Definitely. "So close", every time.
Top it off with all the pandering to the chosen few from BSN we like to point fingers at.
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Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow
- Thread starter Patryn
- Start date
Top it off with all the pandering to the chosen few from BSN we like to point fingers at.
It's also arguable that you just commited galaxy-wide genocide by forcibly changing every living thing into something they weren't, so i dunno. I just can't agree.
perfect.
UnluckyKate
Member
Where is that sequence from 43' comes form ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3CAS_WfoZM
I never had this scene in ME3 of the destroyer landing on this Turian cruiser
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3CAS_WfoZM
I never had this scene in ME3 of the destroyer landing on this Turian cruiser
Unfortunately he doesn't address the most common complaints, the apparent criticisms of the synthetic ending, the contra-intuitive logic, the contradictory thematic shift, etc. He's basically just saying a lot of general stuff, which fails to specify why the ending should be positive. Some gems:
The writer needs to be more critical. He's just throwing around platitudes.
The Elite
BOSS
I usually disagree with Faraci but I completely agree with him here.
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
Yep, Shep killed evolution.
Betcha didn't see the Geth dreadnoughts reporting in for the Sword formation either?
The Elite
BOSS
Synth wouldn't be my choice for a Paragon ending. Is it a better ending than death, that's debatable. Some would rather die than be violated or changed in such a way. I get that.
From Faraci:
I've basically been saying that all day. He's spot on here. There wasn't going to be any other outcome besides this. Shepard fought for three games just to give humanity the possibility of having that choice.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
I don't like that he feels that the other two options for endings shouldn't even exist. In my opinion, his choice for the ending is the odd-man out. He also ignores a lot of other issues with the endings that are not consistent with the rest of the story.
But to a certain extent, I agree that they can't show everything that happens next or sew the ending up in a nice neat bow. The story is just too big. Too epic. There was no way BioWare could spell out what happens next and personally I wouldn't want them to.
I still feel they could have done A LOT more to give us a more satisfying ending. What we got was too ambiguous and unfulfilling, even taking into account what I said above.
kingkaiser
Member
Nope, he saved evolution. I think the story made it very clear that the evolution of biologic life at some point just faces a dead end.
So it is either a restart of the same cycle or the final breakthrough in evolution. But i can understand that some do not like, it would be a drastically change and a lot of people are scared of changes.
Yeah, he has no incentive to. If he says he liked the ending -- or was even unofficially consulted on it -- he risks losing some credibility with the fanbase. If he says he hated it, he's stabbing his old team in the back.
By saying nothing, he becomes "the guy who would've done it right," while not alienating any old coworkers. It's the smart thing to do.
EmCeeGramr
Member
Wasn't there something going around that original ending idea was going to be destroy the Reapers and face possible extinction due to the mass effect destroying the fabric of the universe, or accept that they really are omniscient gods and become part of the Reapers?
The Elite
BOSS
It's funny, as someone who finished the "blue" ending I don't even want to acknowledge the other choices. That's the only way it had to play out for me. I understand why the other options need to be there. Like people have been saying, choice is a big theme of the series. Even if the choices are limited, they had to be there.
No idea what the original plan ones. That sounds even more limiting though.
edgefusion
Member
I think that's a misunderstanding of what evolution is. It doesn't have an end or ultimate form, it's just adapting to best survive in the current environment. Evolution won't ever face a dead end.
UnluckyKate
Member
Only with the quarian fleet. Why ?
Edit : I youtube that part and you don't see the Geth fleet, only hear Joker reporting them
Zomba13
Member
Prety much. The Dark energy thing would have ended with you sacrificing Humanity to become a Reaper to stop dark energy (caused by the use of Mass Effect fields and what not) or to destroy the reapers and try to stop the dark energy buildup yourselves (the united galaxy of Humans, Turians, Asari etc)
The Elite
BOSS
Is this the ending that was scraped in favour of the new one?
EmCeeGramr
Member
heliosRAzi
Banned
I'm not butthurt, but I will argue.
It sounds like he needs to spend more time thinking about it.
I disagree. Whereas in 2001, the monolith is shown as causing the leaps in evolution and the ending is an extension of that, in ME3, we get no setup like that for the Catalyst and his crazy space magic. Yeah, it's trippy; you somehow merge synthetic and organic life, but it doesn't make sense and it has its ethical problems given how certain people played their Shep. A paragon Shep would not force this on the rest of the galaxy.
One of the problems with ME3 is that they left it too open ended. Other than a cookie-cutter color swap of a few moments with Joker and whoever magically appeared on the Normandy that reflected our final decision, we don't get to see the fruits of our labor when it comes to the krogan or the quarians. Which leads me too...
We understand life and fiction perfectly fine, but when this series, advertised as something where you get to control the story, disregards your decisions at the very end, people are going to be upset. In the end, it doesn't matter if you cured the genophage or not, it doesn't matter if you made peace with the geth or let them or the quarians be destroyed, those decisions do not have an impact on the final choices at all. But in this same game, with the genophage stuff, your choices in the previous games can affect how it ends in an organic way and accounts for all of the possible iterations.
No one wants that (and, for me, it's why I don't like the stargazer sequence besides the "tell me a story" frame). We just want to see the results of our choices. There is a fanmade chart on the internet somewhere that takes into account a lot of the choices you could make in the series and gives appropriate endings for them. It flows organically and we aren't tied down to an ABC(RGB) ending.
This isn't life. It is a sci-fi game.
He doesn't have anything to say about the motives of the Reapers?
Anyway, he is right about what the Mass Effect trilogy is about, however, it's also about strength through diversity and the synthesis ending just makes us all the same: no more diversity. And it doesn't fall in line with certain Shepards.
Again, we understand what we were playing. And Mass Effect is a space opera. Throughout the series, we are presented with romanticism set against the backdrop of galactic civilizations. It's an adventure that takes place on many alien worlds. This is space opera to the core. It is also somewhat hard sci-fi which is also a problem with space magic comes into play at the end.
Old saying, and you've got it twisted, it's "may you be in heaven a half-hour before the devil knows you're dead." So he's got no chance to take your soul to hell.
"Excellent writer."
Was this article a parody? It sure reads like one. This is fucking awful. It's not about me disagreeing with him - the whole thing just reads like PR bullshit.
"I ended up with the ‘green’ ending, choosing to merge organic and synthetic life, creating the final step of evolution. That’s an incredible ending, one that actually manages to one up 2001 in terms of big, trippy ideas. All these hours spent playing the game, all the decisions that my Shepard made, all led up to this moment, where I literally changed the course of all life in the galaxy forever. That’s huge!"
LOL
Fucking garbage.
The Elite
BOSS
I was curious about that too. I assume he meant the Quarians? Is that even possible?
Honestly the amount of differences from one universe to another is astounding. People complaining that your choices didn't have an impact really need to look at the series as a whole and the potential outcomes that lay beyond the ending.
Its not a really great defense if he doesn't address the issues brought up by the opposite side...
Brawndo Addict
Banned
For such a great writer I found this analysis rather bland and unspecific. I like how you preface it by saying anyone who disagrees must be butthurt though, so that if we find anything wrong with it it's our fault not his. To be honest, it sounded like the idea the endings put forward just synced with his own personal beliefs so that's why he liked it, not because of the actual execution or anything. I also found it hilarious that he said:
and then later followed with...
Sounds like he had a love for the green ending and felt that it should have been the canon ending because he likes the philosophical implications of this abstract idea, not because this idea was well introduced or implemented. That's exactly what Bioware wanted you to do, but they never earned this deep analysis or future thinking viewpoint.
Deus Ex HR did a much more mature examination of the themes of trans-humanism, but you'd think Mass Effect was on the same caliber with this paragraph and all they did was put in a few lines at the very end about synthesizing human/machines. Makes me so mad that apparently you can just throw one line in at the end and you've earned the title of "TRUE SCIFI".
Also I found it ironic that he felt Mass Effect was all about setting aside grudges and joining up and all this happened, not that this is evidence for or against anything though:
That's worse to me because it would not make sense that they left the Mass Effect relays and technology to further develop Mass Effect technology, then come along and kill everyone for using it.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Well they were actually coming to harvest everyone to gain new perspective on how to deal with the dark energy problem. It's part of the whole strength through diversity theme.
And it makes a lot more sense than synthetics killing organics to keep organics from making synthetics that would kill organics. It also falls in line with ME2 where Harbinger talks about the genetic viability of the various species in your squad.
Confidence Man
Member
A dead end in the form of synthetic life. There's no allusion to any dead end with the process itself. Not that I recall in ME3 at least...
Besides, evolution is not some race to the top where you win by eventually becoming flawless. Earth worms are on the whole quite pathetic and helpless creatures, but they thrive in their environment. That's all they need to do, survive and procreate. That's all evolution is.
I don't see where you're going with the second paragraph.
B_Rik_Schitthaus
Banned
As someone who loves 2001, I'd wish these people would think before typing this trash, 2001 is great because of how it uses time and sparsity, ME3s ending are footnotes at best, a little vestigial lump that seems alien to the whole.
It surprises me that anyone could take that shitpile of a defense seriously. It's basically 2 deep 4 u stretched out with a complete lack of understanding regarding just what storytelling is.
I'm kinda offended that something like that could be received with anything other than derision. Was it a troll?
I'm kinda offended that something like that could be received with anything other than derision. Was it a troll?
Duebrithil
Member
That's what I thought they were going with after finishing Haestrom. Of course there would be the question of why would the Reapers leave the mass relays then.
EmCeeGramr
Member
Every time I hear about the synthesis ending and how perfect it is, the disconnect between the ending and the character writers in the past games just stands out more and more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJIQfmWx3dI#t=1m44s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUeRtHu0MdA#t=30s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJIQfmWx3dI#t=1m44s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUeRtHu0MdA#t=30s
You don't understand the nature of life, man. You just don't understand.
heliosRAzi
Banned
If evolution was a race, sharks would have won. Or sea urchins.
Kung Fu Jedi
Member
Blue was the only choice for the way I played Shepard as well, despite the fact that the other options existed. It only made sense for the choices I made along the way. It was the only one that "felt" right for my version of Shepard.
Agreed that other options had to exist and I actually stopped and thought about which way I wanted it to end before proceeding. Ultimately it didn't really make that much difference in how things played out however, as the results weren't much different.
I think that's why I would have liked to have seen some cut scenes that showed life after the defeat of the Reapers on some level. I've said several times that the endings themselves could have been saved if we would have gotten a better glimpse of what came next. Not completely spelled out, but a little hint about how our actions ended up having an impact on the galaxy that we've been playing in for the past three games.
For example: Blue Ending: Cut scene shows Reapers now working with the races to rebuild the galaxy. Perhaps early construction on a new set of Mass Relays and aiding in the reconstruction of the various planets. Life is hard, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel with the Galactic Community being rebuilt with the combined efforts of the Reapers and the younger races.
Red Ending: Cut scene shows the mass destruction of the Reapers across the galaxy, but we see pockets of survivors picking through the wreckage, finding technology that they can scavenge to start rebuilding civilization, even if it is on planets that haven't been inhabited before. Life is hard and this new Dark Age has cut the races off from one another, but using their galaxy wide communications network, they are staying in contact, sharing information and struggling to maintain the fragile alliance that they have forged.
Green Ending: Cut scene hows the fusion of organic and artificial life across the galaxy. Reaper tech integrating itself with the different races, helping them to survive the cataclysmic destruction of the Mass Relays. Life is hard, but organics and machines now have more in common than ever and they can use those abilities to help the galaxy start to rebuild. (Not so sure about how this one would play out, as it is by far the more foreign to me!)
WHEN WILL THIS END
hmm, at this point I'm really only mad at what they did with the normandy. If that scene is intended to just be a dream of shepard then I could probably get over it.
heliosRAzi
Banned
You just don't understand life man
Brawndo Addict
Banned
That's easy, they just reused assets and those were originally made for the shadow realm nightmare sequences where you're slowly chasing the kid.
I think that's too far, it's just that he's more preoccupied with the abstract ideas than the actual content. As much as he seems to talk about ME 3, he's really spending more time talking about philosophy than the game. The fact that his uncle recently died, and that he chose to awkwardly work that in makes me think he was just in an emotional place at the the time of writing, and joined that with his feelings over the ending.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Mass Effect Spoiler Thread |OT3| You just don't understand life, man
Some of you are posing very interesting counterpoints; why not post it in the comments in the article? Devin is pretty quick to respond to interesting comments.
Seriously, just copypasta your posts from this circlejerk of a thread and post it in the comments.*
*Not a shill for Badass Digest. Just someone that enjoys interesting discussion.
Seriously, just copypasta your posts from this circlejerk of a thread and post it in the comments.*
*Not a shill for Badass Digest. Just someone that enjoys interesting discussion.
Confidence Man
Member
Mass Effect Spoiler |OT3| The nature of life is R/G/B
Zomba13
Member
Lol! Was that in that article?
What would I say to him? That I lack any respect for him after reading his garbage article?
It's probably worth examining why someone else's opinion upsets you so much.
heliosRAzi
Banned
Why? He clearly doesn't understand why people don't like the endings. He even missed some glaring flaws with the ending and focused on abstract concepts.
It's not worth the time.
This is the perfect summary of the ending. On top of all that, the ending strips any common sense or fight from Shepard. I understand why people think that the Relay destruction was fundamentally different than the Alpha Relay in Arrival, but Shepard has no way of knowing that during his/her conversation with the Starchild. Simply hearing the words "...but no matter what you choose, the relays will be destroyed" should have been the biggest red flag to Shepard. Last he/she knew, destroying one relay destroyed an entire system. From Shepard's perspective, none of the options presented by the Starchild should be acceptable because EVERYONE in a solar system with a relay (including Earth, Thessia, Illium, Tuchanka, Sur'Kesh, Omega, Rannoch, Palaven, Eden Prime, and countless others) would be dead which is a far worse death toll than the Reapers ever could (or even would) inflict. Shepard wouldn't be saving anyone, but rather he/she would become the single greatest mass murder in history. I don't care if the Reapers are beings of great power: THESE OPTIONS DON'T WORK.
RedRedSuit
Member
The best thing I can say about his defense is that he seems to enjoy the thought process the ending of Mass Effect 3 made him go through. He likes the ideas it introduces. That's fine. I can understand that -- but he puts forth absolutely no defense of the actual execution of this ending, which was and always will be shit on nearly every level.
One of the telling sentences is this:
Really? Then the ending you did choose is also the wrong ending, because they're the same ending. The color of the beam is different. A few other frames are somewhat different. And Joker has weirdly glowy eyes. That is the same ending. It undercuts the very premise given by the Catalyst: it is plainly, intuitively obvious that a life form that is clearly still same ol' Joker is not fundamentally different than just the old, regular, human Joker. To suggest that the addition of glowing eyes and the ability to have sex with EDI, or whatever, fundamentally changes the nature of organics and prevents whatever supposed inevitable synthetics-killing-organics apocalypse they're trying to prevent -- to suggest that is patently absurd.
So even if the "merge" concept appeals to him, the execution is so abysmal as to destroy his whole defense.
And of course he caps this off with "it's not space opera, it's hard sci fi," which is beyond laughable at least on the purely common-sense level of the game featuring a galaxy-wide beam that's able to make half-robots out of all species somehow. That's about as hard sci fi as Harry Potter.
One of the telling sentences is this:
Really? Then the ending you did choose is also the wrong ending, because they're the same ending. The color of the beam is different. A few other frames are somewhat different. And Joker has weirdly glowy eyes. That is the same ending. It undercuts the very premise given by the Catalyst: it is plainly, intuitively obvious that a life form that is clearly still same ol' Joker is not fundamentally different than just the old, regular, human Joker. To suggest that the addition of glowing eyes and the ability to have sex with EDI, or whatever, fundamentally changes the nature of organics and prevents whatever supposed inevitable synthetics-killing-organics apocalypse they're trying to prevent -- to suggest that is patently absurd.
So even if the "merge" concept appeals to him, the execution is so abysmal as to destroy his whole defense.
And of course he caps this off with "it's not space opera, it's hard sci fi," which is beyond laughable at least on the purely common-sense level of the game featuring a galaxy-wide beam that's able to make half-robots out of all species somehow. That's about as hard sci fi as Harry Potter.