As someone who was highly disappointed with the original ending, I was quite pleased with the extended ending DLC.
Look I didn't intend to fire up round 24,601 of 'ME3's ending was a crime against humanity / no it wasn't', it was simply a throwaway line about a little extra time not necessarily being a bad thing.
And yes before we go deeper into this rabbit hole, I'm aware of the internal matters at play, not simply time constraints.
I seem to recall a significant sum being raised for charity as well. Considering the larger tantrums that some net/gaming communities have thrown over smaller shit, it was at least at SOME TIMES, BY SOME PEOPLE, channeled into funnier/more productive ends, at least some of the time.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Extended Ending and Leviathan went a long way towards making the ending, if not great, at least perfectly acceptable.
Them not being base content sort of stinks.
+11
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Iron WeaselDillon!You son of a bitch!Registered Userregular
Folk on the Bioware forums raised like $1,000 to send 400 cupcakes to Bioware. The cupcakes were colored red, green, and blue, but had identical flavors. "No matter what color you choose, they all taste the same."
It was fucking stupid for a number of reasons, including 1) they're being assholes - do you really think that Bioware somehow missed all your bitching on the forums?, 2) Bioware cannot accept donated food like that.
My favourite part was when those same assholes got really mad after Bioware sent all the cupcakes to a local community center.
Currently Playing:
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Folk on the Bioware forums raised like $1,000 to send 400 cupcakes to Bioware. The cupcakes were colored red, green, and blue, but had identical flavors. "No matter what color you choose, they all taste the same."
It was fucking stupid for a number of reasons, including 1) they're being assholes - do you really think that Bioware somehow missed all your bitching on the forums?, 2) Bioware cannot accept donated food like that.
My favourite part was when those same assholes got really mad after Bioware sent all the cupcakes to a local community center.
Maybe if you want to be taken SUPER SERIAL don't send twee little cupcakes.
The extended cut made the ending not emotionally hollow, but that was only one of many, many issues with the story. Nothing short of a beginning-to-end overhaul could make ME3's story acceptable for me.
The last time I played the campaign I don't think I even bothered to play the final mission.
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Olivawgood name, isn't it?the foot of mt fujiRegistered Userregular
The extended cut made the ending not emotionally hollow, but that was only one of many, many issues with the story. Nothing short of a beginning-to-end overhaul could make ME3's story acceptable for me.
The last time I played the campaign I don't think I even bothered to play the final mission.
Yeah, the problems with Mass Effect 3's writing are throughout that game
It's just the ending's problems happened to be both the biggest, and the last thing people saw
I think there were lots of ways to salvage the ending without a total rewrite. Heck to me the refusal ending would be a-ok if you just cut the starchild entirely. Or make starchild and the hallucinations part of an IT-style reveal.
I seem to recall a significant sum being raised for charity as well. Considering the larger tantrums that some net/gaming communities have thrown over smaller shit, it was at least at SOME TIMES, BY SOME PEOPLE, channeled into funnier/more productive ends, at least some of the time.
Not to my knowledge? Bioware donated the cupcakes to a local youth shelter, but I can't find any record of the cupcake campaign money going to charity.
Is fundraising money for cupcakes that ultimately went to underprivileged kids a good thing? Sorta. Raising the money directly for the shelter would have been better. It wouldn't have involved passive-aggressive baked goods, for one.
Is it better than most of the toxic shit negative communities spew? I guess, but it's still an absurd form of vitriol that was delivered as barely-concealed abuse instead of something productive.
Folk on the Bioware forums raised like $1,000 to send 400 cupcakes to Bioware. The cupcakes were colored red, green, and blue, but had identical flavors. "No matter what color you choose, they all taste the same."
It was fucking stupid for a number of reasons, including 1) they're being assholes - do you really think that Bioware somehow missed all your bitching on the forums?, 2) Bioware cannot accept donated food like that.
My favourite part was when those same assholes got really mad after Bioware sent all the cupcakes to a local community center.
Maybe if you want to be taken SUPER SERIAL don't send twee little cupcakes.
It detracts from the gravitas of your protest.
To be fair, there's not much that you can send to company offices that will be taken seriously and won't get you arrested.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
You're conflating the cupcakes with the other charity work that was done.
This is what I'm talking about; around 80k raised for Childs Play, but eventually shut down for some solid reasons.
Perhaps I was unclear, but I'm referencing multiple events around that time.
I had forgotten about that! Donating money to a cause because you're unhappy is a much better form of expression, assuming that cause supports positive feedback instead negative.
Folk on the Bioware forums raised like $1,000 to send 400 cupcakes to Bioware. The cupcakes were colored red, green, and blue, but had identical flavors. "No matter what color you choose, they all taste the same."
It was fucking stupid for a number of reasons, including 1) they're being assholes - do you really think that Bioware somehow missed all your bitching on the forums?, 2) Bioware cannot accept donated food like that.
As far as fucking stupid petty burns goes though that's a pretty good one
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.
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jefe414"My Other Drill Hole is a Teleporter"Mechagodzilla is Best GodzillaRegistered Userregular
The extended cut made the ending not emotionally hollow, but that was only one of many, many issues with the story. Nothing short of a beginning-to-end overhaul could make ME3's story acceptable for me.
The last time I played the campaign I don't think I even bothered to play the final mission.
Yeah I finished up with The Citadel DLC and turned it off.
In case anyone was curious, and I know probably none of you are, the Marauder Shields comic is actually still going. It's on issue 61, I think. The first five are the really dumb joke stuff, but after that, the writer actually endeavored to make a legitimate AU ending.
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TexiKenDammit!That fish really got me!Registered Userregular
That Suicide Effect trailer makes me want ME2 on Xbone backwards compatible so bad.
The thing about Kai Leng is he was actually pretty good in the second and third books. He was basically evil Shepard. Then he was turned into a space ninja who likes to eat cereal...
i think kai leng would have been better as the virmire non-survivor lazarused up like what shepard was
well no, actually i think that would have been pretty makeshift and what really would have been better is if they had planned a secondary antagonist to be included as a minor character, possibly even a squadmate, right from the start of the trilogy
i hope andromeda isnae going to be kicking off a trilogy, or at least if it is it willnae be using save imports to the same extent the original three did. it was a cool idea and im glad somebody tried it but in the end i think the opportunity cost in terms of more substantial story reactivity to what the player did wasnae worth it
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FencingsaxIt is difficult to get a man to understand, when his salary depends upon his not understandingGNU Terry PratchettRegistered Userregular
The virmire survivor should have been the voice of the Reapers, not Starkid. That would have made it a lot mor effective and affecting.
Here's how you fix the ending with a minimal amount of changes:
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Hackett plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
Here's how you fix the ending with a minimal amount of changes:
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Anderson plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
That ending is still pretty bad, tbh. Prior to Bioware giving us the ending that they did, I would have said that a deus ex machina that solves all the problems would be the worst ending they could give us.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Here's how you fix the ending with a minimal amount of changes:
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Anderson plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
That ending is still pretty bad, tbh. Prior to Bioware giving us the ending that they did, I would have said that a deus ex machina that solves all the problems would be the worst ending they could give us.
It wouldn't be a Deus Ex Machina then, merely a McGuffin.
Same as hauling a ring across the width of Middle Earth that is the source of a big bad's power, a droid that has the schematics to the death star (complete with weak spot!), or finding a stone with the power to kill a god--and then hauling THAT across two continents.
Spoiler alert, the ring is eventually destroyed (and big bad defeated because of it), the schematics used to blow up the death star, and the god is killed once that stone is mated to the right sword and the protagonist learns to master it.
Just like we're told there's this device that we don't know what it does, but the Protheans thought it could stop the Reapers, so we're going to build it, plug it in, and see what happens.
Here's how you fix the ending with a minimal amount of changes:
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Anderson plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
I think that's an ending we can all largely agree on. But choices are fun! What if the Leviathans had gotten more screen time in the main game? It would have been interesting if they had to compensate for their small numbers by controlling more and more organics. Just criminals and undesirables to start, but as they get more and more aggressive, the Council starts to fear that they will never stop. Then you get a legitimate, difficult, morally grey choice:
1. Program the Crucible to target the Leviathans, freeing organics from their control and averting potential mass enslavement
2. Give them the benefit of the doubt, hoping that they start behaving or that the rest of the galaxy finds a way to stop them
It wouldn't have to be exactly that, but it's the first good alternative I've spent brainpower coming up with.
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KadokenGiving Ends to my Friends and it Feels StupendousRegistered Userregular
Here's how you fix the ending with a minimal amount of changes:
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Anderson plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
That ending is still pretty bad, tbh. Prior to Bioware giving us the ending that they did, I would have said that a deus ex machina that solves all the problems would be the worst ending they could give us.
It wouldn't be a Deus Ex Machina then, merely a McGuffin.
Same hauling a ring across the width of Middle Earth, a droid that has the schematics to the death star (complete with weak spot!), or finding a stone with the power to kill a god--and then hauling THAT across two continents.
Spoiler alert, the ring is eventually destroyed, the schematics used to blow up the death star, and the god is killed once that stone is mated to the right sword and the protagonist learns to master it.
Just like we're told there's this device that we don't know what it does, but the Protheans thought it could stop the Reapers, so we're going to build it, plug it in, and see what happens.
What is the one about the stone with the power to kill a god? Berserk?
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Here's how you fix the ending with a minimal amount of changes:
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Anderson plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
That ending is still pretty bad, tbh. Prior to Bioware giving us the ending that they did, I would have said that a deus ex machina that solves all the problems would be the worst ending they could give us.
It wouldn't be a Deus Ex Machina then, merely a McGuffin.
Same hauling a ring across the width of Middle Earth, a droid that has the schematics to the death star (complete with weak spot!), or finding a stone with the power to kill a god--and then hauling THAT across two continents.
Spoiler alert, the ring is eventually destroyed, the schematics used to blow up the death star, and the god is killed once that stone is mated to the right sword and the protagonist learns to master it.
Just like we're told there's this device that we don't know what it does, but the Protheans thought it could stop the Reapers, so we're going to build it, plug it in, and see what happens.
What is the one about the stone with the power to kill a god? Berserk?
I was thinking of the Belgariad. It shouldn't surprise me that the setup isn't unique...
It's a deus ex machina. The difference between the crucible and the examples you mentioned, is that those McGuffins were introduced at the beginning of each story with their specific usage in mind, and the story was built up around them. The crucible wasn't introduced until the final act of Mass Effect, nothing about what it does or why it works is ever explained, and it seems to only exist because the writers wrote themselves into a corner.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited May 2016
As it originally exists, it's hard to argue it's not a Deus Ex Machina. You're in a machine! Talking to a god! Seriously! Especially if you take the Green ending (the other two at least make a level of sense given what was telegraphed from the beginning).
With Ivan Hunger's adjustment, you have something telegraphed from the very beginning of the game (the first mission even). So that complaint, at least, goes away.
As it originally exists, it's hard to argue it's not a Deus Ex Machina. You're in a machine! Talking to a god! Seriously! Especially if you take the Green ending (the other two at least make a level of sense given what was telegraphed from the beginning).
With Ivan Hunger's adjustment, you have something telegraphed from the very beginning of the game (the first mission even). So that complaint, at least, goes away.
I misunderstood your original point then. Yeah, it would be much less of shitfest if we knew about the crucible from the beginning (and you know, maybe didn't introduce it in an optional DLC...) and if the machinegodkid didn't exist, and if you removed the Space Magic endings. I still think it would be a pretty weak ending though. I don't think the reapers should have been outright defeatable, with how unknowably and terribly powerful they were portrayed as.
If you really didn't want to participate, or if the servers shut down or whatever, there is a hack on PC to max out your readiness.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
One of the patches made it so that you can achieve the points for the Best Ending (or whatever) without MP. Having DLC makes it quite easy but even without DLC you can do it, you just need to do basically every single side mission and collectible wingwong.
I'm actually a bit miffed that there's no way to toggle off the accumulated Good Ending Points you earn by promoting your MP soldiers, because it means if you do that enough times you can never see the worst ending.
If you really didn't want to participate, or if the servers shut down or whatever, there is a hack on PC to max out your readiness.
You can also just do side quests, and max out that way. You didn't have to play MP at all, but fortunately MP turned out to be so, so good.
Everyone has a price. Throw enough gold around and someone will risk disintegration.
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BRIAN BLESSEDMaybe you aren't SPEAKING LOUDLY ENOUGHHHRegistered Userregular
edited May 2016
Launch day Mass Effect 3's difficulty seems leagues harder than how it currently plays in single-player (as someone who started off on Insanity). Spawn frequency of enemies in the Earth level seem a lot easier and meeting the required maximum score for the best ending possible is now absolutely trivial for anyone who puts the effort into completing a decent amount of content.
I think the whole multiplayer feeding into a singleplayer scenario was actually pretty cool as a narrative device and it helps that it's also still a godlike fun Horde mode.
Btw, has anyone ever posted this? I stumbled across it trying to find decent critiques of Call of Duty's storytelling and this guy deserves more subs, I think. Both his Mass Effect and Call of Duty retrospectives span the course of like, 2 hours, and are surprisingly balanced analyses (albeit from that of an ultra-fan's perspective). My favorite part about this analysis is that it fleshes out some of the finer positive points about all three games that sometimes gets glossed over from a general viewpoint.
Launch day Mass Effect 3's difficulty seems leagues harder than how it currently plays in single-player (as someone who started off on Insanity). Spawn frequency of enemies in the Earth level seem a lot easier and meeting the required maximum score for the best ending possible is now absolutely trivial for anyone who puts the effort into completing a decent amount of content.
I think the whole multiplayer feeding into a singleplayer scenario was actually pretty cool as a narrative device and it helps that it's also still a godlike fun Horde mode.
Btw, has anyone ever posted this? I stumbled across it trying to find decent critiques of Call of Duty's storytelling and this guy deserves more subs, I think. Both his Mass Effect and Call of Duty retrospectives span the course of like, 2 hours, and are surprisingly balanced analyses (albeit from that of an ultra-fan's perspective). My favorite part about this analysis is that it fleshes out some of the finer positive points about all three games that sometimes gets glossed over from a general viewpoint.
Launch day Mass Effect 3's difficulty seems leagues harder than how it currently plays in single-player (as someone who started off on Insanity). Spawn frequency of enemies in the Earth level seem a lot easier and meeting the required maximum score for the best ending possible is now absolutely trivial for anyone who puts the effort into completing a decent amount of content.
I think the whole multiplayer feeding into a singleplayer scenario was actually pretty cool as a narrative device and it helps that it's also still a godlike fun Horde mode.
Btw, has anyone ever posted this? I stumbled across it trying to find decent critiques of Call of Duty's storytelling and this guy deserves more subs, I think. Both his Mass Effect and Call of Duty retrospectives span the course of like, 2 hours, and are surprisingly balanced analyses (albeit from that of an ultra-fan's perspective). My favorite part about this analysis is that it fleshes out some of the finer positive points about all three games that sometimes gets glossed over from a general viewpoint.
Plus, he reads his script with the voice of a documentary from the 80s which is tonally perfect by coincidence
God, it's such a small thing, but I love when he's explaining synthesis, and for a moment he lets slip for half a second just the most sincere exasperated sigh.
Here's how you fix the ending with a minimal amount of changes:
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Anderson plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
I think that's an ending we can all largely agree on. But choices are fun! What if the Leviathans had gotten more screen time in the main game? It would have been interesting if they had to compensate for their small numbers by controlling more and more organics. Just criminals and undesirables to start, but as they get more and more aggressive, the Council starts to fear that they will never stop. Then you get a legitimate, difficult, morally grey choice:
1. Program the Crucible to target the Leviathans, freeing organics from their control and averting potential mass enslavement
2. Give them the benefit of the doubt, hoping that they start behaving or that the rest of the galaxy finds a way to stop them
It wouldn't have to be exactly that, but it's the first good alternative I've spent brainpower coming up with.
they get the axe this time
the rachni queen fooled me once, and she didn't start out evil
the leviathans are waaaaay more of a threat. they had already enslaved the galaxy once....
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Posts
Look I didn't intend to fire up round 24,601 of 'ME3's ending was a crime against humanity / no it wasn't', it was simply a throwaway line about a little extra time not necessarily being a bad thing.
And yes before we go deeper into this rabbit hole, I'm aware of the internal matters at play, not simply time constraints.
I seem to recall a significant sum being raised for charity as well. Considering the larger tantrums that some net/gaming communities have thrown over smaller shit, it was at least at SOME TIMES, BY SOME PEOPLE, channeled into funnier/more productive ends, at least some of the time.
Them not being base content sort of stinks.
The Division, Warframe (XB1)
GT: Tanith 6227
Maybe if you want to be taken SUPER SERIAL don't send twee little cupcakes.
It detracts from the gravitas of your protest.
The last time I played the campaign I don't think I even bothered to play the final mission.
Yeah, the problems with Mass Effect 3's writing are throughout that game
It's just the ending's problems happened to be both the biggest, and the last thing people saw
PSN ID : DetectiveOlivaw | TWITTER | STEAM ID | NEVER FORGET
Is fundraising money for cupcakes that ultimately went to underprivileged kids a good thing? Sorta. Raising the money directly for the shelter would have been better. It wouldn't have involved passive-aggressive baked goods, for one.
Is it better than most of the toxic shit negative communities spew? I guess, but it's still an absurd form of vitriol that was delivered as barely-concealed abuse instead of something productive.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Perhaps I was unclear, but I'm referencing multiple events around that time.
To be fair, there's not much that you can send to company offices that will be taken seriously and won't get you arrested.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
As far as fucking stupid petty burns goes though that's a pretty good one
Yeah I finished up with The Citadel DLC and turned it off.
Steam: MightyPotatoKing
well no, actually i think that would have been pretty makeshift and what really would have been better is if they had planned a secondary antagonist to be included as a minor character, possibly even a squadmate, right from the start of the trilogy
i hope andromeda isnae going to be kicking off a trilogy, or at least if it is it willnae be using save imports to the same extent the original three did. it was a cool idea and im glad somebody tried it but in the end i think the opportunity cost in terms of more substantial story reactivity to what the player did wasnae worth it
I think you mean the Virmire non-survivor.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Everything plays out the same as before, up to point after Shepard opens the docking port and passes out unconscious over the control console.
Hackett plugs the Crucible into the Citadel just like before, except this time, instead of not working right away, it does. What follows is basically the destruction ending, except only the Reapers die. The mass relays, the Geth, and Edi don't blow up because that's stupid.
The next scene is Shepard waking up in Huerta Memorial Hospital. He is informed that he has inherited Anderson's new apartment on the Silver Strip. The Citadel DLC begins.
And that's it. No starkid, no motivation for the reapers, no multiple choices that are all bad, and the Citadel DLC as post-game content like it always should have been. Just a perfectly functional ending that would have made everyone happy.
That ending is still pretty bad, tbh. Prior to Bioware giving us the ending that they did, I would have said that a deus ex machina that solves all the problems would be the worst ending they could give us.
It wouldn't be a Deus Ex Machina then, merely a McGuffin.
Same as hauling a ring across the width of Middle Earth that is the source of a big bad's power, a droid that has the schematics to the death star (complete with weak spot!), or finding a stone with the power to kill a god--and then hauling THAT across two continents.
Spoiler alert, the ring is eventually destroyed (and big bad defeated because of it), the schematics used to blow up the death star, and the god is killed once that stone is mated to the right sword and the protagonist learns to master it.
Just like we're told there's this device that we don't know what it does, but the Protheans thought it could stop the Reapers, so we're going to build it, plug it in, and see what happens.
I think that's an ending we can all largely agree on. But choices are fun! What if the Leviathans had gotten more screen time in the main game? It would have been interesting if they had to compensate for their small numbers by controlling more and more organics. Just criminals and undesirables to start, but as they get more and more aggressive, the Council starts to fear that they will never stop. Then you get a legitimate, difficult, morally grey choice:
1. Program the Crucible to target the Leviathans, freeing organics from their control and averting potential mass enslavement
2. Give them the benefit of the doubt, hoping that they start behaving or that the rest of the galaxy finds a way to stop them
It wouldn't have to be exactly that, but it's the first good alternative I've spent brainpower coming up with.
What is the one about the stone with the power to kill a god? Berserk?
I was thinking of the Belgariad. It shouldn't surprise me that the setup isn't unique...
With Ivan Hunger's adjustment, you have something telegraphed from the very beginning of the game (the first mission even). So that complaint, at least, goes away.
I misunderstood your original point then. Yeah, it would be much less of shitfest if we knew about the crucible from the beginning (and you know, maybe didn't introduce it in an optional DLC...) and if the machinegodkid didn't exist, and if you removed the Space Magic endings. I still think it would be a pretty weak ending though. I don't think the reapers should have been outright defeatable, with how unknowably and terribly powerful they were portrayed as.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
I thought it was kinda sorta foreshadowed in lair of the shadow broker. I could be totally wrong though, I haven't gotten to ME2 in my re-playthrough.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
You can also just do side quests, and max out that way. You didn't have to play MP at all, but fortunately MP turned out to be so, so good.
I think the whole multiplayer feeding into a singleplayer scenario was actually pretty cool as a narrative device and it helps that it's also still a godlike fun Horde mode.
Btw, has anyone ever posted this? I stumbled across it trying to find decent critiques of Call of Duty's storytelling and this guy deserves more subs, I think. Both his Mass Effect and Call of Duty retrospectives span the course of like, 2 hours, and are surprisingly balanced analyses (albeit from that of an ultra-fan's perspective). My favorite part about this analysis is that it fleshes out some of the finer positive points about all three games that sometimes gets glossed over from a general viewpoint.
Plus, he reads his script with the voice of a documentary from the 80s which is tonally perfect by coincidence
Oh I think I know about that guy. He also did some great Half Life analyses.
they get the axe this time
the rachni queen fooled me once, and she didn't start out evil
the leviathans are waaaaay more of a threat. they had already enslaved the galaxy once....
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy