BioWare - Editorial @ Gamemoir

Couchpotato

Part-Time News-bot
Joined
October 1, 2010
Messages
36,178
Location
Spudlandia
Gamemoir has a new article that talks about what they think our the five most agonizing choices from all BioWare Games. Here is a small sample I picked out below.

BioWare has given us dozens of memorable choices to make over the years, and have pushed forward storytelling in video games to previously unthought-of heights along the way. The true test of whether or not a choice has any meaning is how it makes you think and feels, and BioWare regularly serves up some emotional doozies.

The way I play these types of games is to make my choices and stick with them; even if I regret them. Most of the time, I don’t go back and load a previous save. I prefer to deal with the consequences of my actions as if the story wasn’t just a game. My first playthrough is my canon playthrough for always; no takebacks allowed. I want to see how the game bears out my on the spot decisions made with good intentions, even if things end up going full Breaking Bad on me.

In the best cases, I may make the decisions I think are right, and the results may seem horribly wrong when it’s said and done. That’s when you know you’re playing something that’s more than a simple video game. That’s when it’s interactive art. Here are the moments BioWare has given me control and left me wondering for years afterwards if I did the right thing or regretting that I failed to do it.
More information.
 
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
36,178
Location
Spudlandia
Frankly, the Mass Effect choice wasn't that hard for me… Save a Baldwin brother or save Ashley. Had I been allowed to leave Baldwin on the first mission, I probably would have.

I also think the hardest decision in BioWare history was probably whether to allow Imoen back or keep Yoshimo in BG2. That dual-class thief handicap was a bitch…
 
Joined
Apr 5, 2011
Messages
1,748
Location
San Juan Islands, WA
That whole article is a joke.
Geth or Quarians?
What choice are we talking about exactly? Just get both on your side.

Oh and Ashley/Alenko choice?
You want two useless soldiers in ME3? Save Ashley. Pair her with the most boring Bioware character ever - James Vega. And then cry.
You want OP mob instakill combos performed by Alenko/Garrus, Alenko/Liara or Alenko/Javik? Let Ashley die before EA gives her botox treatment.
I don't see how can that be a tough choice to make.

Yea, okay, you maybe wanted to have both and romance both in ME3… That's not possible and from that perspective it does make a complicated issue. But then again it's not possible to romance two characters at the same time, so…
 
Last edited:
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
I kinda liked Ashley in ME1. Then in ME2 she basically got angry at me for being resurrected (well, sorry, I wanted to stay dead only nobody asked me, really!), then while Liara got her own DLC, Ashley was still missing in action. Most likely in some secret facility where she was undergoing experimental process to become half-human half-blow up doll just in time for ME3. Where she got knocked to third row within minutes anyway.

In retrospect, should have let her be peacefully disintegrated on Virmire.
 
Joined
Aug 24, 2010
Messages
149
Yes but Liara was the one who made your resurrection possible - her own ME2 huge separate episode is well deserved. Compared to her Ashley is pretty much irrelevant character in Shepard story.

Too bad EA pressed stuff in the form of DLC. With just a few slight changes to the story all those DLCs, including ME1 ones, could have been published as ME2.5. Or ME3 prequel. One game.
Only Citadel can't go in there. Citadel should have been the real ME3 ending. But then it couldn't be used for milking.
 
Joined
Apr 12, 2009
Messages
23,459
Aww, they didn't include one of my favorites. In DA1 a succubus had a soldier enthralled - the soldier thought he was living out a life with a wife and children and the succubus was somehow feeding off the experience. There's no way to save the soldier from the succubus. If you attack, the thinks you are attacking his wife & kids and attacks. So give the demon her way or break the guy out of the lie but kill him in the process?

I went for the latter option but for "cheap" reasons. The castle was not going to stay empty once I cleared it out and the soldiers that would eventually follow me would definitely not want to leave a "succubus family" living in one of the rooms. The soldier was pretty much doomed. What's more, if those follow up soldiers tried to handle this, half of them would likely die where as my party could take care of it with no long term losses. So I slaughtered the lot of them. (Or tried to - I think it took three tries before I survived that battle.)

The gist of the article is definitely right, though. The BioWare folks are the champs at giving us tricky problems like this. (And "Towers of Hanoi" puzzles. ;))
 
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
8,238
Location
Kansas City
To be fair, I do admit I felt some kind of dilemma with some choices in Bioware games. Well, sort of, then I felt quite cheated and it made me furious in some cases.

My most memorable dilemma was Anomen's quest - whether to advice him to or not to take revenge over his sister's death. In the end I chose him to take lawful path and he became a knight and all seems to be well. Until a messenger shows up. I thought oh crap, I took wrong decision. But things worked out somehow, so I decided to take a different path in my next playthrough. Hm, messenger shows up again and make me feel like crap for completely different consequences. This is not really a choice, it's just a cheap design to make player feel crap (if you are emotionally attached to Anomen) no matter which choice you make. That's the *choice* for you in Bioware game.

Above happened because I was attached to Anomen. Often it depends on your emotional attachment with individual characters who's involved in conflict.

In my case, I couldn't give a damn if I hurt Merrill's feeling because I really disliked her (I only wish there was a way to get rid of her!), so no dilemma there. Kaidan vs Ashley? I disliked both. I think in most cases, people saved possible *romance option*. That's certainly what I did since *romance option* companions tend to me more chatty. The author mentioned he always wondered "What was Kaidan going to be like in the third game?". Well, he doesn't need to, because they do *exact* same thing.

But some good memorable conflicts were present in DA:O. I really liked Landsmeet. To choose Alistair to marry my warden or Anora or rule alone? None of them really felt right because my human noble warden was in romantic relationship with Alistair, wouldn't want him to marry Anora, but if my warden becomes a Queen, all sorts of problem happens (no heir & Morrigan's ritual, which was really freaky) etc. Ritual was also interesting choice - considering my warden is in love with Alistair, going through ritual wasn't exactly a cheerful thought, so it could also be plausible to go through sacrifice. Either way, it made me think and play a "role" of my warden depending on personality I chose for her.

So yeah, I think Bioware is good enough with the choices, enjoyable enough :)
 
Hun?

There was a part in DA2 to save your mother I do believe, sorry if I don't remember it completely as the game was not that memorable. Anyways I had saved it and tried it a couple of different ways and no matter what you did it didn't make a difference in the out come.

This is just one example in their games.....
 
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
3,381
I think of late the only choice they give us is to spend our money on their games and hope for the best....
 
Joined
Apr 2, 2011
Messages
3,381
When you read that type of articles, it makes you wonder what you missed when playing those games.

Thinking of decisions made in a video game following a story line for months?
Even one hour is unexplainable.

Players associate to their avatars so closely.
Bioware is going to stay in the business for decades.
 
Joined
Mar 29, 2011
Messages
6,265
Back
Top Bottom