Certainly better than the average AAA triple but nothing impressive, I suspect you forgot to take off your nostalgia goggles.

I don't think I can be nostalgic about a game I played less than a year ago. PST has the best writing of any game I've played. Sorry if you weren't impressed but I thought it was great.

Really looking forward to this and the writing in Planescape: Torment was Forgotten Realms level of RCP jerykk. Maybe it would impress a high schooler I guess. Certainly better than the average AAA triple but nothing impressive, I suspect you forgot to take off your nostalgia goggles. It's also pretty pointless comparing the two series to begin with as ME is a dialogue driven action RPG and PS:T is not. Duh.

This comment was edited on Jul 30, 2009, 08:44.

ME will become an MMO in 2 years. You heard it here first!

Duplicate post. Sorry.

This comment was edited on Jul 30, 2009, 02:40.

ME was more of an interactive novel than actual RPG or action game. Too much blah, blah, blah, blah.

RPGs typically have a lot of dialogue. Planescape: Torment, widely regarded as one of the best RPGs of all time, has an incredible amount of text. You probably spend half the game reading. Thankfully, the writing is so good that it never gets tedious, which can't really be said for Bioware's writing.

On a side note, I'm really liking how the choices you make in the first game carry over to the sequels. Choice and consequence are the foundations of RPGs and knowing that your choices could have long-term implications really makes you think.

This comment was edited on Jul 30, 2009, 02:09.

ME was more of an interactive novel than actual RPG or action game. Too much blah, blah, blah, blah.

I really REALLY enjoyed Mass Effect. Much more than I expected to. The story, while not exactly bounding with originality, was so well presented that I didn't care. I am chomping at the bit to get my hands on the sequel. This will be one of those very rare day one purchases for me.

sounds gay

Mmmm Mass Effect.

Can't wait to play this while skull fucking some "If it's not AD&D, it's not an RPG" douchebags.

The overall Mass Effect story wasnt that bad, altho it was necessarily cliche - like many sci-fi or fantasy stories. They are simply recapitulating other mythic plots that have been circulated amongst humanity for thousands of years, so obviously there will be some retread.

The main complaint for me is the boundaries within it. Linear storylines should be a thing of the past for RPGs, imo. With most high-budget RPGs these days its not really up to you to decide how the story will play out, due to the way games are presented these days, in hi-def cgi with full voice over, etc. Nobody is interested in creating technology that would allow them to explore possible alternates, rather they remain status quo with something they term "AAA production values".

Also the side-questing and related stories were very lame.

so, in general Mass Effect was for me about akin to watching a below-average episode of SG-1 or something like that. Id love to see some improvement, but without fundamental changes its not going to go much beyond the same level of a mainstream sci-fi serial.

I found Mass Effect to be relatively deep while still being mainstream... I figure the sequel will be the same.

Dragon Age to me looks to be somewhat more classicaly complex (while still being somewhat less so than 10 years ago).

I disagree. I found ICO very emotional and moving but not necessarily because it was a game. It was because of the story and how it was presented to me.

Which is kind of his point. Even though it was a game, ICO had a terribly moving story. Perhaps even MORE moving, because you feel the controller shake in your hand when the girl tugs on your character's hand.

I really hate this excuse that we can't have excellent stories for one reason or another.

He's not really making an excuse, I think. It's not like he's saying "Well, Mass Effect has no story because of..."

I think he's being polite to the rest of the gaming industry which can't write a decent story to save its own ass, rather than throw them under the bus and say "Yeah, stories in games generally suck. Other devs need to do much better!"

And so he fabricates an explanation on the spot.

I'm pretty sure there's more games being released every year nowadays than movies.

Creston

GO: Gameplay and auto-narrative closure aside, today's video game stories seem incredibly shallow.

CH: I think the fewer works you have in a medium, the more mainstream or accessible they have to be.

That sure sounds like a lame excuse. I've never understood why a mainstream game needs to have a pathetic story. You can argue that the mainstream as a whole is not smart (or however you want to describe them), and so you need the story to be simple and oftentimes downright retarded.

But it's the same argument people use for the constant bombardment of reality shows. Some will say "But that's what people watch." Yeah, because that's all the network keep shoveling out! If you feed someone a steady diet of junk food, then they're going to crave it.

CH: But I think there's maybe a bigger factor, which is…gaming's just a different medium. I think we have to acknowledge the fact that it's a different medium, that the way a game affects players' emotions in terms of narrative is fundamentally different. If you compare the same elements from a game story to a movie story on paper, certain things won't match up, but I can tell you, I've had a number of game-story experiences that were as profound as any movie I've seen, one of them being ICO.

I disagree. I found ICO very emotional and moving but not necessarily because it was a game. It was because of the story and how it was presented to me. I also found The Elephant man moving because of the story and how it was presented.

I really hate this excuse that we can't have excellent stories for one reason or another. Some games have already proven that it can be done and done well.

God, I am so fucking eager to play this game... Why do I still have to wait so long? It's not fair! This is the worst day ever!

Btw Blue, thanks for always linking the previous parts of an interview as well as the last part, much appreciated.

Creston