I'll never understand people who complained about the ending after the EC hit...
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Jan 25, 2013 10:24 am GMT
Stalolin posted...From: GradyHoover | #001
I'd call it "The best ending I've ever seen to any video game, going all the way back to my Atari days and up to now." Only possible opponent might be the first Actraiser, but otherwise, Mass Effect 3 nails the landing with perfection.
I can't fathom how so many people still hate it and call it a "fiasco."
Because the ending lacked what we call "narrative cohesion". In that in the context of the story the starchild/catalyst was not valid. You can't just pull these kinds of plot elements (space magic) out of nowhere with no prior foreshadowing or explanation because you wrote yourself into a corner or didn't have the time to come up with something more grounded in the universe that was established from the start.
There's no magic. It's an A.I. program with a holographic body.
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Jan 25, 2013 11:01 am GMT
GradyHoover posted...There's no magic. It's an A.I. program with a holographic body.
Synthesis is magic, Destroy and Control if you try really hard you can explain them.
Destroy - All Reaper tech when combined with AI has a hidden kill switch, the Mass Relays sends out a signal that flips that switch. explains EDI and Geth getting wiped but how Mass Relays stay functional.
Control - uploads Shepard as the new boss, simple enough
Synthesis would need trillions upon trillions of nanomachines to identify and change at the molecular level every organic and synthetic organism in the galaxy. the Genophage is the only thing remotely similar and it wasn't done with an energy pulse.
i'm okay with the concept of it, the execution sucked. Shepard should have chosen to synthesize only himself into a genetic god and gradually lead the galaxy to enlightenment.
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Destin the Valiant
Jan 25, 2013 12:02 pm GMT
Jan 26, 2013 2:09 am GMT
I still think Bioware could have had their "artistic integrity" by including an achievable happy ending.
They still could do it. Pick the Destroy ending, after the breath, Shep shows up later and goes off into the reaper free sunset with the LI. One more scene to what they've got already and I'd be happy. Anyone else who likes the other endings, great, pick them.
The replay on the SP is just ruined by not wanting to go through that depressing ending as it is now. I wish Bioware had been able to accept the fact that they had created one of the most beloved gaming heros of all time and let the fans have the love. Bioware choked and just took a hatchet to it.
Jan 26, 2013 7:25 am GMT
Short story: Anyone who calls ME3's ending GOOD has terrible taste and probably thinks that, oh, I dunno, Square can actually tell a story to save their lives, or that Pong is the most riveting drama ever. That said, it's far from the worst ending ever, but it's just as far from being good.
Long story: Use your imagination and paraphrase the above eloquently and drag it out.
But I digress. Let me compare Mass Effect to Dragon's Dogma for awhile.
Mass Effect does a good job of making you care. Take the silliness that Garrus and Shepard get up to, for example. By the time 3 rolls around and Garrus's father and sister are on Palaven, damn straight you're going to care. Garrus is a friend. You, the player, care about Garrus. So ultimately, it would be veeeery difficult to bring it all to a satisfying end.
Dragon's Dogma? Your silent protagonist leads a team of literally soulless nobodies. 90% of the plot is GIVEN in the ending., But DAMN is it a good ending, triply so when you consider that you didn't go into it expecting much because of what the rest of the game was! While DD had amazing gameplay, the story itself was reeeeeally basic, like 8 bit RPG basic (Oh, you are chosen, this is your goal, depart!) which just made the end twist and all that it entailed all the more fantastic.
In the end, it all boils down to Expectations.
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PSN: Ranylyn. Playing Mass Effect 3
Main class: Vanguard. Secondary Class: Engineer.
Jan 26, 2013 8:49 am GMT
Honestly, I can deal with a few plot holes and contradictions. ME 3's holes certainly didn't make things better for the ending but that wasn't what sunk the entire thing for me, nor do I think that if that were the only problem with it that fans would go as far as petitioning to have it changed.
What really bothered me was that it wasn't a real conclusion to anything. ME 3 doesn't have a bad ending. It is lacking an ending at all, and the EC doesn't change that.
For a series like Mass Effect where so much investment is in the characters, relationships, world-building and emotional build-up it is not okay to simply "conclude" the main plot and pshaa away everything else (including portions of the main plot). This game was about the characters and they got the shaft. And the frustrating thing about it all is that it would have been so simple to provide some closure for your crewmates.... like maybe, during the credits, getting scenes of Garrus meeting up with his family on war-blasted Palaven or Jacob rubbing his wife's stomach and goop like that. Obviously the scenes change depending on what ending you choose but the point is things are being wrapped up regardless.
Mass Effect 2 ended on a cliffhanger and it provided far more closure than the ending of the entire trilogy. I don't know how anyone can interpret that as good.
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PSN: FuriousGeorge3
"The ice man cometh, Sander Baby... The ice man ******* cometh"
Jan 26, 2013 5:33 pm GMT
I'm among those who hated the original ending. It didnt incorporate any of your choices from your last 100+ hours of gameplay... It just kind of leaves everyone in the dark and presumably it is up to us to interpret the outcome.
Have you heard of the Shepard Inoctronation Theory? I thought the fans' summation of the ending was genius... The possibility that Bioware's writers were so good that the ending plot had been brewing from ME1 and went right over my head? Wow!
Then the EC was released and I learned that everything was to be taken literally, as seen. Kind of a let-down. Basically,they fixed many of their plot holes by adding the option to talk to the catalyst hologram...
Holes still remained, so they drafted up some dlc conversations too (which we had to pay for?) They could have saved a lot of energy by hiring the minds behind the indoctronation theory...
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"Wow, you really are a super kid!"
--randoms
Jan 27, 2013 2:14 am GMT
It's kids man, just ignore them
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PSN: Eternius00
Jan 27, 2013 6:55 am GMT
Where the hell was the option to destroy the Reapers and walk off into the sunset. Having a kid pop up and tell you every decision you had made during the 3 games is now irrelevant was a joke.
Mass Effect 2 (PS3)
Outland (PS3)
Far Cry 3 (PS3)
Dishonored (PS3)
Mass Effect 3: Leviathan (X360)
Mass Effect Trilogy (PS3)
