Worst possible scenario

[Cerberus_e]

Mr.Sociopath said:

dunno..what is the expansion's ending?.. I don,t care much for spoiler , at least not for that game

the expansion doesn't have a cliffhanger ending.
everything you need to know is told.

<table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler">
Eve reigns hell and you go back to your wife in heaven
</td></tr></table>

[Mr.Sociopath]

Cerberus_e said:

the expansion doesn't have a cliffhanger ending.
everything you need to know is told.

<table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler">
Eve reigns hell and you go back to your wife in heaven
</td></tr></table>

cool..naked chicks should always be rulers everywhere

[December Man]

Otto von Keisinger said:
Why must every story dealing with time travel involve some obscenely complicated Hollywood plan to reverse everything that is entirely illogical?

Why do you call it illogical? The only illogical event in WW is the moment when Dahaka, the Prince with the Mask and the Prince w/o the Mask meet together a second time. The Prince w/o the Mask is the past of the Prince with the Mask, therefore when the first one dies, the second one should too. But fans say that the Mask allowed to 'break the circle' and managed to put everything back in its place.

[Otto von Keisinger]

December Man said:

Why do you call it illogical? The only illogical event in WW is the moment when Dahaka, the Prince with the Mask and the Prince w/o the Mask meet together a second time. The Prince w/o the Mask is the past of the Prince with the Mask, therefore when the first one dies, the second one should too. But fans say that the Mask allowed to 'break the circle' and managed to put everything back in its place.

You mean, that's the only paradox. I was referring to the Prince's plan to change his fate (after he screwed up the first time). It does make sense, but it is far more complex than it needs to be.

[hell-angel]

Mr.Sociopath said:

cool..naked chicks should always be rulers everywhere

Only if they look good.

Anyway, I don't really like HL2's ending as well, I was like: WTF, it was a nice game but what is up with this ending. It has a very easy to follow story and then such a difficult ending. That annoys me.

[Micki!]

hell-angel said:

Only if they look good.

Anyway, I don't really like HL2's ending as well, I was like: WTF, it was a nice game but what is up with this ending. It has a very easy to follow story and then such a difficult ending. That annoys me.

I saw the ending by a friend... and i was kinda dissapointed with it... (why wasn't alyx naked when the explosion took place anyways..?! )

Cliffhangers mostly work best if there's a sequel, in HL2's case, it's HL2 aftermath which appears to be right after the ending of HL2...

[December Man]

Otto von Keisinger said:
You mean, that's the only paradox. I was referring to the Prince's plan to change his fate (after he screwed up the first time). It does make sense, but it is far more complex than it needs to be.

I like complex scenarios.

[Cerberus_e]

since when isn't it necessary anymore to use spoiler tags?
I like complex things like in the prince of persia games too.

[Otto von Keisinger]

Since no spoilers were actually given (all plot details were kept deliberately vague).

December Man said:

I like complex scenarios.

So do I, but only when complication is induced by plot turns, rather than needlessly complex Scooby-Doo plans, i.e.,

<table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler"> Capture the bad guy in a confusing and Rube Goldberg-esque trap that fails at first contact with the enemy, but still manages to work at the end with some improvisation. </td></tr></table>

In SoT, the Prince's plan was simple, but it was complicated by a change in the situation.

(Major Spoiler) <table><tr><th><font size="-1">Spoiler below:</font></th></tr><tr><td class="spoiler"> The sand visions of Farah's betrayal. </td></tr></table>

[NutWrench]

I don't mind cliffhangers. It allows you to develop a character up to a certain point and then when the game is released, you can sit back and get tons of good ideas from gamers as they speculate on what directions the story might take in the next game.

But I absolutely HATE it when every character in a game (*cough* HL2) tells you something mysterious and open-ended and it's still completely unanswered and unresolved by the end of the game.

[Combat Chuck]

I think you can still have a cliffhanger, yet have it remain a satisfying ending. SiN did this relatively well, in having a very open ending, yet leaving you satisfied with the humor in the end. What sucks the most is when a game will have a cliffhanger ending, yet receive no sequel, leaving the horrible ending as your last taste of the game franchise. Shadow Warrior comes to mind in this case.

[hell-angel]

Combat Chuck said:
I think you can still have a cliffhanger, yet have it remain a satisfying ending. SiN did this relatively well, in having a very open ending, yet leaving you satisfied with the humor in the end. What sucks the most is when a game will have a cliffhanger ending, yet receive no sequel, leaving the horrible ending as your last taste of the game franchise. Shadow Warrior comes to mind in this case.

Ah, but Shadow Warrior has an expansion pack. Maybe you should play that first. (see the main site for it. )

[saNlty]

Possibly the worst ending I've experienced Has to be that of Dungeon keeper 2, which advertises it's sequel (and release date if i correctly remember) which would be tolerable if it was ever going to be done.

Now the closest i can get to torturing minons & making elaborate subterranean dungons for them to dwell is the sims.

As to episodic gameing concept, I'm quite looking forward to SiN Episodes, However i'm certainly not fond of the delivery system. just remembering back too how it took 2days to simply register my copy of halflife2 due to overloaded servers annoys me to no end, lets hope that doesen't happen again!

[Neptune]

Cerberus_e said:
no game should have a cliffhanger.
every game with a cliffhanger before FAILED.
if a game has a cliffhanger, it automatically has a bad story.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica had a cliffhanger.

So did MGS 2, but then again, like I said, I recently found out alot of people didn't like that game. IMO, it succeeded.


Oh, and worse case scenerio, George finds his inner 'peace' and changes everything in the game to not be gory, sexual, or mature... at all!

[SyntaxN]

Neptune said:
Oh, and worse case scenerio, George finds his inner 'peace' and changes everything in the game to not be gory, sexual, or mature... at all!

Possibly that happened already, it´s the reason why they restarted

[Joe Siegler]

laffer said:
I just had a horrible thought - what if DNF ends with a cliffhanger??
That would be pretty horrible if you ask me (for obvious reasons)

I'm not saying what the ending of the game is (Because I don't even know what it is myself, I've not messed with that part of the game), but..

Why would that be bad?

[laffer]

Well it wouldn't be all bad as it would mean another Duke game, but I've waited so long for this game now that I need a satisfying ending
The best would be an ending that indicates that there will be a sequel while having a satisfying ending as well.

[LeadBullet]

Joe3DR said:

I'm not saying what the ending of the game is (Because I don't even know what it is myself, I've not messed with that part of the game), but..

Why would that be bad?

Because its lame to wait forever for a game and then have the story end incomplete when it can just be finished off, and pick up with a new story if there is ever a sequel. In Duke3D it had a cool ending without any big cliffhanger and despite that people still want to play DNF, and it shows its possible to pick up a new storyline and continue without a cliffhanger.

So cliffhangers don't really serve any good purpose to the player. Duke opening a box and screaming "WTF!?" and then playing the credits would be dumb. Leaving open questions like "whatever happened to _____" throughout the game can work good since all the question marks aren't dumped out at the very end of the game. One example of this would be Mona in Max Payne 1. The game had an ending and the story was pretty much ended, but it was something that made the player ask questions, and then have it answered in the next game.

[Yatta]

laffer said:
I just had a horrible thought - what if DNF ends with a cliffhanger??
That would be pretty horrible if you ask me (for obvious reasons)

http://www.planetduke.com/duke4/faq/game.shtml#2.19

[Haravikk]

The only question at the end of the game is if Duke did in fact kill all of the Gothic Shemale Pig Cop Strippers, or if he kept one for himself...

[Combat Chuck]

hell-angel said:
Ah, but Shadow Warrior has an expansion pack. Maybe you should play that first. (see the main site for it. )

Today, I learned to check the main page before making a statement like that again

[Evil_C]

laffer said:
I just had a horrible thought - what if DNF ends with a cliffhanger??
That would be pretty horrible if you ask me (for obvious reasons)

I think you have to make a distinction between a cliffhanger and an open ending. A cliffhanger would be like that old campy Batman TV series where the heroes are about to meet their death and everything just stops and leaves you hanging until the next episode.

An open ending is like in Star Wars Episode IV where the immediate threat, the Death Star, has been destroyed and the heroes getting medals. However, Darth Vader is still out there and the evil Emperor still rules the Empire with an iron fist.

In DNF I think Duke should achieve something quite significant (like saving the Earth ... for now) and be entitled to a little R & R. However that doesn't mean the alien threat is over and that they will not return and attack the Earth again in the future. Just my two cents.

[dukay]

Cliff hangers are fine as long as they are for the sake of the story and not for cashin sequals. I liked the ending in Max Payne 1 while offering a resolution it left open some interesting possibilities without being totally ridiculous.

[tony]

Not sure if anyones said this, but.. it would be bad if there was a cliffhanger because it would be another 10 years before we know what happens

[hell-angel]

Haravikk said:
The only question at the end of the game is if Duke did in fact kill all of the Gothic Shemale Pig Cop Strippers, or if he kept one for himself...

He will keep one for himself, he just have to.

[jet jaguar 2.0]

tony said:
Not sure if anyones said this, but.. it would be bad if there was a cliffhanger because it would be another 10 years before we know what happens

That's my beef with cliffhangers in games. Unless it's a proven commodity like Halo or Half-Life you shouldn't put a cliffhanger ending in a game. If that game doesn't sell well enough to warrant a sequel you just end up pissing on a lot of gamers that did buy your game. Imagine if DN3D had ended with a cliffhanger? Heck, everyone knows Halo 3 is on the way but people were still annoyed with that stupid non-ending.

[MadMac]

Joe3DR* said:
Why would that be bad?

Because
- it would be a disappointment, since people knew they'd wait another ten years for the sequel that solves the cliffhanger
- it would look like you didn't finish the game

Remember the backlash on Valve for HL2's "ending"?