Brad Thinks He Knows the Ending to Mass Effect 3

@vikingdeath1 said:

I'm trying to think what about the Thessia mission could have triggered this..... or maybe it had Nothing to do with his sudden realization..... what about brad showering could have triggered this.....

If it has to do with the shower then it's probably that Shepard wakes up to the sound of a shower and ME3 is reveled to be Shepard's dream a la Dallas.

@Frostily said:

if brad is any where close ill eat my hat

He probably wrote "Shepard dies" or equivalent statement. Or maybe even "the reapers win".

You think you know, but you have no idea.

@august said:

There should be a whole series of Brad guessing the endings to games called Not That Brad.

i'm 100% in favour of this, with a slight alteration. title it:

"it wasn't that brad."

me3's ending: whatever. so over it by now, and it hasn't tarnished anything about that ride for me. every sci fi franchise worth it's salt has some measure of failure contained therein. it's just unfortunate they couldn't stick the landing. they awkwardly shot for the moon, and missed. but the kid's still got heart, and that's what counts.

@Alex_Carrillo said:

@Animasta said:

@Kohlstream said:

They should livestream Brad experiencing the ending just to have his reaction on film.

do this please I would love it so much

Word!

Oh god yes, do this!

@Animasta said:

@Kohlstream said:

They should livestream Brad experiencing the ending just to have his reaction on film.

do this please I would love it so much

Word!

They can't live stream it. Everyone knows Brad gets nervous on camera so his reaction won't be pure.

@bigstrat2003 said:

@ripelivejam: I honestly think the ending is just badly written. I'm sure it's exacerbated by my attachment to the fiction after playing all three games, but even so, the writing is awful.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

I'm just saying, it is not acceptable to whip out an 11th hour deus ex machina in the form of that star child thing. And that's saying nothing about how the options presented are just... dumb, and really galled me because none of those are what my Shepard would have done. She would never countenance trying to control the Reapers, nor the crazy synthesis thing, nor destroying our Geth allies as collateral damage along with the Reapers. URGH.

The extended cut helps with some of the other problems (like the complete lack of closure for anything, or how fucking bleak the ending is), but it doesn't solve the fundamental problem of a deus ex machina ending which forces me to choose between options that my character would not have taken.

That said, I'm glad you liked it. I wish I could have, for sure, and I'll be the last to jump on someone (except in jest) for finding something enjoyable even when I don't.

Don't worry, you're correct. The ending was horrible. The only beef I have with popular opinion of Mass Effect is that people seem to think the writing hasn't always been shit. For me, Mass Effect begins and ends at ME1.

@ripelivejam: I honestly think the ending is just badly written. I'm sure it's exacerbated by my attachment to the fiction after playing all three games, but even so, the writing is awful.

That said, I'm glad you liked it. I wish I could have, for sure, and I'll be the last to jump on someone (except in jest) for finding something enjoyable even when I don't.

@Kohlstream said:

They should livestream Brad experiencing the ending just to have his reaction on film.

I agree with this.

@ripelivejam:

If you only played it one time through (they give you three choices, but there is one ending - dumb - just end it), and ignored the bad writing and ridiculous-happenstance events of the ending, then sure. :P

That piano theme was great, though.

@crusader8463 said:

This should be a new segment. Halfway through a game the guys write down how they think it will end! Also, I totally would love to see Brad do a live stream of him doing the ending to see his reaction.

except, i don't think they play more than half of the actual game, most of the time. too many games to review, and all that. v good idea, though.

My prediction for the prediction: Brad already knows ME3 is probably gonna end with some destiny/chosen one crap. Knowing how the story plays out before the final 2 hours, I bet he thinks

Edit: I called that shit!

@bigstrat2003: i'm probably in no position to say as i've only sporadically played about half of ME1 and watched large chunks of ME2 and ME3 being played by a friend, but i'd say ME3 is definitely worth it if only for Javik. may win award for most essential DLC ever IMO.

also:

He is at a good part! I wish I could go back and experience missions like the Thessia one again for the first time.

@BaconGames said:

Man I gotta say this past year has made me love Brad even more. He has always played the vital "straight man"/audience member to Jeff and Ryan's antics but now that he's bringing more of himself into the site's content, I can't say I'm any less than thrilled.

I'm calling it right now, 2012's Brad Of The Year is Shoemaker (last year's winner being Muir).

Yeah I don't like to play favourites but Brad has been the source of some of my favourite stuff on the site this year. Muir had a good year in 2011 but I have to agree, Shoemaker bringin' it hard in 2012.

Hahah I can't wait to see what it says in the letter.

@Mister_Snig said:

If he wrote

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

"Shepard is indoctrinated"

Mass Effect 3 will totally have been worth it.

This is exactly what I'm expecting to happen (and hoping).

It's not going to be in the envelope. The ending isn't really predictable, because it comes out of nowhere and didn't really have any build up or hints in that direction. And you can't really wrap it up in a sentence because it's not really a describable thing, per se...

@relyt55 said:

@Phoenix87

This is the true ending to Mass Effect 3

Lmao where is this from?!

The Gotham City Imposters TNT.

@borgmaster: Would you care to write down your prediction on a piece of notebook paper and seal it in an envelope?

why is there a roll of paper towels on Brad's desk? Actually, on second thought don't tell me.

my prediction prediction: shepards a ghost

This is the true ending to Mass Effect 3

@WolfHazard said:

At the end Shepard closes his eyes, the screen fades to black then blinks open again, and Desmond stands up, exists the animus and high fives all his friends

This!

cool idea

At the end Shepard closes his eyes, the screen fades to black then blinks open again, and Desmond stands up, exists the animus and high fives all his friends

I'm guessing that Brad wrote that

@Sless said:

@NekuCTR said:

I have a feeling Brad is aspiring too high with that letter. He sees the ending as being aggressively bad when in fact it's just more of a non-event.

I think this is it. The ending was bad way more for what doesn't happen, than what does.

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

It was abrupt, and that one character was stupid, sure. But the absolute outrage came from the fact that very little happens at the end; you make your choice, and then it just kinda ends. If you really think about it, each choice represents a CRAZY different vision for the future of the universe, but what you see as a player is almost the same across the three (hence the "3 colors" joke that came of it).

As someone who enjoyed ME3, but liked it a lot less than the other 2, I think that the "internet hivemind" was also primed and ready to rip apart ME3 regardless of how the game actually was, and glommed on to some of those aspects of the ending as problems emblematic to all of modern Bioware (and I'm not sure I entirely disagree).

Yes, the internet was primed and ready to hate Mass Effect 3 before it came out. The ending isn't great, but my issue had more to do with how binary it is - you literally just pick door 1, 2 or 3 - than the actual content. And the free DLC expansion of the ending made it fine.

Frankly, I think it's a shame, because the game is otherwise an improvement on Mass Effect 2, in my opinion. And lest we forget the ending of Mass Effect 2 wasn't exactly fucking Shakespeare. That Terminator robot boss fight was the dumbest shit ever, as was the justification for all of it.

Brad will just shrug his shoulders when he sees it, primarily because Jeff totally oversold how bad it is.

Next video: Vinny in the bathroom trying to steam the envelope open.

Brad is wrong.

@OneManX said:

@Xeiphyer said:

@OneManX said:

@Rabid619 said:

I still don't think that the ending can be anywhere near as bad as Brad is expecting it to be. The way that people have treated it, you'd think that it kill everyone's puppy, took their first born, and then gave them cancer.

Is the ending good? Nope. Is it anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be? Hell no.

That said I'm curious to see what Brad thinks the ending is, should be pretty funny.

I fully expect an, "It wasn't that bad.. but it wasn't great" type reaction from Brad.

Yeah. People shit all over that ending. It was just kind of disappointing, it wasn't that bad.

Assassins Creed 3's ending is the one everyone should be attacking and shitting all over, but we hear nothing!

I feel like ACIII's time is gonna be GotY. They are keeping quiet on the spoilers, but they are gonna unleash there. But even then. I thought Desmond's end was lame (but I don't like Desmond at all) but I found Connor's ending pretty good with the right amount of, "Fuck you man" in those closing moments.

Connor's ending was fine, but Desmond's definitely felt like Ubisoft were making it up as they went along, with no idea how to conclude it.

Never helped that Desmond was always kind of a dogshit character to begin with.

There's no way he guessed it, so now I just want to know what he wrote down.

All a dream?

GB, and the man Brad, workin the angles! Heall, I would if I was a man named Brad! Well maybe if you didn't know my name might be okay too ...

But Team Brad has Ballls. Balls of Steel..... Thats why I say always bet on Brad....

The contents of that letter should be the prize in the center of the Curiosity cube.

I saw what he wrote. It said: I quit.

Bye Brad.

This is why i love giantbomb, awesome!

@mlarrabee: Play ME3, man. The ending is fucking terrible, but the game is great and feels like a fitting conclusion to the series up until that point. It's literally only in the last 10-15 minutes that everything goes to shit. While I don't know that I have a desire to return to the game because of that, I also think anyone who has played ME1 and ME2 is invested enough to get a lot of enjoyment out of the rest of ME3.

@Xeiphyer said:

@OneManX said:

@Rabid619 said:

I still don't think that the ending can be anywhere near as bad as Brad is expecting it to be. The way that people have treated it, you'd think that it kill everyone's puppy, took their first born, and then gave them cancer.

Is the ending good? Nope. Is it anywhere near as bad as people make it out to be? Hell no.

That said I'm curious to see what Brad thinks the ending is, should be pretty funny.

I fully expect an, "It wasn't that bad.. but it wasn't great" type reaction from Brad.

Yeah. People shit all over that ending. It was just kind of disappointing, it wasn't that bad.

Assassins Creed 3's ending is the one everyone should be attacking and shitting all over, but we hear nothing!

I feel like ACIII's time is gonna be GotY. They are keeping quiet on the spoilers, but they are gonna unleash there. But even then. I thought Desmond's end was lame (but I don't like Desmond at all) but I found Connor's ending pretty good with the right amount of, "Fuck you man" in those closing moments.

@Andy_117: You fucking win, thank you for reminding me of that awesome story, nearly cried laughing reading it again.

@NekuCTR said:

I have a feeling Brad is aspiring too high with that letter. He sees the ending as being aggressively bad when in fact it's just more of a non-event.

I think this is it. The ending was bad way more for what doesn't happen, than what does.

As someone who enjoyed ME3, but liked it a lot less than the other 2, I think that the "internet hivemind" was also primed and ready to rip apart ME3 regardless of how the game actually was, and glommed on to some of those aspects of the ending as problems emblematic to all of modern Bioware (and I'm not sure I entirely disagree).

There should be a whole series of Brad guessing the endings to games called Not That Brad.

I don't think Brad will ever guess that it all took place in the Space Giraffe universe all along.

@KoolAid: Oh man, I'd FREAK OUT if he wrote that down.

I'm gonna laugh so much when the "letter" just says "They hate it because they hate everything that's popular"  
 
 
Edit: Duh, brainfart. 
I meant that I'm gonna laugh when the NEXT letter he's gonna make about why people dislike it. 
I should stop being up this late

I can't wait for his reaction!

Oh man, why do I need to know so hard?

"No! I must kill the reapers" he shouted

The radio said "No, Shepard. You are the reapers"

It might be too late for a streaming of the ending, considering that they're all off work for the weekend. But it would be pretty fantastic if it were arranged.

Still, it's probably best he plays it on his own so that he has the chance to truly stop and digest what he has experienced.