@KittenTactics: I chose Synthesis. That's the only one where everyone lives and it's basically like "We're the best we can be!" That's not to say it's the best ending, I just think if you want the best outcome for everyone, that's the one, though if you don't like humans becoming part (or full?) synthetic, then it may not be the best. I don't know, I liked it. Oh, and of course Shepard dies on that one too.

@PSNgamesun said:

hey can i get help, can anyone tell me where to start to view the entire new cinematics. do i start where the ending is about to start or where I fight the illusive mans right hand man?

I was watching a stream that started at Cerberus and people weren't sure if there was any new stuff in that, but I think there was new stuff with the Prothean VI. He said the Crucible used Dark Energy to power up (people in the stream reacted to that) and some other things about it. Shep asked why it didn't tell him that stuff before and he said he wasn't allowed to talk about the true nature of the Crucible until he saw it was near completion. If any of that doesn't sound familiar then its new.

The start of the space battle seemed to have new scenes. People seemed sure of that.

I don't notice anything new with the conversations with the crew in London.

The approach on Harbinger is definitely new and ties up some plot holes. That would be your starting point if none of the other things I mentioned are new.

@PSNgamesun: @golguin: It starts when you're running down and away from the harbinger fire, there's an added cutscene to show how your team (whoever you chose to take with you) got picked up from the Normandy, and it also pretty much starts to shows you how the indoctrination theory isn't what it is. If you'd read what I wrote, you'd know. I don't expect anyone to, but still.

@ichthy said:

Watching the extended Synthesis ending makes that choice extra weird, opposed to just ambiguous and kinda weird. So everybody in the known galaxy is totally cool with being transformed against their will into weird techno-organic hybrids? Alright then let's go with that...

Man, if you suddenly were a perfect being, would you complain?

I really enjoyed the new ending. I actually didn't mind the original, but was disappointed that it was so short and that it wasn't explained it very well. Now they have been expanded upon, I'm really pleased with the ending. Even the little bit extra during the epic run toward the beam was great, especially when bringing your love interest. Overall it was much better and now I am happy. =)

Wait... so they put Shepard's name on a plaque before even looking for the body in the rubble that inhales? This is even dumber than before.

@Fawkes: You get that in the Destroy ending. It was my choice because (selfishly) I wanted Shepard to live after all that.

Also, so if they do further DLC for this game, is it just going to be another "story" plucked from the legend of Shepard? Because the galaxy changes irrevocably after any of the 4 endings...and I don't see a scenario where they ret-con it again.

@golguin said:

@PSNgamesun said:

hey can i get help, can anyone tell me where to start to view the entire new cinematics. do i start where the ending is about to start or where I fight the illusive mans right hand man?

I was watching a stream that started at Cerberus and people weren't sure if there was any new stuff in that, but I think there was new stuff with the Prothean VI. He said the Crucible used Dark Energy to power up (people in the stream reacted to that) and some other things about it. Shep asked why it didn't tell him that stuff before and he said he wasn't allowed to talk about the true nature of the Crucible until he saw it was near completion. If any of that doesn't sound familiar then its new.

The start of the space battle seemed to have new scenes. People seemed sure of that.

I don't notice anything new with the conversations with the crew in London.

The approach on Harbinger is definitely new and ties up some plot holes. That would be your starting point if none of the other things I mentioned are new.

Don't remember anyone talking about Dark Energy ever in Mass Effect 3. So that's probably new. Guess I'll be playing from Horizon then.

@BigDaddy81 said:

Just watched the "Reject" ending on youtube and loved it. I am actually tempted to go back and experience myself.

Really? I thought that one was really lame. I mean I'm glad they give you the option, but the way it plays out it's just like...you fought to build this Crucible thing and fought to get all the way up on it where you could use it and then you decide "Nah, nevermind. Just go ahead and destroy us."

@DonChipotle said:

@ichthy said:

Watching the extended Synthesis ending makes that choice extra weird, opposed to just ambiguous and kinda weird. So everybody in the known galaxy is totally cool with being transformed against their will into weird techno-organic hybrids? Alright then let's go with that...

Man, if you suddenly were a perfect being, would you complain?

Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, I too thought "well I don't know what I'd think if I would gain some synthetic DNA" but I also thought that that was the best ending in the sense of everyone being alive and life to progress. Everyone lives but Shepard, and life progresses fastest this way.

@Slaker117: For me, the endings didn't change at all. The synthesis ending would've made more sense if it was explored throughout the series (like all of the endings). Sure, it is kinda BS fantasy in sci-fi, but I've never considered ME to be pure sci-fi from the getgo and it isn't the first series to have such an ending. To me, the existence of biotics doesn't allow me to see it as only sci-fi (yes, I have the same opinion of Star Wars). The anime bubblegum crisis 2040 basically has the same ending as the ME3 synthesis ending.

Also, the whole destruction of all the Mass Effect warps in most of the endings is the same as the ending to Xenosaga...

I mean I get it from a literature standpoint. You can parallel anything with almost anything else. All stories have already been told, the only difference is the execution of the telling. However, I feel for many reasons that this was a fail of storytelling. It brought nothing new to the table and the endings barely have anything to do with the entire series. I also feel like I've held Bioware up to a degree over these years that they haven't deserved. Seeing as how I was 12 when Baldur's gate was released, I guess I can understand.

I watched the Control ending, which is what I chose in the game and find it plays out much more satisfyingly.

I think I'll just ignore it and stick with the Indoctrination Theory. And then imagine a really good fourth game that wraps the story up perfectly.

PowerPointWare

I watched the new ending they added, certainly seems to make things a bit more glaringly obvious, and actually seems to end as I thought the series would. In the new ending scene where you refuse the offers, Shepard addresses the reapers, but towards the child. With that the child in Harbinger's voice says "so be it". And the war is lost. Essentially just makes it a bit more obvious than the original endings that the plan failed. The child is not some magical catalyst, and all the other endings are nothing more than flights of fancy you buy into while laying in London as everything is destroyed. I kind of like the implication that in spite of everything, the cycle continues.

yea they done good on the 3 endings,

but man that refusal ending is just a big fuck you from bioware

Also, I'm not sure if anyone else caught it, and it's not really about the ending DLC, but the end mission in general, but did anyone know that the guy with Anderson (the British guy) was the same guy in the original ME3 trailer? I noticed it the first time, but I never saw anyone else mention it, maybe it wasn't that important.

@urban_ryoga: Yeah, their are a lot of anachronisms in the ME universe that make it hard to take as "serious" science fiction, but as someone who is very interested and slightly educated in biotechnology, artificial intelligence and robotics, it really annoys me to see those concepts so poorly handled in any kind of fiction.

They're still all bad. I don't know why they even bothered.

@NTM: Yes, I believe he was! There were some discussions on that a while back; but I am pretty certain that was him. Major Coats. "He spent three days inside the Big Ben clock shooting at anything that moved."

With regards to the extended ending, I was definitely content. I didn't even have as many problems with the original ending that a lot of people did; I think a level of ambiguity is fine for this kind of storytelling. I do appreciate that they went out of their way to show your squad getting extracted before you go along ahead, I thought it was kinda weird how it looked like you all got wiped out and that was that. I also felt the green touches everyone got out of the synthetic ending was a little odd, but I guess if they're cool with it I'm cool with it too.

Between Destroy and Synthetic, I ended up going Synthetic because I didn't want to eliminate the Geth and I worked really hard to get them to make peace with the Quarians and thought it'd be backwards to not back that up with the final decision. I also thought it'd be a lot more poetic for Shepard to commit to making the sacrifice, since there wouldn't be much for him after his work was done.

@Gravier251 said:

I watched the new ending they added, certainly seems to make things a bit more glaringly obvious, and actually seems to end as I thought the series would. In the new ending scene where you refuse the offers, Shepard addresses the reapers, but towards the child. With that the child in Harbinger's voice says "so be it". And the war is lost. Essentially just makes it a bit more obvious than the original endings that the plan failed. The child is not some magical catalyst, and all the other endings are nothing more than flights of fancy you buy into while laying in London as everything is destroyed. I kind of like the implication that in spite of everything, the cycle continues.

Some people still believe the world is flat.

I will honor you flaming cracked space helmet.

@EquitasInvictus said:

@NTM: Yes, I believe he was! There were some discussions on that a while back; but I am pretty certain that was him. Major Coats. "He spent three days inside the Big Ben clock shooting at anything that moved."

Yeah, exactly. When I went through it again today I heard that line which I didn't remember hearing originally, or it's one of the small things you don't really take notice of enough to memorize it. I mean, I kind of assumed it was him before, but when I heard that line today I kind of just treated that as reassurance.

Well at least they tried, it's an improvement and that's about as much as we could have hoped for without the entire fiction of the game being re-written. Given the position BioWare were in, it's hard to imagine any DLC extended cut being anything more given that all the VO actors are probably tied up in other projects.

I appreciate the effort, but I think I'm over BioWare's products as a whole.

One last thing. As fantastic an experience I had with the series, I don't think the ending of this is quite good enough to warrant a recommendation for someone who hasn't played any of these games and wants to see it through. I think by now, going through it would seem wrong, unless you went through it without any idea and experienced it as most did.

They actually did an ending which I was very impressed by and something they should have included in the game right from the start. There is an option for Sheppard to refuse to do anything that "Star Child" offers and the Reapers win and the cycle carries on.

Now baring annoying more fans in the first place why didn't they just include that in the first place. However saying that the extra parts of the cut scenes slightly improve the story. I think they should have left out the bit where we see Shep's body breath. I think it would have been more harrowing to know all actions (regardless of galaxy readiness) results in his/her death.

They can try to elaborate on the consequences of the Big Thing That Makes No Sense. But it's still a Big Thing That Makes No Sense.

I have a question. If you're full paragon like my Shepard was and you save the Geth and the Quarian, does Shepard interrupt Spaceboy's stupid little bullshit and say "Hey fuckface, organics and synthetics CAN live together? Go check out the Quarian homeworld?"

If not, then that MASSIVELY HUGE plot hole is still wide open, and the developers at BioWare should be ashamed of themselves.

And still no kind of any resolution, resolve, moving on from any love interests either?

@NTM said:

One last thing. As fantastic an experience I had with the series, I don't think the ending of this is quite good enough to warrant a recommendation for someone who hasn't played any of these games and wants to see it through. I think by now, going through it would seem wrong, unless you went through it without any idea and experienced it as most did.

I totally agree, which sounds kinda ridiculous to me, but it's true. There was so much build up and so much hinged upon that ending that when they completely botched it, it's like they completely botched the entire series. The ending to the Mass Effect series is literally the most important part because that's (theoretically) where we see all the decisions we've made come to a head and this long story finally be resolved. The former was completely forgotten and the latter was done in a very unsatisfying way. Deus ex machina is not good writing, it's a cop out and this extended cut is pointless since they just tacked on some closure and context on to bad writing.

Better.

@depecheload said:

They can try to elaborate on the consequences of the Big Thing That Makes No Sense. But it's still a Big Thing That Makes No Sense.

I have a question. If you're full paragon like my Shepard was and you save the Geth and the Quarian, does Shepard interrupt Spaceboy's stupid little bullshit and say "Hey fuckface, organics and synthetics CAN live together? Go check out the Quarian homeworld?"

If not, then that MASSIVELY HUGE plot hole is still wide open, and the developers at BioWare should be ashamed of themselves.

And still no kind of any resolution, resolve, moving on from any love interests either?

One example of new-born co-existence won't dissuade the Reapers.

"Everything works out perfectly fine because the Reapers are good or dead and the galaxy is awesome and hooray!

"Unless you chose reject like an IDIOT!"

They were okay. I really liked Mass Effect 3, but it fell short in some pretty serious areas and these don't do much in terms of fleshing things out. Just an extra 6 minutes of choppy dialogue about togetherness and love and rebuilding what was lost.

@Liquidus: Yeah, that does sound ridiculous to me too, but still. Well, let's say if it were one of my friends and he/she wanted to play the game near me, I would kind of... not like that. I'd just keep thinking "NO! You have to do this 'cause it'll make the experience better!" but then on the other hand I'd be thinking the total opposite and go "Fuck it, this stuff won't have much of an effect on the end anyways." That's one of the reasons, but there are a few more. I think It'd be hard for someone on their own to experience it like the rest of us did.

@TheHT said:

@depecheload said:

They can try to elaborate on the consequences of the Big Thing That Makes No Sense. But it's still a Big Thing That Makes No Sense.

I have a question. If you're full paragon like my Shepard was and you save the Geth and the Quarian, does Shepard interrupt Spaceboy's stupid little bullshit and say "Hey fuckface, organics and synthetics CAN live together? Go check out the Quarian homeworld?"

If not, then that MASSIVELY HUGE plot hole is still wide open, and the developers at BioWare should be ashamed of themselves.

And still no kind of any resolution, resolve, moving on from any love interests either?

One example of new-born co-existence won't dissuade the Reapers.

Eh, maybe, but the fact that Sheppard doesn't even bring it up is kind of nuts.

@NTM said:

One last thing. As fantastic an experience I had with the series, I don't think the ending of this is quite good enough to warrant a recommendation for someone who hasn't played any of these games and wants to see it through. I think by now, going through it would seem wrong, unless you went through it without any idea and experienced it as most did.

Your Crazy! The whole series as a whole is amazing, by missing this series who would miss the introduction to the world in 1, the story of putting together a team and some of the best characters in games to take on a intense final mission and ME3 where you unite the species to fight the reapers. I regret nothing about the 200+ hours ive put in with my various playthoughs. There is something amazing about choices I made in 2007 being realized in 2012.

I like what they added. It doesn't fix all my problems but its a nice gesture from BioWare. I mean they didn't have to do this but they did and I appreciate it.

@Bourbon_Warrior said:

@NTM said:

One last thing. As fantastic an experience I had with the series, I don't think the ending of this is quite good enough to warrant a recommendation for someone who hasn't played any of these games and wants to see it through. I think by now, going through it would seem wrong, unless you went through it without any idea and experienced it as most did.

Your Crazy! The whole series as a whole is amazing, by missing this series who would miss the introduction to the world in 1, the story of putting together a team and some of the best characters in games to take on a intense final mission and ME3 where you unite the species to fight the reapers. I regret nothing about the 200+ hours ive put in with my various playthoughs. There is something amazing about choices I made in 2007 being realized in 2012.

Ha ha, no, I didn't say I regretted it, I just said from someone that hasn't played it, and if they were to ask me, I wouldn't be able to recommend it because of the ending. I would simply say play it because it's a great experience, and you'd love the world and characters, but don't do it because you want and hope for a fantastic ending. I didn't mean I regretted it. I also don't mean the ending sucks, but I think it'd be worse for those that haven't yet played it and if they now start it, they'd probably hope for something better in the end of their long journey. I've played way over 200 hours of this series, and for me personally, I didn't regret any of it. I guess I should have been slightly more clear about what I was saying.

Any body knows if someone captured it and uploaded it yet?

@pornstorestiffi: It's been posted on this very thread already. I'm guessing you went right to posting?

I like the destroy ending of this new DLC. I chose it when I finished the game, and never went back to see the others because they seemed to go against the overall struggle and experience of Shepard and what humanity was fighting for through all 3 games. Control seemed ludicrious, and synthesis seemed more like assimilation/homogenization and just seemed like a choice free beings of any galactic race in the ME universe would never make. The overarching story in the ME trilogy was about celebrating diversity and what every race brought to the table of an ongoing and evolving galaxy.

Anyway, they fleshed it out pretty well and I think Bioware did their best to clean up the confusion and disappointment of so many of the series' fans. I blame EA for most of this; Bioware obviously needed more time to finish off the game in a much better, and clearer fashion, let alone the cycle wipe choice which should have been there originally too.

The only part of Mass Effect 3 i didnt love was the last 10 minutes or so, and seeing how this dlc pretty much fixes the main problems with those last 10 minutes, I can now say that I pretty much love all of ME3. These extended cut versions bring closure that the original endings lacked so im quite happy with them.

Well, they pretty much took the nihilistic edge out of the endings by explaining that "No man, really. It's ok. The relays weren't that badly destroyed and the Normandy got right back off that jungle planet that you thought they were going to be stranded on forever and ever." Though, I guess that's what Refusal is for. You don't want to make a choice? Everyone dies and it's all your fault, which is something I approve of.

All in all, I don't think people would have complained nearly as much if these were the ending choices, so I guess Bioware has succeeded in this regard. Sure, one could reasonably complain that artistic integrity has been thrown out the window in favor of placating the angry internet hordes, but I won't. Is the ending still kinda bad? Yes, considering that this is still an ending that relies on a deus ex machina to either kill all the reapers or make them good and doesn't really take your choices into account.

It is definitely better than the original WTF ending that I played a few months ago....my thing is that I feel like I'm done with the franchise which is the last thing you want. They can't have a game about the future, after the events of ME3 because everyone is the same and is working together. There is going to be no conflict and thus were is the gameplay? I just don't see it. Bioware kinda boxed themselves into a corner on this one making that the future of the franchise is only going to be pre Shepard events. But I then think about it and the humans have only been introduced to these new races for what? 50 years? Not that long in the terms of time. So maybe I'll get my dream of playing as a turian or another race but even then.

I just hard to describe how I feel about this. Sad to say that Mass Effect Universe is finished for me but I don't think I could ever jump back in and enjoy it like I originally did. As bad as DA2 was it didn't ruin the DA universe and put a limit on what they could do, they can go into either the past or future and have you play out conflicts, etc. ME they just wrapped up the universe (at least with the synthetic ending which is the only one I watched since it was the one I originally chose) in a nice little package of we all get along and peace forever. I know I"m repeating myself a lot but just.... better ending Bioware but no more Mass Effect I guess.

I actually liked the vague endings more. Every ending being "good" is weak.

I don't get it. Control seems to be a pretty damn happy ending considering how the game tries to say it's wrong to control the Reapers. Destroy just ignores all the problems with the Citadel and the mass relays exploding and has Hackett give a speech about "rebuilding." Apparently the technology for mass relays was just hidden in his back pocket this whole time, so that's why this is such a non-issue to him?

Synthesis still makes no sense, basically saying that forcibly making everyone the same is the real solution, and tolerance is impossible. Which, duh, still undermines the quarian/ geth storyline.

At least they acknowledged the entire universe isn't doomed so these aren't all so bleak, but they just hand-waved all the problems. Mass relays gone? Oh, well the Reapers probably repaired them in about 5 minutes. Hit it with a wrench a couple times, reformat, it's all good. They created the "fairy-tale ending" some of the Bioware staff defended so much.

@Nightriff: Did you read the Bioware letter at the end? Sequels are strongly inferred there. I think this Extended Cut DLC really helps set up the next trilogy perhaps, and they could go forward or back in time, and pick up on a whole new challenge and threat, focusing on any of the established races or new ones. Sky's the limit imo, although there's the reality that DK is gone so some new writing talent must move in I spose. Don't be sad, you'll get more ME in a few years. :)

@depecheload said:

@TheHT said:

@depecheload said:

They can try to elaborate on the consequences of the Big Thing That Makes No Sense. But it's still a Big Thing That Makes No Sense.

I have a question. If you're full paragon like my Shepard was and you save the Geth and the Quarian, does Shepard interrupt Spaceboy's stupid little bullshit and say "Hey fuckface, organics and synthetics CAN live together? Go check out the Quarian homeworld?"

If not, then that MASSIVELY HUGE plot hole is still wide open, and the developers at BioWare should be ashamed of themselves.

And still no kind of any resolution, resolve, moving on from any love interests either?

One example of new-born co-existence won't dissuade the Reapers.

Eh, maybe, but the fact that Sheppard doesn't even bring it up is kind of nuts.

I think you have to look at it this way, people assume once the war is over that the Krogan (whether they do or not) will want revenge because of the genophage, and you, as in Shepard may know that they won't, but not everyone does. Maybe after the war, in the future from there, synthetics will want to conquer or fight against organics. It's not really a plot hole. I mean, when you play it, you may be thinking "Fuck that, I resolved all the problems! I WAS THERE!" but when you think about it realistically, it may not turn out the way you want. Now, what I'm saying obviously doesn't really happen in the game, but still. I think that's the way you have to go about it. It's not a plot hole, you just have to think about it in a different way. I think the child can foretell or assumed at some point in the future that synthetics and organics would go at it again, and it's not so much about them being able to get along or not.

@pweidman said:

@Nightriff: Did you read the Bioware letter at the end? Sequels are strongly inferred there. I think this Extended Cut DLC really helps set up the next trilogy perhaps, and they could go forward or back in time, and pick up on a whole new challenge and threat, focusing on any of the established races or new ones. Sky's the limit imo, although there's the reality that DK is gone so some new writing talent must move in I spose. Don't be sad, you'll get more ME in a few years. :)

Maybe, but to me, it seemed more like they fixed it because it was one of the complaints people had with it. I mean, it did seem like it could be referring to more ME's, but I also kind of felt it was just re-saying "Buy more DLC at a later time!" but in a better way that doesn't make it seem like their money grabbing whores (I hate saying that word, but did it anyways). I could be wrong.

They're okay. Original endings were fine. Now they leave nothing to the imagination.

Yes this is what i wanted!

If only they had this from the start, i would have loved ME3 as much as i do 2. I haven't even thought about playing ME3 since i beat it the first time because the ending just soured the whole thing for me because thats all i could remember from the game, this makes me want to play the game again.