80611 réponses à ce sujet

[dorktainian]

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Hey, guys, I'm back. Did I miss anything over the past two days?

well hang on a mo 401 is going to run through walls

[Hanako Ikezawa]

401 Kill wrote...

paxxton wrote...

RavenEyry wrote...

paxxton wrote...

@RavenEyry: What do you mean?

Text and, as 401 says, clocks do not remain consistent in dreams. Ask any lucid dreamer, it's a common dream sign.

Did you know that matter is mostly empty? Reality is an illusion.

So you are saying I can run right through my wall? Brb, I've got to try this!!

The year was 2743...

http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4622485147092534&pid=15.1

[401 Kill]

dorktainian wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Hey, guys, I'm back. Did I miss anything over the past two days?

well hang on a mo 401 is going to run through walls

I did make it through, but there is a hole in the wall now...


Mission Accomplished.

[paxxton]

401 Kill wrote...

paxxton wrote...

RavenEyry wrote...

paxxton wrote...

@RavenEyry: What do you mean?

Text and, as 401 says, clocks do not remain consistent in dreams. Ask any lucid dreamer, it's a common dream sign.

Did you know that matter is mostly empty? Reality is an illusion.

So you are saying I can run right through my wall? Brb, I've got to try this!!

The year was 2743...

Theoretically, if you could neglect the forces produced by the interactions of your particles with the wall's particles and at the same time preserve your system's coherence.

Modifié par paxxton, 16 décembre 2012 - 09:20 .

[RavenEyry]

401 Kill wrote...

dorktainian wrote...

LDS Darth Revan wrote...

Hey, guys, I'm back. Did I miss anything over the past two days?

well hang on a mo 401 is going to run through walls

I did make it through, but there is a hole in the wall now...


Mission Accomplished.

And that's how we discovered the Juggernaught was an ITer.

[Norlond]

Damn electromagnetism

[Sejborg]

BatmanTurian wrote...

Sejborg wrote...

Rankincountry wrote...

RavenEyry wrote...

Sejborg wrote...

I'm not sure I understand. Why should the reapers care if Shepard becomes suspicious? I mean. Shepard is under their control, so why should they care what he thinks about the options? 

Shepard is not under their control. It's indoctrination theory, not indoctrinated theory.

Exactly - one way of looking at Destroy is that Shepard's subconscious is trying to give him a way to resist the process of indoctrination.

Interesting. So just to recap and make sure I got this.

When picking destroy Shepard releases his mind from the Reapers. All the things we are shown with the consequences of that choice - relays blowing up, the picture slideshow and all that stuff - all that is still Shepard's mind being influenced by the Reapers, and actually don't happen. And then with the breath scene, Shepard is finally released/breaks free of the Reapers. 

And that means that Shepard's mission is still not completed because the Reapers have still not been stopped.

Precisely. This is either a cliffhanger ending or a precursor to post-ending DLC that will bridge  into ME4

I see. Thanks for explaning all of you. 

[paxxton]

Norlond wrote...

Damn electromagnetism

AFAIK the same forces that make a wall feel solid, keep your body in one piece.

[Rankincountry]

dorktainian wrote...

Rankincountry wrote...

paxxton wrote...

RavenEyry wrote...

paxxton wrote...
So you meant that the object of choice is a lie.

I meant there isn't a pipe to shoot. A mental pipe maybe but not one in front of you.

But how can you distinguish reality from a dream if the dream is like reality?

That reminds me of an HP Lovecraft story about a guy who could visit other worlds in his dreams and ended up unable to distinguish which world was which, since both seemed equally real to him. Maybe that's a way of looking at indoctrination? When you can no longer distinguish between Reaper thoughts and ideals and your own?

best post i've seen in a while.  what in the end defines reality?  Is everything we see a dream?  Is everything we dream real?    in the case of shepard is it even possible to tell them apart?  We see shepard wake up after the final kid chase dream.....but do we?

Very nice of you to say so . Your own comparison to the Red and Blue pills in the Matrix is just as good. There's so much precedent for something like IT in so much other fantasy and SF literature, going back decades. And we know for a fact that Mac Walters had the Matrix on his mind when writing ME3.

The Lovecraft story is "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". Comes with the usual health warning that Lovecraft was a horrible racist and it sometimes shows in his work.

[401 Kill]

BatmanTurian wrote...

Precisely. This is either a cliffhanger ending or a precursor to post-ending DLC that will bridge  into ME4

Yes, they will have to decide on a canon ending for ME4 to build upon. There would be no conflict in Control, as the Reapers can step in and "settle things". In synthesis, there will be no conflict because everybody is the same and peacefully in harmony with the Reapers. In destroy, the ultimate enemy, the Reapers, have been destroyed, so they would have to "conjure up" a new, powerfull enemy. In IT, Shepard either breaks through and resists - leaving the Reapers there to be defeated. Or Shepard succumbs to the Reapers, and the "Real Shepard" is gone, the organics are doomed.

Modifié par 401 Kill, 16 décembre 2012 - 09:27 .

[Rankincountry]

401 Kill wrote...

BatmanTurian wrote...

Precisely. This is either a cliffhanger ending or a precursor to post-ending DLC that will bridge  into ME4

Yes, they will have to decide on a canon ending for ME4. There would be no conflict in Control, as the Reapers can step in and "settle things". In synthesis, there will be no conflict because everybody is the same and peacefully in harmony with the Reapers. In destroy, the ultimate enemy, the Reapers, have been destroyed, so they would have to "conjure up" a new, powerfull enemy. In IT, Shepard either breaks through and resists - leaving the Reapers there to be defeated. Or Shepard succumbs to the Reapers, and the "Real Shepard" is gone, the organics are doomed.

Everytime someone brings this up, I get the fear that Bioware will cop out of canonising an ending and we'll end up with either a lame prequel or a parallel story that might as well have been DLC. Or EA will make them do an ME FPS .

[dorktainian]

paxxton wrote...

Norlond wrote...

Damn electromagnetism

AFAIK the same forces that make a wall feel solid, keep your body in one piece.

''active gravitational mass is a property of the mass of an object that produces a gravitational field in the space surrounding the object, and these gravitational fields govern large-scale structures in the Universe. Gravitational fields hold the galaxies together. They cause clouds of gas and dust to coalesce into stars and planets. They provide the necessary pressure for nuclear fusion to occur within stars. And they determine the orbits of various objects within the Solar System. Since gravitational effects are all around us, it is impossible to pin down the exact date when humans first discovered gravitational mass. However, it is possible to identify some of the significant steps towards our modern understanding of gravitational mass and its relationship to the other mass phenomena. ''

''Electromagnetism is the interaction responsible for almost all the phenomena encountered in daily life, with the exception of gravity. Ordinary matter takes its form as a result of intermolecular forces between individual molecules in matter. Electrons are bound by electromagnetic wave mechanics into orbitals around atomic nuclei to form atoms, which are the building blocks of molecules. This governs the processes involved in chemistry, which arise from interactions between the electrons of neighboring atoms, which are in turn determined by the interaction between electromagnetic force and the momentum of the electrons.

Electromagnetism manifests as both electric fields and magnetic fields. Both fields are simply different aspects of electromagnetism, and hence are intrinsically related. Thus, a changing electric field generates a magnetic field; conversely a changing magnetic field generates an electric field. This effect is called electromagnetic induction, and is the basis of operation for electrical generators, induction motors, and transformers. Mathematically speaking, magnetic fields and electric fields are convertible with relative motion as a 2nd-order tensor or bivector.

Electric fields are the cause of several common phenomena, such as electric potential (such as the voltage of a battery) and electric current (such as the flow of electricity through a flashlight). Magnetic fields are the cause of the force associated with magnets.''

[masster blaster]

So what did I miss in the last 2 hours. Also Peter Jackson and all the people behind the Hobbit movie/ actors/WB/NLC you did great.

[Norlond]

paxxton wrote...

Norlond wrote...

Damn electromagnetism

AFAIK the same forces that make a wall feel solid, keep your body in one piece.

Well there's the Strong Interaction, but yeah, without EM we'd be screwed

edit. just noticed I've been :ph34r:ed to hell and beyond

Modifié par Norlond, 16 décembre 2012 - 09:40 .

[BatmanTurian]

Sejborg wrote...

I see. Thanks for explaning all of you. 

No problem. We are happy to explain to the curious.

[dorktainian]

Rankincountry wrote...

dorktainian wrote...

Rankincountry wrote...

paxxton wrote...

RavenEyry wrote...

paxxton wrote...
So you meant that the object of choice is a lie.

I meant there isn't a pipe to shoot. A mental pipe maybe but not one in front of you.

But how can you distinguish reality from a dream if the dream is like reality?

That reminds me of an HP Lovecraft story about a guy who could visit other worlds in his dreams and ended up unable to distinguish which world was which, since both seemed equally real to him. Maybe that's a way of looking at indoctrination? When you can no longer distinguish between Reaper thoughts and ideals and your own?

best post i've seen in a while.  what in the end defines reality?  Is everything we see a dream?  Is everything we dream real?    in the case of shepard is it even possible to tell them apart?  We see shepard wake up after the final kid chase dream.....but do we?

Very nice of you to say so . Your own comparison to the Red and Blue pills in the Matrix is just as good. There's so much precedent for something like IT in so much other fantasy and SF literature, going back decades. And we know for a fact that Mac Walters had the Matrix on his mind when writing ME3.

The Lovecraft story is "Through the Gates of the Silver Key". Comes with the usual health warning that Lovecraft was a horrible racist and it sometimes shows in his work.

maybe the reapers greatest weapon is reality?  reality ensures we lose. we cannot defeat the reapers in our real life existance.  Is it real tho? think the matrix.  if neo doesnt wake up he lives his life but it aint real.  he is as much a slave to the machines as we are slaves to the reaper cycle.  so if Shep is like Neo, then harbinger is Agent Smith?  oh dear that means the real bad guys might be so powerful that we truly would not be able to comprehend them.

Modifié par dorktainian, 16 décembre 2012 - 09:43 .

[BatmanTurian]

Rankincountry wrote...

401 Kill wrote...

BatmanTurian wrote...

Precisely. This is either a cliffhanger ending or a precursor to post-ending DLC that will bridge  into ME4

Yes, they will have to decide on a canon ending for ME4. There would be no conflict in Control, as the Reapers can step in and "settle things". In synthesis, there will be no conflict because everybody is the same and peacefully in harmony with the Reapers. In destroy, the ultimate enemy, the Reapers, have been destroyed, so they would have to "conjure up" a new, powerfull enemy. In IT, Shepard either breaks through and resists - leaving the Reapers there to be defeated. Or Shepard succumbs to the Reapers, and the "Real Shepard" is gone, the organics are doomed.

Everytime someone brings this up, I get the fear that Bioware will cop out of canonising an ending and we'll end up with either a lame prequel or a parallel story that might as well have been DLC. Or EA will make them do an ME FPS .

I actually could deal with a FPS. It would be a refreshing take on the franchise for those of us who enjoy both genres and the games do bridge both genres.

[paxxton]

Norlond wrote...

paxxton wrote...

Norlond wrote...

Damn electromagnetism

AFAIK the same forces that make a wall feel solid, keep your body in one piece.

Well there's the Strong Interaction, but yeah, without EM we'd be screwed

edit. just noticed I've been :ph34r:ed to hell and beyond

There are 4 forces. Gravity, Electromagnetism, Weak Nuclear Force, Strong Nuclear Force. Electromagnetism is sometimes taken together with the Weak force, forming Electroweak force.

[paxxton]

dorktainian wrote...

paxxton wrote...

Norlond wrote...

Damn electromagnetism

AFAIK the same forces that make a wall feel solid, keep your body in one piece.

''active gravitational mass is a property of the mass of an object that produces a gravitational field in the space surrounding the object, and these gravitational fields govern large-scale structures in the Universe. Gravitational fields hold the galaxies together. They cause clouds of gas and dust to coalesce into stars and planets. They provide the necessary pressure for nuclear fusion to occur within stars. And they determine the orbits of various objects within the Solar System. Since gravitational effects are all around us, it is impossible to pin down the exact date when humans first discovered gravitational mass. However, it is possible to identify some of the significant steps towards our modern understanding of gravitational mass and its relationship to the other mass phenomena. ''

''Electromagnetism is the interaction responsible for almost all the phenomena encountered in daily life, with the exception of gravity. Ordinary matter takes its form as a result of intermolecular forces between individual molecules in matter. Electrons are bound by electromagnetic wave mechanics into orbitals around atomic nuclei to form atoms, which are the building blocks of molecules. This governs the processes involved in chemistry, which arise from interactions between the electrons of neighboring atoms, which are in turn determined by the interaction between electromagnetic force and the momentum of the electrons.

Electromagnetism manifests as both electric fields and magnetic fields. Both fields are simply different aspects of electromagnetism, and hence are intrinsically related. Thus, a changing electric field generates a magnetic field; conversely a changing magnetic field generates an electric field. This effect is called electromagnetic induction, and is the basis of operation for electrical generators, induction motors, and transformers. Mathematically speaking, magnetic fields and electric fields are convertible with relative motion as a 2nd-order tensor or bivector.

Electric fields are the cause of several common phenomena, such as electric potential (such as the voltage of a battery) and electric current (such as the flow of electricity through a flashlight). Magnetic fields are the cause of the force associated with magnets.''

Interesting.

http://en.wikipedia....tal_interaction

[Rankincountry]

BatmanTurian wrote...

Rankincountry wrote...

401 Kill wrote...

BatmanTurian wrote...

Precisely. This is either a cliffhanger ending or a precursor to post-ending DLC that will bridge  into ME4

Yes, they will have to decide on a canon ending for ME4. There would be no conflict in Control, as the Reapers can step in and "settle things". In synthesis, there will be no conflict because everybody is the same and peacefully in harmony with the Reapers. In destroy, the ultimate enemy, the Reapers, have been destroyed, so they would have to "conjure up" a new, powerfull enemy. In IT, Shepard either breaks through and resists - leaving the Reapers there to be defeated. Or Shepard succumbs to the Reapers, and the "Real Shepard" is gone, the organics are doomed.

Everytime someone brings this up, I get the fear that Bioware will cop out of canonising an ending and we'll end up with either a lame prequel or a parallel story that might as well have been DLC. Or EA will make them do an ME FPS .

I actually could deal with a FPS. It would be a refreshing take on the franchise for those of us who enjoy both genres and the games do bridge both genres.

I might have been over-dramatising a little bit - I guess really my fear would be that in an ME FPS you'd lose the sense of place or that you'd end up with the sort of MoH/CoD handholding in SP that means you're not allowed to go through the door until the exact, scripted moment an NPC lets you. Or that it would just be a weak imitation of Halo.

[dorktainian]

paxxton wrote...

dorktainian wrote...

paxxton wrote...

Norlond wrote...

Damn electromagnetism

AFAIK the same forces that make a wall feel solid, keep your body in one piece.

''active gravitational mass is a property of the mass of an object that produces a gravitational field in the space surrounding the object, and these gravitational fields govern large-scale structures in the Universe. Gravitational fields hold the galaxies together. They cause clouds of gas and dust to coalesce into stars and planets. They provide the necessary pressure for nuclear fusion to occur within stars. And they determine the orbits of various objects within the Solar System. Since gravitational effects are all around us, it is impossible to pin down the exact date when humans first discovered gravitational mass. However, it is possible to identify some of the significant steps towards our modern understanding of gravitational mass and its relationship to the other mass phenomena. ''

''Electromagnetism is the interaction responsible for almost all the phenomena encountered in daily life, with the exception of gravity. Ordinary matter takes its form as a result of intermolecular forces between individual molecules in matter. Electrons are bound by electromagnetic wave mechanics into orbitals around atomic nuclei to form atoms, which are the building blocks of molecules. This governs the processes involved in chemistry, which arise from interactions between the electrons of neighboring atoms, which are in turn determined by the interaction between electromagnetic force and the momentum of the electrons.

Electromagnetism manifests as both electric fields and magnetic fields. Both fields are simply different aspects of electromagnetism, and hence are intrinsically related. Thus, a changing electric field generates a magnetic field; conversely a changing magnetic field generates an electric field. This effect is called electromagnetic induction, and is the basis of operation for electrical generators, induction motors, and transformers. Mathematically speaking, magnetic fields and electric fields are convertible with relative motion as a 2nd-order tensor or bivector.

Electric fields are the cause of several common phenomena, such as electric potential (such as the voltage of a battery) and electric current (such as the flow of electricity through a flashlight). Magnetic fields are the cause of the force associated with magnets.''

Interesting.

http://en.wikipedia....tal_interaction

yay...string theory.....ftw



String theory is an active research framework in particle physics that attempts to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity. It is a contender for a theory of everything (TOE), a self-contained mathematical model that describes all fundamental forces and forms of matter. String theory posits that the elementary particles (i.e., electrons and quarks) within an atom are not 0-dimensional objects, but rather 1-dimensional oscillating lines ("strings").

The earliest string model, the bosonic string, incorporated only bosons, although this view developed to the superstring theory, which posits that a connection (a "supersymmetry") exists between bosons and fermions. String theories also require the existence of several extra dimensions to the universe that have been compactified into extremely small scales, in addition to the four known spacetime dimensions.

The theory has its origins in an effort to understand the strong force, the dual resonance model (1969). Subsequent to this, five superstring theories were developed that incorporated fermions and possessed other properties necessary for a theory of everything. Since the mid-1990s, in particular due to insights from dualities shown to relate the five theories, an eleven-dimensional theory called M-theory is believed to encompass all of the previously distinct superstring theories.[citation needed]

Many theoretical physicists (among them Stephen Hawking, Edward Witten, Juan Maldacena and Leonard Susskind) believe that string theory is a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature. This is because string theory allows for the consistent combination of quantum field theory and general relativity, agrees with general insights in quantum gravity (such as the holographic principle and black hole thermodynamics), and because it has passed many non-trivial checks of its internal consistency.[1][2][3][4] According to Hawking in particular, "M-theory is the only candidate for a complete theory of the universe."[5] Nevertheless, other physicists, such as Feynman and Glashow, have criticized string theory for not providing novel experimental predictions at accessible energy scales. oh and string theory predicts parallel dimensions.

Modifié par dorktainian, 16 décembre 2012 - 10:00 .

[Norlond]

paxxton wrote...

There are 4 forces. Gravity, Electromagnetism, Weak Nuclear Force, Strong Nuclear Force. Electromagnetism is sometimes taken together with the Weak force, forming Electroweak force.

I know, I only left them out because they add little to nothing to the "walking through wall"-topic

And btw, maybe there are Interactions we don't know about yet, hidden in higher dimensions or only affecting imaginary time or a second time dimension, there are even hints that the fine-structure constant is no constant, everything is possible, that's why I love modern physics

*looks at text* Ok I'm being nerdish again, sry for that

[Raistlin Majare 1992]

Rankincountry wrote...

I might have been over-dramatising a little bit - I guess really my fear would be that in an ME FPS you'd lose the sense of place or that you'd end up with the sort of MoH/CoD handholding in SP that means you're not allowed to go through the door until the exact, scripted moment an NPC lets you. Or that it would just be a weak imitation of Halo.

Personally if they ahd to branch out to a different genre for a new game, I would love to see a Real Time Strategy game set in the Mass Effect universe. Take some inspiration form Sins of a Solar Empire, throw in a single player mode where you have to make some story related decisions (to keep that element) and I think it could become a really, really good game.

[Norlond]

Other genre? How about Citadel Cargo Simulator? Skycar Racing? Lemmings-style game involving Volus? Afterlife Dancing for Kinect?

edit: Oops, not exactly an adequate top post :innocent:

Modifié par Norlond, 16 décembre 2012 - 10:06 .

[masster blaster]

Pass or Fail?: The Extended Cut

Note: I will refer to the child using his original title: The Guardian. I will also include information about the Leviathan DLC in this. If you don’t want spoilers, don’t read the marked sections.

So, I decided to try to objectively asses the performance of the Extended Cut DLC to see how it stacked up in actuality compared to their promises. That said, I know some will be subjective, so feel free to disagree, but I’m writing this from my point of view. I also want to note that this is strictly written from a literal point of view, so no IT, WNT, or other alternate-reality interpretations apply here. For the most part, this is not trying to persuade you to pick certain choices, nor will it touch the moral and ethical debates about the choices.

What did the EC promise? Simple. 2 things: For us to be able to see the consequences of our choices on the galaxy, and to provide additional closure.

Part I: Impacts of choices: The EC, in my opinion, did an merely adequate job of showing the impacts. It was passable, though a lot of parts were vague.

Destroy: Basically Hackett’s entire speech is vague. He doesn’t mention the Geth or EDI once. Why not? They have to die in this ending, supposedly. So why not mention them. On that note, why doesn’t he mention Shepard? I shouldn’t even have to say this. There is even a low EMS version of this ending, where Shepard dies. He doesn’t mention Shepard’s sacrifice in the low EMS version, and doesn’t mention any of his/her achievements is high EMS. How do you have an ending to a trilogy like this and not even mention the main character in the end speech? He also states quite confidently about how they can rebuild. When did they learn how to make mass relays? In fact, I remember a certain asari matriarch who suggested studying them, and she was essentially laughed at, which makes sense, considering the relays are reaper tech; the reapers wouldn’t want any organics to learn their secrets. So we can assume there has been next to no studying of relays. How would the decimated survivors be able to study and build them? A better question: how would they coordinate linking the relays, without the communication necessary to do so? The Crucible is a weapon battery precise enough to change the “matrix” of synthetic and organic life down to the DNA, yet it can’t target only reapers in destroy? Really? Levy spoilers: I don’t know about you, but I think the leviathans are just as dangerous as the reapers. With the reapers gone, and the galaxy in utter ruins, this is a perfect opportunity for the leviathans to retake their former throne. Since there are no slides involving leviathans (why?) we can only guess at what happens, adding to the vagueness of this choice. [/Levy spoilers] Control: This one probably wins for being explained the best. It is much better in EC than it was originally. It definitely still has some vague elements though. For instance: does Shepard replace the Guardian, or just exist at the same time? If he betrayed his creators, who’s to say he won’t betray Shepard too? The Guardian stated that he was the “collective intelligence of all reapers”. Does this mean when Shepard becomes the new reaper-guiding AI, that (s)he becomes the reapers? Or does it mean Shepard kills the reapers and personally uses all of their bodies? Does Shepard simply replace the Guardian and the reapers simply obey him/her? An interesting question: If the crucible does not discriminate, and therefore targets all synthetics in destroy, this leaves us with 2 options.

1. Shepard also controls the Geth, as well as EDI, because the control beam will not discriminate and will target all synthetics. If the destroy beam also destroys/disables VI systems as well as ships and weapons as stated by the Guardian., that would also mean Shepard should basically control all starships and computers, as well as weapons. That’s a lot of power for one entity.

2. The crucible does in fact discriminate, and will only target reapers. This in turn means the Guardian as lying to you.

Levy spoilers: We really have no idea how powerful the leviathans are, but we do know they can destroy a sovereign-class reaper with their minds. I can see how this could be problematic for Shepard in control. I also think they would employ thralls to counter Shep-reapers, seeing as how they are essentially the same as normal reapers. Not good. [/Levy spoilers]

Refuse: This is an extremely vague ending “choice”. It raises about as many questions as synthesis. The reason many people can’t really achieve consensus about this ending is because it is too vague to make conclusions about. I mean, it itself is vague as a choice, because we a lot of stuff is implied to happen, but we don’t get to see anything. For instance, what does Shepard do after refusing to activate the crucible? Does (s)he just stand there, watching the allied fleets get destroyed? It’s well established that Shepard’s radio is acting extremely inconsistently is the ending, but why doesn’t Shepard try to contact Hackett at any point? It can be assumed that everyone dies in this ending, but it does not show anything. No heroic last stands of important characters, no fleets being destroyed save one shot of a reaper destroying an alliance vessel. The only way to know what for sure what happens in this ending, is to look through the game files to show all squadmates being dead. That’s not what I would call a clear ending. It is not clear why the Guardian continues to fight the fleets if he wants Shepard to choose an option. Even if Shepard refused, why wouldn’t he just get any other person to do it? How did Liara (especially if she’s dead) manage to have the time capsules say that the Crucible didn’t work? How would she even know that? If it fired, but didn’t kill the reapers, it would be logical to assume it didn’t work. However, for all anyone but Shepard knows, the crucible, for whatever reason, simply didn’t fire. That’s no reason to say that. How did the next cycle defeat the reapers? I know Mike Gamble said that, they use the crucible, but that is a fallacy. Also, Twitter =/= canon. Here's how I see it:

1. The next cycle used the crucible to beat the reapers. Which option did they pick? They didn’t pick synthesis (no glowing things), so presumably destroy. But it's so vague. We fought a battle (and lost horribly) so the next cycle could win 50000 years later? Makes no sense. Plus if they used the crucible to beat them that just makes refuse pointless. Actually, that means in half of the endings (destroy and refuse) Shepard is too stubborn to accept their enemies logic...

2. How did they use the crucible? It's completely implausible that the reapers would allow them to come anywhere near that end. They even knew about its existence “several cycles ago” and failed to eliminate the evidence. Logic would dictate they would try much harder next time. This leaves 2 possibilities: A. The crucible is of reaper design, used every cycle to trick the resistance. They next cycle then uses that reaper tech. Great idea. B. The reapers are retarded and even though they failed at hiding the crucible before, they didn't learn from their mistakes and let the next cycle use it?

3. Ignore Gamble; they didn't use the crucible. Basically impossible. The vanguard would not let them amass such an enormous fleet large enough to take on the reaper armada.

4. They only reason the council cycle did so well was because of Shepard, Sovereign's failures, and a lot of luck. The reapers wouldn't let that happen again.

5. Levy spoilers: I’ll let you all wonder how the Leviathans existing and their heavy influence would do to this. [/Levy spoilers]

Synthesis: It is close to refuse in terms of vagueness, but probably takes the cake for Most vague ending ever. Of all time™. It doesn’t do a good job showing how synthesis actually changes things, besides adding green circuit boards to everything. How does it work? There isn’t even a codex entry on this attempting to explain it. What are its actual impacts, besides, apparently, creating instant utopia? Are plants sentient now? If not, then is it saying plants could never become sentient? What about the Thorian? And if plants do become sentient, what does that do to herbivores? Are they murdering other sentient life when they eat? The same can now be asked about all life. How do we eat anything, if we’re murdering it? Or does synthesis make food no longer a necessity? Or, once again, is it implying certain things just can’t evolve? That’s not how evolution works. Nor does evolution just stop as soon as we get circuit boards. If synthesis doesn’t make all humans able to see in infrared, use echo-location, or grow gills then it is not the end of evolution. I don’t even think there is an end to evolution. Maybe we don’t need to breath anymore in synthesis? EDI also mentioned that the reapers, and the species that they are based on, are now connected to all of us. Does that remind anyone of indoctrination? This would also contradict what Shepard said earlier about this topic.

“You-– Whatever species you came from, before the reapers decided to preserve them? They’re dead. They died thousands of years ago. *Reaper dies* And now they can rest in peace.” – Shepard

So was Shepard wrong, and the reapers do actually preserve species properly? Or was the Guardian wrong? If the latter is true, we should doubt much more than just that thought. Many questions.

Levy spoilers: Again, we have no slides of the leviathans, so we can only guess as to what they would try to do in synthesis. I am going to take a wild guess here and say they would definitely not appreciate being “synthesized”. They already consider themselves to be an “apex race”. Seeing as they are an “apex race”, and care not for any “lesser” species, one could assume they would attempt to regain their former authority. Like EDI said, all races are now supposed to be “connected”. To me, that just sounds like an easier way for the Leviathans to hijack people’s minds. I don’t think they’d like being connected to lesser species either. [/Levy spoilers]

What about the Synthehusk™? Is it, not to mention other reaper thralls like banshees, a part of galactic society now? What about the reapers? If we believe the Guardian about synthesis working, and the reapers actually being benevolent saviours, then we should also believe what Sovereign said about the reapers being at the “pinnacle of evolution”. Or should we just pick and choose what parts of what the reapers tell us to believe? If “synthesis is the final evolution of all life” according to the Guardian, then what how could the reapers, who are already there, be elevated? One more question among many, and perhaps the most important one: Does synthesis change the way people think; rewrite them? I believe the short answer is yes, based on in-game evidence. Since there are many, many, many, quotes from characters stating they would only accept the reapers if they were dead, I’ll only cite what I thought to be the most important ones.

“Dead reapers are how we win this.” – Hackett

“Because the Reapers are repulsive. They are dedicated to nothing but self-preservation. I am different.” – EDI

“I am here to fight the Reapers. That is my purpose. My only purpose. I am the avatar of vengeance, the last voice of a dead race. I will avenge my people, no matter the cost.” – Javik

I chose these because, as far as I can remember, it is impossible to achieve synthesis with low enough EMS to have squadmates die, therefore Javik must survive. EDI and Hackett also must survive. What do squadmates think of being rewritten?

“If you change who someone is, how they think, you have killed them. They will be something new in the same body.” – Samara

“That sounds dangerously close to indoctrination, unless there’s something I’m missing.” – Garrus And perhaps the most applicable, seeing as how synthesis seems to create a utopia:

“If you screwed with my head, made me nod and smile at everything... I’d rather you blew my head off. Let me die as me.” - Jack

My point is, synthesis is a no win scenario. If it does not rewrite people, then Javik, Hackett, logically EDI, and many others would continue to fight the reapers. If they do not, they are rewritten and are therefore dead. As you can see, synthesis now raises more questions, and answers few. Not exactly what I’d call viewing the impacts of our choices.

So what do you think? For the first part of EC’s promises, showing the consequences of our choices, does EC pass or fail?

Part II: Providing additional (any) closure: I can actually represent this half using some numbers, but we’ll get to that. Probably the most wanted thing in the extended cut was more closure. I for one, just wanted to see my little blue babies, and I know I’m not alone. I’ve spoken to many people, and virtually all of them said they don’t even care how nonsensical the ending is anymore; they just want closure and be done with it. Personally I don’t think that’s too much to ask at all, so let’s get started in actually discussing how well the EC did in fixing this problem.

By the numbers: I am going start my analysis by simply stating whether or not each squadmate had a slide, in reverse order.

ME3: Liara: NO

Garrus: NO

Tali: NO

EDI: NO, although she is featured heavily in Synthesis and dead in destroy

Javik: NO (Personal note: This one really bothered me because he has 3 possibilities for things he would do after the war.)

Ashley: NO

Kaidan: NO

James: NO

ME2: Legion: NO, but is dead

Mordin: YES

Jack: YES, 2

Grunt: YES, but not in synthesis (?)

Thane: NO, but is dead

Samara: YES, 2

Jacob: YES, 2

Miranda: YES, 2

Kasumi: YES, 2

Zaeed: YES (Personal note: I loved his slide. If there is one thing I’ve heard after the EC, it’s “What the hell was up with the slides? Zaeed’s was awesome though!”

Morinth: NO, but is dead.

ME1: Wrex: YES

So, out of 20 squadmates, only 9 have slides. That’s a whapping 45% Bioware. Nice. Let’s remove the ones who have to die. – Legion, Thane, and Morinth. 9/17 is still only 53%. Come on Bioware; you can do better than that!

Now, I know the ME3 squadmates were in the Shepard memorial scene. Well that’s all well and good, but that scene says less (for them) than a slide does. The slides at least give us a glimpse of what the characters do after it’s all said and done. That scene simply shows that they are mourning for Shepard. That’s not a glimpse at what they will do. At least, I hope they won’t spend all of their collective time doing that. The part that really gets me though, is some of the stuff that was easily foreshadowed or plainly said. Like Javik. He had 3 different outcomes. He would either travel to his comrades’ graves and commit suicide, become King of the Hanar™ or write a book with Liara. There you go; 3 easy slides. Not sure why those weren’t made. You could even say that Garrus helping to rebuild (with a hammer) was foreshadowed, or that he would become a primarch. Of all the squadmates, EDI gets the most closure because of her speech in synthesis. But that is only one ending. Why isn’t she in control? Is it because control affects all synthetics like I mentioned above? I mean, I like EDI – but I would prefer to have seen some closure of some of the squadmates I have been with since ME1. Can you believe Wrex is the only ME1 squadmate with a slide? Wrex is awesome too, but what about a slide of my LI? Is that too much to ask?

Some of the closure felt a bit forced too. This is just me, but the fact that EDI is the only squadmate to get any real closure is odd, considering she is only a squadmate in ME3. The other thing I thought was forced was that Coats is the first slide in all endings. What? Coats isn’t even a squadmate, nor is he a character we have all known and trusted for years. In-game, he was only introduced in the second-last mission and is kind of forced on us until the end. This is especially odd when you consider that he can be seen dead on the citadel without flycam.

I lost my train of thought here, so...

- Banshee


Ya reposting this for the luz.