Poll: ME3 EC didn't fix anything

[AD-Stu]

So I finally got a chance to play through the Extended Cut. Sorry if some of this has been said before.

Some of the extra information is... interesting, I guess, and it certainly does its best to address some of the more minor concerns that people had with the original endings. The huge problems are still there though.

One thing in particular stuck out to me as actually being made worse by the EC though: the explanation for how the squadmates who were with you on the final part of the London mission ended up back on the Normandy.

What Bioware has done is horrible: not knowing how they got there was better in every conceivable way.

Why? Well there's the obvious problem that was pointed out above: that Harbinger would have just blown the shit out of the Normandy while it was sitting there. But IMO the biggest problem is that limping away from the fight is completely out of character for every single one of your squadmates. I had Garrus and Javik with me, there's no way either of them would quit that close to the end, and I don't think any of our other squadmates would have either.

Plus why didn't some of the uninjured people who were on the Normandy take the opportunity to jump off and run to the beam? Every extra person would have helped, and getting to the beam was what winning the entire war hinged on.

It's like Mac Walters and co stepped in quicksand by creating the original plot hole, then they've decided to fix it by pulling their legs out with their arms and their arms out with their face... *shudder*

 

[pandorum]

All they needed to do was end the game like this (www.youtube.com/watchv=6h4dVFOi3Xg&feature=related)

then add DLC later just watch till the end.

Edit: http://www.youtube.com/embed/C8UNZVgg7UM

 

[easternflame]

I think it's basically the same HOWEVER, I found more satisfaction. I will say, it's still stupid when the Normandy leaves, they would stay but I'm glad Bioware stuck to their guns.
We people are hipocrytes, LUCAS CHANGED STAR WARS!? HOW DARE HE? (Because the changes were greed oriented and sucked, apart from the artistic repercussions but I guess that goes without saying) and then we're all like That sucks man! Bioware fix the endings! "Retake Mass Effect".

I don't like bioware anymore, not because of the endings, I guess anyone can fuck that up, but they've sold themselves and no one can argue that ME3 development was a chain of embarassing news up to the end with the crappy ending.

I'd hardly call it hypocritical. Star Wars was fine the way it was. All the changes that Lucas added were basically nothing but shiny bells and whistles that added nothing to the overall experience whereas the ending to Mass Effect 3 was shit, sloppy, rushed and riddled with so many plotholes that it needed a fix.

We weren't mad because Star Wars was fine. We were mad because he changed things. Artistically speaking, it's disgraceful. If Star Wars had needed something changed, most of us would be mad still. I think that bioware fucked up with their shitty ending, yes. However they fucked up and now they have to stick to that.

 

[Blade_125]

I think it's basically the same HOWEVER, I found more satisfaction. I will say, it's still stupid when the Normandy leaves, they would stay but I'm glad Bioware stuck to their guns.
We people are hipocrytes, LUCAS CHANGED STAR WARS!? HOW DARE HE? (Because the changes were greed oriented and sucked, apart from the artistic repercussions but I guess that goes without saying) and then we're all like That sucks man! Bioware fix the endings! "Retake Mass Effect".

I don't like bioware anymore, not because of the endings, I guess anyone can fuck that up, but they've sold themselves and no one can argue that ME3 development was a chain of embarassing news up to the end with the crappy ending.

I'd hardly call it hypocritical. Star Wars was fine the way it was. All the changes that Lucas added were basically nothing but shiny bells and whistles that added nothing to the overall experience whereas the ending to Mass Effect 3 was shit, sloppy, rushed and riddled with so many plotholes that it needed a fix.

We weren't mad because Star Wars was fine. We were mad because he changed things. Artistically speaking, it's disgraceful. If Star Wars had needed something changed, most of us would be mad still. I think that bioware fucked up with their shitty ending, yes. However they fucked up and now they have to stick to that.

YOu can argue artistic integrity all you want, but in the end companies like Lucs arts and Bioware are interested in only one thing. Profit. If changes make money then they will be made. Bioware had to worry about a big backlash of fans who would not buy future games, so they tried to garner some good will by making these changes. Unfortunetly the new endings didn't fix the actual problems, but it seems enough people have been appeased by the shiney ball.

 

[setting_son]

I downloaded the EC on Tuesday and have spent the last few days playing through the game again. I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with the revised endings and got as much closure as I needed to feel the Mass Effect experience was complete.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

Life goes on, my crew lived, it turns out I lived. I'll be settling down on Rannoch with Tali, thanks very much.

 

[Jadak]

The Reject ending is a slap in the face. It's like ok, you go out on your terms. This cycle dies and wait.... the next cycle uses the crucible to defeat the reapers. Wait, what? Then what the hell is the point of a series that is about self determination? That all life is valuable? That strength through diversity and co-operation and unity despite that diversity is possible? It's just repellant and obnoxious that the choices offered don't matter what so ever.

I don't disagree on it being a slap in the face, but you seem to have gotten what the rejection ending is backwards. It's not about the cycle dying, it's about you opting out and thus allowing the cycle to continue.

It's a full on "game over", it's choosing complete and utter failure in all of your efforts for the sake of giving starchild the middle finger.

That last bit at the end is just to demonstrate the continuing cycle, with Liara's message being the next generation's version of the beacons and such, maybe they'll have better luck, maybe not. It`s basically a reset of the story.

 

[Varrdy]

I was seriously miffed at the wanky ending to Mass Effect 3 and followed the path of heated but rational debate rather than throwing a screaming, hairy ab-dab of a tantrum. When the EC was announced, I read the FAQ and generally was not impressed as it sounded like a lot more of the same, just longer.

When it came out I was a day behind so I avoided the internet until I'd played it for myself. While I admit that it still wasn't perfect, it was a fucksight better than the original ending! I enjoyed the additional scenes that were created and it seemed to validate the general consensus that the "Destroy" option is the best one to take (with apologies to the Geth and EDI!) even if the "breath" scene you get with it still makes naff-all sense unless the implants that were grafted into Shepard were seriously hardened!

It's been suggested that the majority of people who are satisfied with the EC were placated because they focused more on the emotional connections we formed to the characters along the way. I wont argue with this assertion because I happen to agree with it; I was choking back tears during the "memorial-wall" scene on the Normandy. I also had a bit of a giggle at the image of Zaeed chilling on a sun-lounger with Jessie by his side and I cheered when I saw the baby-krogan (possibly one of the most significant images of them all!).

Sure I still have issues with it but on the whole I am placated and I can overlook most of the remaining problems. As Angry Joe said: "If this was the ending we'd orignally gotten, I don't think there would have been this massive uproar at-all." I agree with that because I reckon most people looked harder at the original ending because it was a load of arse! When I witnessed it I felt sick and paced the kitchen for quite a while before going for a walk (at 3am!) to try and clear my head. When I saw the EC finale after sticking with Destroy, my original choice, I actually felt like that little part of my soul that died had been put restored.

Now you can swear and curse at me all you like but you'd just be wasting your time. I'm not a BioDrone as the only BioWare games I have are Mass Effect 1 -3 and I don't currently plan on buying any more BioWare games just because they made them. I'm not naive or easily-please, I just know what I like and would like to draw a line under the sorry episode and move on knowing / hoping that this will help prevent other games being ruined by bad-writing *cough*and EA*/cough*!

 

[Naqel]

Dose it still require Origin on PC?

Well, then nothing is fixed as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Dose it still require Origin on PC?

Well, then nothing is fixed as far as I'm concerned.

Did you know that EA released Crysis 2 a while ago on Steam? ME3 might come to Steam at some point as well. So don't worry. You might get a chance to experience the disappointment the way it was meant to disappoint.

 

[JWC1993]

Yeah, why the fuck should anyone ever actually try harder when things get tough. Just take the path of least resistance and employ some insane troll logic as to how it's the only way to do it. Sorry, not buying this.

If you can say to my face that getting yourself turned into gray goo and then used to construct a contraption that carries some vague bits of your DNA signature equals preservation/immortality for you, then I concede this point.

I'm not ignoring it, I just don't see that as "preservation" at all. Because there's more to a "species" than the DNA signature. Society. Culture. History. Context in which it exists. And all that gets wiped out. Preserving the genetic signature is worth bugger all when everything else that is just as, if not more important to a species' identity is destroyed.

Besides, the entire "preservation" stance takes another blast to the head when you consider there's a complete absence of any new Reaper other than the human one. Never once was it even vaguely implied that turians, asari, krogans, etc., are getting Reaper'd too.

Also, there's a complete absence of even a hint of a prothean Reaper. We're expected to take the glowbrat's words at face value. The least he could do was actually back up his words with something other than "Because I said so". For all I know, he could be lying.

Oh, but why would he lie? Yeah well, path of least resistance again.

I get that you don't buy the story - it doesn't make the story terrible. You're not expected to side with starchild and the reapers (I certainly don't), that's why you're fighting them! But you're suggesting that the writers invoked "troll logic" and that the story doesn't make sense, that is simply false.
The Prothean's had a quad-helix DNA structure (or something like that) which was divulged in the second Mass Effect, and the Reapers could not assimilate them into a new reaper. That is why they made the Collectors.
The culture, history, social format, etc., are *exactly* what is preserved by the Reapers. If that is your format for preservation, then you, sir, are secretly on the starchild's side. The Reapers chose to make a human modeled Reaper because human's had the most dynamic genetic code.
Glowbrat could indeed have been lying, which was primarily the reason that the "indoctrination theory" was so popular. However, the Extended Cut endings show that he was at least being honest about giving Shepherd control of the Reapers, destroying them, or synthesizing with them. To assume further that he was fibbing at relatively petty queries is ad hoc.
You're really wrong. Most of your objections are founded well outside of logic, and well inside of ignorance.

 

[Suncatcher]

It made things better. Still monumentally stupid, but less so.

A well-polished turd, as it were, rather than the steaming mess they gave us at first. But it's still a turd.

Overall it made the ending enough less terrible that I'm willing to play through the game again (I couldn't bring myself to a second runthrough with the original ending, despite playing four separate characters through the first two). but it's not enough to make me ever buy a game from EA again.

 

[MarsProbe]

I downloaded the EC on Tuesday and have spent the last few days playing through the game again. I have to say I'm pretty satisfied with the revised endings and got as much closure as I needed to feel the Mass Effect experience was complete.

Spoiler

Life goes on, my crew lived, it turns out I lived. I'll be settling down on Rannoch with Tali, thanks very much.

Note: I edited in some actual spoiler tags there, for our convenience. Anyway, I've just ran through the last two missions there and watched two of the endings I was most bothered about (that being Destroy and the "Screw You, Star Child" endings) and as far I'm concerned, I can now walk away satisfied.

I find out how my two squadmates get back on board the Normandy, the Normandy's departure from the battle is explained and we finally get a bit more explanation out of the Star Child...and find out that his voice has started to break. The little guy is growing up!

It's just a pity that the sudden gasp of breath wasn't expanded on, unless that happens in one of the endings I didn't watch, though I doubt it. Anyway, I think I can now finally move on with my life. I know some out there will continue to throw their toys out of the pram regardless but hey, leave them to it, I say.

 

[The Genius]

Otherwise we'll never get the same treatment from developers ever again, because they'll just assume we were never going to be happy anyway and they won't bother trying.

We should only be so lucky. ME3 was released with a disgracefully underdone ending. Bio went back and fixed it to cover their very public error, not for the fans regardless of what people want to think.

Now that's bullshit. Go to Bioware's front door and tell their developers how much they suck and don't care about the fans. It won't make you right in your desperate need to hate.

Not hate. I havent even played ME3 yet. If you seriously think the change wasnt a result of negative PR then you need to get a better understanding of how business works. They dont care about fans, they care about future revenue. That's just a fact of life. Please go ahead and defend a company that peddled a substandard product if it makes you feel better though.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I find out how my two squadmates get back on board the Normandy

Yeah, about that. The Normandy just lands on Earth in less than 5 seconds and Harbinger is ignoring it completely so you could say goodbye to everyone. They actually made everything worse with EC when you actually stop and think about what they've done. They didn't fix anything. They ignored the real issues and they only tried to justify mistakes.

They didn't release EC as a gift to us. Don't be naive, people. They released it to pacify us so we'd buy their future DLC. A large majority of people didn't even bother replaying ME3 after that stupid ending. Why would they buy a DLC if the ending was still the same old shit? And it still is shit, most people just refuse to see that.

 

[VanTesla]

It's still pretty bad in not fixing the main plot holes it creates at the end or the crucible, but atleast they made it a tiny bit less dumb and let you know that whatever you did choose did not kill the galaxy with all the Mass Relays blowing up or stranding everyone on Earth to die... Also you get to see a glimps as Shepard being the new God of the galaxy if you go for control or unite the galaxy by synthesis and thus ending war, hate, corruption, etc. The synthesis ending still showed to me that every living creature had free will still, but have evolved past the restraints of negative thinking or destructive behavior.

 

[tstilwell]

I don't think that the problem was ever clarity. The original endings explained themselves just fine. The problem is that the endings are completely inconsistent with the rest of the Mass Effect series. This has been happening in gaming a lot as of late. Companies will make an AAA-title, monopolizing on the popular conventions of Hollywood-style action epics, but they take a sharp left-turn at the end and try to make something artistic about it. Sometimes, a game can just be about the fun of being an unstoppable space marine saving the galaxy. It's okay, it really is. We won't judge you any less.

Bioware did an amazing job crafting the Mass Effect universe and characterizing Shepard into an unstoppable force in the galaxy. He ran up the side of a space station to kill the galaxy's ranking supersoldier while that space station was being attacked by a sentient dreadnought. What does he do for an encore? Oh yeah, he rises from the dead after being killed while saving almost all of his crew from an exploding ship, beats back a threat that the entire galaxy is ignoring, and then tells a shadow-government to piss off, he's doing things his way. Given Shepard's resume, it would have been perfectly acceptable to have Shepard ride to Earth at the head of a unified galactic fleet (another impossible accomplishment) and blast the Reapers back to the Stone Age.

I honestly do not know how the developers of Mass Effect could have been sitting around the planning table and thought that the official endings were a good idea. Stop trying to be artistic. To tack on an artistic ending to ME3 reeks of immature story writing. If you have to try, then it probably shouldn't be there in the first place. These characters are our heroes. They are our Odysseuses and our Beowulfs, our Zorros and our Robin Hoods, our John McClains and our Martin Riggs. Let them be heroes.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

...As for Control you now basically become an omnipotent force that can crush anyone that looks at you sideways....

After choosing Control: "Hello, I am your new master, reapers. Go and kill yourself!" They didn't go for that? Really?

 

[Acton Hank]

I saw EC endings on YouTube, and now I'm here to vent.

Endings didn't fix any of the major problems. Plot holes that retroactively destroy the trilogy are still there. These endings were designed to satisfy emotional players who wanted character closure and who don't give a flying fuck about logic behind it all. BECAUSE THERE IS NO LOGIC! It's still the same shit it was before. It's still A, B, C, and now D ending based around the assumptions that synthetics will eventually kill all organics even though I spent 3 games proving that little retard wrong.

Why are so many people happy with this? Did you all forget that the existence of starchild practically turns the entire plot of Mass Effect 1 into one giant plot hole? Why did Sovereign need Saren to fix the Citadel signal if starchild was always there? How did the protheans manage to sabotage the Citadel if the starchild has the ability to get into your head? Should we simply assume that a bunch of protheans were able to do all that and there was nothing the starchild could have done to stop them? We shouldn't assume that, because most people know by now what the original plot was supposed to be. And there was never any starchild in it.

Who created the starchild? Organics? Then why doesn't he simply protect the organics against the synthetics? Why don't the Reapers simply destroy the synthetics? Why are they waiting in dark space? Wouldn't it be easier for them to just roam around the galaxy making sure we don't create A.I.? Seems like an easier solution. And a more logical one.
What if synthetics created the Catalyst? That's even dumber. Synthetics created an A.I in order to protect the organics against the synthetics by killing organics.

What about the Crucible? It's still space magic. It still doesn't make any god damn sense.

Can't you see? As long as the starchild exists, the entire plot of Mass Effect makes no sense. And it's not like Bioware didn't have the easy way out. Jesus fuckin' Christ what a mess.

ME1 had plot holes which retroactively destroyed the plot of the game, nobody seems to know or give a shit about them. I guess some people give a shit about certain plotholes and not others.

Did you honestly expect them to do anything about that after the EC was announced?
The scrapped "dark energy" ending was just as stupid in a different way.

The best way to do the ending would have been to simply not go into the reaper's motivations and not do a stupid twist ending.

In this version at least the Catalyst gives a feeling that other solutions were tried but always failed.

As for Sovereign and the Citadel, maybe the catalyst does what the Reapers do every 50.000 years, go in hibernation and remain hidden, and stay that way until the reapers come.