They just announced a free fix DLC for this summer, so there's still hope!

Only to 'clarify' the crappy ending. There's no confirmation of a complete fix at all.

They're only doing this so that we buy their paid-for DLC... Which if people hold the line and don't buy, we'll send the message we won't put up with Bioware and EA's b.s. anymore.

Heehee..."hold the line".

Kirrahe's a bro -- what can I say. ;)

I know. But, I just... I want to believe BioWare hasn't lost it and isn't going to screw their fans with that crap ending they gave us. It's the only reason I can keep playing Mass Effect at this point.

Apparently there was a really neat ending planned, but the script got leaked over the net so they had to throw something new together at the last minute

'Oh no! A few internet people know about our cool thing, how do we fix this?'

'I know! Lets give them a terrible thing! That will make /everyone/ happy!'

I'm done with Bioware.

Well, head writer for first two games also left (Dave, Drew...?) and the script leak didn't help. I actually downloaded the original script, but didn't read it b/c I seriously didn't want to spoil it for myself.

Original ending was going to be about dark matter and whatnot -- which would make sense given how ME2 had all those hints about dark matter and Haestrom's sun with Tali.

What "they" threw together last minute was complete crap. Which is REALLY unfortunate seeing how I thought the big choices along the way were fantastic.

Drew Karpyshyn.

They really should've stuck to the original. Who cares about a leak? I'd rather have a good ending slightly spoiled than a surprise dump left on my living room floor.

The dark energy thing would have been a lot better considering all of the lead-up to it. We should find the jerk responsible for the leak and tar and feather him for ruining ME3.

"I'd rather have a good ending slightly spoiled than a surprise dump left on my living room floor."

Awesome quote.

Thankya kindly. ^^

Actually, the ending in the leaked script is basically exactly the same as the ending we got.

The key difference was in the implications. The Relays would only be destroyed in Destroy, for instance.

The Dark Energy ending was thrown out months, if not longer, before the leak. They had the whole thing planned for at least 60% of ME3's development.

I'm pretty sure disappointment is an enforced policy with EA. I knew they'd ruin Bioware, given time.

Agreed.

That does seem to be EA's policy regarding anything they do/own.

My theory is that their execs are intimidated by brilliance. Good games mean their interchangeable shooters and miserable sports titles get less sales, so they buy up small but creative developers in order to stifle them.

Madden used to be good until they bought the sole rights to make NFL games, after that they stopped trying.

Why try when you've no competition?

If it were me I'd still care about customer service. Unfortunately EA doesn't hence this whole ME fiasco, and the fact Madden hasn't changed much since 2010.

"I'd rather go to the hell for the wrathful than the hell for people who work in the EA marketing department- which I'm fairly certain IS the EA marketing department..."

Oh Yahzee... <3

capcom is worse for BS

*points at 5 billion re re-releases of SF2*

one of the reasons i refuse to pay for SF X Tekken

paid for, by who ?:P

DLC that you "pay for" -- hence I'm referring to whatever DLC they come out with for ME3 that you, the customer, has to 'pay for.'

ah, but the the end fix dlc is going to be free so i was confused

I think it's refering to "from the ashes" with the 'new' squad member, which from a little research I did was supposed to be in the game anyway but got cut so they could make the release date.

yea the release date dlc

That would never happen. Almost every single video game related protest has failed, because people end up buying the game anyways. Think about Left 4 Dead 2 or Battlefield 3.

<reads>

Hmm... then I guess it seems that the proper course for the time being; is simply to wait and see.

I'm torn on this subject. I don't like the ending, but I also don't think people should be forced to pay extra just to download everything that takes place after it.

Nah, the simple answer is that the just got greedy and rushed it out without finishing the game in order to get the quick cash grab. Nothing wrong with that, of course, except your customers might not appreciate being shat upon.

well if you notice that when Mass Effect was being made it came out great.
then bioware split their team to focus on Dragon Age first then mass effect 2 second, they came out great!
but i feel like when the team came back together they freaked about Dragon Age two. Rushed that. bad reviews.

AW SHIT! BAD REVIEWS!! WE MUST GET MASS EFFECT 3 OUT QUICK TO APPEASE THE CUSTOMERS!!!! HURRY!!!!

Mass Effect 3. Rushed. Bad Ending. :/ DaFuq

A major problem with big-ass game companies like EA is that they say they want to "reach a larger audience" = meaning dumb things down.

"When you try to please everyone, you please no one."
--Original fans that made Mass Effect popular enough for it to go mainstream are the ones who get shat upon. Why? I have no idea. You'd THINK EA would want to make the biggest fans happy seeing as how we were the ones that made it a popular/successful IP to begin with.

--I don't think they were 'rushed' in the sense they already pushed it back from Fall 2011... I think they simply got lazy and the work that went into multiplayer and other dumb things made the gameplay and cutscenes that much more unpolished and frankly, glitchy. Seriously, glitches were abound in this game... Not so much in ME2.

EA did got the turd for crappiest company :P

in which they replied, so what we have 200mil people playing, doubt they ever heard of cause and effect, bad reviews leads to bad sales

"Seriously, glitches were abound in this game... Not so much in ME2."

Tell that to my copy of ME2 ;_;

If you're talking about the PS3 version, then yes.

XBox 360 version. Mordin's invisible, TIM has no head, I strip-mined Illium, Shepard is a GIANT when talking to TIM, I had to reboot the XBox while on Thane's mission because it froze and refused to do anything, at one point there was a Critical Failure while I was in a shuttle during a cut scene.

There are more, but YOU GET THE IDEA.....

In ME2, I only noticed glitches like that when I sped through the dialogue -- which I can't really fault Bioware for.

However, in ME3, I found that even at normal speed, without skipping, characters would look the wrong way, their mouths moved when not supposed to, eyes sometimes flew to the back of their head, characters didn't wear their proper clothing from the loadout screen, etc. And I did have some system freezes -- which sucked...

And like you, I have the XBOX 360 version of Mass Effect. 1, 2, and 3.

The problem with this theory is that Bioware explicitly stated as soon as ME2 was out that ME3 would be out very soon, without nearly the wait there was between ME1 and ME2.

See my reply a few posts up.

Yeah, it didn't work for me, either. I mean, Shepherd showed very little signs of being under the control of anyone else. And the dreams? I think that was his/her own guilty conscience punishing him/her for not being able to save everyone.

I love the ending I got, although I can respect that others may not have been happy, and I'm glad to see that the DLC is free for them. (Well, except for respecting anyone considering Legal action. Thats just childish) There's going to be a lot of flak and fire in the forums still, particularly since from the sounds of this, its going to primarily be cutscenes around the ending, and then more 'Fallout' style (or Stand by Me style if you want to go further back) 'what happened to folks after rather than the more extremist's 'Change the ending entirely'. But theres a few months until its done, and from the sounds of it, they're basically pushing back any other planned work they did to get this done.

Can't wait for the more immature folk to start asking why they can't get everything next week.

I dunno. I'd be happy if I just /got/ an ending. 'Everything you worked for for the entire game is destroyed and nothing you did has any positive or negative effect on anything and everyone dies for no reason, fade to black.' isn't an ending.

^This

The only real issue I had with the ending (that I hope is addressed) is the bit with the Normandy. That made little to no sense. As for the decisions making a difference or not, its the whole EMS setup. I had 7.4k EMS (with 100% readiness from the datapad app and multiplayer) so I got the full range and choice of good endings and went with the one that made the most sense to the character as I played her. I'm lucky I didn't get the defeatist 'no choice' game over because I really stood there and thought about the three choices from an in character context for a few minutes.

I really didn't get a 'everyone dies for no reason' vibe to it. The folks that I care for are alive, the cycle is broken, the universe has taken a beating, but where theres life, theres hope. Shep's played her part, and will get to hopefully rest and recuperate, and the universe will go on to tell other stories, maybe of the pioneers that move foreward. They can rebuild, make things better than they had been. Then again, thats the optimist in me speaking, while the most vocal people tend to think only of the worst possible outcomes of it all. But at this point its just imagination and speculation,

And imagination and speculation are going to take a back seat once the Extended Edition comes out, and everything is spelt out.

Still, if the IT Crowd are right, I'm going to be somewhat sad. Since I rather prefer my 'Shepard's Ladder' (named after Jacob's Ladder) theory better. :)

I was going to leave a much longer comment but I found this video that explains my feelings on the Indoctrination Theory if it's true and not done perfectly http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rBJZn9UlFk

I'm going to wait and see what the 'clarification' were talking about is going to be before I give my final verdict, there's still a small glimmer of hope for BW.

On a side note, I kind of feel bad I didn't warn some of my friends about the endings since I knew what they were months ago, and if anyone wants to know they're pretty much the same as what was in the leak.

This one simply played the games and enjoyed them. Opinions are just that...opinions.

"You big, stupid jellyfish!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQau3CthTgI

Big stupid jellyfish taught this one speech...but agrees.

Well said. I raise my glass to you.

Fisk, yo, Let me throw this at you:

Maybe it was planned - the "True" ending hinted at only in one ending, and only with a perfect completionist-style playthrough, and then the true ending released as a DLC

Why? Because it stops people speeding through the game and then immediately spoiling the ending everywhere right out of the gate from an early copy or decrypting the game files

The whole "Crucible/Catalyst" thing is to throw us off indoctrination as a possible theory when it makes perfect sense (For instance, "If shepards proper choice is renegade, why is it the only choice to begin with at a lower score?" - i can answer this, because shepard still "dies" in it - we can take "Dying" during the crucible sequence to be "Full" indoctrination - the death of the player shepard - only after facing it for so long does shepard begin to realize it, and the reapers throw in the "Paragon and Balance" endings to muddle the mix, as shepard might break free during the crucible vision sequence, this also explains how and why you can die to the husks/marauder before the beam segment. As again, death could be the equal to full indoctrination.)

As such, it makes sense - cause controversy, leave a hint to the real ending, then release it for free later and suddenly shit on everyone who thought they knew "The real endings" and defended them (Haha, you fools would have succumbed to indoctrination so easily!)

If that's not the case? EA And bioware are goddamn retarded and i'll finally admit it, but i'll stick to bioware possibly using EA as a scapegoat to hide the massive incoming plot twist until proven otherwise *BY* them

no thats not the case, they said that it wasnt an inception like ending

Inception would imply a dream - This is an ongoing takeover of his mind.

Think about it, shepards whole purpose was to discover, then stall, and now combat the reapers....by bringing all sentient races (Or most) together to fight the reapers.

Now think about this: Their purpose is to eliminate all life - and shepard is the man extremely capable of delivering it RIGHT to their clutches.

Now remember saren, and the illusive man - both augmented by Cybernetics (Saren and TIM are both reaper puppets)

Know who else is augmented with them, and by who? Shepard, courtesy of cerberus, in ME2

Now, assuming this: Shepard has delivered them 50%+ of all advanced life, right to them, and is augmented, like saren, extensively with hardware we can assume (Safely) is or is based on reaper tech

Remember what happened when saren died in ME1? Sovereign burned him down to the cybernetics and took direct control of him, Guess which other reaper has been shown to have this ability? Harbinger, the reaper you fight before the beam sequence.

Presumedly, if indoctrination is true, after incapping shep, Harbinger tries to take him over, using the cybernetics from cerberus, Dying, AT ALL, during this part, effectively results in shepard becoming another saren or controlled collector (A Walking husk of cybernetics)

However! If you've done your "Research" by getting all the missions and readiness things first, shepard catches on, or just barely survives, which explains him barely alive in the perfect renegade ending (Couldn't have survived re-entry, yo. Nor the relay explosions and citadel explosion)

Simply put: This isn't a single dream sequence - this has been going on since ME1 - so it's not an inception ending, but rather a well-concealed culmination to a plot spanning 3 games.

Assuming it's true, at least

If it isn't? It will be to me, it's better canon than the current joke if they seriously are the "Endings"

Bioware needs to just stop doing anything but SWTOR :)

no bioware should keep going on what they used to do best, make a cool game, is it profitable its a nice extra, they just need to work under another label then EA

Star Wars can eat a dick. Let's make original shit for a change.

ME wasn't original. It had space ships and stuff. That's all been done before!

God you're so funny!!!!!

ok so what was so bad about it? i havent played it but i saw 2 of the what, 16 possible endings? and i just dont know what is wrong.

All of the endings are effectively identical, just different colors:

> Shepard dies
> The relays all go boom
> The citadel goes boom
> The reapers "apparently" are beaten

With one exception, a "Perfect" readiness run up to getting hit by harbinger during the run to the beam to the crucible, followed by a specific sequence of actions, ending in the player picking the "renegade" (Red) option results in the following:

A Short, 10-second or so clip of someone laying in a pile of broken concrete, wearing shepards tags, and then taking a ragged breath.

Which is where the "theory" comes from - it's been shown before shepard couldn't survive re-entry, but yet, he does here? And theres no rubble from the citadel exploding? And *EARTH* is still there despite it being proven by arrival that a detonating relay wipes out an entire solar system?

None of that makes sense, and that is where the IDT comes in.

THANK YOU!

The thing I have noticed in Hollywood that when something bites big time, it has a tendency to suddenly act like nothing really happened... I call this the "HULK" Theory. We all heard rather than NOT saw the "HULK" with the giant mutated poodles & then suddenly, BAM! Fight Club star revamps the HULK to rope in this whole avenger thing... I give it a good call...if they didn't do it again with new Avengers movie where the Hulk is without Edward Norton... so yeah... also they did the same with Punisher, Xmen First Class & they would probably do the same with the new TMNT, Transformers 4, Spiderman & Green Lantern movie. It is called...REBOOT.

My prediction to all the predictions? I think it will turn into another REBOOT or get a cliché restart somehow. Confusing & insulting to anyone with the intelligence of a 6th grader.

I smell a RE-BOOT...

Maybe they will explain Mass Effect with the Wizard of Oz treatment...

Shepard, "There's no place like home. There's no place like home. No place....."
Liara, "Shepard! SHEPARD dear, It's Liara, darling."
Shepard, "Oh, Liara, it's you!"
Liara, “Yes, darling.”
Dr. Chakwa, “Hello, there! Anybody home? I - just dropped by because I heard the Commander Shepard got caught in the big - Well - (she or he) seems all right now.
Anderson, “Yes. (she or he) got quite a bump on the head. We kind of thought there for a minute (she or he) was gonna leave us.” Dr. Chakwa, looks surprised “Oh!”
Shepard, “Oh, But I did leave you, Anderson. That's just the trouble. And I tried to get back for days and days...but I died or crashed or dissolved or... got indoctrinated...or something.”
Liara, “There, there, lie quiet now. You just had a bad dream.”
Shepard, “No...”
Joker, “Sure. Remember me, your old pal, Joker?”
Shepard, “Oh… sure!”
Kaiden, “And me, Kaiden?”
Garrus, “You couldn't forget my face, could you?”
Shepard, “YIKES! I mean...no...no. But it wasn't a dream. It was a place. And you - and you - and you - and you were there... I think I slept with half of you”
Dr. Chakwa, “Oh…okaaay then!”
Shepard, “But you couldn't have been, could you?”
Liara, “Oh, we dream lots of silly things when we…”
Shepard, “No, Liara, this was a real, truly live place. And I remember that some of it, wasn't very nice - but most of it was beautiful…. But just the same, all I kept saying to everybody was, 'I need to SAVE the Universe!' And they gave me these horrible choices... which really…really confused the F out of me.” Shepard looks at their awkward stares, “Doesn't anybody believe me?”
Anderson, “Of course we believe you, Shepard…” (using air quotes)
Shepard, “Oh, but anyway, Tali, we're home! Home! And this is my room - and you're all here!” Shepard hugs Tali “And I'm not going to leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all!... And - Oh, Joker, there's no place like home!!”
Joker, “dude… What meds did you put Shepard on?.... and can I get some too?”
Tali, “I call dibs too!”

never seen a game series being reboted, and there already wil be an ME4 :P

ummm...what about Sonic the Hedgehog? Remember the human princess that fell for Sonic but had to change time & save him with a kiss? No? That's because noone does....

Also there are allot of games that rebooted, it is just that some of them were so unpopular that noone remembers it.

Also there are some popular games that rebooted as well... Some from long long ago like Zelda & there Mario Bro. that was a spin off of Donkey Kong... Reboots happen in games all the time.

Also look how many times the story arc changed in Mortal Combat & Street Fighter & every game that wants a new spin... wait...didn't Mega-man reboot too?

How can you say Games never reboot? Also yes I am sure there is going to be an ME4 but they had sure dug themselves in quite a hole in this one. They are going to have to figure a way explain off this last one.... Shepard reincarnations?
it'll be like... if this guy pissed on your coffee... what explanation could he give for you to that slide?

oh, i dont call those reboots, those are just sequels and remakes, i call fallout 3 a reboot

I think you guys are all forgeting something seeing how it doesn't seem to have been brought up.

It is shown in the Arrival DLC which is cannon that if a Mass Relay is destroyed it lets loose a super nova sized explosion. This means the home words of all the seen races any anyone in the system are gone and dead no ifs ands or butts. I'm not expecting something which everyone is alive but reducing the galaxy from millions of people to a VERY small population on a ship is in my opinion neither a happy ending nor a sad one.

It's a punch in the face. However you look at it, if you believe the Bull that the Normandy had enough people on it to create a working population, only the humans and mabye the Asari will live on. A main foucs has been at least from Shepard's POV is that all life not just human is important and deserves to exist so to have this deverse cluster of races with their own wants and desires brouth together after YEARS of bickering, distrust, and hatred be destroyed without getting to enjoy any form of benifit other then destorying the enemy feels like a big middle finger to the player. I mean come on this is Supposed to be Mass Effect not a Super Robot Show.

hmm i think you need about 100.000 of any species at least to repopulate without inbreeding problems :P

and without loss of genetic diversity

Fact of the matter is alot of people want to feel smart.
the ending left alot people scratching their heads ad feeling stupid, and the second they find the indoctrination theory. You get a crowd of people going
"OH MY GOD THAT'S BRILLIANT" and go about their days feeling intelligent, and seem to completely forget that the rest of the game hasn't been explained yet. and that it's the end of Shepard's story, as in there is nothing after it, DLC or not, there is no ME4 with Shepard in it's wake, it'll be someone new. The way they left the ending was childish, and (probably because they did) felt like the writer for it, quit toward the end.

The Indoctrination Theory is just a feeble attempt to make good of a bad ending to a fantastic game.

As much as I would love to say the Indoctrination theory is what Bioware intended, look at the ending from a third-person perspective.

- Sheperd and a small squad run towards a beam to the citadel

- They are all wiped out by reaper lazers including sheperd

- They all die, though if you 100% the game Sheperd will take a breath.

THE END.

The entire last 10 minutes taking place in Sheperds head doesn't give us more closure, it gives us less. Being a dream or a nightmare means we never saw what happened at all, neither will the player get to experience it.

It the theory is true, it means an actual ending will be DLC. I see the free DLC simply bridging this gap to the payed one and an attempt at damage control.

If the indoctrination theory doesn't turn out to be cannon, Heres some endings that make more sense then what we got

Or, the expanded endings could show shepard, excluding the "Lived" ending doing something like this:

Cut to shepard in rubble

Body glows

Shepard burns into a humanoid cybernetics husk, likely with a yellow glow (Harbingers seeming "Color")

Shepard, now harbingers puppet, leads the reaper counter-attack on the combined fleets with the reaper reinforcements still lurking throughout the galaxy in a suprise ambush, which they intended all along (Since it was all a hallucination caused by the indoctrination, the relays still work.) from his "Rightful" seat aboard harbinger

And the player, who didn't get 100% readiness or picked the other endings, now gets to watch their shepard, finally falling to indoctrination, exterminating everything they love - from a first person perspective.

Closure indeed, YOU LOSE, GOOD DAY SIR. And obviously with varying quotes from harbinger based on the players choices in the games - as you help exterminate all life, having been the one that so easily brought them all into a nice small killing field.

For living shepard? who knows, maybe a 1-on-1 with harbinger himself. Shepard might be Badass enough to shrug off that direct hit and then fuck up a reaper main completely on foot.

The main issue is that they can't use the inoctrination theory in an ending without losing even more respect, because even if they had planned it all along, people will only be able to see it as them not just pushing the game out the door unfinished, but actually being too incompetent to come up with their own ending.

If they charge for ending DLC though, the absolute worst thing that could be done is to buy it, and signal game developers that the public is willing to pay 10-15$ more for finished games. A precedent I do not want to see set at all.

It's not true, it's just fans attempting to rationalize away the fact that bioware botched the ending so badly.

Indoctrination made sense to me. I actually bothered to listen/read a lot of the descriptive fluff ME1-3 gives you throughout the games. With that and a little intelligence you can figure out whats actually happening to Shep at the end. Granted it doesn't fully explain everything to me, and just because I read the fluff doesn't mean I caught all the plot points or twists that may or may not have been intended.

I think Indoctrination is the most sold and reasoned out explanation. Especially as nearly all the arguments against it seemed to be built on primarily just personal opinion, rage, assumption and very little actual research. The people arguing for Indoctrination make better, more informed points against there own arguments than those who are against it, and they still don't overshadow the Indoctrination Theory.

But, like many, this is only my opinion, and I recognize that I and a lot of people, might be reading too much into this and Bioware have simply fallen from grace, but it seems unlikely. Rapping everything up in DLC does seem a little daft to me, wish the industry would actually let game developers release finished games.