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[Prologue]

This is by far my biggest beef with the game, even beating out God Child. It, literally, has no explanation. At least God Child is based on some (albeit stupid and out of the blue) premise in the series, however circular it may be.

You really want to know why the normandy is running off? You sure? Because you can't go back.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjWlb-99ZHs&ob=av3n

This is the worst ending you can get. For this, the blast provided from the destroy option, destroys everything including earth and all the space junk (19:28). Normandy is speeding off to evade that explosion.

They simply applied the scene of the normandy running off, to every ending. And as you know, the blast isn't that damaging in all the endings.


...


>.>

 

[aku08]

lol at the morinth moment. i was just "oh shit another banshee". then while i was shooting her, it says "morinth" instead of the normal banshee name - "oh shit, its morinth" hahaha so my shepard is basically responsible for the death of her entire family. and yes, i shot her sister.

 

[CorrisD]

I don't have Arrival... SO HAHAHA! It never happened to my Shepard.. Nice try >=D

Speaking of which, what happens if you don't play the Shadow Broker and Arrival, do these things still get mentioned and happened anyway, I imagine they can't just ignore these two events?

 

[Lifejumper]

Do your sqaudmates actually appear dead in front of you when you get blasted by Harbinger?

 

[Prologue]

Do your sqaudmates actually appear dead in front of you when you get blasted by Harbinger?

Only if you have low amount of war assets. If you have enough, they simply get teleported to the normandy and are seen speeding away from a non-threating blast(in most endings)

 

[Derrick01]

That's what so maddening about the ending. They delivered the game I didn't think they could. I mean, it wasn't perfect and it had its issues, but I really liked it, I felt like my choices mattered and I was invested in the story and the characters.

And then the last 10 minutes happened.

Yup. I'm starting to heal a bit though. I was able to sit down and start up a new career on ME1 today.

It'll be a long time before I can get to 3 again but the healing has started. That's good news

 

[Rebel Leader]

Speaking of which, what happens if you don't play the Shadow Broker and Arrival, do these things still get mentioned and happened anyway, I imagine they can't just ignore these two events?

There was nothing mentioned in my game on the events that happen in Arrival

 

[JWong]

Only if you have low amount of war assets.

Hmm I thought I saw Ash on the floor near the ramp to the light beam since I took her with me, but then she also appeared at the end coming out after Joker and EDI.

Speaking of which, what happens if you don't play the Shadow Broker and Arrival, do these things still get mentioned and happened anyway, I imagine they can't just ignore these two events?

I asked my friend about the Shadow Broker bit. I didn't have a save with Shadow Broker and Liara mentions she kills the Shadow Broker by herself (with mercs).

Anyway, the difference is just a few lines of dialogue. Liara becomes the Shadow Broker anyways. Which is lame.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

lol at the morinth moment. i was just "oh shit another banshee". then while i was shooting her, it says "morinth" instead of the normal banshee name - "oh shit, its morinth" hahaha so my shepard is basically responsible for the death of her entire family. and yes, i shot her sister.

Oh wow that's...amazing. Though I don't see how the other sister's death could be your fault

 

[thetrin]

That's what so maddening about the ending. They delivered the game I didn't think they could. I mean, it wasn't perfect and it had its issues, but I really liked it, I felt like my choices mattered and I was invested in the story and the characters.

And then the last 10 minutes happened.

Honestly, I feel the same way. The total lack of effort and thought put into the ending is irritating, and my disappointment is exacerbated by the fact that I've been playing within this world and with the same character for the last 5-6 years. This is a pretty awful ending to my adventure with Shep. I die, and I doom everyone in the process? Well, that's great.

 

[Mutanthands]

I ain't even mad.

The ending was sketchy, but it certainly didn't ruin the series for me. The tension leading up to the end of the earth mission was as tense as I ever felt in a Mass Effect game. It worked. I'll take the good with the bad, and appreciate Mass Effect for what it is, cheesy Sci-Fi entertainment.

Plus, it will be damn entertaining to see how Bioware manages to worm their way into continuing the series from the clusterfuckage they've created with the ending, from a plot and fan standpoint.

 

[lefantome]

seems that bioware had problems finishing the game, maybe they were alla working on SWTOR

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/9787569/4

we can clearly see that ME3 development wasn't "so expensive"


do you remember the leaked beta only few months ago?

 

[Zargean]

I think FTL exists but it's very slow compared to mass relay travel. The idea would be now the races need to figure out a faster FTL. And the problem is the ending is it doesn't give us any idea of the new state of the galaxy, are systems now cut off by years, decades, centuries, what? Just how isolated are they now? There's an absence of world-building here.

I could be wrong, but I think the Reaper codex entry stated that their FTL could go at 30 light years every 24 hours and it was twice the rate as standard FTL (15 light years every 24 hours). The diameter of the Milky Way is ~100,000 light years. If you went that distance, it would take ~18 years and most of the citadel races home planets are much closer.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

lol at the morinth moment. i was just "oh shit another banshee". then while i was shooting her, it says "morinth" instead of the normal banshee name - "oh shit, its morinth" hahaha so my shepard is basically responsible for the death of her entire family. and yes, i shot her sister.

Oh wow that's...amazing. Though I don't see how the other sister's death could be your fault

The morinth thing kinda sucked I was hoping she would show up somewhere killing poor defenseless hipsters like before :/

 

[Lime]

I must have it.

 

[LiK]

T-Frog and Scooter talk about their thoughts about the endings. Good stuff.

http://www.1up.com/news/pros-cons-mass-effect-3

 

[aku08]

Oh wow that's...amazing. Though I don't see how the other sister's death could be your fault

The morinth thing kinda sucked I was hoping she would show up somewhere killing poor defenseless hipsters like before :/

yeah , i guess the other sister wasnt shepard's fault. and there was no way to actually differentiate one banshee from another. so it felt like a throw away moment to say - here's morinth!!! thats her name on this bansee! we didn't forget about her!. unless theres another scene i missed.

 

[Tacitus_]

So, the codex says that on average you can travel 12 light years a day in FTL. The Milky Way is about 100 000 - 120 000 light years across according to wikipedia.
It'd take 25 years of continuous FTL travel for the querians/geth to return home without stopping to refuel or discharge their drive cores. The discharge can take days if you can't find a proper place to discharge and you've pushed the core to the max.
So it'd take half a century for the querians/geth to return home, IF they somehow manage to find a solution for refueling.

I do have to applaud Bioware for almost rivaling WH40k in bleakness. And WH40ks FTL can cause demons to eat your soul if the safeties fail.

 

[Trick_GSF]

Knowing Bioware that kid (the Catalyst) was just reskinned from the kid at Earth

After the Tali's face, it isn't that hard to believe.

 

[Red Blaster]

So, the codex says that on average you can travel 12 light years a day in FTL. The Milky Way is about 100 000 - 120 000 light years across according to wikipedia.
It'd take 25 years of continuous FTL travel for the querians/geth to return home without stopping to refuel or discharge their drive cores. The discharge can take days if you can't find a proper place to discharge and you've pushed the core to the max.
So it'd take half a century for the querians/geth to return home, IF they somehow manage to find a solution for refueling.

I do have to applaud Bioware for almost rivaling WH40k in bleakness. And WH40ks FTL can cause demons to eat your soul if the safeties fail.

They're all dead, hence galaxy reset. Don't believe EatChildren's lies.

 

[Patryn]

Knowing Bioware that kid (the Catalyst) was just reskinned from the kid at Earth

After the Tali's face, it isn't that hard to believe.

It was supposed to be the kid from Earth. Hence all the dreams? It plucked the imagery out of Shepard's mind.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

So, the codex says that on average you can travel 12 light years a day in FTL. The Milky Way is about 100 000 - 120 000 light years across according to wikipedia.
It'd take 25 years of continuous FTL travel for the querians/geth to return home without stopping to refuel or discharge their drive cores. The discharge can take days if you can't find a proper place to discharge and you've pushed the core to the max.
So it'd take half a century for the querians/geth to return home, IF they somehow manage to find a solution for refueling.

I do have to applaud Bioware for almost rivaling WH40k in bleakness. And WH40ks FTL can cause demons to eat your soul if the safeties fail.

The ending is sort of close to the ending of Fall of Hyperion, except there the organics make a conscious choice to reject the machine's superior technology to destroy them

 

[djplaeskool]

It was supposed to be the kid from Earth. Hence all the dreams? It plucked the imagery out of Shepard's mind.

So it's like Contact.

Oh god...

 

[MrBig]

It was supposed to be the kid from Earth. Hence all the dreams? It plucked the imagery out of Shepard's mind.

Shepard burning with the kid lends the biggest credibility to the theory.

 

[Shining Sunshine]

T-Frog and Scooter talk about their thoughts about the endings. Good stuff.

http://www.1up.com/news/pros-cons-mass-effect-3

More like, bad stuff. Jeremy Parish doesn't get our criticisms.

 

[Trick_GSF]

It was supposed to be the kid from Earth. Hence all the dreams? It plucked the imagery out of Shepard's mind.

Oh yeah.

 

[Moaradin]

It was supposed to be the kid from Earth. Hence all the dreams? It plucked the imagery out of Shepard's mind.

It all makes sense!

Indoctrination confirmed.

 

[Lime]

Shepard burning with the kid lends the biggest credibility to the theory.

What theory?

 

[Count of Monte Sawed-Off]

So it's like Contact.

Oh god...

Just like Contact. Which caused me to remember all the bitching South Park used to do about that movie for some reaon.

 

[megalowho]

Did Harbinger have any dialogue in ME3 at all that I just happened to miss? Seems like such a waste after how he was built up as big man Reaper and obsessed with Shepard in 2.

 

[aesop]

Aliens did it.

But really, you see a cinematic of Shepard's body in London come back to life after the garden world cinematic.

I didn't see this cinematic in my end game. Full Paragon but I didn't boost my galactic readiness rating.

 

[Lime]

Did Harbinger have any dialogue in ME3 at all that I just happened to miss? Seems like such a waste after how he was built up as big man Reaper and obsessed with Shepard in 2.

None. His VA was unavailable and thus Harbinger didn't get any part in ME3 (except for taking care of business and fucking up Shepard's shit)

 

[Rodhull]

T-Frog and Scooter talk about their thoughts about the endings. Good stuff.

http://www.1up.com/news/pros-cons-mass-effect-3

I don't mind that. Although it doesn't really affect my opinions on the endings at least it isn't the patronisation or moaning about gamers feeling 'entitled' that most of the writers I've seen that are defending the endings.

 

[lefantome]

You land and fight Cerberus through the streets of Eden Prime while terrified civilians hide, then meets up with PARTNER (who arrived earlier) just in time to see an explosion of energy coming from the Prothean ruins. When he arrives, the Prothean is standing in a crater surrounded by dead Cerberus agents. It kills the last Cerberus soldier and exits in a cool fashion. Shepard and PARTNER assume that the Prothean is a rogue Cerberus supersoldier created using the CATALYST. PARTNER goes after it, while you goe after the CATALYST.

After fighting Cerberus troops in the area, you find Cerberus video logs that show them opening a Prothean Sphere and finding the Prothean inside. The vid makes it clear that the Prothean isn't a Cerberus soldier. He's the CATALYST. Shepard follows the Prothean's trail of destruction, fighting Cerberus troops. You eventually finds the Prothean injured and exhausted, with PARTNER ready to kill it. PARTNER refuses to listen to your explanation and tries to kill the Prothean, and you have no choice but to kill him. The mission closes with you answering to the Council for "the attack on Eden Prime" and the death of the Spectre to the Council.

lol completely different

 

[rozay]

So if your war assets are low enough, you will see your squadmates dead after Harby's attack? (in this case, Garrus) And they don't show up like this if they're high...I think I'm spending entirely too much time thinking about this than Bioware expected anyone to with those terrible endings, but I just can't help it.

rest in peace my man

 

[Patryn]

So if your war assets are low enough, you will see your squadmates dead after Harby's attack? (in this case, Garrus) And they don't show up like this if they're high...I think I'm spending entirely too much time thinking about this than Bioware expected anyone to with those terrible endings, but I just can't help it.
rest in peace my man

They needed those assets to mean something. Even though the way they're used makes no sense considering what it represents.

 

[LiK]

More like, bad stuff. Jeremy Parish doesn't get our criticisms.

Scooter is on your side

 

[Lime]

Regarding how Bioware is going to react to the fans' dissatisfaction with the ending: If it was simply due to time constraints and the ending being a rush job, I wouldn't fault them for saying "yeah, we had to ship it at that deadline, there was nothing we could do, but we will make sure you get a properly depicted ending with sufficient exposition (slideshow/Kreya talk/whatever), because we care about our fans (customers/money)"

I mean, there is nothing wrong in owning up to your mistakes and trying to rectify them as much as possible. Like Marcellus Wallace said: "The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. FUCK PRIDE. Pride only hurts, it never helps. "

 

[Karak]

So if your war assets are low enough, you will see your squadmates dead after Harby's attack? (in this case, Garrus) And they don't show up like this if they're high...I think I'm spending entirely too much time thinking about this than Bioware expected anyone to with those terrible endings, but I just can't help it.
rest in peace my man

Sense...bioware makes none.

That is god damned stupid as hell.

 

[Karak]

Regarding how Bioware is going to react to the fans' dissatisfaction with the ending: If it was simply due to time constraints and the ending being a rush job, I wouldn't fault them for saying "yeah, we had to ship it at that deadline, there was nothing we could do, but we will make sure you get a properly depicted ending with sufficient exposition (slideshow/Kreya talk/whatever), because we care about our fans (customers/money)"

I mean, there is nothing wrong in owning up to your mistakes and trying to rectify them as much as possible. Like Marcellus Wallace said: "The night of the fight, you may feel a slight sting. That's pride fucking with you. FUCK PRIDE. Pride only hurts, it never helps. "

I think that if a company stands up like Bethesda before them, I am 100% behind it. Especially if the dev was forced by the publisher. Silence, condescending tone towards fans, or pretending like the endings make sense, would be the thing they need to make sure they do not do.

They could lie to themselves all they want, but the fact is this is Mass Effect Gate for them. They are going to be hearing about it for ages. Its best that they figure out a way to deal with it.

 

[aesop]

I haven't read the entire thread yet, but are we glossing over the fact that if your war assets are high enough you see Shepherd alive on Earth after the jungle planet scene if you choose the destroy option? Would that give some credence to the whole indoctrination theory?

 

[Schweinehund]

If they want to do a new ending, they should atleast make it canon and have it viewed from another character's perspective.

I wouldn't mind a dlc pack that focuses on the british soldier (I forget his name but he's near the end of the game and in the trailer) that shows what happened on earth while shepherd was gone, and then continued a little bit after harbinger shoots his beam at shepherd/anderson.

 

[Rapstah]

Fun fact about Harbinger's voice actor: he was in TOR. I'm assuming they did not schedule him in time for ME3, but if they had had solid plans for Harbinger speaking in the game then they probably would have scheduled him in time.

 

[Lifejumper]

I haven't read the entire thread yet, but are we glossing over the fact that if your war assets are high enough you see Shepherd alive on Earth after the jungle planet scene if you choose the destroy option? Would that give some credence to the whole indoctrination theory?

And you still hear a battle going on, even after the destroy ending.

 

[Karak]

I haven't read the entire thread yet, but are we glossing over the fact that if your war assets are high enough you see Shepherd alive on Earth after the jungle planet scene if you choose the destroy option? Would that give some credence to the whole indoctrination theory?

This is actually one of the largest, if not the largest sticking point we have all discussed. As I had said before, there is no reason to show him alive unless there is a reason to show him alive.

 

[JustinBB7]

Can somebody double check this for me, I'd like to get all 3 endings sorted out:

Blue (left) end: Shepard (dies..? to) becomes a reaper, so he can control all the reapers and he commands(?) them to back off from the attack. All the mass relays explode and the cycle stops?

Green (mid) end: Shepard dies and all organic life forms become part machine. The reapers back off (I forgot why), all the mass relays explode and the cycle.. stops?

Red (right) end: Shepard dies and the reapers are destroyed along with all AI machines (geth and edi), all mass relays explode and the cycle stops for sure.



And of course the ending where you pick right, and shepard lives if your body was ready. Is there a nice guide somewhere where all this is explained? Just making sure.

 

[See You Next Wednesday]

The ending basically taught me this: "All of my hard work meant nothing, and the only way to beat the reapers is not to play Mass Effect."

This deserves a quote!

If there was any justice in the world, Bioware would have used that on the back of the game case.

 

[hateradio]

Can somebody double check this for me, I'd like to get all 3 endings sorted out:

Blue (left) end: Shepard (dies..? to) becomes a reaper, so he can control all the reapers and he commands(?) them to back off from the attack. All the mass relays explode and the cycle stops?

White (mid) end: Shepard dies and all organic life forms become part machine. The reapers back off (I forgot why), all the mass relays explode and the cycle.. stops?

Red (right) end: Shepard dies and the reapers are destroyed along with all AI machines (geth and edi), all mass relays explode and the cycle stops for sure.



And of course the ending where you pick right, and shepard lives if your body was ready. Is there a nice guide somewhere where all this is explained? Just making sure.

For Red, he can be shown alive if you had 5000 EMS.

The cycle stops in the middle option because organics and synthetics become one. The Reaper's cycle is to stop synthetics from killing organics, but since everything is combined they have no purpose and explode.

This deserves a quote!

If there was any justice in the world, Bioware would have used that on the back of the game case.

They really should have used the Linking Park lyrics. At least I would have either broken down and cried or cried laughing.

 

[Patryn]

For Red, he can be shown alive if you had 5000 EMS.

The cycle stops in the middle option because organics and synthetics become one. The Reaper's cycle is to stop synthetics from killing organics, but since everything is combined they have no purpose and explode.

4000 if Anderson isn't executed by the IM, because who the fuck knows why.

Can somebody double check this for me, I'd like to get all 3 endings sorted out:

Blue (left) end: Shepard (dies..? to) becomes a reaper, so he can control all the reapers and he commands(?) them to back off from the attack. All the mass relays explode and the cycle stops?

White (mid) end: Shepard dies and all organic life forms become part machine. The reapers back off (I forgot why), all the mass relays explode and the cycle.. stops?

Red (right) end: Shepard dies and the reapers are destroyed along with all AI machines (geth and edi), all mass relays explode and the cycle stops for sure.



And of course the ending where you pick right, and shepard lives if your body was ready. Is there a nice guide somewhere where all this is explained? Just making sure.

Change white to green. It's cherry, mint or blueberry. Pick your flavor.

 

[lefantome]

Now it's time for a brave and anonymous Bioware employee to tell the interwebz what happened during the development of this game(or the entire series) will be really appreciated by a lot of people who like the initial work of the team.