3214 réponses à ce sujet

[Ruffle]

And now we wait.

[Sovereign330]

There are things and details Bioware knows that we don't. We can only say they can't fix this if we are both on equal footing in terms of info. It's clear Bioware knows a lot more about this story than us. They wrote it. They know why it ended this way. They thought we'd understand it. We didnt so now they will clarify for us.

[ESGunslinger]

This is a very unfortunate situation. Many people are going to misinterpret this, saying it's a success for the people who want the ending changed. The people who want the ending changed have problems with core things in the ending, such as the entire scene with the Star Child. Because this is not being changed, many will not be satisfied with what BioWare does, no matter how much effort they put into it.

In short: this is NOT what many fans wanted.

[Avernius]

You can't polish a turd. What part of "Your Ending Sucks" didn't you understand, Bioware?

Ugh. Way to fail on a rare second chance.

[WhiteThunder]

Let's see what it is before we get too excited. The ending was fundamentally broken. A couple of "clarifying" cut scenes won't be able to fix that.

Even now:  Hold the Line

Modifié par WhiteThunder, 06 avril 2012 - 03:47 .

[Sovereign330]

ESGunslinger wrote...

This is a very unfortunate situation. Many people are going to misinterpret this, saying it's a success for the people who want the ending changed. The people who want the ending changed have problems with core things in the ending, such as the entire scene with the Star Child. Because this is not being changed, many will not be satisfied with what BioWare does, no matter how much effort they put into it.

In short: this is NOT what many fans wanted.

I think once fans have a 100% concrete understanding of everything like bioware does, theyll be okay. everything other than the elimination of the star child seems to be what bioware has in mind for the dlc. so majority of demands being met and the one demand not being met but instead being explained so it makes sense to the fans like it does to the developers? like i said, we dont know enough about this to determine its course. well see

[eddieoctane]

Avernius wrote...

You can't polish a turd. What part of "Your Ending Sucks" didn't you understand, Bioware?

Ugh. Way to fail on a rare second chance.

Second chance? How many outs have we given them? How many times has someone from BioWare made a statement that did nothing but condescend or dismiss the player? This is at least their 15th consequtive chance to fix things that they have blown.

[Tombfyre09]

clarifying a smelly turd just means you put your face closer to the smelly turd.


edit... in all seriousness....  I have my doubts on this simply because I still don't find the way shepard just stands there and believes what the ghost kid says to be within the context of what I've come to expect from the character I helped shape.   The choices themselves in the last moments don't reflect anything that the series had you build.   This makes it a total failure and making these points more clear isn't going to make them more valid.   

Modifié par Tombfyre09, 06 avril 2012 - 04:09 .

[pinoy_sav]

Its better than nothing. Ill just wait till they release the extended cut, its already been said that it won't be "a few cinematic sequences" by Michael Gamble, but then again he did sort of lie to us about the endings pre-release.
We shall see indeed.

[Zix13]

Eterna5 wrote...

DrowVampyre wrote...



This. It doesn't matter how much you extend, explain, or clarify crap, it's still crap.

I really, really wish I could be there at PAX tomorrow to see this storm explode.

 It's like people have ordered a roast and are calling it crap before they've even tasted it. How irrational. 

Neither, It's like people asked their roast which was served covered in dog **** to be taken back and replaced, and the server comes back after cooking it some more. 

[jinxter69]

Hey Bioware...let me CLARIFY something for you! You OBVIOUSLY do NOT get it...so I feel I MUST explain it for you.

Mass Effect - we are introduced to Commander Shepard. Someone who it either Samurai or a Ronin. He is either cultured or a barbarian. Either way, s/he is a character that WILL NEVER GIVE UP and for someone the word IMPOSSIBLE just means an opportunity to change the rules of the game. Commander Shepard IS in many ways, an Analogue of both Kirk and Picard...

Mass Effect 2 - More of what we came to love from the first game with a better game mechanic and clips for your weapons, and you COULD run out of ammo! Great steps...and the amount of complexity in the ending alone caused more discussion on my game-clans boards than ANY game before.

Mass Effect 3 - simply put, was NOT quite as good as the 2nd game, but still very fun hanging with the crew that I had come to care for very deeply.

Except for the LAST 10 Minutes.
In these Last 10 Minutes, you CAN get rid of the entire series, because although the character is still named Shepard, s/he is NOT the character I spent 100+ hours roleplaying throughout the preceding time. S/he GIVES up...even when she knows that her very actions in the first 3 games INVALIDATES EVERYTHING the God-Child uses as an argument to destroy everything, she GIVES UP and does everything this unforeseen character presents to us. The Shepard I had roleplayed WOULD have chosen something different...My Shepard would have attempted to wipe the God-Child from the face of the universe and barring this would have just left and attempted to destroy the Reapers the conventional way. S/He would NOT have GIVEN UP!

The thing guys at BumbleWare are failing to understand is that the character in these last 10 minutes is NOT who ANYONE roleplayed. This IS NOT SHEPARD!

Also, your ending CAN discard all three games, because thematically and artistically, it is DRASTICALLY different from the game we spent so many hours playing. The ending, as it stands now, DOES NOT follow what happened before it. It is as if someone is attempting to shoe-horn in what they THOUGHT would be a cool ending disregarding any story threads or plot holes that may develop.

Also, the very reason the God-Child states that he is doing what he is doing is INVALIDATED by the very actions of Shepard throughout this 3rd game. I stopped the Geth/Quarian War...creating a peace where both are working together to allow the Quarian to live suit free and rebuilding on the Home World. I also suggested to EDI to choose for herself, and to pursue Jeff as a Love Interest.

Lastly, for months prior to release THERE WERE MANY interviews with Bioware personnel stating/promising a game that was NEVER delivered. We were told about UNIQUE endings that kept in mind all the choices from ALL 3 GAMES. We were told that we would not have to suffer through an A, B, or C style of choice in our endings. <---OK, you have me on this point...you didn't give us A, B, or C...you gave us R, G or B... =/ When you give interviews, giving us a view into what we can expect, then not only NOT deliver on these 'promises' but then turn right around and hide behind the shield of 'artistic integrity' is not the way you should treat your customers.

As it stands now, any goodwill you had is far gone. The only reason you are getting any respect, is because of the fact that none of us here want to go out of our way to disrespect anyone...even a company that sees fit to call us idiots.<OK, another exaggeration, the constant reminders of the fans NEEDING clarification on implies we are idiots.

[Wowky]

Grellow wrote...

I shall reserve judgement until I see the final product.

Pretty much how I feel. It's a fairly vague announcement...it could be anything from 5 minutes of cut scenes to an overhaul of the conversation with the catalyst followed by cut scenes, or *DUN DUN DUN* Indoctrination Theory is true.

Modifié par Wowky, 06 avril 2012 - 05:20 .

[Thargorichiban]

Zix13 wrote...

Eterna5 wrote...

DrowVampyre wrote...



This. It doesn't matter how much you extend, explain, or clarify crap, it's still crap.

I really, really wish I could be there at PAX tomorrow to see this storm explode.

 It's like people have ordered a roast and are calling it crap before they've even tasted it. How irrational. 

Neither, It's like people asked their roast which was served covered in dog **** to be taken back and replaced, and the server comes back after cooking it some more. 

Haven't they just confirmed they aren't changing a darn thing about the ending?

So in reality we all have already gotten a taste of this. The only difference is that we are having a bit of extra sauce on the side. The meat is exactly the same.

[Johanna]

This is why I think it might just turn out A-OK:

It's likely that the ENTIRE writing team will be allowed to participate.
Ahem.

I choose to hope. I can't do anything else.

[Ticondurus]

pants witch wrote...

This is why I think it might just turn out A-OK:

It's likely that the ENTIRE writing team will be allowed to participate.
Ahem.

I choose to hope. I can't do anything else.

I'm optimistic as well.  Keep the faith!

[Wowky]

I hope that the DLC has a bit of dialogue choice etc in it - would be nice if what we wait for involves a bit of interaction rather than just 15 minutes of video.

But, even if it is just CGI cut scenes, if it fills the gaps, I'll be a hell of a lot happier than I was when I first finished ME3

Hopefully there is some other DLC coming too that involves gameplay - in amongst all the drama about the endings, it's easy to forget that the gameplay is super awesome and combat as Commander Shepard and buddies is HEAPS of fun. I could happily go for more of that

Modifié par Wowky, 06 avril 2012 - 06:54 .

[TheLion36]

This is really dissapointing, basically shows they either don't care or didn't understand what 90% of their fans disliked about the ending.
More clarity and closure won't solve anything about the fact that the ending is a cheap cop-out.

The fact that its free is not suprising, its a PR-stunt and is henceforth no different from providing free wallpapers. All they're trying to do is muffle all the fans who have been complaining about the ending and it has little to do about caring about the fans or their complaints.

I would have gladly payed a small fee for a DLC that would make the terrible and cheap ending be replaced with something that would actually fit in the Mass Effect universe instead of getting a free explanation of the pick-your-colour ending.

[Ahms]

Dead_Meat357 wrote...

Mass Effect: In with a Bang out with a Whimper

Why the upcoming DLC cant’ fix the ending to Mass Effect 3. 

There are a lot of opinions and thoughts about the ending of Mass Effect 3. The announcement this morning may fill some with hope, but not me. Instead I’m filled with sadness and dread at the realization that BioWare’s artistic vision is for everyone to die at the end and to leave behind a Mass Effect universe in which the galaxy would have been better off if Shepard had let Saren succeed in ME1.

I’m going to try and minimize the talk about EA commercializing the crap out of these games, being evil, or BioWare being a bunch of sellouts, or even Casey Hudson and Mac Walters going off the rails.
No, instead I’m going to make some predictions and throw out my $0.02 and say that BioWare made a lot of mistakes, backed themselves into a creative corner, pulled a BSG/Lost, and pretty much guaranteed no good return to the Mass Effect universe going forward. While there are some overlapping complaints I’ll make here addressed by others pointing out things in the indoctrination theory or just statements concerning how broken the ending is from a lot of different angles, I hope to address a couple new ones or at least things that are down played and ignored.

This is all full of spoilers. Many of you who haven’t completed the game heard the ending sucks, but I urge you to finish it and make your own conclusions. You should probably even do so before the updated ending comes out so you can make your own judgement as well as see the differences added should you replay it with the DLC.

The Ending Sucks But we Already Knew That

First, there is a lot of talk about how the ending to Mass Effect 3 sucks. It does, you’ll get no arguments from me. It’s full of plot holes, contradictions, it ends abruptly and paints your choices in a confusing light. It doesn’t have the same feel that the rest of the series has. Nothing about it is familiar and it all feels “off” and unfamiliar. Not only does it contradict the nature of the series itself, but it goes against statements made by Casey Hudson himself in interviews. (You know, about the whole A,B, and C thing not being what they were going for.) The worst part is that all your choices essentially all have the same results. I’ll say that I’ve got no clue why a low EMS results in only the destroy ending being available or why the destroy ending is the only one that allows Shepard to wake up in the rubble in London after everything goes to hell.

Implications………….unpleasant.

The Final Mission Sucks and the DLC isn’t Addressing That

But what I rarely see is talk about how the final mission, specifically Priority: Earth sucks so bad. Up until then the game is easily the best of the three in my opinion. Not only graphically or game play wise, but in the way missions and the story are handled. Plotlines from earlier installments are brought to clean and satisfying resolution. The whole game up until the Priority: Earth mission is actually a well crafted masterpiece. Excellent set pieces and backdrops, a sense of urgency, family, and team are all fostered here. I loved seeing all my favorite characters again and the interactions with them are by far the richest and most fulfilling in the whole series.

Before you can understand why the final act sucks so bad you have to understand why the first games had epic conclusions which were not only satisfying, but had you at the edge of your seat the entire time.

In the original Mass Effect, one of my favorite parts of the game is going outside the Citadel tower and making my way to the council chambers with Sovereign in the background with Geth and Krogan trying to stop me. You come face to ugly face with Saren and learn that he’s a tragic figure and not necessarily the evil man you believed him to be earlier. He shoots himself if your paragon or renegade score is high enough, and it seems like it will be the end of him. But you don’t want to ignore the body, you want to make sure it’s not a trick. And of course it doesn’t and you have to fight what Saren has truly become. A tool of Sovereign. Nothing more, nothing less. Once he’s defeated the feedback causes Sovereign to lose control of his shields, then the order is given and the combined Alliance and Citadel fleets destroy the Reaper sending pieces of it all over. The music, the dialog, the battle, the cinematics are all well done here. From Ilos on the game is all about your goals and the story. Some of the best looking and most well thought out segments of the game are in the final act.

In Mass Effect 2 one of my favorite parts of the game is assaulting the Collector base and choosing who leads the second team, who goes into the vents, and literally who will live and die. The long walk music playing in the background really adds ambience to it. I liked fighting within the biotic barrier and cutting down bad guys. While the Reaper battle itself could have been done differently and a whole lot better, all the cinematics and choices in the final act are great.

In Mass Effect 3 I dread everything after the assault on the Illusive Man's base. The Priority Earth mission just sucks on so many levels.

The Good Bye Sequence

You get to Earth and things fall apart. In fact almost everything after the attack on the Cerberus base is pretty much terrible. We get a nice fulfilling and interesting good bye to Liara, especially if you romanced her. Then you proceed and say good bye to the rest of the survivors of your teams from 1 and 2. These are a bit of a mixed bag. I found many compelling and moving, with some of them feeling a little forced and flat. I think my fondness for some characters makes some more bittersweet than others. All of them are generally pretty good but the entire sequence seems out of place. There is this calm base in the worst area of fighting in which you’ve got time to do all of this? Seems tacked on at the last minute. Though it sets a tone in which Shepard seems to lose hope. The dialog delivered lacks a certain fire after that. Shepard’s own commentary contradict his or her nature from the first two games and even the third up until Thessia.

Shepard almost seems prepared to fail. I think they were going for an effect in which you can finally see the events of all three games taking their toll on the Galaxy’s greatest hero and soldier. Depending on how you look at it, this is either well done or completely out of character. This segment is essentially the calm before the storm.
And here is the point where the train really leaves the tracks. It happens well before the games controversial and lackluster ending.
Problematic……………….

Who Needs Rails?

You gather with all your allies one last time and head to where Anderson is planning the final assault to drive the Reapers back and deliver the Crucibal. I had this silly expectation that they’d at least give us what Mass Effect 2 did and outline objectives in which we’d decide which team members did the deeds. Choosing correctly would lead to success, and choosing poorly would lead to character deaths at the very least. I was sure that we’d probably lose some no matter what being the final game and experiencing so much loss already. While it was just an action set piece, we still had an RPG element to it. In that regard Mass Effect 2 triumphed over the first game.

But sadly, in Mass Effect 3 none of that happened. We had one objective, and Shepard just picked two people to go with him or her and that’s it. All you do is fight wave, after wave, after wave of frustrating enemies. The same five to be exact. Marauders, cannibals, husks, banshees, and brutes. No where in this mess did we see Krogan protecting our flank, or Asari bombing the enemy positions. We saw no Salarian commandos blowing up Reaper assets in the background. We don’t even see the Mass Effect Allstar team which showed up to help us in our final push do anything. They fade away into the background like common soldiers. Hardly fitting or satisfying. You are told you have one objective. Reach the conduit. A Reaper destroyer comes into sour that plan. The only hope? Thanix missiles. OK, but Shepard once again has to be the one to do this. So you set out to reach the missiles and you fight the endless horde to do it.

And it is endless. In fact once you are given the go to launch, just run to the truck and do it. Ignore all the enemies at that point. They’ll disappear once you’ve launched the missiles. Yeah, that’s right. You don’t have to wait for a break in the fighting because you won’t get one.

The run to the conduit itself is almost identical to the one in Mass Effect 1, except that we don’t do it in a Mako and we have Harbinger or another Reaper shooting at us. You run in only to get shot anyway before reaching your final objective. Now again I don’t want to argue for indoctrination theory at this point. I’ll just say that the imagery gets confusing, things feel off and out of place, and everything is abrupt and just out of character for the universe. Shepard in no way seems to question the validity of what the proclaimed Reaper creator says. That last part is important. So far Shepard has never accepted anything anyone has said and went his or her own way knowing what the goal was all along and never losing sight of that objective. To do what needs to be done. Sometimes via compromised morals or an ends justifies the means stance, depending on your choices, but always in the pursuit of a noble goal that is abandoned in the final minutes. 
 
The DLC Won’t Likely Address the Citadel Content

Other plot holes aside, I’m uncertain how any of the endings themselves could be changed or have added context based on new cinematics. The choices still suck and are presented in a haphazard and akward way with no context really being given, no questions being asked, and nothing profound happening. So without interrupting before Shepard waking up and explaining how Anderson and the Illusive Man ended up there, we won’t get clarity on this at all. Maybe after the choice is made, but the choices are still presented in an amateur hour kind of way. Far sub-par to the way every other choice has been presented to us before.

This is not to say that every decision in Mass Effect can be made the first play through with an idea of what the consequences will be. I wasn’t sure what the right call to make with the Geth heretics or the with Keji’s greybox. But these choices are presented with context that is easy to follow and more importantly, allow some conjecture on your part which helps you to make a good decision. When I was told my three choices by the Catalyst and it’s some 14 lines of dialog, I really wanted to go back and have it repeat everything because I wasn’t sure I heard everything. Again it’s a huge decision but there is no context as Shepard can’t really ask any questions.

So the Reapers aren’t Sentient?

One point I fail to see get addressed in forum posts and articles is the fact that this Catalyst AI Starchild thing contradicts the idea that the Reapers are sentient on their own. Sovereign and Harbinger, as well as the unknown Reaper on Rannoch are all clearly sentient. Yet this AI Catalyst supposedly created them? How will the Crucibal force them to do anything? In just a few lines of dialog the conversations with Sovereign and Harbinger become meaningless. It diminishes the Reaper threat by making them into machines which follow the machinations of this other being we know nothing about. We just met him in the last 10 minutes.

DLC Won’t Address Shepard’s Complete Trust in the Catalyst

And if it created Reapers, you can trust him. I won’t put complete faith in someone trying to sell me a car, Shepard is distrustful of the Illusive Man who brought him/her back from the dead but this master of the Reapers is totally trust worthy. The fate of the galaxy and trillions of sentient lives are at stake and there is no reason to be sure and ask questions before you do anything.

Not only does Shepard fail to ask questions here for clarification, but Shepard really does take everything presented at face value. The catalyst AI starchild thing tells Shepard that his or her choice will destroy the mass relays. Since Shepard already blew up one, you’d think that would be a point of concern and discussion given what happened the last time. (I would imagine the Batarian legal suit would have still been pending were it not for being wiped out by the Reapers.) Shepard should have taken a lesson from James T. Kirk who never feared to ask anyone anything he wanted an answer for. Important questions which address poor or logically fallible arguments. Questions like; “What does God need with a starship?”

Often times Shepard hasn’t liked the paths laid out for him or her by others and takes new direction. This was evidenced in all three games a lot of times. Yet this attitude is suspiciously absent in the final moments of the game. Most people would have said on Manae that there was no way to get the Krogan to help the Turians but Shepard never said that. When the new Primarch asked, Shepard made it happen. The catalyst would have you believe that these three ridiculous choices are the only options you have. Why should Shepard accept that?
The Catalyst is part of the Crucibal and this is the same being who supposedly made Reapers to harvest organics every 50,000 years. Yeah, let’s go with what he says.
 
The Endings are Screwed up Before the Cinematics really Start and BioWare isn’t Addressing That

We all know the part about the Mass Relays blowing up whole star systems, stranding races in places without enough resources to survive and all that. But each ending has its own issues and its own added consequences. I will endeavor to deal with them individually and from the perspective of how the choice is presented and some of the differences vs. the others.

Control

In the control ending we are led to believe that apparently the Crucibal doesn’t have a real switch and Shepard needs to complete a circuit or something rather than get what he or she needs from the Presidium Commons market or raid the Keeper’s tool box for something which could be used as a switch. So Shepard has to grab these two glowing rods and whilst being vaporized think happy thoughts and wish the Reapers away.
The biggest issue I have with this is that the Reapers aren’t sentient or are really retarded for not doing something about a back door command signal. Essentially in 50,000+ years no one patched out this critical security flaw? And again if they were truly sentient and were able to rebel against their creators, why are they listening to this Catalyst, and again why does this device compel them to do anything? I also find it odd that the Catalyst endorses this and that Shepard’s eyes look exactly like the Illusive Man’s in the final moments just before disintegration. I’m not advocating indoctrination, but the symbolism of this can’t be ignored. We may lack context, but it’s something you should think about. Something BioWare needs to address.  Interestingly enough, the Citadel is also not destroyed in this ending as I recall. I don’t know what that means. I can only speculate.

Synthesis

I’ve often heard of this being referred to as the good ending or the best ending. In truth this is nothing of the kind. It’s essentially the ending to Star Trek the Motion Picture, but more convoluted. This isn’t a movie you really want your story to emulate. Fan fiction and non-cannon fiction basically credits this as the rise of the Borg race, despite being somewhat unlikely based on statements made in the series. This choice bugs me because it’s already what the Reapers do anyway. The catalyst confirms that’s how organics live on. As Reapers. This also forces Shepard to go back on what is said a minute earlier. “We’ll keep our form thanks.” Or something to that effect. This is a unilateral decision in which organic and inorganic fusion should be forced on all beings in the galaxy. As another person pointed out I think in one of the Youtube videos, the solution to diversity is mediocrity? Really? I can’t believe anyone supports this ending. It’s the worst.

Shepard also never asks what this will do to his or her companions and if anyone’s identity will remain intact. Could you imagine waking up and all of the sudden seeing bioluminescent circuitry all over your body. I’d probably freak out and kill myself. Especially if everyone I saw around me looked the same. So Shepard is going to make a unilateral call for the whole galaxy with no context and no questions? Please. At least My Shepard’s don’t do this. And again Shep’s eyes look like the Illusive Man’s just prior to being disintegrated.

Destroy

This is probably the least offensive ending and the most difficult to understand in some ways. The Starchild presents this ending as “oh by the way, you can destroy us if you want, but you are partly synthetic, so don’t do that.” The Starchild also adds that the Geth and EDI will be destroyed with this choice. Now this is the kind of choice that Shepard is used to making. Shepard sacrificed Batarian colonists to delay a Reaper invasion. It would also keep the Quarians, Salarians, Krogan, Asari, Hanar, Drell, Humans, and anyone else I’m missing alive. While Shepard may not like these types of decisions, I think this is the easiest one to take and the most sensible. It’s the only decision that would ensure that the Reaper menace would stay gone.

But there is a catch. If the EMS score is high enough Shepard wakes up gasping for air in a pile of rubble clearly in London. This tells you that Shepard didn’t die, and that everything above was a lie. Indoctrination theory or not, this tells you that the ending here can’t be taken at face value. In fact it brings into question all of them. Also in this ending Shepard’s eyes do not change. It is the only one where they don’t.

Cornered

Many others have outlined all the plot problems and arguments for why the ending to Mass Effect 3 sucks from a literary perspective and a plot perspective. There are tons of great videos about that out there to view on Youtube. I won’t even dive too far into the fact that the Mass Effect universe is essentially destroyed as we know it. This too has already been said many times. What I will say is that this paints the creative team into a corner. A happier ending, or an ending which left Mass Relays intact or left the Reapers OK to return down the line at least gives you options even if you never used the Reapers again as an enemy.

Semi-Optimistic Viewpoint

If we want to be optimistic about the ending, (which is hard to do given the implications of the endings) then we take believe that the Mass Relays didn’t blow up like the one in the Arrival DLC did and they explode “nicer.” Though the Normandy running from the explosion tells us that’s likely not going to work. Still, even if true at best all the races are stranded in the Sol system. Assuming you didn’t blow up the Citadel and chose the control ending, then there are some resources there, but Turian and Quarian fleets may have shortages of food and supplies. Remember they can’t eat what’s on Earth. Earth, if not totally ruined won’t have the infrastructure to support the vast ships and people that will need to most likely call Earth their home for a time. With standard FTL drives it would take some time for any of the races to make it to a nearby inhabitable system. Palaven is one of the closest planets, but it could still take decades or more to reach it. So that’s one major issue that must be dealt with.
Assuming that the Krogan, Humans, and Salarians can all get along, there will be population concerns with the Krogan now free of the genophage. Assuming they have access to females. Otherwise they’ll simply die out. Salarians and Humans would most likely end up dominating the planet in light of that. Which the humans already do, so there is that. But again even with the death tolls, the people left on the fleets will have to go somewhere and a ruined Earth supporting everyone, even with the Citadel’s assistance (assuming it didn’t blow up given your choices) may be difficult. But let’s say for the sake of argument that it can be done and the peace can be kept in the long run. Still the problem of colonizing other worlds and how to get there has to get addressed. Eventually there will be population concerns if cultural problems don’t cause open war on Earth first.

Where did the Normandy and her crew end up? Well let’s assume that Joker picked up your squad mates. Where did they go? Obviously they are in another star system, but unless Liara gets busy cranking out babies, everyone is doomed. There isn’t enough genetic diversity on the Normandy crew to create a viable colony. Since Asari don’t actually need sex as we understand it to reproduce, and use other species to randomize their genetic material it’s possible that she could create a large enough base for an Asari colony. Javik comments on genetic modification to the Asari, and it’s possible that this was a gift of their genetic manipulation so let’s be generous and say that a colony of Asari are incoming. Still it would be hundreds if not thousands of years before we could see anything space fairing again. And most likely, much of the Normandy’s regular crew died in the crash and even Liara herself could be killed long before a viable colony can be built.

In which case many of the crew will die miserable and alone. The stargazer part of the ending shows some kind of colony rose up there eventually. We don’t know how long it took or even what race they are. The fact that the voice of Buzz Aldrin can be heard tells us that the person there is a male. So it’s not likely an Asari colony. So this is yet another plot hole to deal with.

On the bright side, the Protheans created the conduit, and Matriarch Atheyta did talk about recommending the Asari build new Mass Relays indicating that this is possible. Depending on how well Thessia held out during the final stages of the Reaper invasion, in a couple hundred years or so, this might be possible. If so then we could see a new Mass Relay network form. This is of course good news and lends credence to the idea of sequels based on this series at a later, far off period.

Though from a literary standpoint they run into the same problem BioWare ran into with KOTOR. The problem is that you have to keep the technology and style cues of the existing mythology so that you get the right feel out of it. The issue with that is you have to explain technological stagnation. I don’t know what the accepted explanation of it is in Star Wars, though it seems to be at least in the novels and games that the problem is due to constant war. This is of course a sharp contradiction from reality.

Our technology surged many times in history because of war. Not in spite of it. War creates a necessity for bigger and badder weapons. It creates the need for faster propulsion, more power, long lasting provisions, new technologies for killing, detecting enemies, stealth, etc. Jet propulsion was all a result of rocketry. Again the airliners today wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for the need for higher flying bombers, and hard hitting missiles. So technology remaining stagnant as a result of war is really just not a well thought out excuse for covering the problem.

So if the story of the next Mass Effect is to take place hundreds or thousands of years from now, maybe even in another cycle, then it has to address technological stagnation. Or BioWare has to revamp everything and create new technology. At that point you might as well create a new IP and let Mass Effect die because that’s about what you’ll get in the end.
 
Negative Viewpoint

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if the relays do explode like they did in the Arrival then everyone is pretty much screwed. Even the Normandy, the fastest ship there couldn’t outrun the blast. More than likely every ship and the major inhabited star systems around the galaxy were destroyed.

Can the galaxy even survive hundreds or thousands of supernovas happening all at once? Who knows. But let’s say it can. We still have the problem of everyone dying except perhaps the Normandy crew which I addressed above. Races will go extinct. Many colonies won’t be able to sustain themselves without being able to reach major ports like the Citadel and any outlying pockets of survivors or colonies won’t have the ability to go somewhere else. Ships in Mass Effect do have FTL drives, but they only allow for movement in local clusters at best. Not all of them have inhabitable planets. Many people will run out of air or food and simply die.
Sure some life in the galaxy will survive and any pre-spaceflight populations like the Yahg may actually even flourish, but who knows whether or not they’ll ever find a solution without mass relays. Which if the relays destroyed star systems that had them, then the Asari and Prothean data most likely is lost and won’t ever lead to the construction of new relays. So what’s next? Hyperspace or Warp? Again you end up practically reinventing the entire IP. Specifically because this one revolved around the Mass Effect and the relays. So why do that?

And as I said before, the galaxy in this state isn’t worth the trouble. Shepard would have been better off grabbing all his potential love interests and creating a harem on some tropical planet and leaving the galaxy to fend for itself. At least they could have put things in motion to give the next cycle a shot at beating the Reapers. Which Liara tried to do anyway. But with all the relays destroyed, and many inhabitable worlds being gone, what’s there to save? The death toll is likely higher than it would have been had Shepard just give up earlier.

And I almost forgot. No one seems to mention this, but if the Citadel blew up and the relays didn’t destroy the Sol system, then you’ll have huge chunks of the Citadel raining down on Earth. Given the size of the thing, that’s a huge problem even for small pieces of it. The Citadel dwarfs Reapers by a massive amount. Pieces of it would almost certainly render the planet uninhabitable.

Sequels and Prequels

I’ve touched on the fact that sequels and prequels will have to deal with certain problems. A sequel will have to work within the confines of the endings of Mass Effect 3. The problems with this are harder to pin down taking the positive viewpoint but, most likely such a sequel would have to take place a few centuries after ME3. That is unless you want every planet to look like Tuchunka in ME2 and ME3 and limit yourself to a very small section of the galaxy that is reachable by standard FTL. In doing that the scale and scope of the first three games is totally lost.

So you have to take the idea of the Asari or someone else bouncing back with a new relay network. It would most likely have to take place thousands of years later to allow the Mass Effect universe to look anything like what we have seen in the earlier games. Though this will force totally new political situations, possibly new races, and of course we will lose all potential for reoccurring characters. We may be able to have one or two get frozen like Javik or something, but that’s about it.

Even if the sequel is a couple hundred years or more later, we can at least see Grunt an Liara again. But again the further you push out the timeline the more you have to adequately explain technological stagnation. If technology is simply lost and reinvented then you have to reinvent the look of everything even if it resembles what came before. So all weapon models, armor designs, and ship designs have to pretty much get thrown out. This is one thing if BioWare is going to use an updated engine and do all new graphics for the next series to target the next generation of consoles or computers.

If they are going to essentially use the framework of ME2 and ME3 with new stuff, seems like a waste in both time and money to do it. And again if you don’t nail this stuff exactly right it won’t feel like Mass Effect anymore, and you’ve hurt the fans even more than if you had let it die and gone with a new IP entirely.

Now obviously taking the more negative viewpoint and going with the galaxy exploded is even worse. This doesn’t really leave a universe you want to revisit and one you almost feel guilty in helping to create.

Prequels have their own sets of problems.

The first and foremost problem with doing a prequel is that you need a human protagonist. This limits the prequel time frame to a 30 year window, part of which had humans at war with the Turians and of course Batarians were hostile as well. This almost forces you to deal with them as enemies. The Geth are out because the Geth weren’t seen past the Veil until 2183 when Shepard found them in Mass Effect working with Saren. The Reapers weren’t known as anything other than a myth either. So even if you use them, you can only do so much story wise. The same is true of Collector’s and anyone else.

And if you confine the game to such a time period, you are basically stuck with a story that can never be as epic or as large as the current one.

Now, I know some of you are probably pissed off and wondering why I said what I said about needing a human protagonist. Many will disagree with me on this point, and while it will work with some people I don’t think the masses will like being painted into that corner as a general rule. For one thing I don’t want to play a Turian in a game where my romance options are basically Asari. Because Turian females are likely hideous and you won’t be able to identify with them. Salarian females look pretty much like the males. Krogan females? Eve tells you all you need to. So Asari it is. Maybe Drell, but I doubt I could get over the face and those weird Rosewell Gray alienesque eyes.

People tend to identify with and get more attached to protagonists they can identify with. Shepard is deeply customizable which is part of what makes the unique your own. It’s why you can identify with the character. I don’t know that the same effect can be had with a Turian. We all like Garrus, but I don’t know if I would want to play an entire series based on Turians. Non-human characters that are well liked are often anthropomorphized a great deal. Asari, Twi-Leks and any number of attractive females in games and movies are generally regarded as attractive because they still resemble humans. Their subtle differences in a lack of hair or skin color ultimately makes them exotic, and therefore desirable, but them being more or less human is a key component in making them appealing.

There is fan art out there showing nude Asari and Twi-Lek’s. Basically the science fiction genre of porn, but you won’t really find this with Turian, Salarian, or Krogan females. So not having an option for a human protagonist in the series limits them further. It may limit the ability of people to identify with the role as much. Being an RPG game primarily and a shooter second this doesn’t bode well for the future. Prequels and DLC involving other established characters take the customization out of the equation because you are again working within existing confines. So while a DLC giving us a few hours of game play showing Aria taking back Omega from Cerberus could be cool, it wouldn’t justify an entire series.

Oh wait, if the Citadel explodes then that won’t work either. She was most likely there when the thing blew up. There goes that idea.

What BioWare Failed to Understand

Now understand that BioWare’s reactions and commentary on everything is highly suspect. For one thing, BioWare hasn’t always been entirely truthful with us. The game and it’s mechanics contradict things said by Casey Hudson. So take anything they’ve said with a grain of salt. Clarification of the ending may simply be something like validating the indoctrination theory. So a simple cinematic would change our perception of the game’s current ending without them actually doing much of anything.

The main problem isn’t that we need clarity. Either the ending can be taken at face value or it can’t. Taking it at face value makes the ending depressing on multiple levels which is the reason why it’s hated.

Americans culturally speaking don’t generally like movies with sad or bad endings. There are some people that do, but as a rule the masses don’t like it. We are an optimistic people I guess. We’ve invested over 100 hours in the three games and came to know and love many of the characters and the universe. Even if Shepard had to die, we wanted a good life and a good outcome for the galaxy and our team members who stood side by side with us through the difficult times. We wanted to have the possibility to meet them again with a new character in Mass Effect 4, or to see books and movies based on their actions later on. Watching them get screwed over, blown up, turned into cyborgs, or whatever else was hard to handle.

Shepard’s death isn’t what I wanted to see, but I would have understood it if it was necessary, but Shepard needed to die preserving something that resembled the galaxy we knew. Shepards actions and death had to be worth something. The way it is now, the entire struggle is almost invalidated and it is certainly diminished. What makes these games so great is the characters and the replay value. A, B, and C variants of the same sad and crappy ending which occur regardless of your choices makes replaying the series something you don’t want to do.

The ending as it is now is painful. The last chapter in fact is painful and it isn’t bittersweet. Just bitter. Because of that the game is somewhat traumatic and not something you want to repeat.
Commercially this hurts BioWare and EA in a number of ways they probably haven’t seen coming. Not only does it sour our expectations and desires for another entry into the series, but the lack of quality in the final chapter shows us that EA’s meddling has once again destroyed a great development studio. They had things right with ME1 and ME2, then dropped the ball here.

I have no desire to buy merchandise or media involving Mass Effect because it’s nothing more than a painful reminder of ME3’s ending. All that time and emotional investment for what? A big screw you and a “Buy DLC” message at the end?

No BioWare, just no.

So while Mass Effect came in with a bang it’s certainly likely to die out with a whimper. Not because EA forced them to develop sequel after sequel until the creative keg was tapped, but rather because someone decided to confuse profound with dark and intellectual with satisfying. What we got isn’t what Shepard and the crew of the Normandy deserved, and it’s not what we as consumers were promised, nor what we deserved.

The Short Version for the ADHD

Honestly given the implications of the ending, if it's not a total rewrite it will either confirm the indoctrination theory or confirm that what we've already seen is to be taken at face value.

The latter will just make us feel worse as it will crush all hope of deeper meaning and a brighter future as a result. It will confirm the horrible fates of Shepard and the crew of the Normandy. It will most likely invalidate the entire journey and kill replay value in all three because your choices ultimately won't matter. The galaxy as it stands with the way the third game ends really isn't worth saving. One could argue that it is worse off than it would have been had the Reapers just been left to do what they do unchallenged. At least the Mass Relays and star systems would be intact. With a few well placed warnings like Liara’s time capsules, if found soon enough, there would be ample time to develop far enough to challenge the Reapers more.  

Implications.............unpleasant.

Sweet Mary, mother of Jesus, I read ALL of that! This post deserves its own thread. brb.

[Tirranek]

If they actively changed the ending, I'm pretty sure a new lot of the mostly silent majority would cry foul, and a whole new wave of criticisms would be thrown in Bioware's direction.

[bahamutomega]

Ticondurus wrote...

pants witch wrote...

This is why I think it might just turn out A-OK:

It's likely that the ENTIRE writing team will be allowed to participate.
Ahem.

I choose to hope. I can't do anything else.

I'm optimistic as well.  Keep the faith!

keep the faith AND hold the line

[Bfler]

Tirranek wrote...

If they actively changed the ending, I'm pretty sure a new lot of the mostly silent majority would cry foul, and a whole new wave of criticisms would be thrown in Bioware's direction.

You wouldn't have to download the alternative ending if you are ok with the current one. So where is the problem?

[HorusTheFalcon]

I think the DLC can be really great. Just need really good explanations (how the normandy will be save, how the fleet will move away from sol system, how the galaxy will survive to the destruction of all mass relays -> no more contact with other planets). Too bad that Star Child and mass relays explosions are not deleted

[Hy0ga]

Well...Soverign is crying in his tomb right now.

Modifié par Hy0ga, 06 avril 2012 - 08:36 .

[Johanna]

bahamutomega wrote...

Ticondurus wrote...

pants witch wrote...

This is why I think it might just turn out A-OK:

It's likely that the ENTIRE writing team will be allowed to participate.
Ahem.

I choose to hope. I can't do anything else.

I'm optimistic as well.  Keep the faith!

keep the faith AND hold the line

Yeah.  You're right.  You're absolutely right.

Holding the line.