Mass Effect 3
- Thread starter PsychoPere
- Start date
^According to this very vague and somewhat confusing statement, it sounds like they have altered the EMS thresholds to make it easier to get the so-called "optimum" ending. Now that might just mean they've lowered the requirement for not burning Earth to a crisp and/or unlocking the synthesis path. It might also mean they fiddled with the numbers somehow to make it possible to get the "N7 breath scene" without boosting the EMS.
If it's the former it won't affect me since in my playthough I already achieved those and if it's the latter...well that probably won't matter either since my EMS is sat around the 80-90% mark. That plus I'm in the midst of replaying my main Shepard.
Not so much for the ending DLC but because I encountered a few glitches in my first playthough that meant I didn't complete several side missions properly. I couldn't care less about the various fetch quests, but I kinda want the Kasumi, Aria and Conrad missions done properly, even knowing it probably won't make a difference.
[EDIT]
Mike Gamble to the rescue.
If it's the former it won't affect me since in my playthough I already achieved those and if it's the latter...well that probably won't matter either since my EMS is sat around the 80-90% mark. That plus I'm in the midst of replaying my main Shepard.
Not so much for the ending DLC but because I encountered a few glitches in my first playthough that meant I didn't complete several side missions properly. I couldn't care less about the various fetch quests, but I kinda want the Kasumi, Aria and Conrad missions done properly, even knowing it probably won't make a difference.
[EDIT]
Mike Gamble to the rescue.
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Heh, read the posts after that one. Several people call them out on the EMS adjustment since they (apparently) said that all the content would be accessible through the single-player alone when the game was first released. Except that it wasn't (*).
The revised/enhanced/whatever ending is just going to be one piece of the fun. The internet reaction will be the other piece.
* I actually did tally up all the war assets to try and figure out the best possible total. I think I got a total in the range of 3700 to 3800 after the 50% penalty. Which is just short of the "N7 breath scene".
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But you have to keep in mind that this was their ending, they may have been forced to rush certain elements of it but they thought that the star child, the organic/synthetic conflict, synthesis, the destruction of the relays, and the crash on the jungle planet were the best way to end the story. There's a whole host of problems in that last ten minutes and they either didn't notice them or they didn't feel the need to address them. There's no reason to believe that they're capable or willing to see those problems now.
That being said, I remain optimistic that the extended cut will be "good enough".
Yeah as long as I have the ability to get a some what happy ending if I play my cards right like in Mass Effect 2 I'll be happy.
Guh. Just give a number. Why are they being so coy with this anyway?
But if the rumours are true and the only way to achieve that ending is to kill off the Geth, what will you do then?
Casey Hudson said in an interview -
http://www.gamezone.com/products/ma...e-everybody-happy-some-feedback-not-addressed
http://www.gamezone.com/products/ma...e-everybody-happy-some-feedback-not-addressed
Hudson is an egotistical fool. Rumours are that he alone wrote the ending completely which is probably why he's being such a stubborn arse about the very idea of changing it.Casey Hudson said in an interview -
http://www.gamezone.com/products/ma...e-everybody-happy-some-feedback-not-addressed
That is a bold faced lie you did have any problem writing such an ending for Mass Effect 2.
But if the rumours are true and the only way to achieve that ending is to kill off the Geth, what will you do then?
Kill the sodding geth and make a fortune selling novelty desk lamps? I can't help it if the writers use some contrived space magic BS to try shoe-horn in a moral dilemma into what would otherwise be a no-brainer.
On a completely different topic; something occurred to me while replaying today. Just after I'd done the Asari monastery mission, I went back in the citadel to talk to both Samara & Javik at the embassies and something Samara said made me wonder (just having spoken to Javik probably made this jump out more) were the Justicar code established by the Protheans? Obviously this never occurred to me on the first playthough since you don't discover the Prothean/Asari connection until a bit later, but in hindsight it feels very plausible. There's something about the way Samara speaks and acts. The strict, ruthless doctrine, the merciless discipline, the black and white view of morality...very Prothean.
It has recently occurred to me that the running theme throughout Mass Effect 3 is the idea of unification between two intractable enemies -- and the mutual redemption of both -- triggered by the martyrdom of a major character. It's hard to get this concept, depending on some of the choices you made, but the "unification" scenarios seem to be:
Tuchanka:
Mordin sacrifices himself to cure the Genophage, which allows Eve to lead the Krogan out of their barbaric rut and rejoin the intergalactic community with the Salarians and the Turians (Eve doesn't count as a sacrifice because 1) she's not a major character and 2) her sacrifice means nothing if MORDIN doesn't put his ass on the line to spread the cure).
This is also echoed by Lieutenant Victus doing the bomb jump, killing himself in the process of saving a Krogan city and preventing a war between the Krogan and the Turians.
Rannoch:
If you do things right, Legion winds up sacrificing himself to reunite the Quarians and the Geth, resulting in the Geth achieving sentience and the Quarians getting their planet back.
The conflict between the Geth and the Quarians was centuries old, and the Genophage had plagued the Krogan for over a millennia. Compared to those two conflicts, the war against the Reapers is just a flash-in-the-pan, but it is still resolved the same way: the war's greatest hero makes a sacrifice and -- somehow -- unites the two warring factions (e.g. the Synthesis/Control endings).
This being mass effect, you also have the option to AVOID reunification and completely screw over one faction or the other; thus, on Tuchanka you can go ahead and cure the genophage even without Eve (or better yet, Wrex) being there to keep the Krogan in line; under Wreav's leadership, the resurgent Krogan are pretty much gauranteed to tear the Salarians a new asshole once the reapers are dealt with. On the flip side, you can screw the Krogans by giving them a fake cure and dooming them to eventual extinction.
On Rannoch it's even simpler: you can throw the Geth under a bus to gain the Quarians as allies, or you can screw the Quarians and take the Geth home with you (or you can do BOTH, take the Geth as allies and then nuke them with the Destroy ending).
Point is, I think it went over everyone's head -- even mine, until recently -- that what we're really being presented with is the same choice we had two other times in Mass Effect 3: to either obliterate one of the warring factions to the temporary benefit of the other, or you UNITE those two warring factions for a longer-lasting peace. The fact that one of those warring factions happens to be your OWN slightly obscures this; with Synthesis or Control, Shepard is making the same choice Mordin made if/when he sacrificed himself for the cure, or that Legion made if/when he uploaded himself to the Geth Consensus. The idea of peaceful coexistence with the Reapers only seems crazy because the Reapers are omnicidal assholes who've never expressed any desire for peace, but from various perspectives this is equally true of the Krogan AND the Quarians, and reconciliation is possible in both cases.
Food for thought.
Tuchanka:
Mordin sacrifices himself to cure the Genophage, which allows Eve to lead the Krogan out of their barbaric rut and rejoin the intergalactic community with the Salarians and the Turians (Eve doesn't count as a sacrifice because 1) she's not a major character and 2) her sacrifice means nothing if MORDIN doesn't put his ass on the line to spread the cure).
This is also echoed by Lieutenant Victus doing the bomb jump, killing himself in the process of saving a Krogan city and preventing a war between the Krogan and the Turians.
Rannoch:
If you do things right, Legion winds up sacrificing himself to reunite the Quarians and the Geth, resulting in the Geth achieving sentience and the Quarians getting their planet back.
The conflict between the Geth and the Quarians was centuries old, and the Genophage had plagued the Krogan for over a millennia. Compared to those two conflicts, the war against the Reapers is just a flash-in-the-pan, but it is still resolved the same way: the war's greatest hero makes a sacrifice and -- somehow -- unites the two warring factions (e.g. the Synthesis/Control endings).
This being mass effect, you also have the option to AVOID reunification and completely screw over one faction or the other; thus, on Tuchanka you can go ahead and cure the genophage even without Eve (or better yet, Wrex) being there to keep the Krogan in line; under Wreav's leadership, the resurgent Krogan are pretty much gauranteed to tear the Salarians a new asshole once the reapers are dealt with. On the flip side, you can screw the Krogans by giving them a fake cure and dooming them to eventual extinction.
On Rannoch it's even simpler: you can throw the Geth under a bus to gain the Quarians as allies, or you can screw the Quarians and take the Geth home with you (or you can do BOTH, take the Geth as allies and then nuke them with the Destroy ending).
Point is, I think it went over everyone's head -- even mine, until recently -- that what we're really being presented with is the same choice we had two other times in Mass Effect 3: to either obliterate one of the warring factions to the temporary benefit of the other, or you UNITE those two warring factions for a longer-lasting peace. The fact that one of those warring factions happens to be your OWN slightly obscures this; with Synthesis or Control, Shepard is making the same choice Mordin made if/when he sacrificed himself for the cure, or that Legion made if/when he uploaded himself to the Geth Consensus. The idea of peaceful coexistence with the Reapers only seems crazy because the Reapers are omnicidal assholes who've never expressed any desire for peace, but from various perspectives this is equally true of the Krogan AND the Quarians, and reconciliation is possible in both cases.
Food for thought.
While I agree with everyone that there should be an ending where Shepard survives in the game and I'm glad that they're adding one, I'm hoping this EMS reduction thing wont lead to my Shepard accidentally surviving somehow. He needs to die, godsdammit, he has done so many horrific things that a heroic sacrifice is the only satisfying conclusion to his arc.
Shepard dying never really bothered me. I think they should have included an ending where he/she lives, but I'm not one of those who needs his Shepard to survive in order to consider it a 'happy' ending. It's all the stupidity contained in the ending that bothered me. 
Shepard dying never really bothered me. I think they should have included an ending where he/she lives, but I'm not one of those who needs his Shepard to survive in order to consider it a 'happy' ending. It's all the stupidity contained in the ending that bothered me.
I wanted some varied happy endings, but was totally cool with Shepard not making it out of ME3 alive, but it had to be the shining moment of the series, had to at least be somewhere within driving distance of Spock in TWOK to be acceptable to me. With the endings as they were released, they were galaxies apart.
