Considering how poorly most of Cyanide studios outings have been, this sounds like a rousing success (I suspect that Spiders was the biggest contributor to the game, then, and so I'd keep an eye on them). I hope it does well for them. I await the inevitable Steam sale!
Co-op, run of the mill gameplay, generic art style, and only the weapons look cool. If you had asked me six months ago what an insomniac game published by EA would be, I would have answered this.
By new IP he means "We need to see what's hot right now so we can shamelessly rip off its concepts" or "what darling developer can we buy, exploit, and then gut wholesale?"Trust me, buddy, it's gonna take a whole lot more than that to get your stock out of the toilet.
The catalyst is indeed part of the game throughout. But that doesn't mean anything. For example, in Sophocles' Philoctetes the myth of Herakles plays a prominent role, as Odysseus and Neoptolemus are trying to get the bow of Herakles which Philoctetes received from Herakles for administering his funeral rites. The play is resolved by Herakles descending from Olympus and telling Philoctetes to go with Odysseus and Neoptolemus. Herakles and his myth are prevalent throughout - conflict of the play revolves around his bow-, but this is literally a classic example of deus ex machina. The Starchild functions as sudden plot device which resolves a seemingly unresolvable conflict. As soon as he appears, the mcggufin that was the catalyst become a deus ex machina.
Are you kidding me? The last 15 minutes of that game were a total cop-out. Plot holes, faulty logic, lack of choice, a complete abandonment of the themes of the previous games or any regard for the choices made up until that point. It's almost as though Bioware couldn't decide what to do with the giant ball of fiction they built and just said, "Screw it. Let's give them the ending from Deus Ex. Gamers love Deus Ex." Your spiel on authorial control is utter bunk in the case of Mass Effect, which is a series built on choosing your own story, at least among multiple well-written paths. Is the ending in the game valid? Of course, although I feel that the writing in it is pretty lazy. In fact, it would be a really cool possible ending OF MANY. Again, the point of Mass Effect is that its authors allow the player to pick from numerous stories. The ending does not do that. While the ending they chose has its own merits, the handling of the ending and the player's degree of control over it flies in the face of what the series is all about. Considering the general quality of the storytelling and how consequences were dealt with, the ending is a aberration. It's just a poorly wrote, shoe-horned ending, that flies in the face of the rest of the series themes and the mechanics of choice. The series and its fans deserve better. But I guess they are just whiny, internet trolls, what with raising almost 30K for charity and all.
The3rdGracchus' comments