Weren't Locusts the original inhabitants of the planet and the Human's got there afterwards?

This. When I play an RPG, I expect a good story. Or at least one that's not terrible.

I played and liked Gears of War. Story was forgettable, but I kept me mildly engaged and gave me a decent excuse to shoot and chainsaw some badguys with my buddys. Good enough for a shooter imo.

Haha, not bad. From my perspective then, it's not the worst. Good enough for ya?

That EA guy obviously haven't heard of Two Worlds, [censored] plots and dialog, fun gameplay though.

meh gears has a story...granted its an action story. I think people expect too much anymore, some stories are just stories. No great revelation at the end, just something fast and actiony to tie all the cover based fighting from one bad guy base to another

Also the dom/wife thing was pretty emotional

http://i.qkme.me/35haoj.jpg

I'm not sure which I dislike more, Activision or EA..

This.

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/470146

I find it sorta ridiculous that ppl think EA shouldn't say much due to ME3. The ending is what ppl have a problem with. Most everybody says up until that point the game is fantastic.

Another example of overreaction. It's one ending. Then ppl forgot ME1 and ME2 and 95% of ME3, which are really good stories for games.

The writing for the first two, since those are the only ones I can speak of, are two examples of highly cliched, rehashed storylines, dialog lines, and characters. The only reason it doesn't feel so [censored], is because of the voice actors talent, the emotion they have put into it.

Replace Reapers with Dagon and you have almost Oblivion's plot. At least for Mass Effect one. For Mass Effect two, just take the Dark Brotherhood's stolyline, remove the hidden internal conflict and replace it with an external hidden conflict.

I never played Gears of War, but I doubt the game has an endgame decision that completely craps on the messages of the previous two games and makes Fenix make people like Benedict Arnold or Quisling look reliable. Im looking at you, Commander Shepard;

Writing isn't only coming up with knew ideas. Thats a concept. The concept might not be completely original but the acutal writing is not bad.

I mean, look at Oblivion. I can't think of one but I'm sure theres other stories where demons or something come from another dimension and attack. Even TW2 ins't completely original....being framed for a murder....throw in a king as the victim and it gets more specific.

No doubt about, details often vary vastly, I admit that. But in the big picture, they are extremely similiar. Even Dragon Age: Origin is littered with cliched wrting, as is the overall scope of the plot; muster a great army to defeat a demonic dragon and it's army. Basically the same thing as, again, Oblivion.

Take that elf assassing fellow, a slick and scheming lad who's loyalty lies where the money is, or depending upon what choice you make in the game, that it turns out that at the bottom of his heart, there's true kindness and love. And what about shapeshifter, I don't remember her name, but she's all secretive and reclusive, distrusting many of those around her because of what she and how she fears she may be outed, all while holding onto big secrets.

It's cliched. We've read of these characters for several decades in literature, they've already captivated millions of readers' hearts. The reason it's hailed as good writing, is because this medium is young, it needs to establish itself, find its footing, saturate and grow... Then, when the time is right, something truly great will come. But not now.

I'm not saying it's horrible and dreadful writing, just that it's been done for a long time.

I'm glad this didn't end in a fight.....awesome.

I agree that the medium being young is part of the problem.

First off- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmrImn9_JJQ

Now what do I think about that? I think that EA should just shut up and stop saying anything. They just overall svck as a company and shouldn't even be thinking about criticizing another company until they can get their act together and stop ruining their games. What a load of BS. That broke the camels back and they just dropped to my least favorite game company because of that lousy article and their totally blind ignorance. I was hoping they would finally get out of their own fantasy world but I guess that won't be happening anytime soon.

This. It took me a month to beat Mass effect 3, i wasen't hooked at all, the games story sort of dragged on and i didn't feel like i was in a giant space battle determining the fate of the galaxy. like 10% of the game was spent on the citadel and going back to doing fetch quests on the galaxy map to get GALAXY WAR ASSESTS, which don't even matter in the ending.

The whole game contridicates itself and falls on its face, and having a statement like this from EA is an insult. /rage

Even a vile, contemptuous, [censored] from the most anathema organization in the gaming industry is entitled to his opinion. I don't care about Gears of War and if I played it I'd probably agree with him but he also has no room to talk.

He's apparently forgot about ME3's ending.

Cliched doesn't necessarily mean "bad". Making things "different" just for the sake of avoiding cliche is also a great way to end up with crap writing (i.e, didn't have an actual concept, just kept twisting stuff to be "new").

As for cliche in Mass Effect series..... well, yeah. It's a Space Opera. Kind of has to be a bit cliched, no?