7052 réponses à ce sujet

[Icinix]

We didn't want a 'lost' ending -> We got a 'lost' ending.
We didn't want an ABC ending -> We got an ABC ending.
We didn't want a bespoke ending that everyone gets - > we got a bespoke ending that everyone gets.
We wanted our choices to matter in the end -> Our choices didn't matter in the end.

We wanted the games integrity to remain intact after the credits.....It wasn't.

So the ending, when released, should hopefully address all of these.....

Modifié par Icinix, 21 mars 2012 - 09:42 .

[Talonius]

I have not read the rest of this thread; these opinions are mine and represent how I feel about ME3's ending.  Please don't attempt to argue with me - I doubt very much that I'll try to keep up with this thread.  I feel sorry for the folks at Bioware who do have to, but I'm proud that Bioware is listening.

I am a long time fan of Bioware.  I was extremely disappointed wtih Dragon Age 2, but went ahead and purchased Mass Effect 3 on release day.  That is to say, I had already given Bioware the benefit of the doubt when I made the purchase.

The game is excellent.  There are many threads that are tied off throughout the game, and it was fun.  I have zero complaints regarding the game play up until the final act.  (Well, not true.  From Ashes should have been free.  DLC is cool, but in my mind From Ashes filled in a lot of relevant lore and backstory that should have made it integral into the game.  I know it was developed separately, etc., but honestly, I think it should have been included.  That is my opinion, and I don't have anything to back it up with tho. )

I am (generally) a paragon.  I did not have enough paragon points for the final conversion switch with the Illusive Man; I tried to broker peace when possible, fulfilled my word when possible, and was generally a good guy.

First is that in the battle for Earth none of your previous choices seem to matter.  Saving the Rachni Queen gets you a couple of text paragraphs in the war journal; I'd have liked to see the Rachni flying side by side with the other forces.  Or a cinematic of the Queen screaming her fury at the Reapers for what they did to her children.  Instead, we're told they're great worker bees.  That's it.  My insubordination and choice to let them live in ME2 and again in ME3 garners me a paragraph - when the race that is saved once threatened to extinguish the galaxy's organic races.

In the vein of choices not mattering:  the curing of the genophage seems to be ignored in the end chapter.  The single company you see Wrex hurling verbal insults at could be there for any reason.  There's no acknowledgement that I saved their race from extinction other than a few (non conversation dial) words from Wrex.

Choices not mattering:  the brokered peace between the Geth and Quarians follows the same vein as the Rachni.  I didn't see a single Geth on Earth; instead, they became a paragraph in the war journal.  No Quarians either; it's like it was decided that the lowest common denominator of support would be on Earth supporting the rebuff of the Reaper attacks.

Choices not mattering:  where's the Salarian Commando who promised to be at Earth with me no matter what when I retrieved the Krogan female?  Where's my final encounter and kiss with Ashley Williams, my love interest before we enter the final battle spree?  These are all things that represent choices I made in the earlier games which I would have liked to see culminate in one fashion or another.

For Commander Shepard's last run I would've expected these allies to be there, with me.  They declare their loyalty, their desire to do so, but they are nowhere to be found.  Instead, it's a human army - which is fine, it is Earth, but my purpose throughout all three games was to unite the races against their common enemy.  To represent that effort I would've thought that my final trip would've been supported by more than just me and my two choices.

All of that would not have mattered if instead those issues were covered in the ending, post Reaper saving/joining/destruction.  What I would have expected through the above would have been additional dialog giving me closure; this same dialog could have been fed to me in a cinematic along the lines of "...and this happened afterward."

As well, an ending is just that - an ending.  It should bring closure to the game, answer the necessary questions, and allow the player to be fulfilled.  The ending to ME3 only brings about more questions.  Why was the hazy dream sequence indicator (the black tentacles on the edges of the screen) on screen during the trip through the Citadel?  Was the trip to the Citadel and visit with the Catalyst real?  Was it indoctrination?  I can understand that you might want to leave some of this open so you can explore it via later games or DLC, but right now we're not given any answers to our questions.  It's not an ending - it's more of transition point to the second half of the game.

Why does Anderson die when I shot the Illusive Man before he could shoot Anderson?  Why is my pistol so super powered during the end confrontations?  Why can I refute the Catalyst's proposition that synthetic life will always destroy organic life, especially since I made the Quarians and Geth work together?  Why are the Keepers in the tunnel acting like they're typing on keyboards?  (I thought that might be proof of a hallucination, but I don't know.)  Why can I not walk away from the Catalyst and make no choice, allowing the military might I've assembled destroy the Reapers?  Why does the EMS fail to make a difference in the final battle chain?  (I tested this by having 50% war readiness, finishing the game, multiplaying until I hit 100%, then finishing the game again in an attempt to get the Shepard lives ending.)

The whole game seems to point to simply bolstering the EMS, while the end game ignores everything you did to bolster the EMS and goes with "this is how the player will be when he gets here; we'll ignore all the other variables."

Finally, the end game sequence seems to have very little bearing on the rest of the game.  There's the plot holes that a Mass Effect relay blowing up is bad (very bad!) for the local solar systems, there's the multicolored laser that is really the only definining difference in how it plays out, there's a few different textures - then the game ends with some old man (no relation to anything in our game universe) yakking at his kid followed by a bland text message that isn't even different based on what you chose to do.  I mean, the kid and grandfather aren't synthetic/organic if you went that route, the environment is purposeless, and it serves no purpose, least of all providing closure.  (Don't get me wrong, it's neat and is a good idea -- I would never insult Buzz Aldrin -- but we need more closure before that cut scene is brought on stage.)

I want to know how the fleet got home if the relays are destroyed.  I want to know whether or not the Krogan proved out the Salarian fears and began to expand, I want to know what happens to EDI and the Geth because of the ban against AIs; I want to know whether the Geth are admitted to the galaxy at large; I want to know whether EDI and Joker managed to make it work, I want to know how the long term Geth and Quarian inhabitation went, I want to know how the Hannar deal with a Prothean being amidst them.  I want to know what the Catalyst is and how the Catalyst the races created it.  I want to know how the devastation of so many organic homeworlds affected those races; I want to know whether galactic unity - something I tried to foster by rescuing the Council - is ever found; I want to know if the Krogans make Mordin a Saint or if his efforts are lost in time.  

<Edit>
Oh, yea, why is Joker and everyone on board the Normandy and running?  If they're running from an explosion from a Mass Effect relay, doesn't that lend credence to the "you just screwed the entire galaxy by blowing up every Mass Effect relay" theory?

Did Garrus and Tali make it?  Did Tali keep the rock we gave her to represent her claim to her home?
</Edit>

Some of these questions are okay if they're left open.  Unfortunately, the ending to Mass Effect 3 did nothing to cover this ground.  What impact did our choices have, mid to long term?  Heck, make it short to mid term.  Instead we're left with a one sided conversation that represents everything I've fought against (one person making a choice for the whole of reality?)  that incurs devastating results for the universe at large... and then we have no resolution to how those resulting problems were dealt with.  At all.

Please note:  I'm fine with Shepard dying.  I'd like it if him and Ashley could have some kids, but stuff happens when you're a galactic hero.  Maybe they can get some DNA scraped off the ground and use that, but... it's not the tone of the ending that I'm against.  It's not the "everything isn't bright and happy" that I'm against.  It's the lack of definitive closure on so many topics that I'm baffled at how the current ending made it past focus testing.

Even if we don't get a new official ending, can we get an official reply to some of the questions/holes that have been opened up?  And all those questions above, frustrating you because you have to track them?  They're just as frustrating to me having to ask them.  :\\

Honestly, as the ending to a game I would've accepted the current ending.  As the ending to Shepard's trilogy, I can't - thus my support for change.

<Edit>
Someone posted this and this is truly accurate, imo.  Our choices seemed to matter throughout the entire series.  Until we went up that glowing elevator - and our slate was wiped clean except for an EMS number.  The game could've ended in five minutes with that scene and the fulfillment would've been the same.
</Edit>

Thank you for reading.

Modifié par Talonius, 21 mars 2012 - 09:53 .

[pharsti]

Ok, ever since reading Mr. Muzyka's statement im starting to take this topic seriously, and ill try to put my trust once more in BW that this isnt actually a waste of time.

I completely agree with the ideia of expanding, clarifying and giving closure to the current endings.
I am not part of the people who think the ending should be changed, i disagree, on the absolute best case scenario, they should add 1 or 2 endings to it, but never change what they created.

I would however, be quite happy with simply having closure to our tale, our personal tale, all its needed is to explain some points (mostly on the Normandy really), and to give proper epilogues related to your choices and your squadmates, i do not think theres a need for me to give you examples, you have done and seen it done before (and im pretty sure theres hundreds of examples in here already XD).
Just give us something so we can see what our choices actually impacted in the galaxy. No matter if Shepard lives, or dies, i just want to know exactly what she accomplished.

The only way to get this wrong is if you make a single epilogue, please do not make a single epilogue, please take our choices into account.

Lets see if that trust is misplaced again BW. Hope not.

[taviastrife]

Here are some things that I thought were inconsistent and/or made no sense in the end:

Mainly three things bugged me. 
1) The Normandy jumping through a relay and crash landing on some unknown planet. To me, that is the one aspect that made utterly no sense, especially after my LI (Garrus, who I had taken with me on the run to the transport beam) came walking out of the ship completely unscathed. Also, I don't picture Joker coming down, picking up my teammates, and randomly deciding to flee the battle. 

2) The relays exploding. With the relays gone, it means that the alien armadas and such are stranded on Earth. That's wonderful considering that countless people will slowly starve and die. Earth can't support all those people. Wouldn't have been just as merciful to let the Reapers finish the cycle? Haha, maybe that's going overboard, but seriously! XD On the other hand, fine, have them blow up; but, I'd like to see what happens next please! Possibly see the races trying to survive and how they work together. Also, from the relay exploding in the Arrival DLC, wouldn't be realistic to think that a huge chunk of the galaxy would be destroyed? The explosions are enormous! 

3) Shepard breathing scene (which is achieved by +5000EMS or whatever and choosing to destroy the Reapers). When I saw this, I was REALLY confused. Seeing how the Citadel explodes, Shepard technically shouldn't have lived. Yet, you get this scene, with Shepard surrounded by rubble similar to where you were hit by the laser. LOL, did Shepard survive falling through a planet's atmosphere again? 

After thinking about it more now, an additional plot point which puzzled me was the Citadel being moved to Earth.  The pacing seemed off - the player is able to go on the Citadel right before the next plot mission; after the plot mission, the characters / game / pacing tried to make it seem as if a lot of time had passed and the Citadel had been moved.  It felt a little rushed and clunky.

Now, if the Indoctrination Theory is implemented into the ending somehow...

If the player chooses the Destroy Reaper ending, Shepard will eventually awaken where he/she was hit by the Reaper's laser.  The following scenes could consist of Shep (and possibly his/her LI and/or squadmate (only one can accompany him/her??)) actually going through the transport beam and finishing the job of activating the Catalyst/Crucible.

The above ending would be the good ending.  It could only be achieved with +6000 war assets and 100% Galactic Readiness.

Destroying the Reapers = Breaking indoctrination

This ending would have different variations, depending on the resources you have.
-A lot of war assets, great readiness = Shepard and LI live, second squadmate comatose, Reapers defeated
-A few war assets, decent readiness = LI dies, second squdmate dies/comatose (50-50 chance of either one), Reapers lose but with many losses
-Barely any war assets, 50% readiness = Shepard and LI both die, second squadmate dies, Reapers win

To still have that bittersweet feel of an ending, in all cases, your second squadmate would die or go comatose, so you'd have to choose wisely.


In the cases of the bottom two, not having enough war assets means not having that many ground troops.  Also, not having enough readiness means not having a lot of ships to hold off Harby's advance on the transport beam and Shepard.  Decent readiness means ships can hold off Harbinger, but not enough ground troops means medics and squads are delayed in getting to Shepard and LI (LI dies because I'm evil that way).  Barely any to no ground troops and readiness means there aren't enough ships to hold Harby off, and no ground troops to even make it to Shepard, which means that Shepard and LI both die by Harby's laser.

Controlling the Reapers = Indoctrination
Altering DNA = Indoctrination

Both can result in the cycle's downfall, or just Earth being destroyed.
-With enough war assets and readiness, ships can stop detruction of transport beam and different squad can make it to the Citadal to activate Crucible, but Shepard is lost and has to be/is killed.

I'm not advocating for a complete change of the endings; I'd like expansion and explanations.  I loved the entire ride through ME3, but the ending just doesn't add up or compare to it.

Other side suggestions:
-Journal:  the side-quest journal entries lack detail; I believe it should have an update system, such as the info in the journal updates when you acquire said item, ect.

Modifié par taviastrife, 21 mars 2012 - 11:06 .

[Dadelus24]

Bioware please read! My constructive feedback on the ending. Just 8 short points.

1. Squadmates going from right by your side to somehow teleporting instantly to the Normany is very confusing and impossible.
2. No explanation given as to why the Normany is fleeing from Earth, this again is very confusing.
3. In the pre-release info you sold the game on you specifically said the game wouldn't have an A, B or C type ending, and that is exactly what the game has, you can't really be supprised people aren't happy about this.
4. The same endings for everyone undermines every choice in the series - if it all ends up the same then why have choices at all?
5. All three ending cutscenes are virtually identical.
6. Destroying the mass relays kills most of the aliens that came to help you and strands everyone where they are - this sucks.
7. In the jungle planet cutscenes Joker doesn't seem to care that his love interest EDI is killed seconds before right in front of his - he just wanders out happily.
8. Generally it sucks to have to kill off the races that sarcrificed everything to help you - A pargon Shepard would never do this, he would find another way. I have no problem with Shepard sacrificing himself - but he wouldn't calously kill billions of individuals like this.

The rest of the game was good, but I can only assume you ran out of time or money when it came to the ending. With the greatest of sinsere respect I don't understand how no-one in Bioware raised these points during writting/production.

From a fan.

[Nefatima]

I just came across this from a friend.

This was posted by an unnamed write from Bioware:

"I have nothing to do with the ending beyond a) having argued successfully a long time ago that we needed a chance to say goodbye to our squad, having argued successfully that Cortez shouldn't automatically die in that shuttle crash, and c) having written Tali's goodbye bit, as well as a couple of the holo-goodbyes for people I wrote (Mordin, Kasumi, Jack, etc).

No other writer did, either, except for our lead. This was entirely the work of our lead and Casey himself, sitting in a room and going through draft after draft.

And honestly, it kind of shows.

Every other mission in the game had to be held up to the rest of the writing team, and the writing team then picked it apart and made suggestions and pointed out the parts that made no sense. This mission? Casey and our lead deciding that they didn't need to be peer-reviewe.d

And again, it shows.

If you'd asked me the themes of Mass Effect 3, I'd break them down as:
Galactic Alliances
Friends
Organics versus Synthetics

In my personal opinion, the first two got a perfunctory nod. We did get a goodbye to our friends, but it was in a scene that was divorced from the gameplay -- a deliberate "nothing happens here" area with one turret thrown in for no reason I really understand, except possibly to obfuscate the "nothing happens here"-ness. The best missions in our game are the ones in which the gameplay and the narrative reinforce each other. The end of the Genophage campaign exemplifies that for me -- every line of dialog is showing you both sides of the krogan, be they horrible brutes or proud warriors; the art shows both their bombed-out wasteland and the beautiful world they once had and could have again; the combat shows the terror of the Reapers as well as a blatant reminder of the rachni, which threatened the galaxy and had to be stopped by the krogan last time. Every line of code in that mission is on target with the overall message.

The endgame doesn't have that. I wanted to see banshees attacking you, and then have asari gunships zoom in and blow them away. I wanted to see a wave of rachni ravagers come around a corner only to be met by a wall of krogan roaring a battle cry. Here's the horror the Reapers inflicted upon each race, and here's the army that you, Commander Shepard, made out of every race in the galaxy to fight them.

I personally thought that the Illusive Man conversation was about twice as long as it needed to be -- something that I've been told in my peer reviews of my missions and made edits on, but again, this is a conversation no writer but the lead ever saw until it was already recorded. I did love Anderson's goodbye.

For me, Anderson's goodbye is where it ended. The stuff with the Catalyst just... You have to understand. Casey is really smart and really analytical. And the problem is that when he's not checked, he will assume that other people are like him, and will really appreciate an almost completely unemotional intellectual ending. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.

And then, just to be a dick... what was SUPPOSED to happen was that, say you picked "Destroy the Reapers". When you did that, the system was SUPPOSED to look at your score, and then you'd show a cutscene of Earth that was either:

a) Very high score: Earth obviously damaged, but woo victory
Medium score: Earth takes a bunch of damage from the Crucible activation. Like dropping a bomb on an already war-ravaged city. Uh, well, maybe not LIKE that as much as, uh, THAT.
c) Low score: Earth is a cinderblock, all life on it completely wiped out

I have NO IDEA why these different cutscenes aren't in there. As far as I know, they were never cut. Maybe they were cut for budget reasons at the last minute. I don't know. But holy crap, yeah, I can see how incredibly disappointing it'd be to hear of all the different ending possibilities and have it break down to "which color is stuff glowing?" Or maybe they ARE in, but they're too subtle to really see obvious differences, and again, that's... yeah.

Okay, that's a lot to have written for something that's gonna go away in an hour.

I still teared up at the ending myself, but really, I was tearing up for the quick flashbacks to old friends and the death of Anderson. I wasn't tearing up over making a choice that, as it turned out, didn't have enough cutscene differentiation on it.

And to be clear, I don't even really wish Shepard had gotten a ride-off-into-sunset ending. I was honestly okay with Shepard sacrificing himself. I just expected it to be for something with more obvious differentiation, and a stronger tie to the core themes -- all three of them."


Sadly I cannot find the source of this, if anyone else can I'd appreciate it.
Sure would explain a lot of things about the ending though....

I accept that Shepard died. Heck I expected it to happen, what's more heroic than an overtly noble sacrifice to save the galaxy?
It's the way he had to do it that's insulting.
The lack of closure, the unanswered issues that were presented throughout the trilogy.
The lack of knowing how it really did turn out afterwards for everyone.
Screw space magic.
I just want to see the united galactic army sharing in victory. I want to see the crew and friends that touched our lives through Commander Shepard. I want to see how they responded to the ending. 
Why can't I have had that ending?

*holding the line*

Modifié par Nefatima, 21 mars 2012 - 09:57 .

[PJ_Silver]

My feedback on the ending.

I found the ending very simple for such a magnificent game and saga, think it could be much improved. I will not say what I liked because I agree with most of what people have said, however I will say what I would have liked to see in the ending:

-More information and leadership about the entire team of characters and Normany of ME2 and ME3.
-Information about the creators of the reapers, I think is one of the ideas less exploited and of more importance.
-More importance on the decisions made in games.
-A good final showdown with a good final boss, accompanied by an epic soundtrack (i.e. Mass effect suicide mission ost)
-Much more involvement of the Herald.
-The mass effect universe must continue to exist.

Thanks for read me.

[jedsithor]

I needed to vent my feelings about this so rather than make a massive novel-length post that nobody will read on the forum, I made a novel-length post on my blog that I rarely update, that nobody even knows exists and that nobody will read. Ha.

http://bit.ly/GEU4E3

Modifié par jedsithor, 21 mars 2012 - 09:58 .

[chujwamdotego]

I’d like to kindly ask You to ADD new endings not to erase original ones.
Each and everyone of us is a sole author of its own, unique Shepard’s
story and through 3 games players developed strong attachments to the
heroes of said franchise. RPG computer games, especially created by
Bioware, are not just any form of entertainment. They differ from books
and movies, because players not only observe events but actually take
part in their creation and give desired shape to their main characters.
Many people around the world - myself included - play games to
leave everyday’s monotony and to employ imagination as therapeutic mean
to deal with unpleasant and sometimes horrible things happening in real
life.

Therefore I ask for:
1. different endings - ranging from happy to sad,
2. possibility to keep Shepard alive,
3. possibility to reunite with his LI and crew,
4. closure (in any manner Bioware decides) showing impact on ME universum that my choices made through 3 games had.

Possibility to achieve above-mentioned goals should solely rely on my paragon/renegade options and war assets without having to play multiplayer mode of ME 3.

It is truly important for me achieve those goals and I would be very grateful if that was made possible by Bioware team.

I am ready and willing to pay for DLC containing additional endings should they have above-mentioned features.

Otherwise all 3 games in ME universum do not present any replayability value for me. Having so many difficult moments in life I seek joy, hope and at least some form of happy-ending in Your games. Please be keep that in mind.
Bioware and all great people employed in development
of Mass Effect series are victims of their own success. I agree with Dr. Muzyka's statement that majority (over 99%) of 3 games is excellent. You created
something many people truly care about and You have a countless legion
of dedicated souls.

Therefore it would be something unimaginable if all of it went
to waste should You not hear to all kind request to ADD new,
(especially happy) endings.   Best regards to all at Bioware.

[Thomas Thrawn]

 Dear Bioware stuff:

I own all ME Games for both, the Xbox and for the PS3. I have 12 different Save Games on ME2 which I wanted to Play in ME3. After completing one playthrough, the motivation is just gone, because of the (Sorry) terrible end. 

Please, consider a chance. Those who want a doomsday ending can stick with what you've given us. I and I think a lot more of loyal and true ME fans, want a ending in which we can save the Universe, save oursaves and get to live happy with our Love interest. Make it hard to achieve, but please, make it at least possible. 

And I for once, would be more then willing to pay for such an Addition to the Game. 

Please, give us our ending we so much worked for, we so much want. Thank you for listening. 

Thomas

[Comguard2]

My suggestions:

Minor issue:
The journal could be optimized, very difficult to keep track of your quests

Big issue:
The ending.
The whole scene after Shepard is hit by Harbinger's beam is out of place. Personally I would like to see it replaced.
The Indoc-theory now offers Bioware the perfect possibility to keep the old endings and still add a completly new experience for those who disliked them.

The following issues should be dealt with concerning the ending:
- dialogue with Harbinger - he was introduced as Head-Reaper in ME2 and had no single line of dialogue in ME3 - that was kinda disappointing.
- no godchild - just created plenty of plotholes. If you need to have an evil mastermind let it be Harbinger, he is already introduced.
- more endings - different endings. Players expected them and were disappointed with what you delivered. Besides having a different explosion the endings are practically the same.
- more closure - give us an idea what influence our deeds had on a personal and galactic level
- more impact of player decisions: the decisions the players made had no influence on the outcome of the game. This is especially bitter for those who imported their character from ME1 to ME2 to ME3. We played our character for dozens of hours just to see that our decisions didn't matter at all. Again, this is contrary to statements from the developers.

The endings (emphasis on endingS) don't need to be just happy ones - grim ones are ok, but not everyone likes them. Give us the whole emotional spectrum.

My suggestion for a "bad" ending:

Shepard fails. Harbinger says: "You failed, Shepard." Blasts him with his canon. Reapers destroy allied flied. Earth burns. Cut to black.
Then 50.000 years later. Citadel. An ape-alien we drove over in our Mako in ME1 advanced to a space faring species (I know, such an evolutionary jump in such a short time is impossible, but, yeah) goes into the room of the Citadel council. There we see that the Yahg have become the dominant species in the universe. The spacemonkey turns out to be a scientist who tries to warn them about the reapers. They dismiss him. Outside he takes Liara's time capsule out of his pocket and we see what she thought about Shepard. Hope. End.

My suggestion for a bittersweet ending.

Modifié par Comguard2, 21 mars 2012 - 10:09 .

[TheTrueObelus]

Here are my suggestions on how to fix the whole giant plot hole of how the Citadel got to earth, how to make the Citadel defense assests worth something, and finally how to give players some closure to the stories of Bailey and all the other characters that reside on the Citadel.

1. How did the Citadel get to Earth?

During their attack on the Citadel Cerberus agents secretly undo the ancient work of the Protheans and implant a virus granting the Illusive man control of the keepers. Using the keepers the Illusive man (and the Reapers) bring the Citadel to Earth via the mass relay. This is an attempt to deny the Citadel being used with the Crucible to destroy the Reapers. This story could be relayed to Shepard by Bailey using a hacked transmitter aboard the Citadel just after the combined fleet arrives at Earth.

The starchild cannot be a part of what brought the Citadel to earth. Otherwise this undermines the need for the keepers in ME1. The starchild needs to be the Reapers last line of defense...offering false choices but having no real power. Btw in case you don't realize this it is okay not to explain how the Reapers were created or find a justification for why they do what they do. Their motives can simply be the preservation of synthetic life as the dominant force in the galaxy...

2. So what happened to everyone on the Citadel?

Bailey could go on to explain how some escaped in ships when it was learned that control of the Citadel was lost. Those who did not escape before the arms of the Citadel closed were trapped and went with the Citadel to earth.

There many have been harvested by the Reapers but still many others like Bailey are alive and fighting but still trapped. Bailey could ask for help to which Shepard would answer "I'm coming. Hang on"

3. Citadel War Assets...what was the point?

When the Citadel opens just before it fires the Crucible any survivors who can still get to ships can escape. Who and how many escape or survive would be determined by Citadel war assists. If your Citadel War assets were high enough then someone like Bailey might survive by getting to a ship. This could be true for other notable figures found on the Citadel like the council members. Perhaps if your assets were not high enough Bailey might stay behind and sacrifice himself to help the doctor and other hospital patients and refugees escape in a ship. Worst case scenerio they all die fighting together in one final last stand before the Citadel explodes. This assumes that the Citadel explodes. Some endings this might not be the case, and instead we could see a last stand where Bailey and survivors fight against and overwhelming horde or Reaper troops only to be saved at the last minute by Shepherd firing the Crucible.

Anyway just a few suggestions on how to possible fix the gaps in the story left by the current "endings"

(Note: If it was up to me I would want to offer alternative endings in addition to the current ones...like being able to avoid blowing up the Citadel/Mass Relays. I would also offer players the chance to reject the Starchild's arguments and take another route. I think the suggestions I listed above would still fit though if you added new endings.)

[harazal]

Honestly, what surprised me most of all was the lack of interaction in the ending. I'm going to break my suggestions into two broad catagories.

Firstly, the universal story, i.e. what happens on the galactic stage, and secondly, what happens on a personal level for shepard.

Firstly, on a galatic level, here's what i would have wanted:-

In the run up to re-taking earth, shepard is charged with selected what assets are going to be used.

For example:-
Entry into sol system - which fleet should lead the charge:-  
Option 1 - Earth Alliance Fleet
Option 2 - Turian Fleet
Option 3 - Quarian/Geth Fleet

The best option, and canon option would of course be up to bioware, but i'd lean towards a Turian assault. Each option has a outcome, strong victory, moderate victory, weak victory. The point here is that you will always succeed, but how you succeed will be important as i outline it later.

If you have completed all the turian quests to the optium degree (i.e. garrus has strong loyalty, adrian victus's son is respected, the krogan fight on palavan) and you've found all war assets, the turian fleet acheives a great victory.

Another example might be on earth. Before hammer, you need to assign troops to sweep reaper forces out of the way. Your options are:-

Option 1 - Earth Allaince Marines
Option 2 - Krogan
Option 3 - Geth Primes

Again, the canon choice is up to bioware, but lets say Krogan are the ideal choice. If you've cured the genophage, REALLY cured it, they become almost unstoppable, getting you a strong victory.

The point of all these choices is to reduce the time it takes you to get to citadel. The longer it takes, the more of earths populace is dying. In a real sense, we see the outcome of everychoice you make. If you made all the right choices, you've create an army that carves through the reaper forces and allows you to get to the ending with a sizable portion of earths populace intact and your forces still alive.

Shepards story
With your army having cleared the way, i would have changed nothing up to entry into the citadel. There, i would have ratcheted up the pressure. As shepard stuggles towards the beam, i'd show that the death count sky rockets as the reapers panic. Getting into the citadel, i'd force the first mega choice on shepard. With his/her LI on board the citadel, he/she has to make a choice to send the LI to do a task. Doing so will save millions of lives, but at the cost of the LI's life. Choosing not to do it can be resolved by having shepard carry out the task elsewhere, but an entire country will die for it.

Completing that task, i'd have shepard face TIM again, and leave that unchanged right the way up to the star child. I really wanted a boss fight. Nothing major, even a QTE event would have sufficed. With that epic fight out of the way, i'd want three choices.

Avoiding any story suggestions, i did expect the three choices you selected, but in a very different way.

Option 1 - Destroy the reapers and live.
Option 2 - Bond with them, allowing them to transcend and become something more than biologic or synthetic.
Option 3 - Warp the whole citadel and transport the whole reaper fleet to the very edges of existence.

The ending would then be comprised by the outcomes of the galactic and personal story. For example, lets say you made a mess of the game. You made ALL the wrong choices, and when the end comes you choose to bond with the reapers. Because it took so long to get to the reapers, and shepard is gone at the end, Earth is a broken ruin, reduced to a stone age level of existence. In the healing aftermath of the war, earth is largey forgotten for centuries, and shepard is dismissed as a mythical figure.

Lets look at from the other angle. You made every right choice, and you carved a straight line through to the reapers. You destroy them, and shepard lives. Humanity is hailed as a saviour in the galaxy, with shepard championed across the galaxy. Humanity quickly recovers, and takes its place as one of the strongest races in the galaxy.

Perhaps you've walked the middle ground. Earth is in bad shape, and missing shepard. Everyone knows the reapers aren't gone. It creates a dark atmosphere that leads to a break down in citadel space, and devolves into individual empires. The myth of shepard is used by every race as a reason to ignore work togeather.

I know this sounds complex, but nearly all the mechanics would take place off screen. They would simply require a number check. Turian forces get assigned a number. All quests complete; they score 100. The game simply compares their number against a number chart for an outcome, and assigns it. It might require a little CGI cutscene, but the mechanics should be the exact same as when you allocate team members to tasks at the end of ME2.

Thats would i imagined would have happened anyway, and would have made sense to me.

Modifié par harazal, 21 mars 2012 - 10:18 .

[cw889]

Oh, and fix the journal.

It's not streamlined; it's unhelpful.

[Durontan]

Many pages ago I added what I said should be done with ending for improvement of it aka changes and A LOT better explanation from the God-child in which players are shown that there really is no other way then the 3 given choices. Normandy scene scrape or explain the squad pick up and running.

One thing I did forget to add when I "accepted" the end choices (if it is explained well) it would be nice if Shepard could have some sort of goodbye from the galaxy and his LI. Like I said somewhere else, it can be cheesy. Before doing one of the choices (which kill Shepard) lets have Shepard say something like "This is for you LI", or take a last look at the galaxy and say it is worth it before sacrifice.

[Ona Demonie]

Hello! The following list is more of minor changes and glitch/bug fixes.

-When you talk to Liara on the Normandy for the first time, Shepard's head tends to turn to the left or right and stay there (after Glyph floats around Shepard).

-Some scenes have no lip syncing at all. Most notable: Sur'kesh mission where a salarian is talking to his omni tool and his mouth do not even open.

-Tali bug. If Shepard romances Tali and Tali commits suicide, she'll appear for the romance scene before Shepard hits the Cerberus base.

-The sound effect of the Normandy hitting a relay is really loud. Is it possible to lower the volume of it?

Thanks!

[LittleFranklin]

I'm one of the few people who thought the endings were okay, I like the grand sci-fi nature of it, and I like Shepard dying saving the galaxy, brining his/her story to a neat close. I also find the idea of going back and changing it now to be insane, I can't think of anything like that happening in any other medium before.

However I don't think it would be so bad to tweak or add bits to them so they make more sense because as many people have pointed out, the endings sometimes seemed confusing or just plain stupid. So these are some small changes I'd like to see:

- Show us why the Normandy was traveling through the mass relay. Maybe Shepard was unconcious longer that we thought and when the non-Alliance races saw that the Crucible wasn't working and/or wasn't being attacked, they began to retreat to conserve ships, with the Alliance eventully following them back to Arcturas.

- Explain why the Illusive man was there and how he got there.

- Drop the color coded explosions. The more I think about these the more they offend me. Also drop the Galaxy shot, it doesn't make sense.

- As has been pointed out, mass relay explosions are incredibly destructive, they should instead burn out and break apart (and therefore may be salvageable in the future)

- Team members that went on the final mission should really be dead.

- Show what happens to the Husks and other minions.

- Show the Geth dying in the Destruction ending or the people transforming in the synthesis ending.



And a lot more dialogue with the Catalyst explaining things, including:

- Why the mass relays must be destroyed, but not the citadel? Or maybe just don't destroy them, I can't really see any reason for it unless they are somehow inseperable from the Reapers and the Catalyst's design.

- How the synthesis option works (maybe something to do with Reaper nanites and Collector knowledge.)

- How the destruction option works, (does it destrop all computers too?)

- Why the Catalyst can't simply tell the Reapers to stop (perhaps it goes against it's programing?)

- Exactly what the control option does (does it just reset the Cycle?), and what happens to Shepard afterwards.

- More about why The Cycle is neccessary. (It shouldn't just be about synthetics but also about organic races coming to dominate / crowd out / stifle / destroy all other life.)

- What it means for a race to 'ascend'. Also maybe after the Catalyst is destroyed, the knowledge of previous cycles could be passed on somehow.

- Why the Catalyst is willing to let Shepard choose the fate of the Galaxy.

[x-Killision-X]

Hope this helps

       The one major thing I thought was missing form the final act was chioce. I mean you spent the whole game collecting War Assets and you never really get to use them. Now my idea takes a little reworking of the last level, not changing.
 
      When you start "taking back" earth the game mechanics should be simalr to
Mass Effect 2. There would be stages to the final level where you would
pick specific alliances to help in situation. For example fighting
against overwhelming ground troops you would ask Krogans to help and
suceed, asking salarians would mean failure and setback toward a darker
ending. There are multiple ways to set up scenarios throughout the
level. Another example would be fighting Harvesters, Volus Bombing Fleet
Good,  Any ground forces, Bad. (You get the Idea You don't even have to
change the level just add explosions and character sprites)

On the Beam Run you can employ something similar and this would be the
chance to have diffrent endings. Three ways it can go

*First:
you used your War Assets the wrong way and got a lot of them killed,
you would not be able to make it to the beam, get killed game over. Cue
Reaper Invasion on multi planets and the end

*Second: You did OK,
make it almost to the beam and get hit by harbinger beam. Cue Indoc
Theory (huge nod to fans here) or Flesh out each chioce to have diffrent
meaning
        1 Control - Shep wakes up as a husk killing some of
his teammates (LI if there is one) before being put down. Player has NO
control over shep. Cue first ending
      
        2 Synthesis - Wakes up partially indoc like illusive man. has chance to still win but will definately die.
     
        3 Destroy - Breaks form indoc and has a chance at best ending. Can be
50/50 because of lost time being in indoc. Cue chance at third Option but
way harded (even on easy)

*Third: You did everthing right (used
War Assets properly and have some left for the final run) and make it to the beam
(this is where you can get creative if indoc theory is in). You make it
up to the Citadel and Have to fight your way to the Control panel to
allow the Crucible to fire. Along the way you do find out what the
crucilbe
will do. Give player a chioce A) fire the crucible with existing
choices and endings (stranding the fleet but winning at a tremendous
cost) put your faith in the fleet you gathered and square off with
Harbinger (high enough EMS would be the deciding factor to
winning[ending 3] or losing[ending 1]) and hope your freinds arrive in
time to help you finish him.

The Third ending is where you can get the Epic ending (not without more
powerful losses like Mordin, Legion, and thane). If you have a high enough
EMS (6000+ would be pretty high), and If you used the War Assets properly.
Obvioulsy it should take work to get here.

Even
if Shep survives, he need to retire, settle down or be injured enough
to never fight again, PTSD, can be anything once again depending on
previous chioces reflecting Renegade and Paragon, but yes his story Arc
has to come to an end. One other quick thing. Even if Shep saves the
mass relay network, the galactic civilisation should decommision/destroy
them for being reaper tech, and build it's own later down the line. In
any future Mass Effect title (if any) this can be explained away in the
codex or simple lines of "background dialogue".

Lastly, The Harbinger fight could be similar to Saren but with The Illusive Man being controlled this time.

Anyhow this is the cliffnotes version of my idea. Please add your own ideas if you like.


this is my original thread social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10123029

Modifié par x-Killision-X, 21 mars 2012 - 10:32 .

[Menagra]

I personally would like more interaction with races, perhaps the ability to promote non-counsel races to counsel status. I also always wanted a batarian squadmate, as it is fitting in the theme about tolerance.  I would like options to marry a LI, and a super kitsche happy ending as an option. Closure on the races would be nice (with on option to have each be well off depending on your play through).  This article at gamefront does a great job of explaing why the ending caused a strong negative reaction: here. Below is my thoughts on the ending as a whole:

After hearing statements from Chris Priestly, Casey Hudson and Dr. Ray Muzyka I have noticed often that "art" is mentioned as the reasoning for the ending.

No matter your intentions, the ending created a problem where a community of people who would have argued that your games are art is now resentful that you use art as an excuse. Video Games already have to argue for the validation as an art form with established critics like Roger Ebert constantly insisting otherwise. By saying your work is art merely because you're artists implies you are Masters. The idea of the "master" is dangerous in this situation. The Masters of traditionalism were merely trained to that title (such as a Doctor in medicine) and rarely did these Masters have control over the content of their art (mostly religious subject matter). You can't be a master in that tradition without an "academy" to give you the status. So therefore if you wish to use this "my art is art because I'm an artist" argument then you must be a Master in the sense of the modernism era, which would result in you solidifying the foundation that concludes video games are not art. Modernism concludes painting and sculpture to be the superior art forms and all else to be inferior art forms (usually art forms employed by women or people of diversity). This means your strengthening the case against video games being art by insisting yourselves to be masters.

I think Bioware should consider the foundation that they use when considering the art of their games. I believe defending video games as art relates more to ceramics and textiles than any other art form.  As you model your characters and world, how does this relate to the modeling of clay throughout history in ceramics? As you create your concept drawings how does this relate to concept art in fashion? As you balance between commercialism and art, that same struggle relates to the fundamental decision of form vs. function seen in both textiles and ceramics.  Through cultural study ceramics and textiles have proven themselves to be an art form, while also being culturally diverse.

The key word in all this is "culture" and your art relies on the culture you've created around these games. The ending betrayed that culture, and therefore your argument that it is art is weakened. On a personal note I believe the "indoctrination" idea people are throwing around would solve this problem, as it would question the limits of escapism in video games (satisfy fans and is “artistic”).

Also I think all people wishing to promote video games as an art form should check out how Judy Chicago succeeded in promoting women’s craft as art to get an idea of how video games could employ similar strategies.

Modifié par infraredman, 21 mars 2012 - 10:40 .

[coolbeans]

A chance to earn a "good" ending
A chance to earna "bad" ending
Then a nice range of endings in between, shep dies in some, lives in others etc.... We can have sacrifice and whole races dying, but make it fit with the series, sheperd would not bow to the shaky shaky logic of an ai, before taking away the galaxies right to choice.
A chance for the choices we made through the games to impact the ending
Under the current ending I have no inclination whatsoever to engage with the mass effect universe again, thats no multiplayer, no story dlc set during the games and no replaying of the games.

[RinuCZ]

After giving a time to think about possible changes, I'd like to suggest other changes in order to make the game even better . I hope it's okay that they're mostly related to technical issues.

Bugs:

• Player's head got stuck in an inappropriate direction for a rest of dialog - I believe this occurs while chatting with Liara about Cerberus attacking her ship in her Normandy room, right after a player looks at a drone flying around.
• Inactive characters - When I start a different mission, the characters who wait for an info delivery are inactive during there quests Citadel: Cerberus Ciphers and Citadel: Reaper Code Fragments (Asari War Strategist).
• Inactive terminals - Terminals are inactive if I leave Citadel or start a different quest during Citadel: Hanar Diplomat.
• A crash in DLC From Ashes - Whenever a player experiences a flashback in the first lab room and HUD should appear, the game crashes. It can be prevented by hitting Esc key, for example. 

Possible improvements:

• Codex/List of missions Updates -  Brief summary can make it hard to find out where I am in a mission. Something like small updates in the style of War Asserts would help a lot.
• Opening a list of missions at top - Every time I open the list, it is opened somewhere in the middle - where were mainly inactive quests - and I have to scroll right at the top. Maybe link it to the first active missions?
• Overheating of guns - I'm not sure if I use right wording (got used to ME1) but basically sometimes a gun gets blocked and it is not possible to use it in a fight anymore. It would be welcomed to display a cooldown count-down or it is limited per a fight as default, mention it somewhere (Codex?).  
• War Assets Info - In the beginning, it can be really confusing how war assets actually work. Does the grey area mean available but not complete chances to receive war assets? Does the green area symbolize EMS? Is EMS  TMS*Readiness? It would be helpful to put an explanation somewhere in the game (Codex?).

I tried to think what made me feeling dizzy about the finale the most in order to prioritize. I suppose I'd be content as long as "Refuse the kid's offers" option is implemented with whatever consequences. It seems to me as the most important missing factor. The reaction which reflects Paragon way of playing/made choices.

I would like to see a handful number of dialogs with NPC slightly enhanced but it is hardly something what is supposed to be "fixed", so suggestions above should be complete. 

Thanks for listening to the feedback.

Modifié par RinuCZ, 21 mars 2012 - 10:53 .

[ardisian]

My thought on an alternate take on the ending

• Shepard collapses at the console on the citadel
• Show scene of the crucible firing up
• A blast of energy goes out from the citidel to the mass relays and into dark space disabling the reapers
• The Sword Fleet sweeps through blasting the reapers - scenes of the fleet destroying reapers - see the normandy leading the charge blasting reapers with its main gun
• The remnents of Hammer mop up the reaper ground forces
• Depending on how many points you have into the crucible determines if the relays are destroyed/citidel is destroyed
• Dependign on how many points you have in the fleet and hammer determines how damaged earth is
• If citidel does not blow up show the normandy crew combing the wreckage of the citadel for Shepard 
• If shepard is alive show him in the medical bay of the Normady (no hospitals functional on earth)
• if shepard is dead show a memorial for him 
• Then a slideshow for all major groups and characters in the game with a brief blurb about what happened to them - perhaps read by the VA for Liara - since she is the one keeping all of the records
• If the crucible score is low enough then show it blowing up and not effecting the reapers - show the reapers decimating the fleet and the earth a burning hulk.  Then fade to a new scene with an alien race uncovering a strange artifact that activates and shows a hologram of Liara - telling them about the reapers and how to defeat them.

I would have been happy with that.  What does everyone else think?

I would have been really happy if there had been some sort of confrontation with Harbringer  but the above would have worked.

[Menagra]

.... to be honest I also wanted this:
"The endgame doesn't have that. I wanted to see banshees attacking you, and then have asari gunships zoom in and blow them away. I wanted to see a wave of rachni ravagers come around a corner only to be met by a wall of krogan roaring a battle cry. Here's the horror the Reapers inflicted upon each race, and here's the army that you, Commander Shepard, made out of every race in the galaxy to fight them."

[PTO214]

Dear Bioware,

I am a huge fan of the series, thought each game
was better than the last and loved Mass Effect 3. That said, like many
others and Casey Hudson, I found the ending "polarizing", but sadly in a
bad way - which is a shame because the series and particularly Mass
Effect 3 was freakin' amazing up until the reaper blast and citadel
confrontation. The writing, story, everything was so emotional and well
done up until that point - I think that's why so many fans were
devastated. The game was 5-10 minutes away from being FLAWLESS, the
pinnacle of gaming.

Ideas of what I would like in the Mass Effect 3 ending:

1.)
Face off with Harbinger - he is the main controlling Reaper and
adversary in ME2 and is only mentioned by name ONCE! in ME3 by the other
reaper you kill. There needs to be an epic final battle between him and
Shepard just like the great ones on Tuchunka and Tali's homeworld.
Where was the finale battle, the final confrontation in ME3? ME1 had
Saren, ME2 had the Human Reaper, ME3 had a ghost child and pick one of 3
similar endings. That decision alone, aside from the 3 endings having
hardly any difference was a major cop-out.

The main problem is we
didn't even want or need the catalyst kid, the story didn't even
require it. We just wanted to fight Harbinger and activate the catalyst
as weapon that would destroy the Reapers. THAT'S PRETTY MUCH IT. Throw
in some Shepard closure with his crew, his love interest (if he/she
lived) and the different species you rallied and wham! Done deal.

2.)
Options where Shepard can live and not just a quick scene of him/her
taking a breath (which felt almost like an insult and an advertisement
for DLC or an incomplete product), but an epic overlooking the universe
ending with his/her love interest like a total badass a la ME1.

3.)
Ending specifics that are actually based on your renegade / paragon
level instead of war assets. We spent 3 games choosing red or blue and
in the end it means hardly anything. In fact what seems like the paragon
choice (Anderson) is actually red and the renegade choice (Illusive
Man) is blue - TOTALLY CONFUSING for an ending. I literally was second
guessing my choice as I made it and was doing a full renegade
run-through of the trilogy. How does that even happen?? there's no way I
should have been confused or second guessing my decision at the end of
the trilogy that I'd followed for 5 years.

4.) Explanation of
what happened to everyone hit by the reaper blast, how your crew
magically ended up on the Normandy when Reapers were all over and Earth,
especially by the "Earth Conduit" was covered by Reapers? Why the
Normandy is flying away through the relays instead of staying and
fighting like it did in ME1? Why is it GOING through the relays at all??

5.
Explanation of why the Keepers were around in the Citadel area with all
the dead bodies and why the Reapers were processing them but there
wasn't a WIP Human Reaper or anything (cables, tech, etc.)
Reaper-related.

7. An explanation of how The Illusive Man and
Anderson ended up on the Citadel and how Anderson came in after you but
ended up in front of you even though there's only 1 path leading to and
from the control panel.

8. Remove the Catalyst Kid completely or
go with the Indoctrination theory. It's the only thing that makes sense
of that story element. The story didn't require a Deus Ex Machina.
Harbinger is Reaper leader and main the enemy, Sovereign had explained
why the Reapers did what they did. Shepard has to stop them. No kid.

9.)
Also, the fact that I have to CONTINUOUSLY play the multiplayer to keep
my readiness level up or find every last bit of war assets in the
campaign to glimpse Shepard alive at the end is ridiculous! Keep
multiplayer and singleplayer seperate. This was a terrible decision for a
series that has been completely focused on a great single player
experience.

10.)
Remove the destruction of the Mass Effect relays. You have the entire fleet
of different species in the sol system and every ending destroys all the
mass relays. If we learned one thing from the Mass Effect 2: Arrival DLC,
it's that the destruction of the relays destroy an entire solar system - so
basically in all 3 endings of Mass Effect 3 you are DESTROYING THE
ENTIRE GALAXY, nothing would survive since every single relay
would destroy the system it's in. How did this simple concept get past
the writers, producers and creative team? Did they play the previous
games?

11.)
Show all the different species we rallied fighting on Earth. Show squad NPC
squad members battling. Give us some finality to our choices, our effort at rallying
war assets and SHOW THEM!

12.)
Why if Shepard always bested the Reapers and never believed they would win
would he/she ever listen to the Star Kid / Reapers "Creator". Again, Shepard's
decisions for his final act make so little sense for his and are completely out of
character compared to the rest of the series when he tells the Reapers off (in Paragon
and Renegade).

Modifié par PTO214, 22 mars 2012 - 07:19 .

[Menagra]

Nefatima wrote...

I just came across this from a friend.

This was posted by an unnamed write from Bioware:

"I have nothing to do with the ending beyond a) having argued successfully a long time ago that we needed a chance to say goodbye to our squad, having argued successfully that Cortez shouldn't automatically die in that shuttle crash, and c) having written Tali's goodbye bit, as well as a couple of the holo-goodbyes for people I wrote (Mordin, Kasumi, Jack, etc).

No other writer did, either, except for our lead. This was entirely the work of our lead and Casey himself, sitting in a room and going through draft after draft.

And honestly, it kind of shows.

Every other mission in the game had to be held up to the rest of the writing team, and the writing team then picked it apart and made suggestions and pointed out the parts that made no sense. This mission? Casey and our lead deciding that they didn't need to be peer-reviewe.d

And again, it shows.

If you'd asked me the themes of Mass Effect 3, I'd break them down as:
Galactic Alliances
Friends
Organics versus Synthetics

In my personal opinion, the first two got a perfunctory nod. We did get a goodbye to our friends, but it was in a scene that was divorced from the gameplay -- a deliberate "nothing happens here" area with one turret thrown in for no reason I really understand, except possibly to obfuscate the "nothing happens here"-ness. The best missions in our game are the ones in which the gameplay and the narrative reinforce each other. The end of the Genophage campaign exemplifies that for me -- every line of dialog is showing you both sides of the krogan, be they horrible brutes or proud warriors; the art shows both their bombed-out wasteland and the beautiful world they once had and could have again; the combat shows the terror of the Reapers as well as a blatant reminder of the rachni, which threatened the galaxy and had to be stopped by the krogan last time. Every line of code in that mission is on target with the overall message.

The endgame doesn't have that. I wanted to see banshees attacking you, and then have asari gunships zoom in and blow them away. I wanted to see a wave of rachni ravagers come around a corner only to be met by a wall of krogan roaring a battle cry. Here's the horror the Reapers inflicted upon each race, and here's the army that you, Commander Shepard, made out of every race in the galaxy to fight them.

I personally thought that the Illusive Man conversation was about twice as long as it needed to be -- something that I've been told in my peer reviews of my missions and made edits on, but again, this is a conversation no writer but the lead ever saw until it was already recorded. I did love Anderson's goodbye.

For me, Anderson's goodbye is where it ended. The stuff with the Catalyst just... You have to understand. Casey is really smart and really analytical. And the problem is that when he's not checked, he will assume that other people are like him, and will really appreciate an almost completely unemotional intellectual ending. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it.

And then, just to be a dick... what was SUPPOSED to happen was that, say you picked "Destroy the Reapers". When you did that, the system was SUPPOSED to look at your score, and then you'd show a cutscene of Earth that was either:

a) Very high score: Earth obviously damaged, but woo victory
Medium score: Earth takes a bunch of damage from the Crucible activation. Like dropping a bomb on an already war-ravaged city. Uh, well, maybe not LIKE that as much as, uh, THAT.
c) Low score: Earth is a cinderblock, all life on it completely wiped out

I have NO IDEA why these different cutscenes aren't in there. As far as I know, they were never cut. Maybe they were cut for budget reasons at the last minute. I don't know. But holy crap, yeah, I can see how incredibly disappointing it'd be to hear of all the different ending possibilities and have it break down to "which color is stuff glowing?" Or maybe they ARE in, but they're too subtle to really see obvious differences, and again, that's... yeah.

Okay, that's a lot to have written for something that's gonna go away in an hour.

I still teared up at the ending myself, but really, I was tearing up for the quick flashbacks to old friends and the death of Anderson. I wasn't tearing up over making a choice that, as it turned out, didn't have enough cutscene differentiation on it.

And to be clear, I don't even really wish Shepard had gotten a ride-off-into-sunset ending. I was honestly okay with Shepard sacrificing himself. I just expected it to be for something with more obvious differentiation, and a stronger tie to the core themes -- all three of them."


Sadly I cannot find the source of this, if anyone else can I'd appreciate it.
Sure would explain a lot of things about the ending though....

I accept that Shepard died. Heck I expected it to happen, what's more heroic than an overtly noble sacrifice to save the galaxy?
It's the way he had to do it that's insulting.
The lack of closure, the unanswered issues that were presented throughout the trilogy.
The lack of knowing how it really did turn out afterwards for everyone.
Screw space magic.
I just want to see the united galactic army sharing in victory. I want to see the crew and friends that touched our lives through Commander Shepard. I want to see how they responded to the ending. 
Why can't I have had that ending?

*holding the line*

This whole feedback is amazing. It really makes me think they just made the ending they wanted without considering anyone else---be it peer writers or the fans.