You know, the paranoid conspiracy theorist in me can't help but wonder if this was something Bioware had planned on. I mean no-one who knows their work can believe that they let that ending out the door totally unaware of how broken it was, yes? With that in mind perhaps they figured that no matter what they did, there'd be an outcry and a backlash so why not just wait and see what the major complaints are *before* fixing it. If so then it'd be the largest focus group session in video game history. On the other hand maybe there's some BtS politics going on between EA and Bioware and they used this situation to prove a point. There have been a lot of reports of publishers mistreating their developers in the last few years and I wonder if this was Bioware's way of gaining some "I told you so, now leave us the hell alone" type leverage for the future. Take any and all of that with as much salt as desired. Like I said; it's just my inner paranoid conspiracy theoristat work. From day one, my hopes for an ending DLC could be summed up in three words. Little. Blue. Children. I don't mind if that outcome is sodding difficult (it wouldn't feel rewarding if it was easy) and I'm totally OK if 75% of all outcomes has Shepard dying regardless of what happens to everyone else, but IMO that light at the end of the tunnel always needed to be there...and not be an oncoming train. But yes, the option to have some more in depth dialogue with the catalyst would be most welcome. At the very least if you've encouraged EDI and saved the Geth you should be able to call bullshit on his "the created will always turn on the creators" line. I also *really* want them to restore those Anderson death scene lines. I wonder exactly what "a save file before the endgame" actually means. If they mean before the Cronos Station mission (where they dump you after the credits) then my expectations are in danger of being exceeded. If they also decide to cut out that useless turret sequence between talking to Garrus and Liara in London then all may be forgiven...well, almost all.
I'll help fuel your inner conspiracy theorist. After Muzyka's blog post, the people running the game's official Twitter feed were insisting that the April announcement was not a reaction to the fan backlash, that it had already been planned pre-launch. I think, but can't recall with certainty, that Community Manager Jessica Merizan was saying the same. Now, however, we've got the official press release; we've got a blog post; we've got the CM and one of the producers all saying that this announcement is a response to fan concerns and that DLC development priorities had to be shifted around to accommodate this "Extended Cut." Now, the most sensible answer, of course, is that the people running the Twitter feed simply weren't given accurate information, but that's not as fun as me adding a tidbit of fuel to your paranoia.
^I think the most likely scenario is that they originally did have something *else* planned to announce in April (and may yet do so) but the decision to push that back in favour of putting all the ending hoopla to bed was only made recently. Or, the PR people were simply told not to say so, or indeed weren't told at all. They did say in the recent press release that they've had to re-prioritise in the wake of the backlash, no?
True. I think I've read on someone's feed (Gamble, maybe?) that there won't be any other announcements this month, so I wouldn't be surprised if we end up hearing about, say, "Retake Omega" a few months down the road.
In other news: [yt]www.youtube.com/watch?v=BasebmHiqIo[/yt] Two words. Krogan. Vanguard. That is all.
This is a smart move. I imagine it would be hard to convince many people to purchase the "Retake Omega" DLC with that shitty ending waiting for ya
Ok.......The Extended Cut I can understand it being free, it pretty much had to be. But this? EA.....is that you?
It makes more sense than you might think. If they don't keep adding new content then pretty soon the MP servers will be deserted and they won't get anymore revenue from micro-transactions--yeah, believe it or not, there are people paying *actual* money for the in-game booster packs--or be able to attract used game owners to buy online passes. It's well timed too It's about a month since launch and from what I gather this is the time where most MP games see a significant drop in players. By gradually opening up new content and keeping up the bi-weekly challenges they're doing their best to keep their customers interested. On the other hand, it might just be this first one that's free and the rest they plan on charging for. If they do then IMO it'd be a *huge* mistake. ME3 MP is fun, but they don't have nearly the kind of customer base to be able to get away with charging for additional content. Micro-transactions for those that don't want to grind is the only way they'll make any money off this. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they don't want to release anything substantial with the ending fiasco still hanging over everything. Not that this will eliminate it entirely, but it's bound cut it down to just the vocal die-hards. *selects new topic on the dialogue wheel* I started a third playthrough the other day, this time with my "pure paragon" sentinel femShep and I am officially annoyed...at something Bioware got RIGHT! What am I talking about? Kaiden. Lieutenant Major Boring-pants himself. Why am I annoyed? Because his scenes are well written and satisfying. Bastard. Now see, going right back to ME1 I was a big fan of Ash, so I was happy to see her back on the team...but then she opens her mouth and all I get is irrational suspicion. You get the same from Kaiden but at least he's not being an arse about it. Again. Bastard. Of course what I'm really irritated about is the way Ash was handled in ME3. In ME1 she was my Shep's best friend on the ship. A sister in arms if you will. In ME3, even after you *finally* get her on board the Normandy she's still pretty distant. Almost aloof. she hardly seems to interact with the other crew much, you get only two (IIRC) actual conversations out of her before London. I wanted to see her back down in the armoury, chewing out Vega for making a mess of the job (she is the XO, no?) I wanted to see her getting drunk with Tali at the bar. It's just one of those things that makes me think they were forced to par down a *lot* of content, just to get the core missions out the door on time. I gather it's not much better if you're a male Shep who romanced her. Just a few extra lines of dialogue, plus the love scene. [/rant] In other news, just to test if gibbed's new (though still WIP) save editor works, I imported my main femShep for a newgame-plus. I had so much fun playing as a Lv57 in the early missions that I lost all track of time and played clear through to recruiting Garrus. Using the Falcon AR against hordes of husks on the Turian moon was hilarious! Especially when you get the hang of bouncing shots off the floor and around obstetrical. In my first playthough I got that gun so late I never really bothered to use it, now I think it's my new favourite.
Not going to quote your post, Reverend, but yeah, Ashley's writing in ME3 is even more disappointing for those of us who romanced her (and considered her their primary romance ).
Doing my first "Ashley is alive" ME3 playthrough right now and she's still in the hospital right now, but I'm curious, where is she located when she's on board the Normandy later? In the "Samara Lounge" just like Kaidan? Alternatively I was thinking they would put her in Life Support, or the "Thane Memorial Room" as I call it. Actually I guess it's my second Ashley playthough, I had been doing a renegade vanguard Sheploo who was romancing her but sort of ended up abandoning that one because of the charge/nova gameplay being stupidly easy and I always feel less motivated when I'm playing a jerk. I may end up just watching some of the ME3 renegade's greatest hits on youtube or something.
I guess I'm fortunate that my "main" Shepard's only love interest across all three games was Liara. By all accounts hers was the best handled of all of them. I mean which other LI let's you meet your potential future father-in-law? OK, Miranda, but Jim from Neighbours doesn't count because Miranda kills the bastard. ...I guess you do get to see a potential future sister-in-law if you romance Ash, but again, nothing of substance happens. You don't really meet her and she doesn't say anything. You know, this occurred to me the other day; a *lot* of ME characters have seriously screwed up family issues in general and father issues in particular. Let's see...Ash: daddy *and* granddaddy issues. Liara: absentee father (until ME3) and estranged mother. Wrex: very old father issues. Garrus: disapproving father issues. Jacob: unnecessarily weird father issues. Miranda: 'nuff said. Jack: orphan who has more personal issues than she has tattoos. Thane: is himself a "father issue". Samara: Morinth. Morinth: Samara. Grunt: Okeer...I suppose. Bit of a stretch though. Did I miss any? Oh, I suppose to cap it all off there's the whole Father daughter/son relationship that Anderson ans Shepard suddenly acquire at the last minute...well acted and everything, but it felt a bit sudden. Yes, Ash ends up in the same lounge area that Samara & Morinth were in...which I felt was a bit of an odd choice as it only adds to the feeling that she's isolating herself in there. Speaking of the life support room, I did find it a bit odd that they never used that space for anything, besides finding one of the model ships. They didn't even change it much from ME2 besides cover up the window. Saving it for a future DLC squadmate perhaps?
Somehow I *completely* missed Matriach Aethyta in my first playthrough, so I'm definitely looking forward to meeting the "father-in-law" on my current engineer FemShep that's romancing Liara. I find it kind of hilarious that the ME2 armory has been blocked off in ME3. A room that was home to a character so boring, it's not even worthy of existing anymore...
^It would have been even funnier if Jacob was still in there. Just imagine: a bloke so dull and unmemorable that they walled him up without realizing. ..to be fair though, looking at the map, a good chunk of what used to be the armoury is where the war room now resides. One assumes the walled up part is where most of the war room's the support gear was housed.
I FINALLY finished the game for the first time today. It was tough avoiding spoilers since the ending is talked about on all the sites I seem to go to! And I gotta say, I'm not sure if I was expecting the worst thing I've ever seen in my life or what, but nothing really bothered me about the end at all. I'm glad it wasn't an ending where everything worked out perfectly, I'm glad there were negative ramifications (stranded aliens, etc? Yup, sacrifices had to be made, they all knew that going in), but there's still that bit of hope when Joker crashed (them being in a mass relay never once crossed my mind, Normandy can travel faster than light without it). I have few complaints, I enjoyed the series and am itching to get back at it with my renegade Shep!
So, before I actually read the thread and see what people have to say, I wanted to say something about the ending... it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd heard. Like... at all. Kinda confusing? Has some issues? Sure, absolutely. I'm bummed of course that Shepard has to die and she won't get to retire and have little blue babies with Liara (I'm assuming all three choices end in Shep's death, I went with "Synthesis"), but it was definitely a wrapped-up ending. Why was Normandy in mid-jump, how did EDI get back on board, did I see Liara come out at the end (highly unlikely for my Shepard since she was on the final run and presumably got vaporized with Ash)? Still... the game was so amazing overall that those seem like quibbles. Maybe I just heard so much bitching (though fortunately not spoilers) I was prepared for something even worse? Ok, willread the thread
^Congratulations to both of you for avoiding spoilers this long, I know I had a hell of a time and I'm glad I managed it. While you're both right that the ending wasn't *that* bad, in and of itself, if you read through the thread you'll quickly pick up on the main complaints. Of course this being the internet, the fuss kicked up got blown way out of proportion, both by the usual over enthusiastic fans and trolls and oddly by the gaming press which appears to be split between supporting the complaints and complaining about the fact that people complained, as apparently it threatened the future of the gaming and possibly civilization as we know it, depending on who you listen to. Bottom line though. You know the ending you saw? It's the same one everyone else saw. *Nothing* you did mattered in the end. All that mattered was your effective military strength and which colour you liked best...that's all. All the endings are 90% the same. [Edit] This just in from Angry Joe. [yt]www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai_9LTcwYic[/yt]
Tali, whose dad loved her enough to rebuild geth and get killed by them? I didn't think it was so much "sudden" as "retrograde". ME1 kinda had that feeling, but ME2, during their brief interactions on the Citadel, had more of a "brothers in arms" feeling. You're not the only one - I manged to miss her too. With my FemShep who romanced Liara. It is nice to have confirmation of everybody's theory from ME2, though.
I am reading that people are expecting DLCs similar to what we got with the first two games. I don't think this is likely. EA's CEO is big on microtransactions, and microtranactions can only happen with multiplayer. I think EA is going to follow Activision's lead in that they will release more multiplayer maps and packs to go with these maps for the Mass Effect series. And, I think that if there are more games in the franchise, they will be more like CoD or Battlefield. I believe we are in the era where if you want to play the truly innovative and imaginative games you need to seek out the smaller video game developers. As for Bioware, I think the writing is on the wall. Bioware is on a decline, and I don't think the people in charge are capable of pulling the company out of its tailspin.
EA was happy enough to do standard DLC for ME2 and both Dragon Age games. I don't see why they wouldn't let that continue. There's no reason they can't do both. Heck, that would probably be better for EA; I suspect that the sets of purchasers of each type of DLC will be generally disjoint.