11391 réponses à ce sujet

[Homebound]

ElitePinecone wrote...

Saiyan1126 wrote...

ElitePinecone wrote...

Somebody thought the story would be easier, or cooler, if the protagonist was a badass but generic eighteen year old girl armed with killer biotics and vengeance against the Illusive Man

So she's just a young Jack minus the emotional scars?

That's a comparison you could make, sure. 

She even rejects the only parental figures in her life to run away, get illegal surgery and go on a ridiculously naive path of vengeance. 

If the theme of Deception was that "teenagers are headstrong and idiotic, while adults are incompetent and sex-crazy", I think it succeeded. Anderson and Kahlee are bumbling and powerless, arriving late to every battle, messing up all their investigations and managing to fit more sex into the book than I thought was humanly possible. 

you know, you could describe Family guy the same way.

[GraciousCat]

Metal-Dragon-Kiryu wrote...

J4N3_M3 wrote...
then this monorail makes no sense. there is no monorail on the citadel, which was my point to begin with. 

but where do i remember a train-travel thingy from? jeez....what game is messing wtih my head here? i thought we had one in ME1 but if that was the shuttles, what am I remembering? I must play less games, srsly. 

There's a tram/monorail/thingamabob on Eden Prime - that could be what you're thinking of.

There's also one on Noveria.

[CaptainZaysh]

J4N3_M3 wrote...

then this monorail makes no sense. there is no monorail on the citadel, which was my point to begin with. 

but where do i remember a train-travel thingy from? jeez....what game is messing wtih my head here? i thought we had one in ME1 but if that was the shuttles, what am I remembering? I must play less games, srsly. 

Eden Prime?  But really, just because we haven't seen a monorail in the games so far doesn't mean there isn't one on the Citadel.

[Saiyan1126]

CaptainZaysh wrote...

Saiyan1126 wrote...

Hahaha. A complete opposite opinion from ElitePinecone. Now I'm conflicted again

I think basically the problem is that they're video game novels.  Here's the truth about them: they're sh*t.  They really are rotten, sh*tty books and if they didn't have Mass Effect written on the front of them then nobody would have bought them.  The problems with them are the same as the problems with Deception - confused storyline, zero stakes, no main character, unedited writing style - minus the lore errors.

This is, I think, what happens when you release a tie-in novel against a short deadline without any real commercial pressures to make it a good well-written story because the words Mass Effect on the front mean it will sell anyway.

So I mean if you're okay with reading what is a bad book because it's related to Mass Effect then you should go for it!  I did!  Just don't expect them to be an enjoyable read if you are the kind of person who is used to books that had to fight to get published.  These ones got a free ride and it shows; they are simply not written to the same levels of quality as anything else on the science fiction shelf except for the other lame tie-ins.

This is, I guess, what I think would be the best outcome this whole fanrage about Deception could achieve.  I'd like to see a statement from BioWare that went something along the lines of: okay, we hear you, and we agree with some of the criticisms.  It's not Dietz's fault, it's not the editing team's fault, it's just the way the whole industry has produced tie-in novels in the past is not the same way authors normally produce novels and that's what leads to the difference in writing quality.  So for the next tie-in we do, we're going to allow two years and embed the novelist with the dev team, and we're going to write the first good tie-in novel ever.  That's what I'd like to see come out of this.

I thought the same thing about video game tie-in books, until I recently read Gears of War Aspho Fields. I really enjoyed that book. That book was actually the reason I wanted to give the ME books a chance. But then again, I realize that a game with zero character developement would make a better tie-in book; than a game that is almost entirely character developement.

[ElitePinecone]

GraciousCat wrote...

There's also one on Noveria.

Noveria

I think it is getting a bit too nitpicky to attack the idea of a Citadel monorail system. I mean, sure it's an error, but hardly the most pressing or egregious one. 

[J4N3_M3]

GraciousCat wrote...

Metal-Dragon-Kiryu wrote...

J4N3_M3 wrote...
then this monorail makes no sense. there is no monorail on the citadel, which was my point to begin with. 

but where do i remember a train-travel thingy from? jeez....what game is messing wtih my head here? i thought we had one in ME1 but if that was the shuttles, what am I remembering? I must play less games, srsly. 

There's a tram/monorail/thingamabob on Eden Prime - that could be what you're thinking of.

There's also one on Noveria.

no i thought it was on the citadel and it got destroyed, but maybe i'm confusing it with something else i read somewhere else. i guess i should stop reading too xD 

[J4N3_M3]

ElitePinecone wrote...

GraciousCat wrote...

There's also one on Noveria.

Noveria

I think it is getting a bit too nitpicky to attack the idea of a Citadel monorail system. I mean, sure it's an error, but hardly the most pressing or egregious one. 

sure, it certainly is not. it's just another one in a long line of inconsistencies. 

[CaptainZaysh]

ElitePinecone wrote...

I agree with this to an extent. The previous ME books weren't epics of literature. They were, though, servicable and competently-researched additions to the wider IP. 

I think they're worth reading for that alone, and not on their literary merits. They're fluff, sure, but fluff that takes place in one of my favourite fictional universes. I'm willing to overlook a certain level of disjointedness in the writing if it tells a reasonablty interesting story. 

Agreed on all points.  I guess the other criticism I'd raise of them is that there's not actually much fluff in them in the sense of new insights into the universe: we don't really learn anything new about how SPECTREs operate, or what life is like in a merc gang or on a colony, or what a conventional space battle is like, or anything new really that I can think of.  (Biotic air kisses are actually one of the only new insights I can think of from any of the books.)

The universe is so rich that it seems like a hugely wasted opportunity to have the characters doing things that Shepard does (run through corridors shooting a gun) instead of doing things in the universe that we can't do in the games.

[Ieldra]

Saiyan1126 wrote...

CaptainZaysh wrote...
Personally I'd advise against it: I thought the first three books were plodding, unimaginative, and hugely limited in scope.  I don't think they gave me any new insights into the games whatsoever.  Galactic scale power players like Anderson and The Illusive Man solve all of their problems not through leadership and hard decision making but by running through corridors shooting people in the head with guns.  All three books felt to me like accounts of an ME1 side mission written by someone who wasn't really that interested in what was going on except the pew pew bits.  In my opinion they are shockingly bad and boring novels - certainly among the worst things I've ever read.

Hahaha. A complete opposite opinion from ElitePinecone. Now I'm conflicted again

I agree with CaptainZaysh that the books are badly written and that especially the characterization sucks. However, there are some lore details you might not want to miss, for instance about indoctrination, Cerberus and the quarians. I wouldn't have bought them if they weren't Mass Effect, but they do add to the universe.

[Sebby]

Ascension had some interesting bits about Quarian life on the Flotilla and Retribution on TIM's character.

[LPPrince]

Seboist wrote...

Ascension had some interesting bits about Quarian life on the Flotilla and Retribution on TIM's character.

Plus we got to see what TIM would do in a combat situation.

[CaptainZaysh]

Saiyan1126 wrote...

I thought the same thing about video game tie-in books, until I recently read Gears of War Aspho Fields. I really enjoyed that book. That book was actually the reason I wanted to give the ME books a chance. But then again, I realize that a game with zero character developement would make a better tie-in book; than a game that is almost entirely character developement.

Okay, I just read the extract of this book and it is much better written than any of the ME novels.  That bit at the beginning - the bit where the author makes you like the character she's writing about - Drew and Dietz can't do that.

[ElitePinecone]

CaptainZaysh wrote...
The universe is so rich that it seems like a hugely wasted opportunity to have the characters doing things that Shepard does (run through corridors shooting a gun) instead of doing things in the universe that we can't do in the games.

At the risk of turning this into a festival of agreement, I can't agree with this enough. 

The Mass Effect universe desperately needs some fiction that isn't about military squads, talking to information brokers or traversing the galaxy on a shuttle solving mysteries. 

Some fleshing out of the IP would do wonders. Alliance politics, say. The impact of alien contact on Earth culture and religion. Asari governance. Turian military service. The intrigue of salarian breeding negotiations. Krogan clan wars. I don't even know. 

[Arcadian Legend]

LPPrince wrote...

Arcadian Legend wrote...

LPPrince wrote...

Hellbound555 wrote...

and if you really wanna hammer in the fact that they've made a terrible mistake, dont buy the book.

And there's a ton of us not purchasing this crap.

And then there are those who are buying it for the irony/lolz. Any plausible way we could somehow put this up into EQD? The potential force we could tap into for this would be massive.

No. It has no reason to be on EQD whatsoever as it has no involvement with the entire point of the site.

Merely a what if. I can't even come up with an idea that could work anyway. XD

[JoeLaTurkey]

Arcadian Legend wrote...


Merely a what if. I can't even come up with an idea that could work anyway. XD

What other sites can we contact then?

[Saiyan1126]

CaptainZaysh wrote...

Saiyan1126 wrote...

I thought the same thing about video game tie-in books, until I recently read Gears of War Aspho Fields. I really enjoyed that book. That book was actually the reason I wanted to give the ME books a chance. But then again, I realize that a game with zero character developement would make a better tie-in book; than a game that is almost entirely character developement.

Okay, I just read the extract of this book and it is much better written than any of the ME novels.  That bit at the beginning - the bit where the author makes you like the character she's writing about - Drew and Dietz can't do that.

Yeah, that was what gave me hope for other video game novels. I can't even lie, I got a little misty eyed at the end of that book lol.

[Khran1505]

No novel is incapable of a good story. Even if it's a video game tie-in, it still has the same amount of potential. It all really depends on the writers if they can sell a good story as part of the video game universe. Some are suited for books, others aren't.

That and really it's all down to personal opinion. Some love certain books, others hate them. I personally love the Mass Effect books because they're part of a universe I hold dear to me, a fictional world I can truly lose myself in. Drew, while not an award winning writer (or is he?), really showed respect to the lore and wrote books that were enjoyable and consistent, something we as fans can accept into canon.

Dietz, on the other hand, didn't.

[Bat32391]

Well if I'm goining I should at least be an informed whiner can someone pm the inconsistencies or a link to them

[J4N3_M3]

Khran1505 wrote...

No novel is incapable of a good story. Even if it's a video game tie-in, it still has the same amount of potential. It all really depends on the writers if they can sell a good story as part of the video game universe. Some are suited for books, others aren't.

That and really it's all down to personal opinion. Some love certain books, others hate them. I personally love the Mass Effect books because they're part of a universe I hold dear to me, a fictional world I can truly lose myself in. Drew, while not an award winning writer (or is he?), really showed respect to the lore and wrote books that were enjoyable and consistent, something we as fans can accept into canon.

Dietz, on the other hand, didn't.

basically this! 

[Homebound]

J4N3_M3 wrote...

Khran1505 wrote...

No novel is incapable of a good story. Even if it's a video game tie-in, it still has the same amount of potential. It all really depends on the writers if they can sell a good story as part of the video game universe. Some are suited for books, others aren't.

That and really it's all down to personal opinion. Some love certain books, others hate them. I personally love the Mass Effect books because they're part of a universe I hold dear to me, a fictional world I can truly lose myself in. Drew, while not an award winning writer (or is he?), really showed respect to the lore and wrote books that were enjoyable and consistent, something we as fans can accept into canon.

Dietz, on the other hand, didn't.

basically this! 

maybe deception should be labeled as satire.

[LPPrince]

JoeLaTurkey wrote...

Arcadian Legend wrote...


Merely a what if. I can't even come up with an idea that could work anyway. XD

What other sites can we contact then?

Word of mouth matters, so big sites like IGN would be good targets.

[Homebound]

LPPrince wrote...

JoeLaTurkey wrote...

Arcadian Legend wrote...


Merely a what if. I can't even come up with an idea that could work anyway. XD

What other sites can we contact then?

Word of mouth matters, so big sites like IGN would be good targets.

theres sessler's soapbox on g4tv.

[LPPrince]

Khran1505 wrote...

No novel is incapable of a good story. Even if it's a video game tie-in, it still has the same amount of potential. It all really depends on the writers if they can sell a good story as part of the video game universe. Some are suited for books, others aren't.

That and really it's all down to personal opinion. Some love certain books, others hate them. I personally love the Mass Effect books because they're part of a universe I hold dear to me, a fictional world I can truly lose myself in. Drew, while not an award winning writer (or is he?), really showed respect to the lore and wrote books that were enjoyable and consistent, something we as fans can accept into canon.

Dietz, on the other hand, didn't.

This in its entirety, pretty much.

[javierabegazo]

http://desmond.image....jpg&res=medium

Had the compulsion to make this before heading to work.

[LPPrince]

javierabegazo wrote...

http://desmond.image....jpg&res=medium

Had the compulsion to make this before heading to work.

Javi, your volume icon is showing.