Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut ~ It's Official :O

[BloatedGuppy]

Though this was something that I had always suspected from the beginning...my new prediction is that our free DLC that "clarifies and brings closure to the ending" is that they're simply going to put everything the cut out - as described in that Final Hours of ME 3 thing - back in and see how well that goes over. I say this considering the article on the front page about Jennifer Hale saying "They haven't called me back in for new voice acting" which means no actual "new" content...which means the stuff they'll be putting in will most likely be "old" content that they already have.

They could accomplish a lot with non-voice acted cinematics backed by music. The Wire and The Sopranos (amongst other things) often ended seasons this way, with a long montage set to music, and they provided immense closure. That way, while you might still be left holding the bag on the whole Star Kid/Synthetic Singularity nonsense, there's an opportunity for emotional closure. Show some recovery scenes, maybe, or show some friends reacting to Shepard's sacrifice. Give everyone a sense that their sacrifice meant something beyond the nonsensical Gilligan's planet sequence.

The only reason you'd need Hale/Meer back is if you planned on doing Indoctrination Theory, and that was always a little pie in the sky.

 

[42]

Maybe the Mass Effect fans can shut up now. Come on there are new BETTER games coming out this year. Max Payne 3, GTA V, Diablo III. hell on TV theres the second season of Game of Thrones, and the third season of Boardwalk Empire. gah I'm so over it.

 

[K_Dub]

I actually just read the blog post on the Bioware website! My favorite line from the whole thing is, "...we are aware that there are some fans who would like more closure to Mass Effect 3."

They act as if the entirety of the Mass Effect fanbase hasn't been bombarding them with hate mail and protests and shit! And I find that hilarious.

 

[Fishyash]

Not really sure if it's good enough. However it's an interesting middle ground. However the ending just seems broken on a base level, and I don't think providing extra closure can fix that.

Honestly I was in the 'just let it suck' boat, but time will tell if this fixes the lack of closure at least.

 

[tautologico]

The ending is rushed and badly executed, but I'm ok with its general idea. So I think this is a good thing, they have the chance to improve on it without fundamentally changing it. I hoped it went like this, and here it is.

Now I have to reserve time to go through with my next playthrough of ME 1-2-3 so that I can see the extended cut when it's released.

 

[Conza]

So it's free - big deal, it deserved to be free, it's uncharacteristic of EA to do that, but in this unique circumstance of 'oh no, we fucked up the, to-be, greatest game of the decade', they couldn't have done anything else.

It's difficult to be certain on whether or not this will patch up the papier mashe of an ending they originally provided, people will have to download it, reload their most up to date save as possible (please not be that horrible missle sequence again), experience the DLC, then see if its adequete or not, its possible.

The papier mashe didn't ruin the game, because the game was simply never finished - the parts they provided (idk 94-98%) were all pretty epically fantastic, almost perfect, arguably the best of the series, certainly better than ME2 in many ways, but it still wasn't a full game, and it'll be interesting to see if the community feels this makes it one (it is free, so even if its delayed, I'd still say it counts).

Maybe the Mass Effect fans can shut up now. Come on there are new BETTER games coming out this year. Max Payne 3, GTA V, Diablo III. hell on TV theres the second season of Game of Thrones, and the third season of Boardwalk Empire. gah I'm so over it.

Hahaha! Good troll man, very funny.

 

[DustyDrB]

That's cool, though the only part that surprises me is "free" (because EA). I don't really want to get my hopes up, though. The way they describe it doesn't really say what we want to hear. Though I guess they can't say, "Hey guys! Yeah, that ending was total shit, right? We sure screwed the pooch there, but we're gonna just make it go away by putting something else in there instead. Something that doesn't suck. Also, free rabbits for everyone! They make lovely pets and great food! Go Canada!"

Edit:
I'm thinking because of this [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-04-05-bioware-announces-mass-effect-3-extended-cut], the Extended Cut is not going to be what many of us were wanting.

"BioWare strongly believes in the team's artistic vision for the end of this arc of the Mass Effect franchise," the studio said. "The extended cut DLC will expand on the existing endings, but no further ending DLC is planned."

What it will do is expand on the ending "by creating additional cinematics and epilogue scenes to the existing ending sequences". "The goal of these new scenes is to provide additional clarity and closure to Mass Effect 3," BioWare explained.

 

[Goofguy]

Hmmmm, cinematic scenes and an epilogue... cool. Sounds like some sort of proper closure and a coherent ending might just be in store for us.

 

[RJ 17]

Though this was something that I had always suspected from the beginning...my new prediction is that our free DLC that "clarifies and brings closure to the ending" is that they're simply going to put everything the cut out - as described in that Final Hours of ME 3 thing - back in and see how well that goes over. I say this considering the article on the front page about Jennifer Hale saying "They haven't called me back in for new voice acting" which means no actual "new" content...which means the stuff they'll be putting in will most likely be "old" content that they already have.

They could accomplish a lot with non-voice acted cinematics backed by music. The Wire and The Sopranos (amongst other things) often ended seasons this way, with a long montage set to music, and they provided immense closure. That way, while you might still be left holding the bag on the whole Star Kid/Synthetic Singularity nonsense, there's an opportunity for emotional closure. Show some recovery scenes, maybe, or show some friends reacting to Shepard's sacrifice. Give everyone a sense that their sacrifice meant something beyond the nonsensical Gilligan's planet sequence.

The only reason you'd need Hale/Meer back is if you planned on doing Indoctrination Theory, and that was always a little pie in the sky.

I've said this many times now, but I think they'd have done pretty well and wouldn't have had even half of the negative feed-back if they had simply done a text-box slideshow a la Dragon Age: Origins that explains how each race as a whole was effected by your decisions and then little epilogues for each of the main squadmates from all the games that survived.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I've said this many times now, but I think they'd have done pretty well and wouldn't have had even half of the negative feed-back if they had simply done a text-box slideshow a la Dragon Age: Origins that explains how each race as a whole was effected by your decisions and then little epilogues for each of the main squadmates from all the games that survived.

I'd generally file that under the list of 1,000,000 things that couldn't possibly have made the ending any worse. Those text crawls are sort of a "good enough" ending these days. It was fine stuff in the BG2 era. ME was always a more cinematic game, so I'd hope for and expect a more cinematic resolution. One without color filters standing in for "choice".

 

[MiloP]

I did use the artistic integrity argument a lot over the last few weeks, but it used it very, VERY wrongly.

My thought process has always been this - if BioWare think their ending was lacking/unexpositional/shit, and they want to change it to make it better, that's fair enough, it's their game.

If BioWare thought it was fine, but changed it ONLY because of the whining from fans (because, lets face it, only 20% of the discussion of this whole thing has been anything close to mature, the rest was whining), THEN I have a teeny issue. Then, that would be BioWare changing things to keep their fans onside, rather than changing it for the point of improving it.

And THAT seems more money-grabbing than any amount of Day-1 DLC they can throw at us.

Of course, it's important to note that this isn't a CHANGE, it's an EXTNEDED CUT. Probably something they had planned to release as DLC anyways but did it quick as a cat to get it out before this anger got out of control. In which case I say, cool. More Mass Effect is more Mass Effect, I aint gonna say no.

 

[C F]

I've got absolutely no problems with them re-writing or expanding upon or (whatever) the ending of ME3. Bioware should be given the chance to try and work something useable out of that time-constrained mess that was forced out of them in the first place.

I'm also glad EA has the sense to not try and profit off of this. It'd be their funeral if they had. <color=#f7f7f7>Metaphorically, anyway.

Well, nothing to do but sit back and wait.

CAPTCHA: 'sound of sirens'
Oh, well that's a good sign .

 

[Tony2077]

i just hope this doesn't teach that whining like a little kid gets you what you want

i'm glad its a extended cut not an outright change i'd be pissed if they did that

 

[BloatedGuppy]

i just hope this doesn't teach that whining like a little kid gets you what you want

Agreed. People, especially consumers, asking for things is a disgusting precedent, and I personally want and will have no part of it. The best policy here is for us all to learn to sit and wait patiently, and if something we want comes along, be surprised and grateful. In the mean time, we should continue to buy products from and support these fine companies who have taken time out of their busy days to bless us with entertainment. Regardless of whether or not we enjoy them, we must learn to be appreciative and contrite.

Oh fuck I should probably stick big sarcasm alerts around this so Cruxis doesn't yell at me again.

 

[DustyDrB]

i just hope this doesn't teach that whining like a little kid gets you what you want

i'm glad its a extended cut not an outright change i'd be pissed if they did that

Don't be silly. Whining little kids taught me that whining like a little kid gets you want you want. I always cave when my nephew starts crying.

 

[Tony2077]

i just hope this doesn't teach that whining like a little kid gets you what you want

Agreed. People, especially consumers, asking for things is a disgusting precedent, and I personally want and will have no part of it. The best policy here is for us all to learn to sit and wait patiently, and if something we want comes along, be surprised and grateful. In the mean time, we should continue to buy products from and support these fine companies who have taken time out of their busy days to bless us with entertainment. Regardless of whether or not we enjoy them, we must learn to be appreciative and contrite.

Oh fuck I should probably stick big sarcasm alerts around this so Cruxis doesn't yell at me again.

talking about it is fine but the whining and complaining about it isn't

 

[Tony2077]

i just hope this doesn't teach that whining like a little kid gets you what you want

i'm glad its a extended cut not an outright change i'd be pissed if they did that

Don't be silly. Whining little kids taught me that whining like a little kid gets you want you want. I always cave when my nephew starts crying.

crying is ok but not when they go overboard you know what i mean when you just want to smack them

 

[BloatedGuppy]

talking about it is fine but the whining and complaining about it isn't

Well, one person's talking is another person's whining. For example, you probably think you're talking right now, whereas it sounds like a lot of whinging to me. Eye of the beholder, my friend.

And whatever the case, of COURSE it's okay to fucking complain. We can't complain to companies now? Are we going to startle their virgin ears? What on earth are you on about?

 

[RJ 17]

I've said this many times now, but I think they'd have done pretty well and wouldn't have had even half of the negative feed-back if they had simply done a text-box slideshow a la Dragon Age: Origins that explains how each race as a whole was effected by your decisions and then little epilogues for each of the main squadmates from all the games that survived.

I'd generally file that under the list of 1,000,000 things that couldn't possibly have made the ending any worse. Those text crawls are sort of a "good enough" ending these days. It was fine stuff in the BG2 era. ME was always a more cinematic game, so I'd hope for and expect a more cinematic resolution. One without color filters standing in for "choice".

And I agree, cinematics would be preferable, I just can't help but think that a non-voiced montage in slow motion set to Bryan Adams' (Everything I Do) I Do it for You won't smooth things over with the fans.

I still like the idea that I've been kicking around of a hero's funeral for Shepard in which all the supporting cast gives a little speech about how Shepard affected their lives and the lives of their entire species. Think that could knock out two birds with one stone. Hell, even the Rachni Queen could be there to sing the funeral dirge about how Shepard freed her twice! :3

 

[Fappy]

Oh fuck I should probably stick big sarcasm alerts around this so Cruxis doesn't yell at me again.

I read the whole post in anticipation for this one line. I was not disappoint.