BioWare Announces Post-Ending DLC for Mass Effect 3 [Updated!]

[pearcinator]

Moviebob won't be happy with this.

I can't be the only one who thought that.

Actually he might be happy because they aren't changing the endings...just extending on them.

Moviebob thought they were going to change the endings and that was why he was unhappy.

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

Who said anything about the Reapers, I was talking about the Catalyst.

Even without the Reapers, he controls everything that makes Galactic civilisation possible. If we didn't follow his advice, what's to stop him from just turning it all off, preventing us from ever getting to the stage where we become a danger to ourselves anyway?

Quite right. If we're supposed to believe the Catalyst was aboard the Citadel all this time, why would it allow the Ilos Protheans to sabotage the Keepers and throw off the cycle? Consider that any fighting chance you have at all is due to the fact that a) the Reapers were unable to take the Citadel at the start of their invasion and therefore couldn't take over the Relay system and b) Sovereign's destruction allowed the Alliance, the turians and the salarians to reverse-engineer the Thanix weapons (which, in the best EMS scenario, has individual Sword ships blowing legs off Reaper capital ships).

 

[scorptatious]

To play Devil's Advocate:

It is broadly possible to construct an ending that provides closure without compromising the established ending. To wit:

If you choose the "Destroy" ending, the scientific think tank you assembled to put together the Crucible use the wreckage of the Reapers to build new, portable mass relays that allow the gathered fleets to return to their home systems. This is possible within the established game lore, since the Protheans were able to construct the Conduit on Ilos.

If you choose the "Control" ending, Shepard compels the Reapers to rebuild everything.

If you choose the "Synthesis" ending, the fleets are able to disperse since, being partly synthetic, decades-long FTL travel means nothing.

If Shepard survives in any of these endings, she sets out to recover the Normandy and its crew. If not, the crew eventually manage to repair the ship and limp back to Earth.

Granted, I'd prefer a bit more detail, but it's premature to say that nothing can amend what we've got right now. Quite frankly, there's nowhere to go but up...

You know, I actually like these ideas. I kind of hope whatever Bioware has in store is at least similar to this.

 

[Joccaren]

I'll see, but ATM I'm not going to be happy with this. Bioware has still discarded one of the things that made their series great in the final game - simply because they wanted to make a movie instead, or so it would seem.
I will wait to see exactly what is contained within this DLC before I render judgement, but ATM it is looking like I will get it, and nothing else from Bioware.

Also: I'd recommend staying away from BSN for the next week. This is EXACTLY what the Retake movement did NOT want.

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

It's not irrelevant. They're not trying to kill ALL organic life, they're trying to prevent the creation of Synthetics who would. And to achieve this goal, they kill any advanced civilizations before they can create these hypothetical Synthetics.

Underdeveloped species spared by this cycle will evolve to become the victims of the next. Whether they intend to or not, the Reapers are exterminating all organic life - they're just not doing it all at once. Again, semantics.

 

[TheRocketeer]

I'll be very surprised to see how and if the turnout for anyone aboard the Normandy is anything other than "Succumbed to starvation on uncharted world, resorting to cannibalism before the bitter end."

I'm putting in effort to remain optimistic about this, though: if some kind of explanation or light back-pedaling after the fact can wring any sense or appeal out of the ending, I would be as surprised as I would be impressed.

Either way, it will be very gratifying to see the 'indoctrination theory' crowd shut up for good. (Please, please do this BioWare?)

 

[Krion_Vark]

I wonder what'll it'll be. The ending is a goddamn mess. It'll take a lot to make it actually make sense. And doesn't change the fact that Star Child basically screwed himself. You failed, you were DONE. There was nothing you could do. Then star child BRINGS YOU TO HIM, and says he failed because you're standing before him. Even though he would have not failed if he just left you to die.

Freaking stupid.

Okay did you listen to what the Star Child said? He said and I quote, "Seeing you stand before me I know that my solution will no longer work." As in now that someone has made it this far in the future they will make it this far and end me and the reapers.
The Star Child is in my opinion the smartest AI you will meet in the Mass Effect Universe. I personally believe that the Star Child was created by who I believe was the reason that the cycle was started. He witnessed in my opinion THOUSANDS of primitive races wiped from the face of existence and creating the reapers in the process to do something with the thousands-millions of creatures.
I personally think that the lack of knowledge about WHAT the reapers are is more of what caused the uproar because I think personally that the Star Child fits in with the Reapers very well. I don't think we need an extended ending. I think we need an extended beginning to show what the reapers actually are. Take the Geth as something similar to the Reapers. Both are synthetics. Both have semi-sentience but until they were upgraded with the Reaper tech they were all one being. With the Reaper tech they become their own people. Does that make them AIs instead of VIs? No it doesn't. It just makes them be able to identify themselves away from the rest of the group. The Reapers are not AIs. They are VIs they seem to be free thinking but the only thing that they really know is they have to wipe all advanced civilizations that have reached the pinnacle that they have set. Sure there are 1 or 2 that have surpassed the VI status and gone to being full AI like Sovereign and Harbinger but most are still just mindless and do not think for themselves which is where Star Child comes into play.
I think that they could have handled Star Child better but I don't think that they should of not had him either.

 

[LHZA]

I think it's a fair compromise. They get to keep the ending, but possible help explain things to the confused masses (Not trying to be condescending here, I'm one of them). Plus more Mass Effect, for free. The only thing I'm disapointed about is the crew being stranded. Really didn't like that part. Wonder how they will handle that.

 

[Terminal Blue]

I don't see anything wrong with the Reapers logic. It makes perfect sense.

Remember the big reveal of Mass Effect 2, which I don't think I even need to spoiler. The Reapers are not machines, they are an organic/synthetic composite composed of countless "minds" within a single body.

If you think about it, it's pretty clear what's happening. People get rendered down to a basic substance (their "essence", whatever it is) that essence is then processed into a new reaper, a practically invincible God-machine which will last theoretically forever. It's reasonable to assume that some fragment of whoever the person was is preserved or recreated in that process.

Think of the transporter in Star Trek. It works by breaking people down into a beam and then reconverting the beam back into a person. You could argue that the original person, the original consciousness, died when they were dematerialized and a whole new person was created, and yet every measurable criteria will record the new person as being the same person.

A machine which didn't understand the concept of personal identity or a "soul" would not necessarily see breaking someone down into their component parts and reconstituting those parts, even in a different form, as a destructive act. What has been lost?

I don't think the logic is the problem. The problem, if anything, is the Shepherd just has to accept it when it's very obviously flawed from the point of view of organic life.

 

[RTK1576]

Having read the FAQ, here's the good and bad about this decision.

Good:

- Sounds like they're going to bring some closure to the situation, perhaps in a format akin to the end of Dragon Age or Fallout: New Vegas. Things like the fate of certain characters, or whether or not that fleet that warped in to Earth has to eat their own crewmembers to survive.

- They're trying to thread the "it's art, but we heard the fans and are going to fix a few things" issue. Probably the best way to do it, all things considered.

- It's free. So even if EA had plans to DLC the "true ending" they aren't doing that now. We may never know, in the end.

Bad:

- Anyone unhappy with the whole premise of Shepard's choice: doesn't sound like they're going to change that.

- Doesn't sound like they're going with indoctrination theory. If that's the case, they better do a lot of plot-hole filling.

- The press release is bit too defensive in my tastes, which worries me. The last thing I want out of this Extended Ending is a bunch of Take Thats from Bioware. That, more than anything, would kill my desire to buy another Bioware title, and I hope Bioware is mature enough to get that.

As for my personal wishes, he's what would do it for me:

- Closure elements based on the major decisions of the three games

- What happened to the fleet

- What the deal was with the Normandy's part of the ending (the escape, the teleporting squadmates, the planet, etc.)

- Earth and the galaxy - some of the ramifications of the big three choices

I can't say I'm optimistic here, but I will say this... it's not like they can make things worse (well, they CAN, but you'd have to try really hard).

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Sweet galactic damn, closure! Hells yeah! Artistic integrity preserved, and there's actual closure! Is it christmas? Am I dreaming? Hell yeah! Well, no, but you get the point.

 

[soren7550]

And now, we sit and patiently wait...


*furiously taps desk for several seconds*

GOD DAMMIT, COME OUT ALREADY! *resumes tapping desk*

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

But because of their efforts, there will be a next cycle. There will be new organic life. They're working to ensure that. If they didn't, it could end up being the end of all organic life, period. No more organics, not ever. That's why they keep doing what they're doing.

I'm sorry, I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. The Reapers have nothing to do with the creation of new organic life. They go back to dark space when their work is done. And, again, there is no evidence to support the Catalyst's claims that a scenario in which synthetics would obliterate every living thing in the galaxy forever is even plausible, let alone probable.

A more likely scenario is that synthetics would allow "insignificant" organic beings to live provided they did not reach a certain level of technological development, at which point the synthetics would eradicate that civilization while permitting other "insignificant" races to thrive...

 

[teh_Canape]

To play Devil's Advocate:

It is broadly possible to construct an ending that provides closure without compromising the established ending. To wit:

If you choose the "Destroy" ending, the scientific think tank you assembled to put together the Crucible use the wreckage of the Reapers to build new, portable mass relays that allow the gathered fleets to return to their home systems. This is possible within the established game lore, since the Protheans were able to construct the Conduit on Ilos.

If you choose the "Control" ending, Shepard compels the Reapers to rebuild everything.

If you choose the "Synthesis" ending, the fleets are able to disperse since, being partly synthetic, decades-long FTL travel means nothing.

If Shepard survives in any of these endings, she sets out to recover the Normandy and its crew. If not, the crew eventually manage to repair the ship and limp back to Earth.

Granted, I'd prefer a bit more detail, but it's premature to say that nothing can amend what we've got right now. Quite frankly, there's nowhere to go but up...

go to the Bioware offices, now
I'll pay you the damn passport

 

[StormShaun]

Okay on the plus side we get a bit more closure, but not a whole lot oh and it's free, EA would never allow that, good on you Bioware for screwing over EA.

On the negative side. Wait let me put this into dot points.

WARNING OF THE SPOILERS!.
- The ending is still you picking A,B or C. (From such games a Deus Ex: Human Revolution)
- The Star Child of Random deus ex machina is still there or there isn't an option to kill him and get the REAL ending.
- Shepard is still not seen alive. (Or not, I can't tell if this DLC will cover that)
- I won't see my long awaited happy ending of this trilogy I have been loyal to for many years, the least they could of done is put a happy ending in where I end up living with my romance interest, my crew are still alive and Shepard is A+ grade Commander of the universe. (Makes more sense then the ending we have)

I still feel screwed over that Bioware had done this to me, I will be happy if this DLC gives me the closure I want, but if it has some of the thing that I didn't like with the ending still in it. I will not be a very happy Bioware fan.

Hell I might even say f*ck them and leave their fan club.

Also this is just my opinion, so don't complain about it, just deal with it like a normal person.

 

[Diana Kingston-Gabai]

go to the Bioware offices, now
I'll pay you the damn passport

And work with the likes of Casey Hudson? I prefer the present company by far.

 

[teh_Canape]

go to the Bioware offices, now
I'll pay you the damn passport

And work with the likes of Casey Hudson? I prefer the present company by far.

but what's wrong with Casey?
as far as I know, he just fucked up by re-writing the ending of ME3, he worked on the rest of the awesome series, as well as ME3's rest =P