Mass Effect 3

[Trex]

Going through the Bioware forums to see what's changed (not too bothered about spoilers with this unless there's something REALLY big).

 

No big changes to the ending, by which I mean no indoctrinaton theory. In fact from what I read, the new content seems to work more towards disproving it.

 

More details with slight spoilers :

 

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

- When the normandy crashes, you see it take off again and fly back to earth.

- You see aftermath of battle with citadel and relays being rebuilt.

- You see extra shots of the crew members on normandy etc

- You see clips of other worlds rebuilding

- The one token breath is still there if you made certain choices

 

This is the fun change. They have apparently added a new ending, sort of...

 

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

If you shoot the catalyst, you get the ending where the reapers win.

 

On the whole it's looking a little bit weak to me, but there could be some really cool hidden stuff the fans haven't found yet.

[DarthParametric]

Lol the Normandy thing sounds retarded. Makes even less sense now than before. They would have been much better off just removing that whole bit altogether and retconning it out of existence.

[Sabretooth]

Endings ahoy:

 

You'll want to skip to about 6:30 on each, because it's mostly the conversation with the Starchild and it's the same far as I can tell.

 

Refusal:

(This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

Synthesis:

(This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

Destroy:

(This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

Control:

(This BBCode requires its accompanying plugin to work properly.)

[mimartin]

Lol the Normandy thing sounds retarded. Makes even less sense now than before.

How so? Or are you just in a hate it mood automatically?

 

 

Now you hear the order to get out, where before you were upset because we just intelligently guessed such a order must have been given for Joker to leave.

 

Or is it retarded that the Normandy crashed and then took off with a whole crew to repair it compared to the ending of ME2 where the Normandy crashed and then took off to save the day with just a man with Vrolik Syndrome to repair it.

 

 

Thanks Sabre, I actually for one like them all now. I can live with the ending now, not that I couldn't live with it before, but now I may actually play the game for a third playthrough. Really like that BioWare had the guts to include the Refusal ending. Not sure I will ever choice that for my Shepards, but it is nice that it was included.

[Trex]

Sounds decent now that more and more things are being discovered by fans. Speaking as someone who disliked the ending rather than hated it, I feel this solves most of the problems I had with it.

 

My only real remaining problems are :

 

1 - I doesn't seem like Harbinger has anything new to do.

 

More Harbinger interaction was something I was really looking forward to. It is possible that he has something added into the game at an earlier point though.

 

2 - They still have that one Shepard breath at the end. If you're going to go through so much effort to clarify how all the other stuff ended up, it seems weird to show it that way. It's clearly intended to show that he survives, so given the detail elsewhere you might as well have him sitting a beach sharing a drink with Garrus or marrying Liara and playing with their little blue kids.

 

I guess it's also possible that certain choices added earlier to the game might affect the ending outcomes. I'll wait a week and have another read through the desciptions.

[Taak Farst]

The forums have definately become a 'Reunion DLC' petition already on BSN for Destroy choosers.

 

I LOVED the ending, personally. I feel like I got what I was promised for once; closure and clarity.

[Fallen Guardian]

Well, I spent the first couple hours since I woke up playing through the ending again from the "Legends" save. However, NOTHING changed for me. I believe there was more content on Earth but nothing regarding the Citadel at the end changed. Origin said everything installed correctly, so I guess Origin lied. Ehh, I'll probably reinstall the DLC and play through it again, but not today.

[LDR]

MEH.

 

Anyone else going back to the good old days of Pursuing Saren in Mass Effect? I sure am!

[leXX]

So I just got through watching all of the endings and I have to say I think they did an okay job. I hate that they used a stupid drawings slideshow though, that was just lazy. I feel they have given us a little more closure, it still could be better but I'm happy as is. This gives me a good excuse to get my Insanity play through finished with my renegade Shep and choose the "Destroy" ending, which I feel is best suited to her. I will definitely be going back and playing through the whole trilogy again at some point in the future.

 

Despite all the crap surrounding ME3, Mass Effect is still in my opinion the best damn gaming series ever made.

[Salzella]

Call me easily impressed... but they fixed it! They ****ing fixed it. Maybe I just got lucky but i was satisfied...

 

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

The Normandy took off, the relays are only 'badly damaged', the Citadel can be salvaged, there seems to be differences between the endings, I get to say goodbye to Liara, I got actual explanations from the starkid then basically was able to tell him to go touch himself at night, and happiness abounds.

 

Shame about the fairly lame slideshow thingy (LOL Zaeed), but apart from that, colour me happy

 

edit: woah, just took a look at the 'refusal' ending.

 

...really glad i didn't choose it just to see what would happen

[mimartin]

Despite all the crap surrounding ME3, Mass Effect is still in my opinion the best damn gaming series ever made.

 

QFT

 

IMO it isn't even close.

[LDR]

Heh, this so called "professional writer" rage-quitted Mass Effect and made a thread about it.

 

A pretty interesting read, to say the least, as well as the subsequent comments.

[Lynk Former]

I'm finished. Finally... and now with that, I'll never play any of the Mass Effect games ever again.

[logan23]

I finished the new endings and I think bioware did a great job.

 

I know some people talked about the slide show images and wish they were an ingame scene- but the reason for this was because the Extended Cut could not go over 2 gigs.

I read somewhere that xbox live only allows patches to be max 2 gigs.

 

Now I know there are still people who are onto the indoctrinate theory, and I think it would be cool if Bioware made a Indoctrination DLC.

 

This would dive into the topic of it and could also flush out and give info on how this works and in doing so explain the Illusive man's ability in his final scene.

 

Plus you could have a final fight between harbinger and shepard- inside shepard's mind. They try to indoctrinate Shepard but it fails.

 

This would be before the ending, abd wouldn't affect the endings - it would be just a DLC

[Taak Farst]

began re runs of the entire trilogy see myself playing these for years to come

[Red Hessian]

MEH.

 

Anyone else going back to the good old days of Pursuing Saren in Mass Effect? I sure am!

 

Amen, brother.

[JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan]

I'd start practicing my "surprised" face now if I were you.

 

Here it is

 

 

I.. wow. I can't believe it. The naysayers were right.

 

...But this basically means that all the 'indicators' of the Indoctrination Theory in ME3 are now plot holes and signs of bad/rushed development.. And there are a crapload of them.

 

As for the actual extended endings themselves, I think they're satisfactory. They make the game playable, and provide some much needed closure. I'm a little disappointed at the 'slideshow' aspect though. (Curse you, Xbox LIVE, and your pithy 2gb patch limit! )

 

 

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

With the new information that the EC provides, and given that all of it is indeed actually real and not an illusion, it furthers my belief that the Synthesis ending is the best one. Enabling all life to ascend through technology? *And* have the Reapers help with all of their amassed knowledge? Hell yes. It's a kind of 'salvation' of sorts from the human (or in this case, 'organic') condition. Given, it does nothing to solve the problem of good and evil, but it's a great step in the right direction.

 

Control is the second best option, having Shepard becoming the closest thing to God in the Mass Effect universe (interestingly, Synthesis makes him a sort of Christ figure). It's a lot like the Helios ending in the original Deus Ex.

But it's a pity that this new 'Guardian' doesn't consider itself to be Commander Shepard. If it did, there could have been the possibility of it creating a body/avatar for itself, like what EDI did, and meeting the Normandy Crew again...

But as it is, it looks like this new character would have no intention of doing that, and would rather go on existing with the Reapers in its [almost] omniscient glory.

 

Destroy has the possibility of Shepard living (however ridiculous surviving that ship-moving explosion at ground zero is - the shockwave alone should be enough to mulch Shepard into pulp), but sacrificing the opportunity for such great advancement of the entire galaxy for one's own life seems somewhat selfish. And then there's the uncertainty in the preventing of the conflict between organics and synthetics. However, I think it's this aspect that gives this ending its major merit in that it embodies the concept of hope.

 

Refuse, in my opinion, is utter ridiculousness. When I saw the conversation wheel option appear, I thought "Awww yeah, here we go: Indoctrination Theory time.. time to put the smackdown on ghost-kid/Harbinger and wake the hell up.." But alas, it was just wishful thinking.

But Condemning the entire galaxy/trillions of lives (and not to mention the crew on the Normandy) to death for the preservation some ridiculous sense of personal idealism is bull****, and something I think Commander Shepard, in all his/her forms, would never do. Especially with all that talk of 'doing whatever it takes'.

 

This option's inclusion was a good idea, but it should have been written better.

 

 

Overall, I'm a little disappointed. I expected more from 1.9gb, given that DLC like the Lair of the Shadow Broker was 1.5gb and contained over 2 hours of gameplay. But yeah. The Extended Cut makes the game ok, and gives us closure. Though I think it could have been something spectacular, with the adoption of the Indoctrination Theory.

[Trex]

Partically off topic : Does anyone know what the Mass Effect modding scene is like?

 

Have people worked out how to do anything with it/them?

[JesusIsGonnaOwnSatan]

Partically off topic : Does anyone know what the Mass Effect modding scene is like?

 

Have people worked out how to do anything with it/them?

 

AFAIK modding is limited to config file and savegame tweaks. You can replace in game textures too. There could be more things that can be done, but I don't know of them.

 

Logically, I'd assume it wouldn't be much, since DLC's are an established and viable revenue pathway for the ME series. I doubt a development kit will be released any time soon.

[mimartin]

I.. wow. I can't believe it. The naysayers were right.

 

...But this basically means that all the 'indicators' of the Indoctrination Theory in ME3 are now plot holes and signs of bad/rushed development.. And there are a crapload of them.

And had they used the indoctrination theory they would have opened up even bigger plot holes and pretty much proven that the ME series was just lazy amateur writing.

 

Many of the so-called indicator that people have come up with are also signs of head trauma, the kind of trauma you may get from almost being obliterated by a reapers main gun. I guess bioware should have done a better job showing Shepard was injured. The blood, destroyed armor, slowed movement... just wasn't enough to convince some people and TIM and Starkid pretty either implying or point blank stating that Shepard was not indoctrinated still did not convince people.

 

I really think Kreia ruin dialogue in games, now nobody believes anything NPC say in games.

 

Heh, this so called "professional writer" rage-quitted Mass Effect and made a thread about it.

 

A pretty interesting read, to say the least, as well as the subsequent comments.

Did not know Cooper Lawrence finally actually play Mass Effect. Interesting….However I would hardly call some hack self-help author a profession writer.

[mr_dad]

I finished the new endings and I think bioware did a great job.

 

I know some people talked about the slide show images and wish they were an ingame scene- but the reason for this was because the Extended Cut could not go over 2 gigs.

I read somewhere that xbox live only allows patches to be max 2 gigs.

 

My thoughts exactly.

[logan23]

Here it is

 

 

I.. wow. I can't believe it. The naysayers were right.

 

...But this basically means that all the 'indicators' of the Indoctrination Theory in ME3 are now plot holes and signs of bad/rushed development.. And there are a crapload of them.

 

As for the actual extended endings themselves, I think they're satisfactory. They make the game playable, and provide some much needed closure. I'm a little disappointed at the 'slideshow' aspect though. (Curse you, Xbox LIVE, and your pithy 2gb patch limit! )

 

 

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

With the new information that the EC provides, and given that all of it is indeed actually real and not an illusion, it furthers my belief that the Synthesis ending is the best one. Enabling all life to ascend through technology? *And* have the Reapers help with all of their amassed knowledge? Hell yes. It's a kind of 'salvation' of sorts from the human (or in this case, 'organic') condition. Given, it does nothing to solve the problem of good and evil, but it's a great step in the right direction.

 

Control is the second best option, having Shepard becoming the closest thing to God in the Mass Effect universe (interestingly, Synthesis makes him a sort of Christ figure). It's a lot like the Helios ending in the original Deus Ex.

But it's a pity that this new 'Guardian' doesn't consider itself to be Commander Shepard. If it did, there could have been the possibility of it creating a body/avatar for itself, like what EDI did, and meeting the Normandy Crew again...

But as it is, it looks like this new character would have no intention of doing that, and would rather go on existing with the Reapers in its [almost] omniscient glory.

 

Destroy has the possibility of Shepard living (however ridiculous surviving that ship-moving explosion at ground zero is - the shockwave alone should be enough to mulch Shepard into pulp), but sacrificing the opportunity for such great advancement of the entire galaxy for one's own life seems somewhat selfish. And then there's the uncertainty in the preventing of the conflict between organics and synthetics. However, I think it's this aspect that gives this ending its major merit in that it embodies the concept of hope.

 

Refuse, in my opinion, is utter ridiculousness. When I saw the conversation wheel option appear, I thought "Awww yeah, here we go: Indoctrination Theory time.. time to put the smackdown on ghost-kid/Harbinger and wake the hell up.." But alas, it was just wishful thinking.

But Condemning the entire galaxy/trillions of lives (and not to mention the crew on the Normandy) to death for the preservation some ridiculous sense of personal idealism is bull****, and something I think Commander Shepard, in all his/her forms, would never do. Especially with all that talk of 'doing whatever it takes'.

 

This option's inclusion was a good idea, but it should have been written better.

 

 

Overall, I'm a little disappointed. I expected more from 1.9gb, given that DLC like the Lair of the Shadow Broker was 1.5gb and contained over 2 hours of gameplay. But yeah. The Extended Cut makes the game ok, and gives us closure. Though I think it could have been something spectacular, with the adoption of the Indoctrination Theory.

 

The reason you don't see the size of the DLC is because it has many different versions and images plus the rendered movies are big. Lair of the Shadow broker was mostly in game engine cut scenes, not rendered ones.

 

 

I know you mentioned the Refusal Option being a bit short.

I believe if they could have made the DLC slightly bigger, I could see them showing some scenes on how the Galaxy fought in the battle and hint to how this might have majorly cut down on the Reapers' numbers. (Personally I liked the Refusal Ending in some ways more then the others-

Show spoiler

(hidden content - requires Javascript to show)

mainly because it had that feeling that when a parent who sacrificed their freedom and took jobs like back in the early 1900s (ex cold miner) just so your kids would have a better life then yours. You might not even live to see it, and the future you hope for your kids might not happen even in their life but it's a sacrifice step that one of your future generations will go to college, be able to have freedoms to vote, not be enslaved, etc. It just felt that we do things within our terms and that might mean death for us but a future species will overcome, then all the Mass effect species cycles before them have not fought in vain...I think I'm rambling now lol

 

 

I still would love a DLC that touches on the Illusive man's abilities in the final scene and also talk about the concept of Indoctrination in general. I really thing the topic of Indoctrination is something they could do a DLC on with it's own mission/adventure. ( this would not be aimed at the ending- just exploring the concept of it, how it works- hints on how the Illusive man planned to use such abilities)

[Totenkopf]

Shame about the fairly lame slideshow thingy (LOL Zaeed), but apart from that, colour me happy

edit: woah, just took a look at the 'refusal' ending.

...really glad i didn't choose it just to see what would happen

 

Yeah, that Zaeed pic was kind of funny. As for the endings, went with Refusal first b/c of it was shortest.

 

Partically off topic : Does anyone know what the Mass Effect modding scene is like?

 

Have people worked out how to do anything with it/them?

AFAIK modding is limited to config file and savegame tweaks. You can replace in game textures too. There could be more things that can be done, but I don't know of them.

 

Yeah, that's about all I've seen/done as well.

 

Overall, I can live with endings as well. Better than what we got, visually, but also sort of unnecessary in figuring out an aftermath on our own. After playing out new endings with older saves, can probably put game aside for awhile. Btw, did anyone notice anything different before the final push for the beam? They seemed to imply that there might be changes between the attack on Cronos and hitting the Citadel before that last push.

[Lynk Former]

I AM HARBINGER

I WILL SHOOT DEATH BEAMS AT YOU

OH, SORRY YOU'RE HAVING A TOUCHING MOMENT?

I AM HARBINGER

I WILL STOP SHOOTING DEATH BEAMS AT YOU FOR THE MOMENT WHILE YOU HAVE A TOUCHING MOMENT

 

 

 

I personally got nothing out of the modified ending, it still has the same shtick with a fuzzier coating but still sucked just as much as the original version. Of course, I don't blame BioWare for going in this direction... and I've already talked about this on skype with others but I guess I'll try and go over my thoughts here...

 

Mass Effect has always been a "high production b-grade sci-fi movie" and throughout the trilogy it has managed to represent the three major types of these b-grade sci-fi movies you'd generally see.

 

There's the boring one but had a really great concept that got a cult following happening. Aka Mass Effect (1).

 

Then we have the more exciting type which, for a b-grade sci-fi, is seen as being poorly made compared to the boring type but is the most entertaining type to watch. Aka Mass Effect 2.

 

Finally, there's the movie which doesn't seem to care about its genre and ends up screwing itself up the ass, breaking its own rules which ends up creating a really terrible ending. Aka Mass Effect 3.

 

 

BioWare, whether intentional or not, has managed to capture the major types of b-grade sci-fi movies in its Mass Effect trilogy. So whether I personally enjoyed the ending or not doesn't really matter because when I think about Mass Effect in this way, everything makes perfect sense.

 

Out of the three main games, I have to say I enjoyed Mass Effect 2 the most and the geth/quarian arc of ME3. ME1 is boring but, as I said before, has a great concept.

[Boba Rhett]

So this Leviathan DLC sounds like we may get a Reaper teammate.

 

 

What the ****, Bioware? This is horse**** if true.