ME3 Extended Cut DLC (Spoilers obviously)

[awhaleableMember]

So what’d you guys think? They’re up on youtube if you wanna check them out.

I think it’s a big improvement over what they had before. They fixed the biggest complaints I had: the normandy and just the fact that all the ending sequences were pretty much identical. I’m glad they did their best to explain a lot.

One thing I don’t really like is that they actually back peddled a bit and made it so the Mass Relays weren’t actually destroyed. Which makes me really wonder what they were thinking initially when they made that ending. I felt like this is how the game was supposed to end.

Oh also did anyone else think that when they were putting Shepards name on the board that they’d actually put the name you entered? Like John Shepard or whatever? That’s what I thought was going to happen and actually made me a little excited. I was incredibly disappointed when it didn’t say that though. I felt like that would have actually been a really nice touch, since nobody ever acknowledges your first name through the games, it would have been kind of sweet to see them put your name on the memorial. Would’ve made it feel like you weren’t just playing out a story, you were actually making your own. Quite a missed opportunity!

[mrcheese777Member]

I hated the ending and I still do. My main reason for hating the ending was the fact that the space god kid deus ex machina basically killed the whole lore with his little explanation. If you refuse to except that explanation the reaper cycle continues. That’s bioware basically saying screw you if you don’t like our ending. Just adding the Normandy leaving and seeing a rushed explanation of the effect of your choices is not enough in my mind. Removing the space kid would have fixed 80% of the ending.

[awhaleableMember]

What do you mean they killed the lore?

[cresskMember]

its still terrible. the lack of a good ending (which I think we deserve after all that time playing the series – i disagree that an epic story needs to have a tragic ending) rankles, but as for the new content you can see where they are patching it to take on board comments without actually changing anything. its just a PR job to split the negative views against them.

Personally as soon as they said they would not change the endings but just clarify them, I felt they should not have bothered at all.

And then later I found out about the original dark energy plot line that they abandoned (which I liked the idea of), which I think is the reason this plot seems so… under developed.

Anyway, ME3 has other issues which were never going to be looked at like the terrible side quests, the massively reduced conversation trees and the loss of over half of your crew from ME2 (in terms of not featuring as team members).

But its over now. ME3 uninstalled, Origin software uninstalled. Moving on.

I will watch the VGA play through though.

edit: duplicate phrase removed

• This reply was modified 10 months, 4 weeks ago by  cressk.
• This reply was modified 10 months, 4 weeks ago by  cressk.

[awhaleableMember]

What do you mean by good ending? Just one where shepard doesn’t die? Because I’d say the control and synthesis endings seem pretty good.

[twitchmonkeyMember]

Well the game can’t end with the mass relays being destroyed or the galaxy’s armies will be stuck in the Sol system which wouldn’t have enough resources to sustain the humans for long after being heavily bombarded by Reapers. So they all die, and the people left on their home planets will have no military force to protect them and no means to trade so they will all either starve or be enslaved by pirates. Not exactly an ending you can build a franchise off of. I haven’t seen the new footage and likely won’t until I get there myself, but unless they retcon everything they chose to do, I doubt it’s much of an improvement.

[cresskMember]

awhaleable:
What do you mean by good ending? Just one where shepard doesn’t die? Because I’d say the control and synthesis endings seem pretty good.

well the god child specifically says he won’t survive as he is in the dialogue about the control ending, and if he is not human at the end of it then its not survival. i don’t really count the synthesis ending because I have no interest / time for the online play to achieve a high enough readiness – adding mp was just another bad decision made in the design of ME3.

[cresskMember]

what I am interested in though is seeing how all the people who put so much hope behind the indoctrination theory are going to respond. i never believed Shepherd was indoctrinated, and I was barely convinced that the Illusive Man had enough contact with the Reapers to be indoctrinated either – Saren spent months inside a Reaper and he was still able to kill himself at the end with Shepherd’s help.

No there was never going to be an indoctrination reveal.

[rakolaiMember]

Personally, I enjoyed it. It answered a lot of the questions that I first had when I finished ME3 and the new endings were certainly more optimistic. Plus, baby Krogans.

Although I will say that the way that the Refusal option turned out seemed like a huge middle finger from Bioware/Hudson to the people complaining about the original endings, even if it does turn out okay in the end.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 4 weeks ago by  rakolai.

[thekingscigarMember]

cressk:i don’t really count the synthesis ending because I have no interest / time for the online play to achieve a high enough readiness – adding mp was just another bad decision made in the design of ME3.

Just so you know, they also lowered the requisites for that ending with the extended cut. I had 50% readiness (default without playing multiplayer) and got it. Just had to make sure I did all the side quests and a bit of scanning (bit of a chore but at least I’d already done most of it). I agree that having to do it before was a stupid decision.

As for my opinion? If this had been what shipped there wouldn’t have been the outcry there was. Yes there would have been complaints, some people simply don’t like the endings and that’s fine. The biggest complaints I saw were about the sloppy writing and MASSIVE plot holes/unexplained situations. For the most part those are gone.

Just a quick sidenote: In theory I don’t mind the godchild because I find the idea of this whole catastrophe being the result of an AI acting on some sloppy programming/crappy algorithm quite cool but to pull it off it needed to have been introduced sooner and hinted at before. As it was I got over it and accepted it, simply because I have yet to expect a writing masterclass from video games. One day, but not today.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 4 weeks ago by  thekingscigar.
• This reply was modified 10 months, 4 weeks ago by  thekingscigar.

[LordoftheForestMember]

I’m a bit too far gone right now to even start disclaiming the extensions made to the endings. Worse, the newest addition ‘Rejection’ is-

Okay, I’m just really disappointed in how this all has turned out. ME3 was the final Bioware game I’ll likely ever spend money on. What’s worse is that people are putting all their heart and energy into disputing the ending rather than the rest of the game which is far from perfect in my view. Seeing the new endings has brought back an exhaustion that leaves me wanting to do nothing but crawl into a hole and sleep it off.

[twitchmonkeyMember]

I think a lot of people felt it was the best Mass Effect game in the series up until the end. I know I did. I can understand the criticisms, especially from people that like the purer RPG mechanics of the original. For me ME3 had perfected the more streamlined action-oriented experience of the 2nd game which allowed the story to stay engaging without dragging due to inventory management or drawn out story sequences.

Then the ending shat on everything, but still, if I believe hard enough that Marauder Shields succeeded im saving us from the ending, I loved ME3.

[slykatMember]

they were ok not grand by any means but overall a great game. We went thru them last week all i can say is fans who really hated the original ending will not exactly be pleased, but at this point they cant be pleased can they?

[twitchmonkeyMember]

I know it sounds cynical, but the best outcome would be them just taking the indoctrination theory, claiming it was what they had intended the whole time, and release DLC with actual gameplay to finish Shephard’s story. The indoctrination idea is simply better than what they came up with. It is rumored that the ending was counter to everything else in the game in that it was two guys by themselves without the typical oversight and editing process of the writing team, and that’s how it feels.

I’ve seen this idea that Bioware are creative people and to ask them to edit their work is to dismiss their creative freedom, but when they screw up so badly, what other satisfactory outcome is there?

[awhaleableMember]

cressk: well the god child specifically says he won’t survive as he is in the dialogue about the control ending, and if he is not human at the end of it then its not survival. i don’t really count the synthesis ending because I have no interest / time for the online play to achieve a high enough readiness – adding mp was just another bad decision made in the design of ME3.

I’m not sure what you mean, I was able to have all the endings accessible to me without touching the multiplayer. And also the multiplayer isn’t half bad.

And I will admit the way Shepard kinda monologues and basically says what a lot of what the angry fans said about rejecting the god child definitely gave off angry vibes from bioware. But I thought it made sense. If you refuse to use the crucible how would you destroy the reapers?

[Author]

Posts