Poll: ME3 EC didn't fix anything

[Gennadios]

IMO, still the best ending.

Indeed.

Well, there go those playthrough plans.

 

[Vegosiux]

We the players were expecting a happy ending, but we expected something that history has proven they can't do.

But that's incorrect. Players weren't expecting "a happy ending", just an ending that makes a sliver of sense, an ending that wraps up teh saga; even if the best possible ending on the new EC refusal option was a phyrric victory that sets the entire galaxy 50,000 years back anyway, it would still be just fine. Instead, what happened was a deus ex machina followed by an Endingtron 3000, pick-your-color thing that was full of plot holes.

EC didn't help much in that regard either, I mean, the deus ex machina is still there, the pick your color is still there; and as far as "Why the Normandy was out there" goes - I wouldn't exactly expect Joker and the Normandy crew to set off, even under a direct order - they're Shepard's team, and even if technically part of the Alliance, it just strikes me as completely nonsensical to obey a command to abandon post, after all they've been through.

IMO, still the best ending.

Indeed, fight on your terms to the end, and all. It can even be considered a FU right back at the devs when people refuse to choose one of the "real" endings.

 

[XandNobody]

As I like to say, the Mass Effect 3 ending was, well, shit.

However, what people wanted from the Extended Cut was something that would turn shit into filet mignon.

What we got, was shit turned into a bologna sandwich, I'll take a bologna sandwich over shit. Ain't no filet mignon, but it ain't shit either.

 

[Something Amyss]

Failure to deliver what was promised?

I'm shocked.

...Sarcasm sense...Tingling.

 

[XandNobody]

Failure to deliver what was promised?

I'm shocked.

...Sarcasm sense...Tingling.

I actually think they did, but they could not, ever, deliver on what was expected.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

The extended cut didn't fix anything because it CAN'T. The problem is fundamental in the entire ME3 game, in the fact that none of your previous actions have any affect on the ultimate outcome.

None of your previous actions had an outcome of ME1. Only four choices made a difference in ME2 (the other three were non choices in that acquiring the resources necessary to fulfill them was was a trivial effort and there was no reason to not spend said resources since the game contained many times the amount needed to upgrade everything).

This is what I think bugs me about the whole "We were betrayed" and/or "They lied" arguments. Yes, the lied. And we saw evidence of that twice with damning evidence found by the fact that nothing you did in ME1 had any real impact on ME2 save altering a few bits of dialog and giving you a few passing and ultimately trivial quests. Yes, you were lied to but you had the information to recognize such things for what they were. Bioware didn't betray you - your expectations in the face of overwhelming evidence did.

 

[Gennadios]

Hum, so after watching the 40 minutes of endings on youtube, I'm certainly more satisfied than with the original endings, but not enough to actually vote "yes."

I certainly like the Space Jesus vibe of the Control ending.

The refusal ending pretty much has all the problems of the orignal ending(sic.) EMS did fuck all and the Stargazer scene at the end just confused me. The Stargazer looked like an Asari, so are we to assume that after heavy casualties the reapers were wiped out but the cost was so great that galactic civilizations ended up a technological dark age with only the data archives to work off of?

But then if the Geth and the Quarians were unified, wouldn't their combined technical aptitude allow them to regain spaceflight in short order? Mass relays would have survived since the Crucible didn't go off.

And if all civilizations were wiped out, then doom is imminent, wtf was the Stargazer saying when she was talking about being safe from the threat? They just have plans for a crucible to repeat the sorry cycle all over again.

TLR: More satisfied does not exactly mean satisfied in this case.

 

[Unsilenced]

The new endings were....okay? I guess? In my opinion, it went from an F to a C-. Passable, but nothing more.

^Pretty much that.

Sure there are some plot holes and major fridge logic, but the endings now have distinct traits and feeling to them. It's not a spectacular ending, it's not a great ending, it's not a great ending that will be remembered for generations, but it is an ending.

While not as free and open as much of the rest of the series the endings are now at least distinct.

Instead of Red, Blue, or Green, you now have Psychopath, Objectivist Hero, or Space Pot Fantasy.

 

[skywolfblue]

I loved it. Solved all 3 of my "quibbles" with the original ending
-epilogue screens
-explaining how your squadmates made it back aboard the normandy
-how the normandy ended up in the relay

So I'm happy as a clam.

 

[fezzthemonk]

No, the problem with the ending is that there's no happy ending whatsoever.

This is the only reason everyone is mad. I don't care how they dress it up, it all boils down to "But i didn't want my Shepard to die"

 

[Feylynn]

I'm tired of being angry, I never wanted to hate Mass Effect.
It explains what exactly the point of playing was (turns out you didn't destroy the galaxy) and explained some of the character inconsistency.

It responded directly to a lot of the fan complaints and showed a certain level of care that I have to respect (Even if it's motivated my the sales of their next game?).

 

[sobaka770]

No, the problem with the ending is that there's no happy ending whatsoever.

This is the only reason everyone is mad. I don't care how they dress it up, it all boils down to "But i didn't want my Shepard to die"

So what if I didn't? I made a huge effort to assure that I maximize my chances of survival. I've done all missions, brought peace everywhere I could, got my war effort on max (without MP though but I thought it was optional), surely a 3 second one-breath scene is not enough?

I couldn't die in ME1 granted, but I could choose in ME2 even if it's a non-canon and I'd have to almost willfully make bad decisions. One would think they might actually improve on the choice as they iterate.

I am fine with bad endings if I deserved them.

 

[Starke]

They didn't fix anything, I am not surprised. Kinda depressed though.

No, but they did actually make things worse. You're telling me no one on the Crucible project, the greatest minds in the galaxy, is smart enough recognize a fuckin' Duracell when they are building one!?

Also, all endings solve the problems created by the the mass relays exploding (they don't now) and the crew being stranded (they manage to get airborne again).

And they said they weren't changing the endings. Those last two bits are hugely significant. There goes their artistic integrity argument lol

Fuck their artistic integrity.

I'll take improvements, even small ones, any day of the week.

They were focused on that straw man argument of "you just don't like the ending because it's too sad", which was getting parroted off by the Biodrones. Which, of course wasn't the problem at all.

Also, "artistic integrity", they seem to think that term means a damn. It really doesn't. At the end of the day all art exists to cater to it's audience. When you have a piece that is hated, really hated, hiding behind "artistic integrity" and saying, "you don't understand my genius," is a horrible abuse of the term.

"No, we got it, it sucked, here's your mulligan."

 

[Adultratedhydra]

And yet, still no explanation on the shepard breathing scene. Well done bioware.

Incoming Epilogue comic?

 

[Starke]

No, the problem with the ending is that there's no happy ending whatsoever.

This is the only reason everyone is mad. I don't care how they dress it up, it all boils down to "But i didn't want my Shepard to die"

No, no, by the time the ending of 3 rolled around, murdering Shepard to put an end to the stupid seems like a pretty fair trade. The problem isn't that Shepard dies at the end. If that was a problem no one could start up a playthrough of ME2, because Shepard dies at the beginning there. It's not that the ending is sad. It's that it is incurably retarded. The new DLC makes it even dumber.

Now, not only do we have Shepard randomly taking bullshit from the Starchild, now they're actually asking the little fuck for more irrelevant exposition. And when everyone asked, "where the fuck did that thing come from?" they didn't mean, tell me it's origin story, they meant "where was this when the ending was being set up. Of course, Bioware gave us an origin story instead. And of course, now the exposition proves that the brightest minds in Mass Effect's galaxy cannot recognize a battery when they are goddamn building one. Nevermind that no one noticed it was designed to latch onto the Citadel way back before Timmy stole it.

No, killing Shepard is poetic justice for all the stupidity they've inflicted in the past two games. A bleak ending is a good thing because these people, all of these people are too dumb to live.

The problem is the ending is utter gibberish that doesn't resolve a damn thing outside of a flat out deus ex machina. Seriously, Star Trek Voyager's obsession with mashing the reset button until their hand fell off resulted in better endings than this.

 

[Hattingston]

It fixed two things:
How did my squadmates get to the Normandy?
and
Why is the Normandy leaving the battle?

Spoiler

I still couldn't challenge the bs logic of god-child, the Shepard-breathing isn't further addressed.

It did explain what happened to the Krogan and Humanity, which was nice, but not the Turians...or Quarians...or Asari...or Salarians...etc (don't know about Geth, chose destroy, my Shepard doesn't believe god-child).

So, overall, still shit. Marginally less putrid shit, but still putrid enough.

 

[Zhukov]

Also, all endings solve the problems created by the the mass relays exploding (they don't now) and the crew being stranded (they manage to get airborne again).

And they said they weren't changing the endings. Those last two bits are hugely significant. There goes their artistic integrity argument lol

Fuck their artistic integrity.

I'll take improvements, even small ones, any day of the week.

They were focused on that straw man argument of "you just don't like the ending because it's too sad", which was getting parroted off by the Biodrones. Which, of course wasn't the problem at all.

This is not accurate.

They clearly understood many of the complaints. Regardless of our opinions of how well they did it, they did address the issues of closure and (to a lesser degree) differentiating player choice. They also closed up some of the minor plot holes and uncertainties.

Of course, they were clearly too proud to excise the glowing space child and everything that came with him. I don't like that fact, not one little bit, but I do understand it.

 

[Asita]

No, the problem with the ending is that there's no happy ending whatsoever.

This is the only reason everyone is mad. I don't care how they dress it up, it all boils down to "But i didn't want my Shepard to die"

...Actually, given that many of the people you're disparaging have expressed appreciation for the Refusal ending, commenting that it was the only choice that seemed consistent with the main character's characterization? I'm going to have to go ahead and say you're rather objectively wrong in your generalization. There are probably some people out there who take that stance, but I've seen little indication from either the initial reaction or the reaction to the EC that 'Shepherd dies' is the crux of the issue for most. On the contrary, it seems rather telling that one of the more popular fan edits of the ending (before the EC) simply cut out everything between Anderson and Shepherd bleeding out and the Destruction ending. IE, a very strong implication that Shepherd died, the reapers destroyed and no starchild sequence. Honestly, given that and the general focus of the criticism it seems more than a little disingenuous to use an accusation like your own to describe the disaffected.

 

[MattRobinson]

Well with the new choice we now have four options
A. Genocide (Destroy)
B. Totalitarianism (Control)
C. Ethnocide (Synthesis)
or D. Extinction
And this is ignoring the gaping plot holes and the fact that the mass relays don't work (instead of being destroyed which still negates the whole point of the series), the catalyst and his faulty logic, and all the other problems with the game (like choices from the previous 2 games not mattering at all despite what the developers said)

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

But that's incorrect. Players weren't expecting "a happy ending", just an ending that makes a sliver of sense, an ending that wraps up teh saga; even if the best possible ending on the new EC refusal option was a phyrric victory that sets the entire galaxy 50,000 years back anyway, it would still be just fine. Instead, what happened was a deus ex machina followed by an Endingtron 3000, pick-your-color thing that was full of plot holes.

That's exactly my point. You don't play the game and put in all this effort only for the best possible outcome to be slightly ahead of losing completely. When you save the galaxy you're supposed to get a parade, confetti and the girl.

Either that or most RPGs up until this point have lied to use and we shouldn't be rewarded for a job well done.