23455 réponses à ce sujet

[diver_gr]

it's sad that bioware in the final 10 minutes destroyed all that ME have accomplished .

Every Action , Every choice you make , every war asset you gather , how many fleets you have in the final battle , IT DOESNT MATER AT ALL!

Its sad because you created a trilogy based on players Actions and Choices and you destroyed all in the final 10 minutes...... thank you very much .

It like Dragon Age , the first Game was awesome ,Huge , EPIC , Gergeous and the Secon was hmmmm....

Mass effect 1 : Awesome Game
Mass Effect 2 : Awesome , Georgeous , EPIC
Mass Effect 3 : Awesome , georgeous , EPIC , but in the end you make me feel like watching the end of a mediocre 80's B'movie.......

You took away all those good things this trilogy offer to the players.You took away thier Choices.....

[Karnor00]

I loved the game right up until the ending. So many great bits along the way - some highlights being Thane's death, curing the genophage, Grunt not dying, Quarians vs Geth (even though the Quarians died in my playthrough).

I didn't even mind the choices bit at the end - I was fine with none of the choices being exactly what I wanted and chose destroying the reapers (and Geth and Edi) as the best of 3 bad options. Even though that meant both Geth and Quarians died in my playthrough. And I was fine with sacrificing my life to do it.

I looked forward to finding out how the galaxy turned out - could the Krogan and Rachni avoid breeding out of control? What was the aftermath on the various planets (Earth plus the Turian and Asari homeworlds). And of course what would happen to my crew. But I gone none of that - no closure.

And that's why I felt let down by the ending - and its nothing to do with the fact that it wasn't a happy Hollywood style ending.

[islander91]

First off I like send out a big thank you to both Jennifer Hale and Mark Meer and the rest of the actors who gave life to all the charactors of Mass effect, awesome job. Outside the ending there were many great moments. one's that jump to mind was with Garrus on the citadel "you'r king of the bottle shooters"  seeing the change in Jack, having one of her students mock her " I will destroy you" , during the mission to save "Eve" the female krogan, when the yaug breaks loose and Shepard says " there goes the next shadow broker", Mordin singing at tne end.
 
Ahhh, I digress, though out the game I really thought that Edi would end up being the catalsyt, and that Harbringer would end up being some advanced AI created 100's of cycles before that started this when organics of his time tried to end his existance, and the ending would be determined on the conversations that you have with Edi though out the game. Instead I get the boy from earth telling me no matter what all is a waste. I decided to destroy the reapers if we're going down I'm taking them with me.
 
Hindsight momment, is it just me or did seem like the attack on the citadel take place to early in the game, wouldn't it made more senses to happen after the temple mission on the Asari homeworld. How would cerberus know the citadel was the key and needed it before that, but at least I got to put a bullet in Udina

[Garhdo]

two main gripes I have forgotten in previous posts, to go along with all the awesome things I said about the game earlier about its epicness, its emotional and heart-wrenching storytelling and amazing gameplay, there are two main negatives (apart from the ending which i have already spoken about)

1) The game is too short. I managed 43hrs 21mins on my first playthrough, finishing every fetch quest (I actually dont mind them so much as they were implemented better here than in Dragon Age II). For a two disc game that is very short. I think it is comparable to Mass Effect 2 where I am barely over 50hrs with all DLC, yet it seems that Mass Effect 1 and Mass effect 2 both took longer to complete than Mass Effect 3, and Mass Effect 3 takes place over a longer time period. Doesn't make much sense.

2) Why have the conversation options been reduced? The conversation wheel was the best thing about the Mass Effect games, nearly always giving you three ways of answering everything nearly everytime Shepard spoke. NOW however Shepard speaks in cutscenes for the most part of his conversations and the options that we do have consist of just two opposing responses. For any DLC I want to CONTROL what Shepard says, not WATCH what Shepard says.

As I have said before I love Mass Effect 3. Yes it has its faults and like many I am annoyed by the abrupt and left-field ending, but the game was a brilliant and amazing conclusion to the story of not just Shepard but also every character I have become so invested in over the last 5 years. My previous posts are on pages168 and 170 I believe if anyone wishes to read my other thoughts on this game.

[Kevnewsman]

[quote]orangedragon1384 wrote...

[quote]Altolicus wrote...

[quote]e2m2 wrote...

[quote]xaurabh123 wrote...

[quote]Karanduar wrote...

[quote]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.
[/quote]

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

[/quote]

Nothing to add...

[/quote]
[/quote]

This.

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This (period)

[/quote]

Just wanted to add my support to this post.  It is a very well written response that explains many of my own reasons for being disappointed and proud of the game in a far better way than I would probably manage.

[/quote]

I wholly agree with this about the ending but I wanted to add a little of my own to it.

The biggest majesty of the Mass Effect series that sets it apart is how you have to "care" about the world. Bioware, you created one of the richest worlds I have ever seen in fiction and made me care about what happened in it. From the first Mass Effect we the players have pieced together all the intricacies of this world and its characters. I wanted to leave the galaxy a better place when I set down my controller at the end of Mass Effect 3. I watched with tears in my eyes as Mordin made his great sacrifice to cure the Krogan, giving himself up to set right his sins and the sins of his people. Watching Legion give himself up to allow the Geth to become truly individual and make peace with the Quarians made me stop to think about what I had just witnessed. Hearing the urgency and fear in the voices of Tali, Garrus, Liara and the other squadmembers as they saw the devastation of the Reapers made me want to reach out to them as real people.

Mass Effect makes you care about your decisions, I agonized over what could happen if the Rachni queen was left to die in the first Mass Effect, and the echoes of that choice in Mass Effect 3. It makes you care about your squadmates and their hopes, dreams, and demons of the past. Never have I seen a set of fictional characters like Tali or Garrus who I felt like I could have sit down in my living room and have a serious conversation with and get REAL answers. Every character who had to die left me wondering what the galaxy and Shepard's life would be like with that particular thread cut forever. I'm sure other gamers who truly have delved into this series will agree with me on the point that I have labored here. Mass Effect makes you care.

The biggest thing that hurts me about the ending is how I feel like all that built up emotion and all that care for the characters and decisions that have gotten you to the Citadel for the final time is thrown away. The ending does not (in my mind) delve in to that caring. Rather than weigh your decisions and show you the fruits of your labors and how the magnificent characters and galaxy will react to the long term effects of them, the ending throws that connection to the characters and universe away and instead strangely transitions to a commentary on the nature of life. Now this type of discussion and theme has a place in Mass Effect, I still think that the Geth and Quarian conflict delves very well into the topic of what life is and what has a soul. Yet as an ending to a series that has been based on making meaningful choices and meaningful consequences and building relationships with characters that you wish were real...It leaves a phenomenal series with a sad ring, something just was not right.

My care for the world, its people and most importantly my squad is unanswered, I want to know how they react. Not to the one decision I make at the end, but to all the decisions that have made my Shepard's story so different from everyone else. I would much rather throw this ending away and see how the galaxy reacts to peace on Rannoch, the rebuilding of Earth, Thessia, and Palaven and the rebirth of the Krogan.

Bioware, I truly believe you are listening and as such I do not wish to seem a complainer. I felt a need to express myself and how this series has changed my perceptions on what is possible in storytelling and realism in gaming. Please do not sacrifice the caring of the gamers who have pored themselves into your world and its characters. Let us see that what we did had meaning in the universe in all our choices, not just one. I don't at this time know how to "fix" the ending. All I can say is I want to care again about my crew and this world. If anyone, Bioware or other wants to take me up on debating this I will gladly engage that.

[Mocchi]

So ontop of the $79.99 I paid for the collector's edition, will I have to pay more for a proper ending? If so, should we make the game run on gas also?

[diver_gr]

1) Player Choice Is Completely Discarded

Finally, it’s tempting to claim that fans are simply suffering from a letdown caused by unrealistic expectations. Call it the Obama excuse — players simply got their hopes up and expected more than anyone could deliver, and ultimately, their anger isn’t at what BioWare created, but that they ascribed qualities to Mass Effect 3 of their own devising. BioWare failed to live up to the fantasy players concocted, and once those players get over that kind of childishness, they’ll realize how awesome the ending actually is. There’s only one problem with this assertion: BioWare’s long history of public statements about Mass Effect 3.

From the beginning, and especially as work progressed on Mass Effect 3, BioWare has made a lot of very specific promises about what players could expect. The vast majority of those promises concerned the very personal journey each player could expect; in short, the choices they made over the course of three very long games would have enormous impact over how their story ended. As recently as January, Casey Hudson was telling Game Informer that “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.” Even today, the official Mass Effect Site bears this message along the top of the page:

“EXPERIENCE THE BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END OF AN EMOTIONAL STORY UNLIKE ANY OTHER, WHERE THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE COMPLETELY SHAPE YOUR EXPERIENCE AND OUTCOME.”

As good as Mass Effect 3 is — and it really is an exceptional game in many important ways — the product BioWare ultimately delivered literally broke that promise, and that, more than anything else, is why fans are so angry.

It’s been said more than once that the “multiple” endings of Mass Effect 3 are too similar, but if you have played it, and you’re honest about it, you have to admit that similar doesn’t even begin to describe it. They are all functionally identical. Once players reach the Citadel, they are taken along a low-interaction pathway, engage in conversation with the Illusive Man that can only end with him dead if you wish to proceed further, and then have a conversation — with a very limited set of responses — with the AI child. This experience is the same regardless of your Shepard’s moral alignment, and regardless of the decisions you made to get to this point. The AI does not alter his dialogue if you kill the Geth, he doesn’t offer different justifications if you spared the Collector Base; he does nothing different.

And then, you are given the same three choices, choices that you must accept even though none of them fit with anything Shepard would ever have done at any previous moment in the entire series. Whether the choices succeed or fail depends solely on your Effective Military Strength score, and nothing else. And once made, the only difference between them is a slightly different cutscene, and a different-colored explosion. And that’s it. The game ends at this point, and aside from the Normandy crash-landing, and the weird old man talking about “The Shepard” — and don’t forget the crass DLC pitch — the player never once gets to see how any of the choices they made affected the galaxy, or how the lives of people they touched continue, or don’t, after the war.

In short, players are provided with nothing remotely close to the unique, personal experience they were promised.

[bwFex]

darthnick427 wrote...

mdolsen wrote...

stysiaq wrote...

bwFex wrote...

I really have been trying to let myself get over this nightmare, but since you guys promise you're listening here, I'll try to just say it all, get it all out.

I have invested more of myself into this series than almost any other video game franchise in my life. I loved this game. I believed in it. For five years, it delivered. I must have played ME1 and ME2 a dozen times each.

I remember the end of Mass Effect 2. Never before, in any video game I had ever played, did I feel like my actions really mattered. Knowing that the decisions I made and the hard work I put into ME2 had a very real, clear, obvious impact on who lived and who died was one of the most astounding feelings in the world to me. I remember when that laser hit the Normandy and Joker made a comment about how he was happy we upgraded the shields. That was amazing. Cause and effect. Work and reward.

The first time I went through, I lost Mordin, and it was gut-wrenching: watching him die because I made a bad decision was damning, heartbreaking. But it wasn't hopeless, because I knew I could go back, do better, and save him. I knew that I was in control, that my actions mattered. So that's exactly what I did. I reviewed my decisions, found my mistakes, and did everything right. I put together a plan, I worked hard to follow that plan, and I got the reward I had worked so hard for. And then, it was all for nothing.

When I started playing Mass Effect 3, I was blown away. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. It was incredible to see all of my decisions playing out in front of me, building up to new and outrageous outcomes. I was so sure that this was it, this was going to be the masterpiece that crowned an already near-perfect trilogy. With every war asset I gathered, and with every multiplayer game I won, I knew that my work would pay off, that I would be truly satisfied with the outcome of my hard work and smart decisions. Every time I acquired a new WA bonus, I couldn't wait to see how it would play out in the final battle. And then, it was all for nothing.

I wasn't expecting a perfect, happy ending with rainbows and butterflies. In fact, I think I may have been insulted if everyone made it through just fine. The Reapers are an enormous threat (although obviously not as invincible as they would like us to believe), and we should be right to anticipate heavy losses. But I never lost hope. I built alliances, I made the impossible happen to rally the galaxy together. I cured the genophage. I saved the Turians. I united the geth and the quarians. And then, it was all for nothing.

When Mordin died, it was heartwrenching, but I knew it was the right thing. His sacrifice was... perfect. It made sense. It was congruent with the dramatic themes that had been present since I very first met Wrex in ME1. It was not a cheap trick, a deus ex machina, an easy out. It was beautiful, meaningful, significant, relevant, and satisfying. It was an amazing way for an amazing character to sacrifice themself for an amazing thing. And then it was all for nothing.

When Thane died, it was tearjerking. I knew from the moment he explained his illness that one day, I'd have to deal with his death. I knew he was never going to survive the trilogy, and I knew it wouldn't be fun to watch him go. But when his son started reading the prayer, I lost it. His death was beautiful. It was significant. It was relevant. It was satisfying. It was meaningful. He died to protect Shepard, to protect the entire Citadel. He took a life he thought was unredeemable and used it to make the world a brighter place. And then it was all for nothing.

When Wrex and Eve thanked me for saving their species, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Tali set foot on her homeworld, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Javik gave his inspiring speech, I felt that I had inspired something truly great. When I activated the Citadel's arms, sat down to reminisce with Anderson one final time, I felt that I had truly accomplished something amazing. I felt that my sacrifice was meaningful. Significant. Relevant. And while still a completely unexplained deus ex machina, at least it was a little bit satisfying.

And then, just like everything else in this trilogy, it was all for nothing.

If we pretend like the indoctrination theory is false, and we're really supposed to take the ending at face value, this entire game is a lost cause. The krogans will never repopulate. The quarians will never rebuild their home world. The geth will never know what it means to be alive and independent. The salarians will never see how people can change for the better.

Instead, the quarians and turians will endure a quick, torturous extinction as they slowly starve to death, trapped in a system with no support for them. Everyone else will squabble over the scraps of Earth that haven't been completely obliterated, until the krogans drive them all to extinction and then die off without any women present. And this is all assuming that the relays didn't cause supernova-scaled extinction events simply by being destroyed, like we saw in Arrival.

And perhaps the worst part is that we don't even know. We don't know what happened to our squadmates. We didn't get any sort of catharsis, conclusion. We got five years of literary foreplay followed by a kick to the groin and a note telling us that in a couple months, we can pay Bioware $15 for them to do it to us all over again.

It's not just the abysmally depressing/sacrificial nature of the ending, either. As I've already made perfectly clear, I came into this game expecting sacrifice. When Mordin did it, it was beautiful. When Thane did it, it was beautiful. Even Verner. Stupid, misguided, idiotic Verner. Even his ridiculous sacrifice had meaning, relevance, coherence, and offered satisfaction.

No, it's not the sacrifice I have a problem with. It's the utter lack of coherence and respect for the five years of literary gold that have already been established in this franchise. We spent three games preparing to fight these reapers. I spent hours upon hours doing every side quest, picking up every war asset, maxing out my galactic readiness so that when the time came, the army I had built could make a stand, and show these Reapers that we won't go down without a fight.

In ME1, we did the impossible when we killed Sovereign. In ME2, we began to see that the Reapers aren't as immortal as they claim to be: that even they have basic needs, exploitable weaknesses. In ME3, we saw the Reapers die. We saw one get taken down by an overgrown worm. We saw one die with a few coordinated orbital bombardments. We saw several ripped apart by standard space combat. In ME1, it took three alliance fleets to kill the "invincible" Sovereign. By the end of ME3, I had assembled a galactic armada fifty times more powerful than that, and a thousand times more prepared. I never expected the fight to be easy, but I proved that we wouldn't go down without a fight, that there is always hope in unity. That's the theme we've been given for the past five years: there is hope and strength through unity. That if we work together, we can achieve the impossible.

And then we're supposed to believe that the fate of the galaxy comes down to some completely unexplained starchild asking Shepard what his favorite color is? That the army we built was all for nothing? That the squad whose loyalty we fought so hard for was all for nothing? That in the end, none of it mattered at all?

It's a poetic notion, but this isn't the place for poetry. It's one thing to rattle prose nihilistic over the course of a movie or ballad, where the audience is a passive observer, learning a lesson from the suffering and futility of a character, but that's not what Mass Effect is. Mass Effect has always been about making the player the true hero. If you really want us to all feel like we spent the past five years dumping time, energy, and emotional investment into this game just to tell us that nothing really matters, you have signed your own death certificate. Nobody pays hundreds of dollars and hours to be reminded how bleak, empty, and depressing the world can be, to be told that nothing we do matters, to be told that all of our greatest accomplishments, all of our faith, all of our work, all of our unity is for nothing.

No. It simply cannot be this bleak. I refuse to believe Bioware is really doing this. The ending of ME1 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won. The ending of ME2 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won.

Taken at face value, the end of ME3 throws every single thing we've done in the past five years into the wind, and makes the player watch from a distance as the entire galaxy is thrown into a technological dark age and a stellar extinction. Why would we care about a universe that no longer exists? We should we invest any more time or money into a world that will never be what we came to know and love?

Even if the ending is retconned, it doesn't make things better. Just knowing that the starchild was our real foe the entire time is so utterly mindless, contrived, and irrelevant to what we experienced in ME1 and ME2 that it cannot be forgiven. If that really is the truth, then Mass Effect simply isn't what we thought it was. And frankly, if this is what Mass Effect was supposed to be all along, I want no part of it. It's a useless, trite, overplayed cliche, so far beneath the praise I once gave this franchise that it hurts to think about.

No. There is no way to save this franchise without giving us the only explanation that makes sense. You know what it is. It was the plan all along. Too much evidence to not be true. Too many people reaching the same conclusions independently.

The indoctrination theory doesn't just save this franchise: it elevates it to one of the most powerful and compelling storytelling experiences I've ever had in my life. The fact that you managed to do more than indoctrinate Shepard - you managed to indoctrinate the players themselves - is astonishing. If that really was the end game, here, then you have won my gaming soul. But if that's true, then I'm still waiting for the rest of this story, the final chapter of Shepard's heroic journey. I paid to finish the fight, and if the indoctrination theory is true, it's not over yet.

And if it's not, then I just don't even care. I have been betrayed, and it's time for me to let go of the denial, the anger, the bargaining, and start working through the depression and emptiness until I can just move on. You can't keep teasing us like this. This must have seemed like a great plan at the time, but it has cost too much. These people believed in you. I believed in you.

Just make it right. 

requoted, because it is everything I think, but told the way I'm unable to.

Here here.

Yeah. this sums up my feels very well

I know those feels, man.

Modifié par bwFex, 16 mars 2012 - 10:58 .

[Co-D]

I hope I get to see a different one. I have 3 characters to play through!!

[sniperhobbit]

The hole game was incredible and the ending was touching

[Aromaci]

The trouble is that the ME story spans 3 games and by all accounts is a massive and expansive story about the fate of a galaxy no less. How are we rewarded at the end of this Odyssey? With a 5 min cut-scene.... A 5 min cut-scene which fails to show use the actual fate of the galaxy as dictated by the difficult choice we had to make.

[ADelusiveMan]

I loved the game. Absolutely loved it. I haven't been that invested in a game since Mass Effect 1. Everything in it was an absolute masterpiece...until the ending. My biggest complaint is the no chance for a happy ending. None whatsoever. What I suggest is this: instead of having the Normandy crash on some unknown planet, have this happen instead. With the ending where you see Shepard survive, have it be similar to the ending of ME1. Have the crew of Normandy and some other survivors out looking for Shepard. Then, they finally come across his/her body. Then Shepard takes the deep breath, then bam - cuts to black. Run credits. Then have a ending that shows what happened due to all of Shepard's choices, like the end of DA:O.

If it was the control or synthesize ending, have a memorial or something for all the people lost, including Shepard. Then it shows the outcome of all the choices.

Really, that's all I'm asking for. But I really don't like the ending as it is - even if Shepard does survive. He will never see his friends or love interest again now that the Mass Relays are destroyed. I get that Shepard is a fictional character and all, but he/she really does deserve a better ending.

Just my thoughts on it.

Also, the soundtrack was amazing. Especially the music playing when Shepard makes the final choice. It was great. Also, the heroic music playing during the final mission. Great stuff. Also liked the return of some ME1 mission music as well.

Modifié par ADelusiveMan, 16 mars 2012 - 11:17 .

[ScipioAmericanus]

For the record, I hated the ending. I did synthesis. Whatevs. At least Mass Effect the series didn't have third act problems. I don't object to us not following the crew after Shepard's choice is effectuated; however, I just don't buy it. At the point of the choice, the only acceptable option for me was none of the three. BTW, isn't it odd that the Catalyst isn't weepy over the loss of biodiversity from the death of several Reapers? It's not at all odd, because everything the Catalyst has said is non-verifiable from Shepard's own experience and can be and should be ignored. The Catalyst is Descartes's deceiver god.

It's a sad end to the greatest sci-fi gaming narrative experiment of our time. But that's okay. Kubrick made Eyes Wide Shut, and that doesn't invalidate all of his prior work. Although its arguable that Star Wars Eps 1-3 and Indy 4 ruined their respective franchises.

[RejectedDemo]

Balmung31 wrote...



When I see Bioware give appreciation to Shepard by having an optional ending where he lives and can be reunited with his crew and LI, maybe I'll tell you. 

I agree.

While I usually hate the "Hollywood Ending", I think Shepard deserved a better ending than the one that was given. First of all, it seemed like both options had nothing to do with the choices we were forced the make the entire game. You are either the lovable do gooder or you are the take no prisoners hard ass. I did like some of the ideas however like how the kid was really the missing piece. That's fine. But I dunno... Shepard is a living legend, shouldn't he have enough charmisa (or itimadation) to do things the way he wanted to? It just seems like you are punishing the hero. Shepard, to me, never seemed like the tragic hero. I don't like the fact that he/she was turned into one.

Personally for my own Shepard, I wanted him married to Tali living the good life on her homeworld. He deserved it. 

Also, I'm sure this isn't the place to complain about this but:
Why was Tali's photo just a stock photo? Why wasn't there more effort put into the game concerning her looks? The right moment to show us her face would be under her homeworld's sun. When she's standing on the place of her anscestors, breathing in that air for the first time in her life. THAT would have made me cry.

And as for the model of Tali's face, why didn't you guys use Ash? She lended her voice and even said she would have loved to be the model for Tali! I dunno, it was just... weak.

Mind you, I'm completely going on negatives here. The game as a whole was wonderful, these are just the 2 things that bothered me the most.

bwFex wrote...

I really have been trying to let myself get over this nightmare, but since you guys promise you're listening here, I'll try to just say it all, get it all out.

I have invested more of myself into this series than almost any other video game franchise in my life. I loved this game. I believed in it. For five years, it delivered. I must have played ME1 and ME2 a dozen times each.

I remember the end of Mass Effect 2. Never before, in any video game I had ever played, did I feel like my actions really mattered. Knowing that the decisions I made and the hard work I put into ME2 had a very real, clear, obvious impact on who lived and who died was one of the most astounding feelings in the world to me. I remember when that laser hit the Normandy and Joker made a comment about how he was happy we upgraded the shields. That was amazing. Cause and effect. Work and reward.

The first time I went through, I lost Mordin, and it was gut-wrenching: watching him die because I made a bad decision was damning, heartbreaking. But it wasn't hopeless, because I knew I could go back, do better, and save him. I knew that I was in control, that my actions mattered. So that's exactly what I did. I reviewed my decisions, found my mistakes, and did everything right. I put together a plan, I worked hard to follow that plan, and I got the reward I had worked so hard for. And then, it was all for nothing.

When I started playing Mass Effect 3, I was blown away. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. It was incredible to see all of my decisions playing out in front of me, building up to new and outrageous outcomes. I was so sure that this was it, this was going to be the masterpiece that crowned an already near-perfect trilogy. With every war asset I gathered, and with every multiplayer game I won, I knew that my work would pay off, that I would be truly satisfied with the outcome of my hard work and smart decisions. Every time I acquired a new WA bonus, I couldn't wait to see how it would play out in the final battle. And then, it was all for nothing.

I wasn't expecting a perfect, happy ending with rainbows and butterflies. In fact, I think I may have been insulted if everyone made it through just fine. The Reapers are an enormous threat (although obviously not as invincible as they would like us to believe), and we should be right to anticipate heavy losses. But I never lost hope. I built alliances, I made the impossible happen to rally the galaxy together. I cured the genophage. I saved the Turians. I united the geth and the quarians. And then, it was all for nothing.

When Mordin died, it was heartwrenching, but I knew it was the right thing. His sacrifice was... perfect. It made sense. It was congruent with the dramatic themes that had been present since I very first met Wrex in ME1. It was not a cheap trick, a deus ex machina, an easy out. It was beautiful, meaningful, significant, relevant, and satisfying. It was an amazing way for an amazing character to sacrifice themself for an amazing thing. And then it was all for nothing.

When Thane died, it was tearjerking. I knew from the moment he explained his illness that one day, I'd have to deal with his death. I knew he was never going to survive the trilogy, and I knew it wouldn't be fun to watch him go. But when his son started reading the prayer, I lost it. His death was beautiful. It was significant. It was relevant. It was satisfying. It was meaningful. He died to protect Shepard, to protect the entire Citadel. He took a life he thought was unredeemable and used it to make the world a brighter place. And then it was all for nothing.

When Wrex and Eve thanked me for saving their species, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Tali set foot on her homeworld, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Javik gave his inspiring speech, I felt that I had inspired something truly great. When I activated the Citadel's arms, sat down to reminisce with Anderson one final time, I felt that I had truly accomplished something amazing. I felt that my sacrifice was meaningful. Significant. Relevant. And while still a completely unexplained deus ex machina, at least it was a little bit satisfying.

And then, just like everything else in this trilogy, it was all for nothing.

If we pretend like the indoctrination theory is false, and we're really supposed to take the ending at face value, this entire game is a lost cause. The krogans will never repopulate. The quarians will never rebuild their home world. The geth will never know what it means to be alive and independent. The salarians will never see how people can change for the better.

Instead, the quarians and turians will endure a quick, torturous extinction as they slowly starve to death, trapped in a system with no support for them. Everyone else will squabble over the scraps of Earth that haven't been completely obliterated, until the krogans drive them all to extinction and then die off without any women present. And this is all assuming that the relays didn't cause supernova-scaled extinction events simply by being destroyed, like we saw in Arrival.

And perhaps the worst part is that we don't even know. We don't know what happened to our squadmates. We didn't get any sort of catharsis, conclusion. We got five years of literary foreplay followed by a kick to the groin and a note telling us that in a couple months, we can pay Bioware $15 for them to do it to us all over again.

It's not just the abysmally depressing/sacrificial nature of the ending, either. As I've already made perfectly clear, I came into this game expecting sacrifice. When Mordin did it, it was beautiful. When Thane did it, it was beautiful. Even Verner. Stupid, misguided, idiotic Verner. Even his ridiculous sacrifice had meaning, relevance, coherence, and offered satisfaction.

No, it's not the sacrifice I have a problem with. It's the utter lack of coherence and respect for the five years of literary gold that have already been established in this franchise. We spent three games preparing to fight these reapers. I spent hours upon hours doing every side quest, picking up every war asset, maxing out my galactic readiness so that when the time came, the army I had built could make a stand, and show these Reapers that we won't go down without a fight.

In ME1, we did the impossible when we killed Sovereign. In ME2, we began to see that the Reapers aren't as immortal as they claim to be: that even they have basic needs, exploitable weaknesses. In ME3, we saw the Reapers die. We saw one get taken down by an overgrown worm. We saw one die with a few coordinated orbital bombardments. We saw several ripped apart by standard space combat. In ME1, it took three alliance fleets to kill the "invincible" Sovereign. By the end of ME3, I had assembled a galactic armada fifty times more powerful than that, and a thousand times more prepared. I never expected the fight to be easy, but I proved that we wouldn't go down without a fight, that there is always hope in unity. That's the theme we've been given for the past five years: there is hope and strength through unity. That if we work together, we can achieve the impossible.

And then we're supposed to believe that the fate of the galaxy comes down to some completely unexplained starchild asking Shepard what his favorite color is? That the army we built was all for nothing? That the squad whose loyalty we fought so hard for was all for nothing? That in the end, none of it mattered at all?

It's a poetic notion, but this isn't the place for poetry. It's one thing to rattle prose nihilistic over the course of a movie or ballad, where the audience is a passive observer, learning a lesson from the suffering and futility of a character, but that's not what Mass Effect is. Mass Effect has always been about making the player the true hero. If you really want us to all feel like we spent the past five years dumping time, energy, and emotional investment into this game just to tell us that nothing really matters, you have signed your own death certificate. Nobody pays hundreds of dollars and hours to be reminded how bleak, empty, and depressing the world can be, to be told that nothing we do matters, to be told that all of our greatest accomplishments, all of our faith, all of our work, all of our unity is for nothing.

No. It simply cannot be this bleak. I refuse to believe Bioware is really doing this. The ending of ME1 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won. The ending of ME2 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won.

Taken at face value, the end of ME3 throws every single thing we've done in the past five years into the wind, and makes the player watch from a distance as the entire galaxy is thrown into a technological dark age and a stellar extinction. Why would we care about a universe that no longer exists? We should we invest any more time or money into a world that will never be what we came to know and love?

Even if the ending is retconned, it doesn't make things better. Just knowing that the starchild was our real foe the entire time is so utterly mindless, contrived, and irrelevant to what we experienced in ME1 and ME2 that it cannot be forgiven. If that really is the truth, then Mass Effect simply isn't what we thought it was. And frankly, if this is what Mass Effect was supposed to be all along, I want no part of it. It's a useless, trite, overplayed cliche, so far beneath the praise I once gave this franchise that it hurts to think about.

No. There is no way to save this franchise without giving us the only explanation that makes sense. You know what it is. It was the plan all along. Too much evidence to not be true. Too many people reaching the same conclusions independently.

The indoctrination theory doesn't just save this franchise: it elevates it to one of the most powerful and compelling storytelling experiences I've ever had in my life. The fact that you managed to do more than indoctrinate Shepard - you managed to indoctrinate the players themselves - is astonishing. If that really was the end game, here, then you have won my gaming soul. But if that's true, then I'm still waiting for the rest of this story, the final chapter of Shepard's heroic journey. I paid to finish the fight, and if the indoctrination theory is true, it's not over yet.

And if it's not, then I just don't even care. I have been betrayed, and it's time for me to let go of the denial, the anger, the bargaining, and start working through the depression and emptiness until I can just move on. You can't keep teasing us like this. This must have seemed like a great plan at the time, but it has cost too much. These people believed in you. I believed in you.

Just make it right. 

Also, I needed to quote this just as so many others did because it's a point well said.

Modifié par RejectedDemo, 16 mars 2012 - 11:08 .

[defenestrated]

The ending cinematics are occasionally disjointed and vaguely nonsensical (e.g. where is Joker going? why are members of my squad with them?), player agency is almost entirely removed, the "villain" dictates the terms victory, the presentation of the endings is nearly identical, and player choice prior to the end has no bearing on how that plays out.

That's just the ending, though. Beyond that, my only gripe is the quest log not updating. The rest of the game is beautifully done.

Favorite moment changes - there were a number of good ones - but today I think it's Reaper vs. Thresher Maw.

[BWGungan]

It occurs to me that this ending is straight out of Deus Ex: HR.

Option 1: Favour anti-augments (Blue).
Option 2: Favour augments (Green).
Option 3: Blow everything up and let it sort itself out (Red).

DE:HR wasn't a perfect game, but it was good.  It was also a linear narrative with almost no player choice involved the whole way through beyond your approach to combat.

Modifié par BWGungan, 16 mars 2012 - 11:05 .

[bwFex]

Oh. I definitely want to make sure this gets said:

The epilogue slideshow in DA:O would do *wonders* for the ending of ME3. I'm not asking for full blown cinematic experiences: we already got those when we cured the genophage or decided the migrant fleet's fate. But there still needs to be some level of catharsis and conclusion for all of the people and races we've met along the way, even if it's just a couple of sentences per faction/character with a slideshow image or slow-mo video.

[rag3ous]

If there's like dlc with a whole new character on earth after the fact, I'm cool with that. Mass effect 4 with a new cast and you're part of a fleet of ships of the different races looking for new homes because their's is too far away = shut up and take my money.

But I've said this before and I'll say it again. Having Garrus at the beam with me and then showing up on the Normandy alive, and looking unharmed, and with no explanation is not cool. That part needs to be filled in. In fact I'd rather that was cut entirely and I could just assume Garrus and everyone else died in the final battle, that at least makes sense and forms a cohesive narrative. Characters showing up magically somewhere else is bad story telling.

I can live without a long epilogue or a happy ending, they would be nice but are not necessary. Even the space child/citadel is okay. I do expect a solid narrative though, and that scene is just not good story telling.

[Teacher50]

JasonC Shepard wrote...

Something I'd like to say.  And hopefully others are saying this too.  Bioware, I have stood by you when you were attacked by Faux News along with your dedicated fans.  I stood by you when my friends and people I knew were trashing Mass Effect.  We have all stood by you over these years, but will you stand by us?

A majority of those dedicated fans (including I) are very disappointed in the ending.  I speak for the fans when I say we want a response to our concerns.  I have been posting on your twitter.  On your facebook.  Asking the same question:  "Are you thinking of changing the ending?"  I have recieved a response on twitter.  A response saying that you had no information at the time.

 I asked again, "
I don't understand that. You have been told in the thousands that your ending did not satisfy. You must have something. "  
They responded, "We're giving other players a chance to play more too, some haven't finished (i.e regions who may have gotten it later on)"
I asked for an ETA on the response and although I did not recieve an answer, someone else tweeted the same question and they confirmed that there is no ETA for a response

Although I do understand that there are people who have not beaten the game and you do not wish to spoil or possibly "ruin" the ending for them, I don't think any of us are asking for the whole plan at Bioware.  I believe we just want a little bit of closure for the time being, at least until you guys and gals over there get everything sorted out and make up your minds.  I think its time we got some feedback.  Don't you?

Sounds good, maybe we're not asking the right question though.

Frankly, anyone who is still playing and pops in to the forums or is roaming the internet by googling ME3 has got to have a clue just from the headlines. If they don't want to know, they are not clicking yet but soon will be.

[Wesker1984]

I have no problem with how some of the endings turned out but one of my bigest concern with them is were the Normandy crash-landed, i would have prefered the ship crashing on earth instead on an unknown tropical planet, this way i would have accepted a little more the endings because at the end you know that your friends and love interest(in my case Tali) are all safe at your home planet.

If Bioware want to do an ending DLC it will be nice to pick the story after the perfect ending where Shepard awake in the rumble and realise that everything he/she saw during his/her choice are just a dream like the indoctrination theory explain. He/she wake up less damaged and go with Anderson into the citadel to reach the catalyst facing off against many husk and when he/she reach the control panel with his/her partner(Anderson) they face-off against the Illusive Man in a final boss battle and after his defeat, Harbinger try to convince Shepard not to destroy them and you realise that Harbinger is the master AI behind all the other reapers, everything goes like the scene with the Star Child but with Harbinger instead the little kid. If you refuse to submit, Shepard activate the Catalyst and destroy all the reapers in the galaxy but only the reapers not the geth or edi(dont care if the mass relay are again destroyed, the destruction of them give proof that the story with the reapers is now finished) and when the citadel crumble you saw the Normandy trying to reach Shepard. After that scene you saw Shepard landing in london with the Normandy shuttle and he/she is reunited with his/her love interest and his/her friends and explain even if the mass relay are gone they can restore everything they lost if all the species now stranded on earth accept to work together to have a brighter future, the DLC end and the post credits roll. With that kind of DLC everyone will win because every ending can be legitimate and the angry fans will have the chance to chose a better ending to conclude their story. However this DLC after instaled will begins only if you chose the destroy ending and if your war assets is higher than 5000.

Please consider my idea and the ideas of the other fans. Many of us feel that the endings break our replay value of the entire series. We love Mass Effect and we want a chance to have an ending where we can be in peace after completing our beloved saga. I dont mind to pay for it and i will pay for it.

From one of your devoted fan who bought Mass Effect 1, 2 and 3 on Xbox360 and PS3.since year one.

[Zaizer]

bwFex wrote...

darthnick427 wrote...

mdolsen wrote...

stysiaq wrote...

bwFex wrote...

I really have been trying to let myself get over this nightmare, but since you guys promise you're listening here, I'll try to just say it all, get it all out.

I have invested more of myself into this series than almost any other video game franchise in my life. I loved this game. I believed in it. For five years, it delivered. I must have played ME1 and ME2 a dozen times each.

I remember the end of Mass Effect 2. Never before, in any video game I had ever played, did I feel like my actions really mattered. Knowing that the decisions I made and the hard work I put into ME2 had a very real, clear, obvious impact on who lived and who died was one of the most astounding feelings in the world to me. I remember when that laser hit the Normandy and Joker made a comment about how he was happy we upgraded the shields. That was amazing. Cause and effect. Work and reward.

The first time I went through, I lost Mordin, and it was gut-wrenching: watching him die because I made a bad decision was damning, heartbreaking. But it wasn't hopeless, because I knew I could go back, do better, and save him. I knew that I was in control, that my actions mattered. So that's exactly what I did. I reviewed my decisions, found my mistakes, and did everything right. I put together a plan, I worked hard to follow that plan, and I got the reward I had worked so hard for. And then, it was all for nothing.

When I started playing Mass Effect 3, I was blown away. It was perfect. Everything was perfect. It was incredible to see all of my decisions playing out in front of me, building up to new and outrageous outcomes. I was so sure that this was it, this was going to be the masterpiece that crowned an already near-perfect trilogy. With every war asset I gathered, and with every multiplayer game I won, I knew that my work would pay off, that I would be truly satisfied with the outcome of my hard work and smart decisions. Every time I acquired a new WA bonus, I couldn't wait to see how it would play out in the final battle. And then, it was all for nothing.

I wasn't expecting a perfect, happy ending with rainbows and butterflies. In fact, I think I may have been insulted if everyone made it through just fine. The Reapers are an enormous threat (although obviously not as invincible as they would like us to believe), and we should be right to anticipate heavy losses. But I never lost hope. I built alliances, I made the impossible happen to rally the galaxy together. I cured the genophage. I saved the Turians. I united the geth and the quarians. And then, it was all for nothing.

When Mordin died, it was heartwrenching, but I knew it was the right thing. His sacrifice was... perfect. It made sense. It was congruent with the dramatic themes that had been present since I very first met Wrex in ME1. It was not a cheap trick, a deus ex machina, an easy out. It was beautiful, meaningful, significant, relevant, and satisfying. It was an amazing way for an amazing character to sacrifice themself for an amazing thing. And then it was all for nothing.

When Thane died, it was tearjerking. I knew from the moment he explained his illness that one day, I'd have to deal with his death. I knew he was never going to survive the trilogy, and I knew it wouldn't be fun to watch him go. But when his son started reading the prayer, I lost it. His death was beautiful. It was significant. It was relevant. It was satisfying. It was meaningful. He died to protect Shepard, to protect the entire Citadel. He took a life he thought was unredeemable and used it to make the world a brighter place. And then it was all for nothing.

When Wrex and Eve thanked me for saving their species, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Tali set foot on her homeworld, I felt that I had truly accomplished something great. When Javik gave his inspiring speech, I felt that I had inspired something truly great. When I activated the Citadel's arms, sat down to reminisce with Anderson one final time, I felt that I had truly accomplished something amazing. I felt that my sacrifice was meaningful. Significant. Relevant. And while still a completely unexplained deus ex machina, at least it was a little bit satisfying.

And then, just like everything else in this trilogy, it was all for nothing.

If we pretend like the indoctrination theory is false, and we're really supposed to take the ending at face value, this entire game is a lost cause. The krogans will never repopulate. The quarians will never rebuild their home world. The geth will never know what it means to be alive and independent. The salarians will never see how people can change for the better.

Instead, the quarians and turians will endure a quick, torturous extinction as they slowly starve to death, trapped in a system with no support for them. Everyone else will squabble over the scraps of Earth that haven't been completely obliterated, until the krogans drive them all to extinction and then die off without any women present. And this is all assuming that the relays didn't cause supernova-scaled extinction events simply by being destroyed, like we saw in Arrival.

And perhaps the worst part is that we don't even know. We don't know what happened to our squadmates. We didn't get any sort of catharsis, conclusion. We got five years of literary foreplay followed by a kick to the groin and a note telling us that in a couple months, we can pay Bioware $15 for them to do it to us all over again.

It's not just the abysmally depressing/sacrificial nature of the ending, either. As I've already made perfectly clear, I came into this game expecting sacrifice. When Mordin did it, it was beautiful. When Thane did it, it was beautiful. Even Verner. Stupid, misguided, idiotic Verner. Even his ridiculous sacrifice had meaning, relevance, coherence, and offered satisfaction.

No, it's not the sacrifice I have a problem with. It's the utter lack of coherence and respect for the five years of literary gold that have already been established in this franchise. We spent three games preparing to fight these reapers. I spent hours upon hours doing every side quest, picking up every war asset, maxing out my galactic readiness so that when the time came, the army I had built could make a stand, and show these Reapers that we won't go down without a fight.

In ME1, we did the impossible when we killed Sovereign. In ME2, we began to see that the Reapers aren't as immortal as they claim to be: that even they have basic needs, exploitable weaknesses. In ME3, we saw the Reapers die. We saw one get taken down by an overgrown worm. We saw one die with a few coordinated orbital bombardments. We saw several ripped apart by standard space combat. In ME1, it took three alliance fleets to kill the "invincible" Sovereign. By the end of ME3, I had assembled a galactic armada fifty times more powerful than that, and a thousand times more prepared. I never expected the fight to be easy, but I proved that we wouldn't go down without a fight, that there is always hope in unity. That's the theme we've been given for the past five years: there is hope and strength through unity. That if we work together, we can achieve the impossible.

And then we're supposed to believe that the fate of the galaxy comes down to some completely unexplained starchild asking Shepard what his favorite color is? That the army we built was all for nothing? That the squad whose loyalty we fought so hard for was all for nothing? That in the end, none of it mattered at all?

It's a poetic notion, but this isn't the place for poetry. It's one thing to rattle prose nihilistic over the course of a movie or ballad, where the audience is a passive observer, learning a lesson from the suffering and futility of a character, but that's not what Mass Effect is. Mass Effect has always been about making the player the true hero. If you really want us to all feel like we spent the past five years dumping time, energy, and emotional investment into this game just to tell us that nothing really matters, you have signed your own death certificate. Nobody pays hundreds of dollars and hours to be reminded how bleak, empty, and depressing the world can be, to be told that nothing we do matters, to be told that all of our greatest accomplishments, all of our faith, all of our work, all of our unity is for nothing.

No. It simply cannot be this bleak. I refuse to believe Bioware is really doing this. The ending of ME1 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won. The ending of ME2 was perfect. We saw the struggle, we saw the cost, but we knew that we had worked hard, worked together, and won.

Taken at face value, the end of ME3 throws every single thing we've done in the past five years into the wind, and makes the player watch from a distance as the entire galaxy is thrown into a technological dark age and a stellar extinction. Why would we care about a universe that no longer exists? We should we invest any more time or money into a world that will never be what we came to know and love?

Even if the ending is retconned, it doesn't make things better. Just knowing that the starchild was our real foe the entire time is so utterly mindless, contrived, and irrelevant to what we experienced in ME1 and ME2 that it cannot be forgiven. If that really is the truth, then Mass Effect simply isn't what we thought it was. And frankly, if this is what Mass Effect was supposed to be all along, I want no part of it. It's a useless, trite, overplayed cliche, so far beneath the praise I once gave this franchise that it hurts to think about.

No. There is no way to save this franchise without giving us the only explanation that makes sense. You know what it is. It was the plan all along. Too much evidence to not be true. Too many people reaching the same conclusions independently.

The indoctrination theory doesn't just save this franchise: it elevates it to one of the most powerful and compelling storytelling experiences I've ever had in my life. The fact that you managed to do more than indoctrinate Shepard - you managed to indoctrinate the players themselves - is astonishing. If that really was the end game, here, then you have won my gaming soul. But if that's true, then I'm still waiting for the rest of this story, the final chapter of Shepard's heroic journey. I paid to finish the fight, and if the indoctrination theory is true, it's not over yet.

And if it's not, then I just don't even care. I have been betrayed, and it's time for me to let go of the denial, the anger, the bargaining, and start working through the depression and emptiness until I can just move on. You can't keep teasing us like this. This must have seemed like a great plan at the time, but it has cost too much. These people believed in you. I believed in you.

Just make it right. 

requoted, because it is everything I think, but told the way I'm unable to.

Here here.

Yeah. this sums up my feels very well

I know those feels, man.

Pretty much this.

[wac2791]

We're a good 180 pages in, but I wanted to respond directly to the post: I really appreciate you letting us know that you're taking in what we fans are saying. It really means a lot to me that this isn't just us spouting off for no reason at all. I absolutely loved ME3 99.9% until that one little issue with things going kinda crazy at the end. I trust you know what's best for your product, and I am personally looking forward to what the future brings for this game! 

[BWGungan]

rag3ous wrote...

If there's like dlc with a whole new character on earth after the fact, I'm cool with that. Mass effect 4 with a new cast and you're part of a fleet of ships of the different races looking for new homes because their's is too far away = shut up and take my money.

But I've said this before and I'll say it again. Having Garrus at the beam with me and then showing up on the Normandy alive, and looking unharmed, and with no explanation is not cool. That part needs to be filled in. In fact I'd rather that was cut entirely and I could just assume Garrus and everyone else died in the final battle, that at least makes sense and forms a cohesive narrative. Characters showing up magically somewhere else is bad story telling.

I can live without a long epilogue or a happy ending, they would be nice but are not necessary. Even the space child/citadel is okay. I do expect a solid narrative though, and that scene is just not good story telling.

Not mine.  These endings (if final) killed the franchise:  It went out in a blaze of cliche and hearbreak.

[pottypenguin]

Chris Priestly wrote...

We appreciate everyone’s feedback about Mass Effect 3 and want you to know that we are listening. Active discussions about the ending are more than welcome here, and the team will be reviewing it for feedback and responding when we can. Please note, we want to give people time to experience the game so while we can’t get into specifics right now, we will be able to address some of your questions once more people have had time to complete the game. In the meantime, we’d like to ask that you keep the non-spoiler areas of our forums and our social media channels spoiler free.
 
We understand there is a lot of debate on the Mass Effect 3 ending and we will be more than happy to engage in healthy discussions once more people get to experience the game. We are listening to all of your feedback.

In the meantime, let's give appreciation to Commander Shepard. Whether you loved the ME3 ending or didn't or you just have a lot of questions, he/she has given many of us some of the best adventures we have had while playing games. What was your favorite moment?

I’m not sure if anyone has realized this yet but this thread topic is a PR piece. Reread the OP it’s completely ambiguous. It uses words but says nothing unless you read between the lines. It offers no timeline, promises, or guarantees. It does not acknowledge or admit to a problem even existing. It downplays the problem by referring to it as a “debate” diminishing negativity. By using “debate” it throws the issue onto the community opposed to Bioware. Which means it’s also being deflective. It’s also deflective in that the moderator asks us to post something positive about the series. If these post are for Bioware to gauge the so called “debate” why are we filling it with off topic talk? To make it easier for Bioware to find our issues? No, it’s there to promote a positive outlook in hopes that more people will reach the acceptance stage.

Bioware already knows what the issues are. I mean there is no way that Bioware has people reading threads form every gaming forum about the discontent with ME3s ending? There’s also no way that anyone from Bioware has read any of the hundreds of post about the problematic ending on this forum? And, there Is no way Bioware can have any idea what the major issues are because they’ve only been covered hundreds of times? Right? Wrong! Bioware has stated multiple times that they pay close attention to what’s going in their community.

Bioware has already hired a PR firm or has it’s own internal PR team. They simply will use every PR tactic to skirt around the issue. These post are nothing more than a delay tactic. They will attempt to deplete everyone’s resolve. The only time they need is time to build on their PR implementation and to evaluate how it’s effecting their bottom line. They will do nothing unless they fail to force general appeasement and/or there’s any significant impact on their current and future earnings.

The fact is that the time to implement any change would most likely take months. Bioware has no quick fix for this problem. It’s sad that ego, pride, and money are such strong motivators for Bioware. Bioware is just like any other company, all you are to them is the plastic and paper in your wallet, and they have no problem replacing your wallet with another’s. The only way to get our point across would be to flood the market with used ME3 games.

Isn’t also nice that the boards aren’t as full of why the ending sucks threads. I wouldn’t use “debate” because consensus is more accurate.

Modifié par pottypenguin, 16 mars 2012 - 11:13 .

[leeboi2]

Check out the indoctrination theory...The endings make sense then, but it just shows that the game doesn't actually end...It finishes at the conduit.