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[Photolysis]

Hmm, apparently someone has managed to use Gibbed's ME3 editor to enable Javik on the 360.

Interesting...

 

[CharmingCharlie]

The best complaint ive seen is someone on a here i believe saying that ME3 "ruined the first two games for him as well" - thats amazing. How can the last 5 minutes of a third game ruin the first two games?

I love the ME series. The entire world/universe/graphics/combat/sound/dialogue/choice/consequence is just fantastic. The minor issues aside or completely outweighed by the overall quality of the series.

Because NONE of the decisions in the last 3 games matter one little bit. It doesn't matter if you cure the genophage or do not cure the genophage the galaxy gets screwed at the end. It doesn't matter if you get Quarians to hug Geth or not because the galaxy gets screwed at the end. All those decisions and people you helped on the Citadel well guess what it doesn't matter cos they are screwed too. Nothing matters in the Mass Effect universe thanks to the 10 minute ending crap.

What is the point of playing a series based on choice when the only choice that actually matters is the one right at the end which completely and utterly craps all over every single decision you made in the last three games ? That is why people are saying the third game ruins the other two.

 

[Duebrithil]

Finished the game yesterday and gave it a good night's sleep for it to settle a little. After having thorouhly enjoyed all three games, I feel the Godchild is kind of a cop-out that devaluated the concept of Reapers as an unknowable enemy. In that regard I think it would have been best not to explain anything about them, or if they really wanted to flesh them out more a better option would have been to leave little clues on the missions on Reaper-controlled worlds, but nothing too obvious.

Maybe if the Catalyst entity was somehow alluded on previous games the ending would sting a little less (though I doubt it), but Sovereign's speech on Virmire seemed to indicate the Reapers are independent from everything (although perhaps Harbinger's "Your species has the attention of those infinitely your greater" is an allusion to the Catalyst?).

I also didn't feel a connection between EMS and the final "choices" offered in the end. While in ME2 the diferent Normandy upgrades, tasks assigned to characters and their loyalty made sense in determining who would die and who wouldn't, in ME3 EMS seemed more like an arbitrary number without real connection to anything (other than the state of the Crucible). In this regard something along the lines of the chart in the OP would have been preferable (I see nothing wrong with combining the results of the chart with the choices presented at the end, provided the Godchild and all that nonsense disappears).

That said, I enjoyed every second of my ME3 playthrough right until the end (Rannoch and Menae were simply fantastic, and I am glad they expanded the number of weapons available for example). In any case I don't see how they could fix the ending through DLC without rewritting some parts of the story. I really wish they left out the solution-Catalyst part of it, and expanded on the dark energy sun problem presented on Haestrom in ME2. Reapers build mass relays, harvest species, in every cycle a superweapon is improved which with the biggest fleet in the history of the galaxy is what will make Reaper defeat possible. After docking the Crucible to the Citadel Shepard discovers extensive use of mass relays causes stars to decay quicker than expected => choice: kill reapers, kill synthetics, control Reapers, merge organics-synthetics+limit use of mass relays, leave mass relays intact, deactivate them completely. I also like the idea of Reapers pruning organics to limit the use of mass relays in order to preserve stars, but this assumes mass relays cause a dark energy build-up and isn't very coherent with the idea that they built the mass relays to influence civilization development.

I am probably overthinking everything, but damn I needed to vent.

PS: This YT comment made things a little more bearable:
Shepard: "Hey, can you do me a favor?"
Catalyst: "What's that?"
Shepard: "Patch me through to Harbinger"
Catalyst: "Sure..."
Harbinger: "SHEPARD??!!!"
Shepard: "Harbinger....ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL"

 

[Slackbladder]

How much can the problems associated with the ending be contributed with the leaking of the script? Did the leak significantly force Bioware to do a re-write, there-by making Bioware run out of time?
I wonder if that leak is partly responsible (or possibly indirectly). Or is it all on the heads of Hudson/Walters etc?

 

[Sojgat]

Because NONE of the decisions in the last 3 games matter one little bit. It doesn't matter if you cure the genophage or do not cure the genophage the galaxy gets screwed at the end. It doesn't matter if you get Quarians to hug Geth or not because the galaxy gets screwed at the end. All those decisions and people you helped on the Citadel well guess what it doesn't matter cos they are screwed too. Nothing matters in the Mass Effect universe thanks to the 10 minute ending crap.

What is the point of playing a series based on choice when the only choice that actually matters is the one right at the end which completely and utterly craps all over every single decision you made in the last three games ? That is why people are saying the third game ruins the other two.

I agree 100%, plus the fact that the ending makes no sense at all and is just trying to be intentionally bewildering. You people who liked it just give me a headache, I will come back tommorow and you will have realised how shit it was and be talking about indoctrination theory.

 

[Phat Michael]

Because NONE of the decisions in the last 3 games matter one little bit. It doesn't matter if you cure the genophage or do not cure the genophage the galaxy gets screwed at the end. It doesn't matter if you get Quarians to hug Geth or not because the galaxy gets screwed at the end. All those decisions and people you helped on the Citadel well guess what it doesn't matter cos they are screwed too. Nothing matters in the Mass Effect universe thanks to the 10 minute ending crap.

What is the point of playing a series based on choice when the only choice that actually matters is the one right at the end which completely and utterly craps all over every single decision you made in the last three games ? That is why people are saying the third game ruins the other two.

I thought the choices did matter - there were things i could/couldnt do based on my interactions with the first and second game.

The choices were to get you to that part of the game, just because at the ending you dont get a wonderful happy ending where the people you have saved survived, it doesnt mean that those choices counted for nothing up until the very last event.

And in answer to the bold - because its fun? it looks great, sounds great, plays great and it was a thoroughly enjoyable series/experience with amazing combat, story, dialogue and audio/visuals?

I love playing the game, but it seems more people here spend time bitching about it then actually playing SP/MP. And to those who are writing petitions/trying to get the ending changed - like seriously who cares? its a video game not really a life threating event here.

 

[Turfster]

I love the ME series. The entire world/universe/graphics/combat/sound/dialogue/choice/consequence is just fantastic. The minor issues aside or completely outweighed by the overall quality of the series.

So you see no problem with a random last-minute-asspull god tasking synthetics to go kill advanced organics every X years because OH NOES YOU MIGHT CREATE SYNTHETICS AND THEY COULD LIKE, TOTALLY KILL YOU. Never mind the fact that you just made peace between the Quarians and the Geth, sending synthetics to 'save' you from synthetics by exterminating you is patently ridiculous.

Or the fact that every civilization since like, forever, has been working on a weapon NOBODY KNOWS HOW TO USE OR WHAT IT DOES. It's like neanderthals making a trigger, then the babylonians add a stock, the greeks add a hammer, the romans add a trigger guard, etc etc until you end up with a modern handgun in medieval times.

Or how in the synthesis ending, which people that see no problem with the ending are claiming as the 'best' apparently, thanks to 'space magic' EVERY SINGLE ORGANISM, EVEN THE FUCKING PLANTS is suddenly a mixture of organic and synthetic components?

The list goes on and on.

The choices were to get you to that part of the game, just because at the ending you dont get a wonderful happy ending where the people you have saved survived, it doesnt mean that those choices counted for nothing up until the very last event.

Oh, great, you're one of those "boo hoo all you whiners want a magical pony rainbow ending." No. I want an ending that takes previous lore into account and doesn't feel like it was written by a damned 5 year old in 2 minutes.

 

[def sim]

- Assumed we wanted a wonderful, happy conclusion
- Talks about petitions as if we were the crazy retake mass effect guys
- Amazed that a videogame forum has discussions about videogames

Huh

 

[Phat Michael]

Why are you swearing so much and shouting? Seriously, its just a game and it's a really good one.

I never said its the best ending but its not as bad as people on internet forums seem to think it is. It's also not worth getting angry over - if you express yourself without profanities and shouting people might listen.

 

[Sojgat]

I thought the choices did matter - there were things i could/couldnt do based on my interactions with the first and second game.

The choices were to get you to that part of the game, just because at the ending you dont get a wonderful happy ending where the people you have saved survived, it doesnt mean that those choices counted for nothing up until the very last event.

And in answer to the bold - because its fun? it looks great, sounds great, plays great and it was a thoroughly enjoyable series/experience with amazing combat, story, dialogue and audio/visuals?

I love playing the game, but it seems more people here spend time bitching about it then actually playing SP/MP. And to those who are writing petitions/trying to get the ending changed - like seriously who cares? its a video game not really a life threating event here.

What I think is meant is that all the choices you make during the game have no tangible impact on the end of the game like they did in ME2. Getting extra armor or a stronger cannon for the Normandy actually had a meaningful impact on the suicide mission. Nobody is upset because the ending wasn't happy they are upset because it was abrupt, poorly written, inconsistent space magic. My neck hurts too.

 

[Dilly]

Also, Joker randomly crashing on a planet thiat can sustain life.

OH THE ODDS.

 

[Escape Goat]

when is Pax? I need more fuel to this fire.

 

[def sim]

when is Pax? I need more fuel to this fire.

This Friday.

Pax will be glorious. Is it going to be livestreamed anywhere?

Probably not.

 

[Moaradin]

Pax will be glorious. Is it going to be livestreamed anywhere?

 

[Blue Ninja]

In ME2, Shepard died before re-entry.

Sssh, semantics.

 

[Diablohead]

what should have happened is that the perfect or good paragon save from me1-2-3 combined gave out an awesome happy ending with a few twists, and a renegade ending being something really grim, then a middle ground.

Having a different colour explosion and a few minor changes to the cut scenes is a huge cop out, I have only played the multi part of ME3 so far and have no feelings towards playing the single player any time soon now, and I LOVE ME1 and find ME2 to be a good sequel.

What a shame, Bioware :/

 

[Phat Michael]

What I think is meant is that all the choices you make during the game have no tangible impact on the end of the game like they did in ME2. Getting extra armor or a stronger cannon for the Normandy actually had a meaningful impact on the suicide mission. Nobody is upset because the ending wasn't happy they are upset because it was abrupt, poorly written, inconsistent space magic. My neck hurts too.

Ah thats fair enough.

I do admit, i wanted my EMS to actually account more for something - say like if it was higher you see a video of a more dominant battle performance where the Alliance was winning or something...

And that is fair enough about how the suicide mission was impacted by the choices/consequences.

Ive got no probs with people not being happy with the ending - but i think saying it ruined the previous 2 games is just silly. Also, you have to admit the blowout from the ending is pretty ridiculous and over the top.

 

[The Elite]

Because NONE of the decisions in the last 3 games matter one little bit. It doesn't matter if you cure the genophage or do not cure the genophage the galaxy gets screwed at the end. It doesn't matter if you get Quarians to hug Geth or not because the galaxy gets screwed at the end. All those decisions and people you helped on the Citadel well guess what it doesn't matter cos they are screwed too. Nothing matters in the Mass Effect universe thanks to the 10 minute ending crap.

What is the point of playing a series based on choice when the only choice that actually matters is the one right at the end which completely and utterly craps all over every single decision you made in the last three games ? That is why people are saying the third game ruins the other two.

All of that mattered as part of the journey for me. It's a role-playing game and whether or not I cured the genophage mattered from a character standpoint.

It's war and a shit load of people had to die. Some of those people are going to be ones who you helped along the way. They're fucked anyways. In the end, I saved the Galaxy and that's what matters. All of those people who signed up to help Shepard along the way knew that going in.

The choices I made had a great impact on the entire experience, I'm not bothered at all that they didn't factor in to the final hours of the game.

This happens a lot. People expect every story thread to tie into a neat little bow at the end of the experience. Life doesn't work like that and the best stories don't either.

If you think the only choice that really mattered was the one at the end, I'm not sure you played the game correctly. A lot of the decisions along the way mattered a hell of a lot to me and defined my character. They effected me in the role playing experience of making that finale choice. I think you're looking for a mechanical, gameplay result of all those decisions.

 

[TheYanger]

Ah thats fair enough.

I do admit, i wanted my EMS to actually account more for something - say like if it was higher you see a video of a more dominant battle performance where the Alliance was winning or something...

And that is fair enough about how the suicide mission was impacted by the choices/consequences.

Ive got no probs with people not being happy with the ending - but i think saying it ruined the previous 2 games is just silly. Also, you have to admit the blowout from the ending is pretty ridiculous and over the top.

Some people are over the top. The 'outrage' itself is totally warranted. It's not just a bad ending, it's an ending that pulls the rug out from under you. People have a right to be angry about it. If the games hadn't been good nobody would give a shit, but they were, so they do.

All of that mattered as part of the journey for me. It's a role-playing game and whether or not I cured the genophage mattered from a character standpoint.

It's war and a shit load of people had to die. Some of those people are going to be ones who you helped along the way. They're fucked anyways. In the end, I saved the Galaxy and that's what matters. All of those people who signed up to help Shepard along the way knew that going in.

The choices I made had a great impact on the entire experience, I'm not bothered at all that they didn't factor in to the final hours of the game.

This happens a lot. People expect every story thread to tie into a neat little bow at the end of the experience. Life doesn't work like that and the best stories don't either.

Uh, I would love to see some of the 'best stories' that have endings that are basically completely contrary to the rest of the story and make no sense.
Nobody cares about people dying, people dying were the BEST PARTS of ME3, everyone seems to agree on that. You sound like you didn't even comprehend the ending enough to understand what was bad about it. How did you save the galaxy again? was it where you destroyed the mass relays, and fucked over all possibility for intergalactic travel? Was it the part where you forced your will onto either A) the reapers, B) everyone, or C) reapers, geth, edi, anyone with any sort of synthetic implants/nanites/whatever and committed mass genocide?

 

[The Elite]

Some people are over the top. The 'outrage' itself is totally warranted. It's not just a bad ending, it's an ending that pulls the rug out from under you. People have a right to be angry about it. If the games hadn't been good nobody would give a shit, but they were, so they do.


Uh, I would love to see some of the 'best stories' that have endings that are basically completely contrary to the rest of the story and make no sense.
Nobody cares about people dying, people dying were the BEST PARTS of ME3, everyone seems to agree on that. You sound like you didn't even comprehend the ending enough to understand what was bad about it. How did you save the galaxy again? was it where you destroyed the mass relays, and fucked over all possibility for intergalactic travel? Was it the part where you forced your will onto either A) the reapers, B) everyone, or C) reapers, geth, edi, anyone with any sort of synthetic implants/nanites/whatever and committed mass genocide?

How was it contrary to the rest of the story? That doesn't make sense to me.

How did I save the galaxy? The part when you saved the galaxy is when you stopped the Reapers from destroying all space-traveling life in the universe. FULL STOP If the Mass Relays had to be destroyed - SO BE IT.

Sometimes, you're not going to get the decision you want in life. I'm sure Shepard would have loved an other option: Save civilization, the Relays and himself - but that simply wasn't in the cards. Shit like that happens. You can make all the correct decisions along the way and still have to make a sacrifice at the end of the journey.

The odds of success were impossible. The fact that he got a choice at all is what you fought the entire three games for.

 

[Galactic Fork]

Ah thats fair enough.

I do admit, i wanted my EMS to actually account more for something - say like if it was higher you see a video of a more dominant battle performance where the Alliance was winning or something...

And that is fair enough about how the suicide mission was impacted by the choices/consequences.

Ive got no probs with people not being happy with the ending - but i think saying it ruined the previous 2 games is just silly. Also, you have to admit the blowout from the ending is pretty ridiculous and over the top.

Also, there's the fact that everybody you talked to during the game is now trapped in the Sol system or dead in the citadel. This includes the Quarian fleet.

I think one of my biggest issues is the mass relays being destroyed. It's so cheap.

 

[The Elite]

What I think is meant is that all the choices you make during the game have no tangible impact on the end of the game like they did in ME2. Getting extra armor or a stronger cannon for the Normandy actually had a meaningful impact on the suicide mission. Nobody is upset because the ending wasn't happy they are upset because it was abrupt, poorly written, inconsistent space magic. My neck hurts too.

The thing is, the odds were so ridiculously against humanity (and everyone else) I'm not sure how much all that fire power and all those cannons really mattered in the end. Midway through the game, just destroying one Reaper is made out to be a huge deal and at that point I knew that this was a hopeless battle.

Civilizations have been playing this same game every 50,000 years and I'm sure they made a ton of decisions along the way, but ultimately they didn't get a choice of whether or not that they could continue to exist. Shepard fought for that choice and by some miracle managed to get one. That is good enough for me.

I'll admit that the ending was brief but there really wasn't much more I wanted from it. I think some may have wanted an hour long epilogue like Return of the King to see the outcome of all their decisions and where the characters ended up, but I found myself not needing that. The journey was reward enough for me.

 

[Jintor]

Why are you swearing so much and shouting? Seriously, its just a game and it's a really good one.

I never said its the best ending but its not as bad as people on internet forums seem to think it is. It's also not worth getting angry over - if you express yourself without profanities and shouting people might listen.

But we're doing that here and you're clearly not listening, so...

 

[Sojgat]

How was it contrary to the rest of the story? That doesn't make sense to me.

How did I save the galaxy? The part when you saved the galaxy is when you stopped the Reapers from destroying all space-traveling life in the universe. FULL STOP If the Mass Relays had to be destroyed - SO BE IT.

Sometimes, you're not going to get the decision you want in life. I'm sure Shepard would have loved an other option: Save civilization, the Relays and himself - but that simply wasn't in the cards. Shit like that happens. You can make all the correct decisions along the way and still have to make a sacrifice at the end of the journey.

The odds of success were impossible. The fact that he got a choice at all is what you fought the entire three games for.

Destroying a mass relay has already been shown in the "arrival" DLC to destroy a great deal of the system that it is located in. In the end of ME3 Shepard blows them all up, thus he kills most everyone in the galaxy. He doesn't really save shit and nothing he did up to that point really mattered. I love Mass Effect I have played all of the Games even ME3 multiple times but the ending kind of destroys the universe for me.

 

[Escape Goat]

are there people on mass relays? Are they windows or are those lights just holes in the exterior hull where light is shining through?

 

[The Elite]

Destroying a mass relay has already been shown in the "arrival" DLC to destroy a great deal of the system that it is located in. In the end of ME3 Shepard blows them all up, thus he kills most everyone in the galaxy. He doesn't really save shit and nothing he did up to that point really mattered. I love Mass Effect I have played all of the Games even ME3 multiple times but the ending kind of destroys the universe for me.

Haven't looked at or read up on the "Arrival" DLC (edit: Just realized this is ME2 DLC that I never played) at all. Has it been released? I'll admit, that would be shitty but that wasn't part of the ending of the game for me.

It might be best not to play through that or experience it. I'd rather leave my ending the way it is. That's the beauty of choice in the Mass Effect universe.

Actually, after the ending I decided that any DLC might be a little bit silly for this. Tacking on some cheesy epilogue for fan service might undo the impact of the Shepard's sacrifice.

 

[Bisnic]

Destroying a mass relay has already been shown in the "arrival" DLC to destroy a great deal of the system that it is located in. In the end of ME3 Shepard blows them all up, thus he kills most everyone in the galaxy. He doesn't really save shit and nothing he did up to that point really mattered. I love Mass Effect I have played all of the Games even ME3 multiple times but the ending kind of destroys the universe for me.

Considering Joker and co. ends up on some planet juste fine, i dont think the Mass Relays actually destroyed every system.

 

[Rodhull]

Also, there's the fact that everybody you talked to during the game is now trapped in the Sol system or dead in the citadel. This includes the Quarian fleet.

I think one of my biggest issues is the mass relays being destroyed. It's so cheap.

For me it's not even so much that the relays were destroyed it was mainly the fact that Shepherd didn't even question it when as far as he knew from previous experience he was going to wipe out the vast majority of life in those systems.

Having 'and the mass relays will be destroyed' just thrown out there as if it was only a minor thing seemed really odd to me. Maybe it was part of the desired speculation for the endings or maybe Bioware didn't think people would even query it. I really hope if they do bring clarification to the endings with DLC that is one of the things they address.

 

[The Librarian]

Haven't looked at or read up on the "Arrival" DLC at all. Has it been released? I'll admit, that would be shitty but that wasn't part of the ending of the game for me.

It might be best not to play through that or experience it. I'd rather leave my ending the way it is. That's the beauty of choice in the Mass Effect universe.

Actually, after the ending I decided that any DLC might be a little bit silly for this. Tacking on some cheesy epilogue for fan service might undo the impact of the Shepard's sacrifice.

The relays are destroyed in every single ending. You can't have not gotten it.

 

[HollovVpo1nt]

Totally with you on this. As soon as i finished the game, i thought, that was awesome - then started another playthrough. I dont see why people are up in arms complaining about something when the entire game was excellent.

The best complaint ive seen is someone on a here i believe saying that ME3 "ruined the first two games for him as well" - thats amazing. How can the last 5 minutes of a third game ruin the first two games?

I love the ME series. The entire world/universe/graphics/combat/sound/dialogue/choice/consequence is just fantastic. The minor issues aside or completely outweighed by the overall quality of the series.

You really don't get it do you? ME3 is a great game right up untill the beam attack. I loved how I saved the Geth and made peace with the Quarians and got Rannoch back, but in the end that didn't matter.

I love how I cured the Genophage and made peace with the Turians, but in the end it didn't matter. These are just two examples.

The ending just doesn't make sense. Everything you did was nullified by the ending.

 

[The Elite]

The relays are destroyed in every single ending. You can't have not gotten it.

I didn't say that. At what point did I say I didn't have the relays being destroyed in my ending? I'm saying that I never played the Arrival DLC so I didn't get the impact of the relays destroying half of a star system. I was unaware of that.

From that standpoint, I can understand people's frustrations.

I had just assumed that the relays were destroyed and the systems were left separated. I was content with that. Kind of glad I didn't play the "arrival" dlc.

 

["God's Beard!"]

Considering Joker and co. ends up on some planet juste fine, i dont think the Mass Relays actually destroyed every system.

Considering that is it's own load of shit I don't think it matters much.

 

[TheYanger]

How was it contrary to the rest of the story? That doesn't make sense to me.

How did I save the galaxy? The part when you saved the galaxy is when you stopped the Reapers from destroying all space-traveling life in the universe. FULL STOP If the Mass Relays had to be destroyed - SO BE IT.

Sometimes, you're not going to get the decision you want in life. I'm sure Shepard would have loved an other option: Save civilization, the Relays and himself - but that simply wasn't in the cards. Shit like that happens. You can make all the correct decisions along the way and still have to make a sacrifice at the end of the journey.

The odds of success were impossible. The fact that he got a choice at all is what you fought the entire three games for.

It is? Where in the three games prior to that was there any notion of some random space baby VI deus ex machina that would give you 3 SHITTY choices, and that you would simply...take them. You fought tooth and nail, against all odds, to DEFEAT the reapers. None of the three endings is remotely satisfying towards that end. The same character that stood in defiance every other time someone said something was impossible, or suicide, or wrong, would not blindly accept what this space baby that came out of nowhere had to say.

There's nothing wrong with Shepard sacrificing him/herself. Had the game simply said 'hey you killed htem with your supergun, you won' when you and anderson were sitting there dying in the citadel, and then had 5-10 minutes SHOWING what happened to the galaxy, people would not be complaining about it.

How did we save anyone, when their worlds are devastated, and anyone that wasn't on them is now trapped in the Sol system? How did we save them when we 'took over' the reapers, or killed entire civilizations on a galactic scale by choosing destroy? Or when we turned them all into nonsensical 'synthetic organics' with synthesis? How does any of it even make any sense?

More importantly, how is ANY of that satisfying? The odds of success are impossible? Rofl. Ok. The entire point of the hero's journey is that the odds are dire. You can have a game that says fate is inevitable and the reapers cannot be stopped, and it would be FAR more satisfying than this LITERALLY paradoxical argument presented by the star child. I would rather see the reapers win and get some commentary on the inevitability of the universe than something that was pulled out of some hack writer's ass at the last moment. Just because it's confusing doesn't mean it's deep, it's faux intellectualism at its worst. It is simply bad writing.

I don't know why you're stuck on the idea that it's 'negative' and therefore it's cool, I'm sorry if your parents beat you as a child or whatever it is that makes you think there are no happy endings in life, since that seems to be your only argument. Happy or not has nothing to do with the quality of the material, and it only takes a glance at the OP or even a hint of critical thinking to see all of the cracks in the story we're given. It makes no sense. Period. Whether it's happy or not is irrelevant past that point.

 

[Sojgat]

The thing is, the odds were so ridiculously against humanity (and everyone else) I'm not sure how much all that fire power and all those cannons really mattered in the end. Midway through the game, just destroying one Reaper is made out to be a huge deal and at that point I knew that this was a hopeless battle.

Civilizations have been playing this same game every 50,000 years and I'm sure they made a ton of decisions along the way, but ultimately they didn't get a choice of whether or not that they could continue to exist. Shepard fought for that choice and by some miracle managed to get one. That is good enough for me.

I'll admit that the ending was brief but there really wasn't much more I wanted from it. I think some may have wanted an hour long epilogue like Return of the King to see the outcome of all their decisions and where the characters ended up, but I found myself not needing that. The journey was reward enough for me.

Why does Shepard wake up in the rubble at the end? How did all your squadmates magically get aboard the Normandy? How does the Citadel re-write the galaxy so that everyone is suddenly techno-organic? Why is all of this stuff introduced and then resolved in the last 5 minutes of a 40 hour long game, the third in a trilogy? None of this stuff bothers you? I loved the journey as well, but the ending was really bad regardless.

 

[Galactic Fork]

How was it contrary to the rest of the story? That doesn't make sense to me.

How did I save the galaxy? The part when you saved the galaxy is when you stopped the Reapers from destroying all space-traveling life in the universe. FULL STOP If the Mass Relays had to be destroyed - SO BE IT.

Sometimes, you're not going to get the decision you want in life. I'm sure Shepard would have loved an other option: Save civilization, the Relays and himself - but that simply wasn't in the cards. Shit like that happens. You can make all the correct decisions along the way and still have to make a sacrifice at the end of the journey.

The odds of success were impossible. The fact that he got a choice at all is what you fought the entire three games for.

How it was contrary:
first, the series was about options and choices and consequences, things you did in the past had meaning. Then at the end, everything you did was a stat that had nothing to do with the actual battle, but determined how strong the space magic you chose was. In a series about choice, you can't just railroad the player at the end. What you do at the end is supposed to actually mean something, but it doesn't. And no matter what you do, everybody's pretty much screwed. Stuff like "but that simply wasn't in the cards" and " Shit like that happens" doesn't match that.

Second, when you meet the space child thing, you don't question or argue with it. you just sorta sit there and let it be a dick to you. His logic is really stupid and you can't call him on it. Plus it's sudden and contradicts Sovereign and Harbinger.

Third, shepard is badassery personified. S/He pulls off lines like "Flee? And trip over the dozen krogan I killed on my way here?" or "I kill guys like you on my way to real problems. The kind of person who will punch a general from a different race in the stomach because he pissed her/him off. The whole series is "against all odds" with Shepard at the helm. There was a cool article about Bioware confusing Shepard with the "tragic hero" like Mordin. I find that interesting because the scene where Shepard stumbles towards the console after Hacket tells him it's doing nothing is a blatant rip off of Mordin's dies scene. It's like Bioware really wanted you to see someone slowly stumble to a console and die before touching it.

 

[Sojgat]

Considering Joker and co. ends up on some planet juste fine, i dont think the Mass Relays actually destroyed every system.

Well that's the main thing, as long as Joker, James and Liara are stuck on the forest moon of Endor together, everything will be fine. Space magic. The ending blows.

 

[The Elite]

It is? Where in the three games prior to that was there any notion of some random space baby VI deus ex machina that would give you 3 SHITTY choices, and that you would simply...take them. You fought tooth and nail, against all odds, to DEFEAT the reapers. None of the three endings is remotely satisfying towards that end. The same character that stood in defiance every other time someone said something was impossible, or suicide, or wrong, would not blindly accept what this space baby that came out of nowhere had to say.

What other choice did you have? Please, enlighten me. You fought tooth and nail against all odds and got a choice. That's a hell of a lot more than another civilization was given in the prior cycles. That is Shepard's victory. It's a shitty deal, sure, but it still is a huge victory against impossible odds.

There's nothing wrong with Shepard sacrificing him/herself. Had the game simply said 'hey you killed htem with your supergun, you won' when you and anderson were sitting there dying in the citadel, and then had 5-10 minutes SHOWING what happened to the galaxy, people would not be complaining about it.

I was content with the lack of an epilogue. That's more of a personal preference though. I can understand why some might be upset that they didn't see the fallout for their favourite characters.

How did we save anyone, when their worlds are devastated, and anyone that wasn't on them is now trapped in the Sol system? How did we save them when we 'took over' the reapers, or killed entire civilizations on a galactic scale by choosing destroy? Or when we turned them all into nonsensical 'synthetic organics' with synthesis? How does any of it even make any sense?

Like I've mentioned, I had not played the "Arrival" dlc and the ending doesn't make it clear that destroying a relay destroys half the system its in. So for me, that was a non-factor. I simply destroyed a means of travel. That was the big sacrifice to save civilization and I was ok with that.

From the perspective of the "Arrival" dlc, yeah, I can see why the outcome looks completely different. Either way, you've killed millions of life forms.

More importantly, how is ANY of that satisfying? The odds of success are impossible? Rofl. Ok. The entire point of the hero's journey is that the odds are dire. You can have a game that says fate is inevitable and the reapers cannot be stopped, and it would be FAR more satisfying than this LITERALLY paradoxical argument presented by the star child. I would rather see the reapers win and get some commentary on the inevitability of the universe than something that was pulled out of some hack writer's ass at the last moment. Just because it's confusing doesn't mean it's deep, it's faux intellectualism at its worst. It is simply bad writing.

The ending isn't confusing at all. The Hero's journey ended with the decision. He fought for the very choice of existence over annhilation. That is huge when you consider he had come farther than anyone else.

I don't know why you're stuck on the idea that it's 'negative' and therefore it's cool, I'm sorry if your parents beat you as a child or whatever it is that makes you think there are no happy endings in life, since that seems to be your only argument. Happy or not has nothing to do with the quality of the material, and it only takes a glance at the OP or even a hint of critical thinking to see all of the cracks in the story we're given. It makes no sense. Period. Whether it's happy or not is irrelevant past that point.

Is the bolded really necessary? We were having a really good argument up until that point.

Why does Shepard wake up in the rubble at the end? How did all your squadmates magically get aboard the Normandy? How does the Citadel re-write the galaxy so that everyone is suddenly techno-organic? Why is all of this stuff introduced and then resolved in the last 5 minutes of a 40 hour long game, the third in a trilogy? None of this stuff bothers you? I loved the journey as well, but the ending was really bad regardless.

The squad mates ending up on the Normandy did bug me. They should have resolved that with a cutscene. I'm not saying the ending was without issue. The uproar seems completely ridiculous to me though. My journey as Shepard was satisfying. I didn't do the techno organic end either but the Reapers are a technologically advanced species far beyond human understanding. The fact that some of their abilities almost look like magic to us isn't out of the realm of possibility. That's why I didn't have that much trouble questioning how the Citadel got to Earth.

The resolution isn't the last five minutes IMO. It's the last four hours. From the point of raiding the Cerberus base until the credits is the ending to me.

 

[MechaX]

I'll admit that the ending was brief but there really wasn't much more I wanted from it. I think some may have wanted an hour long epilogue like Return of the King to see the outcome of all their decisions and where the characters ended up, but I found myself not needing that. The journey was reward enough for me.

I'm pretty sure the common theme among the ending opponents is that they wanted an ending that makes sense.

You are free to like the ending all you like, but given how much ass pulls and plot holes it creates, are you really seeing much of an issue as to why people don't like it? Or can you not see the plot holes? Or do you think that plot-holes add to the "artistic value" of the ending? I'm genuinely curious here.

Like I've mentioned, I had not played the "Arrival" dlc and the ending doesn't make it clear that destroying a relay destroys half the system its in. So for me, that was a non-factor. I simply destroyed a means of travel. That was the big sacrifice to save civilization and I was ok with that.

From the perspective of the "Arrival" dlc, yeah, I can see why the outcome looks completely different. Either way, you've killed millions of life forms.

You don't have to play the Arrival, because that bit of information is actually in ME3's codex. Whoops.

 

[Jake Tower]

Why are you swearing so much and shouting? Seriously, its just a game and it's a really good one.

I never said its the best ending but its not as bad as people on internet forums seem to think it is. It's also not worth getting angry over - if you express yourself without profanities and shouting people might listen.

Cyborg leaves and Robohat are perfectly legitimate reasons to rage, shout profanities, etc.

 

[The Elite]

I'm pretty sure the common theme among the ending opponents is that they wanted an ending that makes sense.

You are free to like the ending all you like, but given how much ass pulls and plot holes it creates, are you really seeing much of an issue as to why people don't like it? Or can you not see the plot holes? Or do you think that plot-holes add to the "artistic value" of the ending? I'm genuinely curious here.

I'm saying I liked the ending. After hearing about the "Arrival" DLC I can understand why some are pissed. I never played it and had no idea of the power a relay's destruction caused.

Otherwise, I'm happy with Shepard's journey.

Besides the crew members ending up on the Normandy, the ending makes sense to me.

Edit: I didn't read through ME3's codex... whoops.

 

[def sim]

You should disregard their comment about Arrival and the destruction of a Mass Relay. Though it's true that the destruction of one causes an explosion equal to a supernova, the introduction of the Crucible changes the properties and effects of its explosion. It's not explained how and is demonstrated only the moment you see it happen; in case you were wondering why people would take issue with all that.

 

[Sojgat]

You should disregard their comment about Arrival and the destruction of a Mass Relay. Though it's true that the destruction of one causes an explosion equal to a supernova, the introduction of the Crucible changes the properties and effects of its explosion. It's not explained how and is introduced only the moment you see it happen; in case you were wondering why people would take issue with all that.

and this is all just implied anyway, so even more confusing.

 

[Galactic Fork]

Like I've mentioned, I had not played the "Arrival" dlc and the ending doesn't make it clear that destroying a relay destroys half the system its in. So for me, that was a non-factor. I simply destroyed a means of travel. That was the big sacrifice to save civilization and I was ok with that.

Just so you know, it was always a factor, that's why at the beginning you were stuck on earth, for blowing up a solar system by destroying the mass relay.

You should disregard their comment about Arrival and the destruction of a Mass Relay. Though it's true that the destruction of one causes an explosion equal to a supernova, the introduction of the Crucible changes the properties and effects of its explosion. It's not explained how and is demonstrated only the moment you see it happen; in case you were wondering why people would take issue with all that.

Did you not see the video from the dark recesses of dark space? You see white hot explosions at the center of each mass relay blowing up.

 

[The Librarian]

I didn't say that. At what point did I say I didn't have the relays being destroyed in my ending? I'm saying that I never played the Arrival DLC so I didn't get the impact of the relays destroying half of a star system. I was unaware of that.

From that standpoint, I can understand people's frustrations.

I had just assumed that the relays were destroyed and the systems were left separated. I was content with that. Kind of glad I didn't play the "arrival" dlc.

You said it wasn't part of the ending for you. It's also stated in the codex of ME3 what destroying a relay does. It happened whether you knew about it or not.

 

[Replicant]

Haven't looked at or read up on the "Arrival" DLC (edit: Just realized this is ME2 DLC that I never played) at all. Has it been released? I'll admit, that would be shitty but that wasn't part of the ending of the game for me.

How could you possibly miss the reason why Shepard was being hold in contempt at the start of the game? I mean, did you think he slapped some Batarians and got in trouble for it? Whether or not you played "The Arrival" DLC is irrelevant because you should know at the start of the game that Shepard was being court-martialed for blowing up a colony via mass relay destruction. And FFS, in some of the sub-missions, you encounter Batarians who are holding grudge at him for blowing up their homeworld.

 

[def sim]

Did you not see the video from the dark recesses of dark space? You see white hot explosions at the center of each mass relay blowing up.

Again, the Crucible changed the properties of the explosion. Yes it was blowing up; no it wasn't harmful provided you had enough EMS.

and this is all just implied anyway, so even more confusing.

You see the energy harmlessly fly over the soldiers fighting at Earth. If you had low EMS, it disintegrated them.

 

[Rodhull]

Just so you know, it was always a factor, that's why at the beginning you were stuck on earth, for blowing up a solar system by destroying the mass relay.

Did you not see the video from the dark recesses of dark space? You see white hot explosions at the center of each mass relay blowing up.

Well not really. If you didn't play Arrival it explains that Hackett sent in a team of marines to do that instead. Presumably of that's the case you're just on trial for working with Cerberus.

 

[The Elite]

How could you possibly miss the reason why Shepard is being hold in contempt at the start of the game? I mean, did you think he slap some Batarians and got in trouble for it? Whether or not you played "The Arrival" DLC is irrelevant because you should know at the start of the game that Shepard is being court-martialed for blowing up a colony via mass relay destruction. And FFS, in some of the sub-missions, you encounter Batarians who are holding grudge at him for blowing up their homeworld.

I was honestly confused about that because I had not played the DLC.

You said it wasn't part of the ending for you. It's also stated in the codex of ME3 what destroying a relay does. It happened whether you knew about it or not.

Thanks. Was this paid DLC? If it has such a huge impact on the outcome of the story and some of the complaints being forced here, it really should have been part of the game. I'm a little miffed that some people didn't get to experience the "From Ashes" DLC.

I had just assumed that Shepard was being court marshaled for his involvement with Cerberus. I got the sense there was more to it than that but nothing was made clear.

 

[Jintor]

You know, I don't think they ever explicitly explained that. I figured that it was just because you'd been working for Cerberus for a while.

 

[Galactic Fork]

Well not really. If you didn't play Arrival it explains that Hackett sent in a team of marines to do that instead. Presumably of that's the case you're just on trial for working with Cerberus.

I didn't play arival, and I was told I blew up a bunch of Batarians.

You see the energy harmlessly fly over the soldiers fighting at Earth. If you had low EMS, it disintegrated them.

You see harmless energy from the crucible flying over earth, then you see it send out a beam to blow up the mass relay. Next thing you see is this: