87 replies to this topic

[ICE CROW]

So the Extended DLC came out this morning for North America at least, so i thought i would start this up so the bitching could begin .

I am not gonna say much yet, im gonna wait till more people have actually gotten a chance to play before i say how i felt about the DLC. The one thing i will say right now and it's not a spoiler and i'm not sure if you could do this before the DLC, but when you guys play don't shoot the hologram ghost kid it turns out if you do that now it is an ending. I suggest doing either the destroy reapers or control reapers or synthesis endings first, i accidently shot the kid first and had to do the whole thing again to see the new destroy reapers choice ending.

[snickerers]

One question, is it worth going back and replaying that last section just to check it out? I'm still really disillusioned about the whole mess and have gotten to a point where I can just ignore Mass Effect existed. I still haven't uninstalled it yet though.

[jagilki]

I'm currently still downloading the DLC, but saw this today.

http://www.reddit.co...re_just_really/

[Lord of the Night]

The new Refusal Ending is... interesting. Depressing but interesting, and with a bittersweet ending.

The Synthesis Ending however is now the best one, and imo is the ending that the Mass Effect trilogy deserved from the start.


LotN

[Jon AS]

It's only just been released on Origin, so I'm still downloading, but I don't have high hopes. I guess this way it can, at worst, live up to my expectations.

In the meantime, maybe it'd be a good idea to just merge this thread with the old ME3 one? I don't really see a point in keeping them separate.

[Fez]

I'm too busy these days to devote the time needed to replay from the Cerberus base with such an uncertain reward at the end so I went to youtube. I watched the Refusal ending, thought it was a kinda hilarious FU to fans and then watched the Destroy ending since that was always my canon one.  I liked it, it was a much more satisfying conclusion.  I'll get around to watching Control and Synthesis at some point, 'cause why not, and one day I'll do another playthrough of the game I think; but I just can't muster the interest right now.

[ICE CROW]

I read that Bioware said that we should load up a save from before attacking the Illusive man's base, well i just loaded the closest save i had to the ending which was at the point where you defend the phalanx launchers. I did this because i did not want to waste hours getting my galactic readiness back to 100%, since it was a save where i had already brought my fleet in i got the best ending still. I haven't tried the Synthesis or control reaper endings yet, i will try that later.

So far i'm not happy about this DLC at all, i'm not sure how i feel about Bioware at all after this to be honest. All this DLC does is make me feel like Bioware released a unfinished game and what they give us does not feel like it was worth 4 months of waiting.

Fuck all that, im just gonna youtube the other 2 endings.

Edited by ICE CROW, 26 June 2012 - 04:18 PM.

[Maltaran]

I've just watched them all, and I think the new Control ending was my favourite. The Refusal ending is definitely what should have been in there from the start as the "bad" ending.

[Tyrellius]

Still all crap.

[Jon AS]

So they fixed a bunch of minor plotholes and gave us narrated slideshows, but of course they didn't fix the stupidity of everything related to the Catalyst (and of course IT isn't true). So... ending's still crap.

Fez, on 26 June 2012 - 03:20 PM, said:

I'm too busy these days to devote the time needed to replay from the Cerberus base with such an uncertain reward at the end so I went to youtube.

I think they only recommended that as that's the point where the EMS score gets locked-in, and they changed the score necessary for the "Shepard lives!" ending.

[ICE CROW]

Had these endings been the endings from the begging it would have been fine, i have watched all the new endings now and it just feels like most of it is what they had planned but didn't have time while parts feel like they had to add in because the fans caught them leaving stupid fucking plot holes. There are still one or 2 fucking plot holes but it is a lot less than before. As far as the Indoctrination Theory goes, it still is intact in theory and holds up and even makes some sense and can still fit with these new endings i think at least. And they had months to make this DLC they couldn't have done something more than just give me fucking slide shows of pictures, it would have been nice to see the scenes in the slides done with the in game engine.

I just will never be able to get past the fact that they realease a game that was unfinished and the part they left unfinished, was the most important part of the whole series.

Edited by ICE CROW, 26 June 2012 - 05:49 PM.

[Werthead]

Are we assuming everyone's either watched or played the DLC and are fine with spoilers?

Interesting choices by BioWare. For those who were okay with the direction of the ending in theory but loathed the execution, this is much better and makes more sense. It also gives Control more weight, as it always felt like the lamest of the endings before. If you hated the overall direction of the ending, this doesn't really help much.

However, there was one thing that left me totally bemused. The asari homeworld is apparently now fine. What? They made a huge deal about the planet going dark and being totally toasted in ME3 itself, unlike the other planets where fighting was continuing. Now it's okay. Huh? That was one of the best bits about ME3 that no matter what you did, one of the major homeworlds was going to be completely destroyed by the Reapers and it was going to drive Shepard into the final confrontation. Now it turns out that was never necessary.

Quote

And they had months to make this DLC they couldn't have done something more than just give me fucking slide shows of pictures, it would have been nice to see the scenes in the slides done with the in game engine.

I wouldn't be too sure of that. The game's only been out three and a half months, it took them a few weeks to decide to make the DLC and it would have had to have spent several weeks with Sony and Microsoft's QA teams, so really they only had a few weeks to throw this together. I wasn't actually expecting it for a couple of more months, with the hope there'd be more gameplay options.

Quote

I'm too busy these days to devote the time needed to replay from the Cerberus base with such an uncertain reward at the end so I went to youtube.

The first change kicks in during the final charge down to the transport beam. None of the YouTube videos show every change yet (though they probably will imminently). As far as I can tell, the changes go:

1) During the assault on the final beam, your companions are apparently injured by Harbinger's weapon and have to abort the run. Normandy swoops in and picks them up whilst you charge down and get shot, as before. However, as you pass out Hackett mentions that 'someone' made it to the beam.

2) The Illusive Man/Anderson sequence unfolds exactly as before. Someone has said that the dialogue is tweaked so it's less weird how Anderson gets to the control room before you, but I haven't seen this bit myself.

3) The Catalyst is a bit more talkative, and explains exactly what each choice entails in more detail. The Catalyst notably no longer says that making the choice will destroy the Mass Relays.

4) You either tell the Catalyst to STFU, or shoot him once you have control. This results in the new 'Refusal' ending. The Crucible shuts down and the Reapers merrily obliterate the massive fleet in Earth orbit. One of Liara's beacons is then shown activating and a message plays with Liara downloading the plans for the Crucible to whoever discovers it so they can destroy the Reapers later on.

5) The other endings broadly proceed as before, with a few differences. All of the endings have an added scene of Admiral Hackett telling the fleet to jump out of the system once the Crucible starts activating. Garrus has to convince Joker to leave. We see the Crucible beam starting to fire and all the ships jumping for the mass relay. The firing proceeds as before, except the CGI of the Reapers in London has a new sequence added showing a soldier saving a fellow from a bunch of husks. They see the beam fire and react with, er, bemusement. We see the beam hit the mass relay and travel around the galaxy as before, except we have added cinematics on the turian, asari (!) and krogan homeworlds showing the Reapers shutting down/taking off and people cheering.

6) The Normandy jumps through the relay ahead of the beam, is caught by it, and crashes as before. Each of the three endings continues after the final scene of the crashed Normandy with essentially a slideshow narrated by a different character. Reaper-Shepard narrates Control, relating how the Reapers are now helping the other races rebuild (we get a new cinematic of the Reapers reassembling a mass relay) and how they will defend 'the many' from any future threats that arise. Reaper-Shepard comes across a bit creepy in this bit. EDI narrates Synthesis, revealing how both organic and synthetic life coexist, the Reapers are helping everyone rebuild and how everything is awesome because she is now 'alive'. Hackett narrates Destroy and basically high-fives everyone for their victory, noting that they will rebuild even if it takes years (he also says the mass relays are repairable, but it's going to be tough work). All three endings feature a memorial bit where dead characters appear and are saluted (the Destroy ending includes EDI, confirming she is killed in that scenario) before Garrus adds Shepard's name to the memorial wall on the Normandy (in Synthesis EDI joins the memorial service and becomes upset, showing her new emotions) and the ship, now repaired, takes off. The slideshow bits show the krogan rebuilding their planet and having babies, the quarians hanging out in a cool new city on Rannoch and London being rebuilt.

Interestingly, Destroy also now shows that the Citadel is still intact after the end of the game, though several sections have broken away. Over Hackett's monologue, the Citadel is rebuilt and is shown remaining in Earth orbit with the transport beam to London intact. We then get the 'Shepard wakes up' ending as before if you got a high score, though how that makes sense (given that years must have passed) is rather unclear.

[Grogsmash]

Checking out the endings on Youtube, I would have been quite satisfied if these had been the endings initially. Biggest change for me was

Spoiler

The relays not all blowing up and seeing the fleet and your companions picked up. The original endings seemed to totally screw the galaxy regardless of what you picked.

The final montage at the end showing the results of what happened makes a huge difference.

[Merentha]

Lord of the Night, on 26 June 2012 - 12:02 PM, said:

The Synthesis Ending however is now the best one, and imo is the ending that the Mass Effect trilogy deserved from the start.

Dunno, man, I don't know how exactly you can recover turning everyone into the galaxy into a cyborg thing against their will.  Even if it all works out in the end, that's pretty damn reprehensible.  And,,,still kind of nonsensical.  How do lines of code (Geth) become partially organic?  They are (or were, before the ME3 writers turned Legion into a Pinocchio story) a gestalt consciousness.  You may have just single-handedly lobotomized a whole race in addition to the whole DNA-altering thing.  Not cool.

edited for slight correctness

Edited by Merentha, 26 June 2012 - 07:44 PM.

[Werthead]

Merentha, on 26 June 2012 - 07:20 PM, said:

Dunno, man, I don't know how exactly you can recover turning everyone into the galaxy into a cyborg thing against their will.  Even if it all works out in the end, that's pretty damn reprehensible.  And,,,still kind of nonsensical.  How do lines of code (Geth) become organic?  They are (or were, before the ME3 writers turned Legion into a Pinocchio story) a gestalt consciousness.  You may have just single-handedly lobotomized a whole race in addition to the whole DNA-altering thing.  Not cool.

They don't become totally organic, they become a blending of organic and synthetic. There's no reason they cannot retain their synthetic compontents and gestalt mind. Basically, they go from being robots to being the Borg.

[Merentha]

Werthead, on 26 June 2012 - 07:28 PM, said:

They don't become totally organic, they become a blending of organic and synthetic. There's no reason they cannot retain their synthetic compontents and gestalt mind. Basically, they go from being robots to being the Borg.

Which...yeah.  I remember the Borg as being creepy as fuck personally.  Sorry, Synthesis creeps me out.

edit:   And I thought DE1's Merge option was easily the best choice there.  The difference is entirely who gets Borgified.  In DE1, you choose to take that on yourself.  In ME3, you just decide that the entire galaxy should become cyborgs, and that's taking it a little far for anyone.

edit2:  Control is, again, my pick.  While Shepard is kinda creepy in the ending, you know, at least I didn't make everyone become something against their will.

Edited by Merentha, 26 June 2012 - 08:03 PM.

[Shaun Snow]

Well. It fixes a few of the plotholes that the original ending had... but it's still kinda shit sadly.

[ICE CROW]

So here's the question does the Indoctrination theory still work?

Also the best ending where Sheppard lives and if you keep watching you get the scene with the old man talking to the child about the Shappard, i think the point of that is that Sheppard survived and continues to fight against evil in the Universe, leaving the option open for more Mass Effect games with Sheppard in them.

[davos]

I can't get it to run after several attempts.  Reading the accounts of what is in it I think I will count this as a wasted 3 hours and watch the endings on youtube.  Nothing I've heard convinces me they in any way addressed the real problems.  The gasp ending for the destroy option, if anything, now makes less sense than it did before the extended cut.  They did fill in some plot holes, though I'm honestly not sure if the solution makes sense (why would Hackett order Joker to pick up the squadmates when so many other elements of Hammer would have been stuck in London as well. At that point looking out for anyone in London who didn't make it to the beam would have been about the last thing from Hackett's mind).  Providing the ending context is nice but something that should have been there without the fans having to stage a major protest to get.  The hints that Shepard is being indoctrinated that seem to be systematically woven into the fabric of the game are still there but unaddressed.  Basically they put a nice, pretty bow on the same steaming pile of shit and are hoping that the fans will be fooled (or at least accept it as sufficient)

And if it makes some people content, or at least ok with it, thats fine.  Up to this point a Bioware game was one that I would want to purchase on release day if I could, even though their good name had been tarnished somewhat in recent years.  As for me the only way I would purchase anything from Bioware in the future is if I hear from a lot of fellower gamers whose opinions give I creedance to that one of their games actually is up to their former standards.  They've lost all credibility with me and it would take a lot to get even some of it back.

Oh, well.  My gaming money will go elsewhere.

[Jon AS]

I could have sworn that the scene where Shepard gives a speech to the whole assembled crew before the final charge wasn't in the game the first time, but I only played that part once. Does anybody here remember?

Werthead, on 26 June 2012 - 06:42 PM, said:

2) The Illusive Man/Anderson sequence unfolds exactly as before. Someone has said that the dialogue is tweaked so it's less weird how Anderson gets to the control room before you, but I haven't seen this bit myself.

I'm pretty sure the dialogue isn't tweaked at all. Anderson still says that he followed you, then the stuff about shifting walls and the chasm, then you step through the door and see him way ahead. Speaking of this sequence, couldn't they at least have changed the walking speed here? That's still fucking annoying.

Werthead, on 26 June 2012 - 06:42 PM, said:

4) You either tell the Catalyst to STFU, or shoot him once you have control. This results in the new 'Refusal' ending. The Crucible shuts down and the Reapers merrily obliterate the massive fleet in Earth orbit. One of Liara's beacons is then shown activating and a message plays with Liara downloading the plans for the Crucible to whoever discovers it so they can destroy the Reapers later on.

It would have been awesome if they showed the species discovering the time capsule as being the Yahg. That way we'd at least know that the Reapers will be totally fucked in the next cycle.

Werthead, on 26 June 2012 - 06:42 PM, said:

5) The other endings broadly proceed as before, with a few differences. All of the endings have an added scene of Admiral Hackett telling the fleet to jump out of the system once the Crucible starts activating. Garrus has to convince Joker to leave.

Just a sidenote: the convincing Joker bits, as well as putting Shepard's name on the wall, is done by the respective love interest, it doesn't have to be Garrus.

Merentha, on 26 June 2012 - 07:20 PM, said:

Dunno, man, I don't know how exactly you can recover turning everyone into the galaxy into a cyborg thing against their will.  Even if it all works out in the end, that's pretty damn reprehensible.  And,,,still kind of nonsensical.  How do lines of code (Geth) become partially organic?  They are (or were, before the ME3 writers turned Legion into a Pinocchio story) a gestalt consciousness.  You may have just single-handedly lobotomized a whole race in addition to the whole DNA-altering thing.  Not cool.

Werthead, on 26 June 2012 - 07:28 PM, said:

They don't become totally organic, they become a blending of organic and synthetic. There's no reason they cannot retain their synthetic compontents and gestalt mind. Basically, they go from being robots to being the Borg.

Synthesis is still awful. Not only does it still feature the cringeworthy "final step of evolution" line, not only does it not make turning everyone into cyborgs against their will any less creepy, but the Catalyst actually mentions that it is a change that "cannot be forced", yet that's exactly what happens. Shitty writing is shitty writing, short of scrapping the whole thing this wasn't salvagable.

ICE CROW, on 26 June 2012 - 08:30 PM, said:

So here's the question does the Indoctrination theory still work?

No. Unless you want to convince yourself that Bioware now introduced a bunch of additional cutscenes that actually never happened because Shepard was being indoctrinated...

ICE CROW, on 26 June 2012 - 08:30 PM, said:

Also the best ending where Sheppard lives and if you keep watching you get the scene with the old man talking to the child about the Shappard, i think the point of that is that Sheppard survived and continues to fight against evil in the Universe, leaving the option open for more Mass Effect games with Sheppard in them.

What made me laugh is that they replaced the "be ready to spend money on future DLC!" message with something that basically says "we worked real hard on this, guys, please don't be mean!".

Edited by Sir Jon Ramsey, 27 June 2012 - 01:03 AM.