies who make games I can't be arsed with. I'm one of those hippo- things that Volourn always goes on about.
 

Angthoron

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Joined
Jul 13, 2007
Messages
13,056
Shagnak said:
I have to admit I actually own ME1. I found it so dirt cheap that I couldn't resist, but I've yet to muster the enthusiasm to do anything beyond install it. Same with Jade Empire. Yeah, I suck - I'm supporting companies who make games I can't be arsed with. I'm one of those hippo- things that Volourn always goes on about.

Not if you buy it second-hand or on an 80% discount. Which is probably the way I'll play ME2.
 

Rhalle

Magister
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
2,192
VentilatorOfDoom said:
But even if you accept all the events that I’ve nitpicked in this series, the worst part of Mass Effect 2 is that nothing happens. The plot does not move forward. It moves sideways, loops through a cul-de-sac, and ends right where it began. By the end of the game we’ve got the same captain, same ship, same problems, same setup. Council is still useless. Alliance is still apathetic. Shepard & Co are the only ones who care. The Reapers are still out there. And if you did the paragon ending, you don’t even have any proof or tech to show for it. (Which means that the choice will very likely have minimal consequence in the next game.) None of the important questions posed in Mass Effect 1 are addressed.

We get an ME2 structured the way it is because BW is now (over) focusing on their characters and making them absolutely central to what they do, and because ME1 had an arguably fundamental problem with the pacing of its plot.

ME1 had the stereotypical Biowarian 'clumsiness of urgency' which says: 'You must save the world or we are all doomed!' while it encourages you to wander at your leisure, getting around to the imminent threat whenever the mood finally strikes you.

A Seven Samurai plot-structure was ME2's response to both: it facilitates a strong focus on the companion characters, which in turn mollifies the urgency of the main story.

A game might last 40 hours, but a film usually lasts about two.

And that is the fundamental tension in the structure, the main probalem that Bioware's 'movie-games' will have to negotiate as long as they continue to draw on both sources instead of coming up with something truly new.

In a trilogy, I don’t think Act II is disposable like this.

I haven't finished ME2. But I tend to agree with that. And I'd say that this sense of disposability is again the combination of two factors:

1. The Seven Samurai solution, which intentionally drives the plot sideways and makes the companion stories more important than the plot itself. (Perhaps not something that any 'Part 2' should do.)

2. ME 2 knows, a priori, that there will be a ME3, a la HL2 (i.e., another second installment that doesn't really bother to answer any questions about its enigmatic aliens, since it knows another chance to do so is inevitable).
 

Jaesun

Fabulous Ex-Moderator
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I've played Mass Effect 3 times so far. :oops:

I have played this more than DAO... maybe I am just tired of fagotty Elves and Dragons... or something.... Enjoyable game.... for what it is.
 

Rhalle

Magister
Joined
Nov 25, 2008
Messages
2,192
I'm enjoying ME2 quite a lot-- not sure it's an RPG, though.

And I still haven't finished Dragon Age.
 

Dny

Educated
Joined
Jan 20, 2010
Messages
398
ME2 high point is not the story itself but the atmosphere. It's true that the story could be summed up on a single sheet of toilet paper but the vibes of the game will have you come back and play some more.
And while its universe is not original it's refreshing and I like it better than having to play yet another elves&dwarves fantasy drivel. I hope it could inspire other companies to make a game based on good Sci-Fi, like the books of Arthur Clarke. A RPG based on Rama would kick ass.
 

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