Mass Effect's Ending and why it's terrible

Mass Effects Ending and why it’s Terrible

This discussion probably comes about 3 years too late, however as a newcomer to the series I haven’t long beaten the trilogy and thus haven’t had any reason to talk about it until now. So … here I am.

 

The big thing to mention is like pretty much everyone I loved the Mass Effect Trilogy.  It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say about 98% of the series was fantastic and it is easily one of my favourite gaming series ever. It’s very much about the journey, not the destination so that’s good … doesn’t make the ending suck any less though.

 

Many complaints about the endings have been made and I’ll be discussing the endings as edited by the extended cut as that’s what I experienced. I will say that after watching the version before the extended cut was released however that what I saw was not as bad as it could’ve been. The extended cut was an improvement and did have some really good additions. When I talk the ending however I mean the part after the scene with Anderson and The Illusive Man.

 

Before I talk plot holes and such things let’s talk the actual premise. I personally didn’t like it and that’s due to how it basically abandoned the series genre. Mass Effect is obviously a science fiction but it was always grounded in the rules of its own universe. It’s not like in Star Wars where it seems magical and the limits of the force and the characters power is essentially limitless. All along Shepard is a normal human with no extraordinary abilities. The closest thing to space magic in Biotics has its own rules, limitations and is explained by the in game codex.

 

Suddenly however this Star Child comes along and tells you the crucible somehow has 3 completely different functions which you get to choose somehow. It all felt so out of place in the Mass Effect universe. It was one step away from declaring it Shepard’s destiny or something and it felt like we weren’t even in a Mass Effect game anymore. Then these options are barely explained and you end up making a pretty blind choice hoping for the best even with the extended cuts added dialogue.

 

Looking into these choices doesn’t help. We’ll start with control. It’s portrayed as a good option and even has the colouring of paragon blue. As a paragon Shepard I’d spent since the end of Mass Effect 2 and deciding to destroy the collector base fighting with the Illusive Man saying that controlling the Reapers is a bad and more importantly morally wrong solution and now it’s pointed as a good thing. What’s more is if you do pick control Shepard descends to this other level and controls the Reapers. The problem is Shepard talks as no longer Shepard and if you pick this option the Reapers are incredibly likely to end up being used to rule with an iron fist if any conflict breaks out again.

 

So that’s bad and it seems like the same cycle would just break out again, except with Harbinger replaced by Shepard. So maybe choose Synthesis like I did first time and instantly regret it. The specifics of synthesis are incredibly vague but what I can say is it goes against everything we’ve fought for. So much for bringing everyone together despite their differences and working for a greater goal together, now organic and synthetic are basically all homogenised into one and it seems to me like everyone is being turned into a husk.

 

The other two are admittedly better, destroy is what I wish I’d picked. It makes no sense how Shepard could possibly survive but it is kind of along the right lines. We got to fulfil what we were out to do, destroy the Reapers but at a cost of all synthetic life in the galaxy, not only wiping out the Geth, but killing one of our squad mates in EDI. When people talk about multiple endings, I’d like to see multiple endings along the lines of this, depending on how well you did with war assets and the decisions you made depends on who you can save and if you can even finish the crucible at all. The problem with destroy is by itself why is it the only option when wanting to destroy the Reapers. The best ending should be to wipe them out and not have to sacrifice an entire species, especially if you’ve done everything right.

 

Finally refusal while good being able to basically give the middle finger to the dumb Star Child feels like a massive troll. It would’ve been good if having enough war assets meant you could win the war with the military might you had sent upwards of 30 hours of Mass Effect 3 collecting. But no, no matter what everyone dies. Great. Even worse if the Star Child is obviously a Reaper construct as he has a Reaper voice if you pick this ending so he could be lying to you about everything to start with and thus your decision is completely blind.

 

I’ve picked apart my problems with the ending as an ending to a story. I dislike the plot twist and what happens as an ending, I hate the ending for much better reasons than my own niggles. Now I’m going to start a new paragraph with all the plot holes I can think of off the top of my head so 3, 2, 1 and go:

 

Why didn’t Harbinger shoot Shepard as he/she ran down the hill, why did Harbinger not blow the Normandy to pieces as the squad was being evacuated, why did Harbinger fly away, why did the Reapers establish a quick way to get to the citadel which was the best way to stop them, how did Shepard survive the hit from Harbingers beam when entire buildings are demolished by it, why does Shepard’s armour and gun change after being hit with the beam, how did Anderson get on the citadel and reach the control panel before Shepard, how did The Illusive Man get there, where do the Illusive Mans magical powers come from, if The Illusive Man kills you why does he ignore the console that he believes is key to completing his goal, how did Shepard get a wound where Anderson was shot, how does Shepard heal after taking the elevator to the Star Child, how does Shepard run now, why does shooting the core thing activate the crucible, how could Shepard possibly survive the blast.

 

That’s off the top of my head, I’m sure there’s more. Many could be answered with the two words: Indoctrination Theory but Bioware didn’t do anything to prove it and basically said, you can interpret that way if you want to. The indoctrination theory I think was a brilliant idea and something that would’ve been great to expand on in the extended cut but instead Bioware largely dismissed it and it just seems too big a stretch. So instead we have plot holes galore, another one being why isn’t Shepard feeling the effects of indoctrination after everything he/she has done. Doesn’t Harbinger say he’s going to take control off Shepard’s mind in the arrival dlc, do Reapers make empty threats now?

 

I have one more thing I want to talk about, how the ending still doesn’t supply closure and switches focus away from the characters. Yes we got a slide show briefly pointing out what happened to some characters (Although some of these slides just showed the character looking at the sky). Even if you like the slide show however you still aren’t given any kind of closure on the characters from your ship in Mass Effect 3 outside of EDI and Joker.

 

I’ll talk from my own experience, after what was a very touching scene where Liara put Shepards name onto the memorial what happened to my crew. My favourite character like with many people was Garrus, what happened with everyone’s favourite space bro. Did he ever reunite with his sister? We don’t know. Did he help rebuild Palaven? We don’t know. Did he ever calibrate the Normandy’s gun to 100% efficiency? We don’t know. Not long ago I caught him sharing a moment with Tali (My second favourite character) and calling her something to come back to. Did they settle down, maybe live in that house on Rannoch that Tali always dreamed of? We have no idea. Did Garrus ever meet Shepard at the Bar, cheesy yes but I would’ve found that satisfying. Mass Effect did such a great job in getting us attached to these characters that just leaving it all up in the air felt insulting.

 

Finally is the lack of focus on Shepard. Sure you make a choice but it’s not really your choice, it’s what the Star Child allows. All the decisions you’ve made before you’ve made by using logic and your own morality and how far you’re willing to go. Here Star Child tells you what’s allowed with no budging on what he says. Everything you’ve done up to this point is irrelevant.

 

I’ve moaned a lot about the ending to Mass Effect 3 so I’ll end on something positive. After replaying the series and once again witnessing those great character moments I can conclude that it in no way ruins Mass Effect, at least for me and I’ll buy Mass Effect Andromeda without a second thought. If anything it shows how good a job Bioware did with everything else so well done on about 98% of your series Bioware, now please don’t succumb to EA’s indoctrination and make more day 1 DLC.

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Some Overlooked Video Game Badasses

Some Overlooked Video Game Badasses

Video Games are full of badass characters as we go on our very own power fantasy. However while you’d probably think of the likes of Commander Shepard or Lara Croft as they go and do video game world saving things some badass characters slip by unnoticed. I bring four to your attention today.

 

Rambi – Donkey Kong Country Series

I’ve recently been re playing the original Donkey Kong Country and 2 things really stuck out at me. Firstly, I was better at platformers as a child and secondly Rambi is a god damn badass. Everyone who plays these games likes the animal buddies but there’s a reason that when Donkey Kong country returns was bought out Rambi was the sole survivor. This guy just ploughs straight through everything like it’s not even there and this is a platformer.

 

It does pose the question of why Donkey Kong doesn’t just send in Rambi to every single boss fight and trample them all put that’s beside the point. This rhinoceros is one badass guy and it is completely understandable why they made a Sylvester Stallone film later taking inspiration from him. If your bananas are ever stolen, this is the guy to call.

 

Bentley the Turtle – Sly Cooper Series

When there are three main characters and you’re the one labelled as the brains as opposed to the brawn and thief then many would assume you were least badass of the bunch. Here however this is certainly not the case. Bentley is arguably the most important member of the entire gang in terms of contribution to heists. You will often hear people complain about the lack of certain groups of people in gaming such as strong females or homosexuals and both are warranted complaints as both are not exactly represented favourably there is even less representation of disability.

 

The thing is after Bentley lost his legs he became far more capable in a fight. Before he could weakly swing a crossbow at people, now he can beat you up with his own wheelchair, how awesome is that!? That’s without the plethora of toys fitted to it by the way. By the time Sly 4 came along that wheelchair was fitted with so many amazing gadgets that James Bond was starting to feel jealous. Sly and Murray was awesome too but here the brains really was the badass. 

 

Every five Nights at Freddy’s Protagonist

Five Nights at Freddy’s is a scary game to play. You sit there unable to move or escape and hope the scary animatronics won’t get bored and decide to play murder with you. It’s very similar to what you may face in a nightmare, constantly tense, scared for your life and unable to move or do anything really proactive about the situation.

 

That brings us to the player characters. They come back for the entire week, they sit in their chair and do they flinch, do they scream? Nope they stare down Freddy and his chums and even if they’re violently murdered they don’t give Freddy the satisfaction of a scream or even the slightest whimper.

 

Maybe you’ll claim the games aren’t scary but imagine yourself in the position of the security guards. At least if you were in the place of horror game characters from other game syou could just drive for about 492 miles in the other direction but for whatever reason here the night guards keep coming back. Maybe the FNAF 4 protagonist changes things, I wouldn’t know having not played it yet but the first three are certainly badass in my book … or on my blog.

 

Shuckle – Pokémon Series

Pokémon is full of fighting machines. Ranging from giant monsters of the sea to dragons to martial artists to what are basically gods there is some serious power on show. There is one creature in this world who doesn’t care as it can overpower all of them. This majestic creature is the one and only Shuckle.

 

Look at that guy. Soak it all in and the brace yourself as I tell you that of all the Pokémon ever created (Bear in mind most people have lost count) not scary monsters or gods can match the damage output of Shuckle. If the right circumstances are met Shcukle is capable of doing more damage in a single attack than any other Pokémon. Most would take that they have the joint second lowest attack stat as a disadvantage and stick to defence but not Shuckle, it doesn’t even care. Shuckle can obliterate the gods of this world, due to this and what Legendary Pokémon represent it’s possible Shuckle is one of the most powerful characters inn video game history. If that’s not badass then I don’t know what is.

 

 

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The issue with the July 2015 Yu-Gi-Oh ban list

The issue with the July 2015 Yu-Gi-Oh ban list

So after waiting for a long and dumb time period Konami decided to release a ban list for us TCG players and some things really stuck out at me. Most will say the top decks will remain the top decks but that’s to be expected until new things come out and make us all search for side deck cards but what struck out at me was how older decks are still not restored at all.

 

I’m not a pro player or even a good one. I don’t get to go to tournaments much due to not being able to get to them so my two decks I own are Inzektors and D.E.S frog OTK.  So while I can’t really comment on the current meta I would like to ask why Konami is so hesitant at bringing old cards back.

 

Looking at banned cards the one that obviously sticks out is tribe infecting virus because honestly … it kind of sucks now.It’s like lightening vortex but doesn’t even necessarily wipe the field of face up monsters … and takes up your normal summon. It’s ban worthy though, must by that gargantuan 1600 attack. Sarcasm aside, that card isn’t very good, if you can tell me what deck would use it then please do. Zenmaity is the other one, are we really afraid of Wind-Ups ruling the game in 2015? I’d hope not. There are other banned cards that COULD be revived, Sangan, Stratos, Thousand Eyes Restrict, Cyber Stein and Dark magician of Chaos but I can see why they’re in the banned section of the list. It’s the limits that are odder.

 

I am going to list some cards that are limited, I’m sure at least some of these anyone who reads this will agree have no business being there. Debris Dragon, Deep Sea Diva, Inzektor Hornet, Neo Spacian Grand Mole, Rescue Rabbit, Wind Up Magician, Book of Moon, Gold Sarcophagus, Royal Tribute, Infernity Barrier, Wall of Revealing Light. Those are all cards we can use 1 of in the game, maybe I’m missing some over powered interactions involving these cards but I’ve also probably missed some who could be at least put to 2 too.

 

The argument against brining cards back will often be “Well it won’t affect the game anyway” I say however if it won’t affect the game why not bring it back? Why not give players 3 grand moles? Somewhere in the world someone would jump for joy that their neo spacian deck has had a boost. Why not put Inzektor Hornet to 2, a completely random blog writer who lives somewhere in England would be thrilled that the second Inzektor hornet he bought before the ban list wouldn’t be a waste of money.

 

The point is it wouldn’t make a difference on the meta putting wall of revealing light or infernity barrier at 2, so why not? The reason these cards would be played by people would be because they enjoy using them, no matter if they’re not that good.  Seems like a god enough reason to me but then again I suck at this game and no one ever listens to me when I say ban Exodia.

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So let's talk the Five Night's at Freddy's 4 Trailer

So let’s talk the Five Night’s at Freddy’s 4 Trailer

Well that’s not what I or indeed anyone was expecting. In fact the trailer just brings more questions, however what can we pick up from what we saw? I’ll discuss that today.

 

The first and obvious thing that’s different and unexpected is the location. It’s a house. No one saw that coming so what exactly is going on. The red text in the trailer at one point says “What did you bring home?” however I doubt it’s as simple someone took some killer animatronics home with them, so what exactly is going on here? It seems likely the protagonist of this game will a child as it looks to be taking the scary monster under the bed and in the closet approach.

 

In the trailer we see most of the known animatronics from this game. Bonnie of course is there, he seems to be the focus of these things since all the way back when we first saw the FNAF 1 trailer so it’s fitting we see his jump scare. We get a glimpse of Chica and Foxy, we see this plush trap thing on the chair in the hallway and mini Freddy’s on the bed. The trailer had quite a creepy feel and ambience and while don’t actually see the puppet many people are comparing the music we here near the start to him and even if they’re unrelated we all know he’ll have a big role to play. So who’s noticeably missing? Freddy of course. Sure we see the mini ones but where’s actual Freddy? What’s being hidden from us here?

 

What does this trailer reveal about the gameplay part of the game? Honestly it’s difficult to say, from the different camera angles we see it looks like we may be able to move around the house. The issue is whether all these clips are even from the game itself or whether there’s just strangely placed cameras around the inside of a house (Although that one seems unlikely). It appears that closing doors will be an important feature again and Bonnie and Chica seem to come for you from different doors with Foxy in the closet in the room you’re in. On top of that the mini Freddy’s seem to be on the bed behind you which may be a reason for not simply closing both doors to the room and crying in the corner until all the scary monsters go away. I certainly wouldn’t want to lock myself in a room with Foxy.

 

As we all know these games often leave very carefully placed things to get us thinking about the lore. These games are built on their lore really so what do we find here. The scene in the trailer that stood out to me personally was near the beginning. The camera pans across a room with some very intriguing items. There’s a purple robot with a strange crank like object in its hand, a phone with eyes and of course, a fan. Naturally parallels have been drawn with the purple robot and purple man and wait, there’s a nearby phone, OMG PURPLE GUY IS PHONE GUY CONFIRMED. Okay … maybe not, the interesting thing for me is they both appear to be looking up at the closet. If the mechanics of this game are similar to the other, the presence on the fan would suggest this would be ‘the office’ of this game.

 

I think this purple robot could be why the purple man appears as a purple man in the FNAF 2 and 3 mini games. The mini game are supposedly just representations of the actual events in these games lore of course. I assume from the layout and camera angles that we’ll be playing as a child in this game (Although with the FNAF series you often cannot assume anything) so how is this character relevant in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, I have no idea how to piece all this together, we simply don’t have enough information, however at a guess I would say this child must have had a bad experience with a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria and may have even seen the purple guy. Nightmare seems to be a prevalent theme with the teaser images so could this game be a nightmare based on a person’s real fears of the restaurants.

 

This is all speculation of course, we don’t know where this house is, who lives inside or when this game takes place in the timeline. It’ll be interesting to see what answers we get and discovering what happened in these games and maybe finally we’ll see whose theories were correct (Check out my own in the links below).  In the meantime what did you think of the trailer, leave a comment below.      

 FNAF theory part 1:   http://thecoolstuffblog12.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/what-exactly-happened-in-five-nights-at.html

Part 2:  http://thecoolstuffblog12.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/what-exactly-happened-in-five-nights-at_11.html

 

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Batman Arkham Knight Review

Batman Arkham Knight Review

I’ll be reviewing the PS4 version I’ll say now, I realise the state of the PC version was disgraceful when released but I personally played the PS4 version so that’s what I can talk about.

 

So Batman Arkham Knight is the final Batman Arkham game by developer Rocksteady and overall it was a really good way to finish what has been a really good series, PC notwithstanding. I’ll start by talking about it in terms of gameplay and the gameplay is really rather excellent. It expands on the brawling and stealth elements of Arkham City making it easy to pick up again but provides enough new moves and enemy types to prevent it from feeling stale.

 

The melee combat is as satisfying as ever using the same system as previous games. You have your basic attack button, a stun button and the counter button. You are provided with gadgets that can be mixed in and are sometime required to take down enemies in combat. It feels as slick as ever and provides some incredibly satisfying brawls throughout the game. Another cool feature is fighting alongside and ally, which while not adding a whole lot to the mechanics does feel like a very Batman thing to do and let’s face it, we do play these games to feel like Batman.

 

The predator elements are also pretty similar to before. The new moves and gadgets you get feel extremely powerful at first but then once new enemies are introduced (My favourite being the ones that do not show up in detective vision) as well as greater numbers of enemies who work together makes the predator situations still feel challenging and satisfying.

 

The big new feature is the Batmobile. Diving the Batmobile through the streets where everything is annihilated as you smash through it is very satisfying and it controls well without handling too sharply to make it feel silly. I particularly enjoyed the side missions where you had to chase down enemy cars and try to smash them off the road. The big issue with the Batmobile were the tanks battles. Not only did they take up pretty much every boss battle but `they felt forced and got kind of tedious. You avoid the red lines that show where missiles are going, shoot a drone and repeat. They became very frustrating when you had no way of avoiding getting shot and had to start all over again. The Batmobile felt like a good addition while using its winch to solve puzzles and using it when you wanted to propel yourself out of it or drive around quickly, basically when it wasn’t forced on you, however when you were required to use it for missions it quickly became frustrating.

 

I’m hardly someone who is overly interested in graphics but for what it’s worth the game looks very nice. Everything from the detail to the rain effects and the characters models look very nice. More importantly you get a large map of Gotham to explore full of stuff to do whether it be Riddler trophies, side quests or just goons who needed a good punch to the head. It’s a big game that will keep you occupied for a long time.

 

I’ve heard mixed responses to the plot of this game. Personally I’d call it sort of up and down. After the brilliant scarecrow sections in Arkham Asylum I expected big things from him having his own game but he wasn’t really particularly interesting. They didn’t really use the psychological elements that Scarecrow lends himself too and used him as kind of a standard villain. The Arkham Knight was similar, he didn’t have much interesting personality and the mystery behind who he is doesn’t keep your interest very well and it’s pretty obvious who he is anyway. That’s not to say it’s a terrible plot, there are some really well done dramatic moments and twists and while the main two villains are kind of bland the way Joker is integrated into the game is very well done and a fantastic use of the character (And don’t worry they don’t bring him back to life or anything stupid like that).

 

You could very easily argue that this is the best game in the Arkham franchise and that is high praise. While personally Arkham Asylum was the most enjoyable game for me personally when I first played it through due to the deep atmosphere from the more closed off environment I do think Arkham Knight is better than Arkham City and would highly recommend the console version to anyone with a next gen console.

 

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Jurassic World Review

Jurassic World Review

After all these years since the first Jurassic park one thing hasn’t changed and that’s that dinosaurs are still awesome.

 

I wasn’t a fan of the original Jurassic Park and I’ve never seen either of the two sequels (Although I’m assured they’re pretty abysmal) so I can talk about this new film with no nostalgia to influence this review.

 

To cut to the chase I really enjoyed Jurassic World, I think it did a large amount of things well. I liked the characters in this film and while they weren’t exactly original, there’s the badass former military guy and the cold women who’ll learn passion and love but these arcs were done well and both were fun and likeable. Being a Jurassic film means there obviously has to be kid characters and they were okay too, the older one in particular progressing throughout the film.

 

Some of the side characters were quite well done too. While not overly memorable they were fun to watch such as the rich person who owns Jurassic World and the science comic relief man.  The biggest weakness in the character roster was the villain and while I won’t spoil who it is, it is pretty damn obvious. He was pretty much just a dumb cartoon character which was kind of disappointing and made you wonder why a film about a hybrid dinosaur killing machine needed a human villain.

 

The most important characters of the film arguably however are the dinosaurs.  The thing to get out the way is the effects are fine. They’re not ground breaking like the first Jurassic park but they’re not bad and I never really noticed them which can’t be a bad thing. The hybrid dinosaur itself wasn’t anywhere near as stupid as I thought it would be. Take one look at it and you can probably guess what dinosaurs have been combined to make it but it served as a good monster for an antagonist for the film.

  
 

Everyone saw the trailer and thought the raptors looked like they’d be ridiculous. Were they tame or something? As it turns out no, the film made it very clear that they were still wild animals and killers. I liked their integration into the plot, they played quite a big role and they weren’t silly so that’s good although it really bugs me that these Jurassic films have such a focus on Raptors, a dinosaur from the cretaceous period.

 

Honestly you can see where the plot is going throughout the film and nothing was really surprising and the pacing seemed a little off. It seemed to have quite a slow build up before at one point everything went crazy. It would be kind of like slowly cooking a jacket potato in an oven for a while before deciding to shoot it with a rocket launcher. The first half of the film was good too while the second half was a little up and down. Jurassic world had some really good creative scenes with others that felt really forced and kind of messy.

 

The thing is, it’s a fun mess. I found out afterwards that part of the team that worked on Pacific Rim worked on Jurassic World and that seems like a good comparison to me. It’s no masterpiece but I don’t think it’s really trying to be. At the end of the day it was well acted, kept you on for the ride and was fun and for a cynical mind like mine to be able to look past all the dumb stuff in the film it must have done something right.

 

 

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