I mean 'honest' as in the reviewer was being honest when he wrote the review.

As opposed to writing a good review because that is what he was paid to do. You know, so that the game sells, all of those people who we're thinking of buying the game read a 'good' review of the game, then they go and buy a copy.

I can't comment on the true validity of the review because I have never played Mass Effect 3, and I probably never will. 

I love the first two Mass Effect games. Not for gameplay, but for overall ambience. They did a really good job of making it feel like a scifi universe.

But making gameplay 'fun' has never been what Bioware was about, they were about a big game with lots of story. They are crap at balancing games, they suck at AI, and they tend not to innovate or 'fix' their problems. Even as far back as Kotor, the gameplay wasn't exactly fun, but very generic and tedious. They can't balance games worth crap either, they tend to be either very difficult or very easy, rarely does it feel like a good challenge.

As much as I would like to, I probably won't get Mass Effect 3. :( :( :( 

That was the odd thing for me - you'd think making the interactive part worthwhile would have been the focus.

I was introduced to Bioware on ME1 - I'll probably avoid their other games on general principals.

Seems like they do the types of games I don't like to play. Not any particular genre though - I quite like RPGs. 

I really can't understand the crazy backlash that is going on with fans of Mass Effect. It was never about combat, shooting, scanning or squad tactics. The game was all about story and immersion in the game universe. Why would anyone expect the game play to be ground breaking? Last time I checked, the encounter design was box rooms with cover and dumb AI. You run in, shoot, take cover and eventually kill stuff.

I always thought of ME as something that is trying to push the envelope on story. It wants to make the player care about what they say and do (storywise and some actions). With the introduction of the ship crew emotional involvement I assumed players wanted a space opera.

The fan review reaction to ME reminds me of someone reading a book and then getting upset because the book has no pictures and it should do, because all books have pictures nowadays! ;) 

I'm not a fan of Bioware-flavored "RPGs", and this one confirms it once again. Too linear and restricted, tedious combat, and I'm not overly impressed with the levels so far. Of course, this is only the first impression after some three hours, maybe it's getting better later on, but I doubt I'm going to play much further. Bioware seems to be a love or hate thing - if you enjoy one game, you'll probably like the others, too; if not, don't bother.

Can't say much about the story, I'm not super excited about it. Is it possible that the stories and twists in each game are quite similar?

I agree about the dialogue options - I hate it when games give you some option and then lets the character say something totally different.

Sock: More like this: a book that's said to be an excellent piece of fine literature which then has silly pictures in it, and people getting upset about it are being told to ignore them (and that it's their own fault they aren't enjoying it if they can't or won't just ignore them). 

I don't think anyone expects the gameplay to be ground breaking, just good, which it isn't. It copies Gears of War (which imho had boring shooter mechanics at best) and slaps an RPG-lite leveling system onto it. Now, that's all fine and dandy, but they could've done a better job balancing gameplay or making the combat a little less repetitive. It doesn't have to be revolutionary - say what you will about Rage, but it was very polished and felt great, but wasn't revolutionary by any means. There's really no reason the same couldn't have been done with Mass Effect.

I would say, for the book analogy, that it's more like here's a book, and there's this chapter of the book that's included with the book you bought, but only if you pay extra for that chapter. If I bought the book, shouldn't I get all the chapters already? 

"I mean 'honest' as in the reviewer was being honest when he wrote the review.

As opposed to writing a good review because that is what he was paid to do. You know, so that the game sells, all of those people who we're thinking of buying the game read a 'good' review of the game, then they go and buy a copy.

I can't comment on the true validity of the review because I have never played Mass Effect 3, and I probably never will."

But ... you have no way of knowing who is being honest and who isn't. Your logic isn't sound on this one.

What leads you to believe that Ron is writing from the heart and, say, IGN is only writing good things because they're being paid to?

Liking Ron's review because it says what you want it to say is fine - but you need to admit it. :) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zze1wpwVl7c

Has the potential to be fucking epic imo. Arkane Studios (dark messiah might and magic) + Viktor Antonov (hl2 art director) + Harvey Smith (deus ex designer) + Sandbox assassination game set in a steampunk city = wet pants. 

Why would Ron come on a Quake forum, and Troll ME3, if he did in fact like ME3? That doesn't make sense either. Are you trying to tell me that it would make more sense for Ron to come on a forum and lie about his own opinions? Why would he do that?

I base my assumptions on the following things:

1 - There was a lot of good hype on the mainstream websites about Mass Effect so I went out and bought a copy, only to discover that the game was an excruciatingly tedious and boring game full of characters that we're either ridiculous, un-likeable or both. Having been playing Crysis before hand I was also disappointed by the poor visuals and level design of Mass Effect. I remember in the game there is a part near the beginning where you land an a planet only to discover that the planet looks dull, and you can't travel around it because the whole mission is heavily scripted and completely on a rail. I also noticed that the combat was poor, I was basically encouraged to squat behind walls and crates all of the time. Which is dull.

I also remember in another part of the game, there was a VERY tall elevator shaft, with an elevator inside it. You cannot see out of the elevator once you are inside it. But to use the elevator you have no choice but to watch the entire journey from the corner of the elevator. Well there's three minutes of my life I will never get back.

2 - Ron is claiming that he found similar issues to be present in ME3. The review for ME3 is also good on the mainstream websites.


I don't like watching the TV. I don't like Star Trek. ME is a bit like Star Trek. And playing ME1 for me was on par with watching Star Trek. Which I find to be dull and boring.

IGN, Fox and the teams of directors employed at the studio where Mass Effect and it's sequels we're born are examples of evil capitalist scum, which will kill art and video games in order to make sure that they make the fastest buck.

Ron is some guy who I don't know who posted his opinions on a forum.

I know who I would trust. Neither of them. I would trust my own intuition. The same intuition that made me decide to stop playing GoW2 in the large underground tunnels section because I found it to be dull and boring, and the characters made me feel as though I was insulting my own intelligence by continuing.
And that was one of the last times I played a game on my XBox 360. Though I diverge, for that is another heart warming tale, which I will conserve for another post, some other time. 

"IGN, Fox and the teams of directors employed at the studio where Mass Effect and it's sequels we're born are examples of evil capitalist scum, which will kill art and video games in order to make sure that they make the fastest buck."

OK, whatever you say. Discussion isn't possible with this sort of hate in the way. Thanks for the reply! 

Just flicked through that with sound off but from your description and faith in it, I agree. Could be very cool. GFX are a bit Bioshock in graphical quality as well as style, but definitely has potential. 

I know that such strong words are a lot to handle, even for you. How a discussion can continue with all of the curse-words I keep using, god only knows.

Anyway, that's my honest opinion, I can honestly say that I honestly think that IGN are a bunch of dis-honest fuckers who are sat around with their dicks in their hands, feeling all 'important' when actually they are just slaves to a big money making system. I went through a phase of trusting IGN and was disappointed by them many times.

I read their review of the new Star Wars MMO, and in the first couple of paragraphs the reviewer explained how the training element of the game was rubbish, and that the 'battles in space' parts of the game we're also rubbish. Yet the game score was still displayed - 9.5 out of 10.

Then there was all of the hype with Far Cry 2. But that was a very boring and repetitive game to.

Eventually I start to read the website and just think - 'Yeah - you guys are either stupid, or you are taking bribes for some of these scores'.

Fox - OK, well there's a company which totally ruined the Aliens franchise. Nice work Fox, way to go - why not take all of the cool stuff out of Alien movies, and replace it with cheap from-a-can nonsense, slap a PG13 rating on it so that you get the best box-office windfall. Cause that all the fans care about, surely. 

I get it, Ricky, thanks. Like I said, there's no real discussion to be had if you've already decided that professional reviewers are evil scum bags out for the almighty dollar. I get that. And that's fine, that's your opinion - but it leaves no room for discussion so we're done with this, yes? 

And this goes without saying but your tastes are running fairly orthogonal to most other gamers I know. Even shooter fans. Mass Effect and Far Cry are well loved in every other circle I run in. So there's that... 

But yeah - ME series being good - so the official line is that "That's the word on the street". All the hip folks back home really love the ME series. Yeah. Well it's not for me. And I tried to like Far Cry 2, I really did. But it was so repetitive, and the fast travel system was still tedious. By the end I just didn't have the energy for it.

I'm just a random gamer discussing my opinions of the mainstream gaming media. And a mainstream game. And yes, I have a narrow opinion, who doesn't. I know what I like, and I like what I know.

You don't seem to be able to handle my harsh criticisms of said mainstream gaming entities, is that because you have a vested interest in them? 

Me? I don't care what you say about media outlets or whatever. Rant away. My issue was with your calling one review honest and others not, without having any knowledge of their motivations OR even having played the game yourself.

That's all. 

Dishonored looks great. Steampunk = awesome. Long as I can just shoot shit up instead of listening through keyholes to random conversations. Lots of whores in it as well, which is always a plus. I'm glad Arkane are doing it, it's about time they did something new - it's been 6 years since their last game Dark Messiah. 

are the rpg elements in ME3 further simplified from ME2? that was one of my major problems with ME2. :( 

actually, i should probably say stats/class stuff as opposed to RPG.
i like setting up characters and builds. :) 

Willem, we have < q > </ q > tags, would be awesome if you could use them. Searching for the closing " when skimming over posts sucks. 

If this board used standard tags, I might care. As it is, if I can't remember what to use I don't. :) 

would <span class="quote"></span> be standard enough for you? 

If that's what you believe the standard for message boards is ... sure. 

BBCode some sort of standard.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBCode 

some sort of standard