<stdin>

17:13 <@TerminusEst13> Oh God, you're kidding me.
17:14 <@TerminusEst13> This is the big twist of the game. This is the big pivot ending point. The whole Macil/Oracle choice.
17:14 <@TerminusEst13> The entire thing is basically "You're the bad guy!" "No, YOU'RE the bad guy!" "NUH-UH! You!" "NO U!"
17:14 <+Synert> choose neither
17:14 <+Synert> fire powerful
17:14 <@TerminusEst13> This is the plot people said was so good.
17:15 <%ijon> it's also PREDICTABLE AS FUCK
17:15 <%ijon> and a tired play
17:15 <@TerminusEst13> LET'S SEE
17:15 <%ijon> it's a face heel turn at its most basic
17:15 <@TerminusEst13> Should I believe the guy who has been fighting the evil empire who is evil and demonstrated themselves to be evil and has done nothing to cement themselves as trustworthy
17:16 <@TerminusEst13> or should I believe the guy who right after telling me this said my choice doesn't matter because the evil god behind the evil empire will win anyway.
17:17 <@TerminusEst13> There is literally no reason to even believe for a second Macil might be evil.
17:17 <@TerminusEst13> Hell even if you pick him he doesn't give a reason to be evil.
17:18 <+PresidentPeople> Yeah, that bugged me
17:18 <+PresidentPeople> It'd have been better with a linear story where Macil was good
17:18 <@TerminusEst13> Much better.
17:18 <@TerminusEst13> I mean, maybe Marathon has spoiled me but dear god.
17:18 <+PresidentPeople> *linear as far as this choice was concerned
17:19 <%ijon> maybe if going with the oracle didn't screw you out of the good ending
17:19 <%ijon> and was a reasonable option
17:20 <@TerminusEst13> Honestly, a much better way to handle it--even if you kill Macil, no Spectre pops out. Suddenly the Front hates you, though Blackbird wants to stay with you out of loyalty, and you go
                       on with the fight alone and go get revenge on the Oracle for being a lying fuck.
17:20 <%ijon> or would just allow more plot change than "turns out blackbird was the entity all along dohohohohoohoh"
17:20 <@TerminusEst13> And then the Oracle was the entity all along, or something.
17:20 <%ijon> suddenly, fallout new vegas mode
17:21 <%ijon> once the programmer is out of the picture, you can take whatever side you want
17:21 <%ijon> go for the front and do things as you do in strife
17:21 <%ijon> go order, become the new programmer, and crush the rest of humanity
17:21 <@TerminusEst13> Honestly, I'd be cool with siding with the Order.
17:21 <@TerminusEst13> Look at all the cool shit they've done.Lots of technology.
17:21 <%ijon> go just plain entity, and become his hitman and kill everyone
17:21 <%ijon> or do the wildcard ending
17:21 <@TerminusEst13> I mean sure the planet's dying, but it looks still pretty neat. Lots of fauna and wildlife.
17:22 <@TerminusEst13> And sure humanity's dying, but that's why they're cyborging up.
17:22 <%ijon> kill the entity, take out macil, behead both the front and the order
17:22 <@TerminusEst13> It's like the Order presented problems and then goes"Well, shit, here's solutions!"
17:22 <%ijon> and turn the planet into an anarchy of mass proportions
17:22 <@TerminusEst13> Meanwhile the Front goes "No! Let's stick with the problems!"
17:23 <%ijon> honestly if you could choose your side, I'd go wildcard and kill them all
17:23 <%ijon> and rule the dying planet with the only artifact of the one god that still works
17:25 <@TerminusEst13> Does the Front even have a plan afterwards once the Entity's gone and the source of all the cool technology is dead?
17:25 <%ijon> "uh, get fucking I guess?"
17:25 <%ijon> "I mean we did resu-"
17:25 <%ijon> "wait, they're dead now."
17:26 <%ijon> "hey blackbird, how much are you charging?"
17:27 <@TerminusEst13> I mean, I don't really care so much that it's played out and cliché. I mean, this is relatively early on in video game storytelling, so I can forgive some clichés. But it's so...sloppy.
                       The big theme of the game is freedom, but you're put on one super-linear path that breaks if you even so much as sneeze at it, the only choices don't make sense, and tons of
17:27 <@TerminusEst13> unanswered questions.