Mass Effect 3

[Totenkopf]

Perhaps.....or we'd merely be blaming EA instead of Bioware as well.

[DarthParametric]

The whole dev team, including the other writers, already knew what the ending was a year or more before the game was released. It wasn't a secret that Hudson and Walters concealed and sneaked onto the gold master just before the discs were pressed. I'm sure some of them piped in with their 2c, but that changed nothing. Chain of command and all that. And I'm sure some of them actually liked it, just as some fans do.

[urluckyday]

To me, the issue there is not that they said that at the release of ME1, it's that they were still saying that at the release of ME3. It would be one thing if the games had evolved over the series and Bioware was upfront and honest about it, but when the series' project director flat out knowingly lies about the impact of player choice on the final game in the series as it is being shipped out to customers, that's a whole other ballgame.

 

That's what's most disturbing about it to me. For a trilogy that claimed to drive home the point that the difficult choices you make throughout will really matter in the end, giving plays the option of three very similar choices was just wrong to me. For the entire trilogy, it was like Bioware gave you 1000 different paths to walk to tell your own story and make your own choices...but once you got to the end, all these roads converged into three narrow, eerily similar roads for you to make your choice and just hope you didn't choose the stupid outcome. But really, if you feel like you made a mistake, you could just load up your save game to 5 minutes earlier and pick another choice to see that ending - that's the definition of a flimsy ending right there.

[DarthParametric]

This story arc is coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot more different. At this point we’re taking into account so many decisions that you’ve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that stuff. It’s not even in any way like the traditional game endings, where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got ending A, B, or C.

Good thing we didn't get an ABC ending. Imagine how bad that would have been.

 

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

[Qui-Gon Glenn]

*shrugs*

 

Obviously the full concept of the IT has not been conveyed to those who so easily dismiss it. Of course IT invalidates the other endings; it would have been the springboard to meaningful DLC that continued the story to a conclusion that had a chance of making sense.

 

Oh, by the way, that is how you improve the ending. Not really sure what the grand mystery for the deep thinkers is here.

[Totenkopf]

Just out of curiosity....is there a video that's not really long (<10 mins tops) that synopsizes IT? Most of ones I've seen in past go on far too long to bother sitting thru. I realize that the basic premise is that a lot of events in games are a giant mind**** of sorts. But if IT is essentially that you spend 3 games or frankly even one, playing out a dream, essentially, I can't say it sounds much more interesting that what we got (even including the last 10 min.....w/or w/o EC).

[HED]

Just out of curiosity....is there a video that's not really long (<10 mins tops) that synopsizes IT? Most of ones I've seen in past go on far too long to bother sitting thru. I realize that the basic premise is that a lot of events in games are a giant mind**** of sorts. But if IT is essentially that you spend 3 games or frankly even one, playing out a dream, essentially, I can't say it sounds much more interesting that what we got (even including the last 10 min.....w/or w/o EC).

 

I believe the central part of the IT is that Shepard is fighting Indoctrination for most of ME3 (evidenced by the dream sequences) but doesn't succumb to it until Harbinger attacks him at the Conduit (explaining the dream-like qualities of the sequences that follow). Hence a hypothetical DLC following up on the Indoctrination Theory would've been able to, hypothetically, provide a new ending without undermining the vast major of time put into the game beforehand.

[DarthParametric]

Oh, by the way, that is how you improve the ending.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course, but in my book you don't fix zany plot elements by adding in even more zany elements, especially when they amount to "it was all a dream".

[HED]

I don't know if at this point "it was all a dream" is really considered "zany" anymore. Its a pretty standard thing to play with, even if just as a fakeout or something. Plenty cheap, of course, but there's nothing inherently wrong with using something cheap to allow you to build something richer.

[DarthParametric]

Sure, it has its uses, especially as a piss-take. But when it is played straight, as in IT, it's pretty lame. Might as well end with "rocks fall, everybody dies".

[Qui-Gon Glenn]

I get it DP. Yet I strongly feel anything would have been better than the crap we were left with.

 

Anyways... I will be playing MP this weekend if anyone wants some easy credits

[Tommycat]

I thought the IT was a set up for the real ending in which Sheppard and the others fight back the reapers, assuming you had gotten all your allies issues resolved. There's more, but for the purposes of brevity, "Everyone lives happily ever after"

[Dread Advocate]

I loathe the whole "It was all a dream" trope, but I think I would've made an exception for the Indoctrination Theory.

[DarthParametric]

I get it DP. Yet I strongly feel anything would have been better than the crap we were left with.

I guess that is the core of my problem with the IT theory. You'll get no argument from me that the original ending (in either vanilla or EC flavours) was dire, but I don't see the IT theory as an improvement.

[Qui-Gon Glenn]

Ok, that is fair enough. I prefered IT to what we got (EC was a weak handy) as it pointed in a direction that gave me a palatable ending.

 

I never saw IT saying that the entire events of ME3 SP were a indoctrinated hallucination, but that the Star Brat dreams certainly were.

[Totenkopf]

Never really thought of the dreams as anything other than an expression of the anxiety Shep was experiencing throughout the game.

[The Doctor]

I've been making my way through the Trilogy edition for a few weeks now. Just finished ME2 (fantastic game, btw) and I plan to start 3 tomorrow afternoon. The Trilogy version includes an online pass and the Extended Cut. Am I missing out on anything tremendous or game altering without any of the actual DLCs? I'm a bit strapped for cash these days, but could probably afford maybe two of them if I needed to. Keeping in mind that I'm more worried about story than extra guns or armours.

[DuckfromPortal]

I've been making my way through the Trilogy edition for a few weeks now. Just finished ME2 (fantastic game, btw) and I plan to start 3 tomorrow afternoon. The Trilogy version includes an online pass and the Extended Cut. Am I missing out on anything tremendous or game altering without any of the actual DLCs? I'm a bit strapped for cash these days, but could probably afford maybe two of them if I needed to. Keeping in mind that I'm more worried about story than extra guns or armours.

 

No, I played with no multiplayer and only the leviathan dlc (and extended cut but i do count that) and I felt it wasn't missing any or thought that anything could make it better

[urluckyday]

I've been making my way through the Trilogy edition for a few weeks now. Just finished ME2 (fantastic game, btw) and I plan to start 3 tomorrow afternoon. The Trilogy version includes an online pass and the Extended Cut. Am I missing out on anything tremendous or game altering without any of the actual DLCs? I'm a bit strapped for cash these days, but could probably afford maybe two of them if I needed to. Keeping in mind that I'm more worried about story than extra guns or armours.

 

Don't waste a dime on the DLC. Aside from taking you away from the main story for a couple of hours, it literally has no impact on the final ending (thought not much does).

 

Best of luck, and I hope the ending treats you better than it's treated me.

[Totenkopf]

If you were going to get any DLC at all (not incl EC), I'd say Leviathan and From Ashes b/c they flesh out "the past" more. That said, they don't change the RGB ending a lick, so really aren't essential to figuring out the overall story. Haven't played Citadel, but hear it's nothing more than a complete distraction from the overall story (albeit a fun one, apparently). Frankly, outside of maybe adding crewmates, none of the DLC in any of the 3 games is really essential to the plotline.

[DarthParametric]

If you are keen to see the DLC, and still have the stomach for additional playthroughs after your first one, I'd probably hold off until you can pick them up cheap in a sale. There is bound to be one over Xmas/New Year.

[Zero G Cookie]

I am back from the darkness and I decree that I have little interest in the DLC myself

[The Doctor]

If you were going to get any DLC at all (not incl EC), I'd say Leviathan and From Ashes b/c they flesh out "the past" more. That said, they don't change the RGB ending a lick, so really aren't essential to figuring out the overall story. Haven't played Citadel, but hear it's nothing more than a complete distraction from the overall story (albeit a fun one, apparently). Frankly, outside of maybe adding crewmates, none of the DLC in any of the 3 games is really essential to the plotline.

 

From Ashes and Leviathan were the two that piqued my interest on the wiki, yeah. Maybe I'll be able to catch them in a Steam Sale of some kind in the next few weeks.

[DarthParametric]

Saw this over on Reddit. Gave me a laugh.

 

ME3's ending predicted in advance

 

[Lynk Former]

So a little over a week ago, I downloaded all of the story DLC for all three Mass Effect games and then started a non-stop (aside from eating and sleeping) marathon of Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3...

 

...I know I said I wouldn't go back to Mass Effect and that the ending for Mass Effect 3 didn't motivate me at all to go back to playing the entire trilogy over again, and I still stand by that. My reasoning for playing the trilogy over again was because I really want to give these three games and the series as a whole, every possible chance. It deserves that much, even though it has many flaws. I felt like I needed to go back and see just what was great about the series and what made it not so great and what was just down right stupid.

 

After over 120 hours (ME1 = 30+ hours, ME2 = 40+ hours, ME3 = 50+ hours) of straight gameplay through all three games, completing 100% of the content including all of the story DLC content, we're talking EVERYTHING. For the most part, I did exactly what I did in my initial runthrough of the trilogy when I played each game for the first time... well, aside from making sure I actually saved the SR2 crew and didn't forget to save Jack in ME3 because I didn't realise that some of the missions were timed. But for the most part, it was the exact same Shepard I created when I first played ME1, just a second chance to do all of the things.

 

At the end, after that 120 hours... I felt emotionally exhausted after all that I had been through. Did my opinion of the trilogy change after this second runthrough of the trilogy? Not really. In fact, it just cemented all of the things I've said about the trilogy... but at the same time, reminded me of all of the reasons why I love Mass Effect and why the bad things about the trilogy disappoint me so much.

 

I'm planning to write a series of 4 articles for my site, one for each game and then a trilogy retrospective... but yeah, I'm glad I went through the trilogy again and didn't simply abandon it as I said despite it leaving me emotionally exhausted at the end in not such a good way...