Mass Effect 3 SPOILERS THREAD

J W said:
Limahl,

can't see it right now. What did they say?
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All quotes below are right from Yahtzee himself in the video......

"So, want to know how much the ending changes this time around if you haven't polished your headlights properly before setting off? Not to any significant degree at all, threw me a bit really."

"I might as well have spent the whole game testing the swivel on the captains chair, flicking snots at Specialist Traynor"

"Mass Effect concludes not so much with a bang or a whimper, more the sound you get from releasing a balloon and watching it fart its way around the lounge."

"I know a lot of people have been down on the ending, but I thought it could have been worse. That quote isnt going to end up in any EA marketing material, but for what its worth I'm not left disappointed, but then I am completed jaded, I'm having a good morning if I don't accidentally piss on the lufa in the shower".

Watch it when you can, its not his best work but still humorous.
 
anyone seen this apparently from Patrick Weekes apparently posted somwhere and then removed

Patrick Weekes

"I have nothing to do with the ending beyond a) having argued
successfully a long time ago that we needed a chance to say goodbye to
our squad, b) having argued successfully that Cortez shouldn't
automatically die in that shuttle crash, and c) having written Tali's
goodbye bit, as well as a couple of the holo-goodbyes for people I wrote
(Mordin, Kasumi, Jack, etc).
No other writer did, either, except
for our lead. This was entirely the work of our lead and Casey himself,
sitting in a room and going through draft after draft.
And honestly, it kind of shows.
Every
other mission in the game had to be held up to the rest of the writing
team, and the writing team then picked it apart and made suggestions and
pointed out the parts that made no sense. This mission? Casey and our
lead deciding that they didn't need to be peer-reviewe.d
And again, it shows.
If you'd asked me the themes of Mass Effect 3, I'd break them down as: Galactic Alliances Friends Organics versus Synthetics
In
my personal opinion, the first two got a perfunctory nod. We did get a
goodbye to our friends, but it was in a scene that was divorced from the
gameplay -- a deliberate "nothing happens here" area with one turret
thrown in for no reason I really understand, except possibly to
obfuscate the "nothing happens here"-ness. The best missions in our game
are the ones in which the gameplay and the narrative reinforce each
other. The end of the Genophage campaign exemplifies that for me --
every line of dialog is showing you both sides of the krogan, be they
horrible brutes or proud warriors; the art shows both their bombed-out
wasteland and the beautiful world they once had and could have again;
the combat shows the terror of the Reapers as well as a blatant reminder
of the rachni, which threatened the galaxy and had to be stopped by the
krogan last time. Every line of code in that mission is on target with
the overall message.
The endgame doesn't have that. I wanted to see
banshees attacking you, and then have asari gunships zoom in and blow
them away. I wanted to see a wave of rachni ravagers come around a
corner only to be met by a wall of krogan roaring a battle cry. Here's
the horror the Reapers inflicted upon each race, and here's the army
that you, Commander Shepard, made out of every race in the galaxy to
fight them.
I personally thought that the Illusive Man conversation
was about twice as long as it needed to be -- something that I've been
told in my peer reviews of my missions and made edits on, but again,
this is a conversation no writer but the lead ever saw until it was
already recorded. I did love Anderson's goodbye.
For me, Anderson's
goodbye is where it ended. The stuff with the Catalyst just... You have
to understand. Casey is really smart and really analytical. And the
problem is that when he's not checked, he will assume that other people
are like him, and will really appreciate an almost completely
unemotional intellectual ending. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love
it.
And then, just to be a dick... what was SUPPOSED to happen was
that, say you picked "Destroy the Reapers". When you did that, the
system was SUPPOSED to look at your score, and then you'd show a
cutscene of Earth that was either:
a) Very high score: Earth
obviously damaged, but woo victory b) Medium score: Earth takes a bunch
of damage from the Crucible activation. Like dropping a bomb on an
already war-ravaged city. Uh, well, maybe not LIKE that as much as, uh,
THAT. c) Low score: Earth is a cinderblock, all life on it completely
wiped out
I have NO IDEA why these different cutscenes aren't in
there. As far as I know, they were never cut. Maybe they were cut for
budget reasons at the last minute. I don't know. But holy crap, yeah, I
can see how incredibly disappointing it'd be to hear of all the
different ending possibilities and have it break down to "which color is
stuff glowing?" Or maybe they ARE in, but they're too subtle to really
see obvious differences, and again, that's... yeah.
Okay, that's a lot to have written for something that's gonna go away in an hour.
I
still teared up at the ending myself, but really, I was tearing up for
the quick flashbacks to old friends and the death of Anderson. I wasn't
tearing up over making a choice that, as it turned out, didn't have
enough cutscene differentiation on it.
And to be clear, I don't even
really wish Shepard had gotten a ride-off-into-sunset ending. I was
honestly okay with Shepard sacrificing himself. I just expected it to be
for something with more obvious differentiation, and a stronger tie to
the core themes -- all three of them."
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Elios said:
anyone seen this apparently from Patrick Weekes apparently posted somwhere and then removed
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Dan_D said:
I hadn't seen that but that's really good information.
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It certianly fits with how the game is in it's current state,95% pretty well written, within the confines of the previous ME's story line (for the most part) followed by a 5% of "what the fuck was that"?
 
MaZa said:
Confirmed to be fake.
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by who and where?

edit
the way its written im not so sure... it wouldnt surprise me one bit if he did write it and when ask said no because if he said yes he wouldnt have a job for long
just saying
 
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Elios said:
more info on it was posted on a PA and in the BSN forums and then removed about an hour latter TRYING to see if some one got a screen shot of the post

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...to-fans-for-the-mass-effect-3-ending-sort-of/

and Forbes keeps rolling with great stuff like this they really need to hire this guy full time :D
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Forbes has nailed the issues pretty much right on from their first article, and I for one applaud them.

This whole statement by Muzyka is a deflecting PR move, nothing more. What will be interesting is what they do next as far as public statements go now that the players and press have torn his "apology" apart and shown how it means aboslutely bum fuck nothing.

It's a David and Goliath showdown to be sure. I'd love to see EA take a massive hit over this whole thing just to show them that we the consumers DO have a say in the shit software they and other companies sell us for $60+ a pop that is buggy and incomplete or just bad.
 
Limahl said:
Forbes has nailed the issues pretty much right on from their first article, and I for one applaud them.

This whole statement by Muzyka is a deflecting PR move, nothing more. What will be interesting is what they do next as far as public statements go now that the players and press have torn his "apology" apart and shown how it means aboslutely bum fuck nothing.

It's a David and Goliath showdown to be sure. I'd love to see EA take a massive hit over this whole thing just to show them that we the consumers DO have a say in the shit software they and other companies sell us for $60+ a pop that is buggy and incomplete or just bad.
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im just amazed the best non-biased stuff is coming from Forbes of all places lol
its pretty clear IGN and the big names are bought and payed for any more

and id LOVE to see a full write up on the game from Hard too
 
Elios said:
by who and where?

edit
the way its written im not so sure... it wouldnt surprise me one bit if he did write it and when ask said no because if he said yes he wouldnt have a job for long
just saying
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Bioware forums had a thread about it this. You may be right that Patrick (guy who wrote the parts mentioned) is simply denying everything but I doubt it.

Still, I do believe some single person wrote the endings. I think I remember seeing a Twitter post about it. But thats just me.
 
Elios said:
im just amazed the best non-biased stuff is coming from Forbes of all places lol
its pretty clear IGN and the big names are bought and payed for any more

and id LOVE to see a full write up on the game from Hard too
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This isn't Forbes bread and butter, so they don't have to kowtow as much as IGN.
 
TwistedAegis said:
This isn't Forbes bread and butter, so they don't have to kowtow as much as IGN.
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And that brings us back to the fact that game reviews can't be trusted when they come from sites or publications who cater to advertising dollars.
 
MaZa said:
Bioware forums had a thread about it this. You may be right that Patrick (guy who wrote the parts mentioned) is simply denying everything but I doubt it.

Still, I do believe some single person wrote the endings. I think I remember seeing a Twitter post about it. But thats just me.
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Have to quote myself. The thread has been reopened because so it wont be buried because they dont want to have this fake to be spread.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10399933/7#10404248
 
im sorry i have seen off the cuff interviews with the man he wrote it or some one VERY close to him did
its just to well written and to much his style of conversation to be a fake

and lets face it there are 3 out comes to this
A. he wrote it and admits and loses his job and makes Bioware look like dicks
B. he wrote it denies writing it to keep his job
C. its one hell of a fake

i really think he wrote it and its in Biowares interest to make sure people think its a fake
 
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Elios said:
im sorry i have seen off the cuff interviews with the man he wrote it or some one VERY close to him did
its just to well written and to much his style of conversation to be a fake

and lets face it there are 3 out comes to this
A. he wrote it and admits and loses his job and makes Bioware look like dicks
B. he wrote it denies writing it to keep his job
C. its oh hell of a fake

i really think he wrote it and its in Biowares interest to make sure people think its a fake
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Yeah it looks to me like either he wrote it, or a close friend of his did.
 
MaZa said:
Have to quote myself. The thread has been reopened because so it wont be buried because they dont want to have this fake to be spread.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10399933/7#10404248
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Chris Priestly would say anything to save face. He's proven in the past he's not above insulting the playerbase and comes across as arrogant and cocky in almost everything he puts words into. In short he's a prick and lives up nicely to his "evil" nickname. I wouldn't trust him to give me the time of day.

I would not put it above EA to lie their asses off to try and diffuse the situation if some truth managed to get out that they didn't like, and I'd expect Priestly, if anyone, to spew it.
 
Dan_D said:
Yeah it looks to me like either he wrote it, or a close friend of his did.
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my other thought is its some lesser writer on the team that sees there days are numbered
maybe even the person who leaked the script and posted it under Patrick's name

just a thought

and yea Chris Priestly just rubs me the wrong way... dont know why
 
Elios said:
im just amazed the best non-biased stuff is coming from Forbes of all places lol
its pretty clear IGN and the big names are bought and payed for any more

and id LOVE to see a full write up on the game from Hard too
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If you gather enough of my posts together, you damned near have one. However, I'd love to do a write up on this game. I know others normally do that, but I've actually played through this game twice, and I'm working on a third playthrough. :)
 
Dan_D said:
If you gather enough of my posts together, you damned near have one. However, I'd love to do a write up on this game. I know others normally do that, but I've actually played through this game twice, and I'm working on a third playthrough. :)
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What are you doing that's so different across those playthroughs?
 
Dan_D said:
If you gather enough of my posts together, you damned near have one. However, I'd love to do a write up on this game. I know others normally do that, but I've actually played through this game twice, and I'm working on a third playthrough. :)
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what id like to see is yours and some other other editors and Kyles thoughts on it
 
Elios said:
what id like to see is yours and some other other editors and Kyles thoughts on it
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Same. :)

Although to be fair to Dan...he really has done a LOT of writing about this game. Hit his post history and you're set. Wanna save the poor guy a bunch of extra typing. ;)
 
Q-BZ said:
What are you doing that's so different across those playthroughs?
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My second playthrough was more carefully thought out. I found I missed a few items, so I went back and ran through it again. Those were both paragon run throughs and more or less the same. The third one is all renegade.

Elios said:
what id like to see is yours and some other other editors and Kyles thoughts on it
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I don't know if Kyle plays Mass Effect or not. I highly doubt it. I could be wrong, but I just can't imagine him playing it.
 
Dan_D said:
I don't know if Kyle plays Mass Effect or not. I highly doubt it. I could be wrong, but I just can't imagine him playing it.
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$10 Kyle plays the games, not for the action/shooter bits, but for the various romantic subplots Shepherd can get himself into.
 
SeymourGore said:
$10 Kyle plays the games, not for the action/shooter bits, but for the various romantic subplots Shepherd can get himself into.
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Some of them are hilarious BTW. My renegade Shepard's romantic life is a total mess.
 
Dan_D said:
Yeah no thanks. I can handle the ending being a dream, but everything? NO. In fact the dream sequences and some comment about the stargazer at the end I caught by accident had me worried that everything was going to be a dream and not real.
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Christ, it wasn't a serious suggestion. Although I don't see how it's any worse than the ending turning out to be some sort of indoctrination hallucination. Which was kind of the point.
 
Well, looks like the ending is going to be built upon with 'content initiatives' to be announced in April. I'm still going with that this was planned from the start, perhaps EA wanted more of a 'cliffhanger' to help sell additional units, but BioWare figured there would be a huge amount of backlash and opted for a semi-cliffhanger ending that could be construed as a 'ending' but with certain plot holes open that could be filled with future DLC. Which kinda backfired as there was still a huge backlash.

This is my theory: BioWare will keep the 'artistic integrity' of the ending sequence intact, but build upon it using DLC that focuses on squad mates, filling out the final hours of the Crucible effect, the Reaper war and Shepherd. This will allow them to save face by not caving in to the demands to alter the maingames ending, but allow them to 'satisfy' fans who want more closure to the series. Perhaps it will also serve as a nice lead-in to the next game in the Mass Effect universe.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/bioware-revisiting-mass-effect-3-ending-6367355
 
Mass effect is my favorite series of all time. ME3 was nearly perfect until the end, at which point it proceeded to confuse me more and more. When I got to the part where Liara gets out of the Normandy (despite Liara being with me on Earth) I literally stood up and said, "WTF IS THIS ****?!"

I think this aritcle http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/ explains it in a way I like the writing skills to.
 
soulsavior said:
Mass effect is my favorite series of all time. ME3 was nearly perfect until the end, at which point it proceeded to confuse me more and more. When I got to the part where Liara gets out of the Normandy (despite Liara being with me on Earth) I literally stood up and said, "WTF IS THIS ****?!"

I think this aritcle http://www.gamefront.com/mass-effect-3-ending-hatred-5-reasons-the-fans-are-right/ explains it in a way I like the writing skills to.
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After seeing all of these random BioWare forum deletions & edits, I was beginning to wonder where the hell the PR spin & damage control would go. That article nailed the facts even harder in my mind & I recognize that BioWare has severely limited themselves to the outhouse in the middle of nowhere with no toilet paper & "malfunctioning" systemic issues. They need to draw the line for the fans or they're not going to have anyone that wants to buy the DLC & the next game they can come up with. Whether it was EA or BioWare that caused all of this really isn't the point since both are synonymous now. I honestly don't know why its taking so damn long for them to answer the fucking questions that a whole entire gaming community is asking them.

My biggest question is... why do the BioWare PR people & the execs that made the damning decision to put the crap "Priority: Earth" mission in the endgame still have jobs? In other industries, worst has happen for failing to deliver promised items to the paying public but alas the entertainment industry (music, movies/tv, & gaming) seems to be devoid of such repercussions.

Edit:
Elios said:
http://www.gamefront.com/did-a-mass-effect-3-writer-slam-the-ending/
http://i.imgur.com/W2gwS.jpg

yea he wrote that post any one that thinks other wise is full of shit
im now 100% convinced hes covering his ass and for good reason too
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This is getting really crazy. It's like looking into a deep conspiracy Assassin's Creed style. I hoping for the very best out of all of this & that the devs/writers speaking out would keep their jobs. I'm sorry to say this but its fueling quite a lot of anger in me. I want a proper ending so much & seeing BioWare act all quiet/shady/avoidable really pisses me off.
 
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Elios said:
http://www.gamefront.com/did-a-mass-effect-3-writer-slam-the-ending/
http://i.imgur.com/W2gwS.jpg

yea he wrote that post any one that thinks other wise is full of shit
im now 100% convinced hes covering his ass and for good reason too
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I'm am pretty much convinced now too. Which puts us in peculiar position. On the other hand Bioware should be made to face their mistake for this is a very bad one, maybe worst that a writer can make. But then again that could mean that the person above would lose his job, and we dont want that. He is a VERY good writer though, the parts he wrote belong amongst the best things in ME3 so I doubt finding a new job in other videogame company would be hard (unless suddenly every RPG company become imbeciles), but it would still be a dirty spot in his resume. Which we also dont want.

However if this all is true and if nothing good will come out of this fiasco (other than the charity thing I mean) I would still have to thank him for giving us a closure on Mass Effect. See what I did there? We know who to blame at, maybe. Again, IF this is true. Nothing is 100% until he admits this himself.
 
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I appreciate the great info being posted here all.

The more that comes out really seems to point at this lead producer, Casey Hudson, went off the rails, either he was the classic super intelligent tech/shitty producer and writer and failed here where it counted... or his ego grew way too big and he became over inflated in himself and the hype.

You always have to put this thing on the heads of the leaders.

And I agree, at least this lone writer gave us insight into the endings as generally planned and a reason for this stupid points/endings system.

Also if these haven't been posted here before:

“As Mass Effect 3 is the end of the planned trilogy, the developers are not constrained by the necessity of allowing the story to diverge, yet also continue into the next chapter. This will result in a story that diverges into wildly different conclusions based on the player’s actions in the first two chapters.” – Casey Hudson

“I honestly think the player base is going to be really happy with the way we’ve done it. You had a part in it. Every decision you’ve made will impact how things go. The player’s also the architect of what happens. “Whether you’re happy or angry at the ending, know this: it is an ending. BioWare will not do a “Lost” and leave fans with more questions than answers after finishing the game.” – Mike Gamble

“There are many different endings. We wouldn’t do it any other way. How could you go through all three campaigns playing as your Shepard and then be forced into a bespoke ending that everyone gets? But I can’t say any more than that…” – Mike Gamble

“This story arc is coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot more different.” – Casey Hudson

“Its not in any way like the traditional game endings, where you can say how many endings there are, or weather you got ending A, B or C.” – Casey Hudson
 
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ValeTudo said:
I appreciate the great info being posted here all.

The more that comes out really seems to point at this lead producer, Casey Hudson, went off the rails, either he was the classic super intelligent tech/shitty producer and writer and failed here where it counted... or his ego grew way too big and he became over inflated in himself and the hype.

You always have to put this thing on the heads of the leaders.

And I agree, at least this lone writer gave us insight into the endings as generally planned and a reason for this stupid points/endings system.
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That pretty much sums up my thoughts on the situation.
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
This is getting really crazy. It's like looking into a deep conspiracy Assassin's Creed style. I hoping for the very best out of all of this & that the devs/writers speaking out would keep their jobs. I'm sorry to say this but its fueling quite a lot of anger in me. I want a proper ending so much & seeing BioWare act all quiet/shady/avoidable really pisses me off.
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why crazy... it's a standard scenario for every significant studio/publisher releasing on someone else's time, by now it's a tired old story. vast majority fold under this kind of pressure and lose their shit in one way or another, the rare gems that manage to keep it together end up releasing classics, instead of easily forgotten cash grabs.

ValeTudo said:
The more that comes out really seems to point at this lead producer, Casey Hudson, went off the rails, either he was the classic super intelligent tech/shitty producer and writer and failed here where it counted... or his ego grew way too big and he became over inflated in himself and the hype.

You always have to put this thing on the heads of the leaders.
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though poor management obviously made it possible, I'm not convinced that a single position could be responsible for this. it's not just the script/ending at fault here, but also many contributing factors surrounding it. character dev, quest structure, main storyline and everything around this was a complete and utter failure imo, no redeeming qualities whatsoever. while lead design is of course responsible for telling people "this is absolute shit, wtf were you smoking", there had to be other yesmen involved. could one person really have butchered it into what we got here?

all of the other half that constitutes a "game" like mechanics, level design, graphics, etc that normally works independent from the rest, is a shining example of the great things that can be accomplished when talented people work on their own, without pressure from others to fuck it all up.

except for whoever has been responsible for the ui and animation these past 3 games, never once showed us you had any clue wtf you were doing. apparently you finally figured out how to implement double clicking, then reverted back to 10 year old 3d bezel designs, and still really hate weapon stats. I'm sick of watching all my guys switch to default weapons in my dialogs/cutscenes, and waving them around like foam props. just find a new line of work, you're not cut out for this.

if I had to blame one thing, it would be multiplayer. this is a serial killer among any good story driven franchise, whenever mp gets involved you can be sure that balls will be dropped elsewhere.

ValeTudo said:
“As Mass Effect 3 is the end of the planned trilogy, the developers are not constrained by the necessity of allowing the story to diverge, yet also continue into the next chapter. This will result in a story that diverges into wildly different conclusions based on the player’s actions in the first two chapters.” – Casey Hudson
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what a load of horseshit. all we got was a series of generic stand-ins, to drive this plot on rails right off the end of the tracks.
 
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There's not really anything to the multiplayer, though. It's fun, don't get me wrong, but it's severely underdeveloped. You basically kill Cerberus, Geth, or Reaper troops over and over. There are like 5 different locations to play, and all are ripped from the game. I only play it because I like Mass Effect so damn much.
 
mas said:
why crazy... it's a standard scenario for every significant studio/publisher releasing on someone else's time, by now it's a tired old story. vast majority fold under this kind of pressure and lose their shit in one way or another, the rare gems that manage to keep it together end up releasing classics, instead of easily forgotten cash grabs.
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Somehow you made it look like Dan_D said what I did :p

My surprise is how BioWare is acting vs. how I know they used to be. Its stupid of them to cover up so much instead of being blatantly honest.
 
had to post this i still cant believe i getting the best news from Forbes
zMLO9.jpg
 
CrimsonKnight13 said:
Somehow you made it look like Dan_D said what I did :p

My surprise is how BioWare is acting vs. how I know they used to be. Its stupid of them to cover up so much instead of being blatantly honest.
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It's looking like BW may have shut down the donations to Child's Play that the protesters were doing. There's no way to prove it, but it stinks of something foul.

If EA donates to CP then I could see them being upset that CP may look like it supports the protesters by accepting money from them.

All heresay, but I can believe EA would do it. Mother Teresa they aint.

http://retakemasseffect.chipin.com/retake-mass-effect-childs-play

Pity since its the kids who are going to lose out the most.
 
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