Mass Effect Thread

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by Vainamoinen

It does hit most of the crucial points without babbling (something I could never do ). It could be added that the endings all negate Shepard's efforts to co-operate with other species, the philosophy of the entire series; and also, that Shepard accepts the three choices without argument, which would have been his/her specialty.

I disagree that all the endings negate Shepard's efforts. The destruction ending would, without a doubt, unless you sided with the quarians and destroyed the geth. The synthesis ending though, I firmly believe works out the best for all involved. Except Shep, but the hero sometimes has to sacrifice him/herself to save the day. But with the help of all the races, I could see the galaxy rebuilding the mass relay network.

[DrRocketGenius]

I finished the game yesterday.

...I liked the ending I got. I had a perfect Galactic Readiness rating though, and after reading about the other endings, I understand why people are upset. The galaxy was saved, the Normandy survived, and best of all, my Shepard lived. I got what I wanted.

[Scnew]

Originally Posted by DrRocketGenius

I finished the game yesterday.

...I liked the ending I got. I had a perfect Galactic Readiness rating though, and after reading about the other endings, I understand why people are upset. The galaxy was saved, the Normandy survived, and best of all, my Shepard lived. I got what I wanted.

So, if Shep survived, you chose red.

So, you're fine with the geth and EDI dying because you killed all synthetics, you're fine with the Normandy randomly flying through a mass relay with people who had been in London aboard for no real reason, you're fine with Shepard just rolling over and accepting what the star child had to say, you're fine with having no final battle with Harbinger or at all, you're fine with all the fleets who fought to save the galaxy being trapped in Sol, you're fine with Shepard somehow waking up amidst the rubble of London despite having just been on the Citadel, you're fine with the fact that the Reapers let their one weakness go totally undefended after the beam that knocked you out, you're fine with the Illusive Man just getting aboard the Citadel...somehow, and you're fine with having been presented with three arbitrary choices that had nothing to do with what happened in the previous three games?

[Shadowknight1]

The Illusive Man was stated to be on the Citadel before you even began your assault on Earth.

Though there is definitely a good point in there. What the heck was Joker doing going through a mass relay?

[Vainamoinen]

I wasn't particularly impressed with this article.

Game writers and designers work within the industry, so you'd hardly find someone who would actively criticize BioWare's efforts. So on the whole it's just plain "audience participation/ player feedback is so important" here, and "artistic integrity" there. So this article mostly explicitly tiptoes around the real issues. Well, of course the ending should not be changed "because the fans demand it". It should be changed because it's shitty!!

Chuck (Jordan, duh) uses a rather strange equalization between the present protest and movie focus group tests and arrives at the idea that the player should not be "given what he wants" all the time - something that, in my opinion, has scarcely anything to do with the topic at hand. This is all the more confusing because he is about the only one in this bunch of interviewed people who knows and speaks his mind about things that were really essentially wrong with Mass Effect 3:

Originally Posted by Chuck Jordan

Essentially, BioWare created the problem for themselves by, to be blunt, promising more than they or any other developer could deliver. They’ve sold the Mass Effect series on the premise that the player can completely customize his character and his character’s story—entire planets with complex storylines that some players will never even see! (And also sex with aliens). But even the largest team of writers and content creators won’t be able to deliver an indefinite number of conclusions that all have the same level of impact, satisfying enough to conclude a multi-year, multi-game epic series. People have been spending years trying to come up with a way to create systems that generate compelling narratives, and no one’s cracked the problem yet.

[Ribs]

Free extended cut to be made available

[Darth Marsden]

Originally Posted by Ribs

Free extended cut to be made available

But expanding upon the existing ending is all it'll be.

Eh, better this than nothing, I suppose. And at least it'll be free.

[Vainamoinen]

Also of importance: EA wins "worst American company" award, with the Bank of America coming in second. Of note is the individual way the award is to be presented to the company:

Oh well, Worst Company In America 2012 is officially in the books. All that's left to do is send off the Golden Poo to EA.

Traditionally, the Poo has been delivered on its little red pillow. But this year, we'll give EA three different color options for its pillow, though in the end it's still the same old Poo.

[der_ketzer]

Oh well, Worst Company In America 2012 is officially in the books. All that's left to do is send off the Golden Poo to EA.

Traditionally, the Poo has been delivered on its little red pillow. But this year, we'll give EA three different color options for its pillow, though in the end it's still the same old Poo.

priceless!

[The Gentleman]

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut

That's my viewpoint.

[GaryCXJk]

Just a quote from YouTube:

People....it's a video game. Grow up

To be honest, I would love to agree with this, I really do. But it just doesn't work when people can tollerate the outcry about the ending of a seven book saga of a Stephen King series, or a movie series about a virtual world where people are used as batteries or something.

[Vainamoinen]

Originally Posted by The Gentleman

Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut

That's my viewpoint.

Yup, I think so too. There's a four million dollar ending missing to this series, and I'd be surprised if EA will even spend a few thousands to quieten the outrage.

[Darth Marsden]

A little more clarification as to what we're getting.

[Alcoremortis]

I feel that this is a pretty good solution to their ending problem. And I think that what people really wanted was to show how their choices throughout the game mattered, even if it was the same ending. I mean, in the first game you pretty much got the same ending no matter what you did with only a few extra decorations tacked on, and in the second game, while characters could die, it basically boiled down to two choices in the end anyways.

Either way, though, I don't think more explanation of the ending could really hurt all that much.

[RetroVortex]

So I witnessed the ending first hand yesterday as my best friend completed it when I was over there.

And it still sucks.

It doesn't gel. My best friend was actually a little upset, not with the choice, but with the fact that the relays exploding would doom most of the galaxy if not obliterate them completely, and he chose destroy because "it didn't matter anyway since the relays are going to explode anyway, and everyone is probably going to die. At least this way the reaper threat will be zero chance of survival".

It still doesn't make any sense how Anderson or The Illusive man actually managed to get to the console when there was no signs of alternate routes to that area.

It still doesn't make sense how Joker & Co. survived.

There is no sort of final boss or virtually impossible challenge.

Its just a bleak, unsatisying ending thats poorly written, and no clarification is going to help that.

But I guess if you already have the game, this booby prize might make things a bit better.

Needless to say I am not going to buy Mass Effect 3.

(I'll still play 1 and 2 though, but I'll just imagine my own version of 3, (or buy it cheap and play it till the last part, then stop and play out my version in my head! XD))

EDIT: It was so bad, we actually started joking about the "indoctrination theory" all night. Applying it to every game we played (e.g. Toejam and Earl 3, The earthlings are being indoctrinated by the protagonists. Their physical appearance changes when they get "funkified" and their brains are altered into helping the aliens)
We were basically shouting "X is indoctrinated" "INDOCTRINATION!!" at everything. XD

[DAISHI]

Originally Posted by Darth Marsden

But expanding upon the existing ending is all it'll be.

Eh, better this than nothing, I suppose. And at least it'll be free.

Exactly as it should be.

[Darth Marsden]

Originally Posted by DAISHI

Exactly as it should be.

Absolutely. Imagine the uproar if it weren't.

[Shadowknight1]

*sigh* You know, if you hate the ending so much guys, you could always write a fan-fic version where everything ends up happily ever after.

BTW, free DLC incoming next week in the form of two multiplayer maps, some new multiplayer characters, 3 new weapons.

[GaryCXJk]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

*sigh* You know, if you hate the ending so much guys, you could always write a fan-fic version where everything ends up happily ever after.

BTW, free DLC incoming next week in the form of two multiplayer maps, some new multiplayer characters, 3 new weapons.

Jesus, people will never learn.

It's not about the ending, it's about the fact that the choices you make don't give the variation it should be.

If I were to write a fanfic describing my ending, I would have made it a "Make Your Own Adventure" style, because THAT is the ending people want. Not ONE ending. Multiple. Or at least variation.

I mean, the very first Fallout gave us variations during the ending sequence. Sure, in the end it didn't really matter all that much because the ending was mostly the same, but still, variations. That's all people really care for. Is that a bit too much to ask?

Apparently it was, because they had to create a patch to finally get it right.

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by GaryCXJk

Jesus, people will never learn.

It's not about the ending, it's about the fact that the choices you make don't give the variation it should be.

And this quote here is exactly what's wrong with the entire situation. To expect any game company to be able to account for every choice is impossible. I've said it before, and it's just as true now as it was then, and since no one seemed to acknowledge the sentiment, I must assume that you're all blind. It wouldn't have mattered what Bioware did with the ending. There was no way to please anybody with Mass Effect 3's ending. Plain and simple, it would have been impossible.

Frankly, I'm alright with the ending. I've seen far worse endings in games, movies, and tv shows.