Fan demand and change isn't unprecedented, even in written fiction. Apparently the case of the "death" of Sherlock Holmes just didn't fit with the point the author was trying to make. Doyle killed off Holmes by having him fall off a cliff face so that he would never have to write him again and felt the fans could never demand him back. Eventually the fan response to the death became too great to ignore and Doyle created a story wherein Holmes actually survived and went on to star in more short stories and books.
Using AC3 mightnot be the best example. I pre-order sequels to games I loved, i.e. ME3, AC3, Skyrim, Arkham City, GTA IV, MGS 4. I've never pre-ordered a new IP until I've talked to someone that has played it or I have played a demo of the game. So I already ordered AC3 because of how much I loved AC2 (which I did not pre-order because I thought AC1 wasn't that great) and I only had to put $5 down on the pre-order and happened to get a metal game case.
Let's all stop pretending that games are some kind of high art. The endings were inferior and down right awful from a technical point with things happening just 5 minutes earlier being contradicted in the ending cinematic, saying nothing about the complete Deus Ex Machina feel to the entire thing. The ending felt lazy and rushed to me and they even pushed the game several months. The first 39 hours and 50 minutes is some of the most beautiful gaming of my life. A gaming life that has spanned from Super Mario Bros. to Mortal Kombat to Final Fantasy 7 to World of Warcraft to Mass Effect 3. Games are not high art, they are a commercial product to be consumed. Especially, when the developers, marketing gurus, directors, publishers and media want to sell the game on the merits of the players shaping their story with their Shepard. Do I think the Mass Effect series deserved better? Yes. Am I going to pelt Casey Hudson with rotten fruit, tank a meta-critic score and stand outside BioWare's HQ? No. Am I going to pause and think long and hard about buying BioWare's next game? Yes, that is what commercial consumerism is about. BioWare shouldn't change the ending to suit the fans, they should do it for no other reason that it might keep the fan base fat, dumb, and happy for their next commercial adventure.
@tripwolf ... while I agree with you about the endings, I think the point of the article is more of a "Hey, while you all are complaining about the crap endings, how about all this other stuff BioWare and EA messed up that is being missed." The deeper into ME3 I look the more disappointed I become. Which actually speaks to the greatness of the game because I loved everything except the last 10, 15 minutes.
I'm going to use an argument I never thought I'd ever use but, this is only going to harm people who aren't doing anything wrong in the first place. IP thieves are always, ALWAYS, going to be one step ahead of enforcement. All this is going to do is stifle people's legitimate first amendment practice of spoof, fair use, reporting, etc. This bill needs to be scrapped and a better way needs to be thought up. Instead of IP holders having to prove that the use of their product harms them or their brand, the people legitimately reporting on or spoofing IP will have to prove that they aren't doing anything wrong. All the while thieves will continue to steal and distribute IP. EA feels Gamespot isn't being fair in a review? Poof, fast track to block it. Angry Video Game Nerd, Nostalgia Critic, Angry Joe, Nintendo Punk, etc. poof, all gone with a single complaint. The law clearly oversteps the acceptable bounds.
So really what we learned is that among about 40 screen shot there are maybe 3 screen shots with differences and maybe 10 with minute differences, and about 27 that look identical except for lighting.
I will admit that at first I thought "man the graphics haven't changed that much." Looking at the comparison it is easy to see that the graphics upgrade is on par with other games. GTA has always has less in the way of graphics and more in the way of gameplay and large environments, which is why they can't have Oblviion style photo-realistic graphics.
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