You and I are in a rare minority, friend. I finished the game last week and had no problems at all with the ending Bioware gave us. I have no problems calling ME3 the best SP experience I've played this generation even with the ending as it is
I agree ME3 is the best game of this generation and while I don't hate the endings as much as others there is something that does continue to bug me. From what were hearing, this wasn't Bioware's ending but Casey Hudson's who seemingly cut out everyone else and didn't even put the ending through the peer checks the rest of the story went through. I like the idea of an advanced AI creating the Reapers, the cycle designed to allow younger races to mature + keep AI from wiping us out...However bad idea to blow up the relays in the blue ending (most likely canon ending) and Shepard/Starchild convo needed to be expanded upon a lot more.
As far as I can tell, that theory amounts to little more than rumour and hearsay. Indeed I think the ME writer who's supposed to have come out with this has denied saying any such thing.
Regardless, for me at least, the main fault with the ending is the same fault I see in the rest of the game: execution. I'm sure I'm repeating myself but the more I play the game the more I see it. They had a *lot* of ideas and aspirations for this game that they just didn't have the time for, or were shoved in at the last minute.
Allers is a good example. An embedded Alliance reporter on the Normandy is a great idea with a *lot* of potential, even if she MUST be a love interest. But the execution is *awful*. Nevermind the half-arsed stunt casting, the accompanying bad acting, or the fact that they decided to create a totally new character rather than reuse a perfectly good existing one--*cough*Emily Wong*cough*--the fact remains that the character adds
nothing whatsoever to the story. Aside from adding some minor bonus points to the war assets (which are totally meaningless in themselves anyway), she has no impact on the game or Shepard, whether you romance her or not.
They could have had her interviewing other characters onboard the ship or just casually hanging out (boob pun not intended) in the mess hall. The could have actually given her her own subplot and some kind of meaningful character arc like the other LI's, but all she does is stand around the cargo bay and occasionally chat with Traynor...over the intercom. Now we know Bioware is perfectly capable of doing these things
It's not just writing either, but on the nuts and bolts side too. Look at the character animation and how well done certain key scenes are, like the boxing match with Vega, or Liara's romance conversations. Then look at the walking animations and...well,
moments like this basically. You can see there's a *huge* variance the the quality of work which to me means that a lot of the game is essentially unfinished.
I can only speculate that at some point there's must have been a triage process (for lack of a better term) where the most effort was put into the "big" scenes and the rest of the game was only brought up to a certain level of acceptability. The over reliance on the Zaeed/Kasumi "poke to talk" conversation are a bit of a give away.
I could go on about the bare bones fetch quests, there only being one "hub world" after having 3 in the previous game or the lazy arse way they "finally" revealed Tali's face, but to get back to my original point; the ending has the same problem as all of the above. They didn't spend the time that was needed to give the game a proper ending and save for a few key bits, it was all done at a rush. Indeed, I'd be willing to bet they specifically designed all of the endings to be 99% the same as a time/money saving measure.
If it really was changed at the 11th hour and without peer review then I'm sure that the reason was because it was done because Hudson and Walters believed it to be the only way to get the game out on time. While it's understandable from a business standpoint, it's a cardinal sin from a creative one. It also means that any defence of the ending based on the claim of "artistic integrity" is inherently bogus.
Of course it's all speculation on my part, so make of it what you will.
EA voted worst company in America over ME3's ending? Really!?!
No, EA was voted that because they're a shitty company, the fact that it aligned with the controversy over ME3's ending was just icing on the cake. EA created the online pass, they push for day one DLC, they've started to require always-on internet connections for singleplayer games, they've started banning people for modding singleplayer games, they have a track record of acquiring popular studios and running them into the ground, and they try to nickle and dime their customers in whatever way they can get away with. Are they the worst company in the world? No, there are far worse, but that doesn't mean that EA isn't a shitty company as well.
Compared to the likes of AT&T who are trying to rebuild their monopoly by outright lying to the federal government, Bank of America (and other banks) who actively ruined people's lives by handing out loans like they were candy and nickel and diming customers, and the various cable company monopolies like Comcast and Time Warner, EA's in the bush leagues. I'd argue EA's not even the worst video game company, an honor that solidly belongs to Activision IMO. The fact that EA got voted worst company in America only proves that a bunch of self-entitled nerds were more pissed off about their video games and were too ignorant to consider issues that actually matter like the state of our financial institutions or healthcare.
Obviously calling EA the worst company in the US (or anywhere else) is a massive overstatement. They're just an
entertainment company for goodness sake!
They may treat their customers like brainless bags of shite and have the worst reputation in the video games industry but last time I checked they don't dump toxic waste in water supplies, suppress beneficial technological advancements that threaten short term profits, sell overpriced/unsafe/unnecessary pharmaceuticals to people that can't afford them, ship weapons to oppressive dictatorships or exploit child labour in third world countries...They make video games.
The reality is that the "worst" companies in the world are mostly one's you've never ever heard of...that is until they do something that lands them in the news.
