[Gaming] Mass Effect 3 : It's here and thy ending is queeeeeeer.
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Wrex is/was an epic-tier bro. If you let Wrex die, you are a bad person.
GasBandit
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I didn't "let" him die, ME2 assumed that since I didn't play ME1, Wrex died. And I do feel bummed about that because he sounds fun. I'd also probably have let Ashley die instead of Kaiden, cause he sounds like less of a bitch to be around.
Not bummed enough to put myself back through it all again though.
No.
No, no, fuck all that. I'd accept a bittersweet ending if Bioware had done that instead of a bitter one, and it was well-written and as touching as that moment between Sheperd and Anderson. (Keith David is an amazing voice actor.) That felt like Anderson seeing Shep as a daughter, in my eyes anyway.
But if Bioware's just gonna cock it all up and I gotta make up my own ending, I'm not taking a compromise. Here's how things went down. This is probably the only time I'll ever do something one could accuse as being fanfic, but in the case of Casey Hudson's fuck-up, I'm calling it a correction.
Not great writing, but those are the cutscenes I imagine in my head instead of the shit I was shoveled last night.
If I had anything nice to say about the official ending, it's that Bioware provided my wife and I a nice bonding moment as we, in unison, flipped off Casey Hudson's name when the credits rolled, and then the name of the lead writer, and then we flipped off the little DLC prompt together at the end, and then the bit with the old man and child discussing "the Shepard". I love her so much.
No, no, fuck all that. I'd accept a bittersweet ending if Bioware had done that instead of a bitter one, and it was well-written and as touching as that moment between Sheperd and Anderson. (Keith David is an amazing voice actor.) That felt like Anderson seeing Shep as a daughter, in my eyes anyway.
But if Bioware's just gonna cock it all up and I gotta make up my own ending, I'm not taking a compromise. Here's how things went down. This is probably the only time I'll ever do something one could accuse as being fanfic, but in the case of Casey Hudson's fuck-up, I'm calling it a correction.
Cut all that "nothing's happening" crap. Citadel arms open, Crucible docks, signal goes out to destroy the Reapers. They go immobile and the fleets wipe them out.
Shepard sees none of this. Her blood spreads over the Citadel console and everything goes black.
Shepard sees none of this. Her blood spreads over the Citadel console and everything goes black.
When Shepard sees the world again, she's in a hospital bed. Everything hurts, which tells her she's alive. Her lover Liara is there, broken and bruised from Harbinger's attack, but still alive. Garrus appears, and then Wrex, who tells she can't get out of being a hero so easily. Others come and go, until only Liara is left. She can't express her relief that Shepard made it, tells Shepard that the Normandy rescued her from the Citadel after the arms opened. They kiss, and Liara slips that she's pregnant. Shepard needs rest.
Shepard and Garrus arrive at a Citadel club first and Garrus cracks a comment about it not being turian heaven, but it'll do. Slowly those close to Shepard pour in. They're elevated above a large crowd full of grateful survivors, reporters, military officers, etc. Shepard addresses her friends and speaks a toast to the dead, as she did with Dr. Chakwas once. It's dedicated to Kaiden, to Tali, to Jacob. She speaks of Miranda, Mordin, Legion, Thane, Samara, Admiral Anderson. She remembers the quarians and the old council. She mentions the lost worlds and the lost people who died fighting.
Then she announces a toast to the living. She toasts her friends and allies, Wrex, Garrus, Jack, Ashley, Grunt, Kasumi, EDI, Joker. She praises the victory fleet and all its people--krogan, turian, asari, salarian, volus, elcor, hanar, drell, batarian, and human. She toasts the Protheans. Javik asks her why she doesn't include them among the dead, and she says they're not dead yet so long as he lives. Finally, she lists Liara.
Then she announces a toast to the living. She toasts her friends and allies, Wrex, Garrus, Jack, Ashley, Grunt, Kasumi, EDI, Joker. She praises the victory fleet and all its people--krogan, turian, asari, salarian, volus, elcor, hanar, drell, batarian, and human. She toasts the Protheans. Javik asks her why she doesn't include them among the dead, and she says they're not dead yet so long as he lives. Finally, she lists Liara.
No old man and grandchild walk the snowy forest. Instead it's an aged Sheperd. She's still tough and stands tall, but the years have taken a toll. Beside her walks a small asari child, who's just finished listening to Shepard tell of her battle with the Reapers. Her daughter asks about the stars, when she'll go there, what she'll find. "Out there you'll find people like you," Shepard says. "And people like me. And all kinds of people, and every one of them is different. Out there, you'll never know what you'll find next." Her daughter asks to hear another story, but it's time they headed back.
At home, another young asari makes fun of her little sister and Liara scolds them for staying out so long. Shepard's old bones are aching, but it's good to be home, on a quiet little place lost out in the galaxy, the kind of place Liara wished for once, in a quiet moment. Out there, worlds full of people are loud as they ever were, because the Reapers could not silence them. Shepard doesn't need to be among them. She only needs to know they're out there, meeting, mingling, moving, making noise, living, and nothing can stop them.
At home, another young asari makes fun of her little sister and Liara scolds them for staying out so long. Shepard's old bones are aching, but it's good to be home, on a quiet little place lost out in the galaxy, the kind of place Liara wished for once, in a quiet moment. Out there, worlds full of people are loud as they ever were, because the Reapers could not silence them. Shepard doesn't need to be among them. She only needs to know they're out there, meeting, mingling, moving, making noise, living, and nothing can stop them.
Not great writing, but those are the cutscenes I imagine in my head instead of the shit I was shoveled last night.
If I had anything nice to say about the official ending, it's that Bioware provided my wife and I a nice bonding moment as we, in unison, flipped off Casey Hudson's name when the credits rolled, and then the name of the lead writer, and then we flipped off the little DLC prompt together at the end, and then the bit with the old man and child discussing "the Shepard". I love her so much.
Ideally, but I loved the scene with Anderson and Shepard, tired and beaten on the Citadel, too much to let it go. In a game I'd want to fight Harbinger, have the fleets taking on Reapers temporarily immobilized, but Bioware took that away. For ending cutscenes in my own head, I just went from my point of no return. Maybe that scene just moved me too much, but Anderson and Shep sitting there, the look on his face, his words to her--that was the point where victory should have been.
And thanks, Jay
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What if I killed him in ME3 instead? 
You are still a bad person Terrik.I hope you feel bad.
Next you will tell us,you shot Morrodin.
You monster.I did
Terrik, I'ma need that patch, pin and coin back. You are not worthy. 
I did
BAD TERRIK! BAD!
I was going to say that you deserved the ending that EA gave you... but that's too harsh a punishment...
I wish next to the brofist button there was a punch your face button.
Was doing some poking around about the "official" ending nonsense, watched the indoctrination theory video. Neat stuff. It's funny how many theories there are on things, whether Hudson kicked the writers to the curb, whether EA rushed ME3 to a deadline (I'm guessing they want fast, cheap capitalization on existing Bioware franchises, making easy money on ass games before burning all Bioware goodwill and chucking the company like a gnawed bone), or the indoctrination... Guess we'll see in summer.
I find it interesting that if you have the lowest bracket of war assets, you get no color choice and everything goes to fuck. How do war assets determine the strength of the Crucible explosions? Derp.
A galaxy without Wrex is no longer a galaxy with any good.
Unless you kept Tali alive. Then there might be hope for salvation.
She was my lover.
Keelah se'lai.
Been their MO since...oh, forever. Then they come back 5 years later with a crappy sequel not worthy of the name, but fans still eat it up because it can't be any worse than the previous iteration, right? It's only afterwards fans suddenly realize that, oh yes, it *can* be worse. Much worse.
Want to bet there'll be a next ME game in 2015 or 2016, new protagonists, always-online (if they don't just make an MMO out of it after TOR crashes and burns and gets closed down despite having a million subscribers), following all the latest trends (shooters with inventory -> shooters with stat elements -> cover-based shooter -> whatever the next trend in shooters will be) no matter what's been established in-universe, but with supercool new graphics and the promise of "more new ME"?
I wonder if Bioware will have anything to show at E3.
Went out for a few drinks with my friend Lee last week who's finally back from a 3+ month family visit in Thailand. As we drank we discussed the game in detail and realized how much I missed his analytical ability to see things in a different light. So... while I disliked the game mostly because of the rushed ending along with the last 10% that didn't meet my expectations he felt that the entire game was a catastrophe. At first I though he exaggerated but he convinced me otherwise with the strong points he brought up.
His points uniquely regarding the storyline. Basically, he felt that ME3 made ME1 and ME2 completely pointless and it also makes the Reapers a completely incompetent self-thwarting race of morons.
- There's no point to ME1 since the Reapers didn't actually need the Citadel to get back. In fact, they probably would have had less trouble reaping the galaxy had Sovereign simply sat on his ass for three years while the others took the scenic route. What's a few years for a race that live for an eternity anyways?
- There's no point to ME2 since the creation of a human Reaper had no real impact on the arrival of the other Reapers or the progression of the reaping in general. Any choice regarding its fate bears absolutely no bearing to ME3. None at all. In fact, the Reapers would have had a much easier time had Harbinger and the collectors simply done nothing prior to the arrival of the other Reapers.
He brought up other points but basically he said ME3 showed that the writers didn't actually plan ahead.... they were winging it... and the last hours of the series was a hard slap in the face to all the fans of the game who expected an epic end but instead got cheated with the delivery of a game that completely and utterly undid all the work done of the first two games.
I'll have to admit, I'm finding myself very agreeable to what was said.
How do you feel?
Discuss.
His points uniquely regarding the storyline. Basically, he felt that ME3 made ME1 and ME2 completely pointless and it also makes the Reapers a completely incompetent self-thwarting race of morons.
- There's no point to ME1 since the Reapers didn't actually need the Citadel to get back. In fact, they probably would have had less trouble reaping the galaxy had Sovereign simply sat on his ass for three years while the others took the scenic route. What's a few years for a race that live for an eternity anyways?
- There's no point to ME2 since the creation of a human Reaper had no real impact on the arrival of the other Reapers or the progression of the reaping in general. Any choice regarding its fate bears absolutely no bearing to ME3. None at all. In fact, the Reapers would have had a much easier time had Harbinger and the collectors simply done nothing prior to the arrival of the other Reapers.
He brought up other points but basically he said ME3 showed that the writers didn't actually plan ahead.... they were winging it... and the last hours of the series was a hard slap in the face to all the fans of the game who expected an epic end but instead got cheated with the delivery of a game that completely and utterly undid all the work done of the first two games.
I'll have to admit, I'm finding myself very agreeable to what was said.
How do you feel?
Discuss.
- ME1: Sovereign was trying to do what he was supposed to; I don't think he considered "I should tell everyone I failed and they need to hoof it". So I don't mind that.
- ME2: The human Reaper becomes pointless yes, but stopping the Collectors from harvesting all the human colonies has purpose. Not to mention all the Cerberus stuff.
But I do agree that overall ME3 feels rushed. There's even stuff online to show that Mac Walters basically pulled a George Lucas with the ending, not knowing what to do and then scrawling a bunch of shit on a notepad, which he turned in with a big note saying "Lots of speculation for all!" Code for: I don't know either.
I also notice that ME3's choices focus mainly on the only stuff in DA2 that had any effect: relations between squadmates. I guess Bioware wants to do relation and dating sims now? Because that's where their expansive focus seems to be in these last two games, when we wanted to see story impact. We got that in ME1 and ME2, along with the character stuff. ME3? The quarian/geth stuff, sure, but since war assets don't matter and it has zero effect on the ending, it becomes meaningless. Your big plot choice in ME1 matters toward the ending and feels big even though there's no immediate game to follow from when it's by itself.
- ME2: The human Reaper becomes pointless yes, but stopping the Collectors from harvesting all the human colonies has purpose. Not to mention all the Cerberus stuff.
But I do agree that overall ME3 feels rushed. There's even stuff online to show that Mac Walters basically pulled a George Lucas with the ending, not knowing what to do and then scrawling a bunch of shit on a notepad, which he turned in with a big note saying "Lots of speculation for all!" Code for: I don't know either.
I also notice that ME3's choices focus mainly on the only stuff in DA2 that had any effect: relations between squadmates. I guess Bioware wants to do relation and dating sims now? Because that's where their expansive focus seems to be in these last two games, when we wanted to see story impact. We got that in ME1 and ME2, along with the character stuff. ME3? The quarian/geth stuff, sure, but since war assets don't matter and it has zero effect on the ending, it becomes meaningless. Your big plot choice in ME1 matters toward the ending and feels big even though there's no immediate game to follow from when it's by itself.
ME1 was, I felt, a fairly consistent game in terms of its in-game rules. Stuff like how space combat works, the biological workings of the various aliens, the weapons and ships and technology etc. ME2 started taking liberties, while ME3 throws them all out the window with gleeful abandon. So yeah, I absolutely agree the developers didn't plan ahead, and started tossing the rules of their universe aside when they became inconvenient.
Saw a video from someone Jay linked, and he really condensed the problems in a nutshell. Addressing the developers:
"In the final scene of the trilogy, you're going to introduce and resolve a new main conflict that supersedes the old one in 14 lines of dialogue spoken by a character we've never met before."
Good fucking job, Mac and Casey. This is storytelling 101 and you cocked it up.
"In the final scene of the trilogy, you're going to introduce and resolve a new main conflict that supersedes the old one in 14 lines of dialogue spoken by a character we've never met before."
Good fucking job, Mac and Casey. This is storytelling 101 and you cocked it up.
Muphry's Law strikes again
Hmm. Animated Feature starring James Vega? Facebook page.
Fans of the ground-breaking Mass Effect franchise shouldn’t miss this stunning motion picture experience born of an epic collaboration between the legendary Bioware and visionary Production IG (Ghost in the Shell, Kill Bill: Vol.1).
Description
Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is the prequel to the highly-anticipated Mass Effect 3 and follows the early career of Alliance Marine, James Vega.
Sweet! My least favourite/the least interesting crew member gets a movie! Hell yeah! I'm so excited for this, I could punch myself in the face!
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