Can We Get Better Reporters?
This is so not the issue with the ending of Mass Effect 3:
The company is now devoting all of its efforts to producing an "extended cut" DLC for the summer, but fans expecting a fourth ending where they can watch Commander Shepard on a sun-lounger, margarita in hand had better start complaining now -- the new content will only offer more depth and an extended epilogue to those tragic scenes you've already witnessed.
The issue is far simpler: the endings - based on established canon - render all of Shepard's choices moot, as the destruction of the relays destroys all extant galactic civilizations. Period. as I've said before, BioWare will retcon that - it's all a matter of when. They either do it now, and have some chance of not looking like complete idiots - or they do it later, when it finally dawns on Casey Hudson that future storytelling in the ME setting has been destroyed.
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Comments
Re: Can We Get Better Reporters?
[Henry] April 11, 2012 9:38:02.961
Heh, that's what I thought originally too...
Then again, who needs the future when you have the past?
Granted, all forthcoming stories set in ME universe will probably not include humans, and the ending to any reaper invasion storyline is pretty much a given, but that still leaves quite some space for exploration.
Re: Can We Get Better Reporters?
[James Robertson] April 11, 2012 11:04:08.696
I doubt they'll do all prequels. You could do a nice series on the first contact war, but after that - the same problem rears its ugly head. And it's not just about humans - every major civilization has been destroyed by the endings, unless some variant of the indoctrination theory is what they are going with. And if that's true, then having the ending "clarified" via cinematics and epilogue is just silly.
"Shepard ended up indoctrinated, but in a set of stuff you never got to play, here's how it all ended". Meh. I still say this is all about Hudson refusing to admit that he blew it. He should go talk to Laidlaw - it's clear that he's taken the feedback on DA2 seriously.
Re: Can We Get Better Reporters?
[Henry] April 12, 2012 10:21:05.525
Oh yes, they've pretty much painted themselves into a corner, and prequels are the only thing they CAN do... if they want space travel at least.
While I agree that is a is a rather stupid aspect of the ending, I just don't find it a _fatal_ flaw of the game per se.
In my opinion, the game's decline started earlier than the catastrophic sequence on earth and resulting cutscenes...
What was the motivation for Cerberus attacking the Citadel?
They didn't know it was the Catalyst at that point, and it had nothing to do with their goal the entire game; stopping the reapers by controlling them.
Excuse it with indoctrination, but to me. Saren in the first game was more a case of having his goals and actions twisted to align with those of the Reapers, rather than going all out insane.
Why though, would the Illusive Man suddenly abandon what the entirety of the preceding game had been telling us about what Cerberus was up to, and help the reapers by running to them with the information he needed to achieve his goal?
From what I could bear to hear of his speech to Sheperd and Anderson, the goal hadn't changed, but his actions certainly didn't reflect it anymore.
*Insert long rant about little child making no sense from a storytelling perspective here*
So, though perhaps for different reasons, I agree that no amount of "expanded ending" (though it may lead to better closure) has any hope of redeeming the epic failure which was the last part of Mass Effect 3.
As for "Shepard was indoctrinated!!" .... well.
To me it's a blatant and desparate postmortem attempt to find SOME way around the endings we got, which just makes it even stupider than what is actually there
(which says a lot)
Re: Can We Get Better Reporters?
[James Robertson] April 12, 2012 11:33:36.603
I agree with all of that :)
I expect them to retcon to indoctrination at some point though, simply because there's no other way to set stories after the end of ME3 - and from a strictly commercial standpoint, I expect they'll want to do that.
At that point, Hudson will really look like a tool, because he'll end up having to unpaint all the BS.