The worst video game ending ever

[pookie101]

the original ending to mass effect 3.. when i finally finished id honestly thought my game had glitched and i had missed big chunks of cut scenes, but with the directors cut its fixed as far as im concerned. not great but fixed.

my contribution would be the ending to the original syndicate.. you get a amazing cut scene to set the mood when you start, spend 50 odd mission battling to take over the world and for your reward of world domination you get... the credits rolling. not even a game over or you win.

 

[Nedoras]

The worst ending in a game huh? I don't think it's the worst, but it's fresh in my mind so I'm gonna go with I am Setsuna.

Spoiler

So in this game's world, someone has to be sacrificed to some being every decade or so to keep the world from being overrun with monsters. You play as a mercenary, who at the beginning of the game is hired to kill someone. You soon find out that that person is the sacrifice, and she's about to go off on her journey to prevent the monster invasion. Figuring that she's just going to die anyway, so your contract will be completed regardless, you end up becoming one of her guardians on her trip. When you finally do get to the end, you find out that these sacrifices have been giving their lives to keep an insanely powerful being locked away. The person guarding the being and keeping it locked up needs the magical energy of the sacrifices to keep the barrier up, but tells you that the barrier has severely weakened and at this point another sacrifice won't cut it. At this point, the party decides to try to kill the being, as it's either try to kill it or simply wait for the world to end. However, this guardian also reveals that the party has been here before several times and has went against facing it. She's been rewinding time using very powerful time magic every single time the party opted to not face it. Only this time things were different, the big one being that your character has never been in the party before until now. Why that's the case is never explained, nor were any of the other apparent differences.

The sacrifice seems to be happy that she isn't going to simply die and looks forward to facing the thing and saving the world in a different way. So you face the being and take it down, at which point it warps itself back in time to do something and the world starts to end. You and the sacrifice are able to chase it back through time because reasons (it is explained and I forgot the specifics, but it's basically just "it's destiny") and track it down. During this confrontation the being outright tells you it hates humanity, will never forgive it, that it's eternally suffering, and that it just wants die (the origins of this thing were revealed by the guardian earlier by the way. it's basically a young human that was subjected to a magical experiment gone wrong and spiraled out of control over one thousand years ago). You slay it, and as it lays there drifting away into nothing (it's basically made of pure magical energy), the sacrifice runs over to it and appears to absorb what remains of the thing as it fades away. She tells you that she wanted it to be close to someone before it dies, that she didn't want it to die alone. She then asks you to kill her. You are then given the choice to either strike her down or not strike her down. Either way she dies. You then walk off into the woods and a little epilogue of what the other characters are up to is shown(not much apparently). In the post credits scene, it shows your character walking through a snowfield with a lone tree sitting in the center of it. After you walk past the tree, a glowing orb of energy floats down next to it and turns into the sacrifice (I suppose the idea behind that is that her spirit is watching over you). That's the end.

Now, I wasn't expecting a happy ending by any means. The game has a rather sad tone to it, and I had no doubt either you or the sacrifice were going to die. I didn't just expect it to happen in such a meaningless way. This person who seemed to be glad that she didn't have to throw her life away, that she could fight to end this cycle once and for all, literally throws her life away at the end to give two seconds of comfort to a being that was hell bent on destroying everyone and everything and was already dead. I understand she was supposed to be that nice, almost saint like kind of character, but come on. It just seemed so forced. The idea is that she was supposed to die from the start, that that was the whole point of the journey, but you changed that. Hell your character wasn't really supposed to be there in the first place, things were different, you even defeated the thing that was the sole reason she had to die...but then in the final moments she basically kills herself because...destiny I guess? I get the game was supposed to have a bittersweet or sad ending, I'm fine with that and was looking forward to seeing how things were going to play out...but what happened just seemed so damn poorly done and forced.

 

[Trunkage]

Just because you say you did something does make that true. Photo or it didn't happen

And your Thaneship? Is that faked? Even though the Jarl him/herself states "I'll inform the guards of your new title. CAN'T HAVE THEM TREATING YOU LIKE THE COMMON RABBLE, CAN I?"

So yea, your fucking JARL told you to show some respect to the guy/girl who's armed to the teeth and wearing pieces of a dragon as armor, and you're going to talk smack to them about lollygagging and sweet rolls? Please.

As for who'll speak for you? How about I summon the actual Heroes of Yore and let a doubter take THEIR word for it. They were there when you shanked Alduin.

Do you think people like Obama? Or Trump or any Clinton. More hate them than like them. Plenty of thier own employees or party member speak poorly. Now that's not guards and thier bakery bullying but close enough. They speak poorly about them on national TV.

You, in Skyrim, are (usually) a foreigner given thaneship, and you think that what a leader says means something. Or some ghosts. That's like saying killing Ulfric will stop the Stormcloacks, or killing Bin Laden will stop Al Qeada. It might have slowed them down but they are still around. Still causing problems or in a new form. Plus the whole point of Elder Scrolls is that everyone is a racists. They aren't going to follow a foreigner thane. Particularly if you just killed their groups' leader.

Let me be clear. Bethsheda didn't do this intentionally. It was lazy programming. I just happen to think it actually very realistic. You expect that when you acting nicely and save people that means you should be respected. I don't think that happens in IRL.. Case in point The World Wars and American "saving" the day. Or almost ever war America has been in since them.

Take samurai as an example. They are in literature as the embodiment of virtue but it was far from the case. They could murder almost anyone if they felt insulted. European were much the same. In other words, If you want respect, don't let those who disrespect you live.

 

[Dalisclock]

I do have to question the whole MEIII band-wagon, though. I honestly believe that people are hating on that ending, just because they can, without bothering to understand the game's message. Shepard was an extraordinary example of man-kind. They were the hero that the Citadel races needed when their galaxies came under tremendous threat, and Shepard managed to accomplish the impossible. But in the end, they were just one person. An ultimately insignificant blob of matter in the infinite expanses of space.

The ending was beautiful to me, in that regard. Because it showed that no matter how special Shepard was, and no matter how much that they managed to accomplish in the face of crippling obstacles, they still were not able to change fate by themselves.

Except that the ending ended up being you meeting the Star Brat, who says "Oh, you found me. You win. Pick your ending now". Fixed the whole Geth/Quarian thing that's been going on forever? Doesn't matter, he won't acknowledge it. Basically, the ME3 writer wrote himself into a corner and instead of doing the hard work to fix the problem, decided to have the Reapers just give up and let you decide their fate, despite the fact they're winning and you have literally no leverage over them.

The first time I reached the star brat, I shot the little punk and got the "Everyone dies" ending. Despite being depressing, I still think it's the most appropriate of the 4.

 

[Erttheking]

I do have to question the whole MEIII band-wagon, though. I honestly believe that people are hating on that ending, just because they can, without bothering to understand the game's message. Shepard was an extraordinary example of man-kind. They were the hero that the Citadel races needed when their galaxies came under tremendous threat, and Shepard managed to accomplish the impossible. But in the end, they were just one person. An ultimately insignificant blob of matter in the infinite expanses of space.

The ending was beautiful to me, in that regard. Because it showed that no matter how special Shepard was, and no matter how much that they managed to accomplish in the face of crippling obstacles, they still were not able to change fate by themselves. And there is so much alluding to this message, with all of the focus on making alliances, seeding eternal friendships, and ultimately, relying on a power that exceeded their own, even if it meant making everything leading up to that point largely obsolete.

And I really liked that. It was a humble ending, for a character that was carefully treading the line of immersive character development. My only real criticism, is that they should of expanded on the whole thing more, by showing what Shepard was able to change, even as power was taken from their hands in the end.

No. People hate it because 1. It comes the fuck out of nowhere 2. Directly contradicts what the developer said to our faces 3. Asserts that the main theme of the trilogy is eternal conflict between synthetics and organics, something that was, at best, a background theme 4. Utterly ignores if you managed to broker peace between the Quarians and the Geth 5. All of the choices are utter bullshit for various reasons, within Synthesis taking home the prize for "utterly impossible, Reapers seem to be using magic now" 6. Yo dawg, I heard you don't like being killed by synthetics, so I made synthetics to kill you so you don't get killed by synthetics. IE, the motivation of the mysterious and intimidating Reapers was an utter let down. Sovereign said "We are beyond your comprehension" and the majority of the fanbase took that to mean that they were far above humanity in a Lovecraft manner. Not that they were running on Insane Troll Logic. 7. The codex constantly talks about the Reapers are killable, with the Turians putting up an especially hard fight, killing dozens upon dozens of Reapers, especially once the Krogan start to help. But nope, they can't be beaten because star child says so. And Shepard just swallows it all. Oh yeah 8. The little boy was getting annoying and him showing up as the star child was utterly laughable 9. The person who wrote this in did it without consulting the other writers 10. Bioware told us our choices would make a difference. Bioware lied to us.

http://orig12.deviantart.net/76e0/f/2012/076/d/3/mass_effect_fail_by_akael-d4t0nrx.png

And 11. The Refusal ending was whoever green lit the ending throwing a temper tantrum that people didn't like their genius. 12. Right after it we got an advertisement for DLC.

 

[Brandon Lowdermilk]

Mario 2 sounds like a bad ending, ok so guess what you beat the game, do you get a congradulations, no, did you rescue princess peach, no, did you get fireworks, no, ok so what happens, mario is sleeping the end, ooo k

 

[Kyrian007]

Mario 2 sounds like a bad ending, ok so guess what you beat the game, do you get a congradulations, no, did you rescue princess peach, no, did you get fireworks, no, ok so what happens, mario is sleeping the end, ooo k

Mario doesn't even get any of Peach's sweet, sweet... cake. Actually, I'm glad someone brought up NES Ghostbusters "Conglaturations" ending. Millennials complaining about ME 3 and Fallout... they don't KNOW bad endings like those of us who were around during the NES era.

 

[ClockworkAngel]

This is going to be unoriginal, but I'm going to list Mass Effect 3. But not because the ending itself was stupid. It was, but that's not its worst crime. The reason I'm naming it the worst ending is because when I think about ME3, despite all of the great fun I had with it up until that point, what comes to my mind and sticks the most is the crappy ending. It overshadows all of my other memories of the game.

I thought MGS V had an unbelievably stupid ending (whatever meta-narrative they were going for, be damned), but the ending is not the first thing that springs to mind when I think about it. It wasn't so bad that it overshadows the good memories I have of that game. Even Deus Ex: Human Revolution's ending, which literally had ME3's "push button, dispense ending" mechanic, wasn't so bad that it's the first thing I think about when that game comes up.

But ME3? First thing that pops up when I think of that game is, "Wow, that ending was garbage." I have to really think past the ending to remember how great that game was up until the last few minutes.

 

[Lykosia_v1legacy]

Mario 2 sounds like a bad ending, ok so guess what you beat the game, do you get a congradulations, no, did you rescue princess peach, no, did you get fireworks, no, ok so what happens, mario is sleeping the end, ooo k

Mario doesn't even get any of Peach's sweet, sweet... cake. Actually, I'm glad someone brought up NES Ghostbusters "Conglaturations" ending. Millennials complaining about ME 3 and Fallout... they don't KNOW bad endings like those of us who were around during the NES era.

I still stand by what I voted: Ghost 'n Goblins. At least in other games you only need to finish it once to get the real ending. In GnG you have to finish it twice, second time even harder than the first which is already one of the hardest games ever made.

 

[Smithnikov_v1legacy]

You, in Skyrim, are (usually) a foreigner given thaneship, and you think that what a leader says means something.

Jarls in a nordic inspired fantasy world arent' bound by pesky things like a congress, TV appearences, or a Bill of Rights.

"Either a fool or a brave man approaches a Jarl without summons." These are men and women who can have your head on the city gates in a heartbeat and it'll be like ordering a pizza for us.

Or some ghosts.

In a culture that reveres their ancestors and does believe in them, yes.

or killing Bin Laden will stop Al Qeada. It might have slowed them down but they are still around. Still causing problems or in a new form. Plus the whole point of Elder Scrolls is that everyone is a racists. They aren't going to follow a foreigner thane.

So you're saying that guards have no loyalty or even survival instinct?

 

[Saelune]

Just because you say you did something does make that true. Photo or it didn't happen

And your Thaneship? Is that faked? Even though the Jarl him/herself states "I'll inform the guards of your new title. CAN'T HAVE THEM TREATING YOU LIKE THE COMMON RABBLE, CAN I?"

So yea, your fucking JARL told you to show some respect to the guy/girl who's armed to the teeth and wearing pieces of a dragon as armor, and you're going to talk smack to them about lollygagging and sweet rolls? Please.

As for who'll speak for you? How about I summon the actual Heroes of Yore and let a doubter take THEIR word for it. They were there when you shanked Alduin.

Do you think people like Obama? Or Trump or any Clinton. More hate them than like them. Plenty of thier own employees or party member speak poorly. Now that's not guards and thier bakery bullying but close enough. They speak poorly about them on national TV.

You, in Skyrim, are (usually) a foreigner given thaneship, and you think that what a leader says means something. Or some ghosts. That's like saying killing Ulfric will stop the Stormcloacks, or killing Bin Laden will stop Al Qeada. It might have slowed them down but they are still around. Still causing problems or in a new form. Plus the whole point of Elder Scrolls is that everyone is a racists. They aren't going to follow a foreigner thane. Particularly if you just killed their groups' leader.

Let me be clear. Bethsheda didn't do this intentionally. It was lazy programming. I just happen to think it actually very realistic. You expect that when you acting nicely and save people that means you should be respected. I don't think that happens in IRL.. Case in point The World Wars and American "saving" the day. Or almost ever war America has been in since them.

Take samurai as an example. They are in literature as the embodiment of virtue but it was far from the case. They could murder almost anyone if they felt insulted. European were much the same. In other words, If you want respect, don't let those who disrespect you live.

You could make a case for Oblivion, but in Morrowind AND Skyrim, you are a messiah of fate. Not some politician, but literally gifts from the Gods (or Daedric Prince in Morrowind's case). If some guy showed up claiming to be Jesus, sure, people wouldn't give much credit to them...but then they go around curing the sick and lame, and literally performing miracles (or absorbing Dragon Souls), well, even non/alternate religious people would be like "Oh Dang". Sure, you have some like the Dunmer Housecarl who "has seen things just as outlandish as this" but she is an accomplished warrior and adventurer. Most people in Skyrim aren't. Certainly not the guards who were there.

I think bringing back some sort of reputation thing per character like Morrowind had would fix a lot of this. Its one thing to be a stranger in a new town, even if everywhere else your name is sung, but I think actually sucking up a dragon in front of people should atleast make THEM treat you different.

I think Elder Scroll games have become a bit too randomized as part of their lessening quality from Morrowind.

 

[Trunkage]

You, in Skyrim, are (usually) a foreigner given thaneship, and you think that what a leader says means something.

Jarls in a nordic inspired fantasy world arent' bound by pesky things like a congress, TV appearences, or a Bill of Rights.

"Either a fool or a brave man approaches a Jarl without summons." These are men and women who can have your head on the city gates in a heartbeat and it'll be like ordering a pizza for us.

Or some ghosts.

In a culture that reveres their ancestors and does believe in them, yes.

or killing Bin Laden will stop Al Qeada. It might have slowed them down but they are still around. Still causing problems or in a new form. Plus the whole point of Elder Scrolls is that everyone is a racists. They aren't going to follow a foreigner thane.

So you're saying that guards have no loyalty or even survival instinct?

Okay... umm... to the guards thing... is it time to point out that one of the main things of the game is the civil war aspect. The guards have all chosen sides and some are disloyal to the crown. Some don't even pick the Imperial or Stormcloak side. I mean, at the end of the Return of the Jedi, do you think the Imperials just gave up. Because Episode 7 says they didn't. Also, didn't I just say that the guards would show loyalty to their leader and cause, even beyond the death of their side's leader? I mean, they would pick fights with their new "allies" (being old enemies.)

Do their culture revere their ancestors? I would have said that's a Dunmer trait. Some Nords would I assume, but some wouldn't. Which is entirely the point. Its not like every guard is a Sweatroll Sazzer. Some praise you. Its more weird when one guard praises you then insults (hence this being about Bethsheda being lazy not thoughtful.)

You might have had a point about the Jarls, except I remember just walking up to every Jarl in the game for a chat and a quest. I remember Morrowind had a better vetting process than that.

 

[Loop Stricken]

Mass Effect 3, the ending that retroactively killed all the joy within me that the previous games instilled.

 

[Trunkage]

Just because you say you did something does make that true. Photo or it didn't happen

And your Thaneship? Is that faked? Even though the Jarl him/herself states "I'll inform the guards of your new title. CAN'T HAVE THEM TREATING YOU LIKE THE COMMON RABBLE, CAN I?"

So yea, your fucking JARL told you to show some respect to the guy/girl who's armed to the teeth and wearing pieces of a dragon as armor, and you're going to talk smack to them about lollygagging and sweet rolls? Please.

As for who'll speak for you? How about I summon the actual Heroes of Yore and let a doubter take THEIR word for it. They were there when you shanked Alduin.

Do you think people like Obama? Or Trump or any Clinton. More hate them than like them. Plenty of thier own employees or party member speak poorly. Now that's not guards and thier bakery bullying but close enough. They speak poorly about them on national TV.

You, in Skyrim, are (usually) a foreigner given thaneship, and you think that what a leader says means something. Or some ghosts. That's like saying killing Ulfric will stop the Stormcloacks, or killing Bin Laden will stop Al Qeada. It might have slowed them down but they are still around. Still causing problems or in a new form. Plus the whole point of Elder Scrolls is that everyone is a racists. They aren't going to follow a foreigner thane. Particularly if you just killed their groups' leader.

Let me be clear. Bethsheda didn't do this intentionally. It was lazy programming. I just happen to think it actually very realistic. You expect that when you acting nicely and save people that means you should be respected. I don't think that happens in IRL.. Case in point The World Wars and American "saving" the day. Or almost ever war America has been in since them.

Take samurai as an example. They are in literature as the embodiment of virtue but it was far from the case. They could murder almost anyone if they felt insulted. European were much the same. In other words, If you want respect, don't let those who disrespect you live.

You could make a case for Oblivion, but in Morrowind AND Skyrim, you are a messiah of fate. Not some politician, but literally gifts from the Gods (or Daedric Prince in Morrowind's case). If some guy showed up claiming to be Jesus, sure, people wouldn't give much credit to them...but then they go around curing the sick and lame, and literally performing miracles (or absorbing Dragon Souls), well, even non/alternate religious people would be like "Oh Dang". Sure, you have some like the Dunmer Housecarl who "has seen things just as outlandish as this" but she is an accomplished warrior and adventurer. Most people in Skyrim aren't. Certainly not the guards who were there.

I think bringing back some sort of reputation thing per character like Morrowind had would fix a lot of this. Its one thing to be a stranger in a new town, even if everywhere else your name is sung, but I think actually sucking up a dragon in front of people should atleast make THEM treat you different.

I think Elder Scroll games have become a bit too randomized as part of their lessening quality from Morrowind.

Okay, first. Mages. Can't they cure everyone. Even the priest can. They can also shoot fireballs. FIREBALLS. Is sucking in a soul of a dragon that much different from some of the powers mages have (or vampires), just not on dragons. (Plus Fireballs are way more showy.) Also, the part that makes no sense to me is how the Thu'um is powered by dragon souls but can be passed down to "others with the voice". With no power loss? Otherwise the powers would have depleted long ago, right? Even with the help of a particularly helpful dragon to keep the power going, that makes no sense. So your power is not that unique and if the old boys on the hill weren't so stingy, everyone might be able to do it. Going to the Jesus analogy, its like John the Baptist anointing Jesus. Who verified that he anointed the right person, other than John? What gave John the right to anoint Jesus? And why did he pick only one person? Everyone is gated from this teaching and only the 'special one' can be trained (mind you, that special one learnt how to do it by themselves)

Also, while we are on the topic of Jesus. The Jews don't think Jesus fulfilled the prophecy and the Muslems have a different prophecy. Even though they have common books. A lot of what is written about Jesus in the prophetic sense before he turned up is not actually describing anyone. Calling someone "King of Kings" doesn't say anything other than you like Persians. Also, if you want to fulfil on a prophecy, don't you just have to read the book and follow that. Which means that anyone could do it. For example, there were plenty of boys called Jesus (or in Hebrew Joshua) in during Jesus Christ's time.

And the Elder Scrolls have a mechanism where fact checking isn't possible. They can warp peoples mind (or blind them.) You'd have the same problem as the Catholic church had just before the Reformation as information would be locked away and only the message the priest wanted to deliver would be available. That's pretty much why the Crusades happened.

You are right. Some people would follow you. Might original point is that I don't think everyone would.

 

[Chimpzy_v1legacy]

Any game that essentially says "You want a resolution? Well, fuck you, buy the next game then!".

For example, Halo 2.

 

[Saelune]

Just because you say you did something does make that true. Photo or it didn't happen

And your Thaneship? Is that faked? Even though the Jarl him/herself states "I'll inform the guards of your new title. CAN'T HAVE THEM TREATING YOU LIKE THE COMMON RABBLE, CAN I?"

So yea, your fucking JARL told you to show some respect to the guy/girl who's armed to the teeth and wearing pieces of a dragon as armor, and you're going to talk smack to them about lollygagging and sweet rolls? Please.

As for who'll speak for you? How about I summon the actual Heroes of Yore and let a doubter take THEIR word for it. They were there when you shanked Alduin.

Do you think people like Obama? Or Trump or any Clinton. More hate them than like them. Plenty of thier own employees or party member speak poorly. Now that's not guards and thier bakery bullying but close enough. They speak poorly about them on national TV.

You, in Skyrim, are (usually) a foreigner given thaneship, and you think that what a leader says means something. Or some ghosts. That's like saying killing Ulfric will stop the Stormcloacks, or killing Bin Laden will stop Al Qeada. It might have slowed them down but they are still around. Still causing problems or in a new form. Plus the whole point of Elder Scrolls is that everyone is a racists. They aren't going to follow a foreigner thane. Particularly if you just killed their groups' leader.

Let me be clear. Bethsheda didn't do this intentionally. It was lazy programming. I just happen to think it actually very realistic. You expect that when you acting nicely and save people that means you should be respected. I don't think that happens in IRL.. Case in point The World Wars and American "saving" the day. Or almost ever war America has been in since them.

Take samurai as an example. They are in literature as the embodiment of virtue but it was far from the case. They could murder almost anyone if they felt insulted. European were much the same. In other words, If you want respect, don't let those who disrespect you live.

You could make a case for Oblivion, but in Morrowind AND Skyrim, you are a messiah of fate. Not some politician, but literally gifts from the Gods (or Daedric Prince in Morrowind's case). If some guy showed up claiming to be Jesus, sure, people wouldn't give much credit to them...but then they go around curing the sick and lame, and literally performing miracles (or absorbing Dragon Souls), well, even non/alternate religious people would be like "Oh Dang". Sure, you have some like the Dunmer Housecarl who "has seen things just as outlandish as this" but she is an accomplished warrior and adventurer. Most people in Skyrim aren't. Certainly not the guards who were there.

I think bringing back some sort of reputation thing per character like Morrowind had would fix a lot of this. Its one thing to be a stranger in a new town, even if everywhere else your name is sung, but I think actually sucking up a dragon in front of people should atleast make THEM treat you different.

I think Elder Scroll games have become a bit too randomized as part of their lessening quality from Morrowind.

Okay, first. Mages. Can't they cure everyone. Even the priest can. They can also shoot fireballs. FIREBALLS. Is sucking in a soul of a dragon that much different from some of the powers mages have (or vampires), just not on dragons. (Plus Fireballs are way more showy.) Also, the part that makes no sense to me is how the Thu'um is powered by dragon souls but can be passed down to "others with the voice". With no power loss? Otherwise the powers would have depleted long ago, right? Even with the help of a particularly helpful dragon to keep the power going, that makes no sense. So your power is not that unique and if the old boys on the hill weren't so stingy, everyone might be able to do it. Going to the Jesus analogy, its like John the Baptist anointing Jesus. Who verified that he anointed the right person, other than John? What gave John the right to anoint Jesus? And why did he pick only one person? Everyone is gated from this teaching and only the 'special one' can be trained (mind you, that special one learnt how to do it by themselves)

Also, while we are on the topic of Jesus. The Jews don't think Jesus fulfilled the prophecy and the Muslems have a different prophecy. Even though they have common books. A lot of what is written about Jesus in the prophetic sense before he turned up is not actually describing anyone. Calling someone "King of Kings" doesn't say anything other than you like Persians. Also, if you want to fulfil on a prophecy, don't you just have to read the book and follow that. Which means that anyone could do it. For example, there were plenty of boys called Jesus (or in Hebrew Joshua) in during Jesus Christ's time.

And the Elder Scrolls have a mechanism where fact checking isn't possible. They can warp peoples mind (or blind them.) You'd have the same problem as the Catholic church had just before the Reformation as information would be locked away and only the message the priest wanted to deliver would be available. That's pretty much why the Crusades happened.

You are right. Some people would follow you. Might original point is that I don't think everyone would.

Anyone can shout, but it takes a lot of time, effort and skill...to make one shout. The Dragonborn haxors by just stealing knowledge directly from a Dragon's soul. So what takes one person years, or even a lifetime, they do after any dragon fight.

Even though I brought the comparison up, I'm more interested in debating Elder Scrolls lore and history, not real life. It was intended to be a general comparison as best as possible, since you cant 1 for 1 compare our world to Tamriel or Nirn.

Mages and their power, its hard to fully know, because its a case of game mechanics versus the fiction's true reality. Magic is probably a lot harder and more complicated than the games show, since you tend to be a particularly exceptional person in each game. I mean, how do you explain Levitation just disappearing? Hell, Cure Disease isn't even a learnable spell in Skyrim like it was in every game prior.

Ultimately I think TES needs something better than a small list of random lines from passing guards.

 

[Dizchu]

Honestly I can't say that the Mass Effect 3 ending was all that bad, even the original one. I mean it sucked, don't get me wrong. But does it really ruin the entire series? Maybe I just have a good tolerance of shitty endings. I thought Mass Effect 3's revised ending was alright, nothing spectacular but... ehh, it was closure. Honestly the last half hour or so leading up to the ending was one of the best parts of the whole series.

Now, I have said many times before that I love System Shock 2. If it wasn't for Doom it'd be my #1 game. But the ending is terrible. And unlike Mass Effect 3, the intensity doesn't ramp up towards the end. It just kinda... fizzles out. Which is a shame because the rest of the game is so strong.

 

[Zenja]

I do have to question the whole MEIII band-wagon, though. I honestly believe that people are hating on that ending, just because they can, without bothering to understand the game's message. Shepard was an extraordinary example of man-kind. They were the hero that the Citadel races needed when their galaxies came under tremendous threat, and Shepard managed to accomplish the impossible. But in the end, they were just one person. An ultimately insignificant blob of matter in the infinite expanses of space.

The ending was beautiful to me, in that regard. Because it showed that no matter how special Shepard was, and no matter how much that they managed to accomplish in the face of crippling obstacles, they still were not able to change fate by themselves. And there is so much alluding to this message, with all of the focus on making alliances, seeding eternal friendships, and ultimately, relying on a power that exceeded their own, even if it meant making everything leading up to that point largely obsolete.

And I really liked that. It was a humble ending, for a character that was carefully treading the line of immersive character development. My only real criticism, is that they should of expanded on the whole thing more, by showing what Shepard was able to change, even as power was taken from their hands in the end.

No. People hate it because:

2. Directly contradicts what the developer said to our faces
3. Asserts that the main theme of the trilogy is eternal conflict between synthetics and organics, something that was, at best, a background theme
4. Utterly ignores if you managed to broker peace between the Quarians and the Geth
5. All of the choices are utter bullshit for various reasons, within Synthesis taking home the prize for "utterly impossible, Reapers seem to be using magic now"

11. The Refusal ending was whoever green lit the ending throwing a temper tantrum that people didn't like their genius.

I want to just focus on these. GarouxBloodline, it isn't that haters of ME3's ending "don't get" the ending. Your exposition of the ending you offer is a shallow and easily deduced outlook on the story. Very surface level stuff by just looking at the end of the story. 3,4,and 5, on erttheking's list you see inconsistancies in the narrative as a whole. It is a MUCH deeper analysis than yours.

All throughout the series we are told that the Reapers are uncontrollable. It was even a driving part of the plot in 1 with Saren's corruption. The Illusive Man is yet another as attempts at control lead to indoctrination. But Shepard can do it because reasons. Through all 3 games we are fighting against destruction of both organics and synthetics. (This is part of the reason they probably even included sythesis) So destroy is actually a terrible ending both thematically and narratively. As we also look at the fact that synthetics plan to wipe out almost life to keep synthetics from wiping out all life despite the fact that the "young life" may die off by chaos theory and then they did exactly what they tried to prevent. Throughout the games we are told that Promethean's single race hierarchy was their downfall to the Reapers. Synthesis is not only not explained AT ALL, but it also goes against the theme that diversity is a strength. We'll make everyone the same because the enemy about to kill everyone said it is not OK to be different.

Then number 11. Bioware gives no fuck if it shit on its best franchise ever because there are people willing to defend it. Once upon a time Mass Effect sat in my top 3 best game franchises list. Now it probably isn't even in my top 20. It may be in my top 50 but I wouldnt be shocked if it wasn't. (I don't actually keep a list.) The story wasn't perfect and it had fractures in itleading up to it.but so long as the ending was cohesive with the main themes and narrative, those minor fractures could be ignored. But instead the ending was a huge fracture to all previous themes and the narrative to the point it actually contradicts them leaving the entire story just a bunch of broken ideas.

In order for the ending to seem coherent you actually have to ignore, or separate many parts of the story from it. There is nothing wrong with liking it. It can be enjoyable as a fun cheesy space opera where you help Shepard save the galaxy. But let's not pretend its story is too deep for those who disapprove. If you arent the type to enjoy reading the codex, then the ending was probably servicable for you. But if got into the lore that was being built around that game, and/or the game design of multisaves carrying over to a sequel and how far they could take it, 3 was very disappointing. Not because it wasn't possible, but because it was very poorly executed. The series held a ton of potential that was attainable, it just didn't achieve it for me and many others.

 

[ErrrorWayz]

Rage - I rather liked that game, especially the unpredictable enemy movement - the ending was clearly based on the title... and now... no resolution at all, instead, let setup a sequel (which will never be made).

See also, that game I forget the name of with the energy lasso and the score for juggling people system.

 

[Trunkage]

Ultimately I think TES needs something better than a small list of random lines from passing guards.

On that, I can totally agree