I wonder why none of the reviews seem to address the ending. Do they lack the attachment to the story that we have or did they simply see no major problems with it
I wondered about that too. Aside from risk of spoiling people's expectations by saying "the ending sucks", all I can think of is EA $$$
I was left speechless at the end of this story. I won’t divulge the feeling that washed over me during the final sequence, but I absolutely love how it concludes. Most of the major plot points and character side stories – even those harking back to Mass Effect 1 – resolve. Some of these characters feel like old friends or family members, and it’s remarkable how much emotion these fictional beings evoke. I was sad to leave them behind, but satisfied since I had no unanswered questions.
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chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
I wonder why none of the reviews seem to address the ending. Do they lack the attachment to the story that we have or did they simply see no major problems with it
Some do.
RPS and PC gamer mentioned that, since they only got the basic level ending, it was bleak.
Earth destroyed and that. No three options.
Which reduces the exposure to the worst bits, and knowing there's a "better" ending out there, well, until actually seeing the stuff it's easy to assume there really is a good ending somewhere. Everything else in the game seems to support the conclusion.
I was left speechless at the end of this story. I won’t divulge the feeling that washed over me during the final sequence, but I absolutely love how it concludes. Most of the major plot points and character side stories – even those harking back to Mass Effect 1 – resolve. Some of these characters feel like old friends or family members, and it’s remarkable how much emotion these fictional beings evoke. I was sad to leave them behind, but satisfied since I had no unanswered questions.
Everything you’ve done in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 has led up to this moment, a weight that Mass Effect 3 bears with grace and pride. Everything you do feels important – every side quest, every scan, every conversation, every shot fired feels like it impacts your likelihood of success in a very real and tangible way. You never lose the sense that you’re fighting for the survival of all life, everywhere, but it also never feels overwrought or excessively dramatic.
Oh, I don't know, I fucked up my game -pretty- goddamn bad. Let the council die in 1, Gave TIM the base in 2, got Legion, Miranda, Jack, Thane, Grunt, Zaeed, Mordin And -possibly- Garrus killed in the suicide mission, never recruited Kasumi or Tali, may have killed Wrex in 1 (I can't remember if I did, and I never went to Tuchanka in 2, so he might be alive.) Ahh well. I can always save that playthrough for last once my multiplayer bonus dies down.
Don't even bother playing ME3 if you're going in with all of those characters dead. Would just be a barren experience. Re-do the suicide mission.
I'll probably redo it just to see if I can finagle into only killing Miranda and Jacob. That was sort of the goal. It just... uhhh... didn't go so well is all. I'll probably do my first playthrough as my paragon male soldier, since that's how I started 2.
Miranda? But... dat ass
I am pleased I have several playthroughs with her dead
Didn't really like the way she was done in 3
She could have been done better. She felt like kind of a drama queen in 3, with an issue that Shepard would have fixed in about 5 seconds flat if she just let him take care of business. I still don't regret continuing the romance since, as I've said before, she's the hottest chick in the ME franchise by miles.
Also, considering how graphic the violence is in this game, I really think that sex scenes in games like this need to take cues from The Witcher 2. If exploding heads and gibs is acceptable to show, sex should be too. Though the Liara romance conclusion was done really well after I saw a youtube video of that. Miranda's was extremely disappointing.
I agree that it's awfully weird that as the games have gone on there's been LESS sex rather than more. I'm sure the lack of sex scenes in 3 was more budgetary than anything, but it really did feel a bit odd.
That being said, let's not take our cues from the freaking Witcher. I'm all for sex as part of the story of a relationship between characters, the witcher it's just purely there for kids (and manchildren) to go 'teehee, boobs'. It's juvenile and annoying.
A trap is for fish: when you've got the fish, you can forget the trap. A snare is for rabbits: when you've got the rabbit, you can forget the snare. Words are for meaning: when you've got the meaning, you can forget the words.
All the catalyst stuff aside, I am super disappointed by the way your war assets affect things. It all seems so arbitrary. You made this meter fill up more so we'll show you a better version of the same cutscene and not make it clear exactly how the two are related. Mass Effect 2 did its ending so perfectly with choices you made throughout the game and during the mission directly and obviously affecting what happened.
The War Assets thing doesn't even make much sense. Like, if you brought a big enough army to the fight then the catalyst decides that you can pick what you want to do instead of picking for you? And it's less rude to you? And if you bring an even bigger army the Catalyst gives you a third option? I don't understand how that follows at all. Whereas it made perfect sense if Jack died from a hull breach because you didn't bother to upgrade your armor.
Everything you’ve done in Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 has led up to this moment, a weight that Mass Effect 3 bears with grace and pride. Everything you do feels important – every side quest, every scan, every conversation, every shot fired feels like it impacts your likelihood of success in a very real and tangible way. You never lose the sense that you’re fighting for the survival of all life, everywhere, but it also never feels overwrought or excessively dramatic.
i agree with that entirely
i just don't think it applies to the last 5-10 minutes
You know how Vigil in ME1 was all like "reapers try to control the citadel and shut down the relays to isolate the star systems"?
"The plot hole is that the Reapers grabbed the Citadel when we hit the Cerberus Station, but they did not deactivate the relays with it."
Irrefutable proof that the ME3 endings are visually similar. Good or bad is up to your interpretations and tastes. Visual similarity is not.
2 minutes. No commentary. Spoiler obviously.
From eurogamer, who also gave the game a perfect score and are usually pretty hard to please
"Taken as a whole this is arguably the first truly modern blockbuster, a game that transcends the genre boundaries of old and takes what it needs from across the gaming spectrum in order to finish its story in the most compelling, thrilling, heartbreaking way possible. Few gaming sagas come to a definitive close, but this one signs off in breathtaking style."
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JacobkoshGamble a stamp.I can show you how to be a real man!Moderatormod
I wonder why none of the reviews seem to address the ending. Do they lack the attachment to the story that we have or did they simply see no major problems with it
Game endings are often, if not outright bad, the dodgiest part of the experience. For whatever reason - maybe because it's by definition the part that the fewest people are likely to see - the last bits of so many games seem to be where corners are cut, where half-baked new gameplay mechanics are introduced, and where fundamental story structure problems rear their heads.
ME3 doesn't end with a frustrating quick-time sequence or glitchy dune buggy chase or something, and I think for a lot of people, especially people who play games nonstop under crushing deadlines, that will be more than enough.
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Der Waffle MousBlame this on the misfortune of your birth.New Yark, New Yark.Registered Userregular
At any rate, I'm curious to see what will happen at the mass effect 3 panel at pax east.
Awkward.
My bet is panel canceled.
idea, bioware people walkout with a big footlocker, open it up with the guy who wrote the ending, throw him into the fans with just saying "have fun" after pax the people cleaning up the con wonder why there is a huge pile of jelly on the floor.
At any rate, I'm curious to see what will happen at the mass effect 3 panel at pax east.
Awkward.
My bet is panel canceled.
idea, bioware people walkout with a big footlocker, open it up with the guy who wrote the ending, throw him into the fans with just saying "have fun" after pax the people cleaning up the con wonder why there is a huge pile of jelly on the floor.
oh, come on
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chiasaur11Never doubt a raccoon.Do you think it's trademarked?Registered Userregular
You know, as much as the bit just before the ending is what I want, wouldn't mind an offhand mention of a (semi is fine) successful Citadel evac before the Reapers snatch it.
Just so many people you give a shit about there, and so much of the series has you trying to save the dang place, rings false to have everyone killed offscreen.
I was left speechless at the end of this story. I won’t divulge the feeling that washed over me during the final sequence, but I absolutely love how it concludes. Most of the major plot points and character side stories – even those harking back to Mass Effect 1 – resolve. Some of these characters feel like old friends or family members, and it’s remarkable how much emotion these fictional beings evoke. I was sad to leave them behind, but satisfied since I had no unanswered questions.
Oh game informer you never cease to prove to me that you wrote a review without actually playing thegane in question.
I have a podcast now. It's about video games and anime!Find it here.
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CyrondinI bring the sick beats on you, brotherChicago, ILRegistered Userregular
At any rate, I'm curious to see what will happen at the mass effect 3 panel at pax east.
Awkward.
My bet is panel canceled.
idea, bioware people walkout with a big footlocker, open it up with the guy who wrote the ending, throw him into the fans with just saying "have fun" after pax the people cleaning up the con wonder why there is a huge pile of jelly on the floor.
oh, come on
it really a joke, that panal is going to be something for sure. but really at worst, it going to be a nutjob with a wifflebat and he be tazed like a motherfucker.
really bioware will make a joke about it, like how at the SWTOR guild summit there was a joke about ilum.
You know how Vigil in ME1 was all like "reapers try to control the citadel and shut down the relays to isolate the star systems"?
"The plot hole is that the Reapers grabbed the Citadel when we hit the Cerberus Station, but they did not deactivate the relays with it."
Remember how the reapers not being able to deactivate the relays was a major plot point?
I bet he didn't.
They weren't able to remotely deactivate the relays. Soveregn was linking with the citadel to do it manually.
if the reapers could move the citadel to earth and seal it up then they could have probably also shut the relays down.
Yes, and then you upload the files that Vigil gave you, which locks Sovereign out of the system, letting you re-open the arms and re-activate the citadel relay.
You know how Vigil in ME1 was all like "reapers try to control the citadel and shut down the relays to isolate the star systems"?
"The plot hole is that the Reapers grabbed the Citadel when we hit the Cerberus Station, but they did not deactivate the relays with it."
Remember how the reapers not being able to deactivate the relays was a major plot point?
I bet he didn't.
They weren't able to remotely deactivate the relays. Soveregn was linking with the citadel to do it manually.
if the reapers could move the citadel to earth and seal it up then they could have probably also shut the relays down.
Yes, and then you upload the files that Vigil gave you, which locks Sovereign out of the system, letting you re-open the arms and re-activate the citadel relay.
right i get that but
they stole the citadel and moved it
they couldn't go in there and unfuck what you did in ME1 and just cockblock all the Relays?
You know how Vigil in ME1 was all like "reapers try to control the citadel and shut down the relays to isolate the star systems"?
"The plot hole is that the Reapers grabbed the Citadel when we hit the Cerberus Station, but they did not deactivate the relays with it."
Remember how the reapers not being able to deactivate the relays was a major plot point?
I bet he didn't.
They weren't able to remotely deactivate the relays. Soveregn was linking with the citadel to do it manually.
if the reapers could move the citadel to earth and seal it up then they could have probably also shut the relays down.
Yes, and then you upload the files that Vigil gave you, which locks Sovereign out of the system, letting you re-open the arms and re-activate the citadel relay.
Re: vigil
I honestly don't remember this part. Vigil gave you a file when?
[EDIT]
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. I checked the wiki. Hmm. But Soverign was still trying to dock with the citadel at the end, so he must be doing something.
royard on
Irrefutable proof that the ME3 endings are visually similar. Good or bad is up to your interpretations and tastes. Visual similarity is not.
2 minutes. No commentary. Spoiler obviously.
You know, as much as the bit just before the ending is what I want, wouldn't mind an offhand mention of a (semi is fine) successful Citadel evac before the Reapers snatch it.
Just so many people you give a shit about there, and so much of the series has you trying to save the dang place, rings false to have everyone killed offscreen.
I kind of liked how it was done
when I walked on to the citadel for the last time and I saw all the bodies it finally clicked that all the people I knew there were dead, Bailey, Dr Michael, Kelly, all the little people I'd seen through the whole series just doing their thing
it made me sad and angry at the reapers
but then again I liked the ending overall, not the best but it left me satisfied
You know how Vigil in ME1 was all like "reapers try to control the citadel and shut down the relays to isolate the star systems"?
"The plot hole is that the Reapers grabbed the Citadel when we hit the Cerberus Station, but they did not deactivate the relays with it."
Remember how the reapers not being able to deactivate the relays was a major plot point?
I bet he didn't.
They weren't able to remotely deactivate the relays. Soveregn was linking with the citadel to do it manually.
if the reapers could move the citadel to earth and seal it up then they could have probably also shut the relays down.
Yes, and then you upload the files that Vigil gave you, which locks Sovereign out of the system, letting you re-open the arms and re-activate the citadel relay.
right i get that but
they stole the citadel and moved it
they couldn't go in there and unfuck what you did in ME1 and just cockblock all the Relays?
really?
(this whole quote tree is ending stuff)
Unfucking it takes time and there's not a big gap between the assault on TIM and the assault on Earth
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Der Waffle MousBlame this on the misfortune of your birth.New Yark, New Yark.Registered Userregular
I'm not going to go all crazy about it, but there seems to be enough in the way of reasonable explanations for that happening.
Hell, its even possible that it was TIM at the controls instead of a docked reaper.
there's of course nothing they could discuss at the panel except the last five minutes
If the whole panel totally ignores the last five minutes, that'd be fine. Almost everyone who worked on this deserves massive, massive compliments.
And ignoring those five minutes is pretty much what everyone wants to do anyway, so...
The ending is the giant, mammoth, gargantuan white elephant in the room. If they never mention it it will be pure awkwardness for the panels entire run. If they do the right thing and start off by bringing it up and admit it sucked, or at least acknowledge the fans and let them ask about it, it'll be great.
Let's just be perfectly clear, though. The ending is objectively bad. It's absolutely impossible to argue that they couldn't have done a better job. If any of the Bioware people say that they feel they gave it the best ending they could, they're either lying or completely delusional.
Posts
I wondered about that too. Aside from risk of spoiling people's expectations by saying "the ending sucks", all I can think of is EA $$$
Some do.
RPS and PC gamer mentioned that, since they only got the basic level ending, it was bleak.
Which reduces the exposure to the worst bits, and knowing there's a "better" ending out there, well, until actually seeing the stuff it's easy to assume there really is a good ending somewhere. Everything else in the game seems to support the conclusion.
Why I fear the ocean.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Hahahahaha
I agree that it's awfully weird that as the games have gone on there's been LESS sex rather than more. I'm sure the lack of sex scenes in 3 was more budgetary than anything, but it really did feel a bit odd.
That being said, let's not take our cues from the freaking Witcher. I'm all for sex as part of the story of a relationship between characters, the witcher it's just purely there for kids (and manchildren) to go 'teehee, boobs'. It's juvenile and annoying.
bribed by EA
The War Assets thing doesn't even make much sense. Like, if you brought a big enough army to the fight then the catalyst decides that you can pick what you want to do instead of picking for you? And it's less rude to you? And if you bring an even bigger army the Catalyst gives you a third option? I don't understand how that follows at all. Whereas it made perfect sense if Jack died from a hull breach because you didn't bother to upgrade your armor.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
i agree with that entirely
i just don't think it applies to the last 5-10 minutes
http://www.audioentropy.com/
You know how Vigil in ME1 was all like "reapers try to control the citadel and shut down the relays to isolate the star systems"?
"The plot hole is that the Reapers grabbed the Citadel when we hit the Cerberus Station, but they did not deactivate the relays with it."
2 minutes. No commentary. Spoiler obviously.
Game endings are often, if not outright bad, the dodgiest part of the experience. For whatever reason - maybe because it's by definition the part that the fewest people are likely to see - the last bits of so many games seem to be where corners are cut, where half-baked new gameplay mechanics are introduced, and where fundamental story structure problems rear their heads.
ME3 doesn't end with a frustrating quick-time sequence or glitchy dune buggy chase or something, and I think for a lot of people, especially people who play games nonstop under crushing deadlines, that will be more than enough.
I bet he didn't.
idea, bioware people walkout with a big footlocker, open it up with the guy who wrote the ending, throw him into the fans with just saying "have fun" after pax the people cleaning up the con wonder why there is a huge pile of jelly on the floor.
if the reapers could move the citadel to earth and seal it up then they could have probably also shut the relays down.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
oh, come on
Just so many people you give a shit about there, and so much of the series has you trying to save the dang place, rings false to have everyone killed offscreen.
Why I fear the ocean.
Oh game informer you never cease to prove to me that you wrote a review without actually playing thegane in question.
it really a joke, that panal is going to be something for sure. but really at worst, it going to be a nutjob with a wifflebat and he be tazed like a motherfucker.
really bioware will make a joke about it, like how at the SWTOR guild summit there was a joke about ilum.
oh god damn it
I want to see how horribly, or beautifully, you fucks managed to twists the design system
It's not the bioware people I'm concerned about
It's the "dedicated fanbase"
If the whole panel totally ignores the last five minutes, that'd be fine. Almost everyone who worked on this deserves massive, massive compliments.
And ignoring those five minutes is pretty much what everyone wants to do anyway, so...
Why I fear the ocean.
That was the point I was going for with just canceling the panel.
Also -tal is the ACSIS of video games.
I'm not sure what this means
right i get that but
they couldn't go in there and unfuck what you did in ME1 and just cockblock all the Relays?
really?
Re: vigil
I honestly don't remember this part. Vigil gave you a file when?
[EDIT]
Ohhhhhhhhhhhh. I checked the wiki. Hmm. But Soverign was still trying to dock with the citadel at the end, so he must be doing something.
2 minutes. No commentary. Spoiler obviously.
when I walked on to the citadel for the last time and I saw all the bodies it finally clicked that all the people I knew there were dead, Bailey, Dr Michael, Kelly, all the little people I'd seen through the whole series just doing their thing
it made me sad and angry at the reapers
but then again I liked the ending overall, not the best but it left me satisfied
(this whole quote tree is ending stuff)
I suppose that could explain what joker was running from. Not the initial pulse from the citadel, but the shockwave of the relay.
Either way whoops
It means Protheans built the Pyramids!
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
The ending is the giant, mammoth, gargantuan white elephant in the room. If they never mention it it will be pure awkwardness for the panels entire run. If they do the right thing and start off by bringing it up and admit it sucked, or at least acknowledge the fans and let them ask about it, it'll be great.
Let's just be perfectly clear, though. The ending is objectively bad. It's absolutely impossible to argue that they couldn't have done a better job. If any of the Bioware people say that they feel they gave it the best ending they could, they're either lying or completely delusional.