Mass Effect 3 SPOILERS THREAD

I'm going to replay the ending later today but I could have sworn that the kid said that only 1 of the choices resulted in the relay destruction (the Destroy option)

Looking on Youtube, all the relays are destroyed in every ending.
 
again nobody is touching upon my point about why the last 5 minutes can negate the hundreds of hours that preceded it over 3 games...don't you guys appreciate the big picture or is the ending the only thing that matters

Not flaming you and I understand if you just finished that you haven't had time to absorb the many threads and videos covering the details.

This one seems to clearly sum up the problems with the ending.

Everything you say you liked is invalidated with the shit ending. Sorry but it's true. You spend time saving races, planets, whatever... all to destroy them all in the end, either by merging them with tech against the will of the galaxy... or by destroying tech that you may have fought to save (geth, legion, EDI, etc).

You may not like AngryJoe vids but this one is spot on for the plot holes and ending failure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M0Cf864P7E

edit "also shows the famous youtube clip covering ALL OF THE UNIQUE ENDINGS in their colorful glory"
 
I'm going to replay the ending later today but I could have sworn that the kid said that only 1 of the choices resulted in the relay destruction (the Destroy option)

I think the hate is stemming from the fact that some people don't understand what happened in the end and are assuming things which might not be correct...I think BioWare has stated that they are going to explain the ending sometime in April (after more people finish the game)

I'm sure this was posted here already but if it wasn't you guys should look at the factors that resulted in the 'ending'...
http://www.rarityguide.com/articles...t-3-Endings-Guide---HEAVY-SPOILERS/Page1.html

Actually they've apparently said they'll announce DLC plans in April which covers the new ending(s). Apparently they may be doing more than just explaining things.
 
Everything you say you liked is invalidated with the shit ending. Sorry but it's true. You spend time saving races, planets, whatever... all to destroy them all in the end, either by merging them with tech against the will of the galaxy... or by destroying tech that you may have fought to save (geth, legion, EDI, etc)

but I don't agree that it turned out that way...the cycle cannot be stopped...listen to the speech that Sovereign tells Shep at the end of ME1...this is the only way it could end...I would have hated the ending if it turned out to be another 'Shep saves the galaxy and kills all the Reapers, brings order and peace'...that would have truly sucked...the cycle is endless...Shep's decision to either destroy, merge with or synthesize makes sense from a Mass Effect story standpoint

now the cycle starts new hence the old dude talking to his son/grandson at the end of the credits...Shep is a story, a legend that gets passed down from one generation to another similar to the way that the current cycle depicted the Protheans

like the little boy told Shep at the end, Shep was the first organic to make it this far in terms of the Crucible/Catalyst...so he now gets to choose how the next cycle will begin
 
Are you sure Tali dies by default in ME3 with no imported save? I find that highly unlikely.

Just some quick digging indicates you are off base: http://segmentnext.com/2012/03/07/mass-effect-3-squad-members-guide-how-to-recruit/ Now if you are talking about the fact that without having imported an ME2 save, there is a good chance she will die, then that would be correct. You will have to choose between the Quarian fleet or the Geth. Legion dies either way. But you can save Tali without importing an ME2 save file. By default no squad members from ME2 die unless they did in your actual save.

I was just going by wiki discussion, have not tried this combination out myself tbh. I just don't like how they shorted the cast in this chapter, either way we are getting much fewer characters and less interaction than ever. even james vega, it seems they just completely gave up on writing for him towards the end.

In ME3 the Krogan are most screwed if you have Wreav in charge and didn't keep Maelon's data. Then if you choose to sabotage the genophage cure, then the Krogan are truly screwed. Unfortunately, in order to do this you may be forced to shoot Mordin in the back. That is unless you have enough renegade / paragon points to talk him down. If Eve or Wrex / Eve are alive, you may not be able to talk him down and will have to shoot him to prevent the cure from working. This all depends on how you choose to do it.

it's apparently impossible to talk him out of it as long as wrex is alive. from the talk page on wiki, it seems they crafted it so that the only way you could carry out the dalatrass plan is either for wreav to give mordin a reason to fool them, or kill mordin yourself if wrex alive. which makes the entire concept of "choice" an illusion to me, since it would make no sense to do it this way. why would you screw yourself and earth, to get fewer war assets from everyone?

fool the krogans and they fall apart, and either way the salarians don't have the army to make up for it. at most you can get around 300 points from them, as opposed to the krogans who provide upwards of 800 if you do it "right", and this always gets dramatically reduced if you fail to cure them.

but I don't agree that it turned out that way...the cycle cannot be stopped...listen to the speech that Sovereign tells Shep at the end of ME1...this is the only way it could end...I would have hated the ending if it turned out to be another 'Shep saves the galaxy and kills all the Reapers, brings order and peace'...that would have truly sucked...the cycle is endless...Shep's decision to either destroy, merge with or synthesize makes sense from a Mass Effect story standpoint

now the cycle starts new hence the old dude talking to his son/grandson at the end of the credits...Shep is a story, a legend that gets passed down from one generation to another similar to the way that the current cycle depicted the Protheans

like the little boy told Shep at the end, Shep was the first organic to make it this far in terms of the Crucible/Catalyst...so he now gets to choose how the next cycle will begin

this would make sense if the relays weren't destroyed regardless of what you do, and synthesis was not possible. that was the whole point of such an option, to leave a gaping hole in the above theory for them to rewrite as they see fit.
 
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like the little boy told Shep at the end, Shep was the first organic to make it this far in terms of the Crucible/Catalyst...so he now gets to choose how the next cycle will begin

Again though you're missing the crucial points - the Mass Effect relays are all destroyed. In every ending. Before, they were left at the end of each cycle. That's how civilizations eventually became star-faring, and how the Reaper's came back and destroying everything at the end of each cycle. So no, he doesn't get to choose how the next cycle will begin, he hits a huge reset button, killing billions of people he was trying to save and basically invalidating all of the alliances, etc - because with the relays gone, they can't reach one another. If they're even alive after the relay explosions.
 
A huge gaping flaw, is that not one single decision made in ME1 and ME2, has a significant effect on the possible endings. This was supposed to be the end of a trilogy, not the end of a single game. Also the very fact that it switches to "choose your ending" mode is just horrible, there should have been one ending to any complete ME1+ME2+ME3 play through.


But that pales in comparison to just how horrible the writing of the ending is. Everything in the previous 100+ hours goes out the window, and the magic star child appears to let Sheppard save the day. I thought I was putting together a coalition to stop the reapers, not proving myself to some ancient alien thing, that I didn't even know existed until the last 5 minutes of the game. It was just a little itsy bitsy teensy wheensy bit jarring...
 
But that pales in comparison to just how horrible the writing of the ending is. Everything in the previous 100+ hours goes out the window, and the magic star child appears to let Sheppard save the day. I thought I was putting together a coalition to stop the reapers, not proving myself to some ancient alien thing, that I didn't even know existed until the last 5 minutes of the game. It was just a little itsy bitsy teensy wheensy bit jarring...

Yes, Bioware literally pulled a deus ex machina out of their ass right at the end. It might not even have been that bad if they had better choices. In fact I can think of one right off the top of my head.

Early on in the game, Admiral Hackett states that they're not sure how the Crucible's energy will be harnessed/directed. What if instead of red/blue/wtfever, Shepard learns that it CAN'T be directed - it will be a huge explosion that will wipe out not just all the Reapers, but all of Earth, etc. Can you make that call?
 
Again though you're missing the crucial points - the Mass Effect relays are all destroyed. In every ending. Before, they were left at the end of each cycle. That's how civilizations eventually became star-faring, and how the Reaper's came back and destroying everything at the end of each cycle. So no, he doesn't get to choose how the next cycle will begin, he hits a huge reset button, killing billions of people he was trying to save and basically invalidating all of the alliances, etc - because with the relays gone, they can't reach one another. If they're even alive after the relay explosions.

I look at it like this...the reset would have taken place regardless...the fact that Shep made it this far changes things in that he is given a choice on how the reset will take place...this never happened in all the other extinction cycles...like Sovereign said, it is inevitable...everything Shep did had meaning because if he didn't make it this far then that choice would not have existed
 
Nice vid. Sums it up, mostly.

Yes it does.

This pretty much says it all right here:

YoDawg.jpg


This about sums up how shitty the ending of ME3 is.
 
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Yar, I think you're right about the kid only saying the relays get destroyed in one option, but all the endings reveal the Mass Relays being destroyed (might be the kid being a prick and trying to steer you away from the Destroy option).

Even with the 'cliff hanger'-ending, the journey itself was excellent. It doesn't feel like I wasted my money and time on the game, because as polonyc said, a lot of the plotlines were concluded.
 
Yes it does.

This pretty much says it all right here:

YoDawg.jpg


This about sums up how shitty the ending of ME3 is.

While that image does crack me up.... Unfortunately it's not an actual refutation of the bad writing at the end.

The bad writing at the end claims that advanced organics will create synthetics, and that eventually those synthetics will destroy ALL organic life. This is unlike the reapers, which only harvest and destroy advanced organic life, and leave other organic life alone til the next cycle.

Huge gaping flaws with the organics vs synthetics theme as written:
1. Why not destroy "bad" synthetics, or only police advanced organics that have actually created "bad" synthetics, after being sure to let them know that it's a bad idea..
2. What about other galaxies? Godlike synthetics that were hell bent on destroying all organic life would be able to trivially do the same to the whole universe given enough time...
 
No you need to add all the plot holes into the ending. It's bad on so many levels it defies logic. The fallacy presented in that picture is true in that sense. Though it may literally be somewhat inaccurate.
 
No you need to add all the plot holes into the ending. It's bad on so many levels it defies logic. The fallacy presented in that picture is true in that sense. Though it may literally be somewhat inaccurate.

I'll definitely go along with that. It does capture the spirit of the horridness of the ending.
 
Yar, I think you're right about the kid only saying the relays get destroyed in one option, but all the endings reveal the Mass Relays being destroyed (might be the kid being a prick and trying to steer you away from the Destroy option).

Even with the 'cliff hanger'-ending, the journey itself was excellent. It doesn't feel like I wasted my money and time on the game, because as polonyc said, a lot of the plotlines were concluded.

it's a mob mentality in my opinion...a few people hate the ending, it starts spreading on forums, Facebook etc and it soon becomes popular to 'hate' the ending versus trying to understand it or appreciate that not everything needs to end on a happy note or with every last small plot line wrapped up

to me BioWare did a great job wrapping up the main stories that I cared about most...yes the ending could have been different but it doesn't take away from the entire Mass Effect series as a whole...the journey is always more important then the destination
 
it's a mob mentality in my opinion...a few people hate the ending, it starts spreading on forums, Facebook etc and it soon becomes popular to 'hate' the ending versus trying to understand it or appreciate that not everything needs to end on a happy note or with every last small plot line wrapped up

to me BioWare did a great job wrapping up the main stories that I cared about most...yes the ending could have been different but it doesn't take away from the entire Mass Effect series as a whole...the journey is always more important then the destination

Sorry, but you are retarded. :D
 
it's a mob mentality in my opinion...a few people hate the ending, it starts spreading on forums, Facebook etc and it soon becomes popular to 'hate' the ending versus trying to understand it or appreciate that not everything needs to end on a happy note or with every last small plot line wrapped up

to me BioWare did a great job wrapping up the main stories that I cared about most...yes the ending could have been different but it doesn't take away from the entire Mass Effect series as a whole...the journey is always more important then the destination

I played the ending with an open mind & opinion. I didn't see anything that would suggest that it was worth my time when it jumped from heavy decision making to zero decision making in no time flat. I felt appalled at the ending for taking away my free will to choose where the ending would go. Instead they give you a deck of card with all jokers that are colored differently. The mob mentality may have won the day but BioWare didn't help calm the storm with their constant PR blunders & silence.
 
Personally, the "synthetics were created to kill organics, so organics wouldn't be wiped out by synthetics" is a logical fallacy. Anyone who actually buys that garbage on an intellectual level, well... they have bigger problems than liking the ME3 ending.

16391006.jpg


"Most" people understood that the ending was contrived, pseudo, intellectual garbage by simply playing the game. Obtaining peace between the Geth and Quarians. invalidates the ending. Further more, we learn it was the Quarians, not the Geth, who started all the trouble to begin with. Throw in EDI and Joker, and now you have the player asking why synthetic and organic life cannot co-exist. Answer? Because the blue god child says so!

I won't get into the potholes about the Normandy running away, my crew teleporting, the Dues Ex pick your own color ending, a blue star child introduced in the last 5min of the game, no conclusion to Harbinger/Shepard saga, etc., etc.,

Suffice to say, the ending invalidates every other game in the trilogy for one reason, it makes all of the choices in all the previous games meaningless. Why go back an play any of the Mass Effect games, when you know that in the end, a blue star child will give you one of three options, which are all basically the same (save for the color of the explosions) and ultimately don't make any sense?
 
it's a mob mentality in my opinion...a few people hate the ending, it starts spreading on forums, Facebook etc and it soon becomes popular to 'hate' the ending versus trying to understand it or appreciate that not everything needs to end on a happy note or with every last small plot line wrapped up

Not even. I felt sick as soon as the choices were presented, and even worse when it was all over. For 2-3 days even, I didn't have a chance to post, but I couldn't get the ending out of my head, and I couldn't wait to get on to post about it. I have never delved into, nor cared, about any theories about endings of movies, games, shows, etc, up until ME3.
 
I have never delved into, nor cared, about any theories about endings of movies, games, shows, etc, up until ME3.

The Dead Space saga had me researching like crazy since there's so much weirdness behind the story. Hopefully Dead Space 3 lives up to having an epic ending first time around.
 
the journey is always more important then the destination

Not when the destination is the disintegration chamber.


http://jmstevenson.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/all-that-matters-is-the-ending-part-2-mass-effect-3/

http://imgur.com/N7pfi

And then there's this little thing called replayability. All previous mass effect games were replayable since there was at least some hope for the universe.

Once you realize that every ending is a no hope ending, and every ending has untenable consequences for the Normandy(they already blew it up once... wasn't that enough) and crew(Adam and Eve were astronauts was the ultimate lame science fiction story 50 years ago, not much has changed since). As well as the galaxy as a whole, at best with the destruction of the mass relays, your grand armada breaks down into factions fighting over food in earth orbit, at worst every mass relay goes super nova and kills 10s of billions of sentients... What point is there in replaying, unless you enjoy pain and suffering.
 
I honestly was depressed for a couple of days after I finished this.
 
One thing that I think we can all agree on is that the music was decent at the ending. Almost made me tear up when Liara looked at the camera with that sexy, squid-like blue head of hers combined with the heartbreaking music.
 
it's a mob mentality in my opinion...a few people hate the ending, it starts spreading on forums, Facebook etc and it soon becomes popular to 'hate' the ending versus trying to understand it or appreciate that not everything needs to end on a happy note or with every last small plot line wrapped up

to me BioWare did a great job wrapping up the main stories that I cared about most...yes the ending could have been different but it doesn't take away from the entire Mass Effect series as a whole...the journey is always more important then the destination

Ordinarily I'd agree with you to a point but I think more people hate this ending than like it. And frankly there is nothing to appreciate about this crap. Deus Ex machina type endings and circular logic are bullshit ways to conclude anything. I think that's for authors who are too fucking lazy or lack the talent to create a satisfying ending. Not everything needs to be negative in order to be thought provoking. As I've said before the issues with this ending go well beyond BioWare being unable to make everyone happy or a vocal minority getting attention to air their grievences. There are HUGE fucking plot holes big enough to allow a Reaper or the Destiny Ascension to do donuts in without fear of hitting anything.

I've thought about the ending a lot. Nothing aside from the possibility of the indoctrination ending being true makes me hate it even a little less. Even if that theory did pan out to be true, which I don't believe to be the case given how BioWare is dealing with the situation, it is an ending with zero closure. Maybe that's what they wanted so that they could go into a Mass Effect 4 or additional DLC. I don't know, but the ending didn't sit well with me. All the wannabe closet intellectuals who appreciate so called "high science fiction" aren't right just because this trite nonsense appeals to them.

If you like this garbage, then more power to you I guess. You don't have to download any DLC or do anything else that will change the story. For the rest of us, it's hard to fathom how the rest of you fail to see or comprehend just how bad these endings really are. So called intellectual shit aside, the plot holes are staggering in size and scope, and the conclusions that one can derrive from this typically indicate that what Shepard fought for and accomplished is thrown away and disregarded in the end leaving the galaxy more fractured and fucked up than ever. Essentially you've got the terminator approach to the ending to kill all the synthetics. You've got the Star Trek the Motion Picture Synthesis ending and the typical send the bad guys away ending. All of this is mixed with some bullshit Battlestar Galactica style material. It's not literary genius, it's not high science fiction, it's not thought provoking or anything like that. It's trite bullshit.
 
One thing that I think we can all agree on is that the music was decent at the ending. Almost made me tear up when Liara looked at the camera with that sexy, squid-like blue head of hers combined with the heartbreaking music.

The fact that the music was good just made it more painful *sigh* That piano piece deserved writing worthy of it, and so it was screwed too...

And now when I hear the music, instead of remembering an epic game or movie, like so many other pieces of music. I get to relive the horror instead.

Ray owes us a groveling apology for this debacle. But so far all we've gotten are lies and spin.
 
Suffice to say, the ending invalidates every other game in the trilogy for one reason, it makes all of the choices in all the previous games meaningless. Why go back an play any of the Mass Effect games, when you know that in the end, a blue star child will give you one of three options, which are all basically the same (save for the color of the explosions) and ultimately don't make any sense?

This is exactly how I felt after it all sank in.

I sat there trying to decide and weighing the options in my first ending play through thinking WTF did the kid just tell me??? Each decision goes against a major plot/choice that I've made in the to this point. How the fuck am I supposed to choose Red when I just spent hours saving all the fricken Geth, just as one small design flaw.

I wanted to play through all three and try the different paths... Now we all know that it's a waste of time, they all end in the same bullcrap ending.

Their journey is now a waste of time, get it?

Nothing mob about it, I felt this and I'm glad we have a place like this forum and others, to discuss these things and avoid hours of wasted time coming to the same colored choice.
 
While that image does crack me up.... Unfortunately it's not an actual refutation of the bad writing at the end.

The bad writing at the end claims that advanced organics will create synthetics, and that eventually those synthetics will destroy ALL organic life. This is unlike the reapers, which only harvest and destroy advanced organic life, and leave other organic life alone til the next cycle.

The reapers are synthetics though. It doesn't matter if they are harvesting highly evolved organic life, or cavemen, they are still synthetics destroying organic life to protect organic life from synthetics.

The image is spot on.
 
And another thing, it's blatantly obvious that the ending was rushed and very little time or craftsmanship was involved in creating it. It's just a big middle finger from EA/Bioware.
 
I haven't really been following this thread, so these might have been posted.

- Colin Moriarty Video IGN (makes my blood boil)
Funny thing about Colin, soon after making this video on ME3's ending, it was discovered that he whined like a little girl on his podcast about the clothing the main character in Infamous 2 was wearing. The company ended up changing said clothing, and Moriarty had absolutely no qualms about artistic integrity then, he even went so far to praise the developer for listening to its fans.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgRP5_YKu0

- Colin Moriarty Spoof

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gz8_j-ebfaI&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PLB95094BD7D5DA5C4

- Ending review that best represents my thoughts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H_A7SeawU4
 
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but I don't agree that it turned out that way...the cycle cannot be stopped...listen to the speech that Sovereign tells Shep at the end of ME1...this is the only way it could end...I would have hated the ending if it turned out to be another 'Shep saves the galaxy and kills all the Reapers, brings order and peace'...that would have truly sucked...the cycle is endless...Shep's decision to either destroy, merge with or synthesize makes sense from a Mass Effect story standpoint

now the cycle starts new hence the old dude talking to his son/grandson at the end of the credits...Shep is a story, a legend that gets passed down from one generation to another similar to the way that the current cycle depicted the Protheans

like the little boy told Shep at the end, Shep was the first organic to make it this far in terms of the Crucible/Catalyst...so he now gets to choose how the next cycle will begin

What is this the Matrix?
 
What is this the Matrix?

but is Shepard Neo or the Architect?

Citadel= Matrix
Sentinels= Reapers
Zion= Earth
Geth= Borg :p

boy: Do not try and bend the spoon. That's impossible. Instead...only try to realize the truth.
Neo: What truth?
boy: There is no spoon.
Neo: There is no spoon?
boy: Then you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends, it is only yourself
 
One thing that I think we can all agree on is that the music was decent at the ending. Almost made me tear up when Liara looked at the camera with that sexy, squid-like blue head of hers combined with the heartbreaking music.

That would be track 22 from the soundtrack, "An End Once and For All" by Clint Mansell and Sam Hulick.

It's a truly touching piece and some of the best piano music Mansell has done since Moon I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6PPjUGLmN0
 
Dang. Finally finished the game last night. Ugh.

Not a fan of the F'ing ending at all. Holy suck. Great game, er series, to end like that. W T F
 
I honestly was depressed for a couple of days after I finished this.

This was me, too. My initial impression after I finished the ending, however, wasn't all that bad. I thought I kind of understood what was happening. Then, the more I thought about it, the more I began thinking "WTF did they do with the ending?"

Actually, the ending still depresses me.
 
This was me, too. My initial impression after I finished the ending, however, wasn't all that bad. I thought I kind of understood what was happening. Then, the more I read the gaming forums, the more I began thinking "WTF did they do with the ending?"

fixed!
 
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