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Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut is coming next week [Up: Out now, my sweet]

kami_sama said:
Luckily I have a save just before chronos station, but I will have to play again MP, my galactic readiness is at 50%.
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Yup, kinda sucks even though I like multiplayer.. don't want to have to grind my way through just to see the ending. Also I hate those 2 final stages, will probably just put them on 'easy' and bash my way through.
 
Mindwipe said:
In summary, the changes save the Mass Effect universe as a setting, but at the cost of making Mass Effect 3’s narrative and storytelling even worse by removing any plausible chance something clever was going on and making the character motivations and plot resolution as dumb as a bag of spanners, as well as just having clumsy pacing. It still forces choices for the future that make no thematic sense for the rest of the games in the series
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There was never any chance of anything plausible and clever going on so there's no real loss.

It's still bad writing, and still a bad ending, but it is better than what was originally given. Which doesn't say much.
 
APZonerunner said:
The same way they did before, I think - so partial destruction on earth if you're only partly ready, if you're not ready at all Destroy literally wipes everything out indiscriminately etcetera.
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That whole galactic readiness is going to be a pain in the ass for people who want to replay this in a year when nobody plays the multiplayer any more. So dumb.
 
Keepcalm.jpg
 
Mindwipe said:
So, at this point it seems like:

  • You still kill all the Geth. For no logical reason, since they’re not Reaper constructs, and Bioware themselves can’t seem to decide exactly what Destroy is actually supposed to destroy. This, thematically, still blows.
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  • It says it destroys all synthetics. Seems cut and dry to me.
 
Here's a transcript I quickly made of the refusal ending, including the Liara's beacon.

AI: Your time is at an end. You must decide.

Shepard: No. I'm going to end this war on my terms.

AI: Then you will die knowing that you have failed to save everything that you fought for.

Shepard: I fight for freedom, mine and eveyone's. Fight for the right to choose our own fate. And if I die, I'll die knowing that I did everything I could to stop you. And I'll die free.

AI: So be it. The cycle continues.

[Cutscene shows Reapers continuing to destroy ships. Fades out. New scene on a unknown planet. Liara's beacon begins to play.

Liara's Beacon: If you can here this then there is still hope. Hope that you can avoid the same mistakes we made. We fought the Reapers but we failed to stop them. We did everything we could. We built the crucible but it didn't work. We fought as a united galaxy, but it wasn't enough. I only hope the information in this capsule is enough to help you before it's too late. My name is Dr. Liara T'Soni. Herein lies the recounting of our war with the Reapers.

[Fades to black, credits roll. The snowy planet fades in with the child and Stargazer (stargazer has female voice now)]

Child: Did that all really happen?

Stargazer: We'll never know exactly what it was like but yes the archives tell the true story of those who came before us. They fought a terrible war so we wouldn't have to.

Child: And that's why we have peace?

Stargazer: Yes. Without everything they accomplished, without the information they passed down, we too would be threatened.

Child: What else do we know about the Shepard?

Stargazer: Just what we have in the archives. But Ive only told you a few of the stories.

Child: Can you tell me another one? Please?

Stargazer: It's getting late, but..okay, one more story.
 
All this is rendered useless by the fact the story still hinges on the idea that in order to stop synthetics from killing organics, someone created a race of unstoppable synthetics to wipe out all organics.
 
Alucrid said:
It says it destroys all synthetics. Seems cut and dry to me.
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What defines the line of being a synthetic? All VIs? Toasters? Ship-assisting programs? How can a beam make such distinction without seeming rather silly, given the limited amount of explanation it has behind it?

Although the Normandy no longer takes damage (I think I saw that, at least), so why it even lands on jungle planet is beyond me.
 
I still can't get over of how creepy the new synthesis ending is now. It was freaky in the original but now it's just straight-up horror.
 
Mindwipe said:
.
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Summed up a lot of my feelings on this. I still don't get why Harbinger was hyped up only for you never to encounter him, but overall I'm at least content with the "Destroy" ending now. The geth and edi sacrifice suck, but at least this ending gives my Shepard the option of a happy ending even if there's still plenty of lore breaking plot elements involved.

If the ME universe is ever continued on (through book, games, etc.) I'm pretty sure this will be the ending used as the cannon ending.
 
Are we still tagging spoilers?

The hilarious thing about the control ending is that this is exactly what any rational actor would have done if it wanted to "protect" organics and synthetics alike. The Star Child should have been exactly this - a constructive force that polices and aides the many star-faring civilizations.

The Star Child must literally be incapable of thinking properly given what its plan was. It's like Nero from the recent ST all over again, although at least he had the excuse of clearly being crazy and overly emotional.
 
Metroidvania said:
What defines the line of being a synthetic? All VIs? Toasters? Ship-assisting programs? How can a beam make such distinction without seeming rather silly, given the limited amount of explanation it has behind it?

Although the Normandy no longer takes damage (I think I saw that, at least), so why it even lands on jungle planet is beyond me.
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uh...space magic? i don't get why you're questioning this. it can be whatever bioware wants, but the geth have clearly always been synthetic life forms in the ME universe, so it if says it all synthetics are destroyed, well then yeah.
 
Okay, well, I'm going to disagree with the current consensus. I like the new endings. For me, they change the biggest flaw that the originals had. In those, the ending had the writer(s) tear down everything we had worked to build over the course of 3 games and removed the importance of everything that we had done and accomplished. Nothing mattered, because in the original endings, everybody and everything was destroyed. They were done with the Mass Effect universe and it really seemed as if they were just...angry...at the fans and decided to turn out the lights and go home.

Now, at least, it's not a happy ending. But it is one with hope still involved. It's not as angrily nihilistic and at least is in keeping with the way the rest of the series unfolded. Yes, there is still the stupid space ghost kid out of of left field (writing 101 - don't introduce major new characters in the final act, dumbasses) and we're still overall Tasting The Rainbow. But now, the rainbow tastes at least...bittersweet and not of shit-covered faux high "art."

Things they definitely fixed
- How did Joker get away? (still pretty thin, how'd he get to the ship, but we don't know how long Shepard was out for)
- Why did BioWare destroy everything? (Now, everything is fucked up, but repairable. Geth still live)
- So, the crew you saved is now stranded on a random planet? (Nope.)
- And they don't give a shit about Shepard's death? (Memorial scene, still pretty weak, but it's there).
- Why wouldn't Liara leave the memory box for future generations if they couldn't win? (She did!)
- Now the DLC splash screen at least attempts to hide the shilling, and gives some thanks to the fans.

Things they didn't fix
- What's the deal with Shepard breathing again? The stupid ass space magic synthesis garbage. (Whatever)
- They added an option to tell space ghost to fuck off. Clearly, this was the ending the writers hated adding the most, as it says "Oh, you want to continue choosing? Well, you all fucking die. Choose that, bitches."

In short, there are still a lot of problems here, but they are still a vast improvement over the originals. I can watch the destroy option and not feel like I got ripped off and shat on by some angry guy in BioWare HQ. It's not a "everybody gets ice cream and snuggles" ending. It's just not a "Fuck everything you've done, everybody dies, but oh, hey buy our DLC!"
 
Jackpot said:
All this is rendered useless by the fact the story still hinges on the idea that in order to stop synthetics from killing organics, someone created a race of unstoppable synthetics to wipe out all organics.
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Well, to be fair it's now kind of hinted that they built the starchild as a mere arbitrator, and he just went crazy and built the Reapers instead.

Which makes a bit more logical sense I guess, but is hardly an interesting plotline. It's like revealing at the end of Murder at the Orient Express the killer is just a mad bloke who you've never seen before, who killed these people for no reason because he was crazy. Plausible, but dull to watch.
 
Eh...they didn't really change or explain that much more than before, they just retconned the most egregiously bad aspects like the relays blowing up.

I still don't understand why the fleet had to run away- the troops on earth are fine in just about every ending, so why did the fleet have to escape from the Crucible?

And what is the point of the whole jungle planet part of the ending now? They just crash land, have their profound moment and then get back in and leave?


This really does very little to fix the problems of the endgame of ME3, since the problem wasn't just the stupid Starchild ending, the problems started as soon as you got on Earth and your War Assets have next to zero tangible effect.
 
I started giggling uncontrollably watching the Synthesis ending when they played the same slideshow but with green eyes and veins, and then started laughing for reals when they showed the memorial wall scene with real-time green vein specular effects

I guess these are an improvement, although they certainly don't plug up many of the holes. The biggest problems are still glaringly present.
 
Alucrid said:
uh...space magic? i don't get why you're questioning this. it can be whatever bioware wants, but the geth have clearly always been synthetic life forms in the ME universe, so it if says it all synthetics are destroyed, well then yeah.
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Nah, I'm not limiting it to that, but saying "all synthetics" and then just blowing up Geth/EDI seems rather silly.

Another thing I noticed (will need to re-watch to be sure) is that in the new Charge to the Beam, the Normandy drops down to pick up your wounded squad, and Harby just sits there waiting patiently.

- They added an option to tell space ghost to fuck off. Clearly, this was the ending the writers hated adding the most, as it says "Oh, you want to continue choosing? Well, you all fucking die. Choose that, bitches."
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Yeah, this seemed really petty. Space Brat allows you to choose destroy, but not to reject his solutions?
 
Does anyone have footage of the changes leading up to Star Kid? The stuff on the laser beam run and the Conduit, and the new dialogue choices in the final conversation? I'd like to see whether Bioware clarified what the endings were before you picked them. The first time I played the game I thought that Synthesis meant we'd all regress back to some primordial ooze or something, and by the time I actually got to pick an ending I'd forgotten which ones were which because I couldn't talk to the kid again and ask him.
 
I just finished it.

That was the laziest fix I have ever seen.

They address all the complaints but in the laziest and most simple way possible.

One thing I do appreciate is that they tried to explain in more detail how your last 3 options work. They're still stupid, but at least they explained them.

The changes actually raise more questions. Guess keeping my expectations low was the right thing to do.
 
The Mass Effect franchise never had a very good story from the beginning, so I never understood why people got so upset over the endings in the first place...
 
No mention at all in the Control or Synthesis endings about why you would suddenly decide to do either after having stopped TIM and Saren from doing the same. Unsurprisingly.

Woefully bad endings, all of them. Destroy wins by default.
 
Stopped reading after encountering a spoiler... So here is my question:

Is the game now fully enjoyable from beginning to end? Liked 1, loved 2 so I was pretty bummed out when all this talk arose about ME3 destroying everything storywise.

Is it safe to buy now? :p
 
Donny Hayabusa said:
Stopped reading after encountering a spoiler... So here is my question:

Is the game now fully enjoyable from beginning to end? Liked 1, loved 2 so I was pretty bummed out when all this talk arose about ME3 destroying everything storywise.

Is it safe to buy now? :p
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Same crappy ending
 
Donny Hayabusa said:
Stopped reading after encountering a spoiler... So here is my question:

Is the game now fully enjoyable from beginning to end? Liked 1, loved 2 so I was pretty bummed out when all this talk arose about ME3 destroying everything storywise.

Is it safe to buy now? :p
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its better then before,story has some good high points.
 
AlimNassor said:
Synthesis is stupid. How the hell does something turn into a machine just because it got hit by a glowing light?
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Space Magic™, of course!

It's the same way how your readiness rating somehow translate into how strong the Crucible beam hits the Earth. Whether or not it'll obliterate Earth.
 
AlimNassor said:
Synthesis is stupid. How the hell does something turn into a machine just because it got hit by a glowing light?
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And in context, what does synthetic even mean?

It seems to suggest that the problems are solved because all the synthetic life now has DNA and is a bit fleshy and vice versa... but that doesn't mean new synthetic life that wouldn't be fleshy wouldn't be built too.

Will nobody want to grow above their station any more? The logic given seems to be that synthetics vs organics is a conflict between the created who struggle to become more and the chaos of the evolved who created them. But the synthesis solution just mixes around the machinery used to build them, and doesn't solve that conflict. The evolved and the created will still exist.

Synthesis remains an ending that makes even less sense the more you think about it, as well as being full of silly space magic.
 
Saw all new endings.

All suck.

Mostly the same, with some pointless padding here and there. Still the same rainbow children rubbish all round.

I will not dignify this botched attempt by sticking the ME3 disc into my console. Fuck you BioWare, same goes to EA.
 
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