221 réponses à ce sujet

[Conniving_Eagle]

I find the song 'An End Once and For All' a very good analogy for the series.(Listen to it here - www.youtube.com/watch)

The song is absolutely beuatiful and emotional, I think a lot of people can say it is one of the most touching pieces they have ever heard. But then you get to the end of the song, and it just abruptly stops, in a surprising way. The end of it is really anticlimactic and doesn't make any sense to belong with the rest of the song.

[mwags85]

kyban wrote...

Conniving_Eagle wrote...


Here's how it should have played out:

The Catalyst should have simply been a necessary component of the Crucible, and the Crucible should not have been a magical space canon, it should have been a device that would be used to weaken the Reapers, not destroy them at 'the push of the button' (I believe one of the developers specifically said that there wouldn't be a 'Reaper off switch'). According to the game, the Crucible was built by all the previous cycles, and each had added something to it. What if the Crucible was a device that sent a pulse through the galaxy that would disable the Reapers' kinetic barriers. Perhaps the previous cycles had contributed to it by adding Reaper code and tech salvaged from those that they managed to kill conventionally, so that the Crucible would be able to send a pulse throughout the galaxy strong enough to detect the Reapers and hinder them. If this were the case, then the war assets we spent 30 hours collecting would actually mean something. EMS would actually matter. After using the Crucible, if your EMS is too low, the Reapers take losses, but they manage to wipe out the galaxy's forces, and the cycle continues. If your EMS is moderate, the Reapers take heavy casualties, the galaxy's forces are annihilated, but the Reapers are to weak to continue the cycle, they flee the milky for a very long time, giving the galaxy time to rebuild. If your EMS is very high, let's say +6,000; the Reapers are completely destroyed and the galaxy's forces take heavy losses, but the dreadful cycle of genocide has finally been broken, forever.

But we want to seet it happen in front of our eyes, we want to see our war assets fighting (an epic final battle with Harbinger would also be very nice). We want to see the fleet of council forces going toe to toe with the Reaper fleet, in an incredible Star warsesque clash. We want to see the entire Geth Armada come out of FTL, flanking the Reapers and obliterating several capital ships trying their to take down the Destiny Ascenscion, and saving it. We want to see Quarian commanders suicide crashing their burning ships into the Reapers, in a last desperate attempt to finish off the enemy, Keelah Se'lai!!! We want to see Turian fighters, ruthlessly rushing into the fray, dropping nuclear ordinance on capital ships.

Not just in space, we want to see this epic battle unfold on Earth. We want to see tens of thousands of Rachni soldiers swarming a Reaper Destroyer as it helplessly struggles to survive. We want to see Jack and her biotic squad shielding an anti-air outpost from an onslaught of Ravager artillery, so that the outpost can gun down several Harvesters and watch them give out one last guttural scream as they plunge to their deaths. We want to see Grunt charge at a Brute, shouting "I AM KROGAN!!!" as he single-handedly wrestles it to the ground and curb stomps its face into the concrete. We want to see an army of husks rushing a group of powerless Alliance marines who are being overwhelmed. As the marines close their eyes, preparing for the worst, the husks are gunned down by a platoon of Geth Primes. We want to see Liara fighting off multiple Marauders and get saved by a miracle sniper shot from Garrus. We want to see Vega and Ashley/Kaiden back to back, firing off at Cannibals from 360 degrees. We want to see Elcor Tanks relentlessly firing down upon Reapers and decimating them. We want to see Wrex and Wreav taking cover from on-going fire in a trench, then curtly nodding to eachother as they go over the top and lead a battalion of Krogan shocktroopers in a bloodrage battle charge.

I think you get the point. There's a lot we want to see. But we want to see an amazing cinematic battle take place before our eyes, one that will be talked about and lauded for years to come, all while playing to the glorious sound of www.youtube.com/watch.

Hell, it looks pretty good when done in this video - www.youtube.com/watch

We want pay off. We want to have the same feeling that we did when we watched that awe-inspiring launch trailer (). The one that made us say "This isn't just going to be an incredible game, this is going to be an incredible experience!"

Conclusion

In the end, you can only polish a piece of **** so much, it will still be a piece of ****. That is exactly what Extended Cut did, it added clarity with a few slides and a 30-line monologue from three voice actors (I know EC added more than that but that's the gist of it). A Mass Effect fan on YouTube made a better ending in a day than what Bioware did in over three months, simply by taking out the conversation with the Catalyst and the Crucible's space magic. If I had to rate Extended Cut, I would give it a 4/10, or a D+. Is Mass Effect a D+ game? No, not by a long shot, looking at the other 99% of the trilogy is indicative of the contrary. Bioware could have made a better ending in their sleep. CASEY AND MAC could have written a better ending if they weren't pursuing some far-fetched artistic vision for a game with so much potential.



Thanks for reading and responding!

Just finished reading your whole post (wanted to write down a thought)


I agree with you on every point, and the part I bolded is what exactly should have happened. The priority Earth mission should have been much bigger, more emotional, and more bad ass.

I give ME3 with the EC a 6/10. it would have been a perfect 10, if not for those last few minutes you talk about...
To this day I can't understand... How ME2's ending was so masterfully done, every decision, every squadmate, mattered. You decisions mattered. It was so intense, and you could have lost, it could have failed. But you take out what you put into it, and ME3 you did Not  take out what was put into it. Not by an inch, not by a mile, not by a parsec.

Thanks for sharing OP. Some of us here do understand where you're coming from.

Love this!!! The bolded text is exactly what I would have liked to see!!!  Bioware, you epically failed!!

Modifié par mwags85, 15 juillet 2012 - 05:11 .

[Oransel]

bad game is bad

[Arathyl]

Don't worry Eagle, i feel the same way about the characters. if i could swap my life for one in ME i would!

your arguments are spot-on! i didn't hate the endings tho, but i agree that it should've been better, much better. i really liked your idea of how the EMS would affect fighting the reapers once the curcible's been activated.

just curious though, what would you think if the indocrination theories are correct? i personally think the IT's the only way to save the story of the game... that shepard wakes up and the story continues as you described it should have. Then everything is still open for new story development. if the IT is true, i think ME could be one of the greatest games ever made. but then again, how do you fit something like that into a DLC =/

if there's hope for ME, then i don't see it.

[Marauder Shieldz]

I agree completely OP. Well done. The last 10 minutes of ME3 pretty much made everything before it mean nothing, and ruined the series.

[3DandBeyond]

OP,
I love your post. Exactly what I think as well.

I actually almost believe it's come down to this for me. These forums are my support group. I know this is a game, but it had meaning. It was meant to-the characters were meant to. We cared.
It's like this:
Hi my name is Dee,
I have ME2 and 3 for the PS3. I got ME1 for the PC first and was sad I couldn't play all 3 games as one long game-crappy PC.

I bought an xbox360 and a well-meaning relative got me all 3 games for it, but I already had seen what I could not unsee-the endings to ME3.

I came here because no one could understand why this all mattered and I had no one to discuss it with. My friends and relatives had no interest in playing it especially after hearing from other sources just how bad it was. I never lost track of this being a game, but again it did matter.

I too wanted a game that had endings that evolved out of my choices and that would be what the trailers said and what BW promised. I don't believe they understand that the endings and their refusal to keep promises are part of the same dilemma. They lack morals.

I don't like my games like that and I don't pay money to companies that don't understand that.

[thewarden500]

Love it, OP, well said.

I agree with your points and I feel the same way about many things, especially how bonded I've become with my squadmates (from all three games) and LIs (multiple playthroughs, my Sheps never cheated). I picked destroy for my pre-EC ending because I felt that destroying the Reapers is what Shepard had set out to do since the first game and because I meta-gamed and I knew Shep would survive this one. After that I didn't touched single player until EC was released. You're not the only one who checked the forums everyday, I tried to find and grasps at any hope, real or false, that I can. I ranted to my friends who did played all the ME games but I suppose didn't care all that much and I know complaining on the interwebz is useless. I was just so mad. Mad that the everybody is stuck at where they are when the Crucible fired, mad that the Normandy's crew must live out the rest of their days on some random planet, mad that Joker ran for no apparent reason, mad that the war ended on the Reaper's terms, not Shepard's.
I was encouraged by the news of the EC and even before I replayed the game, I watched all the EC endings on YouTube. It was good enough for me to replay it. Personally, I feel that sure, EC may have been polished turd but at least BioWare is doing something about it (kudos to BioWare, btw) and I can actually tolerate the ending now. I know the Mass Effect trilogy would not get a rainbows and unicorns ending but come on, the original endings just screw over everybody Shepard fought for. With the EC, it's not such a stretch for my imagination to fill in the details the endings didn't cover.

As for my choice of Destroy, I chose it because Synthesis practically amounts to the Reapers winning forever and using Reaper tech to achieve a goal, something that Shepard and co. fought against the entire time, I also feel that one person shouldn't be making that kind of decision for everybody. Control is my runner-up ending but how long can the new Shepard/Catalyst AI stay true to his noble goals (Assuming Shep is Paragon)? Also, the Reapers would still be around, I don't like that. I have to sacrifice EDI and the geth, a character and a race I've became fond of, in Destroy but on the bright side, everything can be rebuilt, the Reapers are done, and Shepard gets reunited with his crew and LI. As one turian said, "Victory at any cost."

I still hate how Shepard was ultimately at the mercy of the Catalyst (never liked the Catalyst, so many things I disagree with) but the writes aren't going to budge on that and with the addition of EC, I'm okay with that. I would have love to see my War Assets play a bigger role in the final battle but I don't mind.
Lastly, congrats on finding the courage to be vulnerable on the interwebz, it's hard enough to open up to people you know, not to mention people you don't know. I appreciated that.

P.S. the new 'An End Once And For All' is way better and fits how I presently feel about the Mass Effect trilogy 

Edit: added spaces for ease of reading

Modifié par thewarden500, 28 juillet 2012 - 04:41 .

[Conniving_Eagle]

Arathyl wrote...

Don't worry Eagle, i feel the same way about the characters. if i could swap my life for one in ME i would!

your arguments are spot-on! i didn't hate the endings tho, but i agree that it should've been better, much better. i really liked your idea of how the EMS would affect fighting the reapers once the curcible's been activated.

just curious though, what would you think if the indocrination theories are correct? i personally think the IT's the only way to save the story of the game... that shepard wakes up and the story continues as you described it should have. Then everything is still open for new story development. if the IT is true, i think ME could be one of the greatest games ever made. but then again, how do you fit something like that into a DLC =/

if there's hope for ME, then i don't see it.

I doubt IT is true. Bioware want everyone to headcanon the endings at this point. And from Bioware's perspective, not confirming nor denying IT is a smart choice. By doing so, it gives a portion of the fanbase a reason to justify the game's plotholes, while admiring the writers for their supposed cleverness.

[BD Manchild]

I agree completely with the OP. I agree with your analysis of the endings and I agree with how the ending should have played out, with EMS actually meaning something. Instead, Bioware succeeded in undoing five years of goodwill and over 100 hours of gameplay in the space of ten minutes. I try to think of all the good times, all the awesome moments that came before, but sadly my one overriding impression of the series is now that ending, and all of the wasted potential. That's how badly Bioware messed up, the ending is so terrible that it actually overrides all my good memories of the series up to that point. I wish I was exaggerating.

Modifié par BD Manchild, 28 juillet 2012 - 04:32 .

[DuffyMJ]

Conniving_Eagle wrote...

I find the song 'An End Once and For All' a very good analogy for the series.(Listen to it here - www.youtube.com/watch)

The song is absolutely beuatiful and emotional, I think a lot of people can say it is one of the most touching pieces they have ever heard. But then you get to the end of the song, and it just abruptly stops, in a surprising way. The end of it is really anticlimactic and doesn't make any sense to belong with the rest of the song.

I agree 100%, the music really reflects upon this game perfectly.  That song is very haunting, mysterious, hopeful... Then just ends!! The extended cut version of it link: , coincidentally, polishes it and lengthens it, but still doesn't fix the end!!!

[Lieber]

I feel so attached to the universe of Mass Effect and the Shepard Trilogy characters. But when the ending came (and I knew what was going to happen so I was prepared), I just chose and watched everything unravel.
The original one was terrible but the thought of the Extended Cut and it's content fulfilled it's promise. Provide closure. And I thought my Destroy Ending was not so bad but I still feel like I have a cryo round in my heart when I go to the Citadel in ME1 and ME3, when listening to the Soundtrack or even watching cutscenes of the game. For me, it didn't end how I wanted but it ended.
I will still buy Mass Effect 3 content and future games, but this experience has been truly "traumatizing" for ME fans all over the world. In short: I agree with you OP, on most parts.

[Eterna]

EC was fine, the endings are more than valid now. Stop being self entitled whiners.

[Galbrant]

Well said OP, I found it very disheartened  to think the the Bioware Devs honestly believe that most of us would be content with garbage.

[krasnoarmeets]

chemiclord wrote...

Here's the problem with the argument that Geth/Quarian peace means the catalyst is wrong.

The statements are not ones inherently in conflict. They do not contradict each other.

Shepard demonstrates "Peace is possible." The Catalyst says "War is inevitable." Both can be correct, because the statements actually are NOT in conflict. One does not naturally preclude the other.

Picture a light switch. Person A says, "The switch is flipped to ON." Person B says, "Eventually, the switch will be flipped to OFF." Both people are correct, because they actually are not making two contradictory claims.

Current peace between Geth and Quarians does not, in and of itself, prove the Catalyst's claim incorrect.

Anyway... that's the only thing that really stood out to me as logically inconsistent, OP. Good work otherwise.

I'd just like to point out the inconsistency  in your argument here.
Inevitable means unavoidable. Proving that peace is possible, however, means that war is avoidable. Proving that war is avoidable, can be prevented/averted proves at the same time that it is not unavoidable and therefore not inevitable. I'm sorry but these adjectives are not ambiguous in their meaning. They are absolutes. If you want something open to interpretation use another adjective.

[LinksOcarina]

krasnoarmeets wrote...

chemiclord wrote...

Here's the problem with the argument that Geth/Quarian peace means the catalyst is wrong.

The statements are not ones inherently in conflict. They do not contradict each other.

Shepard demonstrates "Peace is possible." The Catalyst says "War is inevitable." Both can be correct, because the statements actually are NOT in conflict. One does not naturally preclude the other.

Picture a light switch. Person A says, "The switch is flipped to ON." Person B says, "Eventually, the switch will be flipped to OFF." Both people are correct, because they actually are not making two contradictory claims.

Current peace between Geth and Quarians does not, in and of itself, prove the Catalyst's claim incorrect.

Anyway... that's the only thing that really stood out to me as logically inconsistent, OP. Good work otherwise.

I'd just like to point out the inconsistency  in your argument here.
Inevitable means unavoidable. Proving that peace is possible, however, means that war is avoidable. Proving that war is avoidable, can be prevented/averted proves at the same time that it is not unavoidable and therefore not inevitable. I'm sorry but these adjectives are not ambiguous in their meaning. They are absolutes. If you want something open to interpretation use another adjective.

when used in this fashion though are both moral absolutes. They are at odds with each other for a reason in that realm, but neither is really correct because the implications, despite being absolutes, are more likely to clash with the stance.

It's like myself saying "killing is wrong in all circumstances" even when killing in self-defense, war, or even through euthenasia may be appropriate for a sitauation. 

So it comes down to a moral stance; either one is right, or both are wrong. And humans mostly choose one to side to be right and the other to be wrong. Fact of the matter though is that both stances are wrong, because it is impossible to predict how the Geth/Quarians will get along, and if there are any other synthetic races that can be uplifed in that form or not. And historically speaking, it would be impossible because both the Geth and the Quarians have no foreseen mutual financial benefit for each other.

So the words can go either way, but both statements are basically wrong because there is not enough information to really give us a conclusion.

[NexusIsaac]

I'm one of those that supports the Dark energy plot. The original one.
So I would rather have seen that the ultimate choice, after defeating Harbinger is to either sacrifice humanity to form a Reaper to save the galaxy from that dark energy phenomena(Haestrom) or kill all the Reapers and leave the galaxy to find a solution of their own.
And the weapon would be based on a ancient data that would be used to construct weapons that can override the Reapers defenses. Giving you an edge over the Reapers.
Then how the ending will turn out would be based on your actions. Will the galaxy accept humanity's transformation?

Eterna5 wrote...

EC was fine, the endings are more than valid now. Stop being self entitled whiners.

I know I can't change anything. And I've accepted the endings. That doesn't mean they're top notch.

The endings dosn't only break the writing, but also the context of the game. Choices. Consequences of your choices.
It shouldn't be a choice of colors, there should be an absolute ending based on your choices. The game itself is this, but ME3 has serious flaws, both in plot and design.
It seems like it tries to seduce players from other genres. Mostly noticable is the streamlined mission choices. You got one main mission or "campaign" and the rest is side missions, no matter how important they are.

My own opinion is that the best game of the series was and to me, is the second. Mass Effect 2.

Modifié par NexusIsaac, 29 juillet 2012 - 12:46 .

[Abraham_uk]

Tyeme Downs wrote...

Conniving_Eagle wrote...

Tyeme Downs wrote...

Did you really miss the point of the whole series? It's about morals (paragon/renegade) and choices. There is no "happy" ending for Shepard. Shepard must, in the end, make a moral decision as it was throughout.

Red/renegade - sacrifice another (EDI, Geth) to achieve victory
Blue/paragon - sacrifice self to achieve victory
Green/blend - sacrifice self, choose for another to achieve stability/victory
Reject - failure to sacrifice resulting in defeat

Many stories do not have happy, perfect endings and are still great stories. Hamlet, Romeo and Juliette, Oedipus are examples. They are classics with "bad" endings. Think about it.

If the whole series is about morals and choices that doesn't mean the whole series is about sacrafice. One of the main themes of ME was Commander Shepard completing the impossible.

Stopping Sovereign, Saren, and the Geth in ME1 - thought to be impossible.

Passing through the Omega 4 Relay and destroying the Collectors - thought to be impossible.

Passing through the Omega 4 Relay, destroying the Collecters, and comeing out unscathed - thought to be doubly impossible.

Stop a war by shouting - improbable.

Assembling the largest fighting force the galaxy has ever seen to destroy its greatest threat - thought to be impossible.

Do you really believe that Mass Effect 3's ending was a fitting one?

Great, lets have a conversation.  I hope my previous post atleast cleared up why the colors are aligned with their respective choices for you.

No doubt, Shepard had victories against the Reapers.  In ME1 and 2, Shepard was dealing with a single Reaper trying to be crafty in each case.  In ME3, Shepard is dealing with Reapers in force.  It's a different situation.  Against massed Reapers using brute force, we simpely can not win a convential war.  Thus, the Crucible.

Against Cerberus, Shepard had that glorious fight in Cerberus HQ.  Except, Cerberus is a conventional enemy.  The Reapers are not.  We can not expect the same kind of fight against Reapers that we had against Cerberus, or the Collectors, or Saren.

The fight your asking for came against Reaper forces before reaching the Citadel.  The Citadel, Catalyst, and Crucible are as much the prologue as they are the final decision.  Just reaching that point was defying the impossible.  After all, Shepard is the first organic to reach the Catalyst.

I think the choices we are given actually fit the story.  This is not a happy story after all.  We lose atleast one crew member in ME1.  We have the potential to lose more in ME2.  We see people being liquified.  We understand the horror of what the Reapers did to the Protheans.

In ME3, we are at war for our very existance against an enemy that is far beyond us in scale, longetivity, and technology.  Sad stories abound in the background.  Jokers' sister is killed by the Asari in the hospital.  The refugee girl waiting for her parents in the refugee camp.  The boy who lost his mother in Tali's loyalty mission and his father on Rannoch.  Samura and her daughters.  Ashley and her brother-in-law.

I think the endings choices were fitting.  Moral choices requiring sacrifice.  Remember Shepards N7 conversation with James Vega?  Shepard didn't get the choices we perhaps wanted or that we feel Shepards life deserved, but we have a final choice.

Should all of Shepards previous choices affect the outcome?  Well, if you only got to play the game once, or read it as a story, you'd assume those choices got you to this point.  On the flipside, this is the final act for each of your Shepards.  You, the player, should try to make the choice each of your Shepards would make.  It should be based not on your preferance, but the characters as played.  If their was a destroy the reapers only choice...where would the moral dilema be?

I will admit being dismayed a bit when I first did an ending.  I had to think about it...alot.  I had to look at it not only from the characters point of view, but the writers as well.  The DLC helped.

Could the DLC have been better?  Yes.  You wanted to see the war.  The Catalyst should have shown Shepard the war before the choice was made.  Outside the Crucible, Reapers destroying the great fleet as it tried to protect the Crucible.  Ships crews being sucked into space.  Miranda watching a Reaper fighter destroy her wingman.  Earth...Grunt and Wrex falling back as their units are being destroyed.  Jack, bloody and crying with one of her dead students in her arms.  Palavin and Thessia.....reaper forces collecting the dead for processing.

Shepard, head bowed, tears and anguish.  Shepard must choose or reject.

The Catalyst is insane..to answer that question.  The green choice is one the insane Catalyst created.  It wiped out it's creators, perverting it's mission with the creation of the Reapers.  Synthesis is it's solution to the possiblity that organics could one day defeat the reapers.

Control and destruction were the Catalysts' creators solution.  That's why they are built in stations, not part of the power stream like Synthesis.  A station to reassert control of the Catalyst, and one to destroy it (failsafe).  The AI they built and lost control of.  The AI that built the reapers that destroyed them. 

All is not explicitly stated.  We, the player are left to try to fill in the blanks.  Like any good story, we must use our imagination.  We must figure what the writer was trying to tell us.  People still discuss Oedipus, The Iliad, and Hamlet.

I agree with this.
I am among the few who liked the endings.
Though reject should have shown more of the deaths that it caused.

[Daryslash]

I agree with you, OP.

[Haiyato]

Thank you for sharing this with everyone. Took alot of guts to hang yourself out on the interwebs like that and I agree with you.

[Lieber]

In the words of a sad Joker: "Damn it"

So much missed potential. What if EA hadn't rushed them? What if Drew was still here? Would we still have a missed potential ending?

EDIT: I just saw that I joined the same day as Daryslash (Hey have to stay happy someway right?)

Modifié par Lieber, 13 août 2012 - 11:03 .

[EnvyTB075]

OP is correct in every way.

[Tronar]

Conniving_Eagle wrote...

But we want to see it happen in front of our eyes, we want to see our war assets fighting (an epic final battle with Harbinger would also be very nice). We want to see the fleet of council forces going toe to toe with the Reaper fleet, in an incredible Star warsesque clash. We want to see the entire Geth Armada come out of FTL, flanking the Reapers and obliterating several capital ships trying their to take down the Destiny Ascenscion, and saving it. We want to see Quarian commanders suicide crashing their burning ships into the Reapers, in a last desperate attempt to finish off the enemy, Keelah Se'lai!!! We want to see Turian fighters, ruthlessly rushing into the fray, dropping nuclear ordinance on capital ships.

Not just in space, we want to see this epic battle unfold on Earth. We want to see tens of thousands of Rachni soldiers swarming a Reaper Destroyer as it helplessly struggles to survive. We want to see Jack and her biotic squad shielding an anti-air outpost from an onslaught of Ravager artillery, so that the outpost can gun down several Harvesters and watch them give out one last guttural scream as they plunge to their deaths. We want to see Grunt charge at a Brute, shouting "I AM KROGAN!!!" as he single-handedly wrestles it to the ground and curb stomps its face into the concrete. We want to see an army of husks rushing a group of powerless Alliance marines who are being overwhelmed. As the marines close their eyes, preparing for the worst, the husks are gunned down by a platoon of Geth Primes. We want to see Liara fighting off multiple Marauders and get saved by a miracle sniper shot from Garrus. We want to see Vega and Ashley/Kaiden back to back, firing off at Cannibals from 360 degrees. We want to see Elcor Tanks relentlessly firing down upon Reapers and decimating them. We want to see Wrex and Wreav taking cover from on-going fire in a trench, then curtly nodding to eachother as they go over the top and lead a battalion of Krogan shocktroopers in a bloodrage battle charge.

Yep! Putting all the different opinions about the Godchild and the three colored ending aside, THIS is exactly another HUGE contributor to the big disappointment the vast majority of the players had with the ending.

The Rachni are my most prominent example. You are left to choose the fate of a complete race in ME1. So far so good. In ME2 they only appear as a small side note delivered by a girl on Thessia. Which is ok, but makes you expect a lot more Rachni Action in ME3. And then in ME3 the Rachni show up no matter what. The only difference being another small note that her offspring helped build the crucible or they turned against the alliance at some point and caused some damage.

My expectation clearly was that saving a race like the Rachni would produce a huge army of Rachni giving the Reapers at least a very hard time (remember, the Galaxi needed the Krogans to get rid of the Rachni).
So a fighting sequence like "tens of thousands of Rachni soldiers swarming a Reaper Destroyer as it helplessly struggles to survive" should have been part of the ending. The same for all the other war assets.

Yes, maybe thats very foreseeable, but a reward for building up all the assets would have definitely been a lot better than just a few lines of text and a number going up. And then getting to see two of your squadmates leave a destroyed Normandy on some unknown planet instead.

By leaving out all of that Bioware definitely chose the cheap route here in my opinion. Artistic integrity aside and even with the current ending unchanged a little more action than just some soldiers running through ruins on Earth was definitely part of the expectation for 95% of the players.

Well, at least we got the Multiplayer as a great bonus.

I agree with the rest of your text as well, Conniving Eagle. I just felt the need to emphasize this part.

Tronar

[garf]

Having uninstalled the malware called 'origins' sometime shortly after PAX east 2012, My impressions of the EC are based on Youtube videos. I'm pretty much in agreement with the OP on almost every point. and in disagreement with the one critic who thinks you didn't really play the game and want a happy ending.

we didn't want a happy ending we wanted a EPIC ending, an Olympic Gold ending. Which the game almost was, until Bioware's athletes disqualified themselves three steps short of the finish line.

actually four years of intense preparation for Olympic gold only to have the medal taken away on the instant replay probably is the best analogy I've ever encountered for the feelings I and believe the OP and many others share.

oh well I still have, the first two games. (playing ME 1 right now. ) The money spent on my CE preorder I guess is 'wasted' since I won't be able to play it without re-installing the origins malware. but... I still the first two, my headcannon, a valuble lesson learned about buying games sight unseen. (or ANYTHING from EA)

[Eterna]

It's hard to end a trilogy. I respect Biowares decision to go with these endings, and after the EC I am pleased.

And honestly, I would have found a conventional victory to be boring and expected.