Mass Effect Series

[Joe]

Just make sure you clarify up there that it is end-game spoilers you're finding if you click that link. I'm sure nobody wants to find out the hard way.

*Sighs*

 

[Russell]

This sums things up perfectly: (It's spoiler free)

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9476-Mass-Effect-3-The-Process

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

This sums things up perfectly: (It's spoiler free)

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/9476-Mass-Effect-3-The-Process

sweet jesus boobs i would buy the shit outta that pillow cover

 

[Russell]

sweet jesus boobs i would buy the shit outta that pillow cover

I knew someone would love that.

I'm stuck between stage 3 & 4, Depression & Bargaining.
There is a slim hope of end changing DLC, isn't there?

ISN'T THERE!?

 

[Lex]

I knew someone would love that.

I'm stuck between stage 3 & 4, Depression & Bargaining.
There is a slim hope of end changing DLC, isn't there?

ISN'T THERE!?

I'm inclined to believe the

Spoiler

Indoctrination/ Hallucination theory, considering Shep is alive with the destroy ending, and the creepy child doesn't smile.

 

[Hisako]

I have a feeling Bioware won't actually cave in and make any sort of alternate-endgame DLC, because if what I hear is accurate about the endings, it seems like a pretty deliberate effort to steer the Mass Effect universe in a specific direction.

I have a feeling they've set it up for a later expansion or hell, even set it up for later titles.

 

[Joker]

Just make sure you clarify up there that it is end-game spoilers you're finding if you click that link. I'm sure nobody wants to find out the hard way.

*Sighs*

yeah this

 

[Alex]

The ending was perfect

Spoiler

with the exception of the bit with the Normandy, that part I had no clue what was going on and that was pretty disappointing and shitty. Plenty of room for interpretation though. What happened next for the characters? Use some damn imagination and think it out for yourself. FFVII ended in quite a similar way, with you having no idea whether or not humanity or all the characters you had grown so attached to survived and with the knowledge that their actions would deny the people of the planet mako technology that their modern world so depended on.

The hatred the ending gets is pretty baffling. I'm just sitting back in slack-jawed wonder at this reaction.

tl/dr - double standards and a big silly hate bandwagon

 

[Hisako]

LOL I'd forgotten about that.

Back when I played FFVII I had absolutely no fucking idea what had happened at the end. The only thing I could really make out was a giant tornado thing and people in Midgar lookin' all alarmed an' shit.

 

[Alex]

Spoiler

The Normandy part was ridiculously stupid though. It would have been much better if they hadn't shown it at all, imo. Very nonsensical. If you're going to try and give us closure then give us closure properly, if they wanted to end it with Shepard's sacrifice then end it there. Don't half ass it. I'm just going to rule the whole bizarre scene out as being non-canon or some shit.

Spoiler

The indoctrination/hallucination theory is also very cool and rather convincing. Which does put my mind at ease about the whole thing Though it does leave the ending open for a conclusive DLC installment. Le sigh.

 

[Lex]

Spoiler

The Normandy part was ridiculously stupid though. It would have been much better if they hadn't shown it at all, imo. Very nonsensical. If you're going to try and give us closure then give us closure properly, if they wanted to end it with Shepard's sacrifice then end it there. Don't half ass it. I'm just going to rule the whole bizarre scene out as being non-canon or some shit.

Spoiler

The indoctrination/hallucination theory is also very cool and rather convincing. Which does put my mind at ease about the whole thing Though it does leave the ending open for a conclusive DLC installment. Le sigh.

Except

Spoiler

the ending's, as they are, are full of massive plot holes. The main gripe is that you don't get a tiny scrap of information on what actually happens, at the end of a trilogy that is CHARACTER DRIVEN and supposed to be about the choices you've made.

What the hell is the point in making all those decisions and fighting like fuck to get half the galaxy on your side for it to end up a "you have 3 choices" that all end horribly and are exactly the same with a colour swap? The end was garbage, and not at all in line with the quality (in content as well as writing) as the rest of the game.

There are too many people floating around right now calling the people dissatisfied with the ending arrogant entitled fanboys with nothing better to do. The fact is, the writers clearly said that the conclusion would be based on the choices that you have made in the series, but this wasn't the case.

All endings are exactly the same, except if you have high enough war assets and choose the "destroy" option you get a 5 second scene where Shepard breathes once.

It makes absolutely no sense. None of it, beyond that stupid lift. How did my crew members who were killed manage to teleport to the fucking Normandy?

The only reasonable explanation is that they are planning to release further story content in the form of DLC.

Seriously, the whole end sequence is totally not in line with the quality of the rest of the series. The indoctrination theory + concluding DLC is what I'm praying for right now. I can't accept it the way it is.

Not because it's depressing, because it's shit. Totally shit.

 

[Alex]

With the exception of the utterly bizarre

Spoiler

Normandy

stuff, I'm not really seeing a whole lot of massive cavernous plot holes in the ending.

Thank goodness there's somebody on hand to tell me what 'the facts' are though.

 

[Max Payne]

http://social.bioware.com/forums/forum/1/topic/355/index/9890470/1 For those of you who haven't seen it.

Also I really loved the game but the endings were all pretty disappointing.

 

[Lex]

With the exception of the utterly bizarre

Spoiler

Normandy

stuff, I'm not really seeing a whole lot of massive cavernous plot holes in the ending.

Thank goodness there's somebody on hand to tell me what 'the facts' are though.

Dude seriously, your snarky comments aside, it's not my intention to be condescending. As it stands, I was pissed off at the way you belittled the people with genuine concerns in your first post and I responded accordingly. I apologise if it seemed like a personal attack on you, but please don't start being a dick to me, this is the last place in the world I would want to argue with someone.

I'm glad you enjoyed the ending. I wish we could swap positions, I really do. As it stands, I am with the 98% of fans who voted in the poll who are not happy. I wish I was in the 2%, but I'm not.

EDIT: HOLY JEEBUS, the mass effect 3 campaign has raised $9200 for Child's Play in one day. I am astonished.

 

[Alex]

Spoiler

No, trust me, I get it. I get that there could be much more to the endings. I wouldn't say I was dissatisfied, but they were a long shot from perfect and lacked the elaboration I wanted and expected from the franchise. But I'm prepared to take it for now. It did serve as a good, fitting end to Shepard's story. But not as the curtain call for the Mass Effect universe.

Like I said before, I just wish we had seen nothing of the Normandy or our companions or had received a full, detailed epilogue. Trying to keep it open for interpretation like they did with the Normandy really didn't work at all, especially with the brevity of that scene.

A lot of the more vehement hatred and 'genuine concerns' with the part before that (but not all) just ring incredibly false to me.

 

[Lex]

I don't want to sound like an asshole again, but spoiler tags!!!!

I get what you're saying, however

Spoiler

there are little clues here and there that point to the whole thing beyond being hit by the beam being indoctrination (attempted, if you choose destroy, since that's the only ending we see Shep alive in). I have managed to swallow most of that theory now to be honest. It's the only thing that is keeping me sane.

The Normandy scene was a piece of crap, that we agree on.

The thing that irks me most is the fact that the game is built on choices, and in the end none of them matter.

I would never condemn anyone to try and read all of this, but to save me going through the inconsistencies I noticed, a shit load of it is catalogued in the thread I will link after saying "obviously don't click on this link if you don't want endgame spoilers, since it's the discussion about the end of the game" - The Link.

Beware, there are morons in that thread, but they're not the majority.

I don't know if you read my first post after I completed it, but I didn't understand the fan reaction either. I had assumed it was a bunch of moan-and-complain-a-lot idiots. Then I had ten minutes to

Spoiler

wipe my eyes and think about it. Then came the rage.

 

[Alex]

Spoiler

there are little clues here and there that point to the whole thing beyond being hit by the beam being indoctrination (attempted, if you choose destroy, since that's the only ending we see Shep alive in). I have managed to swallow most of that theory now to be honest. It's the only thing that is keeping me sane.

I totally buy that tbh. A lot of the clues aren't even subtle. The synthesis ending is essentially what the Reapers wanted from humanity anyway, for example!

Until anything comes from that, I'm just prepared to accept the ending for what it was and hope something may come along to change it. But I would be okay if it didn't.

Not overjoyed or filled to the brim with satisfaction, but content enough.

 

[Dana Scully]

wellllll beat it about half an hour ago

Spoiler: things i liked

- the gameplay in general, including weapon modding and the talent trees
- the animations (especially a la face) and the graphics in general made a huge leap
- the soundtrack holy CRAP the soundtrack was awesome i need to get my hands on sheet music for some of those piano tracks because damn
- garrus garrus garrus I WILL LOVE YOU FOREVER
- mordin's death was wonderfully heartwrenching and totally fucking epic
- grunt's not-so-last stand
- thane's death was satisfying, though i feel like his character did not get nearly enough shit to do
- legion's death bawwwww. "good luck, commander." "acknowledged" BROS FOREVER
- drunk tali omg lol from this day forth i will forever call straws emergency inductor ports
- bailey making kai leng's elevator stop at every single floor trolololol
- actually bailey in general saul tigh is a pretty cool dude
- joker and edi
- in general, all the dialogue with crewmates
- the dream sequences, while a bit cliche, were a neat touch
- miranda force-pushing her father out of a window YOU GO GIRL and since she couldn't be a squadmate i like how you got to see miranda multiple times rather than her being one-and-done like everyone else
- stabbing kai leng

Spoiler: things i disliked

- speaking of dialogue, where did it all go? i felt like there was way less of it in this game compared to 2, and considering you can spacebar spam your way through it i don't know why they cut so much of it
- the journal was fucking irritating as shit with its never updating
- where the fuck did kasumi go? did anyone find her?
- not enough interaction with old squadmates
- this isn't a complaint but WHY WON'T YOU LET ME LESROMANCE MIRANDA AND/OR JACK BAWWWWWWWWWWW no but really when bioware promised more gay/lesbian romance options i was kinda hoping...

Spoiler: the endings, aka things that took what was an amazing game and threw it headlong off a cliff

incoming tl;dr

i just

wow i did not know bioware was capable of making something so emotionally unsatisfying

I have nothing against open-endings - I actually tend to prefer them because they leave so much room for fanfiction interpretation. But these endings were not open. All three of them were pretty much identical: all the mass relays are destroyed, which means pretty much all the civilizations are fucked and all the aliens in Sol are going to starve to death, the Normandy is fucked up in some random fucking jungle somewhere with no chance of ever being rescued, and even if you did the destroy option Shepard is horribly wounded on the ruins of the Citadel (which EXPLODED, so that makes lots of sense) and will probably bleed to death because FUCK YOU FANS that's why. And then there's the issue of your squadmates magically appearing back on the Normandy because that makes - oh wait, that makes no sense at all, gj Bioware.

More importantly, there is zero emotional closure with any of the characters that you just spent 150+ hours lovingly obsessing over. That shit is inexcusable in a good story. Nor is there any real plot closure - do people rebuild? Which significant political parties survive? Does Aria ever retake Omega? If you chose to control the reapers, what ends up happening to them?

And finally: why the FUCK is there a glowing energy child!? Why are you introducing brand new technology/beings in the last 10 minutes of a game, Bioware? Just because the Citadel is ancient does not give you the excuse to throw out all your careful world-building for the sake of ~mystery~ - you could have at least had the Citadel be all ASSUMING CONTROL on Anderson's corpse or something, at least that would have made some sort of sense.

argh i just

How they decided to make the game without a single satisfying ending is beyond me. I don't care if it requires getting a maxed out war asset score but all I want is an ending where Shepard and Garrus adopt a krogan child and Wrex is the godfather and they get up to crazy family shenanigans and every year there's a Normandy reunion party full of cocktails and emergency inductor ports and is that really too much to ask ;_;

sigh

I apologize for the heavy use of caps and sarcasm, just really fucking disappointed right now.

edit: also i know i repeated a lot of what has already been said, i just wanted to rant

 

[Lex]

I just saw this (spoilerific) article on Kotaku that makes some nice points.

My favourite quote is this: "It feels like walking 100 miles to get lemonade only to get there and be told you can choose between a pair of shoes, some brass knuckles or a cheeseburger."

Fucking Hilar.

@Samantha Carter

Spoiler

Kasumi was in my game? I had a full mission with her on the citadel. I also said goodbye to her on vid-comm in London. Also Zaeed, but I don't give a flying fuck about him.

Not satisfied with the ending? See my sig. Also here.

 

[Max Payne]

Spoiler

Does Aria ever retake Omega

THIS annoyed the shit out of me
they made this huge comic about aria's fight to save omega to lead into ME3, and they don't even follow up on it

this must be like

a dlc mission or something

 

[Dana Scully]

oh and even if bioware was intending from the very getgo to release DLC explaining all this

that is either the stupidest planning or the most ingenious cashgrab i have ever heard

 

[Lex]

I'm positive it's the ingenious cashgrab now. I just don't see how it can all be so amazing and well plotted until that particular point.

 

[Dana Scully]

Spoiler

this must be like

a dlc mission or something

Spoiler

that's what i was thinking too when she first mentioned it

but Aria was saying she'd retake it after the battle for Earth

which will be awkward now that there are no more mass relays...

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

Spoiler

- where the fuck did kasumi go? did anyone find her?

Spoiler

she's on the citadel during the quest with uhh some spectre dude near the embassies his quest is something about hanar indoctrination? idk it's great she mentions garrus being on your team and you get more romance dialogue a little about it and she's all 'JACOB JACOB JACOB HIS ABS ARE PERFECTION I WOULD DRINK SOUP FROM HIS BELLYBUTTON' sort of deal

 

[Alex]

that is either the stupidest planning or the most ingenious cashgrab i have ever heard

EA, are you using controversy to drum up sales again?

Oh, you scamp.