Mass Effect 3 SPOILER THREAD: LOTS OF SPECULATION FROM EVERYONE

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It does bring up interesting points, about Anderson's role, and the voices of the Catalyst.

Still, to pull that off as DLC, is sooooo Superman Dickery level...

"If" it happens, it has to be a free DLC within the next few weeks.
 
I consider Mass Effect an action RPG. It's funny, but despite my love for the series, I don't hold it to the same lofty RPG standards that so many others seem to do. Maybe because I'm far too cynical on the matter and never expect anything from BioWare to live up to the standards of old. Maybe because I don't care. I don't know. But, as someone who grew up on Fallout and Planescape, fact of the matter is from the very, very start I've not once expected similar depth to choice and consequences from this series.\

My annoyance with MGS4 (spoilered for those who haven't played it) is
it went out of the way to re-write previous games. This didn't, so it didn't break my rule.



And this doesn't bother me, because the entire series has been goofy, high fantasy sci fi slosh, and the magic super weapon seed had been sewn from the opening levels.

Keep in mind I'm not praising the ending, nor do I even consider it particularly good. I just didn't find it offensive, poor taste, or series destroying like so many others have. It didn't bother me.

How could you not find it offensive? Just because it didn't retcon things as much as MGS4? I'd say it's pretty offensive in how it egregiously rips off Deus Ex and summarizes the entire universe under an overarching synthetic vs organics argument that literally didn't exist until space wizard child introduced it.
 
The standards of old are just that: the standards of 15 years ago. Baldurs Gate 2 was a great game, but goddamn did it not age well at all. I take current Bioware games (well except DA2) over those D&D games any time. ME3 blows everything they did before out of the water (except for the ending).

I'm honestly not a big Baldur's Gate fan, but mostly because the D&D world does nothing for me and never has (Planescape the exception). But in terms of WRPGs I generally fall back to the likes of Fallout, and Troika's work with Arcanum and Bloodlines.

BioWare's RPGs always have a greater emphasis on streamlining for greater production values, as well as tons of fat that usually needs trimming. I generally consider them action RPGs, the latter in greater or less quantity depending on the game.

How could you not find it offensive? Just because it didn't retcon things as much as MGS4? I'd say it's pretty offensive in how it egregiously rips off Deus Ex and summarizes the entire universe under an overarching synthetic vs organics argument that literally didn't exist until space wizard child introduced it.

Synthetic vs. organic, creator vs. created, has been an underlying theme for the series since the beginning. ME3 ham fisted it in pretty tack fashion. But it didn't offend me because, unlike MGS4, it was a twist/them that didn't come out of completely nowhere, regardless of how silly it might be.
 
Is it wrong that I feel a sudden urge to play Dragon Age: Origins again? Feel like that's the last ending that Bioware managed to successfully pull off.

You know why? Because they realized what it was, and went for the Hollywood ending.

I'm honestly not a big Baldur's Gate fan, but mostly because the D&D world does nothing for me and never has (Planescape the exception). But in terms of WRPGs I generally fall back to the likes of Fallout, and Troika's work with Arcanum and Bloodlines.

BioWare's RPGs always have a greater emphasis on streamlining for greater production values, as well as tons of fat that usually needs trimming. I generally consider them action RPGs, the latter in greater or less quantity depending on the game.

But do you think they harmed the future of the franchise with the events of the ending? I still can't believe they blew up the Citadel and the Mass Relays, two of the most iconic elements of the series.
 
Not sure if I believe this or not, definately don't believe about BioWare concocting a new ending. But this kinda makes sense.. (Or am I just clinging on for desperation's sake)

http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mas...ss-Effect-3-Ending-Explanation-9817450-1.html

Couple that with Shepards last dream of him holding the child in the baptism of fire. Sorta makes sense

I don't want to give BioWare that much credit, but I did get a 'this shit is not right' feeling, especially when Hackett is still commanding Shepard to do his job (and Shepard being unable to concentrate, like a dream where you're not able to read). That threw me right off (I didn't know about Vent God at that point). Doesn't excuse what we got, though.
 
The catalyst is the citadel, and the multivoice thing is because he's the leader of the reapers.

The reason the citadel is changing around is because you're in a segment no one ever goes (basically where the keepers hang out. In ME1 they said they didn't know where the keepers actually went to.)

I don't know why you can't shoot the keepers, oversight? idk. It doesn't matter.
 
How is control not the only logical paragon ending? Instead of murdering the Geth and EDI(who by the way, helped you along the way), you sacrifice yourself instead.

I took control to be the 'paragon' ending. Destroy was obviously the 'renegade' choice as it destroyed all synthetic life and I guess that leave the synthesis one to be the 'neutral' choice, even though that is also kinda fucked up, forcing everyone and everything in the galaxy to be some sort of cyborg hybrid.
 
I think my biggest beef with the ending, I can sort of live with it not making a whole lot of sense. Was that this was the end of the trilogy and I had hoped that it would wrap up my journey a lot more than just green/red/blue explosion and some people popping out of the Normandy on some random planet. I mean, what happened after these events or during Shepard’s fight in London and on the Citadel? Even something as simple as the texts presented to you after finishing DA:O would be preferable to this.

And on top of that, it didn’t really feel like a win did it? It may sound like entitlement issues, but I sort of wanted my “hard work” in beating these games to give me at least the chance of a happy ending.
No house on Rannoch ;_;

All that said, it doesn’t bother me so much that I feel this destroyed the franchise completely. Chances are that I’ll still buy Bioware games and most likely I’ll enjoy them for what they are.
 
But do you think they harmed the future of the franchise with the events of the ending? I still can't believe they blew up the Citadel and the Mass Relays, two of the most iconic elements of the series.

Yes, they harmed it, and arguably ruined it for their fans. They effectively reset their universe, depending on the ending they picked. It's an interesting decision because the ramifications on the franchise' inevitable future are hard to predict. The ending (synergy one, anyway) feels very much like a franchise end, as if Mass Effect is now finished.

But maybe that was why they did it. So they can continue the "Mass Effect" series with a fairly clean slate.
 
I'm honestly not a big Baldur's Gate fan, but mostly because the D&D world does nothing for me and never has (Planescape the exception). But in terms of WRPGs I generally fall back to the likes of Fallout, and Troika's work with Arcanum and Bloodlines.

BioWare's RPGs always have a greater emphasis on streamlining for greater production values, as well as tons of fat that usually needs trimming. I generally consider them action RPGs, the latter in greater or less quantity depending on the game.



Synthetic vs. organic, creator vs. created, has been an underlying theme for the series since the beginning. ME3 ham fisted it in pretty tack fashion. But it didn't offend me because, unlike MGS4, it was a twist/them that didn't come out of completely nowhere, regardless of how silly it might be.

Only goes to show that there´s no way around personal taste... the god awful bug fest with the worst combat in western rpg history that is Arcanum is nowhere near the quality of BG2... in my own opinion of course. :D
 
Its the fact that it is so ridiculous that im willing to believe it. It would be a masterstroke of a troll and one which will probably costs them a shitload of fans, but i will buy all DLC for ME3 if thats really what they planned. :lol

I want to believe.
But this should have been the Free day one dlc player should get. For buying the game new like project 10 dollar was suppose to give.

But whatever i just accept the last 7 min of Mass effect franchise is one big bowl of shit.
Now i can go enjoy the multiplayer.
 
Synthetic vs. organic, creator vs. created, has been an underlying theme for the series since the beginning. ME3 ham fisted it in pretty tack fashion. But it didn't offend me because, unlike MGS4, it was a twist/them that didn't come out of completely nowhere, regardless of how silly it might be.
As a very minor theme, maybe, but as the theme? No it hasn't. The only species that has had problems with synthetics are the Quarians, and they don't play much of a role in the first two games. The problem of creator vs. created, synthetic vs. organic – there had been no emphasis on this until the last fifteen minutes of ME3. There were no problems or worries of organics vs. synthetics within the first two games.
 
Ok, well, just finished it. Why, dear God, why did they pull a Deus Ex ending. The fight for the galaxy (let alone for Earth) was never the meat of the series; at the end of the day, we only care for the people we know best (the way Mordin thinks about his nephew in ME2), which is the Normandy crew. Deus Ex is about the nature of humanity; Mass Effect is about characters. Why couldn't they understand it.

Ah well.
 
As a very minor theme, maybe, but as the theme? No it hasn't. The only species that has had problems with synthetics are the Quarians, and they don't play much of a role in the first two games. The problem of creator vs. created, synthetic vs. organic – there had been no emphasis on this until the last fifteen minutes of ME3. There were no problems or worries of organics vs. synthetics within the first two games.

Did you forget that the major enemy you fought for pretty much all of ME1 was the Geth?
 
if a future Mass Effect game comes to fruition, watch it be a game set 50,000 years later!

I mean, what would be the "villains" in a game, if the Reapers are out of the picture? The race that created it all? The "Dark Energy" thing mentioned?
 
if a future Mass Effect game comes to fruition, watch it be a game set 50,000 years later!

I mean, what would be the "villains" in a game, if the Reapers are out of the picture? The race that created it all? The "Dark Energy" thing mentioned?

I guess it'll be something new.
 
As a very minor theme, maybe, but as the theme? No it hasn't. The only species that has had problems with synthetics are the Quarians, and they don't play much of a role in the first two games. The problem of creator vs. created, synthetic vs. organic – there has been no emphasis on this until the last fifteen minutes of ME3. There were no problems or worries of organics vs. synthetics within the first two games.

Saren's monologue speech at the end of ME1 touches on it, as well as the whole Quarian/Geth war.

Anywho, I think the ending is an interesting quandary. If a game can make me depressed about a fictional universe they must have done something right. This game made me feel something, and that's probably what Bioware intended for it to do. A happily ever after ending I think would have been really lame.

Personally, I could have settled for a middle ground where Shepard dies but the Mass Relays remain intact. But hey, I'm fine with this ending, and everything up until that point was the best thing Bioware had ever produced.

Also, it is exciting in some respect that future Mass Effect games will create an entirely new universe rather than relying on old ideas.
 
I think my biggest issue with the ending is how hilarious it is to offer 'pick the button for the ending you want'. Not only that, but it really only changes some of the colors of the ending. Its just... really lazy.
 
Uh, do you forget that the major enemy you fought for pretty much all of ME1 was the Geth?
Which was only at the insistence of Sovereign! And even then, it was only a small fraction of the Geth collective. It even says in ME1 that after the Geth rebelled, they stayed within the veil and didn't bother anyone...until Sovereign arrived. There wasn't a problem. And the Geth weren't created by humans.
 
Ok, well, just finished it. Why, dear God, why did they pull a Deus Ex ending. The fight for the galaxy (let alone for Earth) was never the meat of the series; at the end of the day, we only care for the people we know best (the way Mordin thinks about his nephew in ME2), which is the Normandy crew. Deus Ex is about the nature of humanity; Mass Effect is about characters. Why couldn't they understand it.

Ah well.

Or we misunderstood the franchise?
 
Some form of BioWare statement

http://www.psxextreme.com/ps3-news/10806.html
So if you haven't noticed, theMass Effect[/i] fans are none too happy. There are a few issues of major contention: first, the DLC issue (which has gotten downright ugly), and second, the endings, none of which people seem to like.Now, there's no doubt the game is amazing. Most every critic and in truth, even most of the complainers, will tell you this. But the endings are really getting people riled up and series producer Mike Gamble has had a rough time on Twitter. The fans have been pretty relentless over the past 48 hours or so, and Gamble just recently updated with:"Hardest. Day. Ever. Seriously, if you people knew all the stuff we are planning…you’d, we’ll – hold onto your copy of [Mass Effect 3] forever."But that isn't smoothing things over, as the franchise followers continue to heap criticism atop the game's multiple endings. Many say the endings don't differ enough from each other, while others say player choices don't matter enough. One particularly irate fan, referring to the DLC in question, said- "You know, the one where you charge people $10 for a proper end to your plotless game." ...ouch.Well, annoyed fans can be tough to deal with. And you know, after completing FFXIII-2, I sort of understand where they're coming from... At any rate, I really think we should at least commend BioWare on producing one hell of a game; I'm not even a fan of the series, and I thought ME3 was pretty damn incredible. Can't we at least be optimists about this? ...please?
 
Oh god. I just realized.

The "Mass Effect and Bioware" panel at PAX East is going to be FASCINATING.

"Join developers for an exciting look at the evolution of the series. Bring your burning questions about Mass Effect 3"

ahaha, if they havent come out with either a really good explanation about the ending or a promise to fix it this will be amazing.
 
As a very minor theme, maybe, but as the theme? No it hasn't. The only species that has had problems with synthetics are the Quarians, and they don't play much of a role in the first two games. The problem of creator vs. created, synthetic vs. organic – there had been no emphasis on this until the last fifteen minutes of ME3. There were no problems or worries of organics vs. synthetics within the first two games.

The Quarians created the Geth, and were near destroyed by them. The Salarians uplifted the Krogan, and were forced into a war that almost killed them. Cerberus resurrected Shepard, and she (in my file) ignored them. Meanwhile gigantic, incomprehensible machine gods are wiping out organic, lesser life (that they guided to a specific technological evolutionary point), while proclaiming to be the pinnacle of all evolution themselves.

It's been there since the beginning. But it wasn't done very well.
 
I hope they clarify just who came up with the actual idea for the ending. It just feels so tacked on after the bit with Anderson.
 
Was it me, or was the 3rd dream, with another shepard "burning" with the kid, implying something about Shepard's Death at the beginning of ME2? Like it's possible that Shepard is in fact, a replacement that was created with the memory of Shepard's past?

Cause I can't think of another reason to have the 2 Shepards.
 
The Quarians created the Geth, and were near destroyed by them. The Salarians uplifted the Krogan, and were forced into a war that almost killed them. Cerberus resurrected Shepard, and she (in my file) ignored them. Meanwhile gigantic, incomprehensible machine gods are wiping out organic, lesser life (that they guided to a specific technological evolutionary point), while proclaiming to be the pinnacle of all evolution themselves.

It's been there since the beginning. But it wasn't done very well.

Space Wizard Child's justification was meaningless. The citadel banned synthetics and the central synthetic vs organic conflict in the series was the result of the organics being immense assholes anyway.
 
Which was only at the insistence of Sovereign! And even then, it was only a small fraction of the Geth collective. It even says in ME1 that after the Geth rebelled, they stayed within the veil and didn't bother anyone...until Sovereign arrived. There wasn't a problem. And the Geth weren't created by humans.

But in ME1, they thought Sovereign was a synthetic. Hence, all the Shepard talk about the visions being "Synthetics wiping out people."

It also wasn't established that it was only a small fraction until ME2 and Legion. It was thought that it was a full-out attack by all the Geth.

Synthetic vs. Organic was one of the major points of ME1.


When is pax??

PAX East is April 6-8. I believe that specific panel is on April 6.

Was it me, or was the 3rd dream, with another shepard "burning" with the kid, implying something about Shepard's Death at the beginning of ME2? Like it's possible that Shepard is in fact, a replacement that was created with the memory of Shepard's past?

Cause I can't think of another reason to have the 2 Shepards.

The videos in the IM's base also seems to imply that it's not the real Shepard.
 
But maybe that was why they did it. So they can continue the "Mass Effect" series with a fairly clean slate.

I'm pretty sure that was they did it. Don't know how they are going to the deal with with the three choices, but the forced destruction of the mass relay just appears to be their way of not having to deal with all the branching/decisions until now. It allows, for example, to make a story on a isolated system.

But leaving that in the air at the end of this saga is in very poor taste, at least for me. If their intention was to make me wonder "what comes next?".... they failed.

I think they would probably better off getting of the "your choices matter" bandwagon and just admit that to go forward they need a cannon story, than what they've done with this ending.
 
As a very minor theme, maybe, but as the theme? No it hasn't. The only species that has had problems with synthetics are the Quarians, and they don't play much of a role in the first two games. The problem of creator vs. created, synthetic vs. organic – there had been no emphasis on this until the last fifteen minutes of ME3. There were no problems or worries of organics vs. synthetics within the first two games.

Nope, the entire premise of saving organics from their creations is that at some point, it doesn't matter what but it's 50k years in the Reaper's book, the created will kill their creators. It doesn't matter who started it, it's a fact in this series that that is what has been happening forever or happened frequently in the past. So to save life, they destroy the older races who made AI so the younger races can live. Then they destroy the AI the older races made and leave and wait.

However frequently throughout the series it's always been about overcoming these barriers, especially seen by the crew and EDI, seen by shepard fixing the relations between the geth and the quarians, as seen by past experiences with the geth/quarian where the geth did not want to kill their creators until the quarians wanted to wipe them out and the geth only wanted to preserve themselves from an aggressor. Additionally, the first actual combat in the fleet where they drove the quarians out, they spared the fleeing quarians. They said they "felt bad" about wiping out an entire race. This completely goes against how the reapers think the creations will wipe out the creators. It was proven time and time again in the series.

Then at the end it throws it all out hte window and says "you can all be 'creations' or you can kill all creations, or control all reapers" (effectively murdering living things, or entire races, or controlling the reapers.

The ending sucks.
 
Control is the renegade ending. The IM argued for it, and he represents renegade.

You bring up an interesting point. Each of the endings can represent a person involved with the Reapers and what they were fighting for.

Renegade = TIM and control of Reapers
Neutral? = Saren and the melding of organics and synthetics
Paragon = Shepard and the destruction of synthetics
 
Space Wizard Child's justification was meaningless. The citadel banned synthetics and the central synthetic vs organic conflict in the series was the result of the organics being immense assholes anyway.

Yep, the history records you can watch inside the Geth Consensus really portray the Quarians as Massive dicks... like Hitler genocide level of dickiness.

Also, i would have let the Reapers kill the Salarians, gladly...
 
You bring up an interesting point. Each of the endings can represent a person involved with the Reapers and what they were fighting for.

Renegade = TIM and control of Reapers
Neutral? = Saren and the melding of organics and synthetics
Paragon = Shepard and the destruction of synthetics

Destruction is symbolized by Anderson.
 
So it turns out that Sheppard really died at the beginning of Mass Effect 2 and we've been playing out a bunch of hallucinations as his brain slowly becomes oxygen starved and he finally dies. Now they can release a new Mass Effect 2 and 3.

The cycle continues.
 
Not sure if I believe this or not, definately don't believe about BioWare concocting a new ending. But this kinda makes sense.. (Or am I just clinging on for desperation's sake)


http://social.bioware.com/forum/Mas...ss-Effect-3-Ending-Explanation-9817450-1.html

Couple that with Shepards last dream of him holding the child in the baptism of fire. Sorta makes sense

That... That actually makes some sort of sense. The control (and I assume the combine) ending vaporises Shep but the destroy one is just a big explosion (which could be survived) and the thing with the squad being on the Normandy as it lands on the jungle world then makes sense if it is Shep imagining/wishing they were safe. I did find it a bit odd that when the Catalyst/Casper spoke he had two voices but didn't recognise the other one.
 
I'd say it's pretty offensive in how it egregiously rips off Deus Ex and summarizes the entire universe under an overarching synthetic vs organics argument that literally didn't exist until space wizard child introduced it.

This is why Javik is so important to the story. He specifically mentions an instance during his cycle where synthetics and organics failed to co-operate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl-BBeC5KFo&list=FLcRKhusIoldqiyCXIgjfpqA&index=1

It's also worth noting that getting the Geth and Quarians to co-operate is HARD. It factors in a variety of choices from ME2 and ME3. Just look at the the amount of people complaining that they couldn't broker peace between them.
 
This is why Javik is so important to the story. He specifically mentions an instance during his cycle where synthetics and organics failed to co-operate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl-BBeC5KFo&list=FLcRKhusIoldqiyCXIgjfpqA&index=1

It's also worth noting that getting the Geth and Quarians to co-operate is HARD. It factors in a variety of choices from ME2 and ME3. Just look at the the amount of people complaining that they couldn't broker peace between them.

Bring Javik to Thessia, it's mindblowing to Liara when you do.
 
The Quarians created the Geth, and were near destroyed by them. The Salarians uplifted the Krogan, and were forced into a war that almost killed them. Cerberus resurrected Shepard, and she (in my file) ignored them. Meanwhile gigantic, incomprehensible machine gods are wiping out organic, lesser life (that they guided to a specific technological evolutionary point), while proclaiming to be the pinnacle of all evolution themselves.

It's been there since the beginning. But it wasn't done very well.

Yes and all of what you posted is the result of science or organics' mistake and not of an AI. The Salarians gave the atomic bomb to the Krogans which destroyed Tuchanka. They also introduced the genophage to control their population. They also reference how the same atomic bomb almost ravaged Earth completely.

The Geth had a rebellion simply because the quarians didn't consider them as equal (they didn't have a soul). And the geths that attack everyone outside the quarians in ME1 are simply indoctrinated by Sovereign.

It's poorly executed as it was never the central plot to the game. In the end they simply throw at you this explanation and you can't even argue with the space kid by proving that you changed EDI from a rogue and murderous AI into a teammate or helped the Quarian and Geth make a truce. The genophage was also a subplot of the series and the destructive power of science would have lead to a much better explanation than an imminent AI revolution. It would also have made sense with what you learn in ME1 about how the reapers steal/destroy all technologies.

The whole crucible/catalyst thing was a huge deux ex machina and the ending has many plotholes. It's also hilarious how the reapers attack every world except the Citadel. Isn't their main plan about controlling the citadel and the mass relays? Like how they use Saren in the first game to do that? The only do that in the second game with the Illusive Man at the end while it was the first thing they should have done. They also never explain how harvesting people preserve their legacy inside reapers? How do reapers even function or are changed by organic DNA?

It's also weird how your party members are teleported back to the Normandy after being blasted by the reaper's beam and how the Normandy crashes into a jungle planet while there are none in the Sol System.
 
I will say that the ending has done enough to put me off the multiplayer. I was enjoying it, but I think I need to step back from ME3 and play something else for a while.


Yes and all of what you posted is the result of science or organics' mistake and not of an AI. The Salarians gave the atomic bomb to the Krogans which destroyed Tuchanka. They also introduced the genophage to control their population. They also reference how the same atomic bomb almost ravaged Earth completely.

The Geth had a rebellion simply because the quarians didn't consider them as equal (they didn't have a soul). And the geths that attack everyone outside the quarians in ME1 are simply indoctrinated by Sovereign.

It's poorly executed as it was never the central plot to the game. In the end they simply throw at you this explanation and you can't even argue with the space kid by proving that you changed EDI from a rogue and murderous AI into a teammate or helped the Quarian and Geth make a truce. The genophage was also a subplot of the series and the destructive power of science would have lead to a much better explanation than an imminent AI revolution. It would also have made sense with what you learn in ME1 about how the reapers steal/destroy all technologies.

The whole crucible/catalyst thing was a huge deux ex machina and the ending has many plotholes. It's also hilarious how the reapers attack every world except the Citadel. Isn't their main plan about controlling the citadel and the mass relays? Like how they use Saren in the first game to do that? The only do that in the second game with the Illusive Man at the end while it was the first thing they should have done. They also never explain how harvesting people preserve their legacy inside reapers? How do reapers even function or are changed by organic DNA?

It's also weird how your party members are teleported back to the Normandy after being blasted by the reaper's beam and how the Normandy crashes into a jungle planet while there are none in the Sol System.

From what I recall, the Krogan developed their own atomic weaponry and blew themselves up. The Salarians just gave them space travel.
 
heh, watching some vids of the ending, didn't realize that it's possible the game only presents 2 options, or even just one. Figured the 3 choices were always there.

Heh, theres an ending where the earth burns???
 
This is why Javik is so important to the story. He specifically mentions an instance during his cycle where synthetics and organics failed to co-operate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl-BBeC5KFo&list=FLcRKhusIoldqiyCXIgjfpqA&index=1

It's also worth noting that getting the Geth and Quarians to co-operate is HARD. It factors in a variety of choices from ME2 and ME3. Just look at the the amount of people complaining that they couldn't broker peace between them.

I've got the Geth & Quarians peace VERY easily
 
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