Mass Effect 3 Fans Will Find Closure June 26th

[putowtin]

I'm willing to give bioware and the ME3 team the benefit of the doubt until I have played this "Extended Cut".
Even if it sucks and does nothing to either improve or make sense of the pile of dung the last 15 minutes the game currently is, I will still love ME3 (except for the formentioned 15 minutes). I will however continue to end the game during the final boss battle (ahh Marauder Shields) and will have truly lost faith in a games company I have followed for the last 14 years.

That is the true shame and shocking revelation that this game has brought about, the amount of Bioware fans that feel that strongly, not only about the ending of a superb game series, but how they have been treated by said company, that they have lost faith in a company that previously they wouldn't have thought twice about buying their new products.

 

[pandorum]

I still think it burns the most, knowing there was no epic boss battle just some little shitty kid that renegade Shepard would not give two shits about? I mean you can shoot Mordin in the back but not tell a space hologram kid to Fcuk off?

 

[gphjr14]

Can't wait... To see in on youtube.

My thoughts exactly. They might as well put it on YouTube if you're not actually playing anything just watching.

 

[Dangit2019]

This is very called for:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/03/16

Unfortunately that was just another of the gaming media who completely missed the point of what people were complaining about.

From most of what I read the flaw came from the "yo dawg" logic of the Star-Child and the fact that we had to chance to refute it.

After all the only Geth that were actively hostile toward organics throughout the trilogy were those who were following the instructions of the Reapers. They were bringing about the very act they claim they were there to prevent with the harvest.

The vast majority of people who said they wanted a happy ending in there were also saying that they would have liked one where the Reapers could win. Yet the gaming media, Penny Arcade included, never seemed to mention that part.

Only the sections which supported "fans are entitled whiners" were used.

Or it was just a joke. It's nice that you're rejecting the notion that ME3 fans are too whiny by writing a paragraph-sized rebuttal to a silly comic.

 

[everythingbeeps]

It's funny, when the "ending controversy" first started happening, I was one of the game's biggest defenders. Now I see that it was mostly reactionary. I was so disgusted by the behavior of the people whining about the ending that I just went ahead and took the opposite viewpoint.

And while I'm still thoroughly disgusted by the behavior of many of those people, I have enough distance from the game's ending now to realize it truly was a bad ending.

So I'm not that excited about this "extended ending" thing, because it's probably not going to make anything better. Shep will still be dead, the relays will still be destroyed, and thus all of civilization will still be separated and cut off from each other.

 

[votemarvel]

Or it was just a joke. It's nice that you're rejecting the notion that ME3 fans are too whiny by writing a paragraph-sized rebuttal to a silly comic.

I just don't believe in posting short pieces of text that don't adequately put across my point of view.

Why settle for one line responses when the forum allows for so much more.

If the strip had been just that, a humour piece, then I wouldn't be so irritated by it. However it was a reflection of the attitude that Penny Arcade was taking as a whole. In that anyone who didn't like the ending(s) were just a bunch of entitled whiners who wanted unicorns and rainbows.

Penny-Arcade is a very powerful voice in the world of video games, for good or ill, and for them to not even look into the reasons people were upset was rather shocking to me.

 

[Heinrich843]

To everyone calling it a "new" ending:

They already said there's not going to be a new ending, it's the current ending with extended cutscenes. (So we can understand it better or something.)

Thus, it's the same ending a lot of people held great disdain for- but 5-10 minutes longer.

Yeah, I guess people are just being complainers and stuff.

Y they not just let it die. Hardly anyone liked your genius ending Bioware. Just let it die. We don't need it explained.

 

[The Heik]

It's 1.9 gigs of extra content?

Must. Not. Form. Unreasonable. Expectations.

Must. Fight. Desire. To. Be. Hyped.

As I am one of the people who actually liked the general concept of the ending, and thought it's failure was more down to shoddy and rushed execution than anything else, I really hope that the extra context this can provide was worth the wait.

Trust me, it won't be. The whole logic behind this mess is so flawed that no amount of context and explaining is going to rectify it. I admit the idea of "the singularity" and the fight between organic and synthetic happening is interesting in and of itself, but in Mass Effect it is in direct contradiction with itself. Even in the ME universe the singularity remains a thought experiment, as had it happened the Reapers (and come to think of it all organic life) wouldn't exist, so the Catalyst has waged an eons long mass genocide over something that has not only never happened, but has never even gotten past being simply an academic notion. It's just ludicrous, especially considering that the Catalyst's logic can be even more eroded by the fact that one of the possible canonical situations has organics and synthetics (Quarians and Geth) working together for a common good, proving that the whole synthetics/organics guaranteed war concept is BS.

Now I'm still going to get the DLC (after all, it's free) to see how EAoware tries to explain this fuck-up, but as it stands I'm not holding my breath for some sort of salvation.

 

[samaugsch]

To everyone calling it a "new" ending:

They already said there's not going to be a new ending, it's the current ending with extended cutscenes. (So we can understand it better or something.)

Thus, it's the same ending a lot of people held great disdain for- but 5-10 minutes longer.

Yeah, I guess people are just being complainers and stuff.

Y they not just let it die. Hardly anyone liked your genius ending Bioware. Just let it die. We don't need it explained.

Because Bioware has suddenly become one of the most successful trolls of our time.

 

[Spoonius]

Wow, this is astounding.

The fans are getting something for free that BioWare only made because they could tell that they upset the fanbase and all most of you can do is ***** and moan when you haven't even seen the product.

It's ridiculous, at least Bioware have moved to address the problem by creating a massive chunk of additional content for FREE, unlike 90% of other developers would. Yet people need to 'prove their worth' by being cynical and pessimistic and generally arseholish to the point of incessant bitching. Not everyone, but too many people (especially in this thread and the Bioware forums).

It's understandable to feel disappointed by the ending, but to pre-emptively decry what you haven't played yet? Come on, seriously.

They might as well put it on YouTube if you're not actually playing anything just watching.

I'm willing to bet there'll be gameplay in there too.

Thus, it's the same ending a lot of people held great disdain for- but 5-10 minutes longer.

The actual game was around 11 gigs I think? So no way is 1.9 gigs of new content only going to last 5-10 minutes. The EC will include content equivalent to over seventeen percent of the main game...

 

[EXos]

1. Communicating with the elusive man (still on the citadel and still alive he's a tough bastard but now free of the indoc he realizes his mistakes (Anderson dead)) about linking the energy surge through the eezo core of the normandy (Normandy linking up like Sovereign did in ME1) controlling the energy surge into the citadel preventing the destruction of the relays. Though this still destroys the earth, the normandy and most of the fleets.

You could still of saved earth and fleets if you kept the collector base in mass effect 2 similar to the destroy ending but better outcome and like you you said nothing much is changed.

Good to see someone gets it.

A nice twist and it only took 2 people a couple of minutes.

 

[Bat Vader]

I didn't think it would be released so soon. I thought it would be released in late July or early August. I plan on getting it just to see what happens afterwards.

 

[fozzy360]

It's ridiculous, at least Bioware have moved to address the problem by creating a massive chunk of additional content for FREE, unlike 90% of other developers would. Yet people need to 'prove their worth' by being cynical and pessimistic and generally arseholish to the point of incessant bitching. Not everyone, but too many people (especially in this thread and the Bioware forums).

It's understandable to feel disappointed by the ending, but to pre-emptively decry what you haven't played yet? Come on, seriously.

Is it nice that it's free? Sure, it's the least they could do. However, I do find it understandable that people would already bemoan the EC, even without having seen it yet. The past six months has seen Bioware more or less tarnish their reputation with the combined shitstorm of the ME3 ending the clusterfuck of the TOR launch. These two things combined with DA2 have killed almost all of the goodwill that Bioware had earned with their fanbase, not to mention that fact that the dark cloud of EA covers this whole thing. Fans are weary, and they don't want to get burned again (though, the fact that Bioware has clearly stated that they are not changing the ending should be a very good indicator that nothing significant is going to happen).

The actual game was around 11 gigs I think? So no way is 1.9 gigs of new content only going to last 5-10 minutes. The EC will include content equivalent to over seventeen percent of the main game...

I'm not sure that's the right way of looking at it. If Metzen said there's about 10+ minutes of content, then it's kind of hard to believe that there any gameplay in there. It mostly sounds like if it's just lots and lots of audio files like VO and music, cutscene data...that kind of thing. If they're truly trying to "expand" on the ending, then the size of the EC is indicative of how much non-playable content they're trying to create to make sure they have enough of it to cover as much as they can considering how different people's playthroughs could be. I could be wrong, but I seriously doubt it's any new gameplay.

On the other hand, I've lost all motivation to even touch ME3. I found the most recent Wolverine for $10 on the 360. I'll just have a go at that instead.

 

[xorinite]

It's understandable to feel disappointed by the ending, but to pre-emptively decry what you haven't played yet? Come on, seriously.

I already hated the ending, if like me these other people also hated the ending and this is supposedly the same ending just 'clarified' (Someone needs to put themselves in the clear, eh Humpy?) surely the expectation should be 'clarified' hatred for it or something along those lines?

Ah, but then again for me I must consider the schadenfreude I will feel as everyone who believed in the indoctrination theory, as its shattered into a million pieces, have to suffer both the fully realized ending and the death of their safe delusion.
Is it still shameful if I don't feel any shame in it?
Hmm..

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

It's 1.9 gigs of extra content?

Must. Not. Form. Unreasonable. Expectations.

Must. Fight. Desire. To. Be. Hyped.

As I am one of the people who actually liked the general concept of the ending, and thought it's failure was more down to shoddy and rushed execution than anything else, I really hope that the extra context this can provide was worth the wait.

Trust me, it won't be. The whole logic behind this mess is so flawed that no amount of context and explaining is going to rectify it. I admit the idea of "the singularity" and the fight between organic and synthetic happening is interesting in and of itself, but in Mass Effect it is in direct contradiction with itself. Even in the ME universe the singularity remains a thought experiment, as had it happened the Reapers (and come to think of it all organic life) wouldn't exist, so the Catalyst has waged an eons long mass genocide over something that has not only never happened, but has never even gotten past being simply an academic notion. It's just ludicrous, especially considering that the Catalyst's logic can be even more eroded by the fact that one of the possible canonical situations has organics and synthetics (Quarians and Geth) working together for a common good, proving that the whole synthetics/organics guaranteed war concept is BS.

Now I'm still going to get the DLC (after all, it's free) to see how EAoware tries to explain this fuck-up, but as it stands I'm not holding my breath for some sort of salvation.

Oh I'm certain that this won't fix every problem, but having had time to come to terms with the current ending I really don't need it to. The main story arc was never what held my interest in the ME series. It wasn't bad, probably even above average, but what really made it for me was the characters and their more personal story arcs, set inside this really rich universe. The thing that was really a slap in the face for me at the time was not even getting to see what Shepard had bought with his ultimate sacrifice. Who survived? Who didn't? What do they do now and how does the Galaxy at large even begin to rebuild? Not knowing these things was what pissed me off, because in my eyes, that's what I'd been fighting for. Even if all the extended cut achieves is to fill in that part, that for me will be enough.

 

[mdqp]

The intent of this DLC was never to give the game a better ending, it was to at least give some closure, by showing the consequences of your choices (at least, that's how I interpreted what little we know about it), and explain some of the most obscure things in it.

The closure isn't a bad thing. It should have been in the game since the beginning, though, because the original ending just plainly shows no effort at all into making what you did in 3 games matter, which is bad, especially in an RPG... I can understand, even if I don't like it, the technical difficulties into making most of your choices really matter from one game to the other (most of the times, you get some cosmetic, superficial differences, if you try multiple different playthroughs), but to not show ANYTHING at the end is laughable. For me it was like the game told me that what I liked (and thought that was important... Because the games made them sound important!) in the games weren't even worth a mention.

The explanation part is laughable, because the ending suffers from a severe lack of logic, narrative coherence, and generally bad writing. To explain it, the writers will be forced to put together even more convoluted reasons as to why it has to be that way. Above all, the ending isn't the culmination of the plot/narrative natural evolution, but is a forced, false dilemma, you are pushed in, so that the author can make his point. Since the 3 games weren't planned as a trilogy beforehand, it's normal to experience some sort of disconnect, but here we get it inside ME3 itself. The ending doesn't make justice not even to what happens in the third game, that's why it is unbelievably bad.

 

[JediMB]

I'm waiting for a fan-made content summary before I even consider touching the DLC.

What I've heard these last few days just seems to confirm my earlier assumption that the Extended Cut will basically be BioWare putting band-aids on the gashes while ignoring the internal bleeding.

 

[Mailman]

I guess we'll all know about the ending tomorrow. I'm not getting my hopes up. It'll wind up being just ten minutes of Lance Henriksen saying, "All the characters you care about fine. The world's not over. The beginning of the end is mearly the end of the beginning. Artistic integredity, etc." I think the man's voice is groovy and all but I don't think he can pull it off.