Mass Effect 3

david · March 10, 2012

so how much has everyone spent on DLC so far

eugene · March 11, 2012

i call this screencap "The Awakening"

**azatoth** · March 11, 2012

Nerd rage because the ending is shite.

March 11, 2012

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that if not the ending it would be at least 8.5, ridiculous.

http://www.gamepur.com/news/7343-mass-effect-3-fans-start-campaign-demanding-better-ending-bioware.html

I wonder how ME3 writters are feeling now.

**azatoth** · March 11, 2012

From what I've been reading about the ending, it is indeed pretty shit and invalidates pretty much the whole story leading up to it. Did Bioware not send out feelers on how people would react to it? Or is it a failed attempt to be edgy? From what I hear it's not the first time Bioware has dropped to ball so massively (no pun intended).

Edited March 11, 2012 by azatoth

March 11, 2012

Probably a failed attempt to be edgy. Not neccesarry a failed attempt even, it's well written and I like the idea, but it's not a happy ending at all, and that's what fans were expecting. And I could appreciate the sacrifices for a greater good or something like that, that would still leave some sort of accomplishment but now it just seems pointless to fight against the Reapers since the endings aren't much better than the destrucion of all organic life. Current endings could be like the worst possible ones, similar how in ME2 Shepard could die.

**Hoodie** · March 11, 2012

The endings aren't well-written at all. They make no sense (in addition to not providing closure to Shepard's journey).

I have a theory that everything after the teleporting beam is in Shepard's head.

here's actually the full theory that i posted on reddit:

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I posted this as a comment in another thread, but I think it deserves some discussion of its own. I think that I've figured it out.

Everything after the beam that teleports Shepard is probably in her head. It's sorta like in the movie Contact, where the aliens appear as Arroway's dad on a beach so that she can comprehend them. Maybe the hyperintelligent AI that controls the Reapers and built the Citadel does the same to Shepard through Anderson, TIM and the little kid. Think about it. How did TIM possibly get onto the Citadel? How did fucking Anderson get there? The radio message Shepard receives clearly states that pretty much everyone was laser blasted by Harbinger. How did Anderson conveniently survive? The mere fact that Shepard sees the Catalyst as a little kid means that someone's been poking inside her brain in the first place, so I don't feel it's a stretch to say that it's a hallucination.

If we're going along this line of reasoning, the mere fact that Shepard got to the beam must have been a test of some sort. Maybe because it wouldn't have occurred in a divided galaxy... Shepard got there because everyone was fighting together against the Reapers. So Shepard's success signaled to the all-intelligent Reapers that the galaxy is ready to break the cycle and they allowed Shepard the decision of how to proceed. Or Harbinger saw the sacrifices that Shepard was willing to make and allowed Shepard to survive. It's just too damn fishy that Shepard didn't get finished off when it would've been simple. The Reapers must have let Shepard into the beam.

Here's where my idea starts getting original (and possibly terrible): Maybe the Reapers were trying to find the pinnacle of organic evolution all along and this current cycle provided it for them. It would explain why the majority of races are symmetrical bipeds that use helical structures as a form of information preservation. You know, convergent evolution and all that. Maybe the Reapers were seeking perfection and order in the chaos of genetics and life. Maybe they reached that goal in the current cycle.

This is also related to the end boss in Mass Effect 2. A lot of people criticized it because people-goo isn't exactly a way of "preserving the essence of a species." But you know what people goo is? Strands of DNA. Genetics. Patterns. Patterns that can be examined extensively by the Reapers. Why decided to put those patterns into a Terminator? Maybe the Terminator was going to be built as the genetic "average" of all those that were harvested and then evaluated for superiority compared to other Reapers (each of which I assume contains a species from past cycles). Shepard put a stop to that though and disrupted their process.

I mean, shit, I dunno. It makes more sense than dark energy or the technological singularity, at least in the way BioWare incorporated those ideas (HALF-ASSED, if you're wondering). Genetics and different forms of life have always been a theme in Mass Effect, more so than technology. However, that doesn't mean that technology wasn't a facet. Remember how the Reapers said that they guided the technological development of civilizations? Technology definitely impacts the biological evolution of a civilization. Anything that alters cultural norms and guidelines can cause a subsequent alteration in what defines the evolutionary fitness of an organism. (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldwin_effect). I know that not enough time had passed since the discovery of mass relays to significantly affect the evolution of man, but who says they won't? The Reapers seem pretty fucking smart. I'm sure they could run a projection and figure out the effects of technology and such on a particular species' genetics.

Another thing: Harbinger also had a major boner for talking about the features of each organism. Remember? It's impossible that it was irrelevant.

Here's another thing: Remember how Saren wanted to cure the genophage? Remember how Saren was indoctrinated? That means that Sovereign wanted to cure the genophage. Hmm. Meddling with genetics. Makes sense.

Of course, the end sequences with Joker flying away make absolutely no sense in the context I just presented. On the other hand, maybe Shepard was hallucinating those too because she couldn't comprehend exactly what would happen according to her decision. This would explain why your squad that you took for the final battle is seen walking out of the Normandy--Shepard is imagining those things happening. It would also explain why one of the endings (synthesis) was akin to a space wizard farting to blow up the mass relays and have people turn into half-synthetics. Shepard's mind can't really process the Reaper's intentions and can't process the consequences. All three of the decisions might be extremely watered down to exist in a form that Shepard can understand. Maybe the consequences that the Catalyst gives Shepard aren't even immediate.

For instance, it says that the destroy option would result in all synthetic lifeforms being destroyed. Maybe that's the ultimate consequence, a couple of thousand years down the life--synthetics become obsolete because of the improved malleability of organics. The synthesis option: nanotechnology. The control option: things stay as they are. The organics control synthetics. I don't know how the Reapers would cause this to happen, but it seems a lot more plausible than space magic that destroys "indestructible" mass relays.

We assume that time means something to these hyperintelligent beings. Shepard assumes it too. Maybe that's why Sovereign said that we could not comprehend their intentions.

Anyway, after Shepard's "decision," she wakes up alive where the beam was in London and is applauded as a hero. The Reapers have mysteriously disappeared, gone to torment another galaxy in their quest to bring genetic perfection/efficiency to the universe in the only way they know how: harvesting species until one shows up that brings something new and wonderful to the table and kicks their ass.

It's not a happy ending. The Reapers are still out there. Thessia, Palaven, Earth and other planets are in ruins. Billions are dead or missing. But it's an ending that gives the characters of Mass Effect hope (as well as the players, herp derp).

Bam. Fixed the ending. Just like that.

Or not.

Thoughts?

i don't actually think that bioware intended an ending like that. they most likely got starved for time and the shitty writing was a result. however, it'd be a good way to retcon it.

Edited March 11, 2012 by Hoodie

March 11, 2012

How they don't make sense? That kid is in Shepard's head for sure.

**Hoodie** · March 11, 2012

On 3/11/2012 at 6:22 PM, Adam Beker said:

How they don't make sense? That kid is in Shepard's head for sure.

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March 11, 2012

On 3/11/2012 at 6:27 PM, Hoodie said:

On 3/11/2012 at 6:22 PM, Adam Beker said:

How they don't make sense? That kid is in Shepard's head for sure.

Reveal hidden contents

synthesis. how the hell can anything take all the dna in the galaxy and combine it with "synthetics"? why can all the options destroy the supposedly indestructible mass relays? why is it that a synthetic living in the citadel controls other synthetics and enacts mass genocide every 50,000 years so that, get this, organics won't have to fight with synthetics. makes absolutely nooo sense. the entire level design of the post-teleporter sequence is ridiculous. somehow shepard gets direct access to a control panel that controls the fate of the galaxy. riiight. it's all totally in her head and being fed to her in a way she can understand.

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Edited March 11, 2012 by Adam Beker

**Hoodie** · March 11, 2012

On 3/11/2012 at 6:55 PM, Adam Beker said:

On 3/11/2012 at 6:27 PM, Hoodie said:

On 3/11/2012 at 6:22 PM, Adam Beker said:

How they don't make sense? That kid is in Shepard's head for sure.

Reveal hidden contents

synthesis. how the hell can anything take all the dna in the galaxy and combine it with "synthetics"? why can all the options destroy the supposedly indestructible mass relays? why is it that a synthetic living in the citadel controls other synthetics and enacts mass genocide every 50,000 years so that, get this, organics won't have to fight with synthetics. makes absolutely nooo sense. the entire level design of the post-teleporter sequence is ridiculous. somehow shepard gets direct access to a control panel that controls the fate of the galaxy. riiight. it's all totally in her head and being fed to her in a way she can understand.

Reveal hidden contents

I can't really answer all these questions. Doesn't mean that it's impossible though. Mass genocide is needed so that synthetics created by organics couldn't control all the galaxy. Mass relays aren't desctructable, in ME2 arival DLC Shepard destroys one with an asteroid

Quote
it's all totally in her head and being fed to her in a way she can understand.
Yep, I think so too, it explains why Shepard can walk in space without a helmet.

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**azatoth** · March 11, 2012

I wouldn't be surprised to see them release a DLC that retcons the whole ending. It happened with Fallout 3. Still a pretty cheap trick to have fans pay to get a decent ending. But knowing EA/Bioware they are going to milk everything out of the ME franchise.

Edited March 11, 2012 by azatoth

**Hoodie** · March 11, 2012

it is a cheap trick.

if ea/bioware thought the "day 1" dlc caused a shitstorm, wait until they announce their "real ending" dlc. that is borderline scamming. you don't buy a ticket to a movie just to get a url at the end that says, "pay five bucks and watch the alternate/real ending here!"

i hope ea's shitty empire of shitty video games crumbles and takes the husk of bioware with it.

**azatoth** · March 11, 2012

EA is indeed awful.

March 11, 2012

On 3/11/2012 at 7:04 PM, Hoodie said:

On 3/11/2012 at 6:55 PM, Adam Beker said:

On 3/11/2012 at 6:27 PM, Hoodie said:

On 3/11/2012 at 6:22 PM, Adam Beker said:

How they don't make sense? That kid is in Shepard's head for sure.

Reveal hidden contents

synthesis. how the hell can anything take all the dna in the galaxy and combine it with "synthetics"? why can all the options destroy the supposedly indestructible mass relays? why is it that a synthetic living in the citadel controls other synthetics and enacts mass genocide every 50,000 years so that, get this, organics won't have to fight with synthetics. makes absolutely nooo sense. the entire level design of the post-teleporter sequence is ridiculous. somehow shepard gets direct access to a control panel that controls the fate of the galaxy. riiight. it's all totally in her head and being fed to her in a way she can understand.

Reveal hidden contents

I can't really answer all these questions. Doesn't mean that it's impossible though. Mass genocide is needed so that synthetics created by organics couldn't control all the galaxy. Mass relays aren't desctructable, in ME2 arival DLC Shepard destroys one with an asteroid

Quote
it's all totally in her head and being fed to her in a way she can understand.
Yep, I think so too, it explains why Shepard can walk in space without a helmet.

Reveal hidden contents

but synthetics are already controlling the galaxy... lol. and yeah, it took a giant asteroid to destroy the alpha relay. how is it that the citadel had enough power to destroy all of them? idk, i feel like there are better explanations and possible endings for such a great series.

Yeah, it's a horrible ending actually compared to how good the rest of the game is.

**zazen** · March 11, 2012

Sounds a bit like the Inhibitors from the Revelation Space series of books

autopilot · March 12, 2012

On 3/11/2012 at 7:19 PM, Hoodie said:

if ea/bioware thought the "day 1" dlc caused a shitstorm, wait until they announce their "real ending" dlc. that is borderline scamming. you don't buy a ticket to a movie just to get a url at the end that says, "pay five bucks and watch the alternate/real ending here!"

Actually a movie did that recently...I think it was called The Devil Inside.

**Hoodie** · March 13, 2012

On 3/12/2012 at 11:52 PM, autopilot said:

On 3/11/2012 at 7:19 PM, Hoodie said:

if ea/bioware thought the "day 1" dlc caused a shitstorm, wait until they announce their "real ending" dlc. that is borderline scamming. you don't buy a ticket to a movie just to get a url at the end that says, "pay five bucks and watch the alternate/real ending here!"

Actually a movie did that recently...I think it was called The Devil Inside.

doesn't seem like it got great reviews for that.

Npoess · March 17, 2012

Haven't completed it yet. I'm really loving it.

But about all this ending controversy. But nobody seemed to care that Fallout 3 didn't bring much closure. You had to buy the Broken Steel DLC in order to see the complete ending. And The Arrival DLC for ME2 was also a really good ending for ME2. So I'm confident BioWare will realease some DLC that will bring some closure.

http://kotaku.com/58...dium=socialflow

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Edited March 17, 2012 by Npoess

**Hoodie** · March 17, 2012

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Npoess · March 17, 2012

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Edited March 17, 2012 by Npoess

KovalainenFanBoy · March 17, 2012

Bioware are the Skrillex of videogames

March 17, 2012

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On 3/17/2012 at 7:01 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

Bioware are the Skrillex of videogames

You mean EA.

KovalainenFanBoy · March 17, 2012

On 3/17/2012 at 7:03 PM, Adam Beker said:

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I saved both on my first playtrough. Then I've done an insanity run and done something wrong and was only able to save the geth, then I replayed the mission and saved the quarians instead.

On 3/17/2012 at 7:01 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

Bioware are the Skrillex of videogames

You mean EA.

Both

Npoess · March 17, 2012

On 3/17/2012 at 7:01 PM, ThatSpanishGuy said:

Bioware are the Skrillex of videogames

wat

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