Mass Effect 3

[batmanofbaylor]

played the Extended DLC last night and defintely thought it was better, in a good but not great kind of way.

for those that have played it:

Spoiler

It sucks that "Destruction" kind of seemed like the right choice (to me at least) before the Extended DLC but now seems like the worst choice with the only possible graditfication of still getting that "breath" from a possible still alive Shepard. i chose and then watched the videos of the other endings and totally felt like a dumbass

I personally tihnk "Synthesis" is the best way to go. that one feells like everyone benefits from it the most and none of your crew dies. Though Shepard's Dialog for "Control" definitely feels like it has a lot of meaning to it. It's going to be tough what to choose on my next play through with my FemShep

Spoiler

i felt the same way. "destruction" was still cool, but it was definitely the renegade choice out of the 3. gratification of kicking ass, but not the best move for the universe in the long run. "synthesis" was probably the best choice, but it just kinda creeped me out. presupposes that organics and synthetics will *never* get along, and that the reaper solution was actually the right one. leaves no room for free-will. i think that's still what i liked the most from the "destruction" scenario. my least favorite was still "control". that just makes the illusive man right the whole time, and really clashed with my/my shep's view of cerberus. i think everything was executed much better with the extended ending. the scene where the normandy comes down to rescue the rest of your party before you run into the beam was super depressing. and the picture of the krogan w/ the little krogan babies at the end + the plaque scene were both really emotional. glad they scrapped that horrible scene of joker punching stuff into the computer trying to escape the energy pulse--looked super choppy before. overall really pleased. i don't know why bioware didn't make a more complete ending like this initially. and the stargazer scene totally makes me think there will be more stories of "the shepard" to come.

 

[Gipetto0812]

Spoiler

i felt the same way. "destruction" was still cool, but it was definitely the renegade choice out of the 3. gratification of kicking ass, but not the best move for the universe in the long run. "synthesis" was probably the best choice, but it just kinda creeped me out. presupposes that organics and synthetics will *never* get along, and that the reaper solution was actually the right one. leaves no room for free-will. i think that's still what i liked the most from the "destruction" scenario. my least favorite was still "control". that just makes the illusive man right the whole time, and really clashed with my/my shep's view of cerberus. i think everything was executed much better with the extended ending. the scene where the normandy comes down to rescue the rest of your party before you run into the beam was super depressing. and the picture of the krogan w/ the little krogan babies at the end + the plaque scene were both really emotional. glad they scrapped that horrible scene of joker punching stuff into the computer trying to escape the energy pulse--looked super choppy before. overall really pleased. i don't know why bioware didn't make a more complete ending like this initially. and the stargazer scene totally makes me think there will be more stories of "the shepard" to come.

Spoiler

totally agree with everything you said. Control is definitely still a tough choice to chose b/c like you, I don't agree with Cerberus and i don't want the Illusive man to be right.

having your crew being taken up by the Normandy and last words to Liara (for me) was great. My only issue is that for some reason or another Javik was the last person to come out of the ship after Joker and Liara even though Liara and Garrus were on the ground with me.

For me what makes Synthesis so weird is the green marks on everyone. Like the star child said, Shepard was part Synthetic yet he never had green stuff all over him to symbolize the mix. just weird.


I also thought about what the stargazer said, and to me there's no way Bioware can be fully done with Shepard if ME1-3 was just one story of "The Shepard." It never really donned on me before but after listneing more intently, the little boy asks for another story of The Shepard so there has to be more. or maybe that's just false hope/cliffhanger material never to be explained. either way much better.

 

[gdb]

Knowing Bioware's history, I think the next Mass Effect game, whenever it comes out, will probably be set in the future with new characters. It seems like synthesis is the ending they like best. It's based on the Singularity theory of Ray Kurzweil and it's the more difficult option to get -- you have to have a higher readiness factor before going into the final battle. So I'm guessing the sequel will be based in a future where Shepard has chosen for synthesis but with new characters.

 

[WesMordine]

I loved the new ending. It was so much more like it should have been. I'm thankful that Bioware allowed us to really shape the outcome of the story, on a very literal sense, with Mass Effect.

Spoiler

And I chose Destruction. That's what I always fought for. And my Shepard did survive. Which is the BEST ending for me.

 

[Nuka Cola Kidd]

Ended up just watching the new one and the one I originally chose on YouTube. And THAT is how it should of been all along. Improved it 10 fold. Now I won't be ashamed to wear my N7 shirt.

 

[SAB]

Loved the new 4th ending.
Gave me chills.

 

[plasmid303]

So I finally got some time to play the EC tonight and chose the 'Destroy' ending (same one I chose first in the original endings). I'll do the other ones tomorrow when I get a chance.

Without going into specifics for now, I think they did the best they could to apply a plot-hole band-aid on the logical gaps of the original ending.

Of course, the intrinsic flaw of the end(s) to me (and a large contingent of fans) goes unchanged for the most part, which would be the Catalyst and its spiel. However, I can understand how it would be impossible for them to alter specific reasonings without having to drastically change was was already established, and Bioware said they weren't going to do that. I do appreciate that they lengthened the scenes between the Catalyst and Shep, though the means of which they get the information across is clumsy and lazy. Still, it gave us a greater illusion of choice (and a 4th option, I believe. Haven't seen it yet though) that the originals ending(s) did not. And that's okay.

As it stands, I think - with the EC - Bioware have released what the endings should have been to begin with, in terms of substance, weight, closure, and a hint of thngs to come. A future.

I loved the epilogue scenes that were added, even if they were a little too "happy ending" for the sake of a happy ending. I mean, not one word mentioned about the Geth?

Well anyway, I'm going to do the other endings later.

Edit:

Okay, I actually just hit up YouTube and caught the EC Synthesis ending. And....it's still the worst ending. I can see how some people would like it, because it gives the ultimate "happy" ending, even though it kinda slaps the core themes of the ME series hard across the face. I'll go into specifics later. I did like the new end cg cinematic though. It's pretty snazzy.

 

[plasmid303]

All the new endings, for easy access (please note, there there is a new scene that happens while on Earth not shown in these vids):

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgYYYmzr7_A"]Destroy[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFzrRz6Dc0Y"]Synthesis[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5J-QDTM8Zk"]Control[/ame]
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PThzItSAT5c"]Refusal[/ame]

 

[gdb]

Of course, the intrinsic flaw of the end(s) to me (and a large contingent of fans) goes unchanged for the most part, which would be the Catalyst and its spiel. .

Well I hated the Catalyst until yesterday. Hated it. But now I'm fine with it because now the Catalyst is unmistakably a creature of the natural universe and working on the side of the bad guys. Before it was like... Shepard dies, seemingly, and "ascends" on an invisible platform to a new plane where he converses with an all-knowing, all-powerful unknowable being where he is presented a choice. Which, for a scifi epic especially, just left a bad taste in the mouth. They kept it ambiguous on purpose so people could read the supernatural into it, and I f'ing hate when they do that. But now the catalyst is unequivocally an AI construct and nothing about the sequence comes off as supernatural. The kid is not a magical energy being, he's not an angel, he's not any other fantastical creature. He's just an AI construct acting in accordance with its programming.

The whole series is a collage of elements from classic scifi literature. And doing Carl Sagan's Contact isn't the worst ending they could have gone with. (Just so long as they don't piss all over Sagan's legacy by making it supernatural. And with the update, now they didn't.)

 

[FQRizzo]

Anyone feel like 'Control' is now the best ending? As...

Spoiler

Reapers help rebuild everything
Reaper/Shepard helps protect the galaxy
No one has their DNA messed with

Only downside is if Shepard exhibits a little too much control over the galaxy with his new powers. How cool would it be if Shepard was the bad guy in Mass Effect 4?

 

[SOLIDSNAKE]

loved the new ending !

now shepard is a true legend and so is the mass effect series.

WOW ! that was amazing.

my ending of choise " reapers destroyed"

Thank you BIOWARE.

 

[Shropt]

Yeah, these new extended endings really do a great job of tying up the series. Bioware really did a good job responding to the fans.

 

[Theokan]

I started up my last auto save where you slowly walk into the beam, but apparently I missed a Normandy scene that happens right before that save? Where do you guys start your save game to see all the new scenes?

 

[FQRizzo]

Yeah, these new extended endings really do a great job of tying up the series. Bioware really did a good job responding to the fans.

It just shows what a rush-job the original endings were.

 

[Jen]

In my opinion, the extended endings are definitely an improvement...I just still don't really care for them much. Don't like synthesis at all, hate that with destroy we kill all Geth and Edi, and control ...just seemed not quite right....like there is potential there for things to get real messed up...but out of all the choices...that would probably be the one I would stick with.

I do appreciate Bioware giving the other option - and not making it be a everything works out in the end type of ending...because in reality...we all know that the Reapers would have kicked our asses. Our only hope was the crucible and if that doesn't work - then it's game over for now.

 

[Gipetto0812]

I started up my last auto save where you slowly walk into the beam, but apparently I missed a Normandy scene that happens right before that save? Where do you guys start your save game to see all the new scenes?

If you want to see all the extra scenes they put in i'd say to just start from the assault I the Cerberus base. There are little bits of extras here and there where you're like "that wasnt there before" even if it's a few seconds.

 

[darthviper107]

The only thing I noticed that was new started when you're running to the transportation beam. I didn't see anything before that that was different.

 

[Theokan]

I like all of the endings, it makes perfect sense to me. The point is that it's the end of the cycle, think of the Ice Age wiping out the Dinosaurs to pave way for humans, when it happens it's pretty much inevitable and life will not be the same after the event. The fact that in ME the high intelligent lifeforms didn't go extinct after the cycle ends is already a win, you've managed to change the destiny of mankind when they are supposed to be dead by the end of the cycle.

Personally I like the synthetic ending the most. It makes sense with the human's increasing dependency on computers, while the AI strives to gain humanity. It's crazy and far out, but so is T-rex evolving into an ostrich, or a monkey evolves into a human. New cycle, new form. It's hard to accept the big change, but I don't think it's supposed to be easy. The syth/organic fusion makes great science fiction IMO, it's something that could happen.

-

 

[Gipetto0812]

The only thing I noticed that was new started when you're running to the transportation beam. I didn't see anything before that that was different.

I noticed slight change or extended dialogue (not the desicion making kind) in some scenes.

 

[SAB]

Its interesting that they made actual changes, with the mass effect gates not blowing up in some of the endings.