digitalheadbutt

@Gillium

In my experience test screenings are almost universally loathed by directors and the results often have no bearing on the actually success or failure of a film in question. I think the same applies here. I don't know what people were expecting but I am fine with my ending.

You cannot have enemies as monolithic as the Reapers and expect everything is going to end with a unicorn tea party under a rainbow. One of the major, if not the main theme of 3 is sacrifice. They spend an awful lot of time preparing us for that sacrifice. If you weren't ready for it you weren't paying attention or were willfully deluding yourself

Also, read more books. Having an engineered super-predator species that is used to spur consciousness/evolution is a theme found in much of the science-fiction that inspired the creation of Mass Effect. My favorite example is from Frank Herbert's God Emperor of Dune where the title character has made himself into the super predator in the known universe and exerted control over almost every facet of life in order to spur biological/cultural/social evolution. I saw some of these same ideas played out to a degree in the endings of ME3 and it made me happy.

@dudemanjac

I rolled on Adjunta Pall (RP-PVP - West Coast) for SWTOR and have many of the same issues. The most common answer I hear is "RP with your guild mates" and that is a way to avoid the issue. But it still pisses me off that on the server where RP should be encouraged has a as many if not more knuckleheads making it harder for folks who are trying to fully in engage in RP.

There are a handful of RP servers and dozens of non-RP. The only reason for folks not interested in RP to choose that server type is basically so they have a built in group that has an easy hooked by which to be trolled.

So yeah, if they are going to bother to designate a server for RP they should police it. People who want to go there for the environment and not participate in RP is cool; but folks who roll on an RP server and actively diminish other players experiences should be politely offered a transfer. Forcibly transfer if they want to make a stink about it.

If the developer takes the opportunity to create a RP server then they should take the time to police it. If they aren't going to police then don't bother designating RP servers, let that community find it's own home. Otherwise expectations aren't met and the RP folks become embittered.

Fallout 1 is still one of my favorite games. I loved the initial time limit to get a new water chip for your vault. It added a sense of urgency that is often lacking in most RPGs. I don't like that winning/completing the game is a forgone conclusion. They patched it out the game eventually since some folks wanted the freedom to explore earlier on but I still think it was a good call.

I am fond of the core mechanics of the genre what I would like to see is developers start breaking rules in world design. I would like to see a world that didn't have a the boundaries filled in. A world where the content was there but the player had to literally discover it and share the information. Where different classes occupational role determine how they interact with that world so that each players experience becomes a bit more unique.

@Granger

Understandable reservations but, I prefer that it is Brain Fargo and his team trying to reboot their own title than some other studio. As successful as Fallout 3 was, for me it failed to kindle the same level of enthusiasm FO1 and FO2, nad I think in large part just because they missed the balance of pacing, mood and humor that were in those games originally. I am a sucker for any game, movie or whatever that is geared around post-apocalyptic, dystopian futures.

InXile and Doublefine will be the acid tests for Kickstarter crowd sourced funding in games. If DF and InXile take our money and make great games we will see more instances of this. But if they fail it will be a sort of validation, at least in part, of the publisher/developer relationships that has been the norm up to now. They may hamper creativity in some ways but maybe having the guy holding the wallet breathing down your neck is a good motivator.

I am about 20hrs into it. The first couple of missions don't flow very well narrative-wise but after that, it gets more in the rhythm I am used to from Bioware.

There are almost too many cameos from the previous games NPCs and Crew but it is kind of justified considering the depth of your crew roster and how many people you help (or hinder) in the previous 2 entries of the series. From Ashes is solid DLC, don't feel cheated and there is just as much lore in the game as is standard for the series to date and for this stage of the story arc.

While their products are not entirely what I came ot expect back in the Baldur's Gate days, BW can still belt out a good game. I love them for creating the Mass Effect Universe.

@(Unverified)

Totally agree. I think the downfall of DA2 is entirely based upon the over used of environments. Bioware has done this in the past with almost all of their games but in DA2 it was really egregiously bad. I enjoyed the story and overall game play more than DA:O. The changes in game play mechanics were mostly aesthetic. I used the same tactics I learned from BG, IWD and DA:O, applied them to DA2 and was successful. I understand why people were disappointed by DA2 but not the level of hatred leveled at it.

I dig his outlook on things. Though he has experienced loss, losses that we all will experience if we are lucky enough to have his longevity, he still finds joy in creating his inventions or art as he puts it. He seems content despite hardship.