Mass Effect 3

[Darkmoon]

I must admit, I'm stunned at the hate for the ending. I haven't got there yet, but I absolutely cannot imagine what could have invoked such ire. Shephard is God/controlled by God/an agent of God/the little kid is God? He's a Reaper? He eats a Reaper? And no, I don't want an actual answer. I'm just stunned.

[Enetirnel]

You'll find out once you get to the ending Darkmoon. I can't say anything on it until you've done so, because I'd break into a rant (which once you've finished the game, read Reston's and my own wall of text spoiler posts) in regard to it.

[Vector]

I really don't think it's as bad as everyone's making it out to be, what with some saying that the endings 'ruined the entire series.' That just seems like a gross overreaction to me. Was it ideal? No, not at all. It was a cop-out and it was vague but it doesn't change all the fun over all the hours I had while playing the three games in the series, and it doesn't change the fact that I still absolutely loved all three games.

[Enetirnel]

I just don't understand what's so good about the third game, it barely felt like there was much content to it at all and even just digging through the game files is already showing other shit has been cut out too.

Like oh, say Omega. From Ashes as well, despite the excuse given was "bug fixing phase"... when the game is barely playable on the PS3 for some people, the game is extremely buggy on PC and even people have had issues on the 360. The dialogue levels are all off in that there's usually a set level, say I go and walk up to hear Joker and EDI on the Normandy - their dialogue is quiet until I click on Joker and it's suddenly loud with "COMMANDER.", I know Ginny McSwain is a perfectionist in regard to voice acting and recording so it all sounds and looks quite off to me (having previously spoken to her about Biohazard 4, Demento and her work on the Mass Effect series).

The only part of the game I didn't do was the Academy because I got stuck on the Citadel. Despite that, I've gone over the music with Smiley and Spencer and I found tracks that weren't used in the game and are clearly labeled as OMEGA.

The whole fucking thing seems to feel rushed, shoehorned in despite already missing the previous release dates, delays and yet - still feeling like there's barely any content to the game despite say, the VAs for the Shepards' recorded over 40,000 lines of dialogue and yet, there's not even anything close to that within the files. I've gone over far too many SFX, music, voice over sections, cutscene sections over the last four or five hours. I'm tempted to dig through the models and see if there's any other crap floating around.

Spoiler:

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But overall, it just reeks of being rushed and having a forced set of endings that a large amount of the fanbase are vocally disagreeing on because there are multiple things that could have been used as alternatives (and these ones are also supported with the Codex information) and yet, you are essentially forced to have shitty variants of the one shitty thing.

More-so when it essentially also means - it was pointless to have spent the time, money and effort on the games or any additional material like the novels or comics, because you've been railroaded into a SINGLE choice within a series that at the very least gives you a few variables, like crew dying due to their loyalty and the like.

So, you've just wasted your entire time gathering troops... for what reason? We see the fleets doing well when we get to Earth and then we rely on this stupid Crucible? Despite that we can take down Reapers, it just requires cooperation between each other and coordination... Which we saw with the Quarians and the like.

I love the first two games, but this just feels like it would have been better off as DLC because it doesn't feel complete and there were very few parts that had differences. I happened to particularly like the Rannoch missions and the Citadel stuff, but other than that and the Krogan, Salarians and the other priority missions were interesting but only a couple of them actually were different as opposed to essentially doing the same shit on side missions.

[Mr. Spencer]

At some point, Mass Effect went through a devolution. There were warning signs cropping up all over the place and we didn't take any notice, the most prominent of which being the fourth novel, Deception. Now the first three novels (Revelation, Ascension and Retribution) weren't by any means masterpieces but they were enjoyable reads and gave us more insight into this wonderful universe. The fourth novel was a poorly written effort. It wasn't even an effort. Kai Leng, for example. In Retribution he's portrayed as this professional badass, I go in to ME3 expecting some kind of grizzled super soldier and what do I get? A bishounen cyborg ninja.

Deception didn't help his case any better, though it did make him hilarious and quite possibly the best character in the series - for the wrong reasons.

Somewhere along the lines, something changed. I'm trying to figure out when and how.

[Vector]

Drew Karpyshyn left BioWare.

EDIT: Just watched the other two endings on YouTube. I can see why people are pissed. They were basically just palette swaps. I am glad, however, that I got the 'perfect' ending, and the more and more I read about this 'indoctrination theory,' the more I believe it to be true. It just screams DLC to me.

[DarkMemories]

Spoiler:

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What was your favorite color pulse? That's what Mass Effect 3 left us with, no closure, no chance for a well-earned happy ending (or hell, even one that makes much sense) or any sort of sense that the journey meant anything.

I mean fuck, even RE knows that an ending needs to be satisfying (even if they've repeated basically the same thing for every game).

[Mr. Spencer]

Drew Karpyshyn left BioWare.

Makes the most sense to both me and Enetirnel. We were discussing this on Skype. This is what happens when you let COMIC BOOK WRITERS do the writing for something like Mass Effect, totally different medium. I think all this hogwash with the Crucible wasn't part of the original plan, all along they were going to have the galaxy work together to fight the Reapers. This is even supported in the codex entries regarding the Reapers. More I think about it, the more I realise that it was shoehorned in for a plethora of different reasons that I can't be bothered to go into at this point.

Everything about the game feels rushed. Also, the Crucible effectively renders the whole "Galaxy at War" routine completely obsolete and pointless. There's no coordinating a war, just building the plot device that'll force-fuck you into one of three different coloured endings. For a series that's been about choice, they've dropped the ball. I'm more than willing to give BioWare an opportunity to defend their decision. Time will tell, that is...IF we ever see them again. Pretty much every BioWare staff member has dropped off the BioWare forums.

That's right, I'm not even putting this in spoiler tags. I don't think any of us should use spoiler tags in this topic, we must send out a warning to those who have yet to play the game. Let this be our "prothean beacon", our "warning" to future players.

[Archelon]

...and I thought people on this forum took Resident Evil too seriously.

I'm not the type to say "it's just a video game," by any means, but I think some of you are going just a little overboard here.

[Alexia_Ashford]

MASS EFFECT 3'S ENDING DESERVES TO DIE IN A BLAZING INFERNO OF SHIT

[Vector]

Even if the 'indoctrination theory' is true, meaning...

Spoiler:

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...Shepard either imagines the entire ending in his mind, or hallucinates, or whatever. He never went to 'the Citadel,' he was on Earth the whole time, and the battle raged on within his mind between he and the Reapers. The child was never real, it was just an attempt to indoctrinate him from the start. In the 'perfect' ending he wins the battle with indoctrination, destroys the Reapers and survives. In the other two endings, he doesn't. Because choosing to control the Reapers means they still exist, meaning they win. The flip-flop of red and blue, destroying the Reapers being red to make it seem like the Renegade choice, and vice versa with controlling them being blue, is Harbinger's attempt to fuck with Shepard.

In any case, if this is true, were the Reapers ACTUALLY destroyed? I think that when Shepard wakes up, he's in the rubble on Earth, waking up after some kind of trauma. Is the battle actually won or were the images of the Reapers being destroyed just his moral victory within his mind to stave off indoctrination? It's way too vague and 'open-ended,' and I think that's what bothers me the most.

[Reston]

@ Archelon,

It's because this series was stated from the start to be a trilogy and that keeping you game save files would affect the choices and outcomes you did in the sequel and final one. The whole Crucible thing made everything you did throughout the games seem pointless because there was no pay off for the gamer for all the hours and decision making that was put into the game. This was Bioware, not Capcom, a company that at least was decent in terms of quality and had at one point not milked everything.

I personally blame being bought by EA. That was the nail in the coffin.

@ Spencer,

Yes, you are correct. The guy who wrote everything until the last novel which was a horrible and grossly contained too many errors and this game, did not return. I actually prefer his original idea for the Reapers which made a lot more sense and was actually original. For those of you interested in the idea it involved dark energy. The idea that Drew was going for involved that dark energy was causing the universe to close in on itself. The Reapers were the solution to that problem hence why they remain out in dark space for so long. They feed off of dark energy and were placed there long ago, don't know by who, but the idea was that they allowed civilizations to grow and whoever turned out to be the best species was ascended into their form and they feed off of their knowledge and merged "We". We still don't know much about dark energy but the idea was that both the Mass Effect and Reapers, used dark energy.

You saw this as a foreshadow when you went to recruit Tali in ME2 and they were talking about how the sun was dying. You also see a sun dying whenever you see TIM. Basically the end was going to be that you would have to make a choice; allow the reapers to live to continue to solve the problem and risk all species being harvested and your race being ascended or... destroying the reapers and the galaxy would have to come up with their own solution to the dark energy causing the universe to shrink.

In any event it was a much better idea and original compared to what we got.

@ Enetirnel,

A lot of the stuff you found on the disc is left there because EA wants it there for DLC. They know this game was going to sell a lot and they want to make a cash flow of revenue off of the DLC. I know there is going to be a Omega DLC with you and Aria, there is supposed to be another with your LI going on and doing stuff just you and that person since the game didn't really focus too much on it, and I know they have something planned where Shepard gets trapped in a jungle and deals with an alien species and you need to hold off for Alliance to come rescue you.

And here is an extended cut of what is on the disc, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=booBmcFw_Lk (which goes with EDIT 2).



@ Vector,

Spoiler:

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If you imported your ME2 save or if you beat new game +, you receive an additional scene at the end of the game. It's a grandpa and a boy who are looking up at a planet (it's not Earth) and into the stars. The grandpa tells the boy the story about Shepard but says some of the details may have been changed (you the player making changes). The boy refers to Shepard as "the Shepard" meaning that he/she has become some sort of Jesus-like figure. To answer your question, yes, according to that scene and the dialogue present, it's suggested that the Reapers lost and they won. The details on how it happened are not known but it's assumed they beat them back somehow by using the Crucible. Everything you see, from the Reapers being destroyed to Joker using the Mass Relay was in Shepards head. When he wakes up in the rubble and takes that breath, that is where the game leaves off.

I agree with you that it is too open-ended. I do not agree with the way EA and BW decided to go about ending the game. I actually saw something that a fan wrote that IS WAY BETTER. When I find it, I'll post it here. I'm sure a lot of you would probably prefer it to what we got.

EDIT:

Here is the fan made ending which actually is better. I copied and pasted it in spoiler wrap so anyone who has not played it will not be discouraged,


Spoiler:

show spoiler

This begins just after Shepard has taken the heaven-elevator...



Child: Why are you here?

Shepard: *groggily* Wh-where am I?

Child: The Citadel. It is my home.

Shepard: Who are you?

Child: I am the Catalyst.

Shepard: I thought the Citadel was the Catalyst?

Child: No. The Citadel is simply a tool. One that has been reclaimed.

Shepard: I need to stop the Reapers. Do you know how to do that?

Child: The Reapers are mine. I control them. They are my solution.

Shepard: Solution? To what?

Child: Chaos. You bring it on yourselves. The created will always rebel against their creators. So it was with us. So will it be with you. But we found a way to stop that from happening. A way to restore order for the next cycle.

Shepard: By wiping out organic life? I don't understand...

Child: No. We harvest ADVANCED civilizations. Preserve them from their own mistakes. Leaving the younger ones alone. Just as we left your people alive the last time we were here.

Shepard: But you killed the rest...

Child: We helped them ascend. Preserved them in Reaper form. Saved them from their own creations.

Shepard: What creations? What are you talking about?

Child: The synthetic. The new child that is born of organics. The child that destroys everything.

Shepard: What?

Child: We were like you once. We flourished and spread throughout the galaxy. We unlocked the secrets of the universe. We could bend the very fabric of nature and time, leap the galaxy in a single stride, but even that was not enough. We searched for purpose, a reason for our existence....
Shepard: You were organics?

Child: We were children of the stars. Searching for where we fit into the pattern of the cosmos. And when we discovered the truth, it destroyed us.

Shepard: What truth?

Child: Organic life has no purpose. We are an accident.

Shepard: An accident...

Child: We were a simple pattern. Basic chemistry combining into unusual chaotic forms. When we mastered the galaxy we found there was nothing else remaining. We were lords over a domain that had no need for us.

Shepard: That... but, why kill us? I don't understand! You found the edge and now you're punishing us for it?!

Child: No. We are saving you. Our children, our synthetic creations, did not suffer our qualms. They did not need to find purpose, they were created by us. We had given purpose to them. And that gave them the power to choose to rebel.

Shepard: You were beaten by your machines?

Child: You have seen the pattern yourself. The Geth. Your Rogue AI's. Even now, the pattern is repeating. As it did with us. As it always does. The war threatened to destroy everything. Our own weapons could wipe out suns, harness the dark energy of the universe that bound it together. We could have destroyed the galaxy.... we nearly did.

Shepard: The relay network....

Child: Our weapons. We realized that if the synthetics defeated us, they would not stop. All life, however simple, however small, would be destroyed. Eventually they would spread to other galaxies. They were infinite, could last indefinitely. And then the great accident, the great miracle of life, would be doomed.

Shepard: But you found a way to stop them! We're still here! Just tell me how!

Child: We became them.

Shepard: What?

Child: We could not defeat the synthetics. Not as we were, frail, mortal... flawed. So we evolved. Preserved ourselves as those you know as Reapers. We ascended.
We became the synthesis of life and machine. And we destroyed our children.

Shepard: But why all THIS?

Child: Our time was over. We knew we had reached the crucible of our existence. But we will not allow those who followed in our footsteps to repeat our mistakes. You will create your own destroyers, if you are allowed, and doom ALL life again. We do not give you that chance.

Shepard: But you're not saving us! You're dooming us!

Child: No. We are preserving you. You use our technology, spread through the galaxy using the Mass Relays, never learning the secrets for yourselves. Thus we confine you to this galaxy, so that we may preserve you. We divide you, cripple you from within. Turn your own forms against you. Contain your mistakes. Then, we allow you to ascend to become one of us, and thus, safeguard the next cycle.

Shepard: We don't WANT to be preserved! We want to keep our own form.

Child: You cannot.

Shepard: The defining characteristic of organic life is that we make our own choices. Take that away, and we become no better than the machines you claim to protect us from. We can choose not to repeat the pattern.

Child: You have already repeated it. The geth are only the first step. And even now, they have risen to a state of being that will allow them to destroy you, should they choose.

Shepard: They are standing beside us. We still have a choice.

Child: Yes. You have more choice than you deserve. The fact that you are standing here proves that. Despite all our plans, you have found a way around them. There is no certainty that another cycle will not do the same. The solution is....flawed. And then there is the Crucible. It has changed things. Created new possibilities.

Shepard: I don't understand. What does it do? How does it work?

Child: We could rewrite the stars in our time. The Catalyst was our greatest achievement, a machine that could alter mass and rearrange matter at will. The Crucible focus's that. Takes what it is given and allows the Citadel to spread it. But I cannot control it so I cannot make that happen.

Shepard: Make what happen?

Child: What you came here to do. You can destroy us, if you like. Wipe out all synthetic life in the galaxy, including the Geth. Even you are partly synthetic. It will give them time to find a new solution....But your children WILL repeat the chaos.

Shepard: But the Reapers will be destroyed?

Child: Yes. You may also use it to control the Reapers.

Shepard: So, the Illusive man was right...

Child: Yes, but he could not control us, for we already controlled him. The catalyst will let you merge with them. But it will destroy you, consume you utterly.

Shepard: But the Reapers WILL obey me?

Child: Yes.... We will do as you will. But without us, the pattern will reappear. And you will eventually choose for us to begin the cycle again, this time perfected. There is however, a third option.

Shepard: Which is?

Child: Synthesis. You are partly synthetic. Merge with the Catalyst and you can change all life in the galaxy to become as you are. As we are. Synthetic and Organic. The entire galaxy will ascend.

Shepard: The...whole Galaxy? That's impossible.

Child: Is it? You have seen it already. It is how we are able to combat you, fusing your forms with synthetic matter to create new DNA. You call them 'husks'.

Shepard: But...the whole galaxy....

Child: Everything in the universe is energy. Matter, mass, even time is nothing more than that. The Relays and Catalyst are simply tools that control that energy. Life will be preserved. The growth will be stopped. And there will be peace.

Shepard: Why are you telling me this?

Child: You have done what no other organic has. You have proven that our solution can be overcome. We underestimated you before, thought of you as a mere inconvenience. But you are more than that. You have given us a new...perspective...Variables that we cannot forsee.

Shepard: The perspective that organics don't like being murdered? Something tells me you haven't been paying attention...

Child: We have eradicated eons of life. You have done what none of them could. We do not confess that lightly. Whichever you choose, once the energy from the Catalyst is unleashed, it will destroy the mass relays.

Shepard: But if we lose the relays... We'll have nothing. Whole civilizations will fall!

Child: That is a possibility.

Shepard: But... I don't... I can't....

Child: The paths are open, Shepard. You must choose.

*Shepard looks down at her bleeding side, then up at the raging battle above her head. We see ships of all sizes being shot down, Reapers crumbling under crushing fusillades of fire. You can now choose to go down one of the three paths. OR... you can wait...*

Shepard: I... can't make this choice...

Child: It is the choice you asked for. It is salvation.

Shepard: No matter what, it damns us! Without the relays we will lose everything!

Child: Perhaps.

*We see the battle raging on Earth, squad members we have saved, armies we have recruited, all fighting desperately against overwhelming odds. Shepard, looks to the Catalyst.*

Child: You have no other way Shepard. Your followers trust in you. Make your decision.

Shepard: They didn't trust me to destroy us! You can stop this! You can choose to call them off! Just leave!

Child: No. If you will not choose a new solution, the cycle will continue. We will simply... reassess, for the future.

Shepard: It doesn't have to be that way! You can still give us a chance!

Child: We cannot. Your followers trust you to save them. You cannot. Not as you wish. This fight is in vain. We are giving you a chance. One that is more than you deserve.

Shepard: I won't play God...

Child: Your friends are dying Shepard. *The boy turns into the Virmire casualty* I know you'll do whatever it takes to get us through this, skipper.

Shepard: Go to hell...

Child: *turns into Anderson* Come on child. This is what you're here for! This is how we win! We can't fight them conventionally, you know that!

Shepard: FUCK you! I won't! I've beaten your kind already!

*We see the battle raging above them, the massed fleets being obliterated on both sides*

Child: *morphs into Hackett* We threw everything we had at Sovereign, and that was just one Reaper.... We just can't stand up against them. Not even together.

Shepard: No! We've broken the pattern! We've allied with the Geth! We've unified our species! It doesn't have to happen again!

Child: *turning into LI* You know we can't do this. We can't come this far just to throw it away! We're dying out here!

*Shepard can now choose one of the three options OR gamble everything...*

Child: *Illusive Man* Don't throw away everything over your ideals! This is the only solution!

Shepard: *turning to the child* Oh my god... you're scared... aren't you?

Child: No.

*a Reaper above them is destroyed under a feirce volley of massed ships*

Shepard: Yes.... you are... You should have rolled over us by now.... But you didn't...

Child: We have been merely delayed. If we must, we will destroy you all. We have offered you salvation.

Shepard: No.... you offered me a way to stop the fighting. You've never faced something like this before... The Illusive Man knew how to beat you, knew he could disrupt your armies... that's why you attacked him. Indoctrinated him. He came up with another option, he just didn't know it. He he thought he'd found control.... but he really found out how to turn that into Chaos.

Child: *aloof* We held the power to rewrite the stars. We are perfected. We cannot be defeated. Choose.

Shepard: Bullshit. You're not perfected. You're MACHINES. Machines that sit on the edge of the galaxy, lurking where we can't find you when you're vulnerable. Vigil said it himself. That's why you USE us! Turn our own people into your armies! You can't beat us on your own!

Child: We are the salvation of all life. We have swept away all before us. We will do so again.

Shepard: By blindsiding your targets through the Citadel! By coercing us into a trap with the relays! You've always picked off your opponents independently! You used the same tactic with the Collectors! You've never had to stand and fight the combined might of a galaxy united!

Child: Your arrogance will only lead to your destruction. Choose.

Shepard: No. We killed Sovereign. We killed the Reaper at the collector base. We killed them on Rannoch, on Tuchanka, and down there! We stopped you from using the Alpha relay, and you're spread thin. The Illusive Man found out how to control your armies, disrupt your signal. That's why you attacked him, you were scared. We can beat you.

Child: Paltry victories.

Shepard: Maybe. But the combined might of the galaxy is holding you back. The Krogan and Turians on Palaven, the Quarians and GETH on Rannoch. And we'll do it, here, on Earth.

Child: We have given you fair solutions Shepard. Options to fix the system.

SHepard: No you've given me YOUR options. We've shown you we can win, and you're looking for a way out, a way to cripple us because you can't do it the way you used to. You failed at playing God and now you want me to wipe out your mistakes! Well I won't. I choose what we've ALWAYS chosen. I choose to take our damn chances.

Child: You would risk the eventual destruction of all life? Risk the future to the likes of the Geth? The Krogan? More like them will follow. Do you trust them?

Shepard: They put their trust in me to unify them. I trust them to finish the job.

Child: We thought you were different Shepard. We thought you would understand.
Shepard: Happy to disappoint.

*The child transforms into Harbringer*

Harbringer: So be it. Shepard. *then disappears*

*Shepard collapses*

Shepard: Admiral? Hackett? Anyone...

*we see the crews of multiple ships, the soldiers and charcaters fighting below all in the midst of hectic combat hearing Shepard's broadcast. What happens next is dependent on whether or not you have enough war assets/readiness to actually break the reapers here. If you don't the Reapers win, no questions asked, and the cycle remains unbroken.*

Shepard:... I don't know if you can hear me. But the Crucible is not an option... it won't save us... It won't bring us victory. I know a lot of our friends have died for this chance. But this isn't the end. We can beat them. You can beat them. They've always won by dividing us, turning each other against ourselves. But no longer. You CAN beat them. The ships next to you, the soldiers fighting by your side, can beat them. They aren't invulnerable. We beat them at Rannoch. We beat them at the Citadel. You can BEAT THEM NOW. You can break the back of the greatest threat the galaxy has ever known, because you, together, are the single greatest force this Galaxy has ever seen. Give them hell.

*The battle that follows is the epic conclusion, as Shepard watches, broken and bleeding, as everything he has put into this unified force throws itself at the Reapers. This is where all those decisions come to fruition. We want to see those War Assets fighting. The Destiny Ascension obliterating a Reaper with it's main gun before being swarmed over by Destroyers, the Geth armada pulling along side to save her. The Salarian STG calling in a biotic artillery strike on cluster of Reaper troops. Wrex and Garrus, on the front sharing a stern moment in cover, before nodding to each other, brothers in arms, before charging over the barricade. Back to back, they face down hordes of husks, Wrex shouting defiantly, "You think you can take our future!? You think YOU CAN TAKE MY CHILDREN?!"
We want to see the Quarian flotilla scrambling, all guns blazing, trying desperately to form a battleline, as one of the admirals quietly turns to their crew, signalling his ship all ahead full. "For the homeworld. Keela..." their words cut off as the live-ship rams a Reaper, exploding spectacularly and damaging two others. We want to see the Normandy frantically weaving through the wreckage, Joker and EDI yelling warnings to one another as the fleets explode around them. We want Tali leading a charge of Geth Primes against a Cannibal gun line. Rachni drones swarming over a Reaper Destroyer by the thousands, pulling it apart from the inside. We want to see Grunt wrestle a brute to the ground and unload his shotgun into his head.

Happy or sad, we just want to see those decisions play out. We want to see that what we did mattered. And as the battle unfolds, you are left with the Choice. Do you think you have enough? As Shepard bleeds out, watching all he/she loved go up in flames, do you take the risk? Provided you have enough manpower, can you break the back of the Reaper fleet, though at horrendous cost? Once the battle is over, and the truth of what the Illusive Man discovered is revealed, the remaining survivors get the word out that there is a way to disrupt the Reaper signal, scatter the Reaper armies. Or something*

EDIT 2: Apparently this was the original ending planned before EA butchered it up,

Spoiler:

show spoiler

After checking these boards, bioware forums, the twitters of various people involved with the game, audio file rips as well as some information I've gathered from other sources, I decided to talk with someone who used to run their own review website who still has ties to some people in the video game industry. That includes Bioware (they had sent him early review copies of the first ME). Anyway that's not what's important. The point is what I'm about to say you can take with a grain of salt if you want. I'm not here for attention or because I'm a fanboy of bioware. I'm simply here to help you all make sense of this situation. It will make a lot of sense and put the little things you've all found together. The reasoning for the ending change was they needed more time to implement it (this was supposed to be the reason for the delay) but Kinect implementation and the desire by some people (perhaps EA) to have an ending where things are left to interpretation messed with this. The ending was quickly altered which is why things don't "fit" and there are plot holes. Anyway, below is how things were supposed to happen.

The original ending was SUPPOSED to be extremely varied. Everything remained the same up until the part when Harbinger shoots at you and your team. This is when information that has appeared here already comes into play. There were going to be various outcomes determining how you reached the citadel and it was HOW you got there that determined what endings would be available to you. The following were the different scenarios from worst to best (based on EMS and war assets)

A: Your whole squad gets wiped out (the two crew members you took with you, Anderson). You struggle to make it to the citadel. Right as you're about to make it to the beam, Harbinger talks to you, saying you've been defeated and he kills you. Joker tries to swoop down to save you, but he also gets shot down.

B: Most of your squad gets wiped out. Still only you are able to make it to the citadel. Once up there, you must confront the illusive man alone. Because of this, unless you have high reputation and either talk him down or renegade interrupt and shoot him, he kills you and tries to control the reapers, but fails as he discovers he was indoctrinated.

C: You and Anderson make it up to the citadel together and make your way to the control panel where you confront TIM. The same thing plays out where you can talk him down. With high enough reputation, you can "save" Anderson but its not necessary for you to make it to the next part. Anderson dies after TIM is shot or kills himself like in the ending we got.

D: You and Anderson make it up to the citadel together while you're two squad maters, who clearly survive, are holding off the reapers from following you to the citadel. Everything continues the same here as "C" until after TIM is shot and killed and the final conversation that Anderson and Shepard have (which is much longer than what we got). You get the shorter convo in C.

[The following you only see with outcome "C' and "D"] Shepard looks out at the war going on and activates the crucible. Hacketts says its not working. This is when Harbinger talks to Shepard through TIM as he lies on the ground. Harbinger tries to convince you that you've fail but you can argue with him. Harbinger says that he has your crew in his cross hairs. We see the Normandy arrive (the joker dialogue that was cut) and the rest of your friends help the two squad members you brought with you face off against Harbinger and his reaper minions.

You basically have a choice. You can submit to him and he claims he will spare your squad and earth until the next cycle because he is impressed that you were able to make it this far. This is when the motive of the reapers is more clearly established. Harbinger reveals that in the previous cycle, the prothean empire became too vast and they began to control all the other races, which would have prevented all of our races from developing. However, through more discussion, Shepard can uncover their true motives. They fear that they will be rivaled by something more powerful than they are (that this cycle will create AI that can topple the reapers). This implies they are merely fearful for their own survival and that is why they purge all life but they convince themselves they are protecting us.

Either way, you can submit to him and save your people or take your chances. Having 4000 EMS, not submitting to him you would lose everyone, but still eventually get to the three choices we actually got (more on this in a second). Having 5000+ and depending on how you resolved conflicts between characters and races, certain people will live or die.

After rejecting him (whether you lose everyone or not), you end up in the area where vent boy was but hes not there. It's just you and "Harbinger". He explains that a new solution is needed. The solution he tries to convince you to take is merge (to perseve his kind). But if you have high enough reputation once again, you can open the control and destroy option. Harbinger tries to talk you out of it by discussing how your races are divided and mentioning the geth incident. You convince him otherwise, and it is at this point, the control option opens next where he admits that shepard may have a perspective he never considered. Harbinger tells Shepard that if he destroys them, the relays will be destroyed as will the geth (which is true. This is the only ending where the relays are destroyed).

Now for the four endings.

If you submit to him before the three main choices, the reapers leave earth but end up wiping out every other race who haven't proved themselves worthy. Shepard dies.

If you merge, the reapers leave and like the ending we got, we see all the characters we know with green eyes as a green light brightens the sky. Shepard dies for the same reasons in the ending we got.

The control option, the reapers leave. Everyone cautiously celebrates while joker and your LI look up to the sky and wonder what exactly happened. Life goes on but its hinted that the reaper threat may return. This ending ends on a cliffhanger.

The destroy ending does destroy the relays, but its implied that with all the races on earth, they, together, will restore what they lost and will attempt to work together. if shepard lives, your LI leading your squad, will be looking for you. You are beamed back down to earth (its assumed shepard was somehow blasted into the beam? this is the only questionable part). It ends with shepard's hand coming out of the rubble and breathing. Still a cliffhanger of sorts, but you can assume they will find him/her obviously.

[Inferno04]

Spoiler:

show spoiler

God, even the fan written endings and the original ones were better...just...piece of crap. To be honest, I did like the game, I felt fine with it, aside from glitching out fo quests.

I didn't mind the Crucible for one reason, that there were so MANY Reapers. It took so much effort just to take down two, the universe coming together I would've loved to see, but wouldn't feel...'realistic' to the proportions the game built up, I mean look at the galaxy map before going to Earth. SO. MANY. Time was running out, even if Quarians, Salarians, etc came together to try to study another way, there'd be no time. The Crucible WAS a bullshit Deus Ex Machina, but it was almost required with the expectations set up. :/

But yeah, for my own satisfaction, I was SORELY disappointed in not getting to see more space battles/rallying together. The game should've just ended with Shepard activating the Crucible after Anderson dies, then dying of his/her wounds. I don't mind heroic sacrifices, if they're done well. It also would've been a nice conclusion for my own Shep, as Anderson being proud of her was one of the only things she wanted before death.(The only parental figure she has.)

[Vector]

First DLC leak:

http://whatculture.com/gaming/mass-effect-3-multiplayer-dlc-coming.php

[Darkmoon]

I must admit, I've been enjoying the multiplayer far more than I thought I would. My Krogan has been a lot of fun, but a Battlemaster (it's a Vanguard, just say Vanguard!) would be awesome. I would love to play a Geth too. The Battarians will probably need something cool to see much play, though - I hardly see any Salarians or Quarians being played, but maybe that's because I'm still in the Bronze rank.