ME3 Extended Cut DLC (Spoilers obviously)

[cthuloops85Member]

Bioware did a good job before, and its still a good job now. Its still THEIR ending, they didnt cave in and changed it. I love you Bioware, you understand science fiction.

[oidiscoMember]

I didn’t like the original ending but I didn’t hate it either so the Extended Cut was a definite improvement for me. Still not exactly what I wanted but I knew it wouldn’t be after playing ME2.
And I really the fact that they added the Rejection ending. I get the feeling that’s the one Fraser will end up choosing.

I just read this on a Gamespot forum topic. It’s pretty interesting and shows they put more work into the new Extended cut than I thought.

“Very new interesting tidbits…..low EMS endings Regardless of destroy or control, you will LOSE two of your squadmates, the two you bring to the Harbinger sequence. The scene of the squadmates that was revealed to be cut in Final Hours is back in. And they get blown into pieces. Maybe the most brutal squadmate deaths in the series. This is the only time in the entire series Liara can definitivly die. The Destruction ending with low EMS is finally explained. The beam kills everyone it touches. There are very few survivors, Hackett being one. Its so unique that it can be counted as the game’s “fifth” ending. Low EMS player who destroy the base in ME2 have two very bad options to choose from, this or “Refuse”. The mass relays will explode like in the vanilla ending and the entire crew of th enormandy is killed. No memorial sequence. The Control ending damages everything but doesn’t kill. Normandy is damaged beyond repair and the crew is stranded. The memorial sequence also includes the two squaddies and Cortez who were killed in the London mission. Basicallty, Liara’s plot armor is completely gone.”

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  oidisco.

[tychoMember]

I liked the EC. It is a lot better than the Original. It is not perfect, but an improvement. They fixed most of the plot holes and is feels emotionally satisfying. The Extended Dialog with the Catalyst was good, because you got more background information about the creators of the reapers. This whole the Creator vs Created theme is a part of the game lore and the fact that the Catalyst was created to ensure peace between Organics and Synthetics and his solution is the Creation of the Reaper Cycle is a classic Scifi Theme.
The new Rejection Ending is great: If you don’t want to give in to the Catalyst, just tell him we will fight till we are all dead, but we will die free.
The revised old Endings are also better and I can see appeal in all if them, but I choose Synthesis like my first time.
The only thing I would have wanted was a greater impact of my Was Assets. more Cutscenes with all the troops and ships I collected and a rework of the Mission on Earth to incorporate my Squad and all the Ground-Forces were everbody had a little scene and impact on the battle. After all the whole game is about collection War Assets and they don’t play a role other than a number in the War Screen on the Normandy. But that would be a major undertaking and I did not expect the EC to be able to provide that.

And I am really glad there is no Happy Ending where Shepard lives. Shepard died once already and his resurrection had only the purpose to defeat the reapers, so after this is done, it is only fitting if Shepard dies/sacrifice himself.

The IT was bullshit all along, no surprise here. There were simply too many contradictions in this “theory”. If the indoctrination of Shepard was part of the game, it would be hard to execute right, but I imagine it could be pretty awesome if done right. But that was clearly not the case here and never intended by Bioware.

After all it is Bioware’s Story and they decide how it ends. With the extended cut I am satisfied and looking forward to more stories in the mass effect universe.

[cresskMember]

awhaleable: 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.

it seems they changed this so you don’t need as high a readiness to get the third ending – something like 75% now instead of up in the 90% previously (i believe).

what about that fourth ending though – if you refuse to choose (which is what a lot of commentators were saying) everything is lost and the cycle continues. that looked like a giant middle finger if anything.

edit: i’m one of those single player gamers only :) i did loads of mp years ago but not anymore.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  cressk.

[cresskMember]

cthuloops85:
Bioware did a good job before, and its still a good job now. Its still THEIR ending, they didnt cave in and changed it. I love you Bioware, you understand science fiction.

fair enough, but there is some evidence that they did cave in to pressure from something (EA to release quickly?) and dropped the original story arc which focused on dark energy, hence all the references to it in ME2. Of course nothing can be definitively proved apart from anecdotal evidence and a couple of non-public leaks from those who worked on the games.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUqAhKW7498 from 03:05 is a short description of the original plot, but goes into conjecture at about 04:20

[tychoMember]

cressk:
what about that fourth ending though – if you refuse to choose (which is what a lot of commentators were saying) everything is lost and the cycle continues. that looked like a giant middle finger if anything.

Why are so many people taking this as an insult? One of the major criticism of the original endings was “Why do I have to give in to the catalyst and accept one of his solutions? I want to reject him and duke out the battle, then at least I tried everything to win!” So now Bioware included that option, you can literally say to the Catalyst “I rather die trying to defeat the Reapers than accept your logic!” and then you die trying (logically because the Reapers just totally outnumber your forces in any way).
So Bioware did exactly what many fans wanted and complained about and now everybody is complaining how it is an insult that they included this, because you loose (as expected and mentioned countless times in the game). Of Cause you loose, how should you be able to win, if the entire strategy for the battle was like: “We distract the Reapers until the Crucible fires.” The Epic Armada you brought to Battle was supposed to be Cannon-fodder from the start, they were just there to buy you time to get the Crucible working. Winning against the Reapers was never considered nor possible, everything from the start of the game was done the get the Crucible ready. If you don’t use it, you loose. That is just the cold hard fact. Rejecting to use it is pretty much the decision to die proud and free while fighting the Reapers to the last soul. And even that ending is bittersweet because in the after Credit Cutscene you see that Liara’s Blackbox ensured that the next cycle was prepared for the reapers and they did defeat the reapers because of your Preparation and Information. So in the end Shepard wins just not now but in the future.
To say that ending is an insult to the fans is just stupid.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  tycho.

[cresskMember]

if you study the discussions on the refusal ‘option’ (it was never really an option, people were just moaning about lack of choice) it wasn’t simply about deciding not to act. People were saying that Shepherd throughout the series chooses his or her own way and refused to accept the choices imposed from someone else. The calls for a refusal option were to allow Shepherd to make a choice outside of those his enemies would attempt to put on him.

The refusal ending in the DLC where he simply stands aside and lets the galaxy fall is not the same kind of refusal.

And there is no evidence that Liara’s message results in a victory, simply that some other civilization has reached the same point in the cycle.

edit: annnyywaay…all done with my pov before this descends into either nitpicking or insults. if you enjoyed the game either before or after the DLC then great :) personally I didn’t but it will be interesting to see how VGA react to it on the stream.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  cressk.

[tychoMember]

And Shepard does exactly what they wanted, Shepard refuses to accept the choice the Catalyst imposes on him and tells the Catalyst, we will rather die than to submit. What else can he do, barely alive and on the Citadel without something to shoot?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjYm31aTHaI[/video]

The after Credit Scene with Stargazer is pretty clear that the cycle has been broken by a future generation:

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  tycho.

[cruxypooMember]

I liked some small changes but I still am iffy with some of the endings, I LOVED how the control ending plays out now. This is coming from someone who HATED the originals for context. The reason I think the originals where so hated is they didn’t show what happens after the “color explosion”.

The fact that they showed us the relays being blown up and not showing us “Hey guys its cool, the whole world didn’t blow up” is probably the biggest offender. When a Mass Relay blows up it can entire solar systems (I think) so people assumed that lots of people died and that because they were destroyed everyone was fucked anyways because they couldn’t make use of the jumps. The thing with Joker and the Normandy also made no sense time-wise.
In the new endings however they show that the mass relays can be rebuilt which is a pretty big deal, this actually makes these endings ‘happy’ in comparison to the bleak future the old ones seemed to imply. I think CONTROL is the best option, let me explain:

Shepard lives in this one. Sure the cinematic has the new God-Shepard (who I assume took the place of the ‘star-child’) saying Shepard ‘dies’ but then states that the player’s Shepard’s thoughts still live on and “guide me now, give me reason, and direction”. I understand that as either: Shepard’s consciousness still lives on in the back of this new beings mind OR this new being is a different body with the same mind. I personally believe its latter and I’m sure people will all have different takes on this but that my argument for why Shepard is ‘Alive’. This ending is also good for both Paragons and Renegades because while the cinematic show a peaceful rebuilding whats stopping a Renegade-Reaper-God Shepard to enforce an Iron-Fisted galactic rule?

I worked hard to make peace between the Quarians and Geth and the DESTROY ending still kills geth so I feel like that ending undermines my effort which sucks. Shepard still seems to survive as a human with the needed Galactic Readiness / Resources (w/e) just like before so if thats your thing its still there.

The SYNTHESIS ending is still stupid, the whole message of the game seems to be that all these races with all their imperfections and differences can make a peace and band together to fight a common unbeatable enemy. They stress the beauty of being diverse and what does this ending do? Make everyone unified. What if some people don’t want to be turned into this new thing? Also weren’t reapers making races part machine anyways? Thats what the husks were! Sure this is way different but it almost feels like I’m meeting the reapers halfway, making a truce with them, fuck that. This ending doesn’t feel like a victory its more like a compromise. I did like what they did with EDI’s added monolouge though. That was a cool touch.

Also I love the concept of the REJECT ending, it sure isn’t what I’d pick but I like how it turns out. The fact that Shepard goes “fuck you I’m not going along with your plans” is actually pretty badass. Sure its stupid and needlessly defiant but hey its cool that its there. ALSO fun fact if you choose destroy and turn back and shoot the kid you trigger this ending, I REALLY like that touch.

Pretty long but there you go. And if you read most of it thanks! I’d like to hear what else you guys have to say.

[oidiscoMember]

I heard this morning that there was some hidden audio files (dialog, music etc) in the extended cut that weren’t in the new endings and some people were wondering what they were.
Now we know: More single player DLC!

So basically, there’s data in the Extended Cut that hints towards future single player DLC. The story in the DLC sounds like it could be interesting on it’s own, but makes no sense in the context of the entire game.

Also this isn’t the 1st time Mass Effect DLC has been discovered like this. There were files in the Kasumi DLC for ME2 that contained audio and dialog for Lair of the Shadow Broker.

• This reply was modified 10 months, 3 weeks ago by  oidisco.

[cruxypooMember]

Not only that Oid but heres a teaser tweets from Mike Gamble the ‘producer on the Mass Effect franchise’

Would now be a good time to talk about how we’re doing more DLC in the future? :P

— Michael Gamble (@GambleMike) June 26, 2012

That was a trick question. We’ll save the future DLC for future chats. Don’t worry though…there’s much more.

— Michael Gamble (@GambleMike) June 26, 2012

I hope its more Shadow Broker type DLC than a new character one

[mrcheese777Member]

I actually watched it again and it wasn’t that bad. It fixed the main problems with the ending and made it more appealing. The overall writing in the game still sucked though.

[oidiscoMember]

mrcheese777:
I actually watched it again and it wasn’t that bad. It fixed the main problems with the ending and made it more appealing. The overall writing in the game still sucked though.

I just finished through my 2nd playthrough of the game and I disagree. While there are some questionable writing moments in the game, the majority of ME3 had great writing. Specifically the Rannoch and Tuchanka Priority missions. Those were some of my favourite moments in the series. The Extended Cut stuff also had some moments that I really enjoyed, like the extra bits on the “long run”.
The character dialog was also great, especially the interactions between your squad that happen throughout the game. It made me care more about all of them more than I did in the other games.

Overall, I felt the writing was superior to ME2 in almost every way and somewhat close to ME1.

[mrcheese777Member]

oidisco: I just finished through my 2nd playthrough of the game and I disagree. While there are some questionable writing moments in the game, the majority of ME3 had great writing. Specifically the Rannoch and Tuchanka Priority missions. Those were some of my favourite moments in the series. The Extended Cut stuff also had some moments that I really enjoyed, like the extra bits on the “long run”.
The character dialog was also great, especially the interactions between your squad that happen throughout the game. It made me care more about all of them more than I did in the other games.

Overall, I felt the writing was superior to ME2 in almost every way and somewhat close to ME1.

Rannoch and Tuchanka were freaking amazing man those moments where on par with the collector base from ME2 and the conclusion of ME1 every thing eles was ok or well…….. this
[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9MTEZamdr8&feature=related[/video]

[awhaleableMember]

Yeah that was definitely something I liked about ME3 more than ME2, your squad felt alive again. Sure you couldn’t have your in depth interviews like in ME2, but at least they acknowledged each others existence. I loved when they did that stuff on elevators in ME1.

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