23455 réponses à ce sujet

[Element Zero]

Eventually, DLC will likely add just enough to allow everyone to get that target EFS number. The thing is, will any of us care to play that DLC. As much as I love every single moment of the series up until Star-boy, those final moments make it all for naught, in my estimation. The ending feels like Shepard laid down and surrendered.

If alternate endings more to my liking are offered, this will easily be my favorite game of all time.

[stormheart75]

My favorite part was my resolution to the geth-quarian war. I managed to broker peace between them. I loved that. The conversation afterwards with Tali made me so happy. The geth and the quarians living peacefully and rebuilding Rannoch was such a happy ending.

I was so looking forward to the end of the game and the trilogy. ME1 and ME2 made me feel triumphant at the end. Shepherd accomplished something great and my decisions in the game mattered and had such interesting or serious consequences. I was looking forward to the same feeling with ME3. I enjoyed when previous squad mates and characters from ME1 and ME2 showed up. I liked seeing Jack and Samara again.

Unfortunately, the end of ME3 was nothing like I hoped. Spoilers ahead.

I hate the ending to ME3. It is the worst ending that I have ever seen in a game. Nothing you did mattered in the last 5/10 minutes. It was absolutely, utterly pointless. And what's worse, it made everything Shepherd did and all the decisions you made in the trilogy worthless; nothing you did mattered in the end. It didn't matter that you stopped Saren or destroyed the Collector Base. Just about everything that meant anything was destroyed, no matter the option you picked at the end of ME3.

Assuming the scenes with the Catalyst AI were true and not some indoctrination dream, the end result of all choices is the destruction of the mass relays. Which, according to the ME2 Arrival DLC, results in a supernova-like explosion. The scene where Joker is frantically trying to out-run the mass relay explosion shock wave pretty much proves that all mass relays went supernova. Earth, the Citadel, your fleet, the Reapers, Palaven, Thessia, and all the other worlds with a mass relay in the system are annihilated when the mass relays explode. Talk about a massive Pyrrhic victory at best.

Maybe I'm wrong about the exploding mass relays, but I've seen the end videos for Control, Destroy, and Synthesis endings - almost all the same. The Charon relay explodes, the Normandy is trying to outrun a massive shock wave, and the Normandy always crashes.

Even that part is stupid. Joker managed to pick some of your squad mates up during a supernova in the Sol system, escape the system, and manage to crash land on a supposedly compatible garden planet, if the grandfather/grandson scene is to be believed. How?

What's the point of it all? Nothing. No matter if the Reapers survived or not, they won. Current galactic civilization is gone. Earth is gone. Nothing you did for the whole trilogy mattered in the end. When the only outcome of the trilogy is the death of galactic civilization and the slaughter of trillions and the destruction of so many worlds, then why replay ME3? Or ME1 and ME2 again? Why buy any DLC for ME3? The end of ME3 really made me feel like I wasted my time and money on ME1 and ME2 and ME3.

Considering the splash screen after the credits and final scene, the deeply cynical side of me wonders if this was some ploy to get us to buy more DLC at a later date.

I'd like to think this was an incredibly poor decision on the part of the writers or director. Time will tell.

Having variations of the You Lose!, Pyrrhic Victory, Bitter-Sweet Victory, and Happy Ending Victory that are dependent on your choices and your fleet size and readiness would have been nice. The outcome where Shepherd lives and walks off into the sunset with his/her LI would have been REALLY great. A more climatic end with more explanations, rather than plot holes and more questions.

Please fix this. Please give us an ending that makes sense and gives a sense of closure and triumph and maybe a happy ending.

[Ahms]

Mcfly616 wrote...

Haha I love how "bwFex's" post is still getting reposted.....has to be going on 50 pages now. If Bioware could see one post in this entire thread, it should bwFex. He even supports both opinions of the theories out there and how each side "generally feels" in less than a paragraph. Pretty subtle in a post that long. The guy deserves some cred for taking the words out of an untold number of peoples mouths....covers everything.

OK, I made a post in maybe page seven and couldn't check BSN for a few days. JFC, it's already almost 200 pages. Can you please repost the post you're talking about? Thanks.

[diggisaur]

@RejectedDemo... What ending were you hoping for? I think a happy ending would have been worse. War is not pretty. There is always collateral damage. Every decision is always going to have consequences.

If you didn't get the end choice and Bioware just went with; The Crucible worked and singled out and destroyed all Reaper tech in the galaxy, how would it not destroy all Mass Relays and the Citadel as well?

[RinuCZ]

diggisaur wrote...
Its not like Bioware was hinting through the game that Shepard would probably die and there was definately more than one occasion where they announced that choices with difficult to make and always seemed to come at a price. If you didn't notice those hints you rushed through the game like a bull in a china shop.

I am aware that it has been hinted a purpose of Citadel is wrong somehow but personally, I don't undestand why Citadel came in handy and mass relays not even if both were "weapons" of Reapers. Should you deny a use of both in that case?

[superfuzznpd]

To Bioware,

First of all, thank you for an amazing ride. I have been a fan of the Mass Effect universe since the first game. I've played ME1 and ME2 numerous times each, exploring every possible love interest and every paragon or renegade option in both games. I waited with great anticipation and admittedly little patience for each game in the series to come out. I've also read the books and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the events of the books incorporated into ME3.

Having played through ME3 once now, I have to say it is a superior game to either of the first two and Bioware did a great job of listening to feed back, incorporating suggestions and ironing out the kinks over the series. I appreciated having more loot, and more customization choices like in ME1, but having a more structured inventory and upgrade choices like ME2. The game play mechanics were great and the game was tremendously fun and playable. Voice acting was top notch, environments were beautifully detailed and totally fitting. The story continued to be enthralling and cut scenes were engaging and told the story very well. The musical score was fantastic. The writing was stellar (pun intended) throughout the game. I laughed out loud, I got misty eyed over lost companions and was genuinely sad to lose them. I had the wind completely taken out of my sails by an event in the game, and then found that Shepherd had the wind completely taken out of her sails from the same incident. That was a very clever bit of writing by the way. The game drew me in, got me excited and nervous and anxious. I was more emotionally involved than in any game I have ever played. It made me care and made me want to listen to all off the ambient conversations. It really made me feel like I was in the midst of a terrifying galactic conflict. It was epic and was an outstanding culmination to the series. And that is why I am so conflicted over the ending.

It's been said in many a post, but the ending doesn't feel like the ending we earned going through this journey. Having gone though literal hell to save the galaxy, it seriously feels like a massive let down not to have earned at least one "good" ending. The symbiosis ending is the closest I would call to a good ending, as I did enjoy Joker and Edi's relationship development and seeing them end up together did make me smile. But that is the only thing good about any of the 3 paragon endings.

Then there are the major plot issues with the ending. With all of the mass relays destroyed regardless which ending you pick, what happens to all of the races from the various fleets that are now stranded around Earth assuming Earth wasn't destroyed by the Charon relay exploding? Turians and Quarians can't survive on Earth at all, and it would be thousands, if not tens of thousands of light years for them to travel to the nearest habitable planets that would work with their physiology. That and any thought of the galactic brotherhood surviving that I worked so hard to create with all of my efforts, would quickly go out the window once you had numerous different species all struggling for survival on the limited resources of a ravaged Earth. If the relay explosions did destroy all of the worlds in their vicinities, Earth and all of the races and their fleets surrounding it for the battle are destroyed, and if that is the case what was the point of the struggle?

I worked my butt off over the course of 3 games, stemming the reapers at every tide, trying to make the good and moral choices, so that I could build a massive galactic alliance for the final game. I've spent 3 games trying to save the galaxy and Earth. My reward for all of that effort is watching the entirety of galactic society and infrastructure be destroyed, and my crew who stuck with me through Armageddon in 3 games, suddenly abandon me and fly off into space to be marooned on some God forsaken planet. My "choices" to get to that end, are choosing between dying, dying, or dying, while sending out one of 3 different pulses throughout the galaxy that will negate everything I fought for regardless the choices I made through 3 games.

All 3 games, to include ME3 were so good, drawing me in and making me care about the choices I made through all 3 games, trying to get to the ultimate ending, only to find there isn't one. The ending is so out of character for the rest of the series, it feels like it doesn't belong to this series at all. Where are my real choices? Why aren't my choices through 3 games actually being reflected in the ending? Why aren't my choices making a difference? Why on Earth can't we simply shut the damned reapers down and leave the Geth and Edi alone??? I'd even take the existing choices and endings if there was one that incorporated keeping the relays and the damned galactic society I worked so hard to bring together and save.

ME3 to me was like watching an outstanding back and forth football game, keeping you on the edge of your seat for all 4 quarters. Your team gets the ball back on the far end of the field with 45 seconds left, and they are only down by one point. The quarterback orchestrates an outstanding and unlikley drive against the odds to get his team down to the 17 yard line with 3 seconds left. No time for another shot for a touch down, but a field goal will win the game. You're elated. It's in the bag. Your team has as good as won, because it's a short easy to make field goal and the other team won't have time to score again. All the kicker has to do is put that short field goal between the goal posts and you're going to win the championship. The ball is snapped, the quarterback places it, the kicker connects.... and it's wide right and you lost. Pack up your stuff and go home. That deflating turn of events makes what was an outstanding and very fun football game throughout, a complete and utter let down at the last gasp that you'd just as soon forget, and that is what ME3 did to me.

I don't want to forget Mass Effect. I'm emotionally vested and I love the series, and I want to remember it with joy and elation years from now as the greatest game trilogy ever. I want others to discover and enjoy the series as much as I have. As it stands with this ending though, I'm afraid it's all going to end up like that football game. Leaving a sour taste of what could have been, and a forgotten title that had so much more potential lying in the bargain bin. Mass Effect was an outstanding series based on choices, and Mass Effect 3 was an outstanding game and continued those choices. Please give us the choice of an outstanding ending befitting of the rest of the game's excelence too!

P.S. The more I think about this, it's not even so much about the choices all seemingly having the same consequence or Shepard dying, although I definitely would have preferred a vastly more upbeat ending. I think my biggest issue with the ending is the lack of closure. I worked my tail off to save Earth and the Galaxy. What happens to Earth? What happens to the fleets and the myriad aliens fighting in and around Earth to save it? Why is the Normandy running away instead of using that Thanix cannon to take out some reapers? Why is it crashing on some distant world instead of landing on Earth? The only ending that I could see a reason for the Normandy fleeing, would be the one where all AI is extinguished. Joker would have good reason to run then, trying to save Edi. But what about the other 2 endings? There is no reason for the Normandy to run away and it just doesn't make sense.

On a much more sinister side, if all of the above is explained because the destruction of the Charon relay destroyed Earth, then that means most habitable planets in the galaxy have just been destroyed by all of the mass relays exploding. If that is the case, that is even more depressing than if the reapers had won. At least life could have flourished for 50 thousand year cycles. Now you have one lone bastion of life on some luckily placed garden world, with no hope of ever going anywhere, because everything worth visiting has been blown to bits. Then you have the whole issue of destroying hundreds of stars and planets across the galaxy at once. The massive gravitational flux of that would probably be enough to tear the galaxy apart, so thank you Bioware. You just destroyed the Milky Way as a reward for 3 games worth of struggle.

Here is my major problem with the ending as it stands. When I finished ME1 and ME2, I immediately wanted to start another play through with a different character sex and explore the different plot lines and relationship options. On ME3, I do but I don't. I do seriously want to explore all of the different options in the game for the different characters and explore that amazing game again and enjoy the hours of amazing game play it provided, but then I don't due to knowing I will have to face that ending at the end of the experience. That ending makes me pause and consider whether it is worth it rather than just diving in. The ending should make me want to play again, and ME3's ending does the opposite.

Modifié par superfuzznpd, 22 mars 2012 - 04:38 .

[Apocaleepse360]

Hopefully you guys at Bioware read this, because this really needs to be said.

While I wasn't exactly a fan of the ending myself, I cannot condone the amount of abuse you guys are getting from it. It seems people have forgotten all about this little thing called 'constructive criticism' these days. So I'd like to take the time to say that everything else about Mass Effect 3 was perfect, it's been a while since I've seen a game with such an emotional story and I'm glad to say that unlike other games out there, the multiplayer did not take anything from it one bit (some games usually take a focus on multiplayer once it has been introduced and we're usually left with a 6 hour long singleplayer as a result of it. But again, ME3 was fortunately not one of those games).

Like I said before though, I'm not a fan of the ending. However, a lot of people didn't like Fallout 3's ending, and Bethesda fixed that problem with an add-on which not only changed the ending slightly, but also added on a few extra missions to play afterwards. I'm thinking that maybe you guys and gals at Bioware could do something similar. You could release a DLC package that changes the ending, get a bit of an idea as to what the fans would be satisfied with when it comes to a conclusion and release it when work is finished with it. Obviously it would be priced DLC, people would honestly be crazy if they seriously expected something like this for free.

So that way, people who didn't like the ending can download a 'fixed' one, Bioware/EA get extra money from it and on top of that regain fans who threatened to boycott future Bioware products over this and those who were satisfied with the ending can choose not to download it and carry on playing the game how it is now. Everyone's happy, and I can't think of a better solution than this.

[LowlyKnight]

 Dear everyone at BioWare, I loved every moment of ME1, ME2, and ME3 right up until the end.  To take a page out of "your book" so to speak, just as Shephard rallied for unity and healing between warring factions I would like to do the same here for you the creators and us the fans.  You are truly wonderful story tellers and game designers, and there is no reason why this needs to be ME3's legacy.  Before Portal 2 came out, a revision to Portal 1's ending was "snuck" into the game... and it worked.  Now, you won't be able to "sneak" in a revision, but let me say this: If the revision capitalizes on player choice and wows the players - even if every ending has shephard dieing in different ways - players will forget their gripes, their experiance will be altered and their love of the game renewed.  You have already expressed a desire to see fans want to spend more time in the Mass Effect universe in the future, if things stand as they are it may be difficult to see that happen, but if fans love for the game can be renewed by offering a different experiance wouldn't that be worth it?  I have tried to stray from specifics, but allow me to try to be a bit more specific while trying to remain abstract - Players want longer more fleshed out endings, and they want them to differ greatly to represent how greatly different the choices they made were along the way from ME1-ME3.  Allow me to loosely quote one of the developers from the Collector's Edition of ME1 who said something along the lines of "This is your story, if you're not happy with the ending you only have yourself to blame," what a fantastic line, and so true it was through ME1 and ME2.  But with ME3 you the Creators told your ending, and only your ending... we all simply hoped to love or hate the ending based on the choices we had made.  If you give choice back to the player, they will no longer have you to blame for the ending, they will only have themselves to blame... and in the end, that's all we want.... we want to have only ourselves to blame.

[Vouse]

As with many threads and discussions with the ending I think from the moment you get hit with the reaper laser I think it was the end or at least you are knocked down and in a dream state! (I hope so) This was my first gut feeling anyway.

Thinking commercially I think that yes having an end to a truly amazing series like this is good for short term money if your (Bioware/EA) plan was to bring out DLC for a dramatic alternative ending and cash in! Epic!! good idea! Long term disaster but it is difficult times and you could make a hand full of conspiracy theories about this topic. But I don’t think a company of this scale and prestige could fall fowl of this type of business practice.

More likely there are these reasons for the ending:

First they screwed up! Probially!! It happens a rewrite will not fix but ME4 would as people forget and forgive.

The ending was leaked as we know and there was no time or budget to fix in time so they decided to go screw it release what we have up to a point and we fix later if the community **** to much about it, Most likely.

Or the conspiracies are right and EA is a money sucking **** who destroys games, not so likely.

I think objectively Bioware knew they had issues from when the ending was leaked and I think that a management decision had to be made after the machine had already started which could not be stopped because of money and a looming release date. I think that the rage against the ending is fair but is getting extreme and that Bioware could have handled this better.

I would have preferred the ending to have stopped at the reaper laser with the knowledge that "Guys sorry the ending isn’t here, we have to realise this game now but because of a leak this is what we have and we will give you the epic end you need in a month or so as free DLC! Enjoy the game! Etc. will never happen but would have been better.

I speak for myself here! I cannot stand to play the game again as the last 5 min’s completely destroyed the series including the multiplayer aspect which is very good by the way!! Bioware I think that even if you pulled a rabbit out of the hat now, I feel very let down by the ending which is let’s face it dire and I don’t care that it’s sad or happy it’s just weak and rushed just like the ashes DLC. A few building scattered around and a prothien invaluable 50 thousand year old artefact! on a lift with no guards come on! you can do better than that! This should have been an epic battle to get this thing!!!!! not a normal run, kill capture mission, I felt completely ripped off! I cannot even bring myself to purchase further DLC because of that. Shadow broker!! remember that mission it was Epic! More of the same please.

I don’t understand how weak DLC can be made for such a potential cash cow! Someone must be accountable for this example of gross misconduct.

Lastly I would say that although the start was iffy loose and weak, 90% of the rest of the game was truly EPIC and sometimes unique (very rare these days!) Thank you for that experience for the first time I felt like I was in real trouble especially then fricking banshees! (F$%K) I even have nightmares now! P.S my first play though was on insanity and it was epic!

I hope that Bioware and EA create not a happy ending but an EPIC ending deserving of hours spent building this amazing trilogy to bring this serise to a worthy conclusion..

J

Modifié par Vouse, 17 mars 2012 - 12:16 .

[bulldozerchn98]

@superfuzznpd @Apocaleepse360

Don't think they're reading this at all. And if you want to prove me wrong Bioware, you know what to do...

[LdyBelial]

stormheart75 wrote...

My favorite part was my resolution to the geth-quarian war. I managed to broker peace between them. I loved that. The conversation afterwards with Tali made me so happy. The geth and the quarians living peacefully and rebuilding Rannoch was such a happy ending.

I was so looking forward to the end of the game and the trilogy. ME1 and ME2 made me feel triumphant at the end. Shepherd accomplished something great and my decisions in the game mattered and had such interesting or serious consequences. I was looking forward to the same feeling with ME3. I enjoyed when previous squad mates and characters from ME1 and ME2 showed up. I liked seeing Jack and Samara again.

Unfortunately, the end of ME3 was nothing like I hoped. Spoilers ahead.

I hate the ending to ME3. It is the worst ending that I have ever seen in a game. Nothing you did mattered in the last 5/10 minutes. It was absolutely, utterly pointless. And what's worse, it made everything Shepherd did and all the decisions you made in the trilogy worthless; nothing you did mattered in the end. It didn't matter that you stopped Saren or destroyed the Collector Base. Just about everything that meant anything was destroyed, no matter the option you picked at the end of ME3.

Assuming the scenes with the Catalyst AI were true and not some indoctrination dream, the end result of all choices is the destruction of the mass relays. Which, according to the ME2 Arrival DLC, results in a supernova-like explosion. The scene where Joker is frantically trying to out-run the mass relay explosion shock wave pretty much proves that all mass relays went supernova. Earth, the Citadel, your fleet, the Reapers, Palaven, Thessia, and all the other worlds with a mass relay in the system are annihilated when the mass relays explode. Talk about a massive Pyrrhic victory at best.

Maybe I'm wrong about the exploding mass relays, but I've seen the end videos for Control, Destroy, and Synthesis endings - almost all the same. The Charon relay explodes, the Normandy is trying to outrun a massive shock wave, and the Normandy always crashes.

Even that part is stupid. Joker managed to pick some of your squad mates up during a supernova in the Sol system, escape the system, and manage to crash land on a supposedly compatible garden planet, if the grandfather/grandson scene is to be believed. How?

What's the point of it all? Nothing. No matter if the Reapers survived or not, they won. Current galactic civilization is gone. Earth is gone. Nothing you did for the whole trilogy mattered in the end. When the only outcome of the trilogy is the death of galactic civilization and the slaughter of trillions and the destruction of so many worlds, then why replay ME3? Or ME1 and ME2 again? Why buy any DLC for ME3? The end of ME3 really made me feel like I wasted my time and money on ME1 and ME2 and ME3.

Considering the splash screen after the credits and final scene, the deeply cynical side of me wonders if this was some ploy to get us to buy more DLC at a later date.

I'd like to think this was an incredibly poor decision on the part of the writers or director. Time will tell.

Having variations of the You Lose!, Pyrrhic Victory, Bitter-Sweet Victory, and Happy Ending Victory that are dependent on your choices and your fleet size and readiness would have been nice. The outcome where Shepherd lives and walks off into the sunset with his/her LI would have been REALLY great. A more climatic end with more explanations, rather than plot holes and more questions.

Please fix this. Please give us an ending that makes sense and gives a sense of closure and triumph and maybe a happy ending.

Whoops -- edited to add --  SPOILER WARNING!!!


You have a very good point!  When we were on the dead reaper in ME2 there were lots of clues about indoctrination.  How they were having strange dreams and their reality was getting messed up.  As Shepard was having strange dreams in ME3 I was beginning to get suspicious myself.  Maybe Shepard had been indoctrinated? 

Also... with the Arrival DLC we run into the issue that destroying the mass relay in that system destroyed everything in that system -- it's kinda why Shepard is under house-arrest in the beginning after all.  So -- when all the mass relays went boom?  Ah?  Doesn't that imply that every solar system with a Mass Relay in it would be destroyed too? 

Confused... not news but still sad and depressing... 

Modifié par LdyBelial, 17 mars 2012 - 12:11 .

[bwFex]

Mcfly616 wrote...

Haha I love how "bwFex's" post is still getting reposted.....has to be going on 50 pages now. If Bioware could see one post in this entire thread, it should bwFex. He even supports both opinions of the theories out there and how each side "generally feels" in less than a paragraph. Pretty subtle in a post that long. The guy deserves some cred for taking the words out of an untold number of peoples mouths....covers everything.

Awww, you guys make me feel so special.

Original was posted on page 80-something, so it's been going for somewhere around 100 pages, on and off. Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, knowing I'm not the only one feeling betrayed.

Modifié par bwFex, 17 mars 2012 - 12:15 .

[LowlyKnight]

Kudos Apocaleepse360, we are of one mind here, I saw your post after finishing mine. I feel bad about how hard everyone is coming down on you guys at Bioware, never have I played a game with such passion, fervor, or enjoyment as I have the Mass Effect series. My desire is to see it live on as the wonderful universe that we have all fallen in love with which is why I took the time to post above, I hope the feedback helps.

[dvd1154]

the endings in this game are very horrible i feel like i wasted 59.99 can you make so better add-on endings and missions

[Defiantfa11]

Apocaleepse360 wrote...

Hopefully you guys at Bioware read this, because this really needs to be said.

While I wasn't exactly a fan of the ending myself, I cannot condone the amount of abuse you guys are getting from it. It seems people have forgotten all about this little thing called 'constructive criticism' these days. So I'd like to take the time to say that everything else about Mass Effect 3 was perfect, it's been a while since I've seen a game with such an emotional story and I'm glad to say that unlike other games out there, the multiplayer did not take anything from it one bit (some games usually take a focus on multiplayer once it has been introduced and we're usually left with a 6 hour long singleplayer as a result of it. But again, ME3 was fortunately not one of those games).

Like I said before though, I'm not a fan of the ending. However, a lot of people didn't like Fallout 3's ending, and Bethesda fixed that problem with an add-on which not only changed the ending slightly, but also added on a few extra missions to play afterwards. I'm thinking that maybe you guys and gals at Bioware could do something similar. You could release a DLC package that changes the ending, get a bit of an idea as to what the fans would be satisfied with when it comes to a conclusion and release it when work is finished with it. Obviously it would be priced DLC, people would honestly be crazy if they seriously expected something like this for free.

So that way, people who didn't like the ending can download a 'fixed' one, Bioware/EA get extra money from it and on top of that regain fans who threatened to boycott future Bioware products over this and those who were satisfied with the ending can choose not to download it and carry on playing the game how it is now. Everyone's happy, and I can't think of a better solution than this.

People are angry cause they shouldn't have to pay for "The Real Ending" I mean I would because I love the series no matter what. But yeah I don't think having people pay for a fixed ending is going to settle things down, constructive critism is more interesting than hearing "The End Sucked! F*** you Bioware." I mean come on.. life much? haha

I'm predicting bioware will surprise us soon though.

[bwFex]

Ahms wrote...

Mcfly616 wrote...

Haha I love how "bwFex's" post is still getting reposted.....has to be going on 50 pages now. If Bioware could see one post in this entire thread, it should bwFex. He even supports both opinions of the theories out there and how each side "generally feels" in less than a paragraph. Pretty subtle in a post that long. The guy deserves some cred for taking the words out of an untold number of peoples mouths....covers everything.

OK, I made a post in maybe page seven and couldn't check BSN for a few days. JFC, it's already almost 200 pages. Can you please repost the post you're talking about? Thanks.

It's this one:

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. 

 

[icke_vimpar]

I have to admit that I have not read through the one hundred eighty-odd pages of this topic, just a couple of posts. Also this is my first post in any BioWare forum, and I kinda expect it to get lost and go unread in the white noise that is the complaints of the disgruntled fandom. However, I feel some kind of a moral obligation to voice my opinion here, since it differs so much from that of the (apparent) majority.
For those who can speak Hungarian, here is my post about the game; the final paragraph deals with the ending. For all the others, I try to recreate it in English, for I'm almost sure I could not translate the exact wording satisfyingly.

I finished Mass Effect 3 only once so far, and that time I chose the ending labeled "synthesis". It may sound surprising, but I, in fact, liked the final minutes. It seemed... real, in the sense that I can imagine something like this happening in real life. Of course, by "something like this" I do not mean a giant space station in Earth's orbit redefining life as we know it through the galaxy. I mean that in life we often find that the goals that we were fighting for so long just turned to dust the moment we reached for them. That life is not fair. That it does not matter how much do you want something, how "right" does something seem to you, you just can't get it. There are other forces in the universe, many of them larger tha we are, and the universe itself is a morally neutral background for all our struggle, all our desires, all our decisions. Just that you (as Commander Shepard) spent the best part of the past five (three) years fighting against all odds to save the galaxy does not mean by itself you have to succeed - or fail, for all that matter. Shepard, as it turned out, fought for the chance of a choice. The Mass Effect series is a great deal about choice itself, and about free will. Your choices - Shepard's choices - shapes the universe you move in, and you have to accept the consequences of your decisions, whether you liked the choices themselves or not. And, as I wrote above, there are times in life when all your decisions become meaningless, because none of them longer matters, because the situation, the universe itself changed around you in a way that goes beyond your small affairs. You - Shepard - fought very hard just to become part of a choice, although you - they - did not know that the fight leads to this moment. Just like many times in life - again - there isn't a "right" path. There is no right choice, but you have to choose nonetheless, and that decision defines the future of everything and everyone around you.
This outcome gave me the feeling of catharsis, in the original sense: cleansing, as something was over, permanently, with no coming back, and anything that may come after must be fundamentally different.

If you got this far, thanks for reading.

[diggisaur]

@RinuCZ... I don't see how Bioware could have let the Mass Relays and the Citadel survive. If you built a weapon to destroy reaper tech, how would it utterly destroy some Reaper tech and leave others? Remember, in Mass Effect 1, that the Citadel is in fact a giant relay. ME1 stated that the Citadel was a giant trap to lure space-faring civilzations in and become completely reliant on Reaper technology. In every cycle the Citadel was always the hub and governemnt of galactic civilization. ME1 explains how the Citadel was used to wipe out the Protheans. I can see how Bioware could justify destroying the Relays and Citadel. Now the galactic species need to become self-reliant again and advanced with their own technological breakthrows. Too long were they using Reaper tech for advancement.

[Element Zero]

I'd gladly pay for alternate endings.

The idea that Bioware maliciously ruined our (really their) game is silly. They fashioned an ending that many fans don't like. It's unfortunate, but surely not their plan. Giving us more options would show their dedication to their fans.

This ending, now that we've seen behind the curtain, so to speak, was clearly intentional. Good idea? Not in most of our estimations, but this is it. Extra endings, unplanned labor and expenses, can reasonably be expected to cost us something.

[Aarkaan]

[quote]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. 


We ill see...

[Nyxia]

Thane's end. It was one of the most emotional moment in the game...
I'm so glad I kept him around.

[B1scuits]

I'll start wth the good.

Martin Sheen.

Loved the new ship layout. The gameplay was great, loved the feel of it.. except for pushing 'x' to sprint but getting glued to a wall instead from time to time. LI with Liara was cool. Kept on taking her on missions with me so I could keep her safe haha. When Mordin died I actually had to hold back the tears. I don't get emotional a lot, so that's saying something, but that really did get to me. I spent so much time in ME2 talking to him and finding out about him. Was gutted when he died, I wanted an option for Shep to go in the lift instead. Would have been a short game but at least Mordin could have gotten his sea shells.

Thanes story was good. Was also sad when he died but not as much, he died well. Like he mentioned, even being terminally ill he still stopped a peak condition assassin getting to his target. The story developed well. I let the Geth have true inteligence and also managed to save the Quarians (Although I can't stand Tali so I wouldn't have minded if she died, but I was going for the perfect ending). It didn't hit home that leigon refered to himself as 'I' until EDI mentioned it, gave me pause for thought. His death served a purpose to his people though. 

The space battles were pretty awesome, loved those. Although I didn't see any Geth ships in my final armarda even though they were war assets?? Aquiring war assets was good fun, nice to see some old faces again. 

I feel let down by the prothean expansion. I didn't really feel like I was getting value for money there. Just a (understandably) pissed off Prothean.

And now we get to the final battle...

What the hell Bio?! So I get zapped by Harbinger and he flies off. Things start to go a little bit awry from here. So i defeat the final boss (Maximum respect to Marauder Shield, he put up one hell of a fight) and head up to the Citadel.. I think.

OK, so Anderson is in the control room before me, he manages to not get vapourised by Harbinger and sneak past TIM. This doesn't make sense.
TIM is on the Citadel.. OK so we know he wasn't at his base, that's fair enough but there needs to be some explination as to how he got there. Or are we to assume that he is fully under Reaper indoctrination and they're allowing him to be there? I have respect for you for not turning TIM into some giant final boss (Reminicent of Fight Night (I think it was that one) boxing game with the ref), the final convo with him was good.

The final conversation with TIM and Anderson; that black stuff around the edges of the screen, is that TIM trying to control us or is that H? (Screw typing Harbinger all the time) I understand that if you've been reading between the lines then it seems that it's possible that Shepard has slowly been sucumbing to indoctrination.

The boy. THE BOY! I can get my head around a superior construct using an avitar to show itself to us so we  can comprehend it but why the boy? Someone we wacthed die? I'll admit that a lot of what happens points to indoctrination/dream.. If it doesn't then it points to very, very bad script writing. For example Sheps eyes turning blue if you take the control/symb options.. just like indoctrinated eyes.

I can accept that Shepard will probably die. Infact I expected it, but the death had to have meaning. I think I could be OK with Shep dying up there after blowing the device up if it wasn't then followed up with an incredibly confusing cut scene of everyone on an alien planet.

Perhaps you guys have some DLC up your sleeve which will reveal all, if so bravo. It will have added to one hell of a ride... but only if it's free! You can't expect for people to pay good money for a game only to find out that they then have to pay again to get the real ending. That's not right.

I'm not jumping on the haters band wagon here. I honestly really did enjoy the game. I expect DLC that explains if what happened was just a dream or if it was all real, but if that DLC isn't free then I'll have nothing more to do with BioWare. And that makes me all sad and teary... which is bad because nobody likes a soggy biscuits.

Modifié par B1scuits, 17 mars 2012 - 12:19 .

[DoctorCrowtgamer]

tallrickruush wrote...

Eventually, DLC will likely add just enough to allow everyone to get that target EFS number. The thing is, will any of us care to play that DLC. As much as I love every single moment of the series up until Star-boy, those final moments make it all for naught, in my estimation. The ending feels like Shepard laid down and surrendered.

If alternate endings more to my liking are offered, this will easily be my favorite game of all time.

Yeah,that is how I feel.

Hold the line people.

[LdyBelial]

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. 

 

I'm a jumpin' on the bandwagon here...  I agree wholeheartedly!  Thanks bwFex!!! 

[Cavalca]

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...