292 réponses à ce sujet

[nitefyre410]

Alot of us have cut them slack... how much more slack needs to be cut at some point you are going to have to see say. "enough is enough" There is a 800 page ending feedback thread about needs to be fixed. These  damn endings don't need clarification, they are Narrative Incoherence - they just don't fit with rest of story. No amount of explaining is going to fix that - Bioware does not want to tell its staff they did not do on fundamental level do a good job with endings and if 800 pages of feedback is not enough... what they hell else is their left to say? Bioware has it their heads that we are the stupid ones and they are smart ones and we just too stupid to get it. That is essentially what they are saying...

Modifié par nitefyre410, 06 avril 2012 - 08:45 .

[justlogme]

 Sorry, but no. The OP is I'm sorry to say wrong. While I would like to say what the OP is it would jusrt get deleted or banned.  Doesn't matter as anyone with half a mind can see what the OP is and what his agenda is.
   In the end Bioware has stated they will not change the red, green, blue ending, and we know how that goes. This really leaves no one choice except to keep buying Bioware games with crappy endings lifted from 10 y/o games that in all seriousness a 12 y/o could come up with in 2 mins, or vote with our wallets. Bioware/EA doesn't want our money anymore (or simply believes we are sheep that will take anything we are handed and continue to come back for more.) Fortunately things ARE changing. This is the Dawn of the Kickstarter age were companies that DO care about thier players opinions and imput will make games that were formerly done by Bioware and other Big developers that have lost touch of thier fans base and gone into the art business..
   I play games to have fun not for a soul crushing kick in the nuts for "lots of speculation" if i ever feel the need to buy video game art i know where to find Bioware

Modifié par justlogme, 06 avril 2012 - 08:58 .

[KiroKatashi]

It's quite apparent that they do not want to work with us, as we are against their "artistic integrity". If they wanted to work with us, they would have said more to us than just "we're listening" (which they obviously weren't). I would love to be proven wrong, but I have run out of trust in Bioware.

[KaeserZen]

nitefyre410 wrote...

Alot of us have cut them slack... how much more slack needs to be cut at some point you are going to have to see say. "enough is enough" There is a 800 page ending feedback thread about needs to be fixed. These  damn endings don't need clarification, they are Narrative Incoherence - they just don't fit with rest of story. No amount of explaining is going to fix that - Bioware does not want to tell its staff they did not do on fundamental level do a good job with endings and if 800 pages of feedback is not enough... what they hell else is their left to say? Bioware has it their heads that we are the stupid ones and they are smart ones and we just too stupid to get it. That is essentially what they are saying...

I'm pretty sure they can tie everything all together with the clarifications, and even provide light, almost undetectable retcons to what have been said in the endings.
Especially regarding the star brat's existence.

Introducing him as a last minute god was a wrong move, but they can detail more who he is, and have him fit the rest of the series with, again, mild retcons.

[KaeserZen]

KiroKatashi wrote...

It's quite apparent that they do not want to work with us, as we are against their "artistic integrity". If they wanted to work with us, they would have said more to us than just "we're listening" (which they obviously weren't). I would love to be proven wrong, but I have run out of trust in Bioware.

And, what would have they said ?

"Working with" doesn't mean "obeying".

[Ksandor]

Jackal7713 wrote...

Sorry OP. This was the last straw. Bioware will only understand money. So many people, including myself, will take that away from them. No new games , No DLC, etc.

And this! I don't care their justifications. Artistic vision and all.. I don't like Bioware games anymore I won't buy Bioware games in future. DOT.

And many people will do the same thing as I do. I will analyze their attitude later. But I had told here that Bioware would not change the ending. I was right.

They don't because:

1) New ending costs money. Thay have to make it a paid DLC. Fans will be angry. They will think this is a ploy to force them buy the same game AGAIN. Bioware dug its own pit. They can't climb it with a paid DLC.

2) Admiting their mistake and changing the ending is DEATH SENTENCE for EA, Bioware and the whole gaming industry. When fans start to dictate the games they buy the industry will be enslaved to customers. As you know in capitalism customers are supposed to be enslaved to companies. They cannot survive the massive corporate reputation loss. So no new endings. This would also mean for them to admit that they are incompetent and fans tought them how to do it right.

3) This is a very good divide and conquer PR strategy. Many people became pro enders because of this. They promise nothing, they change nothing. They cut corners for the ending. It was too short. They marketed an incomplete game. They are correcting that. This is what it should be and I am NOT grateful for them for cleaning up their mess. 

4) The endings were contrived, inconclusive and practically destroyed Mass Effect universe. Why? To cut it short: Single Player game era is over. Massive budget SP games are not profitable. They destroy it for a MMORPG. A new universe means no backward compatibility and consistency. Besides killing people means also to be able to get rid of the expensive voice actors. Because for each new appearance their pay rise.

But for online games they made a big mistake. A very BIG mistake and they will fail because of it: Gameplay is important but Story, good script and dialog is paramount both for SP and MP games. I can play a bad gameplay game if the story is good. I don't play a good gameplay game if story is bad. For the first check Mass Effect 1, for the second check Mass Effect 3. They say that story is tangent. We design combat levels and inject story later as a secondary element. Bioware hired people like Christina Norman to do that. But a good designer is not enough. What about the good writer and good writer-designer integration? They lost their RPG expertise. You see the results.

Bioware is after FPS guys and they think that in future nobody will care about story. We showed them that this is wrong. But they don't listen. They are making big budget games. Not social media Facebook or browser games. No story is big fail. Unfortunately good story costs much because it requires a more sophisticated gameplay, sophisticated game maps and a level design. What happened to SWTOR? Bad story, good gameplay but despite my adoration for Star Wars I don't play it because it is not different then Everquest. Been there, done that. Not original, it is like Knight Online or Metin2. Despite the voice actors... 

Subscription based online gaming is at an end and they still neglect story. Consoles won't save them. You Americans and Europeans might not see this but console gaming is a niche sector. U.S., EU and Japan. That's it. There is whole world out there. And console sector deflates and don't grow, no new consoles, consoles become Internet TV decoders. EA cannot see this because they have pride, ego and invested in console gaming too much and cloud gaming comes... Just watch them for a few years. If I were them I would start to CRY now.

Of course they have ONE saving grace. You can become rich only in your home market first. U.S. is a console market so they think they are safe. They are not. Cloud gaming and mobile gaming, and social media gaming sectors are coming fast. The show must go on!

[KaeserZen]

justlogme wrote...

 Sorry, but no. The OP is I'm sorry to say wrong. While I would like to say what the OP is it would jusrt get deleted or banned.  Doesn't matter as anyone with half a mind can see what the OP is and what his agenda is.
   In the end Bioware has stated they will not change the red, green, blue ending, and we know how that goes. This really leaves no one choice except to keep buying Bioware games with crappy endings lifted from 10 y/o games that in all seriousness a 12 y/o could come up with in 2 mins, or vote with our wallets. Bioware/EA doesn't want our money anymore (or simply believes we are sheep that will take anything we are handed and continue to come back for more.) Fortunately things ARE changing. This is the Dawn of the Kickstarter age were companies that DO care about thier players opinions and imput are, will to make games that were formerly done by Bioware and other Big developers that have lost touch of thier fans base and gone into the art business..
   I play games to have fun not for a soul crushing kick in the nuts for "lots of speculation" if i ever feel the need to buy video game art i know where to find Bioware

First, thank you for requesting me to be banned. I really appreciate that
Second, aren't you a conspiracy theorist now ? What devious agenda would I have got, aside from just rallying fans who are still strong enough to hold the line, now that we have a chance to participate, thanks to our suggestions, to a better ending ?

Third, you clearly fit the profile I have described : You are only willing to look at half the possibilities regarding what they can come up with in the endings. You are only being the negative nancy, and from what you say, it looks like you think they aren't even going to add anything.
The ending is soul crushing now, because we have been led to beleive it is. On the other hand, I feel they wanted to provide a sense of hope and freedom, but they failed at delivering it. Which is why clarification and closure can help everyone, more than they seem to beleive. I would have liked a completely different new ending, like I would have liked a completely different story for ME2's main plot. But I still enjoyed this game greatly.

Fourth, I won't comment on what you do with your wallet, because it's your own decision. I can say that if their new take on the current endings isn't miraculously well written, like everything they have produced before the current ending, I won't bother taking my credit card out for anything else ME-related.

[WhitenameB]

While I really really do hope that they can deliver, I fail to see how extended version of the current ending could make things all better.

They say what lacked from the ending was the closure, but it was a lot more than just that.

Doesn't really matter what I think though... The extended cut is all we will ever get.

[save00us]

Fail_Inc wrote...

I thought BW ignored the option "work together" when they showed us they didn't care about feedback?

They will just clarify the endings so the simple minded peasants like us can understand their masterful artistic writing...

They're not adding a new room to the house, they're telling us why the bath is called a bath.

thats what we actually need answers and a closure to the the characters of the me universe.

[Sorael.A]

The time frame we have is less than you think. They say this summer but you must realize that ideas must be implemented now because of the time it takes for development. It would be best just to keep a collaborative post of ideas stickied so they can reference from it.

[realpokerjedi]

As a writer myself, I fully support and understand sticking to your creative vision.
That being said, I'm not on Bioware's side at all, in this case.
Making a story people don't like but fits good to great, with the universe you created is one thing and there is no way you should cater your vision to a matter of opinions.
As a story teller, you want to produce something that is true to the universe and have a passion about (Which Bioware didn't do). Not write for many different people and cater to as many possible.
However, using the artistic integrity defense, when it comes to plot holes, errors in lore and a attempt to produce a bad independent film ending, is a joke.
Some people didn't like Inception, I loved it and felt the ending fit perfectly.
That being said I feel Bioware attempted to pull off a Inception like ending for Mass Effect 3.
Thus allowing fans to debate about possible outcomes and leave things to the imagination.
They did this horribly, In fact it feels like they took out the last thirty minutes of "The Dark Knight" and added the last thirty minutes of the "Blair Witch Project" (Which I hated).
I guess my point is, the same creative minds behind the bulk of the game disappeared and was replaced with minds who were different and selfishly exploited the series for a ending they themselves wanted.
With no respect for the universe, lore, or players choices.
I think, what bothers me most in the process, is the people (sometimes trolls) who feel, the ending was a "thinking man's" ending or that somehow were are Micheal Bay Junkies who needed something devoid of plot, with random action and nudity to be entertained.
I'd love for these people to explain how the Mass Effect Relays being destroyed didn't wipe out every system. like in arrival. That was clearly a error in both proof reading and writing.
There is plenty of examples such as that through the game.
Now if I hadn't invested any time in the second game, I would have never noticed.
I'm guessing the bulk of the story supporters, only played three.
I guess if the free DLC explains everything well (like the mass relays), even if I though I hate the endings with the passion of ten thousand suns.
I can accept it and be okay with it.
My main issue is the plot holes and the fact it makes no sense and takes away events from the other two games.
So, I will gladly take a well explained bad ending that fits to a degree, than a bad ending that is explained poorly with glaring plot holes any professional should catch.

Modifié par realpokerjedi, 06 avril 2012 - 09:09 .

[KaeserZen]

Ksandor wrote...

4) The endings were contrived, inconclusive and practically destroyed Mass Effect universe. Why? To cut it short: Single Player game era is over. Massive budget SP games are not profitable. They destroy it for a MMORPG. A new universe means no backward compatibility and consistency. Besides killing people means also to be able to get rid of the expensive voice actors. Because for each new appearance their pay rise.

Ksandor, you put lots of work in the rest of your post, and I appreciate the effort. You make some valid points.
Although I singled out this point because I felt compelled to comment on it.


The endings were contrived, inconclusive and practically destroyed Mass Effect universe. I could not agree more. I felt like this.

With this DLC though, they have a chance to have the endings be logical, providing closure and not destroy the Mass Effect universe. Let me explain

Logical = clarification, and mild retcons to tie in to the rest of the lore.
Conclusive = Provide closure to our actions.
Not destroy the ME universe = I think they had in mind that ME3 would be the latest game in the universe's timeframe, and that they weren't bound by how far they wanted to let the story diverge. Because they would not be basing games on the ME3 endings.

That will not change. No games after ME3. The universe is changed forever, no more Reaper-induced cultural and technological evolution, everyone just does it its own way.

However, if the Extended Cut makes the current endings NOT soul crushing, and if BioWare does a miraculous job of pulling them back on the right tracks, then they would not have destroyed the franchise.
They have so many opportunities to have ME games set during or prior to the trilogy.

We have a 2 year-long blank timeframe on which they could use an MMO.

But, for that of course, they need to fix the endings with Extended Cut so that they don't destroy every fan's desire to play the franchise anymore.
For that, they need to bring a happy or bittersweet conclusion to the current endings. As I said, it's not because the Normandy is stranded on a planet that they can't be rescued.

Their job is actually simple. Remove the induction of 'Lots of Speculation' from the ending. Because otherwise, everybody will speculate, rightly must I add, that everyone is pretty much effed-up based on what we were given as food for thought.

[Xandax]

Dreogan wrote...

Please keep in mind this entire ordeal was due, in part, to broken promises and undelivered product. Bioware could promise an plot overhaul of the entire game and I wouldn't be naive enough to fall for their words again.
<snip>

This more than anything else.
Remember that each single time Bioware says something and promises something.... we know they have spun around and basically run bait n' switch on their customers to begin with.

Modifié par Xandax, 06 avril 2012 - 09:07 .

[KaeserZen]

Xandax wrote...

Dreogan wrote...

Please keep in mind this entire ordeal was due, in part, to broken promises and undelivered product. Bioware could promise an plot overhaul of the entire game and I wouldn't be naive enough to fall for their words again.
<snip>

This more than anything else.
Remember that each single time Bioware says something and promises something.... we know they have spun around and basically run bait n' switch on their customers.

Exactly, which is why I beleive they know that if they frack up Extended Cut, while they promised cloure one more time, they're pretty much done with.

Which is why I think they'll churn something great. Greater than we can expect Extended Cut to be, but probably not as great as other suggestions.

[Jim Darksworn]

Right heres the thing, no matter what they add in terms of cutscenes or dialogue the endings remain the same. It is still broken no matter how much you try to explain it.

You get to the last 20 minutes of the game and suddenly we've gone from "Must stop the Reapers" to "Decide to commit mass genocide, enslave an entire type of species, or alter every sentient species in the galaxy without their say so"

Shepard is issued these 3 choice, by a charecter we have never seen before, who is not even hinted at before those last 20 minutes. And he stands there like an idiot and takes it! does this sound familier?

"And I'm going to do what you brought me back to do. I'll fight and win this war without compromising the soul of our species! "

Even if they pad out the end with more explanations, they are still changing the point of the entire story right at the end, and destroying the protaganists spirit. Thats creative suicide.

[justlogme]

KaeserZen wrote...

justlogme wrote...

 Sorry, but no. The OP is I'm sorry to say wrong. While I would like to say what the OP is it would jusrt get deleted or banned.  Doesn't matter as anyone with half a mind can see what the OP is and what his agenda is.
   In the end Bioware has stated they will not change the red, green, blue ending, and we know how that goes. This really leaves no one choice except to keep buying Bioware games with crappy endings lifted from 10 y/o games that in all seriousness a 12 y/o could come up with in 2 mins, or vote with our wallets. Bioware/EA doesn't want our money anymore (or simply believes we are sheep that will take anything we are handed and continue to come back for more.) Fortunately things ARE changing. This is the Dawn of the Kickstarter age were companies that DO care about thier players opinions and imput are, will to make games that were formerly done by Bioware and other Big developers that have lost touch of thier fans base and gone into the art business..
   I play games to have fun not for a soul crushing kick in the nuts for "lots of speculation" if i ever feel the need to buy video game art i know where to find Bioware

First, thank you for requesting me to be banned. I really appreciate that
Second, aren't you a conspiracy theorist now ? What devious agenda would I have got, aside from just rallying fans who are still strong enough to hold the line, now that we have a chance to participate, thanks to our suggestions, to a better ending ?

Third, you clearly fit the profile I have described : You are only willing to look at half the possibilities regarding what they can come up with in the endings. You are only being the negative nancy, and from what you say, it looks like you think they aren't even going to add anything.
The ending is soul crushing now, because we have been led to beleive it is. On the other hand, I feel they wanted to provide a sense of hope and freedom, but they failed at delivering it. Which is why clarification and closure can help everyone, more than they seem to beleive. I would have liked a completely different new ending, like I would have liked a completely different story for ME2's main plot. But I still enjoyed this game greatly.

Fourth, I won't comment on what you do with your wallet, because it's your own decision. I can say that if their new take on the current endings isn't miraculously well written, like everything they have produced before the current ending, I won't bother taking my credit card out for anything else ME-related.

  Sorry you misunderstand while I have no good will to your "yes manship". it is i not you that runs the risk of being banned here for pointing it out. I never said you'd be banned that would be silly considering the work your doing for Bioware. i however mostly likely will (as was the point I was saying) 
   Your goal simply as even you have stated in so many words is to have fans except what Bioware has stated ie no change to the endings., and coloring it in the most positive light as a good thing. ie shepard dies the normandy is stranded the star-child wins

Modifié par justlogme, 06 avril 2012 - 09:16 .

[LittleTito]

This forum has already provided creative feedback by the page loads. Many a kind souls have taken it upon themselves to painstakingly categorize them into mega threads.

They want cooperation, they got it. I don't see how we can cooperate with them further. so I am going to disagree with the OP.

Still here. Still reserving judgement. Still holding the line.

[shodiswe]

If the extended cut improves the overall feel of the ending then I´m looking forward to it. Im guessing te strange part with the catalyst won't change but I'm hoping the battle up to that point will get a little bit more heart and emotion. When comparing to other missions there was something missing.

I'm hoping this will make the over all ending better even if it won't fix the weird catalyst ending with an AI that tells shepard he can kill them all and how to do it.. Doesn't make sense to me.. Hows that a solution to the catalyst's problem? that's just the beginning, none of it makes sense but if the ending pre catalyst is improved then it's worth something, might even explain some of the post catalyst stuff..

If the bad improves a little then it will take away from the part that made no sense I'll just pretend the catalyst part was so incredibly weird because there we're no witnesses to tell the story. So the Stargazer just made it up to his (kid/grandchild maybe) on the fly. And then I got a happy ending, (survival instinct).

I'm hoping something positive can come out of this.

[KaeserZen]

justlogme wrote...
  Sorry you misunderstand while I have no good will to your "yes manship". it is i not you that runs the risk of being banned here for pointing it out. I never said you'd be banned that would be silly considering the work your doing for Bioware. i however mostly likely will (as was the point I was saying) 
   Your goal simply as even you have stated in so many words is to have fans except what Bioware has stated uie no change to the endings., and coloring it in the most positive light as a good thing. ie shepard dies the normandy is stranded the star-child wins

Okay, thanks for the explanation man ! I was wondering if I got your post right

I think the words used were not very clear.

Change can mean a lot of things. I'll use the house allegory someone brought a few pages ago, because I think it's a very clear one.

Changing the home can mean a few things : You can change from one home to another. Destroy part of your home to rebuild it. Expand another room to the home.
Semantically, everything is correct. So, in a way, I do beleive they are changing the endings by building upon it.

Next, about the positive thinking. I beleive there is a lot of hope for the rest of the series :
- They wanted to stress us out with that dramatic music of when the Normandy got hit and with that sharp cut to black. Then, you have that "We made it"-like music, with Joker and everyone walking out of the ship happily in a paradisiac world.
I feel that they wanted to instil hope in us, but they were being way too metaphorical about it. Instead, most of us just saw the Normandy being stranded on a primitive jungle. And we were right to see that.
- Shepard lives in many playthroughs in the Destroy ending, and some have reported him living in the Synthesis ending.
- Mass Relays are gone, but because they were a representation of destiny imposed on us by the Reapers, it actually means that we are free of this destiny to rebuild the galaxy as we see fit. It's not clearly explained in the endings as well.

So, you see, they can go for a lot of happy closure just based on the current endings. And I hope they do.

[Foolsfolly]

Greed1914 wrote...

I feel like all of the feedback that they have received up to this point would be more than enough to figure out what to do.

And there is only so much trust in a person. Right now, I'm skeptical. I'm not totally writing it off, but I'm very skeptical, and all their talk of artistic integrity doesn't feel like a victory to me.

Especially since their vision on artistic integrity seems to be "And then all galactic civilization falls and at least the humans are brought back to the stone age."

Which they seem to think is artistic because Battlestar Galactica ended in a similar fashion and people said that show was artistic.

[a.m.p]

OP, the problem with the statement that they're sticking to their artistic vision and no new endings will be added is this: The core elements of that artistic vision make no sense. And if I understood Bioware correclty they are staying.

1) The starkid itself, an entity that appears in the last few minutes out of nowhere and arguably replaces both the protagonist and the antagonist, turning a story of a grand war for survival into a story of an omnipotent being playing with its toys.

2) synthecics vs organics. No amount of clarification can make the statement that synthetics  in the ME universe will always try to kill organics less ridiculous.

3) Shepard out of character. There will be no new ending added, therefore Shepard will not be able to tell the starkid to shove off - which was the first reaction of every second person who got to the ending, it seems.

Unless that changes, the Extended Cut will not make the ending not broken.

That said, I am not going away and giving up on Mass Effect either. I think what the Extended cut can do is salvage wthe universe itself.

Things clarifications could and should fix:

1) The disconnect with ME1. If the starkid is the citadel, why did we need Sovereign, Saren and the whole plot of ME1?

2) Why are the means to implement these options (that according to the starchild have become possible with the arrival of the crucible) installed on the citadel? Because that's where we are in that last section. On the outer surface of the citadel tower.

3) Why is Shepard getting there suddenly proof that the cycle will not work anymore? Just ignore them and continue reaping, what's the big deal?

4) For the love of god, what the hell is synthesis? Other than an unsettling metaphor that is.

5) What qualifies as synthetic life for the destroy ending other than the geth? Does it kill AI that do not have reaper code upgrades? Does it disable quarian suits with geth downloaded into them? And so on.

6) What about control? To what extent can Shepard control the reapers? Can they just order the reapres to dive into the nearest sun?

7) The teleporting characters and why the Normandy is fleeing.

8) The relay destruction not being a series of arrival-type supernovas.

9) The epilogue itself. Who survived, where are they, how are they going to rebuild? Please, let's not have a 10000 year long dark age. Please?

[KaeserZen]

Foolsfolly wrote...

Greed1914 wrote...

I feel like all of the feedback that they have received up to this point would be more than enough to figure out what to do.

And there is only so much trust in a person. Right now, I'm skeptical. I'm not totally writing it off, but I'm very skeptical, and all their talk of artistic integrity doesn't feel like a victory to me.

Especially since their vision on artistic integrity seems to be "And then all galactic civilization falls and at least the humans are brought back to the stone age."

Which they seem to think is artistic because Battlestar Galactica ended in a similar fashion and people said that show was artistic.

We don't know that this will be the case, and we have made very clear that we are not supporting such an outcome.

Before you say it is right, as with everything else regarding post-ending life, it's speculation, based on elements introduced on the ending, which are simply :
- Mass relays are gone
- And that's it.

[realpokerjedi]

This also could be Phantom Menace syndrome.
I hated it at the time, because it wasn't what I wanted it to be.
In time I learned to accept it was George Lucas's vision and who the hell am to think he shouldn't have complete freedom to do what he wants?
With HIS creation.
In fact the prequels don't connect to the original Trilogy at times, well at all.
I'm even to the point where I like Episode I.
I guess the main anger here is directed at the fact, the Mass Effect series was supposed to be your own personal movie.
With your own choices and those choices made your ending.
I'd advise, accepting everything as is (and what they do in the future) or walk away and find a fictional universe you can feel invested in again.
You can either accept it or you can't, using your energy to fight the Bioware machine, beyond voting with you wallet, is a huge waste of time and energy.
If your that upset and disappointed (trust me I think they endings sucked too) bury the franchise, get over the disappointment and move on.
Being a series you are so emotionally attached to, I understand it's hard to accept the fact it's ruined and left to rot in trash.
However there are other games out there and developers. If they don't interest you, there are other hobbies.

Modifié par realpokerjedi, 06 avril 2012 - 09:27 .

[KaeserZen]

a.m.p wrote...

OP, the problem with the statement that they're sticking to their artistic vision and no new endings will be added is this: The core elements of that artistic vision make no sense. And if I understood Bioware correclty they are staying.

1) The starkid itself, an entity that appears in the last few minutes out of nowhere and arguably replaces both the protagonist and the antagonist, turning a story of a grand war for survival into a story of an omnipotent being playing with its toys.

2) synthecics vs organics. No amount of clarification can make the statement that synthetics  in the ME universe will always try to kill organics less ridiculous.

3) Shepard out of character. There will be no new ending added, therefore Shepard will not be able to tell the starkid to shove off - which was the first reaction of every second person who got to the ending, it seems.

Unless that changes, the Extended Cut will not make the ending not broken.

That said, I am not going away and giving up on Mass Effect either. I think what the Extended cut can do is salvage wthe universe itself.

Things clarifications could and should fix:

1) The disconnect with ME1. If the starkid is the citadel, why did we need Sovereign, Saren and the whole plot of ME1?

2) Why are the means to implement these options (that according to the starchild have become possible with the arrival of the crucible) installed on the citadel? Because that's where we are in that last section. On the outer surface of the citadel tower.

3) Why is Shepard getting there suddenly proof that the cycle will not work anymore? Just ignore them and continue reaping, what's the big deal?

4) For the love of god, what the hell is synthesis? Other than an unsettling metaphor that is.

5) What qualifies as synthetic life for the destroy ending other than the geth? Does it kill AI that do not have reaper code upgrades? Does it disable quarian suits with geth downloaded into them? And so on.

6) What about control? To what extent can Shepard control the reapers? Can they just order the reapres to dive into the nearest sun?

7) The teleporting characters and why the Normandy is fleeing.

8) The relay destruction not being a series of arrival-type supernovas.

9) The epilogue itself. Who survived, where are they, how are they going to rebuild? Please, let's not have a 10000 year long dark age. Please?

I agree with everything you say. I am hopeful they can salvage the universe.

They pulled a "Torch the Franchise and Run !", but this was probably not their intention from the get go.