"Building on their research, Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. We’re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received."
BlvdNights, if you are going dismiss counter-arguments with "I'll read the reasons when I'm done" that's fine, but do play the thing before commenting for/against any further.
I think you're over simplifying it. People get their hopes up about every game that comes out. What seperates ME3 from the bunch is that all the choices you made up to this point SHOULD make a difference as far as how your game ends. Yes Bioware created the game, but WE created the story(to a certain extent) throught the first 2 games. If this was a movie/book/tv show with a bad ending, it's completely different. You had no part in the script, you were merely observing the plot as it was dictated to you by the writers. The players were the ones making all the big decisions in Mass Effect, and when you take that choice away at the most crucial point in the entire series, it would kinda suck.
I try and look at both sides in any situation. Are some people overreacting, and saying horrible, unfounded things about Bioware? Absolutely Are many of the criticisms about the ending credible? Absolutely. There are many taking it too far, and many simply voicing their opinion. I can accept them just missing the mark, screwing up the ending, but it's looing like that's not the case, and it is more deliberate than that. Again, we will see what this DLC contains, until then it's all just opinion.
BlvdNights, if you are going dismiss counter-arguments with "I'll read the reasons when I'm done" that's fine, but do play the thing before commenting for/against any further.
Oh I will, but I also think people being royally butt furious about a game's ending not delivering on promises is a bit too 1st world problem. And with that, I will return to the thread once I'm done with the game.
From what I've heard from the people who have finished the game, they said that their choices did affect the ending, whether it was the difference between 3 endings or 20 endings, I guess thats an individual assessment of whether that was "good enough" or not.
bioware was being very specific about the ending not being exactly what it did end up being, and even mentioning an ending that's not even in the game.
Is it too unreasonable to ask for a single free dlc for everyone that purchased mass effect 3 to begin with?
There's another humble rpg developer out there that looks upon that kind of customer relationship in a very healthy way, hence giving out large fixes and ready-made previously unfinished content for free, including an extended fleshed out ending.
Oh I will, but I also think people being royally upset about a game's ending not delivering on promises is a bit too 1st world problem. And with that, I will return to the thread once I'm done with the game.
It is, but it's also fundamental consumer rights, since consumers are essentially the life-blood of modern day economy, and have often been easily abused.
People feel that they were lied to by Bioware, in that pre-release they were told that their choices would make a difference in how the game ended, just like they did in ME1 and 2.
Have your choices had an effect or not on how the genophage was resolved, on how the geth-quarian war was resolved, on what happened to Conrad Vermer, and so on?
Yea... the studio behind The Witcher 2 is a great example of the commitment that they have to their audience. I really like that i have all updates, extras, content and amount of work they keep doing to the game even when its already out, and this was the case for both witcher 1 and 2.
I wish this was the case with ME3. There are some updates that just should be incorporated with the game for free.
Have your choices had an effect or not on how the genophage was resolved, on how the geth-quarian war was resolved, on what happened to Conrad Vermer, and so on?
Oh that was looked at, but because of the ending. None of that matters, nothing you did in the game really matters. That's the problem with it. As somebody that finished the game, I was extremely disappointed by it, it felt rushed and if done by another team.
Such a shame too, because 98% of the game was great, it's just those last 10min that kills things. Also, that prompt was beyond insulting.
Oh I will, but I also think people being royally butt furious about a game's ending not delivering on promises is a bit too 1st world problem. And with that, I will return to the thread once I'm done with the game.
Folks are disappointed, lumping us all in with the irate retards isn't really fair. The end was badly executed(for BioWare) and for allot of people a massive disappointment.
Oh I will, but I also think people being royally butt furious about a game's ending not delivering on promises is a bit too 1st world problem. And with that, I will return to the thread once I'm done with the game.
Yeah I don't think you should until you've experienced it for yourself. I doubt many are complaining about the ending because of tone or ambiguity, but rather because it's fucking retarded.
I don't mind the ending in the same way I don't mind Michael Bay movies, I just turn my brain off and accept the spectacle for the piece of shit it is.
edit: also just want to say, I still think ME3 is an amazing game, I love it. But as those have said countless times, it's like going to a fantastic restaurant, having a great full meal course, and then being served shit for dessert. It just leaves a really bad taste in your mouth, and you're probably not going to come back.
Have your choices had an effect or not on how the genophage was resolved, on how the geth-quarian war was resolved, on what happened to Conrad Vermer, and so on?
The ending was the final mission. Folks are not talking about the series as a whole but the final battle, and the 3 choice conclusion.
Do the war assets actually do anything in the final mission except arbitrarily add a 3rd option at the end, oh and: allow you to survive a massive explosion, re entry, and a 220 mile fall onto concrete rubble (while badly injured).
this game... was AAAAAAMAAAAAAAAZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
i just spent roughly the last 8 hours rushing through this game.. multiplayer, side missions.. everything! the ending.. i chose destruction because WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU CHOOSE ANYTHING ELSE!!?
if you got a "bad" endings its entirely your fault and you need to live out your days knowing YOU LET THE REAPERS WIN! and regarding the good ending, i still dont think its over.. you wake up on earth.. after being on the citadel..your party members were somehow with joker... you never got shot in the stomach.. bioware's cooking up something......
the people who wrote this story are absolute geniuses and need a medal for it. by far the best game series / series ending... EVER
this game... was AAAAAAMAAAAAAAAZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
i just spent roughly the last 8 hours rushing through this game.. multiplayer, side missions.. everything! the ending.. i chose destruction because WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU CHOOSE ANYTHING ELSE!!?
if you got a "bad" endings its entirely your fault and you need to live out your days knowing YOU LET THE REAPERS WIN! and regarding the good ending, i still dont think its over.. you wake up on earth.. after being on the citadel..your party members were somehow with joker... you never got shot in the stomach.. bioware's cooking up something......
the people who wrote this story are absolute geniuses and need a medal for it. by far the best game series / series ending... EVER
this game... was AAAAAAMAAAAAAAAZZIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
i just spent roughly the last 8 hours rushing through this game.. multiplayer, side missions.. everything! the ending.. i chose destruction because WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU CHOOSE ANYTHING ELSE!!?
if you got a "bad" endings its entirely your fault and you need to live out your days knowing YOU LET THE REAPERS WIN! and regarding the good ending, i still dont think its over.. you wake up on earth.. after being on the citadel..your party members were somehow with joker... you never got shot in the stomach.. bioware's cooking up something......
the people who wrote this story are absolute geniuses and need a medal for it. by far the best game series / series ending... EVER
and im 100% serious about this.
This is exactly what I thought too, I also chose the destruction ending as well.
I was honestly expecting more - but it seems that Bioware "apparently" intended these endings to be the final ones, based on the earlier letter from Dr. Ray Muzyka.
We'll have to wait and see, but the endings would be a huge and amazing twist if Bioware had intended it to carry on from the "wake up in the rubble" scene all along.
and regarding the good ending, i still dont think its over.. you wake up on earth.. after being on the citadel..your party members were somehow with joker... you never got shot in the stomach.. bioware's cooking up something......
It pretty much is, there's some irony to people loving the ending and then wishing it wasn't actually true with the indoctrination theory.
There is no canon, every ending is true, and any further dlc that continues after this would have to take every ending into account.
I do wish this whole business would hurry up and blow over. It's everywhere. Every website I visit no matter its theme. Every game with team speak. Inescapable.
Yes Virgina, the ending is rubbish, but it's time to let it go.
I do wish this whole business would hurry up and blow over. It's everywhere. Every website I visit no matter its theme. Every game with team speak. Inescapable.
Yes Virgina, the ending is rubbish, but it's time to let it go.
Because bioware went beyond what is fair play when it comes to hyping, they're in the territory of false advertisment, on a level that even I thought was impossible.
Are consumer rights really that unimportant to people? Are game developers the only people advertise a product as *anything* and then deliver something different?
Finished it yesterday using my ME 1&2 save and what a great game overall, one hell of a trilogy.. BUT IT WAS WAYY TOO SHORT.. I feel like Ive been ripped off because of this and nothing else.. I mean the first two took much longer to complete.. thought the ending I first got (control) was hilarious I left joker on an alien planet with a buxom AI and a buxom blue alien.. lol I must really like the guy..
My other ending (destroy) left garrus with joker and edi .. poor garrus.. I dont get why shepherd had to die.. he shot the tube and WALKED into the explosion... it was a total wtf moment..
I never got the green ending.. and no matter what I do I cant get it
I think this whole shitstorm about endings would have never happened if Bioware included a fourth ending that was all happy happy joy joy.. I dont get why they killed the mass relay network
I thought the prothean addon should have been in game by default, it added on so much to the storyline its actually criminal that they cut it out and put it on DLC.
I have no idea whats coming next will probably buy it because any chance of a free DLC that "fixes" everything is going to be remote..
Loved it though replaying as a female sheperd biotic from 2 again..
Because bioware went beyond what is fair play when it comes to hyping, they're in the territory of false advertisment, on a level that even I thought was impossible.
Are consumer rights really that unimportant to people? Are game developers the only people advertise a product as *anything* and then deliver something different?
But oh yes, starving children in africa etc.
This is pretty much my stance on it - I followed it pretty closely up until release, and it's definitely not what we were marketed.
That said, I'm bored of the argument already, new news please.
You'll get answers to everything. That was one of the key things. Regardless
of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide
some answers to these people.
[The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass
Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers.
Fans want to make sure that they see things resolved, they want to get
some closure, a great ending. I think theyre going to get that.
Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the
lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers,
being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an
end.
" That means the endings can be a lot
more different. At this point were taking into account so many
decisions that youve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. Its not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them. http://i.imgur.com/xUq9t.png http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPelM2hwhJA
why do you automatically just think that the ending is this... this is a decision that determines the outcome of the final cinematic.. the ending of the game started when you attacked cerberus, and led up to most specifically to when you were "talking to" the illusive man and anderson. your decisions there have an effect.. what did you do?
the illusive man can kill you.. he can kill anderson.. he can kill himself.. you can kill him.. he can kill anderson and you'll kill him afterwards
you've obviously wanted to be spoonfed an ending that says "the reapers have been defeated" instead of taking in the fact that you've been having an internal struggle since mass effect 1 and realizing that you.. the player.. should have had an emotional connection with the story and world based on how you played it. the endings that have shepard either destroying, controlling, or synthesizing just really shows how much or little you are involved with the story at all...
if you chose to control or synthesize.. then im sorry but you're just fucking stupid (no disrespect). i sat for a moment before choosing thinking.. why in the world would i do anything else except what i came here to do. since the beginning you've wanted to do NOTHING ELSE but stop the reapers.. and then you're given a choice to not do that... and you take it. then you're flawed, and the reapers have won, because you've failed to do what you set out to do. you, yourself, (not shepard) should feel like shit because shepard dies because of your bad decision.
the entire series has been prepping you for 1 thing and 1 thing only.. to destroy the reapers. you deciding not to is your own fault and you deserved what you got. regardless of all the ending cinematics being the same here and there with the color switch doesnt matter.. its only a perception on what happens.. the real ending is what you think/feel after all this based on your experience alone. it sucks that people had to complain to bioware for them to "change" it and give them a call of duty ending that says.. ok.. here's what happens.. you're the hero, you get the girl, and you win.. credits.
perhaps they thought that their audience had the capability of thinking past what they were seeing.. but i guess they were wrong.
why do you automatically just think that the ending is this... this is a decision that determines the outcome of the final cinematic.. the ending of the game started when you attacked cerberus, and led up to most specifically to when you were "talking to" the illusive man and anderson. your decisions there have an effect.. what did you do?
the illusive man can kill you.. he can kill anderson.. he can kill himself.. you can kill him.. he can kill anderson and you'll kill him afterwards
you've obviously wanted to be spoonfed an ending that says "the reapers have been defeated" instead of taking in the fact that you've been having an internal struggle since mass effect 1 and realizing that you.. the player.. should have had an emotional connection with the story and world based on how you played it. the endings that have shepard either destroying, controlling, or synthesizing just really shows how much or little you are involved with the story at all...
if you chose to control or synthesize.. then im sorry but you're just fucking stupid (no disrespect). i sat for a moment before choosing thinking.. why in the world would i do anything else except what i came here to do. since the beginning you've wanted to do NOTHING ELSE but stop the reapers.. and then you're given a choice to not do that... and you take it. then you're flawed, and the reapers have won, because you've failed to do what you set out to do. you, yourself, (not shepard) should feel like shit because shepard dies because of your bad decision.
the entire series has been prepping you for 1 thing and 1 thing only.. to destroy the reapers. you deciding not to is your own fault and you deserved what you got. regardless of all the ending cinematics being the same here and there with the color switch doesnt matter.. its only a perception on what happens.. the real ending is what you think/feel after all this based on your experience alone. it sucks that people had to complain to bioware for them to "change" it and give them a call of duty ending that says.. ok.. here's what happens.. you're the hero, you get the girl, and you win.. credits.
perhaps they thought that their audience had the capability of thinking past what they were seeing.. but i guess they were wrong.
Have you even bothered to read those quotes of the promises. What do you think I'm having problem over cinematics or my Shepard dying?
Do you really think that fans are pissed because they didn't get some happy ending?
I think you're missing the point here by focusing only on that RGB thing there.
Again try to read all the quotes: like "getting all the answers" (no you haven't got them), "decisions having some impact in the end (Rachni in the final battle)", destroying/saving collectors base in me2 (100 vs 110 war assets points), Joker flying off in the middle of the battle (again, Why?), plot holes (watch the vids, please).
Just to be on the same page here, I know it may be annoying to spend 40 mins on these, but please try to do so, you'll understand at what I'm pointing out here.
If you spared some time and watched them, bottom line is:
a) 3 "stock" endings - and problem here is not the cinematic or some happy ending as you think, but so many plot holes that story can't even keep integrity, no closure, no questions answered, Normandy running away with the teammate that was just there on Earth with you a moment ago?
b) indoctrination theory - it was all just in your head, and you woke up in the pile of rubble in London. THE END.
That's even worse because it means that you got the game with no ending so just wait for a DLC to see the end.
of course ive heard of the indoctrination theory.. not only have i heard of it.. i 100% agree with it. i found myself asking the same questions as i palyed through and its the only thing that makes logical sense.
theres no need for them to tell you everything.. let your mind wander. dont expect to be babied and spoonfed.
why do you automatically just think that the ending is this... this is a decision that determines the outcome of the final cinematic.. the ending of the game started when you attacked cerberus, and led up to most specifically to when you were "talking to" the illusive man and anderson. your decisions there have an effect.. what did you do?
I'm sorry, but that's not how story structure works. All of what you call "the end" is rising action with a few crises peppered in, followed by the confrontation with the catalyst, which is the climax of the series. As stated, it's uncharacteristic for the series, and while it could be molded into a great ending it feels like it was rushed. Then it's followed by a denouement (the real ending) which more or less looks like someone ran out of time and money and tarded out for lack of other ideas. BAYSPLOSIONS around the galaxy. Yeah!!!
if you chose to control or synthesize.. then im sorry but you're just fucking stupid (no disrespect).
(no disrespect) doesn't mean anything. And to be honest I was kinda rooting for the Reapers from the beginning because unlike air-quoting turians and everyone else in the galaxy, they ARE superior beings who have endured for millions of years. And ending where I could preserve them while uplifting biological life sounded like a win win for me. But of course instead everything was the same, but with circuitry. *grumble grumble*
And if you and others will condescend and call the whiners stupid, I can do it too. Everyone who isn't pissed off at this ending has barely rudimentary understanding of good writing and storytelling. There are blatant fuckups, and for a series like Mass Effect it's shameful that either Bioware is retarded, or EA wouldn't pony up the money for a more complete finale. Should they be aware of their bad writing and made the indoctrination ending on purpose so as to give the series the ending it deserves I applaud them.
Until then though: Bioware, don't fuck up Dragon Age 3 please. 2 was wonky enough.
if you wanted the reapers to win.. why bother playing at all...?
so. how ignorant could you be to think that bioware ran out of time or ea ran out of money.. 1. ea will NEVER run out of money and bioware is the absolute best in the industry at writing. saying that either of the two happened is just you trying to find an excuse to make up for something you didnt find satisfying.
Should they be aware of their bad writing and made the indoctrination ending on purpose so as to give the series the ending it deserves I applaud them.
so you're saying that that was a last minute thing? that there were no clues about indoctrination.. ever.. even in THE FIRST LEVEL OF THE GAME...
the people who are pissed off about this are pissed for 2 reasons..
1. they think that there's plot holes in the ending.. i.e. joker running away. anderson getting there before. hacket knowing you were there. harbinger flying away.. etc. if you accept these as facts of things that cant or shouldnt happen.. then you should have no choice but to accept the indoctrination theory.. which makes it an amazing ending with a cliff hanger of what happens next which means you'll actually have to use your imagination.
2. your choices didnt matter. well.. what choice you've made before could have possibly made a difference from what they had as an ending. either you beat the reapers or you dont. its that simple. your choices youve made effect everything in the game in general.. whether the rachni queen lives or dies in 1. has a completely different outcome on what happens to her in 3. either:
she lives (1) and you help her (3) = +rachni war assets (grunts company dies)
she lives (1) kill her (3) = +krogan war assets (grunts company lives)
she dies (1) you help her (3) = she is a reaper copy and betrays you. -war assets
things like this are AMAZING. sure every single choice you made ever isnt going to have an awesome cinematic.. but go ahead and play the game a 2nd time with all your choices 100% opposite of your first playthrough (from mass effect 1) and tell me you dont have an entirely different experience.
so. how ignorant could you be to think that bioware ran out of time or ea ran out of money.. 1. ea will NEVER run out of money and bioware is the absolute best in the industry at writing. saying that either of the two happened is just you trying to find an excuse to make up for something you didnt find satisfying.
That's very naive, bioware had a schedule and a timeslot to hit, ea would not want to miss it as it would mean extra money put into the project and missed revenues.
Not only that, the old republic has been extremely expensive for bioware.
There's plenty of evidence for cut content and lines in the game, some of it might make it back into dlc.
so you're saying that that was a last minute thing? that there were no clues about indoctrination.. ever.. even in THE FIRST LEVEL OF THE GAME...
Bioware was talking about entirely different things months ago, meaning that the current ending was in fact a rewrite under time constraints, it doesn't make it bad, it doesn't make it any less artistic, but it does suffer from inconsistency and the fact that it wasn't any of their promises, actually it was the exact opposite of their promises.
the people who are pissed off about this are pissed for 2 reasons..
1. they think that there's plot holes in the ending.. i.e. joker running away. anderson getting there before. hacket knowing you were there. harbinger flying away.. etc. if you accept these as facts of things that cant or shouldnt happen.. then you should have no choice but to accept the indoctrination theory.. which makes it an amazing ending with a cliff hanger of what happens next which means you'll actually have to use your imagination.
There's some cut content and lines that does explain some of those things, but again, cut.
As for the plot holes, they've been explained in detail a few times already, and in the end it can easily be described as "space magic"
2. your choices didnt matter. well.. what choice you've made before could have possibly made a difference from what they had as an ending. either you beat the reapers or you dont. its that simple. your choices youve made effect everything in the game in general.. whether the rachni queen lives or dies in 1. has a completely different outcome on what happens to her in 3. either:
she lives (1) and you help her (3) = +rachni war assets (grunts company dies)
she lives (1) kill her (3) = +krogan war assets (grunts company lives)
she dies (1) you help her (3) = she is a reaper copy and betrays you. -war assets
war assets.. war assets.. war assets.
The very fact that you kill her and she magically comes back to life as evil, much like how you'd select Anderson to be councilor he'll conveniently step down in ME3 to reset the narrative.
It was in fact heavily said that the rachni would have a clear presence in the ending if they were your ally, which was another thing cut.
things like this are AMAZING. sure every single choice you made ever isnt going to have an awesome cinematic.. but go ahead and play the game a 2nd time with all your choices 100% opposite of your first playthrough (from mass effect 1) and tell me you dont have an entirely different experience.
The game itself is pretty amazing, so none of these are attacks are really important when it comes to that part of the game, but the short story is, no matter what you do at all in the game you'll pick from three options in the end.
ME3 was supposed to be the grand ending of the series, it wasn't going to have a sequel so bioware could do anything, they could branch the entire game like a tree and have widely different endings,
fans were worried this wasn't going to be the case but bioware ensured fans that that WAS the case.
So... how many save files can you have in your game? for some reason i am at 51, and it will not let me create new ones, just overwrite the last one. Any thoughts?
the endings that have shepard either destroying, controlling, or synthesizing just really shows how much or little you are involved with the story at all...
if you chose to control or synthesize.. then im sorry but you're just fucking stupid (no disrespect). i sat for a moment before choosing thinking.. why in the world would i do anything else except what i came here to do. since the beginning you've wanted to do NOTHING ELSE but stop the reapers.. and then you're given a choice to not do that... and you take it. then you're flawed, and the reapers have won, because you've failed to do what you set out to do. you, yourself, (not shepard) should feel like shit because shepard dies because of your bad decision.
While I don't necessarily agree with your conclusion about what Shepard should decide and why, I'm still happy to see this post because it supports what I've been saying...
The game's final decision is about the player's own values, about what you consider to be important and morally right. The entire series has been exploring this and the writers were generally careful not to judge your decisions.
Adding a 'good' ending would basically invalidate this and give you the impression that it is possible to have your cake and eat it too.
The part where I agree with the criticism is that they didn't execute it well enough. The DLC or whatever that's coming is probably only going to elaborate the various consequences but the basics of the final choice and the three options will more than likely stay the same...
Also, the three options for the final choice were in place for a long time, they didn't come up with it because of a rush, it was the plan all along.
Now for something else... what's everyone's favorite weapon loadout?
On my first playthrough I used an Infiltrator and I've found that I really liked the Raptor sniper rifle and the Phaeston assault rifle. But even though I modded both for extra capacity I still needed to carry a submachine gun because I ran out of ammo a few times.
The Mantis sniper was cool as well but the limited capacity and the slow reload was kinda dangerous in rush situations like when you had Geth Hunters or Phantoms going for the kill...
Never really liked any of the heavy pistols though.
My other ME2 characters are a soldier and a sentinel, and I'm thinking about Insanity although I got killed a few times on Hard already... any suggestions?
I played as a soldier and I took the Viper (extra ammo + extended barrel) and the Revenant (stability + extended barrel). I was using the Matlock, but quickly realise that the Viper actually carries more ammo than almost all assault rifles and does more damage, go figure.
Also, the three options for the final choice were in place for a long time, they didn't come up with it because of a rush, it was the plan all along.
The story was actually going somewhere different with ME1 and ME2, for example, in this outcome, what was the purpose of the collectors?, what was the purpose of the hybrid in ME2, how does it connect to the ending in ME3, what makes humans so special, why are they referred to as being so special in their buildup, and what's up with the dark matter.
Was there even a point to ME2 except to be a Russian space-roulette with your crew-members?
Mass effect 3 has a different lead writer than the ones for ME2 and ME1.
While I don't necessarily agree with your conclusion about what Shepard should decide and why, I'm still happy to see this post because it supports what I've been saying...
The game's final decision is about the player's own values, about what you consider to be important and morally right. The entire series has been exploring this and the writers were generally careful not to judge your decisions.
Adding a 'good' ending would basically invalidate this and give you the impression that it is possible to have your cake and eat it too.
The problem was that the you were baking this awesome cake through three games, and then you were suddenly asked to choose one of three other cakes when players wanted the cake they had been making.
Some people by random chance will enjoy this cake, many others will feel cheated, and some don't feel like baking their cake at all, so they'll just take it.
Then again, bioware have been quite proud of their "play this with as little story as possible"-mode, so I guess choices would've counteracted that.
The endings are essentially one and the same, with you doing the epilogue in your brain, which is cheap price for bioware I'd admit.
so forget about mass effect physics and traveling at light speed between solar systems and talking with aliens and fighting robots.. being brought back from the dead by technological means and having plot hole endings is what qualifies the game/universe as having "space magic"
The Collectors were to build a human Reaper, that would replace Sovereign and attack the Citadel and activate the mass relay to dark space. It was also their purpose to collect enough specimens of all the advanced species to determine which is the most suitable to build a Reaper from.
Then the Reapers would have complete control over the relay network, so almost no communication and absolutely no fleet movement would be possible, isolated forces would fall far more quickly and easily, Shepard couldn't interfere either. They'd also spare the energy and time cost of traveling back into the galaxy with conventional FTL drive, although who knows how much they cared about that.
what makes humans so special, why are they referred to as being so special in their buildup,
Harbinger lists their reasons in ME2 - the krogan are sterilized, the asari need aliens to reproduce so their DNA is week, the salarians are too fragile from the start, the drell are nearly extinct, quarians have a ruined immune system, the turians are too primitive and so on.
and what's up with the dark matter.
Never really been discussed, there was only one hint about Haestrom's sun and event that wasn't definitive.
Was there even a point to ME2 except to be a Russian space-roulette with your crew-members?
It was mostly about rescuing humans living on the colonies, but also about winning time and gathering intelligence about the reapers.
The problem was that the you were baking this awesome cake through three games, and then you were suddenly asked to choose one of three other cakes when players wanted the cake they had been making.
That's not that simple IMHO. I've already posted a lot about this if you are interested in my opinion.
The endings are essentially one and the same, with you doing the epilogue in your brain, which is cheap price for bioware I'd admit.
No, that's the entire point, there are quite radical differences and moral responsibilities associated with each choice. If you don't see that then you don't get a lot about Mass Effect in general, IMHO.
That's not that simple IMHO. I've already posted a lot about this if you are interested in my opinion.
There wasn't any specific human lifeform that the special reaper was made from, it was a construct of millions of individuals, much like any reaper.
But as you said, it boiled down to slowing them down, which didn't slow them down much, that was the job of the arrival.
And the other part about learning more about the reapers, which meant a few assets here and there depending on your end-result choice.
Any reason behind the humanreaper was explained or retconned in ME3, it removed much of the bigger reasons behind the stuff going on in the second game, and made it more like "next time gadget!!!"
No, that's the entire point, there are quite radical differences and moral responsibilities associated with each choice. If you don't see that then you don't get a lot about Mass Effect in general, IMHO.
I haven't argued that it wasn't of consequence, except it was a new choice from nothing.
The series have always been about your choices creating consequences further up, and further choices spanning from those, the ending was isolated on its own, it didn't matter what you had done, your work on proving the ability to co-exist didn't mean anything at all either.
It is a hard choice, but it's a choice out of nowhere, and THAT is the problem, you couldn't even question the motives or prove the space magic deus ex machina that it could be different, anything you did lead up to this point no matter what you actually did.
anything you did lead up to this point no matter what you actually did.
where else would you have wanted it to go? and i mean that as a genuine question. im interested to hear what people who didnt like the ending wouldve preferred.
There wasn't any specific human lifeform that the special reaper was made from, it was a construct of millions of individuals, much like any reaper.
Yeah, who said anything else?
But as you said, it boiled down to slowing them down, which didn't slow them down much, that was the job of the arrival.
Again, consider their original plan that worked even against the protheans:
- open the Citadel relay and let ALL the Reapers through at once
- disable the entire relay network for anyone but the Reapers, also cutting all communications except the few existing quantum entanglement devices (which have very low bandwidth)
- gain access to all the data stored on the Citadel, from fleet deployment to census to resources
Stopping the Collectors mattered a LOT. Without that, the human Reaper would've done what Sovereign has tried - open the Citadel Relay - and the war would have been lost immediately. The protheans had a vastly larger unified empire and event hey couldn't hold on against the Reapers.
And the other part about learning more about the reapers, which meant a few assets here and there depending on your end-result choice.
The series have always been about your choices creating consequences further up, and further choices spanning from those, the ending was isolated on its own, it didn't matter what you had done, your work on proving the ability to co-exist didn't mean anything at all either.
I agree with that, the execution wasn't as good. There should've been more exact hints about the ending and a little more exploration of what the Reapers are and why is there this whole cycle of extinction, before the player got to the Citadel. It really almost comes out of nowhere.
Your previous choices did matter though, because if you messed up everywhere, you couldn't get enough war assets to have all choices. This is similar to ME2's ending where if you intentionally skip all loyalty quests and assign the worst squad members for each task, you can lose everyone - here, if you don't get enough support and do enough side quests, you'll have no choice and Earth will be destroyed.
Yes, saving X or allying with Y does not give you a different cinematic. But at least here on Polycount we should be able to see how the possible variations are far too many to deal with, and incorporating every major decision into the ending in any significant way is simply not possible.
What they can do is to append some stuff in text form somehow, the way you got dossiers from the Shadow Broker on each squad member. I suppose that's what they're looking into right now.
Yeah, who said anything else?
I agree with that, the execution wasn't as good. There should've been more exact hints about the ending and a little more exploration of what the Reapers are and why is there this whole cycle of extinction, before the player got to the Citadel. It really almost comes out of nowhere.
Your previous choices did matter though, because if you messed up everywhere, you couldn't get enough war assets to have all choices. This is similar to ME2's ending where if you intentionally skip all loyalty quests and assign the worst squad members for each task, you can lose everyone - here, if you don't get enough support and do enough side quests, you'll have no choice and Earth will be destroyed.
Yes, saving X or allying with Y does not give you a different cinematic. But at least here on Polycount we should be able to see how the possible variations are far too many to deal with, and incorporating every major decision into the ending in any significant way is simply not possible.
Had it been for a game that was going to have a sequel, yes, absolutely, but it was this variation that was promised, and it's nothing that's impossible to manage either.
There's no logic behind your military strength affecting what choices you get there, as you can pretty much play MP to boost up your readyness and thus do less storyrelated things to get better endings, there's no solid connections anywhere, there wasn't any hard choices that revealed the synthesis or control ending.
What they can do is to append some stuff in text form somehow, the way you got dossiers from the Shadow Broker on each squad member. I suppose that's what they're looking into right now.
They could, but it wouldn't fix the choices, only the closure.
I, for one, saw Mass Effect 3 as the ending. I had resolution with all my squad members from the previous games. I saw all the consequences of my decisions from the previous games and how it affected my squad mates, friends and your significant other. When I finished the game I was very satisfied because I just played 32 awesome hours within a Universe that I love.
The endings were interesting and I agree now looking in retrospective that Shepard should choose to destroy the reapers. It's what he has been doing all along.
I am curious about what someone already posted here about the people that are unsatisfied with the endings.
What did you wanted out of the ending? I wasn't expecting a happy ending at all. Specially with the amazing music the game had, with the conversations I had with my squad,etc.
Were people expecting a Star Wars EP4 ending. Getting medals and everyone happy? Just curious.
I am curious about what someone already posted here about the people that are unsatisfied with the endings.
What did you wanted out of the ending? I wasn't expecting a happy ending at all. Specially with the amazing music the game had, with the conversations I had with my squad,etc.
Were people expecting a Star Wars EP4 ending. Getting medals and everyone happy? Just curious.
This is the general view most seem to have on the complainers, but it's all about people wanting choice, consequences and closure, not necessarily a happy ending, but an ending that was different in every option, not just a recolour. It's been posted probably 6 times over in this thread.
On top of that it was stuff that bioware actually did promise many times over, that is why people are so upset, otherwise they would've had nothing but their own expectations.
Replies
"Building on their research, Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. We’re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received."
I try and look at both sides in any situation. Are some people overreacting, and saying horrible, unfounded things about Bioware? Absolutely Are many of the criticisms about the ending credible? Absolutely. There are many taking it too far, and many simply voicing their opinion. I can accept them just missing the mark, screwing up the ending, but it's looing like that's not the case, and it is more deliberate than that. Again, we will see what this DLC contains, until then it's all just opinion.
Oh I will, but I also think people being royally butt furious about a game's ending not delivering on promises is a bit too 1st world problem. And with that, I will return to the thread once I'm done with the game.
bioware was being very specific about the ending not being exactly what it did end up being, and even mentioning an ending that's not even in the game.
ca-ching.
Is it too unreasonable to ask for a single free dlc for everyone that purchased mass effect 3 to begin with?
There's another humble rpg developer out there that looks upon that kind of customer relationship in a very healthy way, hence giving out large fixes and ready-made previously unfinished content for free, including an extended fleshed out ending.
It is, but it's also fundamental consumer rights, since consumers are essentially the life-blood of modern day economy, and have often been easily abused.
Have your choices had an effect or not on how the genophage was resolved, on how the geth-quarian war was resolved, on what happened to Conrad Vermer, and so on?
I wish this was the case with ME3. There are some updates that just should be incorporated with the game for free.
Such a shame too, because 98% of the game was great, it's just those last 10min that kills things. Also, that prompt was beyond insulting.
Folks are disappointed, lumping us all in with the irate retards isn't really fair. The end was badly executed(for BioWare) and for allot of people a massive disappointment.
Yeah I don't think you should until you've experienced it for yourself. I doubt many are complaining about the ending because of tone or ambiguity, but rather because it's fucking retarded.
I don't mind the ending in the same way I don't mind Michael Bay movies, I just turn my brain off and accept the spectacle for the piece of shit it is.
edit: also just want to say, I still think ME3 is an amazing game, I love it. But as those have said countless times, it's like going to a fantastic restaurant, having a great full meal course, and then being served shit for dessert. It just leaves a really bad taste in your mouth, and you're probably not going to come back.
The ending was the final mission. Folks are not talking about the series as a whole but the final battle, and the 3 choice conclusion.
Do the war assets actually do anything in the final mission except arbitrarily add a 3rd option at the end, oh and: allow you to survive a massive explosion, re entry, and a 220 mile fall onto concrete rubble (while badly injured).
[ame="
perfect
http://masseffect.com/about/story/
i just spent roughly the last 8 hours rushing through this game.. multiplayer, side missions.. everything! the ending.. i chose destruction because WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU CHOOSE ANYTHING ELSE!!?
if you got a "bad" endings its entirely your fault and you need to live out your days knowing YOU LET THE REAPERS WIN! and regarding the good ending, i still dont think its over.. you wake up on earth.. after being on the citadel..your party members were somehow with joker... you never got shot in the stomach.. bioware's cooking up something......
the people who wrote this story are absolute geniuses and need a medal for it. by far the best game series / series ending... EVER
and im 100% serious about this.
YES!!!!!
This is exactly what I thought too, I also chose the destruction ending as well.
I was honestly expecting more - but it seems that Bioware "apparently" intended these endings to be the final ones, based on the earlier letter from Dr. Ray Muzyka.
We'll have to wait and see, but the endings would be a huge and amazing twist if Bioware had intended it to carry on from the "wake up in the rubble" scene all along.
The reapers can't actually win.
It pretty much is, there's some irony to people loving the ending and then wishing it wasn't actually true with the indoctrination theory.
There is no canon, every ending is true, and any further dlc that continues after this would have to take every ending into account.
I think this deserves posting again:
Here's some good reading for you: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/323/index/10204263
Yes Virgina, the ending is rubbish, but it's time to let it go.
Because bioware went beyond what is fair play when it comes to hyping, they're in the territory of false advertisment, on a level that even I thought was impossible.
Are consumer rights really that unimportant to people? Are game developers the only people advertise a product as *anything* and then deliver something different?
But oh yes, starving children in africa etc.
My other ending (destroy) left garrus with joker and edi .. poor garrus.. I dont get why shepherd had to die.. he shot the tube and WALKED into the explosion... it was a total wtf moment..
I never got the green ending.. and no matter what I do I cant get it
I think this whole shitstorm about endings would have never happened if Bioware included a fourth ending that was all happy happy joy joy.. I dont get why they killed the mass relay network
I thought the prothean addon should have been in game by default, it added on so much to the storyline its actually criminal that they cut it out and put it on DLC.
I have no idea whats coming next will probably buy it because any chance of a free DLC that "fixes" everything is going to be remote..
Loved it though replaying as a female sheperd biotic from 2 again..
This is pretty much my stance on it - I followed it pretty closely up until release, and it's definitely not what we were marketed.
That said, I'm bored of the argument already, new news please.
Just some of the big promises from that post
of how we did everything, we had to say, yes, we're going to provide
some answers to these people.
[The presence of the Rachni] has huge consequences in Mass
Effect 3. Even just in the final battle with the Reapers.
Fans want to make sure that they see things resolved, they want to get
some closure, a great ending. I think theyre going to get that.
Mass Effect 3 is all about answering all the biggest questions in the
lore, learning about the mysteries and the Protheans and the Reapers,
being able to decide for yourself how all of these things come to an
end.
" That means the endings can be a lot
more different. At this point were taking into account so many
decisions that youve made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. Its not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them.
http://i.imgur.com/xUq9t.png
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPelM2hwhJA
in regards to this....
why do you automatically just think that the ending is this... this is a decision that determines the outcome of the final cinematic.. the ending of the game started when you attacked cerberus, and led up to most specifically to when you were "talking to" the illusive man and anderson. your decisions there have an effect.. what did you do?
you've obviously wanted to be spoonfed an ending that says "the reapers have been defeated" instead of taking in the fact that you've been having an internal struggle since mass effect 1 and realizing that you.. the player.. should have had an emotional connection with the story and world based on how you played it. the endings that have shepard either destroying, controlling, or synthesizing just really shows how much or little you are involved with the story at all...
if you chose to control or synthesize.. then im sorry but you're just fucking stupid (no disrespect). i sat for a moment before choosing thinking.. why in the world would i do anything else except what i came here to do. since the beginning you've wanted to do NOTHING ELSE but stop the reapers.. and then you're given a choice to not do that... and you take it. then you're flawed, and the reapers have won, because you've failed to do what you set out to do. you, yourself, (not shepard) should feel like shit because shepard dies because of your bad decision.
the entire series has been prepping you for 1 thing and 1 thing only.. to destroy the reapers. you deciding not to is your own fault and you deserved what you got. regardless of all the ending cinematics being the same here and there with the color switch doesnt matter.. its only a perception on what happens.. the real ending is what you think/feel after all this based on your experience alone. it sucks that people had to complain to bioware for them to "change" it and give them a call of duty ending that says.. ok.. here's what happens.. you're the hero, you get the girl, and you win.. credits.
perhaps they thought that their audience had the capability of thinking past what they were seeing.. but i guess they were wrong.
Do you really think that fans are pissed because they didn't get some happy ending?
I think you're missing the point here by focusing only on that RGB thing there.
Just to be on the same page here, I know it may be annoying to spend 40 mins on these, but please try to do so, you'll understand at what I'm pointing out here.
10 Reasons We Hate Mass Effect 3's Ending - YouTube
ME3 Indoctrination Theory & DLC "Ending" Proof - YouTube
If you spared some time and watched them, bottom line is:
b) indoctrination theory - it was all just in your head, and you woke up in the pile of rubble in London. THE END.
That's even worse because it means that you got the game with no ending so just wait for a DLC to see the end.
theres no need for them to tell you everything.. let your mind wander. dont expect to be babied and spoonfed.
regardless... amazing game. amazing ending.
I'm sorry, but that's not how story structure works. All of what you call "the end" is rising action with a few crises peppered in, followed by the confrontation with the catalyst, which is the climax of the series. As stated, it's uncharacteristic for the series, and while it could be molded into a great ending it feels like it was rushed. Then it's followed by a denouement (the real ending) which more or less looks like someone ran out of time and money and tarded out for lack of other ideas. BAYSPLOSIONS around the galaxy. Yeah!!!
(no disrespect) doesn't mean anything. And to be honest I was kinda rooting for the Reapers from the beginning because unlike air-quoting turians and everyone else in the galaxy, they ARE superior beings who have endured for millions of years. And ending where I could preserve them while uplifting biological life sounded like a win win for me. But of course instead everything was the same, but with circuitry. *grumble grumble*
And if you and others will condescend and call the whiners stupid, I can do it too. Everyone who isn't pissed off at this ending has barely rudimentary understanding of good writing and storytelling. There are blatant fuckups, and for a series like Mass Effect it's shameful that either Bioware is retarded, or EA wouldn't pony up the money for a more complete finale. Should they be aware of their bad writing and made the indoctrination ending on purpose so as to give the series the ending it deserves I applaud them.
Until then though: Bioware, don't fuck up Dragon Age 3 please. 2 was wonky enough.
so. how ignorant could you be to think that bioware ran out of time or ea ran out of money.. 1. ea will NEVER run out of money and bioware is the absolute best in the industry at writing. saying that either of the two happened is just you trying to find an excuse to make up for something you didnt find satisfying.
so you're saying that that was a last minute thing? that there were no clues about indoctrination.. ever.. even in THE FIRST LEVEL OF THE GAME...
the people who are pissed off about this are pissed for 2 reasons..
1. they think that there's plot holes in the ending.. i.e. joker running away. anderson getting there before. hacket knowing you were there. harbinger flying away.. etc. if you accept these as facts of things that cant or shouldnt happen.. then you should have no choice but to accept the indoctrination theory.. which makes it an amazing ending with a cliff hanger of what happens next which means you'll actually have to use your imagination.
2. your choices didnt matter. well.. what choice you've made before could have possibly made a difference from what they had as an ending. either you beat the reapers or you dont. its that simple. your choices youve made effect everything in the game in general.. whether the rachni queen lives or dies in 1. has a completely different outcome on what happens to her in 3. either:
she lives (1) and you help her (3) = +rachni war assets (grunts company dies)
she lives (1) kill her (3) = +krogan war assets (grunts company lives)
she dies (1) you help her (3) = she is a reaper copy and betrays you. -war assets
things like this are AMAZING. sure every single choice you made ever isnt going to have an awesome cinematic.. but go ahead and play the game a 2nd time with all your choices 100% opposite of your first playthrough (from mass effect 1) and tell me you dont have an entirely different experience.
It's about choices, the reapers have been winning many times before, it's a cycle, and it wouldn't be any less of a heroic situation.
But most important, bioware told people that it was one of the very possible outcomes.
That's very naive, bioware had a schedule and a timeslot to hit, ea would not want to miss it as it would mean extra money put into the project and missed revenues.
Not only that, the old republic has been extremely expensive for bioware.
There's plenty of evidence for cut content and lines in the game, some of it might make it back into dlc.
Bioware was talking about entirely different things months ago, meaning that the current ending was in fact a rewrite under time constraints, it doesn't make it bad, it doesn't make it any less artistic, but it does suffer from inconsistency and the fact that it wasn't any of their promises, actually it was the exact opposite of their promises.
There's some cut content and lines that does explain some of those things, but again, cut.
As for the plot holes, they've been explained in detail a few times already, and in the end it can easily be described as "space magic"
war assets.. war assets.. war assets.
The very fact that you kill her and she magically comes back to life as evil, much like how you'd select Anderson to be councilor he'll conveniently step down in ME3 to reset the narrative.
It was in fact heavily said that the rachni would have a clear presence in the ending if they were your ally, which was another thing cut.
The game itself is pretty amazing, so none of these are attacks are really important when it comes to that part of the game, but the short story is, no matter what you do at all in the game you'll pick from three options in the end.
ME3 was supposed to be the grand ending of the series, it wasn't going to have a sequel so bioware could do anything, they could branch the entire game like a tree and have widely different endings,
fans were worried this wasn't going to be the case but bioware ensured fans that that WAS the case.
alright just 1 small little thing to add and im done. :P
the reapers brought her back. if its ok for shepard to die and come back.. why not anyone/thing else
While I don't necessarily agree with your conclusion about what Shepard should decide and why, I'm still happy to see this post because it supports what I've been saying...
The game's final decision is about the player's own values, about what you consider to be important and morally right. The entire series has been exploring this and the writers were generally careful not to judge your decisions.
Adding a 'good' ending would basically invalidate this and give you the impression that it is possible to have your cake and eat it too.
The part where I agree with the criticism is that they didn't execute it well enough. The DLC or whatever that's coming is probably only going to elaborate the various consequences but the basics of the final choice and the three options will more than likely stay the same...
HERE TO KILL ALL ADVANCED ORGANIC LIFE -> BRING BACK EXTINCT ADVANCED ORGANIC LIFE.
There's only so much 'bringing back from the dead' you can do before it gets silly - also bringing Legion back as an example. Wtf was that about?
Now for something else... what's everyone's favorite weapon loadout?
On my first playthrough I used an Infiltrator and I've found that I really liked the Raptor sniper rifle and the Phaeston assault rifle. But even though I modded both for extra capacity I still needed to carry a submachine gun because I ran out of ammo a few times.
The Mantis sniper was cool as well but the limited capacity and the slow reload was kinda dangerous in rush situations like when you had Geth Hunters or Phantoms going for the kill...
Never really liked any of the heavy pistols though.
My other ME2 characters are a soldier and a sentinel, and I'm thinking about Insanity although I got killed a few times on Hard already... any suggestions?
space magic
The story was actually going somewhere different with ME1 and ME2, for example, in this outcome, what was the purpose of the collectors?, what was the purpose of the hybrid in ME2, how does it connect to the ending in ME3, what makes humans so special, why are they referred to as being so special in their buildup, and what's up with the dark matter.
Was there even a point to ME2 except to be a Russian space-roulette with your crew-members?
Mass effect 3 has a different lead writer than the ones for ME2 and ME1.
The problem was that the you were baking this awesome cake through three games, and then you were suddenly asked to choose one of three other cakes when players wanted the cake they had been making.
Some people by random chance will enjoy this cake, many others will feel cheated, and some don't feel like baking their cake at all, so they'll just take it.
Then again, bioware have been quite proud of their "play this with as little story as possible"-mode, so I guess choices would've counteracted that.
The endings are essentially one and the same, with you doing the epilogue in your brain, which is cheap price for bioware I'd admit.
The Collectors were to build a human Reaper, that would replace Sovereign and attack the Citadel and activate the mass relay to dark space. It was also their purpose to collect enough specimens of all the advanced species to determine which is the most suitable to build a Reaper from.
Then the Reapers would have complete control over the relay network, so almost no communication and absolutely no fleet movement would be possible, isolated forces would fall far more quickly and easily, Shepard couldn't interfere either. They'd also spare the energy and time cost of traveling back into the galaxy with conventional FTL drive, although who knows how much they cared about that.
Harbinger lists their reasons in ME2 - the krogan are sterilized, the asari need aliens to reproduce so their DNA is week, the salarians are too fragile from the start, the drell are nearly extinct, quarians have a ruined immune system, the turians are too primitive and so on.
Never really been discussed, there was only one hint about Haestrom's sun and event that wasn't definitive.
It was mostly about rescuing humans living on the colonies, but also about winning time and gathering intelligence about the reapers.
That's not that simple IMHO. I've already posted a lot about this if you are interested in my opinion.
No, that's the entire point, there are quite radical differences and moral responsibilities associated with each choice. If you don't see that then you don't get a lot about Mass Effect in general, IMHO.
There wasn't any specific human lifeform that the special reaper was made from, it was a construct of millions of individuals, much like any reaper.
But as you said, it boiled down to slowing them down, which didn't slow them down much, that was the job of the arrival.
And the other part about learning more about the reapers, which meant a few assets here and there depending on your end-result choice.
Any reason behind the humanreaper was explained or retconned in ME3, it removed much of the bigger reasons behind the stuff going on in the second game, and made it more like "next time gadget!!!"
I haven't argued that it wasn't of consequence, except it was a new choice from nothing.
The series have always been about your choices creating consequences further up, and further choices spanning from those, the ending was isolated on its own, it didn't matter what you had done, your work on proving the ability to co-exist didn't mean anything at all either.
It is a hard choice, but it's a choice out of nowhere, and THAT is the problem, you couldn't even question the motives or prove the space magic deus ex machina that it could be different, anything you did lead up to this point no matter what you actually did.
where else would you have wanted it to go? and i mean that as a genuine question. im interested to hear what people who didnt like the ending wouldve preferred.
Yeah, who said anything else?
Again, consider their original plan that worked even against the protheans:
- open the Citadel relay and let ALL the Reapers through at once
- disable the entire relay network for anyone but the Reapers, also cutting all communications except the few existing quantum entanglement devices (which have very low bandwidth)
- gain access to all the data stored on the Citadel, from fleet deployment to census to resources
Stopping the Collectors mattered a LOT. Without that, the human Reaper would've done what Sovereign has tried - open the Citadel Relay - and the war would have been lost immediately. The protheans had a vastly larger unified empire and event hey couldn't hold on against the Reapers.
And the other part about learning more about the reapers, which meant a few assets here and there depending on your end-result choice.
I agree with that, the execution wasn't as good. There should've been more exact hints about the ending and a little more exploration of what the Reapers are and why is there this whole cycle of extinction, before the player got to the Citadel. It really almost comes out of nowhere.
Your previous choices did matter though, because if you messed up everywhere, you couldn't get enough war assets to have all choices. This is similar to ME2's ending where if you intentionally skip all loyalty quests and assign the worst squad members for each task, you can lose everyone - here, if you don't get enough support and do enough side quests, you'll have no choice and Earth will be destroyed.
Yes, saving X or allying with Y does not give you a different cinematic. But at least here on Polycount we should be able to see how the possible variations are far too many to deal with, and incorporating every major decision into the ending in any significant way is simply not possible.
What they can do is to append some stuff in text form somehow, the way you got dossiers from the Shadow Broker on each squad member. I suppose that's what they're looking into right now.
Had it been for a game that was going to have a sequel, yes, absolutely, but it was this variation that was promised, and it's nothing that's impossible to manage either.
There's no logic behind your military strength affecting what choices you get there, as you can pretty much play MP to boost up your readyness and thus do less storyrelated things to get better endings, there's no solid connections anywhere, there wasn't any hard choices that revealed the synthesis or control ending.
It's basically an exp bar that you level up.
They could, but it wouldn't fix the choices, only the closure.
The endings were interesting and I agree now looking in retrospective that Shepard should choose to destroy the reapers. It's what he has been doing all along.
I am curious about what someone already posted here about the people that are unsatisfied with the endings.
What did you wanted out of the ending? I wasn't expecting a happy ending at all. Specially with the amazing music the game had, with the conversations I had with my squad,etc.
Were people expecting a Star Wars EP4 ending. Getting medals and everyone happy? Just curious.
This is the general view most seem to have on the complainers, but it's all about people wanting choice, consequences and closure, not necessarily a happy ending, but an ending that was different in every option, not just a recolour. It's been posted probably 6 times over in this thread.
On top of that it was stuff that bioware actually did promise many times over, that is why people are so upset, otherwise they would've had nothing but their own expectations.