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[fenrif]

Well most technology is abusing physics ;P

Mass Effect tries to be on the "One Big Lie" Spectrum of Science Fiction Hardness, which means it tries to stick to real world physics but has one or two pieces of phlebotinum (eezo in Mass Effect) that it uses to explain the less realistic aspects.

In comparison, you have things which take known and developing world technologies and try to extrapolate from there, whilst sticking as close to what is possible as they can.

For example, take Ghost in the Shell or Deus Ex Human Revolution, which at least try to take what people are trying to do with real life prosthetics and go from there, assuming "major and sudden breakthroughs" in the whole brain-device interface. Assume we have a breakthrough make a learning machine that can be plugged into the brain so the brain and device can learn to work together like it's a limb, suddenly a lot of Human Revolution's augmentations become more plausible.

And you have soft science fiction which basically shrugs and says "science did it" to explain what amounts to space magic.

Mass Effect, at least the first one, did make attempts to be somewhat "hard" outside of "ezzo did it", especially if you read the codex, so those attempts at hardness can be at least considered and scrutinised.

The Mass Effect series tries to be hard sci-fi in the way that McDonalds tries to be gourmet food.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Magical space explosions that turn all organic DNA into part machine somehow. Bringing people back from the dead. Core concepts of what weapons are being completely changed EVERYWHERE inside of 2 years. Magic space children from beyond the stars. Some sort of DNA weather machine that magically cures all Krogan in the universe when it's turned on at Tuchanka. The crucible in its entireity. Turning an entire race into goo and then building a terminator skeleton of that race to somehow make them all live forever. Etc...

I admit that the first one made a decent attempt at being hard sci-fi, but the 2nd and 3rd game pretty much do away with the "one big lie" concept. It's pretty obvious that they aren't afraid to retcon anything inbetween games though. And then the third just throws away any pretense of the entire series scientific basis being taken seriously.

[mainiac]

Mass Effect 1 was actually really surprisingly good in the one big lie department.  Someone clearly sat down and thought of the one big lie that best explained as much of the space opera they wanted as possible.  Element zero explains the ftl (although the causality implications of that are a topic of their own.)  It explains the spaceships landing on planets without expensive rockets.  It would explain ftl communication if they just used it instead of supposing an ansible.  It explains why people live on planets not O'Neil cylinders.  It explains Normandy's stealth drive.  It doesn't explain magical brain cancer but you can't have everything.

Having shown a genre savvy already they then go on to correct a huge, glaring plot hole that pervades much of science fiction.  The odds of having two, let alone more then two, intelligent species both inventing ftl travel in the same millennium and neighborhood of space are immensely remote.  The odds of them having anywhere near similar levels of technology are too small to consider happening by chance.  ME1 however offers a good explanation of all this, in the Reapers.

When I finished ME1 I thought it was actually one of the better things to happen to science fiction in a while.  Yes there were a million details that were just space opera.  But the big central conflict was the Reapers.  And the Reapers were a nice hard sci-fi plot device to create an interesting universe with an interesting dilemma.  The Reapers made sense in hard sci-fi and there was only one recourse: keep galactic civilization hidden from them because if they wake up, their infinite tech advantage means that resistance is utterly futile.

Having a plot grounded in hard sci-fi like this, for a big fancy title like ME1 is wonderful.  But then the sequels came out and pissed on that hard sci-fi central plot.

[Darkmere]

The Reapers made sense in hard sci-fi and there was only one recourse: keep galactic civilization hidden from them because if they wake up, their infinite tech advantage means that resistance is utterly futile.

Where does this even come from? The reapers had already been planning to return for at least two thousand years BEFORE ME1, with active agents in the galaxy subverting civilizations to weaken them. Reaper strategy is to subdue and suppress existing power bases with indoctrinated proxies, then destroy galactic leadership in a single stroke to cripple remaining resistance. Subversive tactics would be entirely unnecessary with some "infinite technology advantage"; reapers could just waltz in and kill everyone without taking a single loss. They don't, because they can't. Never could, or they would have already.

If anything, I'd have been more willing to believe their threat had been overplayed and once galactic society saw through the bullshit, a stand-up fight would have been feasible. Preferable to the last-minute crucible-whatever-color-wheel-machine, anyway.

Don't get me wrong, they still dropped the plot ball long ago, it just got kicked off the field much earlier than 3.

[Pandarsenic]

Thought: I wonder why the Mass Relays all looking the same never made anyone suspicious. You'd expect a network like that to be built up over time, right?

[Sirus]

In other news, EA's stock dropped below $15.

Bwahahahahahaha

Wait, if EA goes bankrupt (unlikely, but for the sake of an argument), do you think Steam and other distributors will get to sell ME3? Or would the game disappear forever? I'm still holding out for a non-Origin release

[Pandarsenic]

I don't think EA is going to be in legitimate danger from this, but if it happened, they might get desperate enough to fuck off about Origin. I know that at the very least I would buy it on Steam, and I can't be the only one.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

It explains why people live on planets not O'Neil cylinders.

You know, people might end up just choosing to live on planets rather than in O'Neil cylinders (which the Citadel actually looks somewhat similar to while the arms are partially open, but I digress). It isn't all about what's most efficient. I know I'd rather live on a terraformed Mars than an O'Neil cylinder orbiting around Mars, resources be damned.

It doesn't explain magical brain cancer but you can't have everything.

Biotics are definitely the softest thing in ME, but it does kind of explain them. The mass effect is all about using Element Zero to alter the mass of matter, regardless of how. Biotics are people who can do so consciously by using mutated nerve nodes that have element zero inside of them. That's pretty far-fetched, but people in ME can't use biotics to any useful degree without mechanical amplification, so that's a little more plausible. The body, for whatever reason, might just decide that element zero is supposed to go in the nervous system like iodine is supposed to go in the thyroid.

Almost all of the biotic powers make sense in the context of what element zero does, except for the weird vampire ones that ME2 had. Pull and Push reduce their mass significantly and their existing momentum makes them take flight once that happens. Singularity is self-describing. Barriers rapidly reduce the mass of incoming projectiles, and so they just bounce off harmlessly. Charge is effectively a short-range personal FTL jump.

[Cthulhu]

Yeah, biotics are pretty light but it goes into enough detail and makes it almost plausible enough to overlook.

Spoiler: The end (click to show/hide)

I just beat ME3.  I'm not sure the ending was bad, it was just very strange and a total copout.  Considering that, by the time you get to the third game (Assuming you played through all of them in order with a persistent character), the game is pretty much a probability cloud, it's bullshit to condense all the possibilities into "Kill them," "Use them," and "Huh?"

They could've done a lot more work and made it much better.  As it is, the whole franchise starts to list heavily in the last few minutes and then as soon as you choose an option it just comes to a horrible screeching halt, and nothing besides the overarching plot is resolved.

An interesting and unique ending that's open to interpretation is great.  This just fizzles out.

[Sirus]

I don't think EA is going to be in legitimate danger from this, but if it happened, they might get desperate enough to fuck off about Origin. I know that at the very least I would buy it on Steam, and I can't be the only one.

Guilty. I'd buy it off Steam, considering I've got the first two on it.

[Pandarsenic]

Spoiler: Re:Cfoofoo (click to show/hide)

I, for one, was disappointed about what they told us about the future of the Krogan-Turian and Krogan-Salarian relations, how well (if ever) the Asari recovered from their homeworld's destruction and the potential revelation of their hiding a Prothean beacon, whether the Batarians were accepted back into Council space if they sided with you and whether they made a recovery, how the future of the Geth and Quarians went (whatever happened), how the Rachni's future turned out (e.g. if they became accepted as part of galactic civilization if you recruited them), how the galaxy as a whole went forward, etc.

Mostly since we got NOTHING about any of the above.

Sirus: Having it on Steam is damn convenient, but mostly I just want to avoid Origin. <_<;

[Sirus]

Spoiler: Re:Cfoofoo (click to show/hide)

I, for one, was disappointed about what they told us about the future of the Krogan-Turian and Krogan-Salarian relations, how well (if ever) the Asari recovered from their homeworld's destruction and the potential revelation of their hiding a Prothean beacon, whether the Batarians were accepted back into Council space if they sided with you and whether they made a recovery, how the future of the Geth and Quarians went (whatever happened), how the Rachni's future turned out (e.g. if they became accepted as part of galactic civilization if you recruited them), how the galaxy as a whole went forward, etc.

Mostly since we got NOTHING about any of the above.

Sirus: Having it on Steam is damn convenient, but mostly I just want to avoid Origin. <_<;

Fair enough

Anyway, I've been avoiding this thread like a maniac for the past several weeks, just so I don't accidentally see spoilers. It's nice to be able to post here.

(Yes, I'm aware that a lot of people didn't like something or other about this game. I still want to see it for myself)

[fenrif]

Yeah, biotics are pretty light but it goes into enough detail and makes it almost plausible enough to overlook.

Spoiler: The end (click to show/hide)

I just beat ME3.  I'm not sure the ending was bad, it was just very strange and a total copout.  Considering that, by the time you get to the third game (Assuming you played through all of them in order with a persistent character), the game is pretty much a probability cloud, it's bullshit to condense all the possibilities into "Kill them," "Use them," and "Huh?"

They could've done a lot more work and made it much better.  As it is, the whole franchise starts to list heavily in the last few minutes and then as soon as you choose an option it just comes to a horrible screeching halt, and nothing besides the overarching plot is resolved.

An interesting and unique ending that's open to interpretation is great.  This just fizzles out.

It's been my experience from having many discussions about this game with various people that it takes a while for the true and complete badness of the ending to sink in. The more you think about it the worse it gets.

[Pandarsenic]

Realization.

Spoilers of Thessia, Protheans, Javik.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The Asari had that beacon, and yet, pretty much EVERYTHING we've ever been told about the Protheans is wrong. They're not any sort of peaceful, they were warlike imperialist slavers. They weren't one race, they were an empire of a ruling species with slaves all up ins.

Who are the foremost galactic authorities on the Protheans? Asari.

The Asari have been lying to everyone about the Protheans, full stop. They do this to deflect any suspicion or speculation about their beacon and make the Protheans look more like them, instead of, say... the four-eyed Batarians whom they culturally resemble.

Wut.

[Rakonas]

I don't think EA is going to be in legitimate danger from this, but if it happened, they might get desperate enough to fuck off about Origin. I know that at the very least I would buy it on Steam, and I can't be the only one.

If they fucked off about Origin, I would be extremely happy to be able to play Battlefield 3.

[umiman]

FYI, you can't go bankrupt from changes in your stock price. Contrary to popular belief, a company's stock price actually is technically incapable of affecting a company's financial bottom line. The key word is "technically". A company only gains income from initial public offerings and the occassional new shares published. Existing shares in the market don't do anything.

What can happen is stockholders, hedge fund managers, mutual fund managers, holders, your grandfather, etc. etc. etc. could lose money, get pissed, and do big bad things to the CEO / staff / etc.