I was a bit curious about this. When I got to the endings I did a save so that I could go back and try it with slight differences. In Ransom’s ending you were able to make him fail at redemption or succeed based on your choices of what you said on stage. But it didn’t really change anything. It was basically the difference between “groan I failed” and “yay I did it.” Do you think there was ever more to it than this?
I was similarly confused when the answers Ransom (and Delores) gave the news reporter didn’t have any effect on anything later.
I have observed that the “bad” Ransome ending has been perceived as an extremely sad moment by more than one player. When I played this ending, it reminded me of the “Scorpion and the frog” fable: sometimes nature prevails and some people are just destined to ruin themselves.
I don’t think that there is more to it that this, I think that this consideration is enough to move people, especially those who were hoping for a full redemption of the character.
I was hoping for something to come of this, too! I was expecting new Nickel News issues to be published with actual articles based on the interviews. Although, I also didn’t really search around town after that, so it could very well have happened and I just didn’t realize it.
I’m always trying to see whether the game stops me from doing something.
So, when I got to Ransome’s ending, I tried to ruin it again even if I wanted him to have a good ending. So, when I saw him crying I was SO sad I had to load a previous save.
When you go to offer Natalie a Pulitzer Prize-winning scoop with Antonio Reyes, you have an option to tell her that they are all just characters in a video game, at which point she states that she suspected that: “I have a reporter’s notebook full of odd anachronisms and continuity errors.”