BioWare Did Right By Us

[TwistednMean]

You can go to great lengths about why Bioware did a great job with extended cut, I'm sure. Only it doesn't make the story any more gratifying for those people why didn't like the idea of an ass-pulled character coming along at the very end of the series coercing the player character into arbitrary and extremely morally ambiguous decisions. All the while saying that synthetic and organic lifeforms will be ultimately at odds with each other even though Geth throughout the series are a very convincing example of how this is not the case.

This totally destroys the Reapers motivation, which as dark and scary as long as it has been unknown and now they look like complete morons, who can't even make out what's wrong with wiping all organics out, who could produce synthetics, who could wipe them out. And the most disturbing thing is Shepard swallowing this load of crap and going along with what Catalyst suggests.

Yeah, I almost forgot to mention the new endings with "the cycle continues". That one almost made me feel like Bioware needed to justify their stupid original ending by stating that either you agree or you die. Would have been all right if it was a book. But since it's an freaking role-play game they just totally spoil the fun of a person grinding through the whole series just to get to a point where everyone dies. Seriously, it would have been a lot better if they never implemented this ending at all, because it does have the sort of spit-in-the-face feel to it.

 

[TotalerKrieger]

After watching the extended cut endings, it really struck me just how amateurish and incomplete the original endings actually were. The new endings were a big improvement but certainly had a "band-aid" feel to them at times. The epilouge sequences to synthesis and destroy made me cringe a bit due to all the unwavering bullshit. Control, previously my least favorite ending, was awesome, the space-guardian angle was the right way to go.

In the end, I still felt compelled to uninstall ME1, ME2 & ME3 from my hard drive. Another playthrough of the trilogy just isn't worth my time at this point. My original disappointment with the endings has permanently marred the series, and no attempt to fix them, even if fairly competent, will change this.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Catalyst-Starchild still exists so...really, this is just damage control.
Good effort, but I think the damage is irreparable simply because it betrayed the series' original ambition ("Your decisions matter"...well, maybe TWO decisions matter now).

ME3 will eventually go down as something for hipsters and business geeks to argue over; an obvious case of business and greed overtaking the creative ambitions of its creators.

(the huge sudden emphasis placed on multiplayer in what was a personal story; the DLC money-packs associated with the multiplayer, the rushed hugely contrived "twist" ending.)

Priorities changed between ME2 and ME3, and it shows.

As for why they do not shoot at the normandy...*snip*

Just looking at all the explanations, I'm calling it a plot hole.

Why? If every explanation requires personal interpretation and blind assumption in order to work, then the outcome is ambiguous.

Which is fine for regular plot points and twists (even unintended ones *cough*Blade Runner*cough*); but not potential plot holes.

 

[KrabbiPatty]

I'm gonna' say this right now, as someone who was as deep in the Retake trenches as anyone and who is still bitter at BioWare, I have to admit that they DID do right by the fans.

The ending is still stupid and ignorant and fucked up and the Baby Jesus bullshit is still insulting and forced...BUUUUT at least now it's a stupid, ignorant, fucked up, insulting, forced ending that MAKES SENSE.

And really that's all I personally wanted.

I said it before, if they at least explain why the Mass Relays blowing up didn't destroy the galaxy (here, they don't blow up, so the point is moot) why Joker left the battle (he was ordered) and if everyone starved to death or not (no, they didn't) then I'd be happy.

That doesn't make this a GOOD ending. I've read the original idea for the ending, it's better...the Indoc ending is better, and it's just "Loose Change: The Game of the Movie"...but that being said Bioware did the right thing.

And why shouldn't they: if they ACTUALLY cared about artistic integrity then they'd try and fix the plot holes...which they did. So they do. So at least I know Bioware didn't actively screw people over for money, to sell DLC as I had feared, they just did it because they genuinely, by no fault of their own, wrote a shitty ending due to ignorance and complacency (and due to politicking between Casey Hudson and his peers too) so I can forgive that, since God only knows I've made tremendous fuck ups in the past. I'm not one to talk.

So as far as I'm concerned, Bioware did the right thing, I'm not happy about it--I'd prefer if it had never been necessary in the first place--but I'm happy they owned up. It shows me they care about their fans and that matters to me, as a consumer.

So good on you Bioware, you did the capital letters Right Thing and that's what counts.