293 réponses à ce sujet

[GnusmasTHX]

Tamyn wrote...

This guy's voice makes me feel like I'm in an airplane listening to the captain over the loudpseaker. "And now coming up on your left..."

He doesn't sound very enthusiastic. It makes me not want to listen... But I listened for a quarter of it.

[xlavaina]

As usual Smudboy I like your analyses, this one is no exception, despite the fact I disagree with a few things.

[smudboy]

Shandepared wrote...

Whatever666343431431654324 wrote...

With the amount of exposition required to explain every little decision in the game, things would get quickly bogged down. Believe it or not, I have never read a book or watched a movie or played a video game that explains everything.

You can get bogged down in needless exposition but you don't need to. We don't need to know what kind of cereal Shepard likes, but we do need to know why we need to do a mission a certain way or why a character tries to kill us.

Exactly. Clear, coherent writing doesn't require massive exposition asides.  To show the effects of a scene, be it a characters behavior, or explaining what's going on/why a certain path is taken, is essential.

I still want to know exactly in what capacity Liara can't let go of Shepard; her romantic feelings are optional.  I get what she's trying to tell me, and I can come up with a few reasons why she feels this way, but we don't exactly know.  Maybe she herself can't even put it into words: and if it's something so profound, something she's so passionate about, there are other ways to communicate this to the audience.

[smudboy]

xlavaina wrote...

As usual Smudboy I like your analyses, this one is no exception, despite the fact I disagree with a few things.

Thanks!  I put a little more effort into this, since LOTSB was such a delight to play.  The existence of Tela was my favorite moment, so I didn't want to get bogged down as to why or how she's here.  It's a shame she had to go so soon.  I certainly hope the next Gray War--Spectre--doesn't die within an hour of being introduced.

[smudboy]

Nightwriter wrote...

I wish you'd stop focusing on the more trivial things, like the fact that kitchen technology hasn't improved in hundreds of years and we landed on a weird part of the ship.

You have a very talented critical eye and I'd rather you focus it more on things like Shep just accepting a random Spectre's sudden appearance and being unable to tell Vasir that serving the Council is nothing to be proud of.

Focus, smudboy. Use the Force!

If they can't tell me how exactly those blue alien chicks mate, they could at least show one of their thousand year old Futuristic Ms. Coffee's...

Oh, come on Nightwriter.  You were just biased by the "better than the Mako" comment.

[Midnight_Thirty]

smudboy wrote...

Sure, media is a form of entertainment.  It's also a tool for teaching.  Stories have the ability to convey ethics, or moral decisions, to provide insight into the human condition.  There's no reason why ME cannot do this: yet time and again, Shepard has little depth, the characters background is alterered without exposition (making them completely different), and things go the way of the contrived-random-event-chain.

Regardless, despite its flaws, LOTSB is the best part of the ME2 experience.

Sure, I think about plenty. I think about our current situation within our own galaxy and universe, what are the chances that there is intelligent life out there. We will never know in our lifetime, but there may be several societies such as our, IN OUR OWN GALAXY.... There are very few video games that influence me in such a way as to make me think about my own existence, and it has nothing to do with the plot to either game. I have a lot of "quams" with the game, but I don't let them bother me. I guess I agree with a lot of the stuff that you say, namely the kitchenware issue, but honestly, what the hell is it supposed to be? I've never met anyone that has a good understanding at what the future holds without some stupid ass guess. I don't care if it's the same equipment, because maybe it is the same. I mean since the invention of fire humans have still used "pots" to cook food, why would conventions change?

Who cares about any of this? It's just a game as far as the ****ty plot goes, but who cares? The gameplay is way better than ME1 and the ME realm has returned to us once again.....It's fun and that's all that really matters. You're starting to sound like a Star Trek or Star Wars fanboy

[Whatever42]

Shandepared wrote...

Whatever666343431431654324 wrote...

With the amount of exposition required to explain every little decision in the game, things would get quickly bogged down. Believe it or not, I have never read a book or watched a movie or played a video game that explains everything.

You can get bogged down in needless exposition but you don't need to. We don't need to know what kind of cereal Shepard likes, but we do need to know why we need to do a mission a certain way or why a character tries to kill us.

Oh, I agree.  Understanding why Tela is trying to kill us is important. Understanding why we're not trying to take the lift that the soldiers are coming up in, not so important. 

[Midnight_Thirty]

oh, and Shepard is a "shallow" character because you allow him to be. Shepard is about player choice, what you do to define him, you define him as nothing but the illustrations and therefore he is such. Just an illustration in your mind, nothing deeper. In my mind he is a reflection of me, and that is what a good RPG can portray.......yourself

[PurePareidolia]

It was an enjoyable analysis to listen to, and I agree on a lot of points.
I had a very different reaction to Vasir's comments about our Cerberus alliegence - frantically searching for the dialogue option that let me go "I know, right?" and dosing her with enough medi-gel to stabilize her (not enough to follow - don't want to be attacked again) and going in "peace" because she was absolutely one of the best characters I'd seen. Then, when Liara takes over, we now have a Spectre ally who can continue to serve as a great foil to Shepard.

Which raises the question - When we were gathering the galaxy's best and brightest, why did we never try to get any Spectres? Wouldn't working with a Spectre still on the council's payroll help communicate both our lack of ill will that working with Cerberus would imply, and the validity of our points, as we're clearly convincing one of their best operatives? Also Spectres are almost by definition the most badass warriors in the universe, as are Asari Commandos, which we didn't get either, unless you count Samara which I don't. I know I'm going off on a tangent here, but hey, the central theme of this DLC is lampshading things.

Modifié par PurePareidolia, 23 septembre 2010 - 07:35 .

[DanielJr]

I couldn't finish it. Too cynical and pessimistic for my fanatical love of ME2.

[Midnight_Thirty]

DanielJr wrote...

I couldn't finish it. Too cynical and pessimistic for my fanatical love of ME2.

haha, lemme guess, you love Tali too?

[brgillespie]

Not seeing how Shepard not getting all retard-suspicious over a Spectre involving herself in a crime investigation is a "plothole".

Guys, Illium isn't in the Terminus Systems. It borders the Terminus Systems. There's no reason why a Council Spectre wouldn't be on Illium for some random-ass Council mission, dropping in on a police investigation of a crime scene revolving around the most important information broker on the planet. Spectres do whatever the hell they want to do. Think how often Cmdr. Shepard's butted into the middle of something that really was none of his business. C-Sec agent arguing with a Hanar, C-Sec agent and a volus harrassing a Quarrian, relationship advice to an asari and a krogan, advice on whether or not to abort a child, etc, etc, etc...

[DanielJr]

Midnight_Thirty wrote...

DanielJr wrote...

I couldn't finish it. Too cynical and pessimistic for my fanatical love of ME2.

haha, lemme guess, you love Tali too?

It's like you're psychic, man! 

[YourFunnyUncle]

An interesting analysis. For a DLC you claim to have enjoyed, it seems that you focused a little too much on the negative, but your style is up to you. I have to say though, just so that you realise that it's not just those that dismiss you out of hand who think this, that using "gay" as a synonym for bad really lowers the tone of the whole video. It truly does you no favours.

I'm unsure as to why you have a problem with the ambiguity of Liara's motivations. It seems to me that the very nature of the story (that you may or may not have romanced her) makes it clear why they did this. The very fact that you can think of your own reasons that she would feel this way demonstrates that the story is strong enough to back up different interpretations, and as this is a role playing game where the player is able to follow the same basic story with very different moral outlooks, the ability to interpret as you see fit would seem to me to be a strength.

Many of your more “nit-picky” points such as the decor in Liara’s flat did occur to me too but I find that this holds true for much of sci-fi, which is always bogged down to an extent in the technology of its day. Also the floating car chase was a massive sci-fi cliché but it was one I enjoyed immensely. Actually I find that a big part of the fun of watching/reading/playing any sci-fi or fantasy story is to pick holes in it. It doesn’t mean that I’m not enjoying the experience.

I also agree that you could easily have landed nearer the entrance in the Shadow Broker’s ship, but I’m willing to forgive them this as it gave them the chance to showcase the “storm riding” technology which I found to be one of the most original concepts that they’ve come up with in the whole Mass Effect universe.

Edit: fixed formatting weirdness.

Modifié par YourFunnyUncle, 23 septembre 2010 - 08:35 .

[Midnight_Thirty]

^ this

[YourFunnyUncle]

Shandepared wrote...

I think it's really gay how people get so anal about the usage of that word.

Oh the rapier-like wit. I am wounded.

[Midnight_Thirty]

Shandepared wrote...

I think it's really gay how people get so anal about the usage of that word.

Well, Smudboy was using "gay" in a negative tone, and "gay" is supposed to be fabulous!!!!

[YourFunnyUncle]

The cold facts are that the use of "gay" as a pejorative has huge homophobic overtones. If you use the word in that manner then you come across as a simple-minded bigot. I'm truly not a defender of political correctness at all costs but in this case there are so many different ways you could say something is bad without insulting a large sub-set of the community.

[Gibb_Shepard]

YourFunnyUncle wrote...

The cold facts are that the use of "gay" as a pejorative has huge homophobic overtones. If you use the word in that manner then you come across as a simple-minded bigot. I'm truly not a defender of political correctness at all costs but in this case there are so many different ways you could say something is bad without insulting a large sub-set of the community.

It amazes me how someone can watch that entire video analysis and somehow nitpick on a word mentioned once throughout the whole thing. You are sounding like a classic defender of political correctness at the moment.

[YourFunnyUncle]

Gibb_Shepard wrote...
It amazes me how someone can watch that entire video analysis and somehow nitpick on a word mentioned once throughout the whole thing. You are sounding like a classic defender of political correctness at the moment.

So the 90% of my original post where I responded calmly to his points passed you by? Just because someone else picked out that section of my post doesn't mean that it was the most important part. It's just that I found that using the word gay in that way jarred in what was an otherwise intelligent video.

There are many areas of political correctness such as the idea of using the word "chairperson" when chairman and chairwoman are more descriptive that I don't agree with at all, but I'm hardly likely to bring that up in a critique of a youtube video about a sci-fi game DLC...