The Mass Effect 3/BioWare Thread

[Stinger]

Deleted scene where Liara and Garrus die.

Not particularly lulzy aside from Shepard's hilarious facial expressions., also the comments.

 

[CROmagnon]

How Mass Effect 3 wil be remembered for years to come

 

[racofer]

Deleted scene where Liara and Garrus die.

Not particularly lulzy aside from Shepard's hilarious facial expressions., also the comments.

It was for the best.

 

[RPGMaster]

At this point my goal is to tell every gamer I know that Bioware is no longer a developer worth supporting.​

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Okay, i didn't want to say it. Because it's cruel.​

But, honestly? i would have fired ALL the ones in charge of writing the ending. ​

They clearly LIED to us with the promise of "closure" and "diversity".​

Im sorry but i really can't think of a reason to forgive the son of a bit** who wrote that ****t$ ending.​

I wouldn't care if they had warned us with "the end will not answer everything", "your choices won't matter" or "we won't bring any closure to it, we will leave a door opened for speculation". But they did quite the opposite. So GO TO HELL bioware...and i don't even believe on it!, but i will create it out of nowhere just like you did with the starchild.​

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I do not have time for your solid waste excretions, BioWare. The more I hear the more you seem utterly out of touch and nigh on delusional.​

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Secondly, I want Mark Walters' head on a plate so I can **** in his mouth. The lead writer along with the project manager ruined the best series ever... You dont deserve nothing from us.​

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Absolutely epic.

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

​

 

[waywardOne]

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

No. They're still the same ignorant bandwagoners, flocking to whatever's shitty and popular.

 

[racofer]

Another good read, as usual: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...ans-entitled-gamers-or-responsible-consumers/

 

[LundB]

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

No. Many of them hate the endings for all the wrong reasons (wah wah so sad, Shepards true love is separated from him, what will I do!?!?!?!)

Those who hate it for the right reasons still don't see that Bioware's derp extends far beyond the endings of ME3.

 

[Volourn]

If theyw ere responsible cosnumers they would do research before buying the game and not simply pre order it like lemmings. FFS

Customers atr ethe most evil, ghateful, bigoted, retarted peices of fukkin' shits ever. I pffer 100 Hitlers to one customer. Thankyou very much.

P.S. L0L @ funny pics

 

[CrustyBot]

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

No. They're still the same ignorant bandwagoners, flocking to whatever's shitty and popular.

I came here from the BSN.

I wouldn't say BSNers are bandwagoners either, they aren't afraid to bash or support opinions that are contrary to the mainstream gaming community. They know what they like and that's the kind of game and storytelling that BioWare's weened them on for a number of years.

It's just that even by those relatively low standards, Mass Effect 3's ending is fucking awful. It was objectively hilariously shit.

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

No. Many of them hate the endings for all the wrong reasons (wah wah so sad, Shepards true love is separated from him, what will I do!?!?!?!)

Those who hate it for the right reasons still don't see that Bioware's derp extends far beyond the endings of ME3.

Basically, this.

 

[RPGMaster]

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

No. They're still the same ignorant bandwagoners, flocking to whatever's shitty and popular.

Oh well.

Here's some more juicy rage.

They should hire me to punch these two [Hudson & Walters) in the balls everytime they come up with a retarded idea like this. ​

​

This is it for me, there's no light at the end of the tunnel. It is what it appeared to be originally: a derivative, tone deaf, piece of s**t. Those two pseudo intellectual, artless morons and everyone else at Bioware that nodded their heads, that didn't raise their hands and say 'that betray the vision and spirt of the entire franchise, are you on crack?' - should be slapped. There is nothing redeeming or worthwile about that ending, nothing artistic, good or true. It is a complete and utter betrayal worthy only of contempt, disgust and rage. Screw you Bioware.​

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O FOR THE LOVE........​

SON OF.....​

YOU........ IDIOT​

What the Hell where you on to think this was a good idea.​

your dead to me dude .... dead to me.​

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Oh and by the way my all knowing friend, I NEVER liked Walters - EVER - I just had a bit of faith in him, now I want his head. Period.​

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And finally a moment of zen:

This is propably end of you fanbase, Bioware. ​

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[Volourn]

tHIS IS HIALRIOUS. gETTING VIOLENT OVER A FUKKIN' VIDEO VIDEO. I'd punch that opiec eof shit if I ever emt him! FFS

 

[treave]

​

This is it for me, there's no light at the end of the tunnel. It is what it appeared to be originally: a derivative, tone deaf, piece of s**t. Those two pseudo intellectual, artless morons and everyone else at Bioware that nodded their heads, that didn't raise their hands and say 'that betray the vision and spirt of the entire franchise, are you on crack?' - should be slapped. There is nothing redeeming or worthwile about that ending, nothing artistic, good or true. It is a complete and utter betrayal worthy only of contempt, disgust and rage. Screw you Bioware.​

And that is why we can never be bros with BSN. They met the acclaimed Mass Effect 3 Ending with rage, thinking that it betrayed the 'vision' and 'spirit' of the entire franchise. We met it with chortles of laughter for we knew what spirit and vision Bioware had died a long time ago in the graves of Neverwinter.

 

[circ]

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

No. Why? Because BSN on the whole love the shit ouf of DA1, ME1, in most cases ME2. People review plotholes in ME2 and ME3, whilst at the same time calling ME1 a masterpiece. As far as I'm concerned, if you think DA1 is an amazing game and GOTY material, it's the first game you've ever played. Whilst getting sucked by a hooker. As another hooker sticks her tongue up your ass. And a third one lets you eat her ass. And a fourth one is actually doing all the playing.

 

[Sceptic]

dont know if true or if anyone still care, but funny to read how much they scraped the role of harbringer in this game.
[snip]

Why the smiley? This whole stuff actually makes SO much more sense than the actual endings, not to mention it ties in nicely with higher war readiness leading to a better ending. And picking the "best" ending vs having it be the only one where the mass relays are destroyed does make for an interesting choice. Hell I'd have been pretty satisfied overall if that's how the game ending really had turned out.

And that is why we can never be bros with BSN. They met the acclaimed Mass Effect 3 Ending with rage, thinking that it betrayed the 'vision' and 'spirit' of the entire franchise.

Well it did. I mean, you can argue that the vision was bland and that the spirit was derivative, and you'd be right, but the ending is a completely needless shift from the tone of the rest of the series. And THAT is the reason why it's a shitty ending, regardless of any redeeming value (or lack thereof) possessed by what came before it. Well, and the fact it made no sense and was pulled out of Priestley's rather impressive ass, but that's neither here nor there.

 

[treave]

Well it did. I mean, you can argue that the vision was bland and that the spirit was derivative, and you'd be right, but the ending is a completely needless shift from the tone of the rest of the series. And THAT is the reason why it's a shitty ending, regardless of any redeeming value (or lack thereof) possessed by what came before it. Well, and the fact it made no sense and was pulled out of Priestley's rather impressive ass, but that's neither here nor there.

I'd suggest that the second game already departed from the tone of the first, taking a dive into grimdark grittiness with a strong emphasis on sacrifices and deaths, rather than the space opera journey of the previous instalment. I'm not exactly sure how the ending is a shift in tone itself. It seemed like the usual pseudo-scientific nonsense to me, taken to greater heights. Mass Effect's pretense at being hard sci-fi was never very stable in the first place.

Nonsensical, yes, forced, yes, but I wouldn't say that the ending breaks away from the vision and spirit of the franchise. Because I don't actually think they had a full-fledged vision for a trilogy in the first place. There's... nothing to betray.

 

[TripJack]

 

[CrustyBot]

I found the perfect thread for that prosper inspired emote.

Mass Effect 3's ending is RACIST!

The one common element in all the endings is that you will meet an entity known as the "Catalyst". Set aside all of the other plot holes and minor complaints, and focus on the Catalyst for now.

This is the entity that created the Reapers. This is the entity that is directly responsible for the genocide of multiple sentient races over tens of thousands of years. It is his fault that Earth, Palaven, Thessia, and the Galaxy is burning.

The Catalyst is in fact a war criminal on a scale worse than any of our own real-world tyrants. Hitler's gas chambers, Genghis Khan's campaigns of extermination, and Tamerlene's pyramid of skulls is nothing compared to what the Reapers have done. That it tries to disguise itself as a young child does nothing to exonerate it of the magnitude of its crimes - it's actually sickening. It's like Hitler having plastic surgery to look like an innocent child.

Even worse, this is an entity that attempts to justify its genocidal actions - in a way that is bluntly little different from the real world genocide of the Jews.

It uses euphemisms to describe mass murder. It uses the term "Chaos" to describe people, as though they are a problem and not living, breathing, beings. It calls its actions a "Solution", just as the certain people called the Holocaust their "Final Solution". It even goes as far as calling the the liquification of corpses into Reaper components as "Ascension", no different from how the Concentration Camps collected the hair and skin of the dead victims to use as furniture components.

Even worse, the premise of the Catalyst is fundamentally a racist premise. It boils down to "Organics and Synthetics are so different that they will always end up destroying each other". Really? You are now judged by your component parts - metal or protein - instead of the content of your character? How offensive would it be in real life to hear someone say you should be judged by the color of your skin?

To top it all off, the player is not allowed to question its actions. It must stand idly by and accept its justifications. You are not allowed to tell it that is wrong. Mac Walters and Casey Hudson actually thought this was a good thing too

FUCKING LOL!

 

[20 Eyes]

I know it's taken them a while to catch on but can BSN be considered bros now?

​

Absolutely not. They're merely disgruntled Talimancers upset because ME3 ends with a picture stolen from some poor Korean's Deviant Art account and not with Shepherd and Tali riding on Wrex's shoulders off into the sunset. They're still the same clowns that only care about making the robots romancable for the frog aliens. They're just mad because Bioware didn't give them exactly what they wanted, for once. Anyone that didn't jump off the Bioware boat after Dragon Age 2 (at the latest) is beyond salvation.

 

[Xor]

I've thought about it, and I think ME3's ending doesn't work for four main reasons.

1) It has more plot holes than the fucking Star Wars prequels. I already listed some several pages back. Basically, nothing that happens makes any goddamn sense. That's pretty much par for the course in the Mass Effect series, though.
2) It doesn't actually resolve anything aside from (maybe) the Reaper threat. There are so many lingering questions that the ending doesn't bother to resolve. It's difficult to find a sense of closure when you're left wondering what the fuck happened to the galaxy Bioware spent the entire trilogy building. And that includes the shit you do in ME3.
3) It doesn't fit at all with the tone or themes of the series. While there was a drastic tonal shift between ME1 and ME2, some things remain constant throughout the series (machines versus man, free will, cycles of war between species, old hatreds leading to conflict, etc). The ending has none of that - you're given three choices that feel like they came from an entirely different game. There's also a missing element that the previous two games had in their endings, and that's hope. Both ME1 and ME2 end on an optimistic note, with Shepard promising to take the fight to the reapers. In ME3 you get to watch Shepard die.
4) The ending (and the entire plot of ME3) revolves around a mcguffin. I haven't seen many people complain about this, even though it's a rather glaring problem. Rather than resolve the reaper threat in a credible way, they pull out a magic plot device from nowhere that isn't alluded to in any way in the previous two games and suddenly it's the key for solving everything. Not only is this incredibly lazy writing, it's also dishonest as fuck after someone at Bioware basically promised they wouldn't do exactly what they did, resolving the series with a cheap plot device (I can't find the quote right now).

 

[Clockwork Knight]

To top it all off, the player is not allowed to question its actions. It must stand idly by and accept its justifications. You are not allowed to tell it that is wrong. Mac Walters and Casey Hudson actually thought this was a good thing too

Catalyst: I have destroyed more civilizations than there are cells in your bo-

Shepard: Racism is bad, mmmmmkay?

Catalyst:

Shepard:

 

[Volourn]

HAHAHAHAHAQ L0L

 

[Sceptic]

I'd suggest that the second game already departed from the tone of the first, taking a dive into grimdark grittiness with a strong emphasis on sacrifices and deaths, rather than the space opera journey of the previous instalment. I'm not exactly sure how the ending is a shift in tone itself. It seemed like the usual pseudo-scientific nonsense to me, taken to greater heights.

I agree with the first part, but while the tone shift in ME2 was a glaring flaw to begin with the game still managed to retain some of the themes (Xor listed them nicely) and most carry over with an even stronger sense into ME3. And there's the fact that the entire trilogy is still space opera; ME2 is less epic SO than ME1 but it still has most of the cliches in there, even if it takes them into Grimdark territory. The problem with the ME3 ending is that it's not just a departure, or a shift, or darker; it's a COMPLETELY unrelated genre. It's like getting to the Fortress of Regrets in PST and having it suddenly replaced by the finale of Day of the Tentacle. And there's nothing pseudo-scientific about the ending either (though I fully agree with you about the nonsense), which is also part of the problem; most of the trilogy is indeed that, but the ending is instead this pseudo-philosophical crap with the Catalyst-as--child imagery, the whole blabla about synthetics killing organics so they are saved from this by the creation of a synthetic race that regularly kills all organics (I mean... seriously? didn't anyone at Bioware actually READ this shit before they finalized it?), and then the 3 virtually identical choices that are dropped in your lap and have nothing to do with anything and then the Normandy crashes on this planet in the middle of nowhere after picking up your squadmates who were shot down by Harbinger and... what?

Nonsensical, yes, forced, yes, but I wouldn't say that the ending breaks away from the vision and spirit of the franchise. Because I don't actually think they had a full-fledged vision for a trilogy in the first place. There's... nothing to betray.

In some ways I agree, and I probably shouldn't have said the previous games had any "vision" (this was already shown quite well with ME2, as you implied). What I meant was more that the previous games still clung to the space opera journey; different aspects of space opera perhaps. ME1 was the epic "save the galaxy" cliche, ME2 was a more personal "gather the space Dirty Dozen", and ME3 kinda brought back the epic save the galaxy from ME1 coupled with space (anti)-racism and "why can't we just get along?" and akk the typical idealism associated with space opera; and of course Shepard is DA (WO)MAN, Shepard SAVES THE DAY! And then all this completely vanishes as soon as Harbinger hits you (and then HE vanishes, but that's another problem) and you get a plot resolution that resolves a different plot from the one we've seen so far.

Again I'm not arguing that any of the previous stuff was good or not. Just that everything up to then was space opera generica of one type or another, whether more or less grimdark. And then the ending is not even remotely space opera. It's like the old BSG series getting the resolution from the new one grafted onto it. It's jarring even if you're not a fan of the series (and thank god I'm not, otherwise I would be raging).

 

[treave]

I agree with the first part, but while the tone shift in ME2 was a glaring flaw to begin with the game still managed to retain some of the themes (Xor listed them nicely) and most carry over with an even stronger sense into ME3...

Yeah, I get what you mean. Rather than vision or spirit, the themes of the plot appear to be abandoned in the final 10 minutes in favour of writing really stupid shit. But it's hard for me to say that they depart from the genre entirely because it still feels like sci-fi to me, just really poorly done sci-fi. At this point we're just nitpicking over the details though. As far as the themes go, I think they have tried to fulfil them, so I'd argue that it's not that they threw away all the cliches altogether, they just utterly failed at writing them.

Here's how I think it goes:

Destroy ending: Reapers cannot be reasoned with, have to be destroyed. That's acceptable to me, not everything can be talked away. But you also destroy the geth. If a player just went through the quarian missions by resolving it peacefully, they're likely not to pick this option because synthetics & organics have proven to be able to peacefully coexist. However, a player that brings a pro-organic slant (destroying the geth) will not have those qualms. The choice is there; just by providing the choice doesn't mean they abandon the theme. It's entirely possible to play a Shepard that doesn't trust synthetics and never will. Here Shepard saves the day, and he survives at the end if you get enough assets. The writers probably think of this as a renegade choice.

Control ending: Shepard gives up his humanity, attempts to control Reapers. It apparently works for the first time ever in galactic history. Shepard again saves the day, and he ascends in the process. He's been partially synthetic since the second game. If the writers were better they'd have implied more internal conflict within Shepard about being cybernetically enhanced, accepting that he is partially synthetic, and furthermore the quarian plot as well as EDI's conversations teach him that synthetics & organics can coexist. And thus he decides to force that message on the Reapers. Rather than literally controlling the Reapers, this could be Shepard pulling a Legion: disseminating his intelligence throughout the consensus and teaching them peace is possible.

Synthesis ending: Well, this one is all out 'synthetics & organics merge and live happily ever after'. Again, I wouldn't say it breaks away from the themes since the writers appear to be trying to convey that exact message. I'd say that the idealism and hope for the future was very heavy with this ending. Despite Shepard not being there anymore (probably), everything else in the galaxy can probably live happily ever after or something as cyborgs. I never thought of they focused on portraying the machine/man conflict as there to be only overcome by having them settle down and be good neighbours. Rather, they seemed to be pushing the idea that both synthetics and organics were alive (having souls, so to speak), and by literally merging the two it demonstrated they were compatible lifeforms, one and the same. We turn again to the quarian/geth plot, where Reaper-infected geth units had a very organic-looking network. All together, all alive.

Shepard saves the day in all three, but likely doesn't come back as he/she was, or at all. I think of this as the idealistic/hope part being transferred to the galaxy as a whole. Shepard is special, but couldn't have done it without everyone's aid. So even though Shepard is dead, the galaxy now has hope. Shepard has accomplished what he set out to do since the first game. It was never about him coming back alive, it was about saving the galaxy. They continually emphasise how Shepard throws himself into danger and should have died, over and over. But if he had died at those points, he wouldn't have done what he really wanted to do; save everyone. And if his death means he would save everyone for good, it's clear he'd do it. Breaking that streak at the end isn't abandoning the theme, it is fulfilling it. In my opinion, of course.

I think the endings they came up with can be drawn from the plot itself (or really, just from the geth), but it was just poorly written and not given any real thought - or any thought at all, particularly when it came to presenting the end sequence. Of course, I'm giving the writers the benefit of the doubt by calling their magic synthesis beam pseudo-scientific, since I'm sure they had... something... in mind, when they thought that up.

If we are to assume they were short on time, it still shows incompetence the moment you compare it to KoTOR2. That game rushed its ending, left several gaping holes, but still managed to tie its main plot together in a clear manner.

And holy fuck did I just wall of text trying to defend Bioware writing. The fuck did I corner myself into doing?

eh even though ME3 had fucking stupid endings I didn't really find them that jarring because lol y u take ME3 seriously? r00fles.

 

[dextermorgan]

http://www.gamefront.com/rumor-mass-effect-3-dlc-the-truth-due-in-april/

An anonymous poster has added additional commentary on the image that not only purports to clarify what happened with ME3′s ending, but makes almost unbelievable claims about BioWare’s DLC strategy.

The ending was half-assed because of the leak. They changed it at the last minute so they could have more time to prepare the real ending via DLC.
It’s called The Truth and it’s being released in April or May. You WILL be able to continue the story if you picked any of the endings. Your decision during that sequence will have a big effect on your ending of The Truth. The Truth adds two new sets of enemies, new classes, and multiplayer maps including “Firebase Hive”, which is a small area of the last remaining collector ship included in the DLC, which, by the way you should definitely bring Javik the Prothean along if you have him.
The picture here shows some of the leaked multiplayer classes and races. One race that isn’t shown is the Prothean Adept and Vanguard. This DLC also enables the ability for owners of the preorder and From Ashes DLC to find their DLC weapons in reinforcement packs.
All that content, and this might as well be labeled an expansion pack.
And it’s free.
You’re welcome.​

Highlighted what I believe is the key word.​

 

[Sulimo]

It's a shame they only rage on the ending tbh. I'd much rather they raged at the story.

-Reapers sit around and make tactically stupid decisions, hardly the most advanced AI's currently in the galaxy.
-Cerberus making a heel-face-heel turn from game 1 to 3. Illusive man wasn't featured in 1, but Martin Sheen gave him style so can forgive them for it. However, ME3 has him acting out of character like a madman. TIM was rather smart, so I find it odd he'd be stupid enough to get close enough to Reaper tech to be indoctrinated. Hell, that's what he has his staff for.
-You're railroaded into the Quarian-geth war, although that might be realistic because I'd like to think Sheps isn't as important as BSN thinks he is. Would be fun if they actually acknowledged it in game at least "We heard your advice, but after laughing about it for a while we discarded it."
-30 minutes into the game you get handed a macguffin to defeat the reapers. That's some ace storytelling right there.
-Did I mention the reapers are idiots yet? You can't build them up for 2 games as the most evil ultimate engines of destruction only to have them have the tactical understanding of a 2-year old schoolgirl.
-Not using the world elements to its fullest extent. Hell, Javik tells you about that time he had to kill off his crew because they were indoctrinated. Might have been a nice element for the Sheps as well. A few scenes where your ship gets sabotaged and you have to whodunnit to figure out who is the perpetrator. Should allow you to pick the wrong one as well, so you can end up a paranoid madman killing most of their companions.

I'm sure I can think up more stuff, but seriously, the ending is hardly the worst thing about the game from a narratological standpoint.