Mass Effect 3

[Jax]

Just finished it and at first I was worried since it takes ages for any extended scenes to happen but by the end WOW, if only the game avoided all that hassle by launching with this content in the game. I choose the control option and I loved the expanded dialogue with the star child and especially the expanded epilogue bit...

Fantastic, almost perfect

[Steven]

After watching the Control and Synthesis endings... am I the only one that thought the voice overs during those montages were a tad creepy?

[PsychoPere]

The Synthesis voice-over didn't bother me, though during the Control one I found myself thinking that it was merely a matter of time before Shepard would forget who and what he once was and simply start imposing his own will on the galaxy via the Reapers, thus becoming a new Catalyst.

[TheGodBen]

Steven wrote:

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After watching the Control and Synthesis endings... am I the only one that thought the voice overs during those montages were a tad creepy?

I just redid the ending for my second, mostly renegade, Shep and she picked control... it was terrifying. This is a woman who killed the Rachni Queen in cold blood. This is the woman that murdered Samara, then murdered Samara's daughter. This is the woman who insulted Tali repeatedly in ME1, betrayed her in ME2, knowingly sent her to her death during the suicide mission, and chose to wipe out the entire Quarian race because of that grudge. She is a monster.

And I just gave her control over a fleet of unstoppable warships.

What's more, after killing Wrex in ME1, causing Eve to die by destroying Maelon's research, and curing the genophage, the finale epilogue slides showed that Wreav was raising a Krogan army, presumably to exact revenge on the rest of the galaxy.

While the slideshow is a little cheap, it does the job of making the various endings feel different. My first Shep's epilogue was bittersweet, forcing me to dwell on some of the more questionable decisions I made, but with the knowledge that civilisation had survived and the races were now united. My second Shep's epilogue... completely different.

PsychoPere wrote:

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Speaking of bullshit, did anyone else roll their eyes at the Catalyst's expanded description of Synthesis? It says that it had tried similar solutions in the past, but theorized each attempt had failed because the outcome had been forced upon the species in question. It says that Shepard can make the choice - except that Shepard is then acting in the Catalyst's stead, and still forcing that outcome on the species of this cycle. There's no difference.

Yeah, they just tried to handwave away the moral implications of forcing synthesis on every living being in the galaxy with that one. "It can't work if the people aren't ready, but it will work so the people must be ready."

[Jono]

I'm struggling to get to the end. I've got up to Earth but I'm finding that it seems more of a chore than anything else at the moment. I also expected more for 1.9 GB than what I've seen so far, which isn't helping

[STR]

TheGodBen wrote:

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Yeah, they just tried to handwave away the moral implications of forcing synthesis on every living being in the galaxy with that one. "It can't work if the people aren't ready, but it will work so the people must be ready."

It wouldn't solve a damn thing anyway. People may accept the new fusion, but that doesn't mean it will change what their priorities will be on Monday. Aria will still slaughter anyone and everyone to get back Omega (though, I'm betting we'll get to see that pre-epilogue as DLC). So what if she glows green and has a new appreciation for the Geth? Synthesis just means that organic and synthetic can develop new ways of killing each other at the same rate. It doesn't change anything, aside from obsoleting night lights.

[Reverend]

^Well, it might mean that people will no longer discriminate so much between synthetic and organic when killing, but yeah, I can't see it working in the long run.

Mind you, there was something mentioned of being "linked" to each other and the civilizations in reaper form, so perhaps the change does affect how people think and feel by creating sympathetic mental connections. Somewhere between indoctrination (though without the imposition of control) and the way the Geth shared data.

Don't get me wrong, I still favour high EMS Destroy as the "best" ending and the one most likely to become canon, but I think there was more to synthesis than giving everyone green glowing eyes.

[Crazy Eddie]

PsychoPere wrote:

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We have no way of knowing what other unshackled Reapers would do, because we have no other instances of there being an uncontrolled Reaper. But since we know each Reaper was once a species that was harvested by other Reapers to be created into a new Reaper (i.e., "preserving the species"), there's also no reason for us to automatically assume that most Reapers, if uncontrolled by the Catalyst and able to act upon free will once again, would choose to perpetuate an organics versus synthetics cycle. This possibility is enough for me to call "bullshit" on the Catalyst's blind belief that organics and synthetics will always want to destroy one another.

I'm not saying the Catalyst is right. I'm saying he BELIEVES he is right with as much certainty as, say, the Salarian Dalartrass believed that the resurgent Krogen would butcher the galaxy, or earlier, that Wrex believed the Rachni would rise up again and menace the entire galaxy. It's an educated assumption based on past experiences, but depending on the circumstances that assumption may have varying degrees of accuracy.

At the end of the day, though, what the Catalyst believes need not have anything to do with what actually is. Even if he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about -- which he doesn't -- he's still holding all the cards, and he's really just one last hoop that needs to be jumped through in order to resolve the conflict.

Speaking of bullshit, did anyone else roll their eyes at the Catalyst's expanded description of Synthesis? It says that it had tried similar solutions in the past, but theorized each attempt had failed because the outcome had been forced upon the species in question. It says that Shepard can make the choice - except that Shepard is then acting in the Catalyst's stead, and still forcing that outcome on the species of this cycle. There's no difference.

Again, the simpler explanation is that the Catalyst has NO IDEA why Synthesis failed before and has only a vague understanding of how this entire process is going to work. The only thing for sure is that the Catalyst would prefer not to have the reapers destroyed, but for whatever reason he can't really control them (he can only sort of redirect their focus in a specific direction) nor can he trigger synthesis on his own. The most obvious reason for this is that the Catalyst is actually a projection of one of the Reapers -- probably Harbinger -- and can't use the Crucible to affect the Reapers for the same reason a human being can't safely incubate the plague: it would begin to affect him LONG before it could affect anyone else and then the circuit would be broken.

[Crazy Eddie]

TheGodBen wrote:

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I just redid the ending for my second, mostly renegade, Shep and she picked control... it was terrifying. This is a woman who killed the Rachni Queen in cold blood. This is the woman that murdered Samara, then murdered Samara's daughter. This is the woman who insulted Tali repeatedly in ME1, betrayed her in ME2, knowingly sent her to her death during the suicide mission, and chose to wipe out the entire Quarian race because of that grudge. She is a monster.

And I just gave her control over a fleet of unstoppable warships.

Sort of dovetails with that conversation with Garrus where they're talking about how sometimes the galaxy just needs some sort of dictator who can get shit done and not have to worry about the consequences. If you're playing Shepard that far into the renegade category, you're basically playing Grand Theft Galaxy, and taking control of the Reapers is your moment of Ultimate Gangsta.

Which is the cool thing about Mass Effect, isn't it? Shepard can be a paragon of virtue or a complete asshole who just happens to get things done. The implications for the final ending should reflect this in a philosophical sense: in your case, the new paradigm is that everyone -- particularly the Krogan -- will have to mind their manners from now on or less Ultimate Badass and Reaper War Godess Shepard will come and spank them into the dark ages.

[Darth_Daver]

Just finished EC (with reject, then destroy on reload), then watched all the endings on youtube. I still don't *like* the endings (anything with space magic...), but at least now they make sense within the boundaries of the story. Then again why couldn't we get these endings back in March? And I'm not talking about the plus few minutes of video, but the fact that
a. the mass relays don't explode
b. joker doesn't run off
c. normandy doesn't crash...

[Reverend]

^In a word? Time. It's pretty self evident that they ran out of time on this game and a lot of it was rushed or unfinished. We know for a fact that the pre-beam bit where the Normandy picks up your squadmates was in there originally, but cut out for time and it's a fair bet that certain other elements are restored content.

[Hartzilla2007]

I have a question about the Asari Matriarch Writings mission.

Do I have to track down all 16 of them to get Conrad's war asset or do I just need the 10 needed to complete the side quest?

[Reverend]

I'm pretty sure getting the minimum required to complete the side mission is sufficient, since that's what toggles the plot flag.

[Jono]

Finally finished it. Went Synth and then destroy and watched the others on Youtube (Bioware's disabling of skipping in the last section made my mind up).

The is a bit more explanation, which was mainly okay and some nice new cutscenes. I liked that instead of just having the same 3 people appear when you make your choice it varies and my romance option now actually got to appear. That said I'm still a bit miffed about how kind of second hand it all is if you stick with a ME2 companion.

I do wish they added back in Anderson's cut dialogue before he dies, it makes the moment so much bigger.

I do like that we got to see how the squad mates escaped. But Joker is off my Christmas card list for not even attempting to provide support fire for Hammer's efforts. As someone mentioned it is odd that Harbinger just looks at the Normandy and doesn't do anything.

The scene where they put Sheps name on the list of the dead is good, but the fact it says "Commander Shepard" made me shake my head. Apparently they liked me but not enough to know my first name.

Finally, I like that the breath scene stayed. Throw in the fact they didn't do anything to make Anderson's appearance on the Citadel make any sense and I'm still doubtful about whether it was actually real. That said, I am quite happy with the destroy ending now there is some context as to what you actually got for your actions.

I also noticed an funny coincidence. In the slideshow at the end when you see Coats and co looking over plans for rebuilding the guy on the left looks a lot like my Shep. Even more proof that my Shep is not dead!

[Reverend]

While I agree, the Normandy being able to land in the middle of all that feels very odd, I think it can be (barely) justified. Right at the moment, Harbinger was too busy keeping everyone away from the beam, so there was no reason for it to attack Normandy, unless it posed a direct threat (like say, if it took a pot shot with the thanix cannons.) It might also be worth noting that other wounded soldiers were being brought up the ramp, so it's not as if it landed *just* to pick up Shepard's squadmates.

It still could have been handled better though. Like say a mention in the mission briefing that it'd be on station for med-evac. The theory being that it's the only ship small enough to land in close and tough enough to take a direct hit from a reaper beam weapon and live.

Of course, just about everything from killing Kai Leng onwards could have been handled better. I'm also still having a hard time figuring out how the EC managed to take up more memory than LotSB. I was half expecting to see new additions in the for of support based on past decisions (rachni, elcor, Jack's students etc.) Until the beam, I was getting a little worried that the DLC hadn't installed properly.