Mass Effect Megathread: I should *go*. *I* should go. I *should* go. - Games

Oh god, legion's lines in the nightmare ;_;

[QUOTE=BloodFox1222;39960923]can you elaborate more on the choices and story that were discarded during the ending? how can shepard not act like himself when his actions are based on the players choices? The starchild was definitely poorly written though, they shouldn't have put that in at all but as for [sp]why they destroy organics[/sp] they could have just come up with something like [sp]"organics will eventually become so advanced that they will threaten our existence as watchers of the galaxy"'[/sp][/QUOTE] I don't think this deserves spoiler tags because it's not the released ending, but I remember reading an article somewhere a year ago that the original planned ending was much different. It was supposed to be something like: the reason the Reapers limit and destroy advancing civilizations is because of the possibility that they can accidentally misuse dark energy (or something along the lines) that consumes/destroys the galaxy. In fact, if you ever payed attention to Mass Effect 2, its plot seemed to hint towards that plan (Haestrom's growing sun). The choices at the end were either leave the galaxy alone and trust the current cycle not to screw up or to continue the cycle and making way for the next species. I still think this original ending would've been the better option, but for whatever stupid reason Bioware chose the [sp]we built robots to destroy you before other robots do[/sp], I will never know.

I like to think that [sp]the catalyst doesn't actually know what the Reapers are all about and just bullshat that explanation to demoralize us[/sp]. It did a great job at that last bit.

[QUOTE=27X;39963502]You should probably do some research. Like a shit ton, and it's really not anyone else's responsibility to do it for you.[/QUOTE] I can understand that, but what i'm seeing is people saying "the ending discards all the choices and story of the previous games" and not "the ending discards the following choices and story from the previous games" presenting an argument without giving examples.

[QUOTE=BloodFox1222;39964408]I can understand that, but what i'm seeing is people saying "the ending discards all the choices and story of the previous games" and not "the ending discards the following choices and story from the previous games" presenting an argument without giving examples.[/QUOTE] It's kind of a 2-sided question. The actual choice at the ending regarding the 4 possibilities you're given have literally no bearing on ANYTHING you've ever done in the trilogy. You could be Jesus Shepard or the reincarnation of Hitler himself, you're still going to get the same 4 options. What happens [I]after[/I] you chose can vary a fair amount (well, with the Extended Cut anyway), but the choices themselves are the same which kind of goes against Bioware's pre-release "We're not going to have an ABC ending situation."

If the ending was based on the choices you made throughout the game, it probably wouldn't be so bad; not as good as the ideal "every choice you made throughout the franchise actually makes a sodding difference" thing that dedicated ME3 fans were craving, but still not as bad as all your choices up to that point not amounting to a hill of beans, and having to play by the rules of some poorly-written AI. The factor of being able to choose how it ends wasn't done right; it should've been more about our choices building towards something coherent and focused, rather than using the Crucible to cast a dark space voodoo curse across the galaxy. Those 4 endings with the poorly-written Catalyst-Crucible thing should've been more of a punishment than a canon ending; something to say "FUCK YOU" to the people who thought that the end of the trilogy was IN ANY WAY the right place to start their Mass Effect experience. Instead there should have been various "projects" other than the Crucible to "set up" through your choices over the three games as a reward for being a long-term fan of the franchise. Many many moons ago I wrote three Project endings based loosely on the three endings prior to Extended Cut; Space Battleship Citadel, Assuming Direct Control, and Song of the Rachni. I forget which of the threads it was in, but it was probably in one of the ones before the Summer of 2012, but I feel they were still better than what we got pre-EC.

My fanfic involved having Shepard's legacy survived by Liara's daughter. And then when the reconstruction period is all done and shit with Reapers fixing everything. Liara would walk into one of the Reapers and noticed that they have recorded all of Shepard's exploits and have left it imprinted in their consensus as a pivotal moment. Then they could, like surprise her with resurrecting Shepard by using all the genetic data the had after their green peace blast.

[QUOTE=Marden;39962201]Yeah, they really messed up the nightmares. You've seen people get melted into liquid but boo-hoo a random kid dies and you can't sleep because of it.[/QUOTE] You couldn't have said it better. I think the writers wanted to portray dead innocence but it could have worked out a lot better. This is another flawed plot line where the writers forced it. In the beginning of the game, you see this random kid playing with a ship model a couple buildings away. Half an hour later, he somehow winds up in the vents in your building and refuses military help like he's some philosophical buddha who lets everything be. Then Shepard dreams of him several times burning in a fire with poor effects if I might add (if you're going to force something on the player, at least don't half-ass it by adding an animated sprite on top of the screen; make it real and believable). The game doesn't explain who this kid is and why he's here. You've never met him before. You've seen people get fucking liquefied and made choices that killed your close friends. And then you have the [sp]AI at the end[/sp] who looks and sounds like him. Why? What's the point the writers try to make? If the writers wanted the resemblance and the nightmares to be believable, I would've been fine if they chose a dead squad-mate like Ashley/Kaiden and not some random bullshit that [b]nobody[/b] cares about.

I was going to say that Shepard doesn't often see kids during his tour, not little 7-year olds and shit. He spent his time in that cell for a number of months so he may have seen the kid often while he was incarcerated. Shepard may have also been not used to seeing a kid that young die, sure, he may have seen the Horizon colonist turn to goop and he has also vaporized other soldiers with untold power, becoming rather numbed by the number of killings he has been doing. Maybe his mind drew a line on the kid that he saw get blown up.

[QUOTE=HighdefGE;39965246]You couldn't have said it better. I think the writers wanted to portray dead innocence but it could have worked out a lot better. This is another flawed plot line where the writers forced it. In the beginning of the game, you see this random kid playing with a ship model a couple buildings away. Half an hour later, he somehow winds up in the vents in your building and refuses military help like he's some philosophical buddha who lets everything be. Then Shepard dreams of him several times burning in a fire with poor effects if I might add (if you're going to force something on the player, at least don't half-ass it by adding an animated sprite on top of the screen; make it real and believable). The game doesn't explain who this kid is and why he's here. You've never met him before. You've seen people get fucking liquefied and made choices that killed your close friends. And then you have the [sp]AI at the end[/sp] who looks and sounds like him. Why? What's the point the writers try to make? If the writers wanted the resemblance and the nightmares to be believable, I would've been fine if they chose a dead squad-mate like Ashley/Kaiden and not some random bullshit that [b]nobody[/b] cares about.[/QUOTE] Honestly if the catalyst was Ashley I would pick the destroy ending even if the others weren't shit because I hate that bitch.

I decided to throw in Spore for the first time in ages, and thought to myself "Hey, why not trying making a Krogan?" Then I remembered I have zero creativity. This poor creature is the result: [t]http://i.imgur.com/ucWDnhn.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/CgXMVvm.jpg[/t] [t]http://i.imgur.com/KV1a9Ic.jpg[/t]

[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;39965310]I was going to say that Shepard doesn't often see kids during his tour, not little 7-year olds and shit. He spent his time in that cell for a number of months so he may have seen the kid often while he was incarcerated. Shepard may have also been not used to seeing a kid that young die, sure, he may have seen the Horizon colonist turn to goop and he has also vaporized other soldiers with untold power, becoming rather numbed by the number of killings he has been doing. Maybe his mind drew a line on the kid that he saw get blown up.[/QUOTE] Depends on the background you pick for Shepard. I pick earthborn, which says he grew up in the middle of gang violence and stuff, no doubt he saw a lot of violence involving kids then. I just really dislike how my Shepard went through 2 games as a mega hardass who doesn't afraid of anything or give a shit about anyone, then he enters the third game and some little kid dying tugs on his heart strings. My Shepard wouldn't be butthurt because he would know there's nothing he could have done to stop it. I mean, he tells the council in the very first scene that people are going to die, they have to accept that. Then he goes and cries about some random kid dying? Bullshit. Completely ruined my roleplaying experience by taking control away from me.

[QUOTE=CabooseRvB;39965310]I was going to say that Shepard doesn't often see kids during his tour, not little 7-year olds and shit. He spent his time in that cell for a number of months so he may have seen the kid often while he was incarcerated. Shepard may have also been not used to seeing a kid that young die, sure, he may have seen the Horizon colonist turn to goop and he has also vaporized other soldiers with untold power, becoming rather numbed by the number of killings he has been doing. Maybe his mind drew a line on the kid that he saw get blown up.[/QUOTE] We didn't really see any kids on that part of Horizon, and for all we know, some colonies could be funded by corporations or governments or who knows. Yeah, you could say that kids are everywhere even if they're not shown, but Mass Effect 2 didn't really give you that much intel about that specific part of town that for all we know could be isolated from the rest of the planet. Even then, if they wanted to show kids, they would have, but what purpose does it serve? You say that he spent time isolated in Earth and [i]may[/i] have not seen many people. The keyword here is [i]may[/i]. Notice how in the beginning of Mass Effect 3, you're just thrown in the middle of nowhere and the game fails to tell you what happened. When writers connect chapters to each other, they make an arch and let the scenes flow from one point to the next. I could argue that most likely he wasn't isolated because he was greeted by James like they knew each other very well, which brings me to the next point. Who the hell is he? Why is he here and how does he know Shepard? Most importantly, why isn't he dressed formally like everyone else? Why did Ashley/Kaidan jump 3 or 4 different ranks within supposedly a year? Why are we in Vancouver? And why do some people I've never seen before want an opinion from a soldier that affects the entire planet when they most likely know the plotline hell of a lot more than the player does at that point? Maybe the above issues are irrelevant or maybe not, but the kid is definitely forced and I hate forced plots.

[QUOTE=BloodFox1222;39964408]I can understand that, but what i'm seeing is people saying "the ending discards all the choices and story of the previous games" and not "the ending discards the following choices and story from the previous games" presenting an argument without giving examples.[/QUOTE] Yeeeah, but your asking for "examples" that encompass like 240 hours or so of gameplay and then asking someone to define why that context doesn't match the endings. That's like asking to translate the bible into stick pictures and then giving a test on the morality of the lesson presented. One has almost zero context to the other, and ignores reams and reams and reams of data.

[QUOTE=BloodFox1222;39964408]I can understand that, but what i'm seeing is people saying "the ending discards all the choices and story of the previous games" and not "the ending discards the following choices and story from the previous games" presenting an argument without giving examples.[/QUOTE] Lets put one out there. One of the best recurring themes throughout Mass Effect is being able to overcome all odds through unity and camaraderie/friendship. First game, you worked on a ship that was designed by two races and you have a multi-species crew that pulled the impossible by halting a Reaper Invasion by discovering the hidden secrets of the Prothean Empire. Second one is that your Shepard gets killed and is brought back by Cerberus. They tell you it may be a suicide mission and even your squaddies tell you that the chances are slim. You fucking come out of it alive and all of your crew is still alive despite being kidnapped by Collectors. Lastly, the Reapers finally come, fuck shit up, destroy your homeworld, invaded your girlfriend's (in my playthrough at least) and you have the responsibility to rally an entire galaxy against this universal threat. You may be able to draw conflicts centuries in the making to a close and helped create a superweapon the likes of which has never been witnessed before. At the very end, all of [b]that[/b] doesn't fucking matter. Whether or not you had a few casualties in your squad, no matter how many fleets you gather and no matter what you did, how hard you did it, it will always boil down to three of the most narrowest choices you have to make that would decide the fate of the galaxy. It's a fucking 3-card monte scam

[QUOTE=JeanLuc761;39962362]I wish they had given more emphasis to your squadmates speaking to you in your dreams. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4pqgBw_exw[/media] That's some really powerful voice acting there (especially by Yvonne Strahovski. I mean DAMN), but it was criminally underused, especially because you only hear characters that have died. For a 'heroic' Shepard that hasn't gotten anyone killed, it falls pretty flat.[/QUOTE] This hit me harder than what I initially thought it would.

Its stupid if no one dies... All I hear is the same "shepard" line that ash says, and Mordin doing a few lines. Nothing else. Ever.

[QUOTE=Skyward;39966749][sp]Its stupid if no one dies... All I hear is the same "shepard" line that ash says, and Mordin doing a few lines. Nothing else. Ever.[/sp][/QUOTE] I don't remember hearing anything, didn't even know it could happen until now.

[QUOTE=Shovelpass;39965395]Depends on the background you pick for Shepard. I pick earthborn, which says he grew up in the middle of gang violence and stuff, no doubt he saw a lot of violence involving kids then. I just really dislike how my Shepard went through 2 games as a mega hardass who doesn't afraid of anything or give a shit about anyone, then he enters the third game and some little kid dying tugs on his heart strings. My Shepard wouldn't be butthurt because he would know there's nothing he could have done to stop it. I mean, he tells the council in the very first scene that people are going to die, they have to accept that. Then he goes and cries about some random kid dying? Bullshit. Completely ruined my roleplaying experience by taking control away from me.[/QUOTE] Again, it should have been someone you lost from ME1 or 2. An example is if Mordin died in ME2, you would be haunted by him in ME3 instead of some kid. Or even Miranda dying and she is the AI if you had her as your LI before she died. So far, I got ME3 from the free game, I will probably just stop at Citadel DLC and consider that the real ending.

[QUOTE=Skyward;39966749]Its stupid if no one dies... All I hear is the same "shepard" line that ash says, and Mordin doing a few lines. Nothing else. Ever.[/QUOTE] And Legions almost unhearable "Shepard-Commander."

[QUOTE] It was more RPG than ME2 ^^ Has power combinations for effectiviness, different armors, weapon mods. In ME2 I didn't ven knew what was the difference between the guns except for how they shoot* and the armors had no difference. [/QUOTE] I always keep forgetting that rpg elements = number crunching

Not to mention ME2 armor still boosted certain things, like health, shield recharge rate, etc.

[hd]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lSuIvrR_yU[/hd]

Oh wow, if you screamed that I'd always pick the blue ending.

The only problem with destroy is that I can't stop yelling at Shepard that his miraculously functional pistol will work just fine if he doesn't walk into exploding things. And that thing with the geth.

I feel embarrassed just to play through the nightmare sequences.

I like to imagine that geth and edi can be repaired even if you pick destroy...

[QUOTE=ForcedDj;39967016]Again, it should have been someone you lost from ME1 or 2. An example is if Mordin died in ME2, you would be haunted by him in ME3 instead of some kid. Or even Miranda dying and she is the AI if you had her as your LI before she died. So far, I got ME3 from the free game, I will probably just stop at Citadel DLC and consider that the real ending.[/QUOTE] Better yet, they could have made the AI like the Vigil on Ilos from Mass Effect 1.

[QUOTE=ThermalArc;39969234]I like to imagine that geth and edi can be repaired even if you pick destroy...[/QUOTE] this, along with legion coming back. that's what i always hope.

[QUOTE=ThermalArc;39969234]I like to imagine that geth and edi can be repaired even if you pick destroy...[/QUOTE] There's no reason not to. The only reason they asplode anyway is because they needed to balance out the other 2 endings with Destroy. "I can actually finish the mission without possible fuckups or massively ethical complications, or I can have possibly massive fuckups and massively ethical complications." It came down to "lol reaper code" forgetting that most technology has been brought in to galactic use due to reaper intervention (mass relays, citadel etc etc etc) Rebuild those fuckers. Also, their data servers and shit would be intact logically, it's just their platforms that explode.