>>720719190
Gamers for expecting way too much and Bioware/EA for sabotaging their most anticipated game
The whole thing is a clusterfuck

Bioware for overpromising and underdelivering and game "journalists" for deliberately misrepresenting what people were complaining about.

>>720719376
This.

>>720719190
>Who was in the wrong here
Bioware for making a dogshit video game.

>the paying customer is entitled for wanting a good narrative ending in the narrative singleplayer game that was advertised as a high quality narrative experience
My money, my choice.

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>>720719190
Both gamers and the vidya press for shitting on ME3's ending so hard. Don't get me wrong, the ending was bad, but it's not like the game was amazing and then they stumbled at the finish line. The entire fucking game was shit.

Haven't bought a single EA game since.

G*mers. You aren't entitled to something just because you paid for it chud.

>>720719987
Thats ok. Game devs arent entitled to sales and employment either.

>consumer entitlement
Journos used to have so much more power lol

>>720719190
I never got the whole entitlement claim. It's not like the players got ME3 as a gift, they paid full price for the product.

>>720719190
>game journalism is dead now
>bioware on the ropes
Shouldn't have fucked with me Tom

>>720719190
>Bioware never Overpromised with ME3
>CDPR never Overpromised with Cyberpunk 2077
>Also the female character was always supposed to be canon Chud!!

Wtf is wrong with journalists and normalfags in general?
History can't be rewritten just like that, everything is there to fact check, yet I always see takes like that, it's crazy.

>>720720550
Cyberpunk is one of the best games I've every played. They could have had more dialogue options but overall a very good package.

>>720720361
EA even cut campaign content and sold it as Day 1 DLC.
They were at their most Jewish that year.

Mass Effect 3 was carrying all the hype back then, without controversies and with a great finale it would have been the best game of that generation, possibly selling more than it's TPS peers Uncharted 3 and Gears 3, possibly selling on the level of FPS giants like Halo.

But it ended up being another game that could have defined the zeitgeist and changed the Game Dev podium forever, BUT DIDN'T.
Another TLOU2/Cyberpunk 2077 of wasted potential.

>>720719190
EA

I WILL NEVER NOT BE MAD

DING DONG BANNU

>>720719190
What's the tl;dr of the article?

>>720719594
The whole plot was horrible,
From Sheppard's retarded trauma, to how hard they victimized the Krogan when the genophage was created in response to them trying to genocide the Turians, to the Geth losing their unique collective dream in favor of a generic "I want to be a real boy" crap , to Cerberus going from a clandestine op in small cells to a overpowered unstoppable army, to my choices being retconned in favor of comic canon shit.
Only good thing was the truth about the Proteans and seeing Liara get completely destroyed by Javik

>>720720801
You don't have to ragebait me, retard.

I also liked it, but it was a game I was supposed to love.
The signs of an incomplete game are everywhere, Shazam meme was born for a reason.

>>720720550
comparing cyberpunk to mass effect 3 is offensive

>>720720361
It was a really weird catchall defence to dismiss people who weren't happy with games back in the day. It didn't really mean anything, it just seemed to be journalists telling us we are privileged to even be able to buy games at all.
Nowadays they need much less lofty ideas to turn the narrative on the consumer. Like making them look like bigots.

>>720719190
Am I the only person who doesn't give a shit about video game endings? I can't think of one off the top of my head that I cared about. I'm probably forgetting at least one or two that I liked but even my forgetting seems to say it just isn't important to me.

>>720720989
I always find it amazing that despite the retarded Shepard trauma drama, and all the quirky chungus moments, he still comes off as a tougher guy and the military setting is miles ahead of what 343i did with Halo 4.
Now that was some retarded drama.

>>720719346
Bioware doesn't get to make a big deal about how it was your story, your choices MATTER and then completely fumble it, railroading you into three fucking endings without getting shit on.

>>720721102
If you didn't care about the ending you wouldn't have made it to the third game.

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>>720719190
ME3 was a great shitstorm.

>>720719190
>>720721230
>Entitled
>Self-entitled
Damn, anti consumer rhetoric used to just be on autopilot.

>>720719376
journalists were paid out the ass
does anyone else remember that fuck huge banner they made for the IGN ME3 9.5/10 review?

>>720719190
my faggot friends for getting me into this piece of shit series a few months before this disaster.

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I liked it. Sue me. No, it's not as "intelligent" as Mass Effect 1. It's action movie slop. I don't care. It was a blast. I played the game with the ending mod that chops up the ending scenes and made it more straightforward. Deleted the Reapers and lived happily ever after with Liara. The end.

The beginning of the end of western democracy, it's fun how much Gamergate shit started with journos fueling this drama

>>720720805
Mass Effect 1 never reached it's true potential. Each game after went in increasingly different directions in tone and narrative, 2 completely shifted the story while 3 did its best to return to ME1's premise. There was no moment where Mass Effect "clicked" and could have "defined the zeitgeist".

It was a niche sci fi RPG flawed masterpiece and it got turned into a shooter franchise so that they could make a lot more money. There was never a moment in history where Mass Effect was going to force everyone else to make a party based sci fi RPG full of dialogue choices. It was always unique, it was always something that succeeded in spite of what was holding it back.

There was no "Dark Souls" equivalent for Bioware.

>>720721686
Yep. It’s funny, now that I think of it, the beginning of our current western political situation was TORtanic and the ME3 ending controversy. The “gamer outrage” from those two games then led to Gamergate, Gamergate led to the alt right/trump, etc

>>720719190
The only thing it had to do was not faceplant at the finish line. I do not know what autism compels writers to create a dumb twist ending out of nowhere instead of just staying the course and have an ending that makes sense.

>>720719190
The ending sucks but it's the same 3 Deus Ex Endings, that enough isn't really worth the outrage. The shitty EA plug to buy DLC however is outrageous and deserves all the hate.

>>720719190
Secondaries who jump on the tail end of a franchise and force themselves to like it because they don't want to feels like they missed the boat.

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Why would The Reapers even exist at all?

>>720720805
>"pay us $10 for Javik the Prothean"
>enabling Javik was literally just opening an .ini file and flipping a 0 to a 1 because ALL of Javik's shit was on-disc, Day-0 DLC
yeah industry shills tend to not mention the scummy shit EA was doing that contributed to everyone spitting on Bioware.

>>720719376
Journalists have always been really strange kind of biodrones. Remember when they were running articles on how Veilguard should not be compared to Baldur's Gate 3 because Bioware just can't be expected to compete with Larian?

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Blueberry sex
That is all

>>720721681
>I liked it
>I played the game with the ending mod that chops up the ending scenes and made it more straightforward.
So you didn't like it.

>>720722347
>strange
It's just about money and Bioware devs probably have more journo friends

>>720721686
It did pretty much start there. 2012 had ME3's ending shitstorm and then Anita with Feminist Frequency. DmC's reveal and shitstorm was that year too I think.

>>720721197
I made it to the third game because I enjoyed PLAYING the games.

>>720722875
They should have never fucked with gamers

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>>720722478
I never played the game back in 2012. I knew all about the controversy, and I watched the Star Child ending scene alongside everyone else. Back then I just didn't care to be upset because someone else hates it. When I see it today, all I see is a failed thought experiment. The thought experiment they pose to you at the ending of the game is simply a reflection of the different values that you've interacted with throughout the series being shown to you.

Anderson and the will of most of humanity is to simply Destroy the Reapers, cast off the cycle of galactic destruction at the cost of some considerable technological progress and the loss of artificial intelligence/synthetic life. Illusive Man and the will of Cerberus is to Control the Reapers, ending the cycle and propelling humanity into the future, but this instead creates another new cycle, one where resistance will forever continue to crop up and cause organic life to throw off synthetic control. Saren and the will of the synthetics is for Synthesis, organic life and synthetic life will no longer be at war and there will never be another cycle, but it will create a technological singularity and essentially the death of all individuals.

All three of these endings are philosophically distinct with wildly differing outcomes, despite the cutscenes sharing many of the same visuals only put through different colors.
The fate of the galaxy was a real choice, it's just not explained properly by that stupid fucking Star Child.

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I don't care if you think it's hokey shlock......this was kino.

>>720719190
this is such a massive bullshit way of thinking about ME3
yes, the ending off ME3 was shit
but the ENTIRE FUCKING GAME was SHIT
it was shit from the very first scene with mystery starboi

>entire quarian fleet need multiple guided precision strikes to destroy ONE reaper
>meanwhile one rocket launched from vehicle brings down reaper on earth

It's still kind of funny that people hated the ending so much that they would prefer to believe that Sheppard was indoctrinated, that the starchild was a delusion and that the reapers won at the end.

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How would YOU fix "The Reapers" dilemma?
It's obvious from Mass Effect 1 that the obvious plan is to destroy the Reapers and save the galaxy
So how should it have been done?

>>720723470
I will personally fuck every single Asari.

>>720723317
It was shit from when you pressed start with Anderson's demotion and the Alliance holding a council spectre prisoner.

>>720723384
The indoctrination theory had a lot of arguments and was very compelling. Even down to high destroy ending being the one where Shepard lives.

>>720723470
Use the mass relays to send some signal that fucks them up. Maybe it has the drawback of destroying them so you'd have to prepare all the planets and species to live alone once again.

>>720722005
well said

ME was a nice suprise at first when it came out, but they never did anything with it. They fumbled at every step. I don't remember shit about the story because it went off the rails fairly quickly and became retarded. The gameplay became more shallow as it progressed.

I fucken hate game devs

WHO ELSE REMEMBERS THE ROBOT CAMELTOE LMAOOOOO

OR THE STOCK IMAGE THEY USED FOR TALIS PORTRAIT

>>720722179
Because organics make ai that kills themselves so smarter organics made ai to kill them instead so as to deal with the galactic suicide epidemic.

>>720723583
>Use the mass relays to send some signal that fucks them up. Maybe it has the drawback of destroying them so you'd have to prepare all the planets and species to live alone once again.
Sounds like Mass Effect 3 to me

>>720723470
What is there to fix? The reapers were stopped with Saren, giving the citadel races the heads up to counter them when they'll show up centuries later.

me2 and 3 are superfluous and walk back 1's story. They should be discarded.

>>720723583
use the mass relays to send planets to another galaxy, escaping from the reapers.

>>720723470
They should have went with the most kino ending we got in ME3 which was Shepard leaving a beacon for future generations, thematically it made the most sense
Or have some shit where reapers are actually protecting us from even worse shit in Andromeda
ME3 ending is one of those endings, where people vehemently refuse to understand it despite the fact how simple it is

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>>720719190
>Asari are expected to breed with other races and children with 2 Asari parents are discriminated against.
What did Bioware mean by this?

>>720719190
This isn't new and it's not exclusive to gamers. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got such massive backlash and death threats for killing of Sherlock Holmes he retconned him back to life and continued the series.

>>720723819
I will take up the burden

>>720722405
blue cock in my ass and blueberries unloading a torrent of juice in my ass

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>>720723753
>The reapers were stopped with Saren
Lmao? Hu-what?
>giving the citadel races the heads up to counter them when they'll show up centuries later
CENTURIES? Bruh....you need to play the series again. What the FUCK makes you think the Citadel had their shit together???

>>720723812
>Shepard should have LOST lol
No. That is 10x worse than an RGB ending that people misunderstand. Destruction of the entire galaxy is fucking stupid and lame and completely nullifies the entire series.
>le reapers should have been GOOD
How could you possibly explain Sovereign? Mass Effect 2? Come on man
>ME3 ending is one of those endings, where people vehemently refuse to understand it despite the fact how simple it is
They wanted the game to somehow have a bespoke ending for each and every person who played it, despite having to tie up loose ends of three games and a story that recounts multiple cycles worth of lore.

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>>720723898
Please do not profane my wife in such ways.

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>>720719190
I think ME3 ending was shit, but it definitely did not warrant the nuclear meltdown that some people had over it, like their life has lost meaning because of that ending.

It was total dogshit and it deserved to be trashed as hard as it did in response to the faggoty damage control EA, bioware and their little journo monkeys were aggressively attempting.

>>720724151
No cute blueberry gf to embrace eternity with. Why even live?

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>>720724424
She's coming back, anon.

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Will there EVER be another game like it?

>>720722179
They ruined them by making them "killable" enemies and explaining their backstory. The DLC set under the sea was a disaster, we went from the menacing "You're not Saren" to the "hehe actually the Reapers were created to help the organics <3 "

>>720723470
Didn't one of the original writers find a decent solution related to the mass relays consuming too much energy and the suns losing their "power", but then Mac Walters flipped the table and rewrote the whole thing?

>>720723470
First go back to ME2. Cut the Collectors since they're pointless, the plot is about Shepard securing top-secret weaponry projects, make the villains Indoctrinated cells after the Crucible plans, have the ending involve getting or losing the Crucible plans.
Delay the Reapers' arrival until halfway through 3. The first half should be Shep trying to keep the galaxy together as everyone realises how fucked they are. When the Reapers do arrive they wipe practically any resistance. It turns out that the Crucible is able to age and destroy mass effect engines, destroying the Reapers. The twist should then be that the Crucible accelerates the aging of stars like in Tali's recruitment mission, meaning that destroying the Reapers will end galactic civilization and force billions into seeking new planets capable of supporting life.
The choices should be
>renegade
Shepard fires the Crucible, destroys the Reapers for good and becomes a legendary hero or monster long after survivors have forgotten the war.
>paragon
Shepard bluffs, forcing the Reapers to retreat. They become mythical space boogeymen, but the galaxy never truly forgets that they're out there. Your success is based on choices made before and during ME3 and if you haven't proven yourself by then you'll have to go for the renegade or neutral end.
>neutral
Everyone dies. You don't fire the Crucible and fight conventionally. The Reapers win pretty easily and the only hope of stopping them lies in the next cycle.
>bonus
Making the right choices throughout all games allows you to avoid effecting stars. Shepard gives the Reapers cosmic heart failure and gets the best of both endings.
If there'd be DLC it's a Scouring of the Shire situation where choices made to win the war come back to bite you years later. Dealing with uppity krogan or representatives of species Shepard nearly wiped out and made homeless, things like that.

>>720725695
>nooooo The Reapers should only be le nihilistic existentialist threat so I can live out my apocalyptic fantasy to destroy the whole galaxy
The Leviathans were more interesting than Sovereign and his empty, dark and nihilistic monologue
The Reapers are evil in the sense that they are born out of a selfish desire to control the nature of reality

>>720725872
>decent solution
A decent solution is not "everything is ruined forever lol" and I'm tired of pretending otherwise
A hopeful and cliche ending to a sci fi action romp is better than dark, nihilistic anti-humanity garbage

>>720725872
it's even foreshadowed through the ME1 Noveria investigator showing on Illium and Tali's recruitment in ME2 that the plot headed toward the dark energy overarching plot

>>720724932
Andromeda had the best gameplay of the series and I will die on this hill

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>>720726342
>Cut the Collectors since they're pointless, the plot is about Shepard securing top-secret weaponry projects
>destroying the Reapers will end galactic civilization
This shit you wrote is so fucking stupid and asinine. Every time I see this same exact "dark" and boring fan fiction it almost always destroys everything that is unique about Mass Effect. So lazy. Cut the Protheans, why don't you? Cut the whole fucking story down to just 'Shepard fetches various items across the galaxy"? So stupid.
>Making the right choices throughout all games
"The right choices"? Wtf is that supposed to mean? How can you possibly define what the right chioces are? Still pretending that "all duh decisions should matter" is just turbo cope. They literally actually can't. It doesn't matter if the developers said they all would. It physically can't occur. People really did have unbelievable, massive expectations for this entertainment product that was made in only a few short years.
Three different endings that all exactly line up with the varying philosophies that are laid out throughout the trilogy is almost exactly what you could ask for.

>>720726921
>muh dark energy
Lazier and a bigger asspull than The Crucible, it also cannot pay off on any of the conflicting ideologies that are depicted at the center of the narrative.

>>720719190
>https://youtu.be/467pmIX-oZo?si=imO9r8K5_EbdmS1t
We were

>>720719190
I paid money for the game
I literally am entitled
if you eat whatever shit is served you without complaint, you're a genuine subhuman

>>720726950
Hahaha. No. Not even close. Mass Effect 3 has the best gameplay and controls, Mass Effect 1 has the best unique sense of wonder and total immersion in a space opera world, and Mass Effect 2 has the best characters and memorable moments.

>>720723753
>me2 and 3 are superfluous and walk back 1's story
ME1 literally ends with "The Reapers are coming and I'm going to stop them". Don't try to make it out as if fighting them wasn't always the intention.

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Kino game
Kino series
There will never, ever be another like it

https://youtu.be/KGHA9oO1Ybg

>>720727471
watch literally any movie ever made and you'll experience something literally 20 times better immediately, you braindead gamer nigger

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>>720723632
I still can't believe taliFAGs waited years for THIS

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>>720727547
You're mad but you know that I'm right.
There will never, ever be another series like it.

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>>720727626
Couldn't be me. Imagine playing this game and not embracing eternity
Lots of seriously mentally ill people out there

>>720719190
EA for being a predatory monopoly that succeeded in a hostile takeover of Bioware with the explicit intent to drive down costs and quality to make a quick buck on the reputation they had built with KOTOR and Mass Effect 1.

Fuck those cunts, they stole the company and then fired EVERYONE. The "leads" on DA2 were all fucking 20 years old.

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https://files.catbox.moe/gs1609.jpg
awoooooga

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I know literally nothing about game development and even I from the outside looking in could tell you that a series that accounts for an entire trilogy worth of choices with unique outcomes is absolute Peter Molyneux tier nonsense and the idea should have never left the meeting room it was pitched in. There's being ambitious and then there's just straight up delusion

>>720723470
Karpyshyn already said what the original plan was before Walters replaced him and did his napkin plot shit

It was going to be Gurren Lagann. There is a vague existential threat to the whole universe that the Reapers are trying to solve. They seed and cultivate intelligent life then convert them into new Reapers to increase their power and breadth of thought.

The final choice would be sacrificing humanity to ensure the ultimate threat is dealt with by the Reapers or killing the Reapers and betting humanity/the council can find their own solution

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>>720727969
It accounts for the choices you made in ways that people didn't understand. It wasn't mechanical, it was emotional.

If you are given the choice to enact the various philosophies that are on the table throughout the trilogy....which would you choose?

>>720719190
1. Journalists are always wrong.
2. The gamers were wrong.
My argument for point 2 is that I realised before Mass Effect 2 (TWO) was RELEASED that the ending of the trilogy would be bullshit. When they announced it was a sort of side-plot to deal with the Collectors -instead of immediately setting up how to destroy the ring and how to get to Mt Doom- every player should have known that there would have to be a deus ex machina that magically resolves an impossibly difficult situation.
It was impossible to defeat the reapers without magic at end of Mass Effect 1.
It was impossible to defeat the reapers without magic at end of Mass Effect 2.
Mass Effect 3 starts, so either the reapers aren't going to be defeated or a new kind of magic has to be invented in the last act of the trilogy.

>>720727969
>Peter Molyneux
I miss him, the way he hyped the games up to an unrealistic degree was fun.
The fable games I played were fun enough for me to not hold any bitterness about that.

>>720723090
you don't have the context.

mass effect 1 and 2 build up towards a big ending where your choices matter (TM). whether or not the ending is good on its own is separate from whether or not it is satisfying as an ending in context.

it doesn't matter that it all makes sense and is thematically coherent and what the fuck ever. it doesn't do its primary job as an ending which is to satisfyingly conclude the story. in mass effect there are many many stories that exist alongside the main story and the ending ignores all of them.

>>720719346
>expecting way too much
I was only expecting them to not go proto-rian Johnson and subvert expectations so hard that they lost the whole plot. It's like they went down the list of Worst Ending Practices bullet point by bullet point and included everything.
>deus ex machina
>new character introduced at the last second
>"this child is the key to everything"
>it was all a dream. Let me tell you about the fanciful made up story of "The Shepard"
I will never ever forgive Casey Hudson

>>720719190
Mass Effect 3 was when I realized that the AAA game industry had died and became something different. Fuck them.

>>720728185
ME3's ending is not thematically coherent
It isn't even logically coherent

I actually finished the LE last night. Hadn't played it in over 10 years
We all might have shat on it (especially 3) all those years ago, but in retrospective jesus fucking christ devs can't make a game like those to save their lives nowadays
The game was just one decision away from truly being legendary. I don't know who came up with the coloured endings but that was not it. Even so, I really enjoyed all of the moments before the final decision

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>>720728005
>It was going to be Gurren Lagann.
So not Mass Effect, then? Pretty revealing don't you think?

>>720728185
>it doesn't matter that it all makes sense and is thematically coherent and what the fuck ever.
......What?
>It doesn't do its primary job as an ending which is to satisfyingly conclude the story
I. MUST. BE. SATISFIED!!!

>>720728247
>subvert expectations
Mass Effect 3 was extremely earnest though, it was not subversive. The subversion that you 'feel' was from your own expectations being "subverted" (you weren't satisfied)
But nowhere in this story is there subversion. Subversion would be "actually le reapers are le good and humanity is le evil and now everyone is dead and that's good"

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In my cycle.....we had food. Many of. Varieties.

>>720728512
mass effect 3's ending completely ignores every single subplot throughout all 3 games.

it fails as an ending.

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>>720728467
>jesus fucking christ devs can't make a game like those to save their lives nowadays
We've gotten a few games that have come close, but nothing in the entire industry even attempts to do what Mass Effect SUCCESSFULLY pulled off.

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>>720728794
>BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SIDE QUESTS!!??
You are not as intelligent as you think you are

>>720728512
>Subversion would be "actually le reapers are le good and humanity is le evil and now everyone is dead and that's good"
that wouldn't be subversion, that would just be a regular twist.

subversion would be where you save the day from the big bad reapers but nothing really is fixed and everything just continues being shit, i.e. that the world wasn't worth saving.

see how it subverts the expectation? subversion =/= contradiction or a twist.

>>720728512
>actually le reapers are good and humanity is evil and everyone is dead now and that's good
That's very close to what happened though. The reapers were actually trying to preserve life by killing it and turning it into more reapers and the God Child clearly laid out that two games of building peaceful relations with the geth was for nothing because lasting peace was impossible, meaning that any ending other than synthesis was just kicking the existential threat down the road (e.g. intelligent races surviving is bad because they'll eventually make AI that will make life extinct)

>>720728904
yes, everyone knows that a hallmark of good writing is when the subplots don't matter and a hallmark of great endings is when the subplots are completely ignored.

you're wrong and at this point you know that you are wrong so you're just baiting now. you did have a sincere argument but having now realised it's indefensible you're just pretending that you were trolling all along.

Maybe feminists shouldn't have killed the series and chased off all the talent with rape accusations

>>720728917
>save the galaxy
>everything is fixed
These ideas are not and never were mutually exclusive. Nothing is ever truly fixed. But you can fight back against what wants you destroyed.

>>720728467
>The game was just one decision away from truly being legendary. I don't know who came up with the coloured endings but that was not it. Even so, I really enjoyed all of the moments before the final decision
I really think this is a limitation of the average human mind. The ending wasn't uniquely bad: the ending was a mostly clear, simple, fun and comprehensible way to resolve the series as it developed to that point.
Except the games could never have a satisfying ending.
They had set up the reapers as being massively powerful, and thus set up expectations for the impossible:
an ending/reaper solution that is internally consistent to the plot and setting; but is also capable of defeating a threat that everything in the plot and setting realistically says shouldn't be defeated.
It also has the additional issue, that whatever motivation for the reapers you could ever possibly write would never be as mysterious and ominous as an unknown motivation. But the mystique of the reapers doesn't come from them being random, senseless destroyers for destruction's sake, it comes from them seemingly having a rational reason.

Mass Effect is video games Lost

>>720729068
it's an action game. any kind of exploration at all about how saving the world doesn't actually save the world would be subversive by the standards of action games.

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>*exhales cigarette smoke*
>*scratches forehead*
Shepard.

I don't think they even mention the concept of "achieving technological singularity" or anything like that, right?
I find it hard to believe that entities like EDI, who can compute and self improve at tremendous speeds, can't achieve that. Same with the computational power and sheer number of geth. That's more or less the root of the problem reapers are trying to fix
There's really no solution to any of this shit. At some point things WILL escalate to a point where sentient life and even planets become too fragile to technology and firepower. In that sense, resetting the galaxy at least keeps some sort of wonder alive for future species (the whole thing about making reapers out of previous civilizations is a bit retarded though)

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Break this, you space crab bitch! Humanity doesn't fucking listen to anyone, not even themselves.
You think you can kill us? Just go ahead and try it. Invade the Earth. Come find me.

I'll see you in hell, Reaper scum.

>>720729676
And then
>fight
>win
>thick wet fart as the reaper dies to a local armada

i never played 3 since 2 was already kind of shit. the reaper's motivations might be one of those mysteries that just can't have a satisfying answer and should have stayed mysterious

>>720720868
RINE ENDS HERE
_______________

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>>720719190
Writers for focus grouping, writing by committee.
The dark matter energy death plot was the obviously intended conceptual explanation for the reapers.
>the reapers allow life to develop until it reaches critical levels of technological advancement and starts causing expedited entropy
>mass relay technology exists as seedbeds (literally shaped like seeds) to guide this process
>dominant species (crop) is harvested and stored
>cycle begins anew with sapling life forms still evolving
>player is presented a difficult moral dilemma that reflects the real world issue of environmentalism and long term sustainability
But nah “robits and organics can’t get along lulz XD”

>>720720801
lmao no it's shit

>>720729896
I do believe, out of all the answers they could've provided, they chose a decent one. I think there was another one about a universal existential threat that they were gatekeeping by resetting the galaxy when certain conditions met. That could've been nice too
People need to understand that you will never have complete closure when it comes to sci fi and grand design kind of shit. It escapes human comprehension

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>>720729941
>the cycle cannot be broken, goyim!
Eat my ass.

problem was it was sold that your decision would make a difference but it wasn't shown, like you didnt fast forward for a hour segment to see how the world was afterwards to be the same but different, you just got a cutscene like all the other times but shittier feeling

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>>720730062
jesus christ, i was over my coomerism with this series but that fuckin liara costume just jolted the fuck outta me

>>720723470
The reaper story would only make sense if the end was ME1. They are invincible cosmic horrors, all the species fight together to stop the Sovereigh before it awakens them. the end.
The moemnt they wake up, the setting is done and any continuation could only be a barrage of asspulls

>>720730062
invent your own mass relay then chuddie

>>720726351
Cope, bimbo

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>>720730223
Liara's boob armors are so peak.

>>720722347
Gayshit A VS gayshit B
only difference between the two was marketing

Molymeme's hot-air promises were delivered in ridiculous ways that just made you laugh in hindsight.
>how it started: WE'RE GOING TO HAVE REAL TIME PROGRESS. SEE THAT TREE? YOU CAN WATCH IT GROW!
>how it turned out: your "15 years old" boy adventurer looks 60 years old by the time he rescues his older sister & mother (he looks older than both)

>>720727176
>Mass Effect 2 has the best characters and memorable moments.
lmao no. the only thing you can say about 2 is "better budget" or "better shooter". It's a downgrade in any other aspect

>>720719190
The thing that annoys me the most about ME3 is that the game DOES have a happy ending, it's just super rushed and not worth the effort. If you help all the species prepare for war, you get the cutscene at the end where Shepard's hand breaks through the rubble, showing that he survived, but that's it. They should've included a scene where you reunite with your buddies or at the very least your loved ones.

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>>720730523
>Garrus is better in 2
>Tali is better in 2
>Jack
>Miranda
>Thane
>Grunt
>fucking MORDIN SOLUS
Get out of my sight/site

>>720730523
The illusive man was pretty peak

>>720730523
Having the protag die within the first 10 minutes and then having to re-recruit your crew 1 by 1 with some of them struggling to believe that you're alive was super kino.

I will never not hate Jack

>>720730561
I mean that's pretty much a given. Bummer about losing EDI though
Perfect destroy is the best ending, even if you lose EDI. The galaxy now has a precedent of now fucking with AIs and trying to look for unity and peace. Starkid never saw that one coming so the cycle repeating itself won't be a guarantee

>>720726351
You have such an on rage batey way of conversing, you just take someone's opinion and flip it in the most patronizing way, where does this style come from, reddit?

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https://youtu.be/boVF5v0tO7s
Kino
Pure fucking kino

>>720730732
Killing the protag and undoing it in the first 10 mins is shit that I've only seen plaguing comicbooks

>>720730619
>angsty garrus
>boring tali
>toilet wall looking trash
>boring scanface
>lame himbo
>lmao no
>Mordin was ok
all worse

>>720719346
fpbp, only the most brain dead retards bought ME3 after how terrible ME2 was. They got exactly what they deserved.

>>720730814
the magic impulse was already bullshit, but the fact that it kills all AIs even the one not connected to the Reapers doesn't make any sense. It only exist to force a downside to the obviously perfect an superior ending

>>720726921
>tfw no scifi noir detective thriller investigating Dark Energy and seeing how deep the rabbit hole goes
ME1 kino, what could have been with the series if it followed what it was supposed to be

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>>720721230
>I wish this ending was good
>Every retard complains about people wanting a happy ending
I'm still not sure if this misinterpretation was deliberate or if everyone is retarded.

>>720719190
Anyone who believed in bioware deserved that shit.

You know what the worst thing is? I don't know if it matters. Like, of course it does to us, for our investment, but to the studio, I don't think it matters. They only care about the game so far as it makes them money, and if there is an issue arisen from the game they made, they will time skip, they will handwave, they will galaxy jump, anything to make the thing go away, because it is an inconvenience. An inconvenience that they, themselves, made to begin with. It's never about the fans, the fanbase, the people that pay/paid to keep them employed. It's all about ditching the blame, and going back to work as usual.
Back in 2012, sure working on the end of the trilogy was hard, but Bioware was ~450 people. They could easily taken the ending back, work something else, save the franchise etc. but they didn't care. All they wanted was for you, and me, to shut up, completely disregarding that this isn't a viable business model.
I am sure that for the next ME, they will do whatever it takes, to not have to deal with the shit of their own making, in the most offensive way to the fanbase that supported them. Because, ultimately, to Bioware, the repercussions of their own actions are meaningless. The franchise is simply a vehicle through which they can keep making money for a little while longer, before EA sends them, too, to the unemployment line. And that is no way to make video games, that is no way to make a Mass Effect. These people don't care about what they are making, or leaving behind.

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>MUH DARK ENERGY
Nobody cares about existentialist morally gray bullshit except Redditors and atheists
Blow up the Reapers with your fucking pistol like a man, do it for Anderson and do it for the kids and America
Mass Effect is not your secret club

>no, but it would've been so much better if relays and tech actually accelerated entropy and shit
bro it's just one (1) galaxy out of trillions you're not ending the universe at all
should've done vacuum decay; it wouldn't end the universe either, but still works for the local cluster

>>720731225
Yeah, talk about wasted opportunity

>>720731429
>angry words salad that means nothing at all
Hope it's bait

>>720724546
I'd rather not

>>720728005
Kino

>>720731043
You're right. Starting the finale with great lines like "we fight or we die", giving PTSD nightmares, and inserting space ninjas, while also not fighting the Reapers in their own game, made for such a better experience.

In the Redditor timeline they made Mass Effect 2 about "dark energy" like it's Kingdom Hearts and the game flopped miserably after being mocked and ridiculed

>>720722179
Someone would need to see on a scale of civilizations rising and falling because of hubris and decide enough was enough. That someone was a giant squid. The solution is simple we just fucking kill them dead. Problem solved.

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>>720728005
>KILL ALL HUMANS!
Begone, demon
Mass Effect is hopeful kino, not nihilistic trash.

>>720719190
The journalists. The people who made the ending, and finally the people who trusted EA to make anything but garbage in THAT order.

>>720719594
The ending if anything wasn't shat on hard enough. You're right in that they should have shat on more of the ending.

>>720719190
>make game
>game get popular
>make sequel in similar fashion
>series popular
>make third game but leave out things that made your game stand out
>game not popular, series interest dwindling
>make a total garbage "reboot" with clearly none of the talent that helped create the series in the first place
>two strikes, franchise dead


>seethe at players for expecting same or better quality from the studio

Gee I woonder who

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>>720730236
I disagree. The entire series shows you a progression of changing ideologies as the context of the Reaper threat and their capabilities is developed further and further. In Mass Effect 1, it's established that there is a Reaper that patrols the galaxy and informs the rest, who can indoctrinate/control synthetic life forms. Those synthetic life forms represent the existentialist threat all on their own, but the Reaper at the center of it and the question that the game asks you is "can synthesis between organic life and machine life be beneficial?" Then in ME2 it's established that the previous cycles dominant species were turned into body snatchers, and the concepts of indoctrination/control over the Reapers themselves is established through Illusive Man and his desire to reverse engineer a Reaper, "would full control of all synthetic lifeforms through a technological singularity God Shepard be beneficial?" And In ME3 it's full scale galactic war, everything is being destroyed. You must destroy every threat you can in order to survive. "Will destroying all synethic life be beneficial?" Each of the game's major thematic elements are built up upon each other throughout each of the games, and are represented in the ending decision to synthesize/control/destroy the Reapers, which are really just a metaphor for the "ultimate calculating logic only technological superiority", a state of being that exists without any living emotions. They represent the death of spirituality, which is the hope for a better day tomorrow.

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Ass Effect

>>720731750
I'm not praising 3

It's been another year lads, time to pay our respects to Shamus
https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=27792
https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=48983

>>720733690
RIP Shamus.
I think your take was retarded, but I wish it hadn't killed you.

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>>720719190
Why didn't they let you have jack as crew mate in 3? God she's fucking hot there.

>>720732873
>They represent the death of spirituality, which is the hope for a better day tomorrow.
So close… try again next time, atheist nigger.

>>720734205
>no rebuttal

>>720719190

EA made them release way too fast and demanded unreasonable expectations of Bioware. And half of the staff who had worked on Mass Effect 2 practically walked out on the series including it's most prominent Science Fiction writers.

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>>720719190
>Customers are wrong!
Yeah that agenda worked out great for game journalists.

>>720734154
>Bioware literally ran out of time
>She was going to be in the game and in the squad, but "Trick" Weekes vetoed Tali over Jack
>Tali won

>>720719190
>promise choices will matter
>promise reactivity
>promise deep story
>three game buildup
>Nah actually what you get is a three button ending. Fuck you.
But that sucks and isn’t what you promised.
>OMG GAMERS ARE SO ENTITLED RACISM SEXISM MISOGYNY GOD I HATE GAMERS GAMERS ARE THE WORST KILL ALL GAMERS
This seems unhinged.

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>>720734154
Mods help cover up the pain

>>720719190
Clearly everyone in their gamer caves. You were supposed to just show up and seal clap because it's another Mass Effect game. How fucking dare you complain? Can't you see how hard it is to pander to normalfags if we also have to try to keep you entertained? Think about someone other than yourself for once? You should be happy that we even technically had multiple endings.

>>720734597
Her entire game audio is 1:57 long.
Nothing covers up that pain.

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>>720734790
Citadel DLC is also really really fun. Jack is a 10, we love Jack.

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>>720735286
I do love Jack.
But she's even better when she and Miri (don't) get along.

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>>720735526
If they were in ME3, they would be right next to each other on the prep screen

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>>720720801

>>720719190
The players wanted a generic hollywood ending where the good guy wins and what they got was bittersweet and artistic. They havent stopped crying since.

Why Bioware approved of that shit ending and then spent hundreds of millions for Andromeda killed their golden goose.

>>720721230
You don't hate journalists enough.

>>720728247
>it was all a dream. Let me tell you about the fanciful made up story of "The Shepard"

Wait what?

>>720728467
>only the ending was bad
That was retarded 20 years ago and magically stayed retarded till now.

>>720736074
>Why Bioware approved
Bioware doesn't really get a choice once EA bought them out, they were stuck with putting in/allowing EA to shove whatever things they wanted into the game.

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>>720735989
Seems to be true. Just look how popular the generic happy ending mod is.
To be fair, I also played the game this way. It wasn't so bad, so sometimes generic can work.

>>720736262
EA always gave them tons of freedom. Even recently, letting them restart development on Veilguard twice, spending almost 10 years on that turd.

>>720736262
Even if EA were gigakikes, they (Bioware) still approved of that shit ending.

>>720736425
>>720736452
Pretty sure that was their shallow attempts to reduce the flak they got for all their other bullshit reminder that Anthem and Andromeda were the way they were because of EA rushing shit out. It's depressing that Bioware gets to not meet high sales numbers, but Visceral/MOTIVE get fucked because of making a niche game. Also Bioware changed lead writers by 2 and especially for 3.

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The Geth should've been romanceable after the first game.
The romance quest line could've been called "Come and Geth some."

>>720736729
Andromeda had 5 years of development, Anthem had 7 years of development, Veilguard had 8 years of development. It is nearly impossible to tell you which one of these is worse, but their dev time clearly didn't make them better.

>>720734420
And all this shit predated gamergate by a few years too

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>>720719190
It's honestly hilarious that Call of Duty Black Ops 2 did a much better job at player decisions/actions that affected moments in the story that heavily impacted what ending you get that same year in 2012 than Mass Effect 3

>>720722179
>>720725695
The entire premise of the reaper as revealed in ME3 seem to be explicitly ripped off a sci-fi novel named Revelation Space. Except it made much more sense in the original, so Bioware couldn't even copy a homework properly.

>>720736262
>Bioware doesn't really get a choice
They do

EA only cares about big number go higher, they couldn't care less about the creative side of stuff

If Bioware needed 2-3 more years of development for higher number go up then even Wilson would leave them be

The devs literally envisioned that shit ending, maybe after the original ME1 and ME2 devs and writers have moved on they added failed artsy Commiefornian Pedowood "writers"

all that effort and build up making geth an ally faction only to be blueballed in 3 unless you have a perfect save of mass effect 2
>you either side with the former slaves who don't really have much against the quarians anymore or the slave masters who will literally kill themselves if you don't side with them because they just hate their slaves that much

>>720737131
You're forgetting the part where they were forced to use Frostbite with almost no training or literature to make something like Mass Effect for Andromeda, and Anthem was almost certainly being developed at the same time as Andromeda and Inquisition.

>>720737380
You're putting a huge amount faith in EA for their bullshit. Amazing to see someone deepthroat corpo cock so easily.

>>720727626
>human but purple
what a daring alien love interest

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>>720719190
The Mass Effect 3 ending fiasco was the first big red flag that all game journalists were in a clique together, establishing narratives on how to present and bolster/kill games they liked or hated before they even released. This is unironically the moment where game news sites like Kotaku, IGN, etc. truly began to die and be replaced by individual content creators like Youtubers and streamers.

It was a damning incident that basically undercut the very nature of their credibility - nothing they said was about helping you determine if you'll enjoy a game, it was all just networking and greased palms dictating who got what scores.

>>720737693
Anon, if you ever had to manage a single person you would understand that micromanaging 14500 people is not something that's possible. Which means that you have never done anything in your life.

>>720722179
The original idea that they were building up to in ME1+2 was that advanced races discovering and then exploiting mass effect fields was tearing apart the galaxy. That's what Tali was researching in ME2, a star that was going supernova millions of years before it should have.

So the Reapers are supposed to come in and cull civilisations back to the stone age either to extend the lifespan of the galaxy or I guess to see if anyone comes up with an alternative.
Why they don't just nuke the gates is a question that would have needed asking.

>>720723470
Make 2 about searching through Prothean ruins in Terminus while racing and negotiating with various intelligence agencies and local powers, while the Collectors try to stop you. Follow the trail of some last stand Prothean group that was trying to build the Crucible only to find out in the middle the they were defeated and turned into the Collectors, and in the finale you need to lead the alliance you forged to stop them from summoning the Reapers with partial success, the Reaper fleet now being close and some arriving even sooner than that. Cerberus can be some shadowy group that helps you for their own reasons regardless of whether you shun them.

In 3 you run around uniting nations and resolving big problems while beating individual Reapers and securing resources for the Crucible, and then the main fleet arrives and kicks everyone's asses. You do a fighting retreat to the Crucible, and then, when it's completed in the nick of time, you learn that the Reapers are some ancient race that made themselves into AI gods, but then discovered some big problem with the mass effect technology, and also that due to not being organics, they are missing something and can't resolve it on their own. So they set up the cycle to harvest the perspective of new races and try to ascend past their current state into the next stage of consciousness.

For the endings, the neutral one is shutting down all Reaper technology, including mass relays, which means the galaxy is split, but you have the best scientists and forces with you and can work to reunify it. The Renegade one is Shepard taking control of the Reapers and becoming super king of the galaxy, and the Paragon one is using the Crucible to become the new kind of AI god and give the Reapers what they were missing, creating a new kind of galactic community where everyone can decide and such. Your choices during the trilogy change the details of the endings, like how accepting other people in the galaxy are of them.

>>720737531
You're saying stuff like they are unique to Bioware. CDPR basically doesn't know how their in-house engine works, and Cyberpunk was still a better game than any of them. Those are like priority issues #543 and on, in development for other studios. Even then, it's Bioware's job to deal with them. We've been telling them shit's fucked since DA2. At some point, results should have been seen by the public, and clearly haven't. How long am I supposed to support Bioware? Do I have "Charity" written on my forehead?
There are other studios that deal with the same issues, better. If the devs at Bioware can't deal with them, they should quit. And I am not saying that out of spite. Dealing with something that is impossible for you to deal with, must be incredibly stressful, and there is no reward for you. It is in your best interests to find a job somewhere else, either in the industry, or some other profession. This job will eat away at you otherwise. It's not worth it.

>>720719190
ME3 could've done a single satisfying Destroy ending, and people would've remembered it fondly even though it's just a generic heroic finale. Nobody is complaining about the ending of ME1.

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>>720736194
The last scene they added in Director's Cut. If you activate the Crucible, Buzz Aldrin talks to a kid about "The Shepard" and how it happened long long ago in a galaxy far far away. If you don't, some alien talks to the kid about the Reaper threat being taken care of anyway, thanks to Liara's data banks.

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https://youtu.be/3rf65FRgHt4

>>720738417
>Why they don't just nuke the gates is a question that would have needed asking.
Uhm, is this real question?

>>720738417
Solid if you ask me

>>720738417
>That's what Tali was researching in ME2, a star that was going supernova millions of years before it should have.
No, it's not. It doesn't make any sense that a star going supernova before it should have is somehow also the motivation of the Reapers to harvest organic life. That star is in some bumfuck system, and it literally doesn't matter in any way, it's a cool sci fi concept for an episodic mission with unique level design where standing in the sunlight hurts you. That's literally as deep as that idea goes in ME2. They throw "dark energy" on there as the bandaid to make you think "ooooo spooky sci fi words".

Don't you think if stars going supernova early was THE warning sign for "mass effect entropy acceleration", and that this phenomena was the ultimate signal for the Reaper invasion, there would be I don't know more than one fucking star going supernova early? Wouldn't the many, various, highly populated systems that have the most mass effect field manipulation happening there be the place where entropy would be accelerating the most? Like, the star next to the Citadel, for example?

And since we know the Reapers were indeed coming the whole time, that means the cycle is at it's end, it's been 50,000 years. So then doesn't that mean that there's no time left? Wouldn't that mean the mass effect AIDS is also about to come? So where is that in Mass Effect 1? In Mass Effect, it tells you how long the Protheans fought back against the Reapers AFTER the invasion began. The Reapers stuck around for a very long time too. There's literally zero mention of any kind of mass effect AIDs going on that's fucking with the stars. No evidence to suggest that single stars phenomena has anything to do with mass effect field generations either. They literally just say "dark energy" and then move on.

>>720719190
It's not about entitlement. Everyone was let down by star kid and the endings.

I was never one to screech and rage about it, but that was up to bioware if they felt the need to make up for anything. We got armax arena though, so I was happy with that.

>>720719346
>making new stories and cutscenes for evil, neutral, and good is too difficult
americans deserved to lose the gaming market to japan. lazy fucks.

>>720744609
>evil/neutral/good
You are a retarded NPC. That's not what Mass Effect is.

>>720741475
>wet Miranda
Hot

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>>720744731
>wet Miranda
If there is anything that remasters/remakes are good for, it's things like photo mode

>>720719190
On one hand you were a gullible rube or a literal child if you thought Bioware was going to deliver on even half of the shit they promised. Your choices were not going to matter much, they never do in these fucking games. But for me that was fine, advertisers gonna advertise, you have a spiritually empty job and you should feel near suicidal ideation at all times but fine. On the other hand ME3 as a whole just felt really sloppy, like they rushed their massive endcap trilogy for some reason. Remember the Tali reveal was just some royalty-free picture of a model photoshopped a bit? I wasn't a Talifag but come on, you'd expect these cocksuckers to try a little on that reveal. Maybe put a little artistic thought into it, not make her a literal human retrofitted to be vaguely alien. That's basically how I feel about the endings as well, just stunningly low effort for the magnitude of the scene. You shoot the Red Door/Blue Door/Green Door and Receive Cutscene. Don't hype up your game if this is what you're putting out, unironically tempering expectations would have been a fiscally responsible move.

I ain't buying another ME without Jack and Miri on the squad.

>>720745218
>people lied, but it's OK that they lied to you
Casey's left the company, there's no reason to suck his dick in 2025.

>>720745347
Fact is there's an entire lucrative career in lying to people to sell product. I don't see your ass picking up a gun and accosting your local ad agencies so you're accepting it too, I'm just more honest about it. I haven't purchased a Bioware game since ME3 because the liars did too poor of a job lying to me, as opposed to normally the liars do a decent enough job.

It's kind of insane to me that there are people that go "oh, it was fine after they updated it and clarified what happened."

No, it was a critical error in ripping away player agency when the series was built and sold on your choices having an impact. You don't get to ask enough questions about what's going on. You don't get to have a dialogue with the catalyst. You're completely at the Reapers' broken-logic mercy to the point of instantly losing if you reject their dichotomy.

Nobody would've blinked twice at an ending where you just blow up the fucking Reapers and everyone goes home. There was plenty of room to explore how your choices impacted the universe or how they didn't, but they locked themselves in a room, huffed their own hot air, and came up with some stupid mythical bullshit that once again rips something from star control 2 but does it 20 times as badly at the very end.

>>720745785
>Nobody would've blinked twice at an ending where you just blow up the fucking Reapers and everyone goes home.
So then choose to destroy the reapers and get over yourself already

>>720745550
>I don't see your ass picking up a gun and accosting your local ad agencies so you're accepting it too
>If you're not literally committing murder, you are complicit
Chill the fuck out, Tyler Robinson. Lying is one thing, murder is another. The last Bioware game I bought, was ME2.

Should've the ending been more like a glorified slideshow like FNV?

>>720745879
But that's not what happens, and that's not how it works.

>>720746163
I mean, that's pretty much what the EC is. A slideshow, with some voice over.

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>>720719190

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>>720746175
>But that's not what happens
Excuse me? What the fuck are you going on about, schizo?

>>720719190
bioware for not planning out the trilogy's main story from the start and gamers not realizing the rapid descent of Bioware post Kotor 1 because their first exposure to the company was ME1, when it had already began

>>720724424
>No cute blueberry gf
She stopped being cute when the writers decided we couldn't have a nice socially awkward archaeologist because we needed another femme fatale.

>>720744437
Dark energy entropy is the core point cuz it spreads like cancer because of Mass Effect tech. That’s why the Reapers exist to reset things before it all collapses. Harvesting isn’t random cruelty, it’s their way of maintaining shit. The whole organics vs. synthetics thing is more of a side plot the real threat has always been entropy. The series is called Mass Effect for a reason, not Reapers. How the fuck do you purposely get filtered by dark matter kino, I get it you don't like it cuz people constantly bring it up or w/e but bro lol

>>720719190
One of many major instances of games media showing how transparently bought they were.

>>720746624
>Dark energy entropy is the core point cuz
It's literally not in the game. I've played Mass Effect three times in the last 2 years.

>>720746291
You also blew up the Relays, ensuring that trillions of people will die, due to lack of access to basic goods.
Even then, just because I headcanon destroy, and until Bioware calls destroy as canon, none of it matters.

>>720719376
https://files.catbox.moe/4zcuq6.mp4

>>720731785
>giant squid sees countless civilizations rise and fall
>how do I stop this
>I know, I will be the thing that causes them to fall!
shit's so ass man

You know how when you start creative writing, it's discouraged to write a "genius" character because you'll then have to think like a genius to make them believable? That's Reapers. They were set up as these eldritch machines whose motives are galaxies beyond what you can conceive of, and then the ending comes and their motives are actually very understandable and kind of retarded too. Better to leave that stuff in the shadows if you don't have the writing capabilities to make it work.

>>720746954
>Better to leave that stuff in the shadows
Yes. The Reapers should never have reached the galaxy except for possibly a few for climactic battles like in the first game. It should all have been about finding a way of delaying them or stopping them from arriving. Setting up a supposedly invincible enemy and then actually have our protagonists engage them head on was retarded.

>>720746745
>You also blew up the Relays, ensuring that trillions of people will die
That's not true. The relays can be fixed. Why would trillions of people die just because you can't travel faster than light anymore? Trillions of people get along just fine without it. The relays weren't completely destroyed, they were disabled and could theoretically be repaired within a few decades at most, starting with the Citadel. Some mass relays literally never worked anyways....Did you even pay attention to the game at all?

>>720746276
END OF RINE
__________________________
RINE ENDS HERE

>>720747276
>NOOOOO HUMANS CAN'T MAKE THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE!!!! THAT'S RETARDED!
I'm so glad I don't think like you and can enjoy hopeful fiction

>>720746712
post steam playtime

The reapers thought they were invincible, but were defeated by the power of friendship.

Mass Effect is a JRPG in disguise.

>>720746954
they could've just stolen from TNG honestly, with how warp drives being pushed to high speeds would result in universe fuckery right? Have the franchise be kickstarted by the discovery of an alternate means of travel outside of mass relays that's on it's face more efficient and doesn't require two relays to use, and that's how the humans make first contact outside of the Sol system and how they can hang in the first contact war, because they can just warp in and out of locations. Make the consequences on the cosmos invisible to all but the reapers, who activate as they see it as the weaponization of dark matter or whatever with the goal of destroying the cosmos itself, the thing they were created to oversee after a big war a bazillion years ago almost destroyed all of creation. change the unknowable lines to something more akin to "you do not understand the damage you have caused, we will be the ones to clean up the mess your people have created"

>>720747276
the biggest problem with the reapers actually showing up is that the bulk of reaper fights would be vehicle and ship based, a horrible match for the gameplay systems of ME.

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to be fair the story in ME3 shat the bed way before the end
>"Oh shit the Reapers are here, how do we stop them."
>"guys we found the plans for a huge anti-Reaper button"

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>>720747676
One full playthrough on PS5, one full playthrough modded on PC, halfway through a third playthrough when I uninstalled, running a fourth playthrough on PS5 with my nephew whenever he comes over to visit so that he can experience kino.

Dark energy destroying the universe is not in the game, at all.

>>720719376
Do you think a game studio could get away with putting a games journalist in their game again? It was extremely bold of them to scream to everyone about their bribe.

>>720723549
b-but Shepard, that doesn't solve anything...

>>720747905
>we found the plans for the anti reaper button in a library that was there the whole time
>also we totally built it in space with zero interference from the reapers themselves because they're busy attacking backwater shitholes like tuchanka

>>720747587
except they did it with a magic plot device that humans didn't design or control the key to with no hints to its existence in prior games. Yeah humans can do anything in a story if they're given a magic superweapon built by aliens in a massive ass-pull, whoop de doo

>>720747501
>That's not true. The relays can be fixed.
No, they can't. We don't know how they work.
>Why would trillions of people die just because you can't travel faster than light anymore?
Because cluster to cluster travel takes months to years without the relays and access to necessities will be impossible. It is basically a complete collapse of commerce and supply lines.
>The relays weren't completely destroyed, they were disabled
They are not disabled. They are still shown to be destroyed, just not obliterated like they were in the original ending. Even then, we don't know how they work, in order to fix them.
>Some mass relays literally never worked anyways....Did you even pay attention to the game at all?
Again, cluster to cluster travel takes weeks to months. You would need to gather large enough forces to set out to inactive clusters, find relays, move them, align them, and activate them, with no supply lines for Eezo, incredible damage to infrastructure for mining that Eezo, and the loss of life related to the people able to repair that infrastructure, and extract that eezo. People will be dead in the meantime.

>>720747754
Mostly agree with the TNG idea. Following TNG's way of resolving conflict I would even be fine with the good ending being something like stopping the Reapers by discovering a means to repair damage or at least stop further damage as proof to them that this permutation of sapient creatures is worthy of continuing. I don't know how much normal people would be fine with the big bad not being physically beaten though.

>>720747587
The way the reapers were portrayed in the first game, it would always have taken a deus ex machina or a giant ass pull to fight them head on. We're talking ancient alien squids bots where a single one was a giant threat to the combined alliance fleets. Bots that have been going through these killing cycles for god knows how long.

It's also not black and white. A story can be hopeful without having to pull off the impossible.

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>>720748259
>people will be dead in the meantime
And the entire galaxy would be wiped of advanced life otherwise
Why are you complaining that there is a tangible cost to defeating the Reapers lol
And YES, they CAN fix the mass relay you fucking JACKASS.

>>720748572
>And YES, they CAN fix the mass relay you fucking JACKASS.
NTA, but wasn't this added in the extended ending they put out because people were pissed that the galaxy was going to turn into a post apocalypse setting without them?

>>720746845
>giga based professor X tier civilization
>lmao dude fuck this boring shit the slaves keep killing each other with A.I
>lets invent ubuntu gnu A.I that will have no viruses and find a solution
>A.I gets hard stuck on solution
>comes up with most rudimentary one
>keep harvesting
>keep uplifting the chosen species
>wait for species that will avoid the venus trap relays and find alternative form of travel to stop pumping dark energy
niggas to this day still pretend not to understand for replies

>>720748985
Do you know what year it is? Why are you arguing with 13 year old information?

>>720719190
I'm not entitled to an opinion, then you're not entitled to my money.

>>720749129
I'm not arguing. I just think it's funny that people were so angry about that specific point they had to retcon it and find it funny that some anon is still angry about it.

Yes hes wrong, and most zoomers have no idea how bad the original ending was, they have only seen the extended ending which is still pretty bad.

>>720749119
>wait for species that will avoid the venus trap relays and find alternative form of travel to stop pumping dark energy
Source this
The reapers intentionally had species use their technology and made them develop along their predetermined paths

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>>720747914
>One full playthrough on PS5, one full playthrough modded on PC, halfway through a third playthrough when I uninstalled, running a fourth playthrough on PS5 with my nephew whenever he comes over to visit so that he can experience kino.
>Dark energy destroying the universe is not in the game, at all.
I respect you as a fan, but also disrespectfully disagree with your opinion.

>>720748173
>repapers before
>glassing entire planets they cba invading
>reapers now having slow ww1 tier trench warfare againts garden planets while Shepard is dancing and playing games in Cidatel DLC tm
>also we magically found super sekrit plans on Mars of all places
>btw cerberus and its unlimited resources of just about everything is acting like its ME2 and reapers are not even remotely present
lol

>>720719190
*sigh* can chuds just stop expecting games to be good already? grow up!

>>720748259
Original ending was brutal considering how literally everything even remotely related to dark energy or reaper/protheon based tech was destroyued, unfortunately Shepard also with all of his implants. Everyone literally goes back to more or less pre space flight dark ages, all those planets who relayed on garden worlds turn into madmax tier nightmare scenarios

>>720748985
2+2=5, anon

>>720749893
So then where is it, bub? Where's the evidence?
It's not in the game. You have absolutely nothing to point to.

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>>720748572
Posting some real shit

>>720719346
>expecting way too much
they were fine with ME2 bending over the story and fucking it because Martin Sheen had a great performance.
Even if they were too stupid to make a good ending, a brainless, pandering ending would have worked just fine, even if there probably would have been a few
>ME3 isn't as good as we thought
essays down the line.

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>>720719346
>>720719190
they literally lied about it. Deus Ex came out a few months earlier and the lead writer went on twitter and said the ME3 ending was more involved than the deus ex ending and the deux ex ending was like a 1/9 or 1/12 ending where you picked one of 3 or 4 endings and the only actual change, other than that immediate action, was based off of how many guys you killed, it would change alex's dialogue slightly

>>720719346
>consumers are to blame for fucked up product
yup here we go
face the wall scum

>>720749378
What you say is true, do you understand why ?

>>720750851
man even desu sex has played actions affecting story. different characters will appear depending on what you have done, world will be in different states, you will be hacked/non hacked if you took/not took the cyber vaxx.
me3 was just compeltely atrocious writing on the level of new star wars where they pulled deus ex machina not mentioning before ever out of their ass and illusive man just turned to be mad man instead of anti-hero.

>>720723470
Have the reapers stuck in dark space, with 2 and 3 primarily being about uniting the galaxy for when they finally emerge.

>>720750863
consumers are to blame for having expectations of getting a not fucked up product from a studio that had been a downward spiral of fucking up basically every product they put out for years, yeah. you bozos were buying a game from the studio that put out DA2 and ME2's main story and was shocked when the writing was bad in ME3.

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>>720719190

>>720719190
>makes a shit game
>muh gamers at fault
I can’t fathom the mindset of blaming customers for not liking a product rather than just admitting you made a shit product and just moving on. No one liked it, too bad.

>>720751018
the rest of the writing of the game was ass and rushed too. like they had some good arcs like the krogan and quarian archs had a lot of good scenes in them I'm just pointing out human revolution came out less than a year before me3 and does basically the same thing as me3 with 4 choices and slightly different voice over and that fucking faggot hudson said in a tweet that the end of me3 was nothing like the end of human revolution when it was the same fucking thing

>>720741116
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHOQD2upGBU

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>>720751161
He had an impossible vision, too bad so sad
It's still a good game

>>720751408
I wonder if they were ever self-aware. Did they really expect the Star Child and picking a colour to be a hit with the audience?

>>720751062
it doesnt work that way
in realities false advertizing is always a failure of the producer

>>720751510
its a terrible game
its like saying lost was a good movie

>>720746276
RINE ENDS HERE

>>720751601
I think I read somewhere that basically all the other writers didn't like the stuff casey put in at the end and he wrote the ending alone.

>>720751603
it 100% works that way. if you're still falling for marketing and buying products from companies you know that do bad work you only have yourself to blame for it. it's like eating a plate of shit, asking for seconds then getting mad when you're served another turd

>>720751161
>>720751510
most of the good shit wasn't even him. Drew wrote all the cool shit in 1 and most of 2.

>>720751935
The most tired shit I've seen repeated ad nauseum in these threads.

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Mass Effect 3 is a great game actually

>>720752010
drew wrote ME1, which everyone agrees is the best of the 3 plot wise and Drew wrote the dark energy stuff, which was cool.

>>720719190
it's 2025 and we still don't have any good on model liara porn

>Before release, developer promises, "It won't be like other games where you pick ending 1, 2, or 3"
>Actual games comes out, you get to pick ending Red, Green, or Blue

>>720748572
>>And YES, they CAN fix the mass relay you fucking JACKASS.
That is simply wrong, though. We don't know how to fix the Relays. We don't know how they work. Showing some people putting one back together, means absolute shit, until a ships goes through one, and shown to safely reach the other.

>>720719190

What entitlement? If you advertise the third game is the end of your trilogy and advertise that all the choices the player made across the trilogy are going to shape the outcome it´s not unreasonable to expect that promise fulfilled.

Instead you get 3 different colored indoctrination scenarios. It may be a cope but the indoctrination theory is the only thing that gives some form of closure. At least until a real ending is achieved.

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>>720752246
>MUH DARK ENERGY!!!!
Nonsensical head canon, where does this shit come from? Why are you so obsessed with an idea that is completely unformed and underdeveloped that never actually comes to fruition in the game(s) in any tangible way?

>>720752637
Anons are obsessed because they got an ending so bad it had people headcanon Shepard being brainwashed by the Reapers as a preferable alternative to reality.

>>720752637
are you casey? why are you seething like a tranny? the tali stuff was cool in me2 so people wanted more of it. the fanfic dark energy shit was better than what we got so people talk about it.

>>720752851
Why is Destroy so hard for people to understand?

>>720752964
>the tali stuff was cool
Tali stuff is not cool. Starting to notice a pattern develop here.

>>720721686
It's weird looking back how it wasn't even political at all at first, it all started over shit like this, microtransactions and whether casualised reboots of beloved series were okay or not.

>>720720801
>Falsely advertised game that was sold broken
>To this day it remains as just an open world game with multiple endings
God you people disgust me.

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>>720731276
Does the ending offer a coherent conclusion?
>No
Okay, so then does the ending offer a satisfying tie-off that varies depending on your choices made throughout the series?
>Uh...doesn't do that either...
Well, does it at least provide a sense of reaffirmation and/or catharsis (read: happy ending so the players don't feel like they just got spat in the face after waiting five years for this moment?
>....No, it was basically End of Evangelion only somehow worse...
It was all of the above, anon-kun. Bioware refused to provide us with even a morsel of satisfaction with any facet of what could be considered conventional ending tropes. They subverted EVERY expectation in the worst possible way to spite the audience. There was absolutely nothing redeemable about any of it. That's why there was such a monumental backlash. Bioware cast us off into the ocean without so much as a plank of wood to hold onto. On the contrary, they tied us to a damned anchor and laughed as as we sank to the depths.

>>720752559
>We don't know how to fix the Relays
>We don't know how to build the Crucible
>We don't know how to defeat the Reapers
Mass Effect shitposters never learn

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>>720735989
>generic Hollywood ending

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https://youtu.be/xoTn32KzkyA

>>720753148
you must wear women's clothing

Considering the community praised ME2 being a downgrade of ME1, they deserved endings that made them seethe.
ME2 gutted the plot, ruined the combat system and got rid of exploration entirely.

>>720753623
Tali is literally a disgusting jewish suit rat

>>720753323

I wonder what she looks like nowadays

>entitled
im literally a paying customer, of course that im entitled to a good game

>>720753643
holy shit, zoom zoom zoom
play the originals instead of the remakes. I liked driving around the mako but most of the mako shit was a slog if you didn't have a map. the maps were just too big and spread out and ME2 had better gameplay than ME1. ME1 was janky as shit and plays like an early 2000s RPG

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>>720754020
>remake
Fucking retard....

>>720753323
What dodger is up to lately? Haven’t heard of her since TB passed.

>>720721230
>reaper romance option
Would buy that dlc

>>720736386
>>720735989
>>720728005
>>720723812
These are the same types of players that love endings to games such as
>Callisto Protocol
>RDR 2
>Expedition 33
>Killzone Shadowfall
>Bioshock Infinite
>Cyberpunk 2077
etc

>>720719190
Reapers should have won

>>720754128
I don't follow e celeb cancer and neither should you. I just saved it as a reaction.

>>720753643
They kind of went for two different audiences with ME1 and ME2 and each game nailed it. ME3 is the one that shit the bed, but at least some people enjoyed the multiplayer from what I have read.

>>720721129
Shepard's trauma scenes might've worked if you were seeing ghosts of the people who had died in your playthrough.

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>>720719346
>Gamers for expecting way too much
If asking for endings that differ in things other than a color palette is "too much" then this media is completely fucked.
There's a very, very large difference between a product being overhyped by the customers and the creators underdelivering on a promise that they themselves set up.