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Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread |OT2| Taste the Rainbow

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
You didnt even know how your 2 squadmates got into the Normandy on the original ending either. They just happened to get there without any explanation. Also no sad goodbye if you happened to brought your romanced guy/girl during that part since it didnt exist.

Also, you never saw the Normandy leaving that jungle planet. So most people just assumed our crew got stuck there until they died or something before...

Lots of speculations everywhere.
 

Bladenic

Member
Yeah been reading up on the original ending, I can sort of see the hate. Thank gosh I played with the extended cut! And I did bring Ashley, thanks for telling me to do that! It was really touching.

Is the Destroy ending only considered the best because Shepard apparently survives? Idk, I mean I do wish my Shepard could get a happy ending making babies with Ashley, but at the same time, the paragon ending was just beautiful.

One thing I found strange is that I didn't have the paragon/renegade options available at the Illusive Man confrontation. Well, I did, except for the last dialogue wheel. It was strange not to since I had a full bar of paragon rep. Oh well, shooting the Illusive Man wasn't bad, though I would have liked to have gotten him to blow his brains out.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Yeah been reading up on the original ending, I can sort of see the hate. Thank gosh I played with the extended cut! And I did bring Ashley, thanks for telling me to do that! It was really touching.

Is the Destroy ending only considered the best because Shepard apparently survives? Idk, I mean I do wish my Shepard could get a happy ending making babies with Ashley, but at the same time, the paragon ending was just beautiful.

One thing I found strange is that I didn't have the paragon/renegade options available at the Illusive Man confrontation. Well, I did, except for the last dialogue wheel. It was strange not to since I had a full bar of paragon rep. Oh well, shooting the Illusive Man wasn't bad, though I would have liked to have gotten him to blow his brains out.

You have to take the left dialogue option everytime you talk to him in ME3 prior to the final confrontation so that you can use every paragon/renegade options at the end. Maybe you missed one.

Also i assume most people consider the Destroy ending the best, not because of Shepard surviving, but because we finally kill the Reapers, which was our main goal since ME1. Not controlling them or anything.
 

DTKT

Member
You have to take the left dialogue option everytime you talk to him in ME3 prior to the final confrontation so that you can use every paragon/renegade options at the end. Maybe you missed one.

Also i assue most people consider the Destroy ending the best, not because of Shepard surviving, but because we finally kill the Reapers, which was our main goal since ME1. Not controlling them or anything.

That's correct. It's the only one that fits with a Shepard that never agreed with The Illusive Man or Saren.

TIM = controlling the Reapers which is the blue ending.
Saren = The green one, Synthesis, where the entire Galaxy is fused with the Reapers.

That's just part of the many issues in the current Red, Blue, Green endings.
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
As I've said before, in the context of the game's stupid, irrational and contrived "INEVITABLE SYNTHETIC WAR", synthesis is the 'best' ending. It's only not the best ending when you start to unravel the idiocy of the star child's claims, which the game does not account for.
 
As I've said before, in the context of the game's stupid, irrational and contrived "INEVITABLE SYNTHETIC WAR", synthesis is the 'best' ending. It's only not the best ending when you start to unravel the idiocy of the star child's claims, which the game does not account for.

Fuck it. I megaton'ed the Reapers and organized a cocktail party on Harbinger's lifeless husk.
 

Bladenic

Member
I suppose the endings are really up to interpretation as the best for each person. While the fact that destroy is that Anderson and the whole galaxy wanted, it's hard to say it's the best for me personally. Basically, I was very content with my ending.
 

BeauRoger

Unconfirmed Member
Ive heard some people now refering to the ending as being "megaton mac'd" by the lead writer, mac walters. I really hope that expression wont be needed when talking about future bioware titles in retrospect.
 

nel e nel

Member
I suppose the endings are really up to interpretation as the best for each person. While the fact that destroy is that Anderson and the whole galaxy wanted, it's hard to say it's the best for me personally. Basically, I was very content with my ending.

Yeah, Bioware has never come out and said which ending is canon or is the 'best', so all this talk about which one is the one they intended is pure conjecture.
 
Yeah, Bioware has never come out and said which ending is canon or is the 'best', so all this talk about which one is the one they intended is pure conjecture.

But there are definitely some obvious design choices which lead to think that in Bioware's mind (read: Walters) it is synthesis.

- before EC-DLC you get synthesis only for highest EMS points (highest as in: I can't remember the maximum needed)

- starbrat also thinks synthesis is the best solution, "something something pinnacle of evolution" type of good (can't remember exact dialogue) and starbrat is the epitome of Artistic Integrity(tm)

Green hat's and leafs etc.
 

rozay

Banned
You didnt even know how your 2 squadmates got into the Normandy on the original ending either. They just happened to get there without any explanation. Also no sad goodbye if you happened to brought your romanced guy/girl during that part since it didnt exist.
The current ending still doesn't really make sense since Harbringer seems to decide to stop shooting lasers when the Normandy flies to earth. No point in attacking a ship that can help get humans to the conduit, right?

The ending is fine if you don't really think about it, when you do the holes become very visibly apparent even with the EC "fixes"
 

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Yeah, Bioware has never come out and said which ending is canon or is the 'best', so all this talk about which one is the one they intended is pure conjecture.

The signs are all there that synthesis is the best ending. Even in the lore. Like, the whole controversy surrounding the writing specifically was the starchild's dumb "humans and synthetics can never get along FULL STOP" nonsense. This isn't some off the cuff remake. That is literally the staple of the entire trilogy. The reasons the Reapers exist. The reason everything happens. All because of this apparent inevitability. Even the Leviathan DLC reinforces this. The whole story makes a (stupid) point that humans and synthetics can never get a long. Full stop. And that in order to truly find peace we all need to evolve or change or some such shit.

A normal, rational, logical human being would laugh such contrived stupidity off because it makes no fucking sense. Hence why there might seem to be some ambiguity in the endings, and how there might not be a 'good' ending. Because the whole notion of synthetic/organic co-operation being impossible was not only refuted an hour or two ago in the very same story (see: Quarian/Geth narrative), but makes no sense from any philosophical standpoint. It's just...dumb. Stupid. And most people felt this.

But Walters/Hudson obviously didn't. It's literally the staple of that universe and seemingly not open to debate. Thus synthesis is the 'best' option, as it solves the 'problem' that exists within the universe. As Hellraizer said, it was also the highest, most difficult ending to achieve via EMS points. The 'better' player would have access to the 'better' ending, whereas the more reckless player would not.

Like, I don't see synthesis as the 'best' ending. I think they're all fucking stupid because of the aforementioned idiocy in the plot. But in the context of their dumb little narrative and contrived universe, I think synthesis is quite clearly the 'best' ending available.
 

Bladenic

Member
The signs are all there that synthesis is the best ending. Even in the lore. Like, the whole controversy surrounding the writing specifically was the starchild's dumb "humans and synthetics can never get along FULL STOP" nonsense. This isn't some off the cuff remake. That is literally the staple of the entire trilogy. The reasons the Reapers exist. The reason everything happens. All because of this apparent inevitability. Even the Leviathan DLC reinforces this. The whole story makes a (stupid) point that humans and synthetics can never get a long. Full stop. And that in order to truly find peace we all need to evolve or change or some such shit.

A normal, rational, logical human being would laugh such contrived stupidity off because it makes no fucking sense. Hence why there might seem to be some ambiguity in the endings, and how there might not be a 'good' ending. Because the whole notion of synthetic/organic co-operation being impossible was not only refuted an hour or two ago in the very same story (see: Quarian/Geth narrative), but makes no sense from any philosophical standpoint. It's just...dumb. Stupid. And most people felt this.

But Walters/Hudson obviously didn't. It's literally the staple of that universe and seemingly not open to debate. Thus synthesis is the 'best' option, as it solves the 'problem' that exists within the universe. As Hellraizer said, it was also the highest, most difficult ending to achieve via EMS points. The 'better' player would have access to the 'better' ending, whereas the more reckless player would not.

Like, I don't see synthesis as the 'best' ending. I think they're all fucking stupid because of the aforementioned idiocy in the plot. But in the context of their dumb little narrative and contrived universe, I think synthesis is quite clearly the 'best' ending available.

I agree with the sentiment that, uh, it's dumb. The whole game basically shows that synthetics can be viewed as people/organics and can have free will without being destructive, and yet the hardest to achieve ending is one that ignores everything the game shows? K.

This is why I consider the control the best. Synthetics don't get destroyed but there is no complete reconstruction of DNA without the input of anyone else. Basically, the control (paragon one anyway) ending seems to me like the best outcome. With Shepard in control, there is no Reaper threat anymore. Synthetics, at least the geth which are the majority, and organics are getting along (well in my ending anyway), and there is no mass destruction or alterations. It's about as close to a happy ending as this game could get for me.

Speaking of happy, gotdamn is this game depressing overall. :(
 

nel e nel

Member
The signs are all there that synthesis is the best ending. Even in the lore. Like, the whole controversy surrounding the writing specifically was the starchild's dumb "humans and synthetics can never get along FULL STOP" nonsense. This isn't some off the cuff remake. That is literally the staple of the entire trilogy. The reasons the Reapers exist. The reason everything happens. All because of this apparent inevitability. Even the Leviathan DLC reinforces this. The whole story makes a (stupid) point that humans and synthetics can never get a long. Full stop. And that in order to truly find peace we all need to evolve or change or some such shit.

A normal, rational, logical human being would laugh such contrived stupidity off because it makes no fucking sense. Hence why there might seem to be some ambiguity in the endings, and how there might not be a 'good' ending. Because the whole notion of synthetic/organic co-operation being impossible was not only refuted an hour or two ago in the very same story (see: Quarian/Geth narrative), but makes no sense from any philosophical standpoint. It's just...dumb. Stupid. And most people felt this.

But Walters/Hudson obviously didn't. It's literally the staple of that universe and seemingly not open to debate. Thus synthesis is the 'best' option, as it solves the 'problem' that exists within the universe. As Hellraizer said, it was also the highest, most difficult ending to achieve via EMS points. The 'better' player would have access to the 'better' ending, whereas the more reckless player would not.

Like, I don't see synthesis as the 'best' ending. I think they're all fucking stupid because of the aforementioned idiocy in the plot. But in the context of their dumb little narrative and contrived universe, I think synthesis is quite clearly the 'best' ending available.

Taken within the context of ME3 alone, yeah sure, but the synthetics not getting along with/wiping out organics concept is nothing new to sci-fi:

Terminator
Matrix
Hardware
I, Robot
heck even the Rogue AI on Luna and the one on the Citadel hinted to this as well. (not to mention the ban on full AI in the ME universe, and the ostracization of the Quarians)

Was it handled elegantly in Mass Effect 3? Most people didn't think so, some did. But my take on it was that the Catalyst has ~1 billion years of experience on Shepard, and probably had seen similar truces like the Geth/Quarian in the past break down into conflict again. I don't think that's an unreasonable assumption to make. It's also not unreasonable to think that Shepard is the first step in breaking that concept apart, hence the ending of the cycles.

But if you think the entire conceit of that idea is stupid to begin with, any resolution of it - regardless of how well thought out - will also ring stupid as well.

I think it's pretty telling that in the last 3 posts, we have arguments in favor of each ending being the 'best'.
 

Gazzawa

Member
I agree with the sentiment that, uh, it's dumb. The whole game basically shows that synthetics can be viewed as people/organics and can have free will without being destructive, and yet the hardest to achieve ending is one that ignores everything the game shows? K.

This is why I consider the control the best. Synthetics don't get destroyed but there is no complete reconstruction of DNA without the input of anyone else. Basically, the control (paragon one anyway) ending seems to me like the best outcome. With Shepard in control, there is no Reaper threat anymore. Synthetics, at least the geth which are the majority, and organics are getting along (well in my ending anyway), and there is no mass destruction or alterations. It's about as close to a happy ending as this game could get for me.

Speaking of happy, gotdamn is this game depressing overall. :(

you'll be ok dude. U need to learn to laugh at this game.
Hey if the geth are destroyed in destroy ending why not just revuild them like everything else?
oh god another plothole!
 
First time play through, all DLC and extended cut; just finished it and I didn't mind the ending (Synthesis). It was ridiculous, but I didn't mind. Something longer would've been nice considering how much time I've pumped into the series.

Story and writing begin to fall short somewhere between ME1 and ME3, but I still enjoyed ME3 a lot.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Like, I don't see synthesis as the 'best' ending. I think they're all fucking stupid because of the aforementioned idiocy in the plot. But in the context of their dumb little narrative and contrived universe, I think synthesis is quite clearly the 'best' ending available.
I'm not so sure.

After talking with the crab people at the bottom of the sea, it's clear that the Catalyst is not solving anything. At the end, the Crucible provides Synthesis, which somehow becomes the Catalyst's ideal solution -- we can extrapolate that it is our dear authors' chosen solution. However, knowing that it's all a clusterfuck, there is no best ending, at least to me. I think destroy would probably be a really good option, imo.

This thread is still going?
Will we make five-thousand posts by the one year anniversary, to have an OT3?
 

televator

Member
I feel odd thinking about this series. They were fun games to play, but the ending just really took things on a crazy tangent in the way I feel about ME. Even though I'm somewhat alright with the extended ending, I've just totally walked away from ME3 after that. The new paid DLC came out and I didn't even consider playing it now that I'm in a bit of a dry spell for new games.

Maybe someday I'll replay the games, but I think I've given all the fucks I could possibly give to this series for now and the foreseeable future.
 
I feel odd thinking about this series. They were fun games to play, but the ending just really took things on a crazy tangent in the way I feel about ME. Even though I'm somewhat alright with the extended ending, I've just totally walked away from ME3 after that. The new paid DLC came out and I didn't even consider playing it now that I'm in a bit of a dry spell for new games.

Maybe someday I'll replay the games, but I think I've given all the fucks I could possibly give to this series for now and the foreseeable future.

The ending was bad, but I had more trouble with the enemies in the game. They always came with 1 big guy(robot, bear like Alien or Banshee) and many normal sized minions shooting at you. That really took away the fun I had.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
The ending was bad, but I had more trouble with the enemies in the game. They always came with 1 big guy(robot, bear like Alien or Banshee) and many normal sized minions shooting at you. That really took away the fun I had.

How is that any worse than what past ME games had? ME1 had many normal sized enemies to kill with some big Geth Colossus to kill sometimes, and so did ME2 with the occassional big Collector or Mech ones. How is the fact that there is more big enemies to fight making things worse? If anything, it makes the combat more interesting since you don't fight just a bunch of generic soldiers with nothing unique to them.
 
How is that any worse than what past ME games had? ME1 had many normal sized enemies to kill with some big Geth Colossus to kill sometimes, and so did ME2 with the occassional big Collector or Mech ones. How is the fact that there is more big enemies to fight making things worse? If anything, it makes the combat more interesting since you don't fight just a bunch of generic soldiers with nothing unique to them.

Yeah, I'm not saying ME1 and ME2 didn't have big enemies. But ME3 had them EVERYWHERE, everytime, in every new room/stage you entered. And I just wanna progress through the game, to flow nicely with the story.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Yeah, I'm not saying ME1 and ME2 didn't have big enemies. But ME3 had them EVERYWHERE, everytime, in every new room/stage you entered. And I just wanna progress through the game, to flow nicely with the story.

Then lower the difficulty if you care more about the story than the combat? The big guys die "fast" on Hardcore, so i can imagine them being pretty pathetic on Normal or Easy.
 

nel e nel

Member
I definitely feel some fatigue, but it's more from having played so much ME in the past year, and wanting a break from it than anything else. 2 complete runs of ME and ME2 last summer, and a full trilogy run a few months ago after having already played ME3 once. And I still have 2 Shepards that are waiting to complete their 'stories' as well.

whew!

I'm waiting for all the SP DLC to come out before I dip back into any campaign stuff.

That said, I've been on a MP binge this past week.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
Yeah, I'm not saying ME1 and ME2 didn't have big enemies. But ME3 had them EVERYWHERE, everytime, in every new room/stage you entered. And I just wanna progress through the game, to flow nicely with the story.
I think TPS bore me, which is why I don't want to replay the game. It's like I do enjoy the mechanics and stuff, but if only there were more powers for Shep to use or something. Having the same set of powers and spamming them, doesn't really entice me any more.
 
Had to add my 2 cents from the Pachter video:

I really like the video. It talks about the developers who want to make games because they enjoy the art of storytelling. Not because they need the money driven from sales of the game. While I think it is appropriate to critique stories of games, I don't think it's appropriate to start a witchhunt and demand things from them. Gamers sometimes feel like they have ownership or control over the intellectual property of the game but in reality we are just asked to give our feedback for a more streamlined user experience, and to see what we liked and didn't like about certain elements of the story.
 
...Just the ending. Ok So the ending wasn't something to cry about, won't go down in history, but like life, we may not have the choice of under what circumstances our journey will end, and even when it will end... but how we conduct our lives, the choices that each and every one of our Shepard's have made helped define our personal story. When people talk about this series legacy, may they talk about the journey did your crew survive the suicide mission? Was Shep an Ass? A saint? Who was his love interest? I heard the Universe savior was a Biotic, a Soldier? or was it an Engineer? or a Stealthy Sniper?

And all of how we perceived the legend of Shepard holds more weight in my opinion than the last five minutes of the journey.

IMHO.
 
Did anyone ever lay out all the spoilers from the Leviathan DLC?

From youtube clips, I gather the Reapers are based on a real race of giant cuttlefish monsters that created Space Casper.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
Did anyone ever lay out all the spoilers from the Leviathan DLC?

From youtube clips, I gather the Reapers are based on a real race of giant cuttlefish monsters that created Space Casper.

That's basically what they are. And those "organic Reapers" were the dominant race back then. They weren't doing mass genocides like the real Reapers at least.

Not sure what's stopping them from coming back after the Reapers were dealt with and becoming the rulers of the Galaxy once again. Buuut, i guess Bioware didn't think of this one.
 

hateradio

The Most Dangerous Yes Man
...Just the ending. Ok So the ending wasn't something to cry about, won't go down in history, but like life, we may not have the choice of under what circumstances our journey will end, and even when it will end... but how we conduct our lives, the choices that each and every one of our Shepard's have made helped define our personal story. When people talk about this series legacy, may they talk about the journey did your crew survive the suicide mission? Was Shep an Ass? A saint? Who was his love interest? I heard the Universe savior was a Biotic, a Soldier? or was it an Engineer? or a Stealthy Sniper?
Wha?
 
So, I played back through today with the dlc, and am now satisfied with the ending, as my femshep and Liara can have lots of blue babies while uncle Garris teaches them the art of calibrating. Thank you destroy ending!
 

Darkmakaimura

Can You Imagine What SureAI Is Going To Do With Garfield?
That's basically what they are. And those "organic Reapers" were the dominant race back then. They weren't doing mass genocides like the real Reapers at least.

Not sure what's stopping them from coming back after the Reapers were dealt with and becoming the rulers of the Galaxy once again. Buuut, i guess Bioware didn't think of this one.
Mass Effect 4?
 

kylej

Banned
ugh beat the game last night. Loved the whole experience aside from the ending and how abrupt some character deaths were. Regarding the latter, I know it's an intergalactic war and people will die, it was just surprising to me how multiple people who stuck with you through thick and thin - even standing by your side on what was assuredly a suicide mission - would die, and 2 minutes later your character is back on the Normandy making small talk with Joker. Thane got the best send off of course; I thought his death was one of the most moving scenes in the whole trilogy.

The ending... I dunno. I thought it was alright the first time I saw it but it keeps falling further apart the more I think about it, to the point where the entire existence of the Reapers and their cycles makes no sense.

1) I assume that space kid showed up in human form because Shepard was haunted by that kid on Earth dying, and so God or whatever was manifesting itself as something she would recognize. Still lame though. How were the Reapers created? How were the relays created? Why the fuck can I "Investigate" side characters but I'm not given options to talk to the grand poobah of the galaxy? Space kid basically said that the reason the Reapers exist is to prevent chaos between organics and machines... so the best way to do that is slowly and ruthlessly pick apart organic societies using machines? What? Why? How did space kid even come to exist? Are there others? Why the hell would space kid even present someone with options to control or destroy his creations? Why wouldn't he just wipe me out when I got up there? Space kid said something like "I can't choose" regaring Control/Destroy/etc -- why not? Why the fuck would he even build the Citadel if it can be turned into a weapon that kills him? Where did space kid go after my choice?

We got 10x more information and backstory about the Reapers in ME1, which was great, but the end of ME3 tosses them aside as being just a simple tool manipulated by a single dude. I haven't played the extended cut yet (wanted to see original ending) but I needed, like, a half hour worth of dialogue options with space kid to even come close to understand what was going on, which I don't believe the new cut offers.

2) Ending options are of course terrible. So essentially Joker and crew are dead after the Normandy crash lands, right? I mean, Joker can't walk, EDI is wiped out (I chose destroy), and all progress made by humanity and other organics was wiped away. I don't need my endings to be warm and fuzzy, but if you're going to wipe out the entire Mass Effect universe as we know it, give me something more to chew on. Also, I thought the whole point of the crucible was to specifically target just the Reapers and avoid other collateral damage?

3) The Illusive Man's change from 2 to 3 was probably my least favorite story arc. He was an intriguing, smooth character who saved Shepard and had radical but grounded ideals to propel humanity forward in the previous game. In 3 they immediately turned him into this insane indoctrinated rebel who used a stereotypical aZn ninja character with a katana to do busy work while he beat off to the Reapers and allowed them to kill billions. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad arc, but I didn't see his character moving quite so radically into that direction after 2.

I think a lot of this comes down to the original schedule of the next Xbox. If I remember correctly, when Bioware started developing ME3 the rumored plans were for a fall 2012 Xbox 720 launch, so they understandably hit the gas and started moving quickly to avoid getting caught in launch game crossfire. Oh and I know this would never work due to the business aspect of this industry, but I can't help but feel as though this would be better as 5 or 6 games rather than a trilogy, as there are so many moving parts, so many locations, so many people - to move forward in a meaningful way in just two sequels, you really have to leap all over the place (as seen by disposing of most of ME2's characters in 3) which short changes the potential of this great universe Bioware has built.

But in the end I give Bioware props. Its been a fantastic journey, I've had well over 100 hours of enjoyment out of this franchise, and some characters have stuck with me more than any others in all of video games. Hell I wouldn't be typing this if I didn't care about my FemShep and the places and people she's encountered. When that scene rolled at the ending with the old guy talking about how "the Shepard" walked among stars, and his grandson wondered if he would ever do that some day, that shit hit me right in the gut, y'all. I ain't too tough to admit that. I had a hard time not thinking about that last night while trying to go to bed lol. I think part of that was being on the tail end of 50 hours of people dying, suffering, and the end of life as we know it - the heaviness of the situation started to wear on me after a while in a legitimate way, so capping the game with all my bros dying or getting wiped out... toss a brother a bone here. Give me some sunshine and rainbows.

Looking forward to playing the next games in the Mass Effect series whatever those are now that the relays are all destroyed(?). Prequels would be pretty lame. Honestly I don't really need combat or end of the world scenarios, I would be more than happy exploring the universe, chatting with people, and building the game around a completely different construct than a 3rd person shooter.

Also did we ever learn what those creatures were in the Citadel? Those bug things that walk around and clean and tune up terminals. When we got sucked up into the Citadel at the end and I saw one of them walking around like nothing happened, I was sure it was going to turn and talk to me about the current situation, or that we would learn it was a former advanced race made subservient by space kid.
 
Also did we ever learn what those creatures were in the Citadel? Those bug things that walk around and clean and tune up terminals. When we got sucked up into the Citadel at the end and I saw one of them walking around like nothing happened, I was sure it was going to turn and talk to me about the current situation, or that we would learn it was a former advanced race made subservient by space kid.

Those things were called Keepers. In ME1 they were explained as being the ones who would maintain the Citadel, preventing anyone from finding out its true purpose, and would call in the Reapers when the time was right. The Protheans sabotaged them during their war with the Reapers so they wouldn't do that, which forced Sovereign to find another way to call the Reapers in.

EDIT: They were discussed about by the Prothean VI, Vigil.
 

Bisnic

Really Really Exciting Member!
ugh beat the game last night. Loved the whole experience aside from the ending and how abrupt some character deaths were. Regarding the latter, I know it's an intergalactic war and people will die, it was just surprising to me how multiple people who stuck with you through thick and thin - even standing by your side on what was assuredly a suicide mission - would die, and 2 minutes later your character is back on the Normandy making small talk with Joker. Thane got the best send off of course; I thought his death was one of the most moving scenes in the whole trilogy.

The ending... I dunno. I thought it was alright the first time I saw it but it keeps falling further apart the more I think about it, to the point where the entire existence of the Reapers and their cycles makes no sense.

1) I assume that space kid showed up in human form because Shepard was haunted by that kid on Earth dying, and so God or whatever was manifesting itself as something she would recognize. Still lame though. How were the Reapers created? How were the relays created? Why the fuck can I "Investigate" side characters but I'm not given options to talk to the grand poobah of the galaxy? Space kid basically said that the reason the Reapers exist is to prevent chaos between organics and machines... so the best way to do that is slowly and ruthlessly pick apart organic societies using machines? What? Why? How did space kid even come to exist? Are there others? Why the hell would space kid even present someone with options to control or destroy his creations? Why wouldn't he just wipe me out when I got up there? Space kid said something like "I can't choose" regaring Control/Destroy/etc -- why not? Why the fuck would he even build the Citadel if it can be turned into a weapon that kills him? Where did space kid go after my choice?

We got 10x more information and backstory about the Reapers in ME1, which was great, but the end of ME3 tosses them aside as being just a simple tool manipulated by a single dude. I haven't played the extended cut yet (wanted to see original ending) but I needed, like, a half hour worth of dialogue options with space kid to even come close to understand what was going on, which I don't believe the new cut offers.

2) Ending options are of course terrible. So essentially Joker and crew are dead after the Normandy crash lands, right? I mean, Joker can't walk, EDI is wiped out (I chose destroy), and all progress made by humanity and other organics was wiped away. I don't need my endings to be warm and fuzzy, but if you're going to wipe out the entire Mass Effect universe as we know it, give me something more to chew on. Also, I thought the whole point of the crucible was to specifically target just the Reapers and avoid other collateral damage?

3) The Illusive Man's change from 2 to 3 was probably my least favorite story arc. He was an intriguing, smooth character who saved Shepard and had radical but grounded ideals to propel humanity forward in the previous game. In 3 they immediately turned him into this insane indoctrinated rebel who used a stereotypical aZn ninja character with a katana to do busy work while he beat off to the Reapers and allowed them to kill billions. I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad arc, but I didn't see his character moving quite so radically into that direction after 2.

I think a lot of this comes down to the original schedule of the next Xbox. If I remember correctly, when Bioware started developing ME3 the rumored plans were for a fall 2012 Xbox 720 launch, so they understandably hit the gas and started moving quickly to avoid getting caught in launch game crossfire. Oh and I know this would never work due to the business aspect of this industry, but I can't help but feel as though this would be better as 5 or 6 games rather than a trilogy, as there are so many moving parts, so many locations, so many people - to move forward in a meaningful way in just two sequels, you really have to leap all over the place (as seen by disposing of most of ME2's characters in 3) which short changes the potential of this great universe Bioware has built.

But in the end I give Bioware props. Its been a fantastic journey, I've had well over 100 hours of enjoyment out of this franchise, and some characters have stuck with me more than any others in all of video games. Hell I wouldn't be typing this if I didn't care about my FemShep and the places and people she's encountered. When that scene rolled at the ending with the old guy talking about how "the Shepard" walked among stars, and his grandson wondered if he would ever do that some day, that shit hit me right in the gut, y'all. I ain't too tough to admit that. I had a hard time not thinking about that last night while trying to go to bed lol. I think part of that was being on the tail end of 50 hours of people dying, suffering, and the end of life as we know it - the heaviness of the situation started to wear on me after a while in a legitimate way, so capping the game with all my bros dying or getting wiped out... toss a brother a bone here. Give me some sunshine and rainbows.

Looking forward to playing the next games in the Mass Effect series whatever those are now that the relays are all destroyed(?). Prequels would be pretty lame. Honestly I don't really need combat or end of the world scenarios, I would be more than happy exploring the universe, chatting with people, and building the game around a completely different construct than a 3rd person shooter.

Also did we ever learn what those creatures were in the Citadel? Those bug things that walk around and clean and tune up terminals. When we got sucked up into the Citadel at the end and I saw one of them walking around like nothing happened, I was sure it was going to turn and talk to me about the current situation, or that we would learn it was a former advanced race made subservient by space kid.

The extended cut clarify a lot of things you mentioned. And no, the galaxy and the Normandy crew aren't doomed, Relays are not destroyed + they eventually got repaired and the space child explain a bunch more shit about what and why, which i suppose will still make little sense to you since it's pretty much a failed AI and Bioware didn't know what to do to please everyone while still sticking with their original story. Oh, and bring your romanced guy/girl with you during the final mission if its a ME3 squadmate, it's worth it for the extra scene on Earth.

The Leviathan DLC might answer more stuff for you too about the Reapers and Space child origin. It's a nice DLC with 3 seperate missions and a Citadel Lab to investigate too. Plus squadmates finally talk to you, a first for ME DLC!
 
Space kid basically said that the reason the Reapers exist is to prevent chaos between organics and machines... so the best way to do that is slowly and ruthlessly pick apart organic societies using machines? What? Why?

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Lime

Member
Cross-posting from the Aria DLC thread:

Apparently some fans fixed the ending with a mod. Too happy whatever, but at least the Starkid is out of the picture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQEofXDuxAQ&feature=plcp

What does it do?
- It removes the catalyst scene. No ifs, not buts. It's gone for good. (So is your choice, you will now destroy the reapers no matter what)
- It introduces a whole new scene showing how Joker disobeys orders and keeps the Normandy in the fight long enough for Shepard to be rescued (with the help of a certain Alliance captain :))
- The Normandy no longer crash-lands on the Weirdo Planet
- The Geth and EDI survive. EDI is now present during the memorial and you can add new slides to the epilogue that will show the geth, if they are alive. All credit and thanks for the slides goes to areyouareaper!
- You will see your Shepard reunited with his crew (and even some interaction unique to your LI if the LI is part of the Normandy crew). While they don't exactly have a party, now it is a real bitter-sweet ending with the emphasis on "sweet" rather than on "bitter"
- The musical score is changed quite extensively, including the credits song
- Since v0.2, Harbinger will say a few lines during the beam run

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/368/index/14795358
 

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
Cross-posting from the Aria DLC thread:

Apparently some fans fixed the ending with a mod. Too happy whatever, but at least the Starkid is out of the picture: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQEofXDuxAQ&feature=plcp



http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/368/index/14795358

Will probably be mocked for being labeled as a "happy" ending, but while cheesy and a little oddly put together it is better for just removing the out of nowhere crap and nonsensical explanations.
 
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