Spoilers [me3 ending ]

[CostinRaz]

It's meaningless in the sense that you don't see a direct result of each choice and how it affects the battle. Are there scenes showing your chosen allies doing things? I've gotten the impression that it's just filling a meter and doesn't have any actual impact on the final battle aside from whether your score is high enough to get the sad ending instead of the downright depressing ending

There is a massive ship battle cinematic where you are shown all your fleets that you gathered. It's not just a meter that you fill.

Do you game choices affect the battle before it happens? Yes, but not in the way you think. Getting a 4000 score to be considered as having gotten the best ending ( and there is a lot of dialogue from the characters in this ) is hell.

This is not meant to be trolling, but that was one of my problems with the ending of ME2. In my opinion, the "Paragon" choice should have been to give the Collector base to my allies instead of Cerberus, and destroying it should have been neutral. I don't understand why the game only provided the options to destroy it or give it to Cerberus. I had the damned ship and nobody else could get there anyway, so why couldn't I give it to whoever I wanted?

I don't think that would have been bad provided we had not been given the choice to destroy it at all and be able to give to Cerberus/ALliance, because destroying it paints Shepard like a blind idealist moron. So yeah that's what you get when Bioware listens to vocal fans who hate Cerberus.

I think it fits because people who chose the opposite probably also feel differently about what the "true" ending is. Based on what I saw, I felt like the game was trying to pressure me into thinking the synthesis ending is the true ending. However I still don't understand what actually happens in that ending. How do organic and synthetic lifeforms get merged?

It's not like that actually. Synthesis is what the Catalyst believes is the best solution, doesn't mean Shepard should feel the same. That ending is unlocked after you get enough assets so that the wave wouldn't wipe out all life...the pulse is the same destroy expect with Shepard's essence added to it, and destroy can wipe out everyone if your asset score is low.

As for what other people feel. You can destroy the Reapers, but you will suffer the consequences of that decision. Or you can merge organics with AIs...to achieve piece, which makes it the only ending where Shepard actually agrees to the Catalyst.

But isn't that the only ending in which Shepard survives?

And? You might be surprised about this, but a lot of people don't give a damn about Shepard surviving after ME3, sure a lot of people do want him to survive, bang his LI and life happily ever after but those people I couldn't give a damn about.

 

[lycos]

Holy crap a website that actually says something bad about ME3. Awesome.

They're coming out of the woodwork now. The Forbes articles have gone from "you're all entitled homophobic crybabies" party line to some interesting criticisms.

Also of interest is that TOR is apparently having a "Free Subscription week" starting Thursday. That does not bode well for their Star Wars MMO - though after what they did to TIM and Revan, they deserve to suffer.

 

[CostinRaz]

They're coming out of the woodwork now. The Forbes articles have gone from "you're all entitled homophobic crybabies" party line to some interesting criticisms.

Also of interest is that TOR is apparently having a "Free Subscription week" starting Thursday. That does not bode well for their Star Wars MMO - though after what they did to TIM and Revan, they deserve to suffer.

Don't get me started on TIM, really don't.

This is what happens when a company listens to fans in terms of how they should write their story, well they should stop.

I sure as hell hope CDPR does not ever do this. Sure gameplay, bug fixing and other stuff, now that I can understand. But no developer should ever be forced to write a story just because the fans demand something.

Bioware grew some balls with the ending choices and what consequences they have, I hope they keep them.

 

[lycos]

Don't get me started on TIM, really don't.

This is what happens when a company listens to fans in terms of how they should write their story, well they should stop.

Hold it....TIM was changed because fanboys demanded he be re-written?

You have got to be kidding me. [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]. When did that happen?

 

[CostinRaz]

Hold it....TIM was changed because fanboys demanded he be re-written?

You have got to be kidding me. [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted]. When did that happen?

This is why I am raising the middle finger to everyone who demands you can get the perfect possible ending and still destroy Reapers and have Shepard live, because many of them called TIM evil, indoctrinated and considered the people who spared the base and supported Cerberus scum, dicks and assholes and have spat on everyone who dared defend that choice for over 2 years.

This is the vocal majority btw. So yeah we are forced to fight TIM in ME3 because people demanded it.

 

[Anwell]

Notice that it says not to be bummed about the ending. Singular, as in the ending the gamer got rather than all of the collective endings. Sounds to me like marketing BS implying that the different endings are so different from one another that it's worth playing through again. That certainly fits their style.This is Bioware we're talking about. In order to fix the ending they'd have to admit that they were wrong about it in the first place.Here's hoping they do, though. Honestly, all I really want is for my squad mates in the end to die when they're hit with the beam without magically reappearing on the Normandy later. It doesn't seem like much to ask for everyone to stay in character and go out in a blaze of glory with me. That way it can be a sad ending that I can swallow, even despite the space magic of spacekidgod. Space magic and weirdness like that can be tolerated, but having characters I've gotten attached to over the course of several games inexplicably abandon me in the fourth-quarter for no reason? That's just a middle finger.

I know and why does the Normandy crash land on some random planet in every option. What also bugs me is that there is no ending where the reapers win, you can play the game and do very little sidequest have a low score, and still get the same outcome. The only difference is earths destruction, and honestly I end up caring less about earth, than I do about all the races I bring in to battle. Maybe become we to spend anytime there at all I dont know

 

[CostinRaz]

The only difference is earths destruction, and honestly I end up caring less about earth, than I do about all the races I bring in to battle. Maybe become we to spend anytime there at all I dont know

It's not just Earth. If you have low assets and you destroy the Reapers...that wave the destroyed Earth will travel to the rest of the Galaxy, we see this clearly happening.

What do you think happens then? They all are fine but without Relays? No they get wiped out.

The Normandy crew also dies, all of the crew including Joker, if you have low assets.

 

[Anwell]

The wave travels regardless. And the people than come out on the Normandy in my playthrough should be dead anyways, except joker.

 

[Pangaea666]

That article is extremely good, particularly the last three pages. I simply don't buy Costin's argument that the relays survive with the control ending. The explosions in the cutscene indicates something quite different. Which means all three endings are more or less the same. Yes, some minor but in the bigger picture meaningless differences, but virtually identical overall.

How the Normandy can escape that massive blast to begin with is a huge problem in itself, but how the hell can Joker walk out of the ship after that crash landing??? He has a disease that means if you look at him hard he'll break his bones. But he not only survives this crash but can walk out of it fine?



BioWare have delivered s steaming pile of turd on our plate.

If this game was released as a shooter I wouldn't have a big problem with its embarrassing story holes and illogical WTF twists. But it's released as an (action) RPG, and a follow-follow up to the great game that was ME1. That sets some rather different expectations than "shoot everything that moves, roll credits"

With two series destroyed now I can hope people will stop signing BioWare's praise from the mountain tops and buying everything they release by default, even paying stupid money for collector editions and pointless DLCs. I'm not holding my breath though. The same people who are lighting up BSN as we speak will almost certainly buy just about any DLC BioWare release for ME3, and most probably the next game they release too, no matter its topic and no matter how fucked up it will inevitably prove to be.

 

[gibb_geralt]

Don't get me started on TIM, really don't.

This is what happens when a company listens to fans in terms of how they should write their story, well they should stop.

Bullcrap.

NOONE EVER demanded TIM be changed to an evil menace. Never. Many expressed their opinion on why they THINK he's an evil menace, but no one ever asked for him to change.

This is completely BW's doing. Completely. You cannot blame anyone but Bioware for turning TIM from a morally ambiguous, human-centric activist to Saren.

In fact, any good developer would see the conflicting opinions on TIM, and keep him that way so as to continue on with such a talked about character. They did themselves and their fans a disservice by destroying his character.

 

[Babli.480]

Few days after completing the game... I still cant believe they made such an garbage ending. It was just bad. How could they possibly be thinking that this would go well with people?

They went with Deus ex machina quite literally.

 

[CostinRaz]

That article is extremely good, particularly the last three pages. I simply don't buy Costin's argument that the relays survive with the control ending. The explosions in the cutscene indicates something quite different. Which means all three endings are more or less the same. Yes, some minor but in the bigger picture meaningless differences, but virtually identical overall.

Provide me a good reason as to why the Citadel, which as a Relay itself survives. Give one damned good reason for why that happens if all the Relays are supposedly destroyed. If you can't you are talking out of your ass.

Bullcrap.

NOONE EVER demanded TIM be changed to an evil menace. Never. Many expressed their opinion on why they THINK he's an evil menace, but no one ever asked for him to change.

This is completely BW's doing. Completely. You cannot blame anyone but Bioware for turning TIM from a morally ambiguous, human-centric activist to Saren

Completely Bioware's doing? Completely Bioware's doing when they have to listen to thousands upon thousands of entitled asses who think they can dictate how a story is written. Thousands upon thousands who pissed on Shepard having to work with Cerberus ( Overlord DLC ring a goddamn bell? ) and who wanted to gladly shoot TIM, thousands who flamed the living crap out of the people who liked TIM or Cerberus.

Bioware's fault is that they listened, and while it is as fault I sure as hell blamed the entitled idiots who demand the story end THEIR way, that TIM is written THEIR way. Bioware grew some balls with the ending, and I sure as damned hell appreciate it, but now they are getting flamed every single second for doing this. Getting thousands of 0 scores on metacritic because of this, well fuck it if I have a problem with such people.

The choices you make are represented in assets, the fleet cinematic, the Earth cinematics and the goodbyes on the planets by the way.

 

[mrowakus]

Provide me a good reason as to why the Citadel, which as a Relay itself survives. Give one damned good reason for why that happens if all the Relays are supposedly destroyed. If you can't you are talking out of your ass.

Speaking of which - why the Reapers didn't disable all those Mass Relays, they themselves created, at the start of their invasion, and only use them themselves when moving from one system to another? That would effectively block anyone from ever threatening them with any military force (SHEPAAARD!!) and they could happily carry out their program.

Completely Bioware's doing? Completely Bioware's doing when they have to listen to thousands upon thousands of entitled asses who think they can dictate how a story is written. Thousands upon thousands who pissed on Shepard having to work with Cerberus ( Overlord DLC ring a goddamn bell? ) and who wanted to gladly shoot TIM, thousands who flamed the living crap out of the people who liked TIM or Cerberus.

It's still Bioware's fault for listening to fanboys. No excuses.

Bioware grew some balls with the ending, and I sure as damned hell appreciate it, but now they are getting flamed every single second for doing this. Getting thousands of 0 scores on metacritic because of this, well fuck it if I have a problem with such people.

Hell no. Not by a longshot. The problem with the ending is not that they kill Shepard. I have no problem with the dark ending - after all, great accomplishments demand great sacrifices. But the way it was handled - abysmal. Essentially we have some random starchild apearing 5 mins before the ending animation, out of nowehere, without proper background and foreshadowing, telling Shep that all he did throughout 3 games boils down to choosing one of three options that have again nothing to do with the narrative.

Also, why a reaper (I assume he is a Reaper because he talks about them "we", "us") would let Shepard do that, I don't know... And how his solution doesn't work and needs to be changed - when it clearly does work (Alliance forces are losing). The best solution for the Reapers is to do nothing and just let Shep bleed to death.

The choices you make are represented in assets, the fleet cinematic, the Earth cinematics and the goodbyes on the planets by the way.

After TW2 happened it is a little too little, don't you think?

 

[CostinRaz]

Mrowakus: That's a major plot hole about disabling the Relays...maybe they thought they could stop Shepard from ever reaching the Citadel even if Shepard has all his fleets massed together and also wipe out every single fleet the Galaxy has to offer, basically destroy every single hope of resistance for the Galaxy in one hit single hit.

They almost do.

It's still Bioware's fault for listening to fanboys. No excuses.

My point is the fanboys are just as responsible as Bioware is for this, perhaps even more so.

Hell no. Not by a longshot. The problem with the ending is not that they kill Shepard. I have no problem with the dark ending - after all, great accomplishments demand great sacrifices. But the way it was handled - abysmal. Essentially we have some random starchild apearing 5 mins before the ending animation, out of nowehere, without proper background and foreshadowing, telling Shep that all he did throughout 3 games boils down to choosing one of three options that have again nothing to do with the narrative.

Also, why a reaper (I assume he is a Reaper because he talks about them "we", "us") would let Shepard do that, I don't know... And how his solution doesn't work and needs to be changed - when it clearly does work (Alliance forces are losing). The best solution for the Reapers is to do nothing and just let Shep bleed to death.

The Catalyst is shit, I don't disagree on that but how exactly would you see them giving you an ending depending on your choices? Read this though http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings

It is accurate.

 

[username_2093396]

Provide me a good reason as to why the Citadel, which as a Relay itself survives. Give one damned good reason for why that happens if all the Relays are supposedly destroyed. If you can't you are talking out of your ass.

Give me one good reason why the Normandy is fleeing battle through the Charon relay with crew members aboard who were last seen on Earth The endings are so riddled with inconsistencies that I find it very hard to separate mistakes from intentional clues. Given that the catalyst says the relays will be destroyed in all three endings, and the relays did appear to blow up on the map during the control ending as well, I assume that's what Bioware meant to happen even though the Citadel somehow survives.

 

[CostinRaz]

The Charon Relay appears damaged not blown up, or do you mean the wave showing on the map? That just means it's hitting every system.

As for why the Normandy flees...maybe because Joker just picked your squad up and was trying to reach the Citadel ( Hackett had lost contact after all, and the Reapers were beating the crap out of them ) then he saw the wave and decided to get the hell out of there. ( Seeing as the wave can wipe out all life on Earth I hardly blame him ). I didn't even make this up myself.

 

[Username.]

Brilliant.

 

[Veleda.980]

Sometimes I swear Bioware is parodying itself.

 

[username_2093396]

Sometimes I swear Bioware is parodying itself.

I think so. The more I see frantic explanations claiming that the ending is actually Shepard being indoctrinated, the more I start to believe it. I think that's actually the most logical way to explain away all of the inconsistencies with the endings. And of course Bioware is just keeping the hype going by hinting at more to come for the ending and such, so yeah, I think there's going to be a DLC that says the current ending was an indoctrination process and then continues on from there.

 

[m4x1u]

The indoctrination doesn't really make that much sense as the fans would want it to make. To me, they've conjured the idea to bare the shallow real game endings. It would be an awesome idea and a great ending, if it were true. But it's not. Alot of the arguments made by gamers is based on assumptions that can be logically countered, or counter-assumed:

spoilers about the ending of ME3

Spoiler

- why does shepard have only one gun and it's always carnifex: my answer - because it's bad writting. you can see shepard having different gear that the one you equiped in many other cutscens
- why is he limping/the sequence has a dark visual effect: well, the most likely scenario is that's the way of BioWare showing you that you're barley alive after the big reaper beam almost tore you apart.
- effect while talking with TIM and seeing Andersons behaviour: to be honest, i think that's indoctrination happening, however it looks like TIM has taken control over Andersons body, not the Reapers (or the Reapers through TIM anyway). Also, you see the shroud because they try to indoctrinate you while talking with TIM and hearing his arguments. Ultimately - they fail as you win the conversation and blast TIM away.
- crucible has the form of a kid, how the repaers could know that?: well, that's been explaiend in the Geth simulation - you see form that you can understand and have met before (he had an impact on shepard). That's it.
- somebody mentioned that you'll get a message that shepard's in the hospital if you managed to survive the ending: well, what a surprise. Have you even seen how the guy/girl looked in the final stages? He/She was barley alive - it's natural he's in the hospital taking treatment to his wounds


Now, there's a lot of stuff that doesn't make sense afterwards (joker being on another planet despite mass relays destroyed; your crew being onboard despite the fact they were left on earth and so on), however it's rather due to bad writting than an intended "indoctrination ending" created by BioWare.

I really believe that if they'd make such an ending they'd actually give you a hint it's an indoctrination at some point -i.e a cutscene/vid played after you see you're "ending", that earth was actually destroyed or is left there a floating, smoking rock. None of that happend, and we know how the real game endings look like. They're just bad