(XL) Was the Ending a Hallucination? - Indoctrination Theory Mark IV!

Forgive me for posting the same video again, but this thumbnail is just so horribly unfortunate.

Edit- never mind. They changed it to a less embarrassing one.

You know, it's kind of funny. I had posted a question about 4k resolutions on the Andromeda board just a week or two ago and about got laughed off the BioWare forum.

Okay so I'll be honest. If Electronic Arts can make up for botching their attempt to make a Multiplayer sims game with free updates including all the features they glossed over due to that original focus. Then I don't see why other companies couldn't learn from this. I don't see how Javik, content that was already made at the game's release, couldn't have been a free update. Of all packs to charge for. They gave free content. They gave the Extended Cut DLC away for free because they learned this lesson hard. If people would've been quiet do you really think they wouldn't have tried to charge for the EC and play it off as if it was intended the whole time to "make" such a thing as "fan service". Not as an apology to the fans that they give away free.

They got bitchsmacked by the backlash.

It's obvious that the game has lost it's sense of "art" altogether. Though in all blunt honesty to someone that isn't that devoted to video games, I don't see how that's too much of a problem. That's the standard actually. It's very debateable as to whether video games can be art or not.

Stellaris isn't "Art" beyond the eyecandy. But it's fun. Games are about fun. So Gameplay is chief.

I prefer games with a Gameplay focus before all else.

Also I do think that Mass Effect was slated to be art for a second there. It would've proven it to me that video games being art existed if they had pulled the indoctrination theory off.

I personally think that they were honest about the Indoctrination game mechanic. Where you lose control over yourself. That they hit a roadblock and couldn't do it quite the way they wanted. So they shifted to more subtlety. Plus Mac Walters pretty much took the reigns after the de-facto main writer left the company. And he looks like a shady guy. The kind of guy who would think more subtly than Drew Karpyshyn ever would. It's obvious the contrast between the 2. Drew was quite blunt and bold with his writing style. But I think the Refusal Ending in the EC wasn't a diss. The Indoctrination Theory wasn't even a thing when they were originally planning to include the EC DLC content when they started out designing the 3rd game. The Refusal ending was probably a part of that cut content. Thus was going to be in the Vanilla game. But got cut intended to be sold as DLC down the road.

If the Refusal Ending LOOKS precisely like the 2nd choice in the original leaked ME3 ending. And was originally going to be in Vanilla Game. It's most likely that Destroy and Control weren't created until AFTER Refuse. Making Refuse the truest original option in the game.

Little ghost boy plays innocent and like he's good. But you say No to the machine, and it's revealed he's really just a regular Reaper AI.

Plus think about what Catalyst and Crucible mean. Then realize that the main function to this "device" is literally TO INDOCTRINATE. You all agree Synthesis is indoctrination. So it makes sense that this "Crucible" is the crucible for "merging flesh and steal". The thing the Reapers talk about. Indoctrination.

So why would this device be able to Destroy or Control the Reapers? Because in order to "destroy" the Reapers you have to become them. To Control them, you have to become them. The fact is, those 2 choices are still pointing in the same forward direction as Synthesis. So they're probably all just in Shep's head as ways to both also activate the indoctrination device.

"Because in order to "destroy" the Reapers you have to become them."

Remember in WW2 when the Americans all became Nazis to destroy the Third Reich?
Don't even try to bring up Paperclip because that's not relevant to the analogy.

hey genius, did you know about this useful little thing?



that allows you to add things to your posts so you don't need to make new ones everytime you have another brain fart

Why are there even Asari in this Galaxy and this time frame????


That. Makes. No. Sense.

What BioWare shows us:


What those stupid markings make me see:

Using FB3 they couldn't produce decent shaders for the face, the animations are still no better than before. The improvements are just very marginal in many area over what was achieved in the past 3 games. FB3 can do so much more. This low fps 4K BS on consoles has resulted in that. Pretty sure higher details on PC won't be any better because thats how the industry has been moving lately with very few developers actually taking the time to make the game look it's best on PC by sizable margins especially for those high end gaming systems. The problems of optimization focus for the lowest platforms, consoles.

As for that SJW-fied asari..... LMAO *SMH*

Please, Rif.  She's obviously Donatello.

And honestly, I'm surprised no one has complained about the two little buckle strap things that are apparently going to be bouncing off the ass of the main protagonist throughout the game. I'm sure it's fine at first but after a while it'll be like Chinese water torture.

ZerebusPrime wrote:Please, Rif.  She's obviously Donatello.

ZP, plz.  Donatello is the smartest of the group.

Rifneno wrote:

ZerebusPrime wrote:Please, Rif.  She's obviously Donatello.

ZP, plz.  Donatello is the smartest of the group.

Conceded.

Rifneno wrote:

ZerebusPrime wrote:Please, Rif.  She's obviously Donatello.

ZP, plz.  Donatello is the smartest of the group.

Proof enough that Asari is the dumbest of the ME:A crew.

I see her more as the love child of Shrek and Pris from Blade Runner.

And, now you mention it ZP, yes Ryder's ass straps are weird.

Also "Power readings are off the chart... Really off the chart." What a tired sci-fi cliché! And if the readings are too high for your equipment to measure how can you tell that they are "really off the chart" rather than just a bit beyond whatever scale you are using? /pedantry.

Eryri wrote:I see her more as the love child of Shrek and Pris from Blade Runner.

And, now you mention it ZP, yes Ryder's ass straps are weird.

Am guessing those are there and hanging because of the missing attachments that the players gets to customize, so once used up those straps wont be hanging around anymore. Attempt at realism

So Remnant. Remnant of who or what?

That plant that does not have access to sunlight or water, yet is very much alive (sort of).

Architecture very reminisent of the collectors / protheans.

The huge power beam

What lurks behind that smoke?


OH AND LOTS OF GREEN!!!

"The power levels are off the chart!"
"Um..."
"No, really! They're no where to be found on this chart! I think they were back over there somewhere!"

The jump animation is cringingly bad. This game is a lemon. I remember  the E3 2006 showing of Mass Effect and being blown away, and being like, Holy shit that looks amazing. Same thing with E3 09' for ME2 and the alpha footage of it.

But not for this. It looks lame. Very lame.

anyone explain to me why they feel they need to go for 4K when frostbite struggled with Battlefront running at less than 1080p?

ZerebusPrime wrote:

Rifneno wrote:

ZerebusPrime wrote:Please, Rif.  She's obviously Donatello.

ZP, plz.  Donatello is the smartest of the group.

Conceded.

Eryri wrote:And, now you mention it ZP, yes Ryder's ass straps are weird.

What's weird to me is that you guys give a shit to watch these trailers.

The only reason I watched the first trailer was because Spotlessvoid asked me to and you're not allowed to say no to dying friends.

Also "Power readings are off the chart... Really off the chart." What a tired sci-fi cliché! And if the readings are too high for your equipment to measure how can you tell that they are "really off the chart" rather than just a bit beyond whatever scale you are using? /pedantry.

Not even just sci-fi. I've seen it in general fantasy. Lufia 2 on the SNES had one of those ridiculous scenes and those idiots were still fighting with swords.

dorktainian wrote:That plant that does not have access to sunlight or water, yet is very much alive (sort of).

It's alien. Some sci fi includes aliens that are, like, superintelligent shades of blue. I think I'd be okay with alien plants that survive without apparent light or water. Hell, we keep searching the Earth and even in the most inhospitable places, places we expect no life could possibly survive, there's always something. From lava vents to the Mariana trench. Do you know of the Mariana trench? It's the deepest part of the ocean, off the coast of Japan. "Total blackness" is an understatement and the water pressure is about the same as the bite force of tyrannosaurus rex. Yet there's animal life down there.

dorktainian wrote:anyone explain to me why they feel they need to go for 4K when frostbite struggled with Battlefront running at less than 1080p?

So they can put it on the box. You're assuming it'll be properly supported. That remains to be seen.

Rifneno wrote:

dorktainian wrote:That plant that does not have access to sunlight or water, yet is very much alive (sort of).

It's alien. Some sci fi includes aliens that are, like, superintelligent shades of blue. I think I'd be okay with alien plants that survive without apparent light or water. Hell, we keep searching the Earth and even in the most inhospitable places, places we expect no life could possibly survive, there's always something. From lava vents to the Mariana trench. Do you know of the Mariana trench? It's the deepest part of the ocean, off the coast of Japan. "Total blackness" is an understatement and the water pressure is about the same as the bite force of tyrannosaurus rex. Yet there's animal life down there.

It wasn't so much the improbability, more the circumstances of where the plant was within the trailer, and the colours used in the trailer.

i was wondering if it wasn't a sly nudge towards synthesis... as in an organic synthetic hybrid with very different requirements to what we're used to, and that the remnant are a galactic civilization who were once organic, but are now kind of a shadow of their former selves barely aware of any lesser beings such as organics like us and the like. After all there is plenty of Green in the tech within the trailer, and in Mass Effect 3 we all know what green means.

dorktainian wrote:anyone explain to me why they feel they need to go for 4K when frostbite struggled with Battlefront running at less than 1080p?

4K on console is obviously marketing lingo nothing more. It is just the usual trend of marketing buzz words used by firms to peddle something new.

The most useful and exciting thing here with new the PS4 Pro is the use of AMD's 4th gen GCN (graphics core next) based Polaris full-chip with 2304 shaders at 911Mhz compared to the 800Mhz 2nd gen GCN 1152 Stream processors in the PS4, actually the full die was 1280 Stream processors, we didn't enable everything as the other two CUs (128 stream processors) were merely for yield improvements.

GCN4 has upto 15% more IPC than GCN2 at the same clocks but this varies based on task. Overall in PS4 Pro you are getting well over 2.5 times the  performance to actually drive proper 60fps Ultra settings at 1080p. However marketing now wants to use this extra power to drive 4K at close to 30fps. Polaris is good for 1080p and even 1440p but at 4K details just has to be turned down or you need to get creative with certain details.

DICE's Johan Andersson confirmed it's neither upscaled nor lowered detail setting resolution. This custom 4K actually hints at novel ideas to dynamically change quality levels in the rendered scene in real-time. Forza Apex already does this, it dynamically changes the details to meet the minimum of 30fps or 60fps that you can set. The lesser your frame rate target the more chance higher levels of details are turned on while trying to keep upto target fps. In ME:A it is going further by the looks of things with details turned down on areas of the scene that are assumed to be not easily perceived by the player. Like if it's an action sequence with busy fiery combat you are in all likelihood not going to bother about the details and volumetric smoke effects of a crashed Kodiak in the distance putting out fumes. So dialing down on the particles shader effects on an object that is not prominent in the scene is a good way to save shader resources on GPU and give those shaders more tasks that do better details on other areas of the scene like your weapons firing and producing various particle effects, post-processing effects or say better facial characteristics for the player avatar and squadies or enemies or immediate environment areas in a cut scene etc. This also gives more scope for hand tuned choices for certain heavy rendering load scenes as seen in Witcher 3 cut-scenes where details on character models are dramatically upped because mostly characters and NPCs are in focus rather than the open world expanse while in 3rd person mode.

I noticed some frame drops (below 30) right before Ryder pulls up the omni tool scanner on the alien flora. This is to be expected with dynamic detail based rendering to a set target.

The only way in which this farce may at all be remotely salvageable is if the ones who are behind everything in fucking Andromeda turn out to be the Reapers all over again. Maybe. Perhaps not.

And yes, Ninja Turtles was my first thought as well, haha.

Also, Spot's been around? When?