I had figured I'd power through to the end, but then I reconsidered and decided to replay the whole endgame. I actually was planning to get all this done in one day, but that didn't happen.

So, here's the last four hours of the game or so, the endgame as it were, right up until Harbinger arrives.

This probably won't be very interesting, since I was planning to just take notes, but ended up writing a stream-of-consciousness thing, but hey; feel free to skip it if you're only after Extended Cut tidbits. I'll probably repeat myself a bit between the two; a lot things I've been noticing are general problems with the game, and many deserve repeating.

So anyway...

Here's how I'll go about playing the Extended Cut:

I start the game up from the last save before Earth. Although I think the game falls apart as early as Thessia, I'd really have to play through the whole game from scratch, knowing what I know now, to see what parts just don't work. And at that point, I really ought to play through Mass Effects 1 and 2, just to compare. And then Dragon Age: Origins, Awakening, and Dragon Age II, to contrast. Oh, and compare that to the two Witcher games. And Red Dead Redemption, I hear that has a great ending.

Or, simply starting from Earth (or as close to Earth as possible) and watch the fireworks. I know there's an autosave *right* before the end, but the last save I have is right before entering the beam. I'm *pretty sure* the last prior save to that, is just before the assault on Earth. Regardless, the final save the game gives you is just before the Cerberus Base, so I might start from there.

Along the way, I'll make notes and elaborate on what I think of them.

Before even starting, here's what I know about the Extended Cut, and what I plan to do.

The general gist of what I've heard, is that "it's just barely good enough", "it just doesn't fix enough", or that "it's too little, too late". Early predictions are that I'll go with the last category; if that's what had been in the game on release, it would have been "adequate". Not a timeless classic like Mass Effect 2, just not offensively inadequate from BioWare, like the current ending. But probably, the damage has already been done; is this good enough to go back to in years, like Mass Effects 1 and 2 were? Probably not, but I'll have my answers shortly.

Additionally, I've also learned a little bit about the structure of the ending: I don't know if it's just an Animal House ending, like in classic video game endings such as Dragon Age: Origins and Fallouts 1 and 2. Not having seen any thread topics along the lines of it being so, leads me to conclude that it's probably more along the lines of Star Trek II; Shepard's squadmates stand around and talk about how awesome Shepard was. Dragon Age II's ending was somewhat similar; since the game is told in flashback by a side character, the story wraps up rather interestingly with his interviewer understanding that Hawke was actually kinda awesome (or not). So BioWare *can* actually do good endings. Although Dragon Age II was pretty crap, *that* bit was above average for that game.

Also, I've learned that there's one or two extra options added; shooting the Star Child in the face, and/or generally refusing to cooperate. I'll try both and see what happens. My procedure is going to be that when I make it to just after The Illusive Man and/or after the conversation with the Star Child, I'll make a backup of the autosaves so I can pretty quickly go back and see the other options play out. Also, I'll do them in descending order of how ideal I think they are: Refusing to co-operate (where everybody dies, apparently), then Control (where you have a bunch of Reapers still hanging around), then Synthesis (same, but now I've also re-written the rules of all life in the Galaxy, which seems unfair), and then finally Destroy. Although I would very much like to see the geth survive, I'd rather sacrifice just them, than compromise all life in the galaxy with Synthesis.

Lastly; I saw that apparently, they've changed the War Assets requirements for the "Best Ending" where Shepard survives (Red 3); instead of 5000 EMS, which would require a couple days of non-stop multiplayer to reach, it's now 3100. I have that much. I'll just point out one last time that making multiplayer a requirement for different ending states was a really terrible idea; and with the ludicrous speed the EMS degrades, I've gone from 100% to 50% Galaxy Control in no time at all. If they'd gone with non-degrading galaxy control from the start, it wouldn't have been so bad. But hopefully, that whole thing is functionally gone for ever.

So here I go, into the wild blue, red and green final choice yonder. Let's see if the endgame is how I remember it...

Oh right, this is one of those games with messed up audio levels, so I have to double my system volume. They haven't fixed that yet, time to contact the Better Business Bureau.

Also, this is one of those games that won't let me bind Enter or Delete. Boo! Also, I can't remember any of these controls...

Huh, right. I played Thessia over again for that Turn On Turn Off For BioWare terrible internet petitiony thing. Thessia wasn't really good, even when I *did* bring along Javik. So I *don't* have a nearby autosave ready.

Oh. Balls. This save is right before the Cerberus base. Well, me complaining about the Extended Cut on the internet is going to have to wait a while...

Oh yeah, this is where the love scene is. So far, it's pretty good. It *would* be nice to find some far-off place in peace, Liara. It *would*. ...And there it ends. Oh. Now I remember why I didn't remember that scene; it was hopelessly abrupt and terribly underwhelming. Yeah...

And now for hallucination time. I remember now, this game had those. ...Just like Deadly Premonition, except not as good. (Note to game designers; if one of your thematic elements can be described as "just like Deadly Premonition, except not as good", quit your company immediately and start making indie games.) I also see why this is easily seen as proof of The Indoctrination Theory; but at the same time, I know from memory how none of that meaningfully links up to anything later. Not in any way that makes storytelling sense, anyway.

Okay Liara and EDI, mount up! That goes double for you, Liara. If you know what I mean. And I think you do, since we just did that a couple of minutes ago. Heh, blue alien boobs.

Shepard: 1 point to spend. Liara: 1 point to spend. EDI: 26 points to spend. Right, I *never* brought you along to anything because you suck, I remember now.

...Oh right, this game has combat. And, hm, "Hangar 16" is a reference to something that was *also* referenced in the original Half-Life, some Area 51 stuff or something. And, exactly like last time, I got lost and died seconds after I found and pressed the decompression controls, because the hangar can still decompress during that cutscene.

...Wow, they actually had the log say "Sir, you realise Shepard was a veteran of Akuze? A Cerberus operation wiped out her entire squad." It's cool to see actual player input be recognised this late in this game. A shame the most they ever did with the backstory was that one sidequest in the first game, but at least that backstory selection gave us pretty much all of Dragon Age: Origins, design-philosophy-wise. And then they abandoned that completely for DA2.

And now they pointed out that EDI was the rogue AI from Luna. *How* on earth did they ever think that this game should be designed and marketed as entirely playable for people who didn't play the first two games, I have no idea.

*And* pointed out Akuze again. Okay, maybe Mass Effect 3 isn't all bad...

...Hm, the chat with the Prothean VI smells very badly of "You know that plan we had since the first game? Yeah, we're not doing that." If you don't know: The original plan for Mass Effect 3's story was that the Catalyst was going to be the last surviving Prothean. When that plotline was cut, they repurposed what was left into the hastily-put together From Ashes DLC, and changed the main story to be the clunky combination of Prothean VI telling you the Catalyst is the citadel. Oh, and then they move the Citadel to Earth because they'd already planned *that* part. In the end, it's not quite seamless enough, and when it all falls apart, you're standing in front of the final confrontation of the entire trilogy; something written and executed in the last two months of development.

...Woo, now I get to fight Some Guy From The Books in The Illusive Man's office! That's way better than fighting The Illusive Man as a Reaper-thing! I definitely agree with BioWare on this decision in every way!

Also, Kai Leng's arrival and Shepard saying "You!" is pretty fitting. Only thing missing was "What's-your-face! You killed that guy! Damn you, whoever you are!" And it's a real shame, because a boss fight with the Illusive Man in his office would have been memorable. As it stands, changing that because it was "too video-gamey" was pretty ridiculous, now that I'm fighting some ninja in a boss arena. Urgh. Urgh, I should never have gone back to this bit of the game. This is awful. If fighting the main antagonist for two games in that destructive arena is too video gamey, what the hell is punching a ninja's sword in half in slow motion supposed to be...?

...The cutscenes showing the fleets signing in have *terrible* compression. Urgh.

...And now for the final assault. I'm bringing along Liara and Tali; I'm not going into the final battle without my two favourite comrades by Shepard's side.

Made it through the first encounter. I may have to get back to this, but it brings into focus what I think brought down the series; too much action. This game collapsed under its own weight; they tried too hard to make things grand and epic and filled to the brim with action, but ultimately, whether it was writing ability or design philosophies, it didn't hold up. What BioWare did right with Mass Effect 1 and 2 was to make 20-30 hour long RPGs. This is an action game, and I think one of the biggest problems with the series, even starting with ME2, is that you can't have this much action for this long in this kind of game. It's just fatiguing. In Mass Effect you had those interludes where you landed and drove around in the Mako, and as terrible as it was, in Mass Effect 2 you had mining. But without those quiet stretches, you become exhausted from all the action, and it doesn't seem like it works to balance that out with story, rather than boring driving around and boring mining. This level of action would be obviously too much in a game like Skyrim, but once you have a gun it must've been far too tempting for them to just keep throwing enemies at you, rather than give you some air to breathe. And story-heavy RPGs need that breathing room. So where Mass Effect was repetitive, it was relaxing drives in the country. And Mass Effect 2, was relaxing planet-scanning. And Mass Effect 3, it's shooting an awful lot of Cerberus and Reaper husks in the face. Only enemy that isn't completely overused is geth; and it's a real shame to see a drop in enemy variety. No space pirates, no mechs, no regular mercs, nothing but husks and Cerberus.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, I miss the Mako. Poor thing never got its due.

...Moving on, the current attempt at giving you breathing room amounts to having a chat with all your team mates before the final push. Problem is, it doesn't in any appreciable way take into account what happens prior. So far, it has amounted to everyone channeling Leslie Nielsen and going "I just wanted to say: Good luck. We're all counting on you."

Quick list: Talked to James and Ashley face-to-face. Talked to Jacob, Miranda, Grunt, Zaeed, Jack, Cortez, Samara and Kasumi over the phone. No dialogue wheels, nothing more than pointing out they're still alive and not dead yet. Contrasted to the ends of characters like Mordin, Legion, and Thane, this just isn't enough of a send-off; the ones who are still alive deserved more than a phone call at the end of the series; if not for fan service, then for dramatic imperative. Having *most* characters disappear off-screen like this is the reason why Mass Effect 3's ending was so terrible. Sure, on paper, they wrap everything up, but in presentation it comes at the wrong time and in the wrong way; the way it worked in Dragon Age: Origins was that *after* you finished the final show-down and settled all the large matters, you had a short break to have one last chat with your comrades, *then* walked off into the end credits; the game telling you briefly what became of all of these characters. Sure, it was "the Animal House Ending", but that's not a bad thing. A bad thing is Mass Effect 3; here, they get everyone out of the way for the final show-down, which is missing, but also set them up for the game to tell you how things went for them afterwards, which is also missing. Dragon Age: Origin's ending actually worked, as amazingly cheap it was (unvoiced text over concept art, for much of it). Mass Effect 3's ending did not.

Interestingly, the only one of the phone calls that actually alludes to Shepard's actions, is Cortez's. You know, the guy in engineering who pilots the drop ship and that's all he does? And only showed up in this last game? He had more of an emotional resolution than people who had fought alongside Shepard for three games.

Garrus's send-off was fairly well-earned, though. And the right way to celebrate a story-telling success? TURRET SECTION, MOTHERFUCKERS!

The scene of Liara bonding with Shepard: The game earned that; and then wastes it. It simply doesn't belong an hour or so before the end. There's an *awful* lot of combat to go, and once you're done, the emotional impact is pretty much gone. And in practice, this, along with all the other send-offs, are presented "correctly"; they feel more like set-ups, the kind where a few minutes from now, once the final boss is done with, you'd see them all ride off into the sunset. Or die horribly. Not showing any more of them from now on, that doesn't work, dramatically. The whole notion of little blue children never happening; a two-second shot of old Liara with blue children would have sold this set-up. *Or* showing Liara dead in a way where that loss is heartfelt. Stepping out of the Normandy *after* apparently dying... No. Not so much. The way I'd have done it, would have been to put this farewell scene after you blow up the Destroyer, but before you charge at Harbinger. You'd have to come up with something more to fill in the gaps better, but that's the kind of thing you could have easily done with a couple months more development time. And that's what this game needed; six months of polish. Also, Mako.

Anyway.

Wrex's speech to his troops is basically the only scene that works in this area. And his brief chat works better than most, since it acknowledges your actions and choices (across three games, even). I'd guess that short scene would be the most interesting thing to look at in subsequent play-throughs; seeing it change, whether Eve lives or dies, whether Wrex is till alive, whether the genophage still exists, etc. As for Javik; his speech is actually the best proper goodbye of the bunch. That's *probably* because they had two months extra just for him, basically. What a couple more months would have done for the whole game, it's a shame we'll probably never know.

EDI's and Tali's farewells were okay. But, yeah, for the end of the series, "okay" is inadequate. I don't think Tali has another line of dialogue for the rest of the game, even if you bring her with you.

Then, Shepard's speech wasn't all that fantastic. Maybe sounds bad if you're Paragon. And for some reason, a bunch of sound effects were missing from the next cutscene (guns firing and the likes), which is weird. I guess it was mixed for 5.1 and playing with stereo headphones, they just forgot those channels? Sloppy.

The big gauntlet before launching the missiles is a pretty harrowing experience. And that's pretty much the final boss, too. You fight a big bunch of enemies you've been fighting the whole game, to shoot down a Reaper Destroyer that you've *also* shot down a couple of throughout the game. And fighting five Brutes at once is not a worthy substitute for a confrontation with a proper antagonist.

And I think this is the point where I pause. This is pretty much the last coherent point in the game; it's derailment from here on out. Hi run to the beam! Hi Harbinger! That's your cue!

Alright, I'll leave this for today. I'll take a break before the push to the beam. I spent a lot longer getting this far than I anticipated, but it brought back a lot of memories. Not many uplifting ones, sadly.

Stay tuned for my impressions on the new and improved ending...

Soon.