ImperiousRix

Well, I guess that means I can stop caring about wrestling games for a while. Lord knows I'm not going to bother with the THQ/Yuke's crap they keep churning out.

I can only hope that this team manages to get a job somewhere and put that talent to use with some other wrestling project. I doubt any other promotion has the kind of money nowadays to make a deal with a major game publisher, but there needs to be good wrestling games being made.

Huzzah! I guessed right (mainly by guessing the game I hoped that I'd be playing this year).

Don't get me wrong, DMC looks pretty cool, but I've been dying for a new Firaxis game. It's been far too long for us console folk.

@Make_Me_Mad said:

It's actually kind of surprising to see the downright delusional lengths people will go to in order to avoid the ending.

Eeeyup.

Yeh, I ended up giving in and using the workaround to 'recreate' my Shepard's face. This patch just did not come out quick enough, especially for something that shouldn't have even needed patching in the first place. More strength to anybody who has actually waited, but I feel like about 80% of people who are Mass Effect fans have already played and beat it at this point.

Too little too late.

@Brendan said:

I think it's crazy that seemingly everyone hated the Mako then, and seemingly everyone loves it now. You internet people are all nuts.

Yep, my feelings too. I did not like the Mako and still do not like it, yet felt like that was how most people felt. Now suddenly in Mass Effect 3, everyone is saying they loved the Mako? WHA' HAPPEN!?

I will say this, though. The Mako actually wasn't as bad as the Hammerhead in my opinion.

Very good article, Patrick, and feel like the commentators you included all have some valid points (or at least defend their points valiantly).

I don't want to keep repeating myself on every single last one of these Mass Effect 3 ending threads... so I'll just leave it at that.

@JasonR86 said:

@Pinworm45 said:

@ JasonR86 said:

I thought it was good. I feel like the middle path (the only ending I've seen so far) offered a cool twist on evolution. In a way, the whole thing kind of reminded me of 2001 in that some mystical force that isn't well explained (in 2001 they were the monoliths and in ME it was the catalyst) lead to the evolution of a species (or, in the case of ME, multiple species). I'm totally fine with the conclusion.

What was your take on Joker fleeing in the most important battle in galactic history, leaving everything behind, and somehow having people on his ship that were with you on earth 2 seconds ago?

I'm not saying it was perfect. The writers missed some key problems that needed to be addressed yet weren't. In a way, the story gave me a similar feeling as the one I had with Heavy Rain (though I was a little more disappointed with Heavy Rain). Both games, in the moment when I just take what was given to me at face value I have to say that I enjoyed their stories and their conclusions (though, again, Heavy Rain's less so). For ME, even when I dive deeper into the meaning behind the ending (the new take on evolution) I think the ending is, at least, interesting. BUT, both games are not perfect. Not by a long shot. Heavy Rain was full of plot holes and contrivances. In ME 3 there are several problems like Joker being near a Mass Relay for no apparent reason, having my squad mates on the Normandy, the fact that the alien fleets are now stranded, and the Mass Relays blowing up in the first place because...well, I guess they have to because the writers wrote the story that way. But, with both games, when I just take my reaction to what happened and, with ME 3, look at the meaning behind the ending as it was written I find the story entertaining and interesting. They both just have a few unfortunate rough edges.

That's kind of my general feeling on the ending. I actually kinda loved the idea and mystery of what the future holds now for this unified universe, but the way we 'get there' so to speak is full of too many plot holes.

I'll tell you after finishing the game, my first reaction was to just kind of sit back and smile. I didn't think so hard about how certain things occurred because I was honestly swept up. However, the more I think about stuff, the more I wish they took just another minute or two to say, "Hey... here's your crew returning to the Normandy (OR NOT) and this is what caused Joker to flee the battlefield."

Still... I am part of the sentiment that the ending is fine.

You're right. Frankly, even though I liked the ending and thought that (at least for the story I had lived out) the mystery of 'what comes next' is actually part of what makes it a neat conclusion, I do have trouble living with some plot holes. I personally didn't see the Catalyst's speech as being the 'be all end all', in fact my Shepard was fairly defiant to him and simply took his 'solutions' as a way to finally end the conflict and suffering. HOWEVER, the fact that, after your decision is made, so many leaps in logic and assumptions have to be made to even have the ending scene are a bit much to swallow. I'm not stupid, I certainly don't need to know how EVERYTHING turned out by being explicitly shown, but at least show my crew getting back to the Normandy and/or an explicit scene showing WHY Joker was fleeing the battlefield.

However, even WITH that said, I think it was the wrong choice of Bioware to essentially give in and say that they're fixing the ending. It still just makes it feel as thought they're admitting they had no idea what they were doing with their own story.

I'm very eeeeeeeeeh about this whole thing. As someone who has played Mass Effect from the beginning of the series, I had no real problems with the ending I got despite a few plotholes (which honestly bother me more than any potential philosophical quandry). I know I'm likely in the minority (vocally, at least), but I'm not sure I like the implication that this move by Bioware puts forth.

Putting aside the fact that it sends the message that people can complain and complain until they get their way (a lesson that Bill Clinton taught me in an episode of the Simpsons), it just makes Bioware seem like they themselves never believed in the ending they were putting forth. Some might say its because they planned all along to make future DLC that clarified the ending, essentially having people pay to see the full width and breadth of their Mass Effect story, but I'd like to assume this isn't the case.

But regardless, I feel like Bioware should have stuck to their guns and said, "Yes, this is how the series ends. We did with the ending what we wanted and though we're sure that pissed off some people, it was inevitably the ending we wanted." Instead, it just makes them seem like they didn't know what the fuck they were doing and sets an unpleasant precedent for future games.

I thought, especially in the case of Esteban, they handled his homosexuality really well. You didn't feel like "HEY THIS GUY'S GAY!" first and foremost. You felt like he was a human being who had suffered loss. A good pilot and a good dude. The fact that he was actually gay was inconsequential to anything about him. Personally, Esteban is one of my favorite new characters in the game.

Traynor's sexuality, on the other hand, is a bit too telegraphed. The fact that one of the first things she mentions (seemingly out of the blue) that she finds EDIs voice attractive is a dead giveaway that she's gay and it's a bit ham-fisted. HOWEVER, after that initial slip, her sexuality also becomes inconsequential as you speak with her and she too ends up being extremely interesting as well.

In fact, that's the case with most of the characters in the Mass Effect games. The romance, unlike in Dragon Age 2, seems extremely naturalistic and though you can obviously tell when you're heading down a path to romancing someone, it isn't overtly shoved down your throat.