Mass Effect 3

EA and Game have had a falling out, as a result Game can no longer stock any new EA games. Now lots of online retailers have aquired the N7 collectors edition but most sold out within a few hours, so if your looking for a copy of that your going to be hard pressed.

Spectral, the problem is that it's the same ending, no matter how you complete the game. The endings are identical, just put through different colour tints. 

I'd be interested to read your opinion on it, Cable. Other than Spectral, you're the only person I know who had anything positive to say about it whatsoever. 

See, I don't have the 'extended' version. Basically, you were 'treated' to a cut scene in either blue, green, or red filter, and it was identical. To me, that felt like a massive slap in the face to the consumer, when what they had been promised was an ending that was shaped by your choices in the previous three games. These aren't short games, and to that end, it really annoyed me that I'd spent in excess of twenty hours on each game, to get to the finale and for the only differences to be in the colour filter placed on the end sequence. There were no records from Liara, nothing... just a really lame ending, that always ended in the Nomandy running through space before the mass relays collapsed, crash landing on an alien world, and your love interest standing there with Joker and EDI and realising that this is what Shepherd's sacrifice meant. 

There were different choices but the consequences were essentially the same, so yeah the endings were pretty much no different. I didn't have a problem with that. The ending was so beautiful and I was pleasantly surprised that Bioware went with such an artistic ending involving the relationship of civilization and technology instead of going the standard "everyone gets a medal and lives happily ever after" route. Of course now they are being punished dearly for it and are compromising their artistic integrity. Shame.

To me the people who complain the endings are the same are too narrowly focused. To me they are saying the journey doesn't matter, just the results. While the conclusion is the same, the way that you get there is vastly different based on your actions in the game. All the different decisions you made determine HOW and WHY Shepard makes the choice he makes at the end (similar to what I think Spectral was saying). In that respect, each individual's ending is objectively the same, but subjectively different due to the experiences they went through to get there being so varied. I love that. Definitely an unexpected and unorthodox move from Bioware.

And besides why have different endings if one ending is vastly superior and going to be canonical going forward? What if you played through three games and got the worst ending of them all, knowing there were better ones you didn't get to see? I'd be pretty pissed then

But I do agree with those who criticized the ending on continuity grounds. If you play the DLC that bridges ME2 and ME3, it involves you destroying a mass relay in Batarian space. The destruction of a relay is shown to be the same as a supernova, and the entire system is obliterated. At the end of ME3, all the mass relays are destroyed. This would mean any system with one in it would be completely decimated, Earth included. I don't think this happened at the end nor is what they intended and they would have to explain why.

Originally posted by Cable But I do agree with those who criticized the ending on continuity grounds. If you play the DLC that bridges ME2 and ME3, it involves you destroying a mass relay in Batarian space. The destruction of a relay is shown to be the same as a supernova, and the entire system is obliterated. At the end of ME3, all the mass relays are destroyed. This would mean any system with one in it would be completely decimated, Earth included. I don't think this happened at the end nor is what they intended and they would have to explain why.

ME3's ending is basically the Marvel Crossover of video games.  You have everybody individually writing different segments and they run the risk of becoming incredibly disjointed and non-contiguous from the rest.

To the rest about what the individual choices meant (and again, I hadn't played the new updated ending), none of the choices basically captured the Shepard that I created as a paragon.  The Renegade Shepard, sure, would've chosen to destroy all synthetics in a heartbeat.  That was an easy choice.  But my paragon Shepard was a bastion of self-determination and individuality, everyone working together of their own free will just because it was the right thing to do.  And for that Shepard to be maintained, the game would have to end right at the point that I took the fleet back to Earth in the first place.  Because the endings as provided initially actually broke character because my character did not have the ability to actually debate this random glowy analog for Shepard's survivor's guilt (actually as soon as it was telling me what I had to do, I was all, "Got dammit they ganked 343 Guilty Spark... use the Index, Reclaimer!  Activate the Core!").

Maybe the new ending is different, I haven't bothered to replay the game or look it up.  But that was my issue with the initial ending -- my character had to suddenly become an entirely different person for any of the three choices to work.  When you're building a character's profile over 3 games, yeah, that's pretty jarring.

The way I played Renegade Shepard, the destruction made sense.  Whatever great simplicity you saw, I saw "Here are the endings we felt like doing and so that's what you're getting."  Which, going back to your example of the store and no sense in arguing with them about other colors... that makes sense, only if there was no advertised expectation of getting anything else.

Mass Effect 3's endings were not bad, if you only played Mass Effect 3.  However, I did not feel like anything I did before Mass Effect 3 really made much of a difference (oh sure, war assets that were very easily replaceable but largely didn't matter for crap to the actual story resolution).  So if Mass Effect 3 was a stand-alone experience that was not connected to the decisions and situations and concepts, the inevitabilities that my Shepard had spent three games defying in proving that the universe didn't have to be so cut and dry and that there was always another way... I'd have no problem.  But the company and the writers repeatedly suggested that it would take into account, on a very fundamental level, everything that I had done up to that point.  So if a store gives me red, blue, and green, and I'm not supposed to feel disappointed that the advertisements and the mannequins are showing me lots of other colors... I don't know what to call that, but I wouldn't use the term "awe-inspiring."  You can feel that way if you want to, but I'm under no obligation to give them the benefit of the doubt when as far as what I was told to expect, I did not receive it.


Edited by Ciel - 22-Aug-2012 at 2:02am

Originally posted by Cable Originally posted by Ciel You can feel that way if you want to, but I'm under no obligation to give them the benefit of the doubt when as far as what I was told to expect, I did not receive it. You made assumptions about what to expect. They never explicitly stated how the endings would go.

No, they did interviews about this prior to the game's release.  You may give them the benefit of the doubt, but that doesn't erase them from the record.  However, if you still like the ending, that's fine.  I'm not asking you to agree with me.  It seems more like you're trying to defend it based partially on you liking it, and partially based artistic integrity or something.  I'm not telling you not to like it, I'm only speaking for my playthroughs and experience.  There's nothing to defend.  You're not wrong for liking what you got.  However, if I don't like what I got, that doesn't really make me wrong either.


Edited by Ciel - 22-Aug-2012 at 12:23pm