Upon Mass Effect 3‘s release, the on-disc DLC debacle wasn’t the only the instance where the title received negative reception from fans. The arguably unsatisfactory ending for the third installment in BioWare‘s action role-playing game also caused a huge furor.
The developer’s co-founder and CEO, Ray Muzyka, responded to the concerns over Mass Effect 3‘s ending by promising they’d offer some clarity through an upcoming DLC pack. As promised, the studio has announced Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut, a downloadable content pack that will address the ending via additional cinematic scenes.
Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut aims to expand upon the events that occur during the ending phases of the game. BioWare is instilling both cinematic sequences and epilogue scenes for fans who completed the game and still have questions. The downloadable content pack will release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC sometime during this summer for free.
Muzyka took the opportunity to thank executive producer Casey Hudson once again, as well as delivering his view on what Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut is due to deliver:
“We are all incredibly proud of Mass Effect 3 and the work done by Casey Hudson and team. Since launch, we have had time to listen to the feedback from our most passionate fans and we are responding. With the Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut we think we have struck a good balance in delivering the answers players are looking for while maintaining the team’s artistic vision for the end of this story arc in the Mass Effect universe.”
Hudson, who also played his part in responding to concerns over the ending, added:
“We have re-prioritized our post-launch development efforts to provide the fans who want more closure with even more context and clarity to the ending of the game, in a way that will feel more personalized for each player.”
It’s certainly been a rollercoaster for BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts considering the amount of pressure that has been attached to the firms regarding concerns over Mass Effect 3‘s ending. It began with a few reviews (like ours) knocking the game’s ending and was quickly followed by a fan petition which garnered over 60,000 votes, demanding a new ending. After some execs got defensive about the game, BioWare later gave an official statement saying they’re listening to all feedback and will respond in due time.
It doesn’t stop there, though; not content with BioWare’s various responses, fans kept at it by lowering the game’s Metacritic score and flooding the forums, and one particular Mass Effect 3 player poured his emotions over the matter in a pair of videos. There was the fundraiser that raised $80,000 for Child’s Play charity and of course, the 400 cupcakes (in three colors) being sent to BioWare’s office.
Meanwhile, other industry developers provided their opinion on the situation, including BioShock creator Ken Levine who defended BioWare’s right to keep the conclusion untouched.
It’s a fine line when it comes to whether BioWare should or shouldn’t release downloadable content to add to or augment the game’s ending in response to to player feedback. The title has already sold millions for publisher and parent company Electronic Arts with extremely positive critical reception.
The bigger question is whether or not this DLC will actually satisfy fans. If it’s simply cinematics, will it be enough? Will the cinematics be different depending on the player’s final decisions? Will it make sense with how the game originally ended? Is the Indoctrination Theory correct?
The timing of the DLC comes right before PAX East where BioWare will be hosting a panel so it’s safe to say they wanted fans to know this going in, to prevent a riot Reaper invasion. So, after a full month of fans pressuring BioWare into ultimately providing a downloadable content pack to address Mass Effect 3‘s ending, what are your thoughts on the announcement?
Mass Effect 3: Extended Cut will release this summer for free on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.
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Source: EA
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Im glad they are adding to it, i just hope they add something for the romance, I always envisioned me and Tali settling down after the reaper threat was over.
You and Tali? You mean Sheppard right? You’re not really in this game relax
No, he is Shepard. No, we are all Shepard in a way.
Well he said me signifying the fact that he was actually in the game
Sounded scary lol
@Drew
Haha!!! That IS scary lol
Seriously? Obviously MattFox meant “me” as in Shepard.
You know who else understood this?
EVERYONE.
But thats what is so great about rpg games, they put you in the story by giving you so much control over your character/plot etc. I always refer to my rpg characters as ‘Me’
Very true. You really have something special, when the players can invest so much of themselves into a character. That’s what makes the endings so much worse, than most other games with disappointing endings.
For many players, that’s us up there.
Adding videos at the end is missing the point entirely. My entire dissatisfaction stems from the fact that Shepard gives up. Tacking on an Animal House epilogue was funny when a fan did it but pointless in reality.
well they never said cinimatics are the only thing being added into it.
But trust me, that’s exactly what it will boil down to. Anything else would compromise “their artistic vision”.
I think day 1 DLC compromised their artistic vision enough. :p
(Which is also why you put the phrase in quotes.)
Unfortunately they’ve said that they will not change the ending in any way. This would ruin the artistic integrity of the game makers vision. Rather this will be additions to explain what the ending means and an epilogue. It could be good, but it could be rather like a comic trying to explain a joke that went wrong.
Yea thts really dissapointing Shepard always finds a way to get things done it seems like his balls dropped
Excellent! And free too good job bioware(tho should done this in the first place
really tired of people who seen a couple movies or played a few games and think they can critize and make big deals and cry around…i swear no one can just shut up and enjoy and be entertained…its like when kids pout cause they arent getting what they want…when u give in to them and give em what they want…what if they arent satisfide with this ending either..they are most likely gonna pout and cry around again whatre u gonna do then make another free download…im one of the biggest mass effect fans…its the only game ive ever beat repeatedly and kept playing the multi-player is awesome (would love to see a prothean in there at some point or a krogen vangard..wink wink) but im fine with the way it ended…leave well enough alone and let people cry
Oh please, it’s a crappy ending, and that’s that.
I can give you several reasons why, it violates the themes the series has put in place, it has countless plotholes that can never be filled, and it violates our freedom of choice.
Their artistic vision was slaughtered a LONG time ago.
What plotholes are you speaking of? If you want a Dragon Age-style series of text pages and pictures of what happened to every single person you ever met in the game, make one for yourself. They said they wanted to leave some room for fan interpretation, so fill it in yourself if it bothers you that much. And freedom of choice? You had plenty of choices, there was just one right choice. What were you hoping for? An ending that has you spend an hour waging RTS warfare against the Reapers before giving you a Fable III-style ruling system? That would ruin the artistic vision more than this. And what themes does it violate? Establish some parameters before dumping a general negative statement on an artistic masterpiece with an ending that is simply very complex and needs more than a cursory glance to be understood.
Interview with Mac Walters (Lead Writer)
Issue 108 of 360Gamer (Hardcopy only, not available online)
When asked about the science of the game being plausible
“From very early on we wanted the science of the universe to be plausible. Obviously it’s set in the future so you have to make some leaps of faith but we didn’t want it to be just magic in space.”
Casey Hudson (Director)
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/336331/interviews/mass-effect-3-we-cant-go-on-holiday-our-dlc-is-really-good/?page=2
“There is a huge set of consequences that start stacking up as you approach the end-game. And even in terms of the ending itself, it continues to break down to some very large decisions. So it’s not like a classic game ending where everything is linear and you make a choice between a few things – it really does layer in many, many different choices, up to the final moments, where it’s going to be different for everyone who plays it.”
I got the blue beam what’d you get?
Cut the crap and stop talking like if your some type of big shot. Artistic masterpiece my ass. The ending was s*** and Bioware clearly stated the ending would vary a thousand ways over which we all now three colors don’t equal a thousand variables. And the theme that gets violated here is the theme of “Standing Together”. That what all the ME games drives at. ME1 you had to try to get the Council to stand against Saren. ME2: recruit a group of soldiers to destroy a Collector base (hence why you die if you do it solo) and ME3: Uniting all the species to fight the Reapers. Then suddenly it becomes about synthetics and organics? Naw, that BS! Bioware can’t fix this. Well, they refuse too.
I actually agree with ? on this. There were plenty of choices leading throughout the whole series that affect your ending, and it’s not the same for everybody who picked the same one of the three choices. You don’t see the differences in the ending cutscene, necessarily, but all the different decisions on who lives or dies still happened. I think they used to War Asset system as a method to quantify those choices, but it turned out too general, impersonal, and black and white. I don’t like the war asset system, but after studying the indoctrination theory, I gained a new respect for the ending and Bioware creative.
Interview with Casey Hudson (Director)
http://www.gameinformer.com/b/features/archive/2011/04/28/casey-hudson-interview-mass-effect-3.aspx
“For people who are invested in these characters and the back-story of the universe and everything, all of these things come to a resolution in Mass Effect 3. And they are resolved in a way that’s very different based on what you would do in those situations.”
Yep AL I can see how that theory is the answer…wait nvm.
The main theme of mass effect is uniting against a single threat that endangers everyone in the galaxy. Ever since the end of the first game. we all had the mindset of destroying the reapers because they are genocidal machines. Then mass effects 3′s ending gives us three choices, 1.Control- Shepard becomes the new Reaper AI and controls the reapers. (or gets indoctrinated if that theory is proven true in this DLC.) 2. Synthesis- Fuse organics and Synthetics together, completley destroying the theme of mass effect. Because this choice states there can only be peace if we remove diversity since this will make everyone the same hybrid. 3. Destroy- Do what what Shepard planned to do since his discovery of Reapers, DESTROY THEM.(or resist indoctrination if the theory is true.) I personally think Anderson is right, so why would anyone choose control? To each their own, I guess. I hope this helps people understand why the endings are not good for mass effect 3.
I think the fact that they had planned from the start to release further endgame DLC can discount any “we don’t know what happened to everyone” whining for the time being. The fact that you aren’t really making the decision to control, synthesize, or destroy makes the “Not Standing Together” argument pretty meaningless, seeing as how everyone had to work together to get to that point and now Shepard is fighting for his life within his own mind. God forbid that the climax of 80+ hours worth of a sci-fi epic culminates with the hero standing against his greatest enemy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs
Watch this video. that goes for every clueless fanboy who can’t understand why the endings suck.
I watched this a while ago, and I agree totally with your statement my good sir.
Well, to be fair, years ago Sir Arthur Conan Doyle grew tired of his Sherlock Holmes character and decided to kill him off. Fans of the books were so upset that he decided to ‘resurrect’ Sherlock Holmes. It didn’t “comprise the artistic integrity” of the Sherlock Holmes stories…
I’m not saying I want them to create a fairytale ending, but the whole point of these games was that the choices you make throughout were supposed to determine how the game concludes. By only giving one ending it went against what has been one of the main attributes that made these games so special (For me at least). It also invalidated all the choices you’ve been making through all three games since it all leads up to one outcome. I’m just going to wait and see what they do with the dlc, if we can’t get what we were originally promised at least they can fully wrap up what they did give.
LOL, really tired of people with IQs no larger than their shoe sizes telling everyone how they’re wrong to hate the ending.
Yeah I’m not “satisfide” with this announcement. Yeah, I hated the endings, as should anyone who paid attention to the series’ story. Now if all you wanted to do was shoot some people go play Call of Duty.
We can “be entertained” and not “cry around” when we aren’t blatantly lied to, and have an entire game series ruined, by nonsensical writing that was changed, purely to create controversy. I’m sorry if you’re the type of person, who rolls over, and takes it.
Don’t try to take some moral high ground, and then flamebait those who refuse to stand by, and be treated like crap, from people who depend on our money.
Watch this amazing video and maybe you’ll learn something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs&feature=share
Isn’t it funny that so often the moral high ground is compared with a complete lack of critical thought? I’m sorry I’m a fan enough of the series to be disappointed by the complete dropping of it. I don’t know how you could be a fan of the series and the ending. You either have to worship the series on a level of unhealthiness, or not care about it very much. In the same way that the BSG apologists were brainwashed or casual fans.
I couldn’t agree more. Kudos to you buddy.
Im okay with this. Even though the ending was lackluster an epilouge was what i was looking for.
My theory on how they’ll cover the endings up, quickly, is that if you chose the two where he either becomes one with synergy or control the Reapers, it really happened. If you chose to destroy them, he awakens in a bloody heap, which happens only that way. Then, Indoctrination attempt beaten is the only explanation there. This way all of the endings are happy-go-lucky and all players are happy — as little sense that is. I think their artistic approach is gay, nevertheless, they can work in the above theories to compel us to buy Bioware products in the future. I, for one, will as long as EA is kicked to the curb a.k.a. voted nation’s worst company yesterday.
I just hope the beating Indoctrination version ends with him actually kicking Reaper tail this time around a.k.a. the ending I’ll continue to choose every time I play.
yea id like an all paragon ending ive put so many hours into these games its not even funny and went all paragon since mass 1 and all i see are negative aspects that have all end in a bad way and when the hell does shepard ever do wat other people says he always finds a wat to do things. they also messed up with the fact that there is so much s*** that has not been explained and i hope this dlc is way better than the game
Way to polish that turd Bioware!
If I was BioWare I would have said fk all of you…you will see what happens next when we release the dlc.
So you’d be an obnoxious geedy, lazy f*** who abuses DLC, too?
@ Fiachra – Nice. LOL
What Bioware seems to be missing, is that artistic integrity is a very nebulous concept. An engineer might make the argument the engine he designed is a work of art, and millions of adoring fans might argue the sports car body that engine sits in is also a work of art. Art though they may be, they still have to do their jobs, the car must still be visually appealing and aerodynamic, the engine must still operate as expected.
In any effort to tell a story writers must give the user through a well crafted story, the ability to suspend his or her disbelief. This is done by operating with the operational tolerances of the writers universe. in the case of the sports car, its visual appeal, aerodynamics, speed, a throaty rumble in the exhaust. In the case of Mass Effect, it’s operational tolerances are set by it’s own lore and canon. How much room the story has to manuver within those operational tolerances actually depends on how invested the player is in the game. If you play it casually, then the writing staff has a lot of wiggle room. If you play it in depth, then they dont.
SO we have a game that exceeded it’s operational tolerances, the engine has redlined, oil is burning, cylinders are forming cracks and carbonizing, performance is dropping… but the casual driver who doesn’t care that they have a tachometer doesn’t know, they never pushed the car to it’s performance limits anyway – the current experience is great because they just don’t realize there is so much more to be had.
So goes ME3:EC – When smoke is pouring out the exhaust and you can hear steel on steel grinding and breaking, you don’t wash the car, wax it, and declare your pride. You replace the failing parts, you do a better job of taking care of it in the future, or, you get out of the investment because you can’t handle the responsibility.
Thank you. Every time I get depressed over this whole situation, someone chimes in at the right time with exactly what I thought too.
Going with your metaphor, the Mass Effect car is not broken, you’re just a mechanic who wouldn’t know if it’s broke or not. I hope most of the mechanic’s out there realized the car was not broke just because it made a noise they didn’t hear before. One word, Indoctrination. I’ve said it before and apparently it still needs to be said, there was nothing wrong with the ending other than not getting some more info, which we are now confirmed to be getting and people are still complaining. You didn’t get the ending, that’s fine, but that doesn’t mean you need to complain about it to everyone. Hell I too didn’t understand the ending at first either, so you know what I did? I started doing some searching and came across a nice vid on YouTube that explained the ending given the indoctrination possibility and after I watched the vid I replayed the end from my checkpoint a few times keeping the indocrination theory in the back of my head and I was a lot more satisfied with the ending than if I were to have just taken it at face value and assumed everything that happened was 100% real. Try it out, I think it will change your thought on the situation.
Except that the indoctrination theory was made by fans… It was not the creation of the team who originally wrote the ending. It is kind of sad that the Indoctrination theory could even exist, I mean seriously how can an experienced writer create so many plot holes that the player is able to make a valid argument that what happened was a hallucination?
If there removing that **Spoilers**
godchild and other plot holes, then I’m ok with this. I haven’t touched ME3 since I beat it a couple days after I got it.
So nothing. Really? “Yeah we want to keep our artistic vision.” Dude, I am pretty sure you meant autistic vision. That “ending” was possibly the worst since Matrix’s conclusion. The fact is the ending was anti-climatic. You shoot missiles, blow up an unimportant Reaper (Harbinger wouldve been cooler IMO), get shot by Marauder Shields, shoot up beam, confront illusive man, choose option A,B, or C, and END. Da Fuq!?
Lol…NICE.
An awesome video that wonderfully explains why the ending is as bad as it is, and why changing it is a good idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MlatxLP-xs&feature=share
Also Bioware has not contacted the femshep actress to record anything for a new ending yet. That’s not a good sign, and it may be evidence that Bioware isn’t actually changing the plans they originally had.
They’re not. They basically said they have no intention of changing the ending, all they’re doing is making the current ending longer.
I was hoping for an entire new ending but I’m still glad we get closure for ME3. I can’t for this to come out.
Ahahaha! They made a poor ending and their fix is DLC that going by the trends in games all oover its guaranteed to cost YOU at least $10 to correct THEIR mistakes. I’ve played ME1 and 2. Enjoyed both of them. But I think I may have to pass on 3 unless they get their s*** together. Or atleast wait till price drops.
Haha, it’ll definitely cost ten dollars. Especially cause they said it’d be free. /sarcasm
As long as it just explains the ending and gives deets on what the hell happens to everyone I’m ok.
So I am sure I will upset people by this;
But why is this such a big deal? I love the games, very much don’t get me wrong. But I have way more important things in my life than the ending of a freaking video game. I haven’t beaten the game yet no. But I fully intend to, but you know something? I’ve had it for a month and I am close to beating it but I don’t have time to beat it because I have to work, do school work, and be there for my family. So sorry, can’t get myself whining over this.
I will enjoy the game when I have the time to play it and that’s it. Let’s grow up and stop whining about it.
Just do me a favor, go to the Codex and listen to the definition of Indoctrination. It will save you a lot of head scratching in the final minutes of the game.
The indoctrination theory does make sense, but if you have played paragon all the way through you can only do a renegade option to beat the indoctrination. This is meant to be the end of Shepard’s story, it actually isn’t if you go with the indoctrination theory, as he still has to save earth. So unless Bioware are carrying on the story, and they aren’t, then the indoctrination theory can’t be right. So I’m interested in how they explain it. Personally i can live with Shepard dieing a hero but i do want some more information on what happens to my crew.
I’m annoyed by how much people are whining about the ending. Of course, I haven’t played the game yet, so I don’t know how it feels.
The ending of Mass Effect 3 is like driving 30 hours to the strip club Little Lies and discovering that the stripers are now the members of Fleetwood Mac…