23455 réponses à ce sujet

[aj2070]

Akael_Bayn wrote...

Quick, deflect the topic to something positive!

...yeah, we're not stupid, you know?
Don't give us this "We don't want to spoil things for people who aren't done BS. 

How about a straight answer about where all the many and varied endings we were promised went?




“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets?”

“Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers, being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an end.”

“Every decision you've made will impact how things go. The player's also the architect of what happens."

“You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide some answers to these people.”

This FTW!  Hudson mis-information, fail

[Omega Torsk]

My gosh, is it necessary to quote the entirety of Merchant's wall of text in every single post?

Modifié par Omega Torsk, 16 mars 2012 - 08:18 .

[UnevenElefant5]

I think it goes without saying that the endings were not well recieved, and my opinions have been stated multiple times by others, so I'll just say my favorite part. I think Mordin's and Tali's deaths were the best scenes in the game. I romanced Tali, so when she fell off the cliff I was heartbroken. Also the paragon interrupt didn't save her either, which hurt just as bad, ahaha. And Mordin is just a cool guy, and seeing him finally admit his mistake and sacrifice himself like that was really touching. Also I was on the verge of crying when he sang his song in the tower. They were the saddest moments but the most well done, in my opinion.

[sg1fan75]

I loved the game until the end it felt wrong in my opinion but I only finished once so I will try for 2 more

[Salyut]

DoctorCrowtgamer wrote...

TheMerchantMan wrote...

Ah, finally. I've been stalking the forums for the last two days waiting for the ability to post.

Anyways. Thank you Mr. Priestly for at least letting us know you are listening about the ending, it worries me, of course, because I would prefer you were doing something, or  at least keeping something back, whereas listening seems to just prove that you weren't prepared for this, and I had hoped Bioware was better than that.

The problem with asking "what we enjoyed" before the end, is that the end has for all extensive purposes made the rest of the series unenjoyable. All the good we have done is ultimately futile in all of the possible end games. That hurts, and it means I can't revisit them.

I think perhaps the moment with the strongest impact on me, was the death of Legion. His act of messanic sacrifice to bring his people full sentience was touching in itself but when combined with his final question to Tali, and her answer "The answer is yes.". I was moved, moved more deeply than I have ever been before, it was cathartic and meaningful. I stood up and clapped in admiration, fought tears because it was simply beautiful.

I felt the same way when Mordin sacrificed himself for the good of the Krogans, while he hummed that silly song of his, bravely facing death to right his wrongs. It was conflicting, it was heart-wrenching, it made me feel as though I was there, that I wanted my shepard to go up and save him, but I knew I couldn't, he couldn't, It made me feel like I was truly inside the world.

But because of the ending you gave us. You have robbed these moments of their meaning. This is true regardless of what we ultimately choose.

If we choose the blue ending, which if I have any trust in your writer's abilities, I must imagine was a trap (though not necessarily the indoctrtination theory I'm sure you've heard much about), because the cognitive dissonance of Shepard when he is told about it, after just arguing with TIM that control was too risky is too maddeningly unsensical otherwise. And thus Legion and all other synthetics like him will be destroyed anyways.

If we choose the green, then it renders his sacrifice, as well as Mordin's sacrfice completely unnecessary, you turn two of the most moving moments in the game into things that are painful to watch afterwards, because all I want to say is "No, you don't need to, no there is another way" and that is all supposing that the Synthesis ending is indeed good. To me it sounds exactly like the drivel we heard from Saren, a further indictment towards my theory that the final moments of the game, were if not a dream, most certainly a trick.

Finally, if we choose the red, it destroys all the Geth and AI , rendering his sacrifice just as moot.

And even if someone how there were one, say the Blue in which Legion's sacfice could indeed have meant something, it is still meaningless because the Mass Relays are destroyed. The one thing that made this series what it was, the single most identifiable feature is destroyed, and yes, that makes sense for one of the endings, it's powerful and emotional, but when it is true of all the endings, it means that no matter what the sacrifices of Mordin, Legion, Thane, and Ashley. Indeed all of their sacrifices meant nothing, because humanity and the rest of the galaxy's races are a best sent back to the dark ages and at worst destroyed utterly.

The geth will not survive the end, the quarians will not survive the end, humanity does not survive the end, the turians do not survive the end. Not with any semblece of what you've fought for.



What's worse is that, supposing you meant for this to happen, supposing this end really was exactly what you intended to create, a dark and grim afterlook, one that culiminates not in joy but in a gut-wrenching sorrow. Then you were so close to creating it, but instead through the way you culiminated the final scene with the normandy and the Stargazer epilogue.
You missed the oppurtunity to make a haunting, dark, but ultimately inspirational ending. If you had simply used your discarded Chekov's Gun. Liaria's time capsule. No matter how you played, Liara introduces this time capsule. No? 
If you had wished for a no-win scenario, you could have discarded the entire end and simply let Shepard die. Humanity lose. The entire galaxy die. But that time capsule, would have made the ending brilliant. Brought the epilogue from tacked on and confusing to meaningful and inspiring. Life will go on, this will be the final cycle.

Instead, we get a message that seems to say to us, "everything you did" is meaningless, and that hurts.

Which reminds me, Liara was always my favourite character but where you took her in Mass Effect 3 brought her above and beyond, she developed in ways I never expected, I can truly say by the end of the game, I wished as though she were real. The moments like the time capsule, and of Thessia, and comforting her, these sorts of things gave me absolute chills.

But where do I go from here? I won't accept, nay can't accept that she is off on some other planet where she will never hear from me, of me, or at least of my death. Her story concluding with death in some far-flung planet, never having known that I saved the galaxy. Indeed, that is something overlooked on the forums, there is absolutely no way that without FTL communication, Joker, or any of the Normandy crew, indeed the entire galaxy would know that the Reapers had been defeated. Any world that hasn't been hit already will simply have to writhe in panic, the ones that have, at best know something has happened and at worst think they are the last organic life in the galaxy.

That's mind-numbingly bad. That invalidates the epilogue's ending even with the most cheery disposition. That reaches far beyond simple plot hole and into unforgivable mistake.

Anyways. Sorry, I'm still sore Bioware. But know this.

I'm not angry because I think you have failed, no. Mass Effect 3 is a triumph, as angry as I am about the ending, I reccomend any fan of the series buys the game, it is a masterpiece. It is a symphony, a beautiful end to the most engaging world I have ever been a part of, I am disappointed because that triumph is spoiled in the very last moments of the game, by something which throws away all that we cared for, all that you had done so well, all that truly made the series great. In favour of something that felt as though, and as the Ipad app now proves was, the result of hasty comprimise, misunderstanding and rushing.

Rather than the send-off we receive, we get mixed messages, mixed signals, convulted story elements and deus ex machina, where we already had a deus ex machina, the catalyst was already a god from the machine in the story, to make it literal seems like meta-humour gone terribly wrong.

This so much this.

You said it better then anyone else so far.  If you don't want to send this in tomorrow as part of the letter writing please let me know because I think someone should send it in.

Yes. QFT. Please read this Bioware. So. Much. This.

[SCJ90]

humph I have not seen this topic b4! sweet atleast they know that we exsist! Well I loved the entire game, and the series for that matter but 5 years of work all taken away in 5 minutes.... doesnt feel right. And what is the point of releasing dlc like omega if i doesn't change the ending? Thats like reading a book from the last to the first page

EDIT: Oh and by the way it feel strange that our choices in the last games gets "crunched" into a number (EMS) and that all the promises that where made did'nt happen. Like the rachni playing a hugh part in the end.... well they where like what 200 EMS?

Modifié par SCJ90, 16 mars 2012 - 08:23 .

[Meruvian]

TheMerchantMan wrote...

Ah, finally. I've been stalking the forums for the last two days waiting for the ability to post.

Anyways. Thank you Mr. Priestly for at least letting us know you are listening about the ending, it worries me, of course, because I would prefer you were doing something, or  at least keeping something back, whereas listening seems to just prove that you weren't prepared for this, and I had hoped Bioware was better than that.

The problem with asking "what we enjoyed" before the end, is that the end has for all extensive purposes made the rest of the series unenjoyable. All the good we have done is ultimately futile in all of the possible end games. That hurts, and it means I can't revisit them.

I think perhaps the moment with the strongest impact on me, was the death of Legion. His act of messanic sacrifice to bring his people full sentience was touching in itself but when combined with his final question to Tali, and her answer "The answer is yes.". I was moved, moved more deeply than I have ever been before, it was cathartic and meaningful. I stood up and clapped in admiration, fought tears because it was simply beautiful.

I felt the same way when Mordin sacrificed himself for the good of the Krogans, while he hummed that silly song of his, bravely facing death to right his wrongs. It was conflicting, it was heart-wrenching, it made me feel as though I was there, that I wanted my shepard to go up and save him, but I knew I couldn't, he couldn't, It made me feel like I was truly inside the world.

But because of the ending you gave us. You have robbed these moments of their meaning. This is true regardless of what we ultimately choose.

If we choose the blue ending, which if I have any trust in your writer's abilities, I must imagine was a trap (though not necessarily the indoctrtination theory I'm sure you've heard much about), because the cognitive dissonance of Shepard when he is told about it, after just arguing with TIM that control was too risky is too maddeningly unsensical otherwise. And thus Legion and all other synthetics like him will be destroyed anyways.

If we choose the green, then it renders his sacrifice, as well as Mordin's sacrfice completely unnecessary, you turn two of the most moving moments in the game into things that are painful to watch afterwards, because all I want to say is "No, you don't need to, no there is another way" and that is all supposing that the Synthesis ending is indeed good. To me it sounds exactly like the drivel we heard from Saren, a further indictment towards my theory that the final moments of the game, were if not a dream, most certainly a trick.

Finally, if we choose the red, it destroys all the Geth and AI , rendering his sacrifice just as moot.

And even if someone how there were one, say the Blue in which Legion's sacfice could indeed have meant something, it is still meaningless because the Mass Relays are destroyed. The one thing that made this series what it was, the single most identifiable feature is destroyed, and yes, that makes sense for one of the endings, it's powerful and emotional, but when it is true of all the endings, it means that no matter what the sacrifices of Mordin, Legion, Thane, and Ashley. Indeed all of their sacrifices meant nothing, because humanity and the rest of the galaxy's races are a best sent back to the dark ages and at worst destroyed utterly.

The geth will not survive the end, the quarians will not survive the end, humanity does not survive the end, the turians do not survive the end. Not with any semblece of what you've fought for.



What's worse is that, supposing you meant for this to happen, supposing this end really was exactly what you intended to create, a dark and grim afterlook, one that culiminates not in joy but in a gut-wrenching sorrow. Then you were so close to creating it, but instead through the way you culiminated the final scene with the normandy and the Stargazer epilogue.
You missed the oppurtunity to make a haunting, dark, but ultimately inspirational ending. If you had simply used your discarded Chekov's Gun. Liaria's time capsule. No matter how you played, Liara introduces this time capsule. No? 
If you had wished for a no-win scenario, you could have discarded the entire end and simply let Shepard die. Humanity lose. The entire galaxy die. But that time capsule, would have made the ending brilliant. Brought the epilogue from tacked on and confusing to meaningful and inspiring. Life will go on, this will be the final cycle.

Instead, we get a message that seems to say to us, "everything you did" is meaningless, and that hurts.

Which reminds me, Liara was always my favourite character but where you took her in Mass Effect 3 brought her above and beyond, she developed in ways I never expected, I can truly say by the end of the game, I wished as though she were real. The moments like the time capsule, and of Thessia, and comforting her, these sorts of things gave me absolute chills.

But where do I go from here? I won't accept, nay can't accept that she is off on some other planet where she will never hear from me, of me, or at least of my death. Her story concluding with death in some far-flung planet, never having known that I saved the galaxy. Indeed, that is something overlooked on the forums, there is absolutely no way that without FTL communication, Joker, or any of the Normandy crew, indeed the entire galaxy would know that the Reapers had been defeated. Any world that hasn't been hit already will simply have to writhe in panic, the ones that have, at best know something has happened and at worst think they are the last organic life in the galaxy.

That's mind-numbingly bad. That invalidates the epilogue's ending even with the most cheery disposition. That reaches far beyond simple plot hole and into unforgivable mistake.

Anyways. Sorry, I'm still sore Bioware. But know this.

I'm not angry because I think you have failed, no. Mass Effect 3 is a triumph, as angry as I am about the ending, I reccomend any fan of the series buys the game, it is a masterpiece. It is a symphony, a beautiful end to the most engaging world I have ever been a part of, I am disappointed because that triumph is spoiled in the very last moments of the game, by something which throws away all that we cared for, all that you had done so well, all that truly made the series great. In favour of something that felt as though, and as the Ipad app now proves was, the result of hasty comprimise, misunderstanding and rushing.

Rather than the send-off we receive, we get mixed messages, mixed signals, convulted story elements and deus ex machina, where we already had a deus ex machina, the catalyst was already a god from the machine in the story, to make it literal seems like meta-humour gone terribly wrong.

QFT

[Aedera]

All this listening must be tiring. Maybe try talking to us instead. For the most part, we are reasonable and just want hear what the plan is. If this was truly "it" just tell us so. But with rumored leaks, and well, the whole darned script leaked so it is not a stretch to think these new "truth" leaks are legit and with cryptic twitter responses, fairly or unfairly, the fans posting have been led to believe that something could be in the works. A simple yes or no would be fine.

You are potentially asking us to infer and interpret the ending based on the information at hand. We are doing the same here and I don't think either situation is what you had anticipated.

Just a small answer. Is there a dlc ending coming. Yes or no? At most, the answer is 3 keystrokes and a click or two from your mouse. 5 years of support should get us at least that much.

[Riddic]

Omega Torsk wrote...

My gosh, is it necessary to quote the entirety of Merchant's wall of text in every single post?

Yes

[NightGia]

Alright...if you're listening, this is what I personally would like to see. A followup DLC that takes in all your choices through all the games to this point (as was promised) and plays off which ending you chose. This DLC would be large, adding AT LEAST an extra hour of gameplay. This is what I had in mind:
1) You chose the "Control" ending: Shepard has become part of the Reapers OR if you go with the Indoctrination Theory, Shepard is still pretty much part of the Reapers. You play as Reaper-Shep with Reaper creature teammates and go on several missions where you fight all the forces you assembled previously. Former squad members would be boss battles, and there would be plenty of "Shep, WHY!?" drama to be had.

2) You chose the "Synthesis" ending: I had the least amount of ideas for this one. Maybe something to show that Synthesis wasn't the answer after all. Some kind of infighting, or maybe play as Shepard within the "collective unconscious" and fight against the Reaper Code that is trying to gain dominance over everything, now that Organics and Synthetics are one.

3) You chose the "Destroy" ending: This would be the "Indoctrination Theory" ending everyone is clamoring for. Shepard has fought off the Indoctrination by still choosing to destroy the Reapers. You awake in the rubble and must finish out the war against the Reapers, culminating in an epic battle against the Harbinger (and maybe the Illusive Man too).

I'm not saying that any of these endings need to be happy or positive ones...but they should be totally focused on the choices you have made. In that sense, I could see the benefit of developing them on their own so everything is easier to incorporate. This would also allow the quality and epic scale of the endings to be pushed to the max.

As for things during the game I would have liked to see...I wish the Rachni got a bigger part to play, I was looking forward to them since ME1. Also, more involvement during the final fight from teammates/assets...but that can be fixed with the above DLC I laid out. Also (and this is a major point) a FINAL BOSS! You may think it's predictable or cliche...but it's what everyone wants out of a major action/RPG title. That sense of conquering an insurmountable enemy, the only thing between you and what you've been fighting for, is important! I was so pumped up to fight Harbinger, or even the Illusive Man...but instead I got "Pick your explosions, Blue, Green, or Red".

My favorite moments from Mass Effect 3...I loved seeing EDI's development over the course of the game. I thought the theme of Synthetic life developing a "soul", and especially Legion's grand exit, was especially moving. Nothing made me sadder than losing Legion! Other than that, the scale of the Reapers was great, and running towards the Citadel while Harbinger fired his laser totally got me on the edge of my seat!

In any case...I hope you really are listening, and I hope there really is something epic in store for us fans. It would be a shame to have 3 wonderful games marred by the memory of such an anti-climactic ending.

[VonVerrikan]

TheMerchantMan wrote...

Ah, finally. I've been stalking the forums for the last two days waiting for the ability to post.

Anyways. Thank you Mr. Priestly for at least letting us know you are listening about the ending, it worries me, of course, because I would prefer you were doing something, or  at least keeping something back, whereas listening seems to just prove that you weren't prepared for this, and I had hoped Bioware was better than that.

The problem with asking "what we enjoyed" before the end, is that the end has for all extensive purposes made the rest of the series unenjoyable. All the good we have done is ultimately futile in all of the possible end games. That hurts, and it means I can't revisit them.

I think perhaps the moment with the strongest impact on me, was the death of Legion. His act of messanic sacrifice to bring his people full sentience was touching in itself but when combined with his final question to Tali, and her answer "The answer is yes.". I was moved, moved more deeply than I have ever been before, it was cathartic and meaningful. I stood up and clapped in admiration, fought tears because it was simply beautiful.

I felt the same way when Mordin sacrificed himself for the good of the Krogans, while he hummed that silly song of his, bravely facing death to right his wrongs. It was conflicting, it was heart-wrenching, it made me feel as though I was there, that I wanted my shepard to go up and save him, but I knew I couldn't, he couldn't, It made me feel like I was truly inside the world.

But because of the ending you gave us. You have robbed these moments of their meaning. This is true regardless of what we ultimately choose.

If we choose the blue ending, which if I have any trust in your writer's abilities, I must imagine was a trap (though not necessarily the indoctrtination theory I'm sure you've heard much about), because the cognitive dissonance of Shepard when he is told about it, after just arguing with TIM that control was too risky is too maddeningly unsensical otherwise. And thus Legion and all other synthetics like him will be destroyed anyways.

If we choose the green, then it renders his sacrifice, as well as Mordin's sacrfice completely unnecessary, you turn two of the most moving moments in the game into things that are painful to watch afterwards, because all I want to say is "No, you don't need to, no there is another way" and that is all supposing that the Synthesis ending is indeed good. To me it sounds exactly like the drivel we heard from Saren, a further indictment towards my theory that the final moments of the game, were if not a dream, most certainly a trick.

Finally, if we choose the red, it destroys all the Geth and AI , rendering his sacrifice just as moot.

And even if someone how there were one, say the Blue in which Legion's sacfice could indeed have meant something, it is still meaningless because the Mass Relays are destroyed. The one thing that made this series what it was, the single most identifiable feature is destroyed, and yes, that makes sense for one of the endings, it's powerful and emotional, but when it is true of all the endings, it means that no matter what the sacrifices of Mordin, Legion, Thane, and Ashley. Indeed all of their sacrifices meant nothing, because humanity and the rest of the galaxy's races are a best sent back to the dark ages and at worst destroyed utterly.

The geth will not survive the end, the quarians will not survive the end, humanity does not survive the end, the turians do not survive the end. Not with any semblece of what you've fought for.



What's worse is that, supposing you meant for this to happen, supposing this end really was exactly what you intended to create, a dark and grim afterlook, one that culiminates not in joy but in a gut-wrenching sorrow. Then you were so close to creating it, but instead through the way you culiminated the final scene with the normandy and the Stargazer epilogue.
You missed the oppurtunity to make a haunting, dark, but ultimately inspirational ending. If you had simply used your discarded Chekov's Gun. Liaria's time capsule. No matter how you played, Liara introduces this time capsule. No? 
If you had wished for a no-win scenario, you could have discarded the entire end and simply let Shepard die. Humanity lose. The entire galaxy die. But that time capsule, would have made the ending brilliant. Brought the epilogue from tacked on and confusing to meaningful and inspiring. Life will go on, this will be the final cycle.

Instead, we get a message that seems to say to us, "everything you did" is meaningless, and that hurts.

Which reminds me, Liara was always my favourite character but where you took her in Mass Effect 3 brought her above and beyond, she developed in ways I never expected, I can truly say by the end of the game, I wished as though she were real. The moments like the time capsule, and of Thessia, and comforting her, these sorts of things gave me absolute chills.

But where do I go from here? I won't accept, nay can't accept that she is off on some other planet where she will never hear from me, of me, or at least of my death. Her story concluding with death in some far-flung planet, never having known that I saved the galaxy. Indeed, that is something overlooked on the forums, there is absolutely no way that without FTL communication, Joker, or any of the Normandy crew, indeed the entire galaxy would know that the Reapers had been defeated. Any world that hasn't been hit already will simply have to writhe in panic, the ones that have, at best know something has happened and at worst think they are the last organic life in the galaxy.

That's mind-numbingly bad. That invalidates the epilogue's ending even with the most cheery disposition. That reaches far beyond simple plot hole and into unforgivable mistake.

Anyways. Sorry, I'm still sore Bioware. But know this.

I'm not angry because I think you have failed, no. Mass Effect 3 is a triumph, as angry as I am about the ending, I reccomend any fan of the series buys the game, it is a masterpiece. It is a symphony, a beautiful end to the most engaging world I have ever been a part of, I am disappointed because that triumph is spoiled in the very last moments of the game, by something which throws away all that we cared for, all that you had done so well, all that truly made the series great. In favour of something that felt as though, and as the Ipad app now proves was, the result of hasty comprimise, misunderstanding and rushing.

Rather than the send-off we receive, we get mixed messages, mixed signals, convulted story elements and deus ex machina, where we already had a deus ex machina, the catalyst was already a god from the machine in the story, to make it literal seems like meta-humour gone terribly wrong.

Quoting this as well in the off chance the important folks at Bioware read it. 

[ThatGuy39]

I have to say, I loved the game. I honestly, truly did. I felt that it was a fitting conclusion to the series. However, like pretty much every one else, I was very, very disappointed in the ending. Everything up to about the last 10 minutes of the game though was superb. If I was to pick a favorite moment, there are too many to list. Favorite quote however had to be from Grunt. When Shepard wishes him luck, he replies "I don't need luck, I got ammo". Epic.

[SonicAF]

earthonline wrote...

 btw if anyone in curious what all the endings are, here is an article that lists them (SPOILERS)
List fo all Mass Effect 3 Endings

We know that by hearth. We want it changed.

[Omega Torsk]

Riddic wrote...

Omega Torsk wrote...

My gosh, is it necessary to quote the entirety of Merchant's wall of text in every single post?

Yes

Not that I don't support what he posted (so much truth, FTW), but really... it's making scrolling an endeavor. Lol

[zerokku]

I'm someone whos been disenfranchised with Bioware for a awhile now. After the disappointment of Dragon Age 2, where you took what was originally a spiritual sequel to some of the best WRPGs ever made (Baldur's Gate 1 and 2), and ran in the opposite direction, I was incredibly let down. Then you released TOR, which in my personal opinion, was a shallow and poorly made WoW clone. As someone who loves MMOs, Star Wars, and used to love bioware to death, I was hopeful but eventually let down. Mass Effect 3 was my last bastion of hope for what was once one of my favorite developers.

But the ending invalidates everything in the trilogy thus far. None of my choices mattered in the slightest, nor did I recieve any closure. The biggest problem is that the ending just doesn't fit the rest of the themes or universe as it was presented throughout the rest of the series. I loved how even with biotics essentially being "space magic", Mass Effect still managed to be relatively "hard" sci-fi, especially for a space opera, and a video game at that. But it all ended with a nonsensical and ill-fitting space-jesus where none of my choices mattered, and I received no actual closure. Hell, even if shepard died and the universe was thrown into a galactic dark age, doing it in such a way that actually fit the universe would at least be acceptable. Just give me an idea of what my choices at the end would really even mean, besides the color filter I'm getting.

As it stands currently, I won't be buying a Bioware game ever again.

[Cypher333]

this thread is a joke from bioware as the insult of the end was not enough...

[Riddic]

Omega Torsk wrote...

Riddic wrote...

Omega Torsk wrote...

My gosh, is it necessary to quote the entirety of Merchant's wall of text in every single post?

Yes

Not that I don't support what he posted (so much truth, FTW), but really... it's making scrolling an endeavor. Lol

I was just being an ass.  

[Wintermancer]

 Chris,

Seriously, there were so many great moments in the Mass Effect saga I'm getting brain-twisted just trying to think of all the ones I'd like to list. I honestly felt as though this was the game series I'd waited for in all my gaming life. No game has ever so completely made me want to live in its world, and whenever I played Mass Effect it was a "phone off, hide the clock, don't let the internet distract you" experience of total suspension of disbelief. Before ME, I can count on one hand the number of times I encountered a moment in a game where I genuinely became emotional about a character, or characters, and his/her/their fate. In the Mass Effect saga, however, such moments were nigh innumerable. The pride of attaining Spectre status... the warm feeling I got when I first heard the Galaxy Map music in ME2 and discovered it was identical to that in the firt game, a feeling I might get upon seeing a dear old friend after several years... my heart dropping into my stomach as Ashley and Shepard parted ways in the opening of ME2, just before his death, and the sorrow I felt when she just refused to understand what Shepard had been through when they crossed paths again... the philosophical sparring with the Illusive Man as I underwent my "Seven Samurai" style quest to assemble the best and baddest time to defeat the Collectors... Sticking up for Tali against her own people, merely because my Shepard was loyal to those wh owere loyal to him, only to discover her gaining the confidence to bear her feelings to him in such a tender way that *she* romanced *him* into becoming his LI in my play through, and not the other way around... The frustration of not being able to get through to Jack, which I know ultimately led to her death in the conclusion of ME2... The since of accomplishment when I destroyed the Collector base and brought the rest of my team out alive, then told the Illusive Man where he could stick it... a feeling I experienced again when I got the Geth and the Quarians to set aside their differences and work together in ME3... Reconciling into friendship with Ashley, and allowing her to accompany me as we defeated Cerberus, which my Shepard felt might give her closure for the destruction they had wrought upon their lives by tearing the two of them apart, forcing her to forever wonder what "might have been" between them... Discovering friendship and brotherhood with James Vega, who became an invaluable rock of comeraderie for my Shepard during the war to take earth back... The sinking feeling in my gut during the "walk of goodbyes" on Earth, when an emotional Tali told me that she "wanted more time", and I could hear in her cracking voice the knowledge that we would never get it... The god awful sense of despair as Hammer Squad made the run for the beacon, only to be mercilessly slaughtered, and then Shepard, bloodied and burned, limping his way, barely able to heft a pistol but determined to finish the fight even if it killed him... A final, shared moment of peace with Anderson as my mentor finally passed on...

This is just a sample of the way I will remember Mass Effect.

Yes, I have some issues with the endings. Yes, I feel like the last few minutes didn't live up to the quality of the rest of the games. Yes, I think they should have been done differently--and not because the end didn't meet my expectations of where the story should go, but because I felt they lacked a necessary degree of polish to be fulfilling and broke some cardinal storytelling rules. This howeve does not change the sheer enjoyment and *meaningfulness* of the rest of the hours upon hours I spent living the life of Shepard in the Mass Effect world, making friends and enemies in that world, watching some live, and some die, and feeling how that touched me. With Mass Effect, BioWare very nearly scored a "flawless victory" of the likes of which no one in the gaming medium has, in my opinion, come close to attaining. Due to the ending, that flawless victory escaped BioWare as well...

But you guys got so damn close to it that in my book it might as well have been, and I am quite confident that the experience of making this journey as a team of creators is only going to make the BioWare team even better storytellers in the future, and I look forward to seeing how future products evolve as a result.

[khayjeet]

Like many ppl told you b4:
Great game until shepard got hit from the reaper laser. Nothing after that makes the slightest sense.

[Aquarius87]

The first time I watched the ending, I was like...meh okay.
The more I thought of it, the more it felt out of place, and just not right....

Looked around on the internet and found the indoctrination theory... I have to say, it would make sense.
IF the theory proves to be correct, ME3s ending would be grand, since it fooled thousands of players
also, IF Bioware would give us the true ending in an upcoming dlc...PLEASE give it us for free.
Charging players (not to mention fans) for the ending would be as low as I could imagine.
...but, time will tell

[soozy]

I agree largely with what TheMerchantMan stated, too. I loved the game, I haven't cried so much during a game as when Mordin and Thane gave what was left of their lives for the greater good since Final Fantasy II/IV came out for the Super Nintendo (Yes, I'm old ).

The ending just hurt, the only explanation suggested that could possibly be optimistic is the indoctrination theory, and even if that's true and it's a hallucination, who is stopping the Reapers? Nobody expected the final fight to be without loss, but losing all of the systems to exploding Mass Relays is terrible. It's like watching the original Star Wars (first space trilogy I thought of) and right after Darth Vader makes the decision of saving Luke from the Emperor, the center of the galaxy implodes and destroys everything they were fighting for (yeah I know space physics doesn't work like that, I don't really know how it works, but it's not like that). If the Mass Relays for some reason don't destroy the galaxy, the Quarians are stuck in the Sol System in my game after beginning to build a world together with the Geth, the Krogan who finally have some hope to create new life have most of their males stuck on a dying planet. All other species, too, who sacrificed so much are in the same position.

I didn't particularly like the ending, especially the lack of any meaningful choice, but I can accept it if 99% of the galaxy isn't doomed. The only way to have any idea if that's the case though is to make a LOT of assumptions and straw grasping (such as scientists MacGuverying Mass Relays out of 2 paperclips and a rubber band and a liter of eezo) and I don't think we should have to do that for the sake of an "artistic" ending.

Again, I still loved most of the game, and I am actually enjoying my second play through even knowing that everyone is going to die anyway. Thank you for listening to our concerns, hopefully there can be a compromise reached where additional explanations can be offered to us.

[Owlowiscious]

I loved many of the scenes in the game, so I cannot pick one specific, but like many people on the forums, the last 20 or so minutes was the worst piece of [Insert swear here] I have ever played, and I am hoping it will be remade into something alot more positive insted of "Bad Ending" and "Really Bad Ending".

[Lichtgestaltt]

TheMerchantMan wrote...

Ah, finally. I've been stalking the forums for the last two days waiting for the ability to post.

Anyways. Thank you Mr. Priestly for at least letting us know you are listening about the ending, it worries me, of course, because I would prefer you were doing something, or  at least keeping something back, whereas listening seems to just prove that you weren't prepared for this, and I had hoped Bioware was better than that.

The problem with asking "what we enjoyed" before the end, is that the end has for all extensive purposes made the rest of the series unenjoyable. All the good we have done is ultimately futile in all of the possible end games. That hurts, and it means I can't revisit them.

I think perhaps the moment with the strongest impact on me, was the death of Legion. His act of messanic sacrifice to bring his people full sentience was touching in itself but when combined with his final question to Tali, and her answer "The answer is yes.". I was moved, moved more deeply than I have ever been before, it was cathartic and meaningful. I stood up and clapped in admiration, fought tears because it was simply beautiful.

I felt the same way when Mordin sacrificed himself for the good of the Krogans, while he hummed that silly song of his, bravely facing death to right his wrongs. It was conflicting, it was heart-wrenching, it made me feel as though I was there, that I wanted my shepard to go up and save him, but I knew I couldn't, he couldn't, It made me feel like I was truly inside the world.

But because of the ending you gave us. You have robbed these moments of their meaning. This is true regardless of what we ultimately choose.

If we choose the blue ending, which if I have any trust in your writer's abilities, I must imagine was a trap (though not necessarily the indoctrtination theory I'm sure you've heard much about), because the cognitive dissonance of Shepard when he is told about it, after just arguing with TIM that control was too risky is too maddeningly unsensical otherwise. And thus Legion and all other synthetics like him will be destroyed anyways.

If we choose the green, then it renders his sacrifice, as well as Mordin's sacrfice completely unnecessary, you turn two of the most moving moments in the game into things that are painful to watch afterwards, because all I want to say is "No, you don't need to, no there is another way" and that is all supposing that the Synthesis ending is indeed good. To me it sounds exactly like the drivel we heard from Saren, a further indictment towards my theory that the final moments of the game, were if not a dream, most certainly a trick.

Finally, if we choose the red, it destroys all the Geth and AI , rendering his sacrifice just as moot.

And even if someone how there were one, say the Blue in which Legion's sacfice could indeed have meant something, it is still meaningless because the Mass Relays are destroyed. The one thing that made this series what it was, the single most identifiable feature is destroyed, and yes, that makes sense for one of the endings, it's powerful and emotional, but when it is true of all the endings, it means that no matter what the sacrifices of Mordin, Legion, Thane, and Ashley. Indeed all of their sacrifices meant nothing, because humanity and the rest of the galaxy's races are a best sent back to the dark ages and at worst destroyed utterly.

The geth will not survive the end, the quarians will not survive the end, humanity does not survive the end, the turians do not survive the end. Not with any semblece of what you've fought for.



What's worse is that, supposing you meant for this to happen, supposing this end really was exactly what you intended to create, a dark and grim afterlook, one that culiminates not in joy but in a gut-wrenching sorrow. Then you were so close to creating it, but instead through the way you culiminated the final scene with the normandy and the Stargazer epilogue.
You missed the oppurtunity to make a haunting, dark, but ultimately inspirational ending. If you had simply used your discarded Chekov's Gun. Liaria's time capsule. No matter how you played, Liara introduces this time capsule. No? 
If you had wished for a no-win scenario, you could have discarded the entire end and simply let Shepard die. Humanity lose. The entire galaxy die. But that time capsule, would have made the ending brilliant. Brought the epilogue from tacked on and confusing to meaningful and inspiring. Life will go on, this will be the final cycle.

Instead, we get a message that seems to say to us, "everything you did" is meaningless, and that hurts.

Which reminds me, Liara was always my favourite character but where you took her in Mass Effect 3 brought her above and beyond, she developed in ways I never expected, I can truly say by the end of the game, I wished as though she were real. The moments like the time capsule, and of Thessia, and comforting her, these sorts of things gave me absolute chills.

But where do I go from here? I won't accept, nay can't accept that she is off on some other planet where she will never hear from me, of me, or at least of my death. Her story concluding with death in some far-flung planet, never having known that I saved the galaxy. Indeed, that is something overlooked on the forums, there is absolutely no way that without FTL communication, Joker, or any of the Normandy crew, indeed the entire galaxy would know that the Reapers had been defeated. Any world that hasn't been hit already will simply have to writhe in panic, the ones that have, at best know something has happened and at worst think they are the last organic life in the galaxy.

That's mind-numbingly bad. That invalidates the epilogue's ending even with the most cheery disposition. That reaches far beyond simple plot hole and into unforgivable mistake.

Anyways. Sorry, I'm still sore Bioware. But know this.

I'm not angry because I think you have failed, no. Mass Effect 3 is a triumph, as angry as I am about the ending, I reccomend any fan of the series buys the game, it is a masterpiece. It is a symphony, a beautiful end to the most engaging world I have ever been a part of, I am disappointed because that triumph is spoiled in the very last moments of the game, by something which throws away all that we cared for, all that you had done so well, all that truly made the series great. In favour of something that felt as though, and as the Ipad app now proves was, the result of hasty comprimise, misunderstanding and rushing.

Rather than the send-off we receive, we get mixed messages, mixed signals, convulted story elements and deus ex machina, where we already had a deus ex machina, the catalyst was already a god from the machine in the story, to make it literal seems like meta-humour gone terribly wrong.

Wonderfully put into words how I felt.

Also I totally agree with this already posted link:
pixelatedgeek.com/2012/03/mass-effect-iii-snatching-defeat-from-the-jaws-of-victory/

" It’s a special level of disappointment to have a masterpiece shredded at the last minute."

Modifié par Lichtgestaltt, 16 mars 2012 - 08:34 .

[Headrusher]

Guys, guys...let's wait till everyone who has bought the game has finished it, then we'll address the ending that a small minority of *cough* entitled basement dwellers *cough*...I mean fans, doesn't agree with!

In the mean time, talk about the parts of the game that was enjoyable! Tell us how fly we are for making the good parts!

...You mad, fans? You mad?

/end sarcasm

[Scorpgul]

Now

Modifié par Scorpgul, 16 mars 2012 - 08:33 .