1. #9561
    Deleted
    I always like when people say "You're removing" choice with Synthesis. I mean if you went up to people and asked them "Would you like to evolve to becoming - essentially - perfect forever?" I think maybe 99.9% of people would say yes. "You're going to force me to become a perfect human? Uhm, okay, err... that's okay I think?" I think a better argument is that the bloody husk clutches its wound and becomes self-aware. That is a stronger case for why I wouldn't do it. Imagine being one of those poor sods fused to a Cannibal's arm.

    I still dislike the Synthesis ending - I always pick Destroy - but I still find it a weak contrived argument for the sake of finding a moral flaw with it. This is why I dislike Synthesis actually, it's ramped up to be "the best choice" which I hate about it.

  2. #9562
    Deleted
    So much wall of text so im just gonna toss it out there.
    Starchild mentions that there had been attempts to synthesize the galaxy before but it failed because it was forced and as such didnt work.

    But it suddenly works because its Shepard forcing the galaxy to synthesize.

  3. #9563
    Deleted
    Just got all the conversations between Liara and her "Father".
    Seems it doesn't trigger unless you leave and come back later. (at least it didn't for me the first time)

  4. #9564
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    Quote Originally Posted by Yakobo15 View Post
    Just got all the conversations between Liara and her "Father".
    Seems it doesn't trigger unless you leave and come back later. (at least it didn't for me the first time)
    Or just call it her parent.

  5. #9565
    I never got how people think Synthesis is the Paragon, IE: "Good" ending. We spend 3 games fighting against a force trying to change the future of all the species in the galaxy (by harvesting them and turning them into Reapers), but it is "good" to forcibly do something else that is incredibly similar except no one visibly dies right away? Riiiiiiight...

    Even the bloody Refusal ending was better than Synthesis. At least you can explain Control as sheer hubris on Shepards behalf, being persuaded into an action that goes against anything (either through diplomacy or indirect indoctrination), but Synthesis makes no sense. >.<


    ....then again, that is what the situation was in my mind from my playthroughs up through ME3.

    I completely understand that others might severely disagree in their minds, based on their experiences.

  6. #9566
    The Insane rhorle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gravath View Post
    And its still "Choose A, B or C"
    So what you would have wanted no choice at all?


    Exactly, its a game not a book. Its a story being SHOWN to us.
    A game, a book, a play, a poem, a movie, a billboard, a tv show is all irrelevant. A story is a story. People aren't upset over ME being a crappy game they are upset over the ending of the Story. They would be as upset even if this was a movie or a book and it ended the way it did.

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 01:50 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Gravath View Post
    Which makes for very poor storytelling.
    And they all lived happily ever after may be a cliche but it isn't poor story telling. Is it telling us how they lived after? What they did? Ever little detail? Or do we know they lived happily ever after and can fill in the blanks ourselves as to what happened based on the story that was told to us?

    ME3 finished a story that encompassed 3 full games and ended with an open ending. Everything that came in the Extended cut are things that you could have filled in yourself, or it could have been completely different then how you saw the end of your personal story. Endings that let you imagine is not a very poor story telling or even poor story telling. Just because you don't like it doesn't make it poor.

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 01:54 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Gravath View Post
    Its not my story, i shouldnt be writing it in my head like some degraded fanfic.
    Yet you played 3 full games worth of writing your own story since Mass Effect is a choose your own adventure story. Why couldn't you choose your own adventure when the possible choices were anything you wanted?

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 02:01 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by orissa View Post
    I could accept the star child better if he simply didn't take the shape of the little kid you see killed at the start of the game. I really don't understand that. I mean how would he know to take that shape?

    The Catalyst read Shepards thoughts similar to how an Asari or Prothean shares memories and took a shape of something that would throw Shepard off balance. Something to play on his emotions and possible get him to delay long enough for the Reapers to destroy the Crucible or confuse him/her enough to make a choice they wouldn't have done if they had a clear head.

    The Illusive Man could have had spies aboard the Normandy and learned about Shepards dreams, and shared that information with the Reapers when he was indoctrinated. Willing or unwillingly.

    Shepard was rebuilt with modified reaper technology (Cerberus was studying Reaper tech in ME1 in order to create super soldiers) and they picked up on his recurring dream and tried to influence it to attempt to overwhelm him. And when the final confrontation happened they assumed that form for one last ditch effort.

    Those are only a few explanations off of the top of my head. I'm sure I could come up with plenty more and ones more fleshed out if I took some time to write some up. Not everything needs to revealed for it to work in the story. And for all we know Bioware could have a DLC planned that takes us to http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Klencory and will explain everything about the Catalyst and his powers and what not.

    Just as the Leviathan DLC is delving further into the background and origin of the Reapers.

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 02:05 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Gravath View Post
    Assumptions arent facts.
    Something that gets muddled up too frequently when ME3 ending is discussed.

    In an open ending they are. That is the power of leaving the absolute ending open to interpretation. Your own conclusions are just as good as someone elses. Bioware didn't leave out the Climax, they just left out the Epilogue. They told you what would happen with each choice and left you to figure out the exact details.

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 02:14 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Gravath View Post
    Explain how synthesis worked then.
    I'll be waiting.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPYqQ...tailpage#t=28s
    "Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
    You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."

  7. #9567
    Leviathan has more dialogue than Lair of the Shadow Broker.

    https://twitter.com/GambleMike/statu...92302237044736

  8. #9568
    Quote Originally Posted by orissa View Post
    Going through D3 in IMDB its almost as if Blizzard went to BioWare to borrow voice actors. There's almost twenty from Mass Effect, Dragon Age and SWTOR.

    Not that there's anything wrong with that, or that it's terribly surprising that voice actors would do games for multiple companies. Just found it interesting.
    Probably they did. And Casey Hudson is a close friend of Jay Wilson.

    Seriously, Diablo 3 could easily be an EA game. It's done STRICTLY by Bioware's book.

    Starting for being hip, by not being "too videogamey". Both Mass Effect 3 and Diablo 3 ventured on the dangerous field of NOT FOLLOWING the paradigms of Videogame. Things that are 101 on game development course were tossed away in BOTH.

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 03:52 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Nerraw View Post
    Leviathan has more dialogue than Lair of the Shadow Broker.

    https://twitter.com/GambleMike/statu...92302237044736
    It's Mike Gamble. The king of stunts. i would mirror everything he says. Have been working for EVERY statement he does until now.

  9. #9569
    Deleted
    "Yet you played 3 full games worth of writing your own story since Mass Effect is a choose your own adventure story. Why couldn't you choose your own adventure when the possible choices were anything you wanted?"

    Its not my story, i certainly didnt write or create it.
    I simply choose which of their stories to watch.

  10. #9570
    Starting my fourth play-through, yet again as a fem shep >.<
    I can't bring myself to play a male shep anymore lol... Probably as a Mix between Renegade/Paragon, badass who does the right choices.
    Problem is I always get stuck with Liara as LI, Having a turian or drell as a LI is too weird (lol) Kaidan and Jacob are too boring imo.

    Also, anyone tried the High res textures ?
    http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...rning/advanced
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  11. #9571
    Merely a Setback Adam Jensen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Confined View Post
    Starting my fourth play-through, yet again as a fem shep >.<
    Better voice actor IMO.
    Putin khuliyo

  12. #9572
    The Insane rhorle's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Gravath View Post
    Its not my story, i certainly didnt write or create it.
    I simply choose which of their stories to watch.
    You certainly did create the story. Bioware gave you the tools and options to create your own Story within the Mass Effect Trilogy. If you didn't create a story then you went all default options right? You didn't customize your characters looks at all right? You didn't kill anyone off right? You didn't import any save games that changed the next games experience from the default right? Because if you did any of that you just created a story different then the one Bioware created.

    You can't choose what the epilogue is? Bioware gave you the Ultimate choice by letting you decide what the "happily ever after" was. You could have envisioned Liara sitting on a beach with blue babies, or the IT theory, or any other of numerous endings. An ending that fit the personal story you crafted over all of these years. It still ended the way Bioware wanted which but they left the epilogue to you.
    Last edited by rhorle; 2012-08-05 at 02:23 AM.
    "Man is his own star. His acts are his angels, good or ill, While his fatal shadows walk silently beside him."-Rhyme of the Primeval Paradine AFC 54
    You know a community is bad when moderators lock a thread because "...this isnt the place to talk about it either seeing as it will get trolled..."

  13. #9573
    Quote Originally Posted by orissa View Post
    Better voice actor IMO.
    Male shep doesn't compare
    http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/characte...rning/advanced
    i5-3570k @ 4.4ghz - R9-280X @ 1150Mhz on stock voltage - 8GB of DDR3 Ram @ 1866Mhz

  14. #9574
    Old God Grizzly Willy's Avatar
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    Eh, Femshep bothers me. Don't like her voice much.

  15. #9575
    Quote Originally Posted by Atrahasis View Post
    I assume the sun will rise here shortly. That's a fairly reasonable assumption I think given that it always does. I assume that my wife won't cheat on me because we've been married for all those years and she's happy and I've been a good husband. Reasonable assumptions are fine. Going off half cock and assuming that the world will end 2012 or that the stock market will crash tmmrw are extremely poor assumptions. Their are degrees that are valid.

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-04 at 10:51 AM ----------



    Actually Vigil was a HUGE deus ex machina as far as ME 1 is concerned. He explained what the citadel was and gave you a way to get back to it in time to prevent Saren from letting the reapers get through. Without him it would have been over. Literally he was a machine of the gods (Protheans in this case) that determined the fate of the heroes and allowed them to over come an obstacle they normally wouldn't have been able to. Deus Ex Machinas aren't necesarilly plot twists.

    A deus ex machina ( /ˈdeɪ.əs ɛks ˈmɑːkiːnə/ or /ˈdiːəs ɛks ˈmækɨnə/ day-əs eks mah-kee-nə;[1] Latin: "god from the machine"; plural: dei ex machina) is a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.

    In this vase Vigil helps them figure out how to get back to the citadel in time to stop the reapers. Vigil himself is a new character who had proper context. The star child didn't have as much context when the game first came out. If you could investigate him in as much detail as you could with vigil then it wouldn't have been so bad.
    What you claimed didn't fit the definition you quoted. It wasn't a miraculous resolution handed down from on high like the star child and the rand resolutions were, it was a plot twist. You were still following Saren, you would have gone through the portal still, you just wouldn't have the back story of what this thing was for. Vigil did not resolve a single thing, not one. He did give you a tool that made winning possible but that is not a resolution by any definition of the word. The star child literally handed you three resolutions out of the machine.
    Last edited by Rukh; 2012-08-05 at 03:14 AM.

  16. #9576
    Merely a Setback Adam Jensen's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rukh View Post
    What you claimed didn't fit the definition you quoted. It wasn't a miraculous resolution handed down from on high like the star child and the rand resolutions were, it was a plot twist. You were still following Saren, you would have gone through the portal still, you just wouldn't have the back story of what this thing was for. Try again.
    Actually, Shepard would have failed. Vigil gave Shepard a program to disrupt Sovereign's signal, which (s)he uses after defeating Saren (the first time, unless he shoots himself.)
    Putin khuliyo

  17. #9577
    Quote Originally Posted by orissa View Post
    Better voice actor IMO.
    I've gone through twice, once as fem shep and the other as male shep. I prefer male shep. Seems to fit the story better in my opinion.

  18. #9578
    The Insane Glorious Leader's Avatar
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    I don't consider synthesis the best ending. Not by a long shot. Synthesis is a decision that's carried out on the part of one man that alters the life of everything and everyone and it was taken entirely undemocratically. It is arguably extremely fascit imo because you've just imposed your will on the entire galaxy. Control IMO is the better ending. Especially if you were a paragon Shep.

    Having said that, the control ending is more or less what the Illusive man is after. So that brings me to a question. If paragon shep takes the control ending and is good and uses the reapers to rebuild things what does that say about the Illusive man? Can we make a moral judgement about him with any certainty?

    ---------- Post added 2012-08-05 at 06:42 AM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by orissa View Post
    Actually, Shepard would have failed. Vigil gave Shepard a program to disrupt Sovereign's signal, which (s)he uses after defeating Saren (the first time, unless he shoots himself.)
    It's fairly clear in general I think he would have failed if not for Vigil. Vigil was clutch.
    Last edited by Glorious Leader; 2012-08-05 at 06:45 AM.
    The hammer comes down:
    Quote Originally Posted by Osmeric View Post
    Normal should be reduced in difficulty. Heroic should be reduced in difficulty.
    And the tiny fraction for whom heroic raids are currently well tuned? Too bad,so sad! With the arterial bleed of subs the fastest it's ever been, the vanity development that gives you guys your own content is no longer supportable.

  19. #9579
    Quote Originally Posted by Confined View Post
    Also, anyone tried the High res textures ?
    For ME1? I did and they're pretty buggy.

  20. #9580
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    Quote Originally Posted by Oni View Post
    Is... is .... is this true Gravath??!?!
    Now I fucking know who to fucking blame for Legion death, you fucking....

    I'll find out where you sleep, you just wait.
    I may have had some effect on the story...
    But Rhorle doesnt seem to grasp that Bioware just gave us different versions of the same story we could choose from.
    Alternate universes so to speak.
    In the end, Nihlus died. Saren almost took control of the citadel. We died. We worked for TIM. We killed the collectors. Our teams are already picked by Bioware and we can choose 2 of them per mission instead of BRINGING ALL OF THEM! yadda yadda.
    Its biowares story because we cant change the plot, we are simply the puppet with one loose string to move his arm freely but still have to dance to the puppeteers will.
    And we dont have a squadmate using his omniblade to impale the enemies hearts ripping it out and handing it over to the assault trooper behind him... err i mean, create our own teams or execute any of them at will.


    Quote Originally Posted by Atrahasis View Post
    If paragon shep takes the control ending and is good and uses the reapers to rebuild things what does that say about the Illusive man? Can we make a moral judgement about him with any certainty?
    TIM is a anti-hero quite simply.
    He does anything, even cruel and "evil" things, to protect and strengthen the human race and will go any lengths to do that.
    He sacrifised too much and ventured too far and touched the forbidden fruit, corrupting him without him realising it, turning him against what he once shielded.
    He was right all along, but the way he went about it led to his downfall and in the end he realises that he himself is a liability and a risk to what he dedicated his life to protecting and offs himself - leaving Shepard to save the human race in his stead.


    TIM is a tragic hero in his own right.
    Last edited by mmoce8c391acaa; 2012-08-05 at 09:19 AM.

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