OH GOD BIOWARE WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU DONE

[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

I have no idea who this woman is. There again I had no idea who Mirandas VA was either (still kinda don't).

I am slightly irked that they're adding even more new characters and apparantly dumping a bunch of old ones. They could have just kept most of the old crew really, especially since they might end up dumping characters that died during the suicide mission, which makes their deaths kind of irrelevent then. Like I lost Samara and Legion and I'm pretty sure Samara isn't coming back anyway, so now it makes no difference if she'd survived or not.

[Kerensky287]

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

So first Bioware was all like "We're going to have less playable characters in Mass Effect 3 than we did in Mass Effect 2, we can't bring back most of the characters you loved in any halfway decent capacity because we have to make this artificial deadline in 2012. Yeah we could totally spend an extra six months or one year making this game perfect and an ideal blockbuster ending to the trilogy but fuck that shit we want your money."

Because ME2 had like, a billion playable characters. Some of them were pretty great, and some of them are coming back. I believe those are probably going to be correlated; if Samara never shows up again, for example, I don't think anyone will give a shit.

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

Then they were like, "We're going to trump up how Mass Effect 3 is all about the shooting mechanics and we're not going to talk about the story!"

They talked enough about the story to tell us what was going on without spoiling anything, just like with the first two games. You can't make a marketable trailer about how emotional this game will make you feel - not with a big-budget brand like Mass Effect. And in truth, game development IS still a business. Hardcore ME3 fans will probably be in it for the story, but then, they'll be buying it either way; if they can double their sales by appealing to the CoD crowd, there's no reason not to.

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

And then Bioware was all like "Here's a leaked script of the story! Oops!"

I haven't seen this leaked script, and I have no reason to trust its validity. Even then, there's more to the game's presentation value than the script. There's so much you can do to make a mediocre line of speech have just as much punch as an expertly-crafted one. I have faith that Bioware will pull this off.

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

And then Bioware was like "Hey do you remember Mordin and how he totally had like, the best voice actor in the entire series? Well, we're totally not bringing him back, despite the fact that he wants to come back, because we're skimping out on money, despite the fact that we totally should respect the integrity of this amazing series enough to bring everyone back."

Earlier on, Bioware put out a release saying that a lot of the characters wouldn't necessarily be coming back in playable form. In the VERY SAME PARAGRAPH, they listed Mordin as an example of a character who wouldn't be joining you on missions, but might hang around the Normandy's research lab, for example. They KNOW people like him, and there hasn't been a lot of evidence saying that he won't be coming back.

Originally Posted by Solid Snake

And then Bioware did THIS.


WHY, BIOWARE


*imagesnip*


WWWWHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYY

I don't get why this is significant. Like, at all.

It's fanservice. That's all it is. It won't appeal to all of the fans, but then again, it doesn't have to.

[MuMu]

It's fanservice

Hence, Snake's freakout.

[Toast]

I'm not especially freaked or upset by this announcement, as it seems as if she is a relatively minor character. I seem to remember that they made a big deal about Michael Hogan voicing Captain Bailey in me2 and look at all the more involvement he had.

On a related subject, I did see screenshots/concept art of the prothean and EDI, and not only was I not impressed, I fail to see the point of having them as squadmates, given the amount of retconning that will have to go into making them make sense, and the space that could be used for better characters. EDI was, in my opinion, an entirely unnecessary and overused character in me2, I was kind of hoping the alliance would rip her out of the normandy so I wouldn't have to listen to her.

[Kim]

Yes, because this is the first time Bioware has ever put a nerd idol in one of their games. >.>

[Marc v4.0]

No, really.

I don't quite see how THIS is the straw that breaks the camels back when they have an entire plot setup to put EDI in a sexy robot body, just so Joker can fuck her. IF You, John 'Screw All The Things' Sherpard, don't decide on your own to ride the robot love train.

At this point, I am surprised Bioware hasn't gone the 'race of ancient, wise peoples that all look 13 but no really, they are like 400 years old so it isn't creepy' route.

[Aerozord]

Some characters I care little about their playability. Usually I just stick with the specialists anyways. Doesn't mean I dont like having them around. Mordin was too squishy to have around especially when Tali or Legion get the job done. Though he was among my favorite characters so I still want him on that ship. Same with Garrus.

With romance it always amounts to me checking if Tali is an option then ignoring it. She was the only character that interested me in that capacity. Rest was mostly curiosity and to see how much of a dick I could be like in one playthrough I romanced Ashley and Liara, then just to avoid consequences of my actions I sent Ashley off to die immediately after dumping her.

Now no matter the warning signs, I will have faith in bioware. Even if it isn't a worthy capstone to the series as long as its a decent wrap up I can live with it because the trilogy over all will still be the most epic story in gaming history.

[Osterbaum]

I have to be honest, I've been somewhat concerned about what BioWare has been telling us about ME3. I don't want to just take the easy way out and blame EA on everything, but I get like this feeling that EAs shadow is looming large over the final product.

[Aerozord]

Originally Posted by Osterbaum

I have to be honest, I've been somewhat concerned about what BioWare has been telling us about ME3. I don't want to just take the easy way out and blame EA on everything, but I get like this feeling that EAs shadow is looming large over the final product.

word from bioware is that EA doesn't interfere with their projects. Because of their success bioware basically gets a blank check on what to do.

However marketing is another story. Thats all EA. So if there was a "leaked" script, or certain aspects of the game are given more attention than others thats who to blame.

Bioware might consider certain aspects of the game as minor and major elements can be downplayed. Good example is Brutal Legend, the RTS elements were from the start a major aspect of the game but marketing intentionally downplayed them. In fact their original producer before EA even told the developers to outright lie if asked about it.

My point is marketing can give a false impression of what the developer is doing, and all that we are seeing right now is marketing. EA is not going to screw with one of their most successful franchises, and Bioware has yet to disappoint me in any game of theirs that I have personally gotten. So I'm holding out hope.

[Osterbaum]

I guess. But I can't shake this feeling that I'm in for another Dragon Age II.