Will I have to have Xbox Live to download and update the game? I don't have Live anymore, but I still want the update, does anyone know? Also, as I asked before, does anyone know exactly when this will come on? It's unfortunate more people aren't at least a little more excited about it, it's understandable, but still. I hope there's more Mass Effect in the future, even though I can hardly care less about what goes on before the end of three now, but whatever.

Xbox 360 midnight by Hawaii Standard Time. PlayStation 3 11 a.m. PC 9 a.m.

@Dizzyhippos: Hm, I'm PST. Not sure what that'd make it. I'll have to check, even then it might not matter. It's 2:03 AM here in WA, and I'm installing the two disks to my 360 right now.

@NTM said:

@Dizzyhippos: Hm, I'm PST. Not sure what that'd make it. I'll have to check, even then it might not matter. It's 2:03 AM here in WA, and I'm installing the two disks to my 360 right now.

1 hour, I'm personally waiting for Dongguard goodness.

@Zacagawea: It's in one hour from now then? What time zone are you? I have the game going right now, it just updated, don't know what that did, but I'm sure it wasn't anything real special.

Its up on Xbox.com if you search for extended cut. I just added to my download queue.

If your really lucky like me and you bought it for the PS3 and live in Europe its coming out next Wednesday.

I just started downloading from the Xbox games marketplace.

Yeah, sweet. It's too bad it often gets on the actual site than the system first. I'm downloading it now too. I'm excited.

Yayyyy. It's going, and it's going pretty fast too.

Yeah, I'm downloading now too. 1.85 GB. Almost broke the disc taking it from the collectors edition case. Fuck that bullshit case.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Mass-Effect-3-Extended-Cut/3d5e7463-20d5-4860-890d-15c90899ec78?cid=search

@Wraxend: Yeah, I heard, that sucks. No, I'm downloading it right now on 360.

@Zacagawea: Yeah, that would have been great.

@NTM: SCEE just takes the piss now its like being a second rate customer.

So if it takes about 3-4 hours to get through that content to see what they changed then there might be a 100% galactic readiness with no on dying (except for the few sacrifices in the 3rd game) in about 5 hours. I don't think I can play the multiplayer back up to 100% and do the end section again.

@golguin said:

So if it takes about 3-4 hours to get through that content to see what they changed then there might be a 100% galactic readiness with no on dying (except for the few sacrifices in the 3rd game) in about 5 hours. I don't think I can play the multiplayer back up to 100% and do the end section again.

How much of the game did they change? The whole last mission? Where do those supposed 3-4 hours come from?

bollocks. Cerberus mission is an hour. Earth is another hour. I expect the content is littered throughout the entire fight for earth section not just right at the end.

I wonder if there will be more if you have a high galactic readiness. I'm not gonna bother playing the multiplayer to find out tho.

bollocks. Cerberus mission is an hour. Earth is another hour. I expect the content is littered throughout the entire fight for earth section not just right at the end.

I wonder if there will be more if you have a high galactic readiness. I'm not gonna bother playing the multiplayer to find out tho.

@ImmortalSaiyan said:

@golguin said:

So if it takes about 3-4 hours to get through that content to see what they changed then there might be a 100% galactic readiness with no on dying (except for the few sacrifices in the 3rd game) in about 5 hours. I don't think I can play the multiplayer back up to 100% and do the end section again.

How much of the game did they change? The whole last mission? Where do those supposed 3-4 hours come from?

Cerberus and Earth combined weren't 3-4 hours? It sure as hell felt like several hours when I beat the game. I know I really took my time on Earth trying to find all the dialogue and things of that sort. Cerberus did not seem like less than an hour, but I guess I'm probably mistaken.

@familyphotoshoot said:

http://www.twitch.tv/apperation This dude is livingstreaming the EC if you guys are interested/still awake.

Thanks you for that. Watching it now. Hopefully this guy made similar enough choices so that it feels like my file.

Yeah, I'm downloading now too. 1.85 GB. Almost broke the disc taking it from the collectors edition case. Fuck that bullshit case.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Mass-Effect-3-Extended-Cut/3d5e7463-20d5-4860-890d-15c90899ec78?cid=search

I finished it from the getting on the Citadel part, had no idea it took place over the entire ending. Not going through that again. What I did see seemed eh. Whatever.

@Zacagawea said:

I finished it from the getting on the Citadel part, had no idea it took place over the entire ending. Not going through that again. What I did see seemed eh. Whatever.

Did you beat it? What happened?

Nevermind.

@Napalm said:

@Zacagawea said:

I finished it from the getting on the Citadel part, had no idea it took place over the entire ending. Not going through that again. What I did see seemed eh. Whatever.

Did you beat it? What happened?

Same stuff up until space child. Then I shot the red things with wires and it started going boom. It showed me Miranda, Garrus, and Thane in flashback, which is nice. (I romanced Miranda in both games, hung out/missed sniper shots with Garrus, and did some Thane stuff in the game previously.) I believe it showed some new fighting stuff on various planets with the Reapers dying from red electricity. It showed Joker (and Garrus!) on the Normandy freaking out from the explosion, talking about getting the fuck out. Showed Mass Relays blowing up from said red electricity, then showed the planet sequence with Garrus, Joker, and Liara coming off the Normandy, which was again, nice. Later on they just straight up fly the fuck off the planet. Then it went into what was pretty much drawings mixed with cutscenes of places/people (Wrex, Miranda, etc.) with Admiral Hackett spitting some MAD game about rebuilding what we've lost and how far we've come. It shows the ships around Earth just floating, I'm personally still confused as to why Joker freaked the fuck out and crashed. Then it cuts to Normandy with all your crew sitting around the wall with everybody's names of who has died. Joker is a holding name plate with Shepards name on it. He then fondles it for a moment. Cut to concrete and Shepeard breathing like in the original ending.

And that was that.

@Zacagawea said:

Joker is a holding name plate with Shepards name on it. He then fondles it for a moment. Cut to concrete and Shepeard breathing like in the original ending.

WTF.

Is there no epilogue? I could have sworn they said something about an epilogue sequence. Unless that speech is supposed to be the epilogue...

@Napalm said:

@Zacagawea said:

Joker is a holding name plate with Shepards name on it. He then fondles it for a moment. Cut to concrete and Shepeard breathing like in the original ending.

WTF.

Is there no playable epilogue? I could have sworn they said something about an epilogue sequence.

I put my controller down then had to move it later at the beginning of the credits because the screen got dark. Definitely didn't play anything.

Unless there was something after the credits or earlier then I loaded.

@Zacagawea said:

I put my controller down then had to move it later at the beginning of the credits because the screen got dark. Definitely didn't play anything.

Unless there was something after the credits or earlier then I loaded.

Well, this is awesome, I guess. I guess I'll cancel that download and go see what is up with Spec Ops: The Line.

I wasn't expecting much but that was just weak. Now people will get annoyed and it'll be March all over again.

I can't believe I fell for it again. Goddamn you, Bioware.

I can't believe I fell for it again. Goddamn you, Bioware.

@Ursus_Veritas: I'm being judgmental now because I've already read two weak reports. I'm not going to get upset, I'm not going to rage. I'm simply going to move on. I want to do another run-through of the trilogy with a new character at some point in the later future regardless. I just have no interest in going back to the series right now, but I did have a slight spike in interest this morning. Not so much now.

Yeah, this doesn't sound great. Reading the Bioware forums paints this as a pretty cheap out and doesn't add much substance.

I shouldn't have expected much, but at the same time was really hoping for Bioware to come through with something worthwhile.

@Zacagawea said:

Yeah, I'm downloading now too. 1.85 GB. Almost broke the disc taking it from the collectors edition case. Fuck that bullshit case.

http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Mass-Effect-3-Extended-Cut/3d5e7463-20d5-4860-890d-15c90899ec78?cid=search

Goddamn, I thought it was just me who had trouble with that piece of shit case.

Well, I just finished up that stream, and I can say that they definitely fill in a ton of plotholes, and they basically single-handedly disprove the Indoctrination Theory. No, they don't explain anything away, but they show greater detail and an actual sequence of events and make it feel like a complete story.

I honestly feel so much better about this. Finding out that the Starchild is just the Reaper collective, and actually feeling like there's resolution. I'm happy about it. I really am. Even though this is stuff that theoretically should have been in the shipped game, I'm glad they got it here regardless.

I watched the new Destroy and Reject endings on a stream:
 
Destroy is hilarious. Seriously. The cheesy FO3 slides aside, they pretty much backtracked on all of the consequences the Destroy ending was supposed to have. The galaxy is fine, rebuilds without a cinch, there is no genocide of an entire species and the ORGANICVSSYNTHETIC BS no longer matters.
 
Reject would have been my preferred ending if Destroy actually did what it was supposed to do. I like the concept of resisting the reapers' BS, allowing future generations to live outside of their control......buuuuuuttt they retconned Destroy, so there's no reason not to. 
 
A big "meh" all-around. I didn't even care going in and I still don't now. Had Reject been more expanded/emotionally engaging and included in the original game, I would have been satisfied. Too little, too late.

I just beat it, and it's fine, some of the stuff feel tacked on, and it totally made it so the indoctrination theory everyone thought it was isn't so. The one major thing that changed for me was that the Illusive man killed Anderson since I didn't have the choice to pick blue or red which I did before. What the hell is that about? I don't know, I'd like to hear what everyone else thought. This was my third playthrough, and I did two of the side choices, everyone except for synthesis, so I did it this time, and well, yeah. Right now I don't really know what to think. It was different.

There was also more to the conversation choices when talking to the child thing. There were differences for sure. Now the Star child thing is going, it's the same. Oh, and the end message is different. It basically just says thanks for playing.

@mutha3: Really? REALLY! That's beyond cheap. Why back out of what you committed. Especially since you have two options that this doesn't happen. Also why is Shepard still alive in Renegade. It just seems like creating addtional problems.

Having watch two endings. I have to say, improves greatly the closure and fills in most of the terrible plot holes. The crashing on the planet should have been cut. It adds nothing to the cohesiveness and was one of the many things that confused players. Why have them crash if they were just going to be able to rebuild the ship and leave. Pointless. More importantly it just.... Why the hell wasn't this originally in the game. It not that much extra work in comparison. It's mostly a slideshow and voiceover. You really couldn't do this the first time bioware. They still should be taken to task for releasing a crappy ending.

@golguin: @paulwade1984: Awkwardly, I had everything as far up as I could without doing the multiplayer, and before, I could do all the blue or red on my conversations, but this time I couldn't, and the Illusive man killed Anderson. It sucked. I don't really understand why this was, I got a new achievement because my war readiness was at the top, in yet I still didn't get the choice for Illusive man to shoot himself and have a nice little conversation before Anderson dies? It was just weird to me.

@Napalm: Yeah, everything was pretty much laid out and finished.

I'd love to see a quick look of this.

New Refusal Ending!

So are we done with the Indoctrination Theory now? Please?

EDITED: Oof. I checked on the Bioware forums (I know), and people are trying to convince themselves that this is actually just Fake Ending 2 (of 2). I find that hard to believe.

I watched those videos....it still seems it doesn't really reflect your choices throughout the games. Showing a still image while irrelevant dialogue plays over it, isn't exactly the variation I was looking for.

ugh that fucking star child, from the idea of it to the voice, I hate that motherfucker.

@CrossTheAtlantic: I find it very awkward. It seems like Bioware read all of the complaints, and the whole indoctrination theory, then immediately said "Nope, fuck them, they don't know how we ended it. Let's make it so it totally disregards that!" So no, the ending is not the indoctrination theory, and it's very clear that it's not.

Also, it's great that you want to post here, but this is a better thread for all things ME3 ending discussion now.

New DLC Endings. Better? Worse? No diff? SPOILERS

I don't know if this was adressed but I'm trying to avoid spoilers. Do you have to load your last save or is there a way to go strait to the Extended Cut?

@papercut: Sounds like you want to start as close to the "run towards the beam" sequence as possible. I think that's where it starts to diverge.