Mass Effect 3 Spoiler Thread [Spoiler tag free, beware]

[Paelos]

Good, DA2 was a fucking abomination that shit all over a potentially good new IP.

Plus they pulled everything off Steam.

[Abelian75]

Related news: they were apparently working on a DA2 expansion pack but announced today that it had been cancelled. Something about fans having mis-aligned expectations I'm sure  (in this case that the expansion would be also be garbage).

Wow, and Hawke's just kinda done, then?  (I read that DA3 won't be about him/her)  Man, I was one of the few people that actually kinda liked DA2 (Not THAT much, but I found it amusing, if highly flawed, and liked some of the characters), but it was clearly a prologue setting up Hawke as a protagonist.  So what the hell was the point?  Good lord, Bioware is slipping.

(Don't get me wrong, Hawke wasn't particularly awesome or anything, but damn, that is turning out to be a clumsy as hell series)

[MournelitheCalix]

Hey look, a guy who is better at writing endings than Mac Walters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUqAhKW7498

[Sjofn]

You know, I can get disliking it, I can't quite understand acting like it was a crime against humanity.

[Abelian75]

You know, I can get disliking it, I can't quite understand acting like it was a crime against humanity.

Is "it" ME3's ending, or DA2?

(Possibly a silly question, as obviously neither are literally crimes against humanity, just curious what you meant.)

[Margalis]

So are we taking bets on whether or not there will be paid DLC that "explains" or "clarifies" the ending? (or some PR speak for "oops our bad") And if so is anyone willing to bet against?

[Lakov_Sanite]

So are we taking bets on whether or not there will be paid DLC that "explains" or "clarifies" the ending? (or some PR speak for "oops our bad") And if so is anyone willing to bet against?

At this point that would be a suckers bet.  Even if it wasn't planned before, it is now.

[Sjofn]

You know, I can get disliking it, I can't quite understand acting like it was a crime against humanity.

Is "it" ME3's ending, or DA2?

(Possibly a silly question, as obviously neither are literally crimes against humanity, just curious what you meant.)

DA2. ME3's ending really was a crime against humanity.  

EDIT: Also they've said for ages DA3 was not going to be about Hawke. I honestly didn't really get the vibe s/he was going to be TEH PROTAGONIST going forward, I saw her/his role to basically be in the middle of the shit that set off the mage/templar war, then riding off into the sunset, so the lack of expansion doesn't really bug me aside from "aw, I woulda played it." That said, s/he seemed pretty ripe for being able to slot into stuff forever, given the framed narrative set-up they had for Hawke.

[Tebonas]

Are they trying to play rabid DA2 fans against rabid ME3 haters with this "See, the bad ME3 people killed your DLC"? Because if so, that would be hilariously funny.

[tmp]

I had mixed feelings on:

- Udina's heel turn. That wasn't REALLY a heel turn, since he's always been a dick, but still. I was disappointed that he got Staghelm'd. But I didn't see it coming, either.

I didn't see it coming either because he seemed to act quite decent at the beginning of ME3. And it apparently wasn't REALLY a heel turn but not exactly because he's been a dick -- there's some details on that buried in the second tier codex entries. Apparently he wasn't attempting to kill anyone, but to grab the power from other councillors 'peacefully' in order to get full command of the Citadel fleet, which he was planning to then send to fight for Earth. Cerberus just used that as opportunity to apply its usual Shit Touch to good intentions.

So sure, it was still a dumb plan and it'd be a disaster if it actually worked, but not as much "i'll stab good people in the back because i'm a dick" but more like, he snapped under pressure/out of grief with the Earth reports/whathaveyou. Which is a rather decent motivation that i could maybe even get behind (minus the dumb plan part)

Actually liked that part of the plot after learning it.

[tmp]

other giant peeve was the whole Rannoch ending.

My pet peeve with that one is, that's one spot where the lack of middle dialogue option really stinks. It's mildly annoying in other places, but for that one there's really no rationale why you can't tell the Quarians "hey guys, i'm uploading new code to the geth, stay the fuck away from them or they will fuck you up. But they'll play nice if you do."  And instead it's just either "But, but women and children!" and "Surprise buttsecks!" and the buttsecks is paragon option out of all things

I wouldn't even mind if the quarians went all "fuck you Shepard and your geth too" at that and either suicided in the attack or just took their fleets home off... but it's one of relatively few spots in the game where you can see everyone hold on really tight on their Idiot Balls.

[Sjofn]

I had mixed feelings on:

- Udina's heel turn. That wasn't REALLY a heel turn, since he's always been a dick, but still. I was disappointed that he got Staghelm'd. But I didn't see it coming, either.

I didn't see it coming either because he seemed to act quite decent at the beginning of ME3. And it apparently wasn't REALLY a heel turn but not exactly because he's been a dick -- there's some details on that buried in the second tier codex entries. Apparently he wasn't attempting to kill anyone, but to grab the power from other councillors 'peacefully' in order to get full command of the Citadel fleet, which he was planning to then send to fight for Earth. Cerberus just used that as opportunity to apply its usual Shit Touch to good intentions.

So sure, it was still a dumb plan and it'd be a disaster if it actually worked, but not as much "i'll stab good people in the back because i'm a dick" but more like, he snapped under pressure/out of grief with the Earth reports/whathaveyou. Which is a rather decent motivation that i could maybe even get behind (minus the dumb plan part)

Actually liked that part of the plot after learning it.

I mostly just meant if they were GOING to pick someone to do something like that, it was going to be Udina. 'Cause he's been a dick for the entire series. I did like the reasoning behind it (plus yes, Cerberus is the go to organization if you want something to go to shit, and I always enjoy adding more proof to the pile). I was just a little "aw dammit, why you gotta make Udina the bad guy." It might've gone down better for me if the Good Intentions weren't buried in the codex ... although I guess I wasn't religious about talking to Bailey, so maybe he mentions it?

[Jeff Kelly]

I'm not a professional writer but shouldn't you explain the motivations of key characters in the story and not some hidden codex entry (rethorical question because, yes you obviously should).

It's like only being able to understand the plot and characters of you buy the cliff's notes to the book as well.

[Nightblade]

Lone reaper, capable of decimating an entire fleet can't shoot ONE MAN ON FOOT with his giant red death beam. 

On fighter broke off from the main group.  He was so small he was avoiding their turbolasers.

The reaper could have walked / hovered away pretty easily without stupidly exposing his weak spot, nobody could properly target him.

"A...ahhh have to get closer to shoot... one guy..." *obligatory slow motion scene*

[Sjofn]

That reaper was obviously tired of hearing Harbringer go ON and ON and ON about Shepard. So he figured if HE took out Shepard, he'd get to talk shit to Harbringer about it forever.

EDIT: Ho ho ho, random thing: Jack apparently remembers if you made her do the bubble during the suicide mission and changes a line of dialogue accordingly. 

Goddammit! See! The little touches! They made the game rad!

AND THEN THE END HAPPENS

[Polysorbate80]

Once Udina started being less than a total raging dick to me in that first conversation on the Citadel, I automatically assumed he was up to something.

Plus, making Ashley a Spectre?  C'mon, that bitch doesn't deserve it; more proof he's gone bad worse 

[Merusk]

Lone reaper, capable of decimating an entire fleet can't shoot ONE MAN ON FOOT with his giant red death beam.  

On fighter broke off from the main group.  He was so small he was avoiding their turbolasers.

The reaper could have walked / hovered away pretty easily without stupidly exposing his weak spot, nobody could properly target him.

"A...ahhh have to get closer to shoot... one guy..." *obligatory slow motion scene*

This is my frowny-face for missing a totally lame reference to another Sci-Fi franchise that was awesome until the creator fucked it up.

 

[Sjofn]

Once Udina started being less than a total raging dick to me in that first conversation on the Citadel, I automatically assumed he was up to something.

Plus, making Ashley a Spectre?  C'mon, that bitch doesn't deserve it; more proof he's gone bad worse 

Totally, doesn't he know corpses make terrible Spectres?

[jakonovski]

Once Udina started being less than a total raging dick to me in that first conversation on the Citadel, I automatically assumed he was up to something.

Plus, making Ashley a Spectre?  C'mon, that bitch doesn't deserve it; more proof he's gone bad worse 

Totally, doesn't he know corpses make terrible Spectres?

That's totally not true, Marauder Shields would make an awesome Spectre.

[Sjofn]

Man, every time I see a Marauder now, I think of him. <sniff>

[Simond]

The Animal House version of the ending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG4EyfXOTJ4

[tmp]

I like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZDDC7vhdug version.

which is pretty much nothing but the game's current ending minus the wtf bits. And it works out nicely, like some mentioned earlier in the thread.

[cironian]

Yeah, I like that edit. Except for the rough cuts (which are of course forced by the source material) it's something that I wouldn't have minded to have as an ending.

[Pezzle]

Animal House ending is funny! 

[Paelos]

Animal house ending wins!

[MournelitheCalix]

The Animal House version of the ending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG4EyfXOTJ4

James Vega's epilogue is epic.

[Soulflame]

That is amazing.  Also hilarious.

[luckton]

The Animal House version of the ending: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG4EyfXOTJ4

Samara was offered the job of hosting a syndicated court show by the name of "Sidebar with the Justicar" which she accepted.  Each week, Samara and her cleavage rule on cases as dictated by the Justicar's unwavering code of justice.

 

[Sjofn]

Just in case there was any doubt: Kai Leng, like the Reaper Baby, does not improve upon repeat viewings.

[kildorn]

The entire "so cerberus made infiltrator units! And.. they have SWORDS! And are 90% chicks!" thing is just one of the dumber aspects of that entire side plot. They open with the reveal that Cerberus is semi indoctrinating all of it's troops.. and then don't go anywhere with that knowledge. Even the big reveal that they're force indoctrinating people to make troopers is played out as "and they already left, so you get no real reveal about how terrible they are"

Cerberus' entire plotline in 3 just seems to be an attempt to give you a reason to talk to TIM.

[Sjofn]

The swords thing is so fucking duuuuuuumb.

[murdoc]

So are we taking bets on whether or not there will be paid DLC that "explains" or "clarifies" the ending? (or some PR speak for "oops our bad") And if so is anyone willing to bet against?

To Mass Effect 3 players, from Dr. Ray Muzyka, co-founder of BioWare



As co-founder and GM of BioWare, I’m very proud of the ME3 team; I personally believe Mass Effect 3 is the best work we’ve yet created. So, it’s incredibly painful to receive feedback from our core fans that the game’s endings were not up to their expectations. Our first instinct is to defend our work and point to the high ratings offered by critics – but out of respect to our fans, we need to accept the criticism and feedback with humility.

I believe passionately that games are an art form, and that the power of our medium flows from our audience, who are deeply involved in how the story unfolds, and who have the uncontested right to provide constructive criticism. At the same time, I also believe in and support the artistic choices made by the development team.  The team and I have been thinking hard about how to best address the comments on ME3’s endings from players, while still maintaining the artistic integrity of the game.

Mass Effect 3 concludes a trilogy with so much player control and ownership of the story that it was hard for us to predict the range of emotions players would feel when they finished playing through it.  The journey you undertake in Mass Effect provokes an intense range of highly personal emotions in the player; even so, the passionate reaction of some of our most loyal players to the current endings in Mass Effect 3 is something that has genuinely surprised us. This is an issue we care about deeply, and we will respond to it in a fair and timely way. We’re already working hard to do that.

To that end, since the game launched, the team has been poring over everything they can find about reactions to the game – industry press, forums, Facebook, and Twitter, just to name a few. The Mass Effect team, like other teams across the BioWare Label within EA, consists of passionate people who work hard for the love of creating experiences that excite and delight our fans.  I’m honored to work with them because they have the courage and strength to respond to constructive feedback.

Building on their research, Exec Producer Casey Hudson and the team are hard at work on a number of game content initiatives that will help answer the questions, providing more clarity for those seeking further closure to their journey. You’ll hear more on this in April.  We’re working hard to maintain the right balance between the artistic integrity of the original story while addressing the fan feedback we’ve received.  This is in addition to our existing plan to continue providing new Mass Effect content and new full games, so rest assured that your journey in the Mass Effect universe can, and will, continue.

The reaction to the release of Mass Effect 3 has been unprecedented. On one hand, some of our loyal fans are passionately expressing their displeasure about how their game concluded; we care about this feedback, and we’re planning to directly address it. However, most folks appear to agree that the game as a whole is exceptional, with more than 75 critics giving it a perfect review score and a review average in the mid-90s. Net, I’m proud of the team, but we can and must always strive to do better.

Some of the criticism that has been delivered in the heat of passion by our most ardent fans, even if founded on valid principles, such as seeking more clarity to questions or looking for more closure, for example – has unfortunately become destructive rather than constructive. We listen and will respond to constructive criticism, but much as we will not tolerate individual attacks on our team members, we will not support or respond to destructive commentary.

If you are a Mass Effect fan and have input for the team – we respect your opinion and want to hear it. We’re committed to address your constructive feedback as best we can. In return, I’d ask that you help us do that by supporting what I truly believe is the best game BioWare has yet crafted. I urge you to do your own research: play the game, finish it and tell us what you think. Tell your friends if you feel it’s a good game as a whole. Trust that we are doing our damndest, as always, to address your feedback.  As artists, we care about our fans deeply and we appreciate your support.

Thank you for your feedback – we are listening.

Ray

http://blog.bioware.com/2012/03/21/4108/

[Sjofn]

WHO CARES MY MANSHEP AND KAIDAN HAVE FINALLY HOOKED UP, BITCHES

[Fabricated]

"We respect our fans' feedback, but seriously we paid some good money for these 100/100 and 10/10 scores, I mean look at them. Nevermind that none of the reviewers really reached the end, but still, the REVIEWS. Why the fuck won't you respect the REVIEWS!?"

[kildorn]

I liked the "we're making more ME games, fyi" plug in there. But it wouldn't hurt for them to expand a bit on the whys instead of the stupid kid leaving it up to everyone to take their own message away from it all.