Poll: Did anyone else laugh at the ME3: EC endings?

[Awexsome]

I find it sad that you see a developer go so far out of their way to try and make their fans happy as something just to laugh at.

Don't be so naive, they're depending on this EC to placate people so that they'll buy future future mass effect dlc/full games. Even though people are laughing about it, they're still more satisfied than before and this will equate to more future sales. Don't forget that mass effect is bioware's main franchise, and that their 2nd main franchise dragon age has been sullied quite a bit because of DA2. They needed to do this, to retain their reputation.

Don't be so cynical. They're depending on this EC to try to reconcile with their fans so that they'll earn back some of the respect they've lost.

Good grief man you think all Bioware is is just a heartless money machine with robots uninvested in the quality of their work just out to make money? They care. To claim that about them is quite insulting of their hard work.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I read your Google Doc, and I was seriously impressed by your summation of the Refusal ending, and how it is absolutely the only 'real' ending. It's the only canonical ending in my book, at least.

Just for the record, the Google doc isn't mine--I found it on Reddit. But other than that, yeah, pretty much.

 

[Zaik]

I'm not sure which was my favorite part, the 5 seconds the Normandy stares Harbinger down and he lets them go for absolutely no reason, or the minute and a half you spend not running down the hill to the citadel because a truck fell over and splashed mud on your squad, or the scene they actually added in where Hackett says one person got aboard the citadel when there are two that got on.

 

[MASTACHIEFPWN]

I find it sad that you see a developer go so far out of their way to try and make their fans happy as something just to laugh at.

Indeed. They've put in more effort for a greedy fan base that obviously doesn't deserve a game from them.
Most developers that make shit games don't give a fuck, Bioware tried their hardest to correct that. They've given us TWO free DLC packs, and a free add on, something that would run you 15-20$ in the hands of another company, and I tend not to bite the hand that feeds me.

Yes, the ending was complete plot hole riddled shit, but they made an uber depressing ending a tad better on my part, and I can say I truly forgive them, regardless of weather I liked the ending or not.

 

[bells]

It's a superb series that gets an Ok ending, and i'm ok with that. The endings are good, just could be better, to me they don't invalidate all the awesome that came before it. And when i think on just how shitty endings get in ALL games lately, Mass Effect gets a B+ on my book with a lot of praise for Effort alone, for doing something that not only they didn't have to do (before doing it, was already clear that those who hated it would still hate it) but that hardly any other company would ever do.

So, thanks Bioware, you made good on your part i just hope you guys learn from this and your next games don't have to go through this... i did'nt liked the original endings, but he new ones gave me closure, that's enough and i'm ok with that.

 

[Sexy Devil]

I've only seen Youtube videos, and I seriously laughed out loud for the Refusal ending, because of how obvious Bioware's prickish nature is during that ending.

I read your Google Doc, and I was seriously impressed by your summation of the Refusal ending, and how it is absolutely the only 'real' ending. It's the only canonical ending in my book, at least.

Your awesome explanation:

Spoiler

The biggest aggravation of it all is that Refusal is the most logical route to take. Hang with me for a second. You are having a conversation with the biggest monster in the history of the galaxy. The Leviathan of Dis was a Reaper and nearly a billion years old. That means that the Reapers have been doing their thing for AT LEAST that long. You?re talking over 15,000 cycles and on the low end about three quadrillion deaths. Lemme say that again. Three quadrillion. That?s three thousand trillion deaths or three million billion dead and that?s on the low end assuming there weren?t some really populous cycles and that the Leviathan of Dis was among the first of its kind. You are standing there talking to someone responsible for so many deaths there?s no way to wrap your mind around it. He has industrialized murder on a galactic scale and for at least 6% of the age of the universe. He is doing his level best to murder everyone you know, everyone you love, and everything you care about... AS YOU?RE TALKING TO HIM. As you?re sitting there chatting with him his minions are trying to get their claws on your love interest and favorite squadmates so they can rip them limb from limb or blow them apart, or violate their bodies to turn them to husks or just melt them alive into Reaper goo. Everyone who?s died in the last three games that you care about?s deaths can be laid at this abomination?s feet. Why in the flying fuck would you believe ANYTHING that comes out of his gob?

Frankly the only safe assumption is to assume that everything he says is a lie and that any of his three courses of action will at a minimum result in your pointless death and the failure of the Crucible up to and including automatically husking everyone in existence (synthesis). Turning around and shooting him in his stupid smug face is the only logical course of action to take, and it?s the one that is an instant game over.

I don't know why people were actually expecting a victory from the refusal ending. The whole game was spent building up the fact that the crucible is literally the only hope. They've said that subtle tactics just outright fail, and guerrilla tactics do way more damage to their side than they do to the Reapers. Everyone's been saying that if they go in there guns blazing without the crucible then they're going to flat out lose. Then everyone gets pissed when the "go in there guns blazing" option causes a flat out loss? Seriously, wat?

I had this argument on Kotaku back when the endings were released and they kept saying "Shepard should have done something!" What was Shepard supposed to have done? The only thing (s)he could have tried was shooting the starchild, which you could try; other than that (s)he was stranded on the platform and couldn't do anything. Doing anything else would have been the mother of all ass pulls - which was the problem with the original endings in the first place. And having guerrilla tactics work after three games of buildup saying that they wouldn't would have just been retarded.

The only way the galaxy was going to win in a direct confrontation was if one reaper tripped on a space rock, therefore falling and causing a domino effect of falling reapers while the benny hill theme played.

 

[sumanoskae]

I'd understand you if the extended cut just outright denied the plot holes, but it doesn't just wave them aside.

"My squad teleported"
"Shepard called in a pick up"

"Exploding relays destroy solar systems"
"They were damaged, but not destroyed"

"Everyone's stranded and starving"
"The relays can be rebuilt"

"You destroy organics to prevent their destruction?"
"We destroy SOME organics to prevent the destruction of ALL organics".

P.S: I thought the point of having the option to refuse was that you were willing to fight to the bitter end, the idea that you would likely just lose didn't occur? Would you have preferred another Deus Ex Machina if it was in your favor?

If you're still dissatisfied, fine, but are you really mad that the extended cut quickly and concisely dealt with the plot holes and expanded the story, exactly like they said it would?

 

[Gennadios]

Not exactly laughed, but I chuckled at the Space Jesus vibe of the Paragon Control ending.

I found alot of humor in the refusal ending as well, although I didn't really laugh.

 

[chadachada123]

I don't know why people were actually expecting a victory from the refusal ending. The whole game was spent building up the fact that the crucible is literally the only hope. They've said that subtle tactics just outright fail, and guerrilla tactics do way more damage to their side than they do to the Reapers. Everyone's been saying that if they go in there guns blazing without the crucible then they're going to flat out lose. Then everyone gets pissed when the "go in there guns blazing" option causes a flat out loss? Seriously, wat?

I had this argument on Kotaku back when the endings were released and they kept saying "Shepard should have done something!" What was Shepard supposed to have done? The only thing (s)he could have tried was shooting the starchild, which you could try; other than that (s)he was stranded on the platform and couldn't do anything. Doing anything else would have been the mother of all ass pulls - which was the problem with the original endings in the first place. And having guerrilla tactics work after three games of buildup saying that they wouldn't would have just been retarded.

The only way the galaxy was going to win in a direct confrontation was if one reaper tripped on a space rock, therefore falling and causing a domino effect of falling reapers while the benny hill theme played.

You're being a little misrepresentative of the quote I posted. The Refusal ending was only added as a "Fuck you" by Bioware, DESPITE it being the absolute only *logical* option and also the only option that a freedom-seeking Sheppard would pick.

As the quote I posted said, why would you even consider trusting a being that has killed literally quadrillions of sentient beings over the past billion years? Listening to the God-child and following one of his options is giving up the freedom that you've spent three entire games fighting for, the ability to pick your own destiny, consequences be damned.

I don't think people were expecting the refusal ending to actually succeed (though it'd be nice to have your EMS actually DO something), but they were at least expecting that option from the start rather than having it given to us as a kick in the gut like it is right now. It's clear they only added it in as salt in the wounds, when the option, dumb as it may be, should have been there from the start.

 

[chadachada123]

I read your Google Doc, and I was seriously impressed by your summation of the Refusal ending, and how it is absolutely the only 'real' ending. It's the only canonical ending in my book, at least.

Just for the record, the Google doc isn't mine--I found it on Reddit. But other than that, yeah, pretty much.

Oh, whoops, I think that I took your sentence saying "I've written about this elsewhere" to be an admission to writing the document linked in the sentence prior, my apologies.

 

[dreadedcandiru99]

I don't know why people were actually expecting a victory from the refusal ending. The whole game was spent building up the fact that the crucible is literally the only hope.

Yeah, the writers did spend the whole third game insisting that their Deus Ex Machina Out Of Freaking Nowhere was the only chance for a happy ending, but that wasn't necessarily true.

In ME1, Sovereign wasn't willing to attack the Citadel until it had a Geth fleet and a Krogan army on its side, and Vigil tells us that yes, Reapers are powerful, but they're not invincible. We also find out that the whole purpose of the Citadel/mass relay system was to facilitate a surprise attack; the Reapers would shut down galactic travel and communication, then pick off one system at a time. It's a safe bet that they do this specifically so they won't have to fight the combined military forces of the entire galaxy all at once, like they do in ME3.

Speaking of ME3, the Codex says that three or four ships, working together, can take out a Sovereign-sized Reaper. We see one such Reaper getting its tentacles blown off at the beginning of the final battle, and in the scene where the Crucible fires, we can see another one with several chunks missing. Also, apparently there are destroyer-killing Thanix missiles now. And I've never bothered with the multiplayer, but if you're doing well, you get a message that "our forces are winning all over the galaxy" or something, which probably wouldn't be happening if the Reapers were really unbeatable.

So yeah, it seems to me that if you've maxed out your war assets, you should at least have a chance to win--a small, incredibly costly chance, but a chance nonetheless. Surely that would've been more satisfying, and made a little more sense, than a wave of green space magic that somehow turns everyone into robots or whatever.

 

[Smeggs]

I laughed at how hard they obviously meant Synthesis to be the "Best" ending.

Forcing others to accept one another by implanting them magically with technology without any consent from them is no different than what the Reapers did with the husks. I call bullshit, there must have been at least quite a number of beings from the races who were outraged that Shepard had the gall to transform them into some freakish half-machine hybrids. And honestly? They want to use the Reapers now? Bullshit, any race with half a brain would disassemble the fuckers while they were still friendly before something happens and they relapse.

 

[bafrali]

Real laugh comes from the fact that endings are directly ripped off from the Deus EX.

When in doubt, steal it

 

[Joccaren]

Yeah, I couldn't help it. It started when the Normandy made its pickup of your squadmates. That was f***ing hilarious. And Harby, just sitting there watching as it lifted off right in front of him. I swear to god I just fell off my chair laughing at the incredible improbability of it all. Everything just stopped so that the Normandy could land, pickup your squad then fly off. Way to go team!

 

[ultrachicken]

My only problem with the EC is that Synthesis was obviously the best ending. The only possible downside is if you view turning everybody into cyborgs as somehow violating, which I don't. It makes everybody's lives substantially better, so questioning whether or not Shephard has the right is just semantics.

Also, the alleged plot holes are only there because they didn't remove all of the vagueness. There are possible explanations that fit for every plot hole that I've heard of.

 

[Joccaren]

I don't know why people were actually expecting a victory from the refusal ending.

Because it would fix 2 problems at once most likely. Hell, I would have been happy without a victory, so long as some decent effort was put into it.
What would it have solved?
1. The ability to refute the Starchild
2. Your War Assets actually meaning something.
Show them in a cinematic, fighting the Reapers, then, to actually make them matter and not just look cool, have a victory for a near perfect playthrough. As is, there is no reason to really care what you do throughout the series. You never see it doing anything. It doesn't change anything [Except an arbitrary number which has an arbitrary effect on the Crucible - and the minimum required to get all 3 endings is so pathetically easy to get its not funny - just do enough sidequests], and whilst the EC has done a little to try and change that [A few 3 second pictures], it can't change the fact that your choices and war assets mean bugger all in the grand scheme of things.

The whole game was spent building up the fact that the crucible is literally the only hope. They've said that subtle tactics just outright fail

Except on Palaven where Krogan manage to sneak nukes inside Reapers and blow them up from the insides.

and guerrilla tactics do way more damage to their side than they do to the Reapers.

Except for the Asari pre the Thessia invasion, where they hit and run on the Reapers with high success rates. They stopped to fight a conventional war for Thessia, however, when the Reapers Zerg Rushed them there.

Everyone's been saying that if they go in there guns blazing without the crucible then they're going to flat out lose.

And yet all the examples prove them wrong.
Also note the Suicide Mission in ME2. SUICIDE. Mission. Does that mean Shepard HAD to die? Or could he beat the odds and what he was told, and make it out alive with enough preparation?

Then everyone gets pissed when the "go in there guns blazing" option causes a flat out loss? Seriously, wat?

To be honest, we expected more from Bioware. At the very least to show our war assets fighting, but hopefully to make them count, have there be a point to making all the choices previously. Better yet, give us a good ending that we will be happy with. Don't make it easy. Have it require a pretty much perfect playthrough of all 3 games to get. But have it there, for your long time fans who went through all your games expecting that they were going to make a difference.

I had this argument on Kotaku back when the endings were released and they kept saying "Shepard should have done something!" What was Shepard supposed to have done? The only thing (s)he could have tried was shooting the starchild, which you could try; other than that (s)he was stranded on the platform and couldn't do anything. Doing anything else would have been the mother of all ass pulls - which was the problem with the original endings in the first place. And having guerrilla tactics work after three games of buildup saying that they wouldn't would have just been retarded.

Uh, you know:
Shepard: Admiral, the Crucible can't be used. The Reaper leader appears to be in control of it.
Hackett: Reaper leader? You mean Harbinger?
Shepard: I don't think so Admiral. He says that the Citadel is his home, and that he controls the Reapers. Sir, I recommend destroying the Citadel.
Hackett: Are you sure? There are civilians on board - as are you.
Shepard: It may be our only hope.
Hackett: Very well. All ships, we have recieved reports of the Reapers being controlled from the Citadel. We need to destroy that station and pray that it ends this war.
*Fleet Destroys Citadel*
*Reapers deactivate*

Ass pull? Sure, but only as much as the whole Crucible plot is anyway. Or the Starchild. Or pretty much everything after starting the run to the beam.

Whilst ME3 may have told us that conventional war won't work, ME1 and ME2 set us up for having a "Unite the Galaxy and send them against the Reapers" plot. Screw Guerilla tactics. This is 1000 Reapers [Or however many there actually are. Face it, we actually have no idea] vs the Entire Galaxy. We outnumber them. If they didn't nerf Thanix, we have similar firepower - if shorter range. Add that to having something important for Shepard to do - fight his way to a hidden launch site of nukes in London that were kept safe from the Reapers or something that will give the player something to do - and its not too unbelievable that we could win against the Reapers. Two games of buildup for that. 1 game of telling you you can't.

The only way the galaxy was going to win in a direct confrontation was if one reaper tripped on a space rock, therefore falling and causing a domino effect of falling reapers while the benny hill theme played.

Well, they are complete idiots in ME3. Note how they didn't take the Citadel. How they stayed on the ground and got eaten by a Thresher Maw. How they couldn't aim, and failed to hit Shepard with their laser when he was on the ground probably 300 meters away, how they missed Alliance Cruisers with their precision weaponry in the Sword Fight - everything they do in ME3 is stupid. Not one smart move is made on their behalf. You might as well have the Benny Hill theme playing throughout every Reaper confrontation, its almost appropriate.