"Image not found."

Not sure if an FA error, or incredibly clever joke.

Ahh, there it is.

Times like these are when I wish comments could be faved too XD

i can certainly say your image is MUCH better then any of the endings we received.

i thought the endings sucked ass, you think they would thought it through and anticpate teh reaction that they would get.

chances are they did and still went with it to be "edgy" and to not have to do anymore mass effect games with the same characters

hard to do any more Mass Effect games at ALL with the way they ended things! Did anyone look over the script for the end, and think how "wow, this flips the bird to our customers AND prevents us from making any more money from this!" at all?

they supposedly have a better ending that requires you to do alot of multiplayer games

I did all the multiplayer, maxed out the classes and got 100% readiness. Endings still boil down to the same three "Choose your preferred colour of Space Magic".

According to a statement by one of the writers, they had a good ending planned out, but due to a leak the director and Writing Lead went into a closet and wrote their own ending last minute. The rest of the staff didn't even know until it was out the door, so no proof-reading or anything.

that sounds even more lame than, we wanted to be edgy and officially end the series by shooting the fanbase in the ass with a small caliber bullet that has been soaked in poop
sure it stings at first but after awhile it really really annoys you, makes you sick and makes you wish you hadn't gotten shot in the ass in the first place

According to the writer, the staff had an ending planned out that was exactly what people were wanting and expecting. We'll see if their "fix" actually utilizes that (Even at the cost of retconning if necessary, such as was done with Fallout 3), or if they try something new.

honestly i think the whole thing was done as a scam to get everyone to pay for DLC in order to not be pissed off by the ending. like they did in fallout 3......which if you think about it essentially was the same ending

That would be corporate suicide to do so, and as evil as EA is, I don't think they're quite that stupid. Especially since EA has expressed that they want to continue the Mass Effect series beyond Commander Shephard. You don't do that by alienating your audience.

shame they didn't think that way when they did the hack job of a ending huh. changing the ending to a long awaited trilogy at the last second because it got leaked is kinda idiotic, you don't punish audience for being eager as hell to see how a great storyline ends - is like a publisher ripping the last page out of all the books they send out because people read it first at times.

I would love to see more Mass Effect they sure put a ton of effort into the backstory with the sheer amount of fluff info you get to see in the games (my favorite is the planet that has been lasered to say humanity sucks)

Bioware is currently riding high from many successes i think and EA just messes everything up because they are greedy as hell

Anyone hating on the ending might find this video useful.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck

I know i certainly did. ^^

you know there is three possible endings when talking to catalyst two out of the three you get fucked

Certainly smelled of rush-job and bullshit, that's for sure. But then again, the writing in general, while still good, was nowhere NEAR as good as Mass Effect 2. Also, the fact that you HAVE to play a lot of multplayer to get a 'good' ending was especially atrocious, given that Mass Effect 3 is an excellent example of a video game that didn't NEED multiplayer (along with Assassins Creed series, Bioshock 2, etc).

Well yeah, Mass Effect 2 had a four-year development period wheras Mass Effect 3 was done in two years. Not only that but their top writer dropped out in the middle of ME2 to go work on Star Wars Old Republic.
Anyone saying you HAVE to play the multiplayer for the good ending didn't do any of the side missions. I didn't touch multiplayer before completing the single-player, I did every mission, and I got the same three colour choices as everyone else.

Admittedly though, I thought the multiplayer was pretty cool when I did play it. I felt they handled it well and I wouldn't mind seeing them expand more on it or add to it.

I think the whole concept of the 'allied forces effective strength' was probably what confused most of the people who played the game (including me). That playing the multiplayer was either required or recommended for the 'good endings' was also stated in the 'official guide'.

Indeed, to be fair, I'd agree the multi-player aspect was fairly interesting/enjoyable, but only because it basically emulated previous well-respected shooters with the expected 'Mass Effect' flavors.

Ah, so that's where people were getting it! Kept hearing people whining about multiplayer being required, but I thought it was cause they were skipping all the side missions xD Yeah, the guide is full of crap there.

why does that sound like typical EA shit to me?

Well there are the ending were Shepperd lives so mayhaps not so.

Epic ending. :D
But I like getting with Ashley or Liara. >.>

Why not both? After all hew did save the universe yet again.

Galaxy...
The game takes place in a single Galaxy, not the universe.

You know what I mean, still billions upon billions of lives saved should get some added benefits.

i agree all races must give a total of 20 young and racially beautiful women to Sheppard every year for his personal harem to be built on Renna, or Tuchunga or Thessia, or on his own personal hand made island on earth!

It's only fair.

save perhaps the quarians, they might need few biological enhancements for the next couple decades to survive outside their suits. Either that, or the anti-bacterial industry will get shitload of credits on "Shepard Day"

Tali was able to do it with Shepperd. Had a bit of a bad temporary reaction afterwards but like she said "It's totally worth it."

I bet Shepard thought the same thing

Indeed, only without the nasty cold afterwords.

well, he might have gotten a Quarian disease... that affects him after the suicide mission... you never know.

Doubtful, seeing as Tali explained that Humans aren't effected by stuff that happens because of the Quorians weak immunity. Even so Morden would have helped fix that.

haven't played ME3 yet. restarting the series to make it more fun

What did you think of how Tali looked?

Pleasantly surprised.

Eh its a stock photo they were completely lazy http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/t.....ndex/9667728/1 but middle eastern hotness <3

Yes but the woman is not unattractive.

I agree it was a tad lazy though...

Wardy

oh yeah she is gorgeous. Middle eastern women are god tier with asian women

"Tad"?

Understatement of the year.

yes it was quite lazy given the rest of her figure namely the rather alien looking feet, lower legs and, hands, seeing her with a almost pure human face was a real letdown

yeah you could say it was lazy, but they didn't put much effort into her face because the point is her face isn't important, it was never important before, it's not important now, the appeal of Tali has always been in her characterization. You can tell they only put her face in to appease the people who kept begging for it lol

Agree 100%.

I admit Tali's face wasn't anywhere near as creative as some of the fan arts that were made of it.

i agree 100%

keelah se'lai!

Nice

i cant help but feel there falling flat on there latest games. dragon age one was EPIC and i loved it...then dragon age 2 came out, did not really do the first game justice. and now mass effect as well.

If that Geth's name is Jeeves................

I haven't played the game yet. I'm a big fan of the series but I'm a bigger fan of happy endings. I got those in the first two. If the third one doesn't have that I'm not dropping $50 on it.

The ending SUCKS no ifs and or butts about it.. but the game over all is epic .. SO FUCKING EPIC ... just.. ending ... bleh

Doesn't matter. I want to save the galaxy and have my Shepard live happily ever after. If I can't get that then the game makers can go F' themselves with a copy.

Then don't buy it =o

I'm not. At least not new. I might pick up a used copy to complete my collection once they're cheap.

It probably won't be very long, at this rate... :/

I know. Too bad really. That series deserved better.

They're releasing a new ending soon.

I'll believe it when I see it. DLC I suppose? I don't have X-box live.

http://www.thegamersdungeon.com/201.....o-release.html
Be warned, Google Chrome blocked a pop-up on this site.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_.....ses-statement/
This is the full statement.

It doesn't say anything about a new ending. It says they want more feedback and that the fans need to stop whining about the ending.

Awesomeness!

This will give you hope that the ending isnt REALLY the final ending http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY.....eature=mh_lolz

There isn't a panda.

The panda died in the suicide mission in ME2, because his loyalty mission involved me not raping him like he was a precocious step sister.

GOD DAMN. Bioware can't even get pandas right. That's the EXACT OPPOSITE of what his loyalty mission should have been.

So that's what I have to do to get your loyalty?

*grabs you and drags you off* >.> Loyalty mission time

So Im guessing you have LIVE?

:|

Well I suppose this is the most constructive, creative, and civilized protest of the ending.

Though it is a shame that someone should be forced to change something after it has been completed and released.

I recognize your desire foe a different ending, but I am also content and happy with the existug ending myself; I also feel nothing but pity and loathing for those who are so butthurt and short sighted to force BioWare to change the ending.

Democrationalized fiction makes me want to vomit.

As for the picture it is well done. Butler Geth is awesome

I'm not taking a side one way or another on whether they need to concoct a new ending. Suffice to say, it wouldn't be an issue if they'd put as much thought into ME3's ending as they did the entirety of the series.

If "democrationalized fiction" bothers you, then you may wish to never watch a TV show, movie, or play a video game again, because it's almost all written by committee. The entire Mass Effect series was written by a full team of writers who edited and critiqued each other's work, and accepted feedback from the fans. The only reason the ending flopped was (According to one of the writers) the Writing Lead and director wrote a new ending last minute and ditched the committee and any editing or revision (And it shows).

Game companies have made changes to their games after launch plenty of times. People are acting like this is something new, but it's actually incredibly common. I don't understand why it was okay to ask for a new ending with Fallout 3 and everyone was happy when they got one, Or change the main character of inFamous2, but with Mass Effect 3 a handful of people are running with this "protect artistic integrity" bullshit because EA's PR guy tried to protect the poor decision. If the game/film failed to communicate to it's intended audience, it failed. That's why there is game testing. That's why movies have test screenings. People give feedback and completely change the outcomes to games and movies all the time with this process. Since they skipped that process with Mass Effect 3 though, it's having to take place on the forums and internet instead.

Still, the people bitching and whining forbthe ending to be changed is just downright shameful and I want no part of it.

I am content with how I got to say goodbye to Shepard, I don't want that ruined by vocal trolls.

Funny that most of the folks I've seen requesting a new ending have been fairly civil and straightforward with their requests (With the occassional whiny kid, of course).
But many of the small handful of people that actually enjoyed the ending come across as you do, venomous and spiteful, responding with insults and mockery rather than reason.

Forbthe? what is forbthe?


Oh yeah, spoilers. BIG spoilers. Watch what you read.





Normally, I would say that bitching and whining about things is in fact trolling. I laugh and ignore them, then go back do doing what I love. Playing Halo or Mass Effect.
But in this instance, at the very least, I agree with the...oh...tens of thousands of people who spent upwards of $60 (about $150 in Europe, apparently) to get closure on one of the most fantastically written story arcs in modern fiction, and got told, essentially...

"Oh yeah, sure you'll get the awesome storyline we had written, and were gonna give you till a leak...buuut you're gonna have to wait another few months, AND shell out another 20 bucks"

I often see people comparing it to the ending of Fallout 3, which I don't understand. The only real comparison to the two is that people wanted a different ending. They got their different ending, but it wasn't because the ending was bad (some people think it was, but they are entitled to their opinion, just like you are) since it was still a satisfying ending, You, the Vault Dweller, the Lone Wander, Paladin of the Waste, whatever, sacrificed yourself to give the world hope by triggering a massive radiation bang to initialize the life water thingy. Aaaand then they went, "Let's make it EVEN BETTER" and released broken steel, addign tons more weapons, hours of gameplay, new story lines and side-quests.

With Mass Effect 3, you get ten minutes of scripted railroading (which I often enjoy because, hey, PLOT), Marauder Shields (was watching a let's play, and when you take him down you can hear him say "Sheeepaaarddd...." [ (;w;)7 we will remember your sacrifice, Noble Turian] A Star Child (From Now on, he shall be known as 'The Maguffin Muffin" to me...) that basically picks you up and goes "NO!...NO!!!. Bad shepard, no dessert for you" And then Green, red, blue space magic (Watch the eyes closely) And Joker running the fuck away. Oh yeah. Mass Relays. Aaaaaall gone. Kaboomed. No more Mass Effect Games. At all. Unless, like, in a sequal your purpose is to run around Sol harvesting tech to rebuild the mass relays..That'd be kinda cool...

That being said...

This ending COULD BE FRACKING EPIC.
I have hope, a slim, weak, guttering candle of hope that is The Indoctrination Theory, that once enough people finish the game, or some strange timer or device or bit of coding is triggered, there will suddenly be a massive shutdown of all multiplayer servers, the game will ask you (if you've beaten it) if you would like to download a system update, and then...
Glory.
Update.
Shepard wakes the fuck up...
And the TRUE ending is revealed.

Wow...all this that is completely irrelevant to the cool image Fisk posted.

Not sure whether to laugh or cry.

I think this is a common occurrence with game projects. They are so focused on making the game, polishing it, adding more that by the time they realize the release date is coming they don't have time for the grand ending. Borderlands is a good example, off the top of my head, for a game that had similar problems.

With a project like this I would have expected a little more professional foresight to see this coming at the very least. Instead they give a PR letter saying that we want your feedback but not really, cause we already know our art rocks, and all the reviews say were good (cause they pay the bills). It left me rather confused cause it was positive till it hit the point where he started scolding us for being naughty flying monkeys who threw poo at the witch of the east, and that we need to get back in line a say 'We love you'.
Oh gawd were being indoctrinated and its all a trick, is this even real? Where am I? WHO AM I? HOW DID I GET HERE?

If Patrick Weekes (One of the ME writers) is correct, then the blunder rests on the shoulders of Casey Hudson (director) and Mac Walters (writing lead), who supposedly ran off on their own, wrote their own ending, and stuck it in as the project was going out the door, completely skipping staff critique and revision. EA's garbage about "preserving artistic integrity" reads to me as trying to protect Hudson and Walters, justifying what has turned out to be a disastrous decision. Same with PR denying Weekes' posts as legit. By making an official statement to the contrary, whether it's true or not, nobody has to be fired over it. It's a technique for protecting employees. As terrible as the PR statement sounds, I'm glad they did it, especially their cover for Weekes, as he wrote some of my favourite characters and scenes and I would hate to see him fired for telling us the truth.

PR in general are shitting themselves over the situation, as none of the tried-and-true tactics work against the internet. Standard PR tactics are to release a statement to a mass amount of consumers who can't communicate with each other, so they can only hear what the company says. With the internet though, the consumers can communicate, call out the bullshit, and stand strong. Not to mention the gaming industry is filled with geeks and nerds. You can't pull a fast one on them very easily. EA is having to rewrite PR tactics from scratch at this point, or risk the future of Bioware by using the old tactics.

Finally! A level headed and informed Mass Effect fan!
I only new the vague reason behind the lackluster ending and was rather too embarrassed to look further due to the hundreds of posts about the oversensitive fanbase rage.

Glad I looked at this pick and also glad I browsed the comments ^^. Thanks Fisk and Syrinoth.

Have you noticed how "Quarian" is a respelling of "quarantine"?

Also, a friend of mine actually managed to save both the Quarians and the Geth.

I seriously must be the ONLY one who liked the ending to ME3

I thought it was a good ending, it could have been better but then again almost anything can be made better after the fact.

i didn't think it was horrible, I thought it was something they left open for MassEffect 4, a rebuilding of the sciences and such

I don't know, all I know is Shepard's story is done.

exactly

Mass Effect awesomeness right there!

I was sooo wishing for this type of ending for my fem.shep. Especially after Garrus mentioned human-turian babies

Then they give us what we got..... gave me a very very empty feeling inside :(

I would favorite the picture, but I really hate that they made Tali look virtually completely human. Sorry.

And on a planet with no helmet. I thought that was a no-go.

Without any spoilers, if you play your cards right across the games, events play out that make it possible.

Reading and hearing people opinions on the ending makes me feel as if the ending was a success. The ending made you mad, sad, annoyed or whatever the emotion but the fact that it made you feel something makes it a good ending in my opinion. How many games can you think of that have made you truly care? I'm guessing not to many.

No, there's a difference between the end of, say... Cowboy Bebop, where it's very sad and everyone goes their separate ways for different reasons, and it's all very poignant and sad. As opposed to ME3, which leaves so much unexplained, unexplored, and unclarified, and without any significant difference in the endings based on the decisions you've made, the friendships, the relationships, the alliances, with a character you've guided through three entire games over six years, just to fall flat in an inexplicable, unplausible set of words from a device-entity giving contradictory reasons for exterminating galactic civilization every 50,000 years.

Was there no text panels mentioning everyone like at the end of Dragone Age Origins? Like "XDF married PPA and left for <your fav place here>, where they had two healthy babies...".

Nope, nothing like that

Nothing.

I wouldn't have minded a Fallout New Vegas style series of explained endings for each character and faction.

I never played ME1 and have only beat ME3 once (I'm currently on my 2nd play-through) but if none of the decisions make a difference I might as well not re-complete it. If used in the correct way having an opened ended ending can be very interesting, allowing the viewer to make the kind of ending they want. I do see what you mean, they didn't answer enough of the questions and then ended it in a way that doesn't really allow you to make a better ending in your mind.

If you carried a character through all three games, you might have a better picture of what I'm talking about.

I beat ME2 twice and carried my character from there but never played the first one like I said.

Not to mention blowing holes in the plot you could fit a Krogan through!

Wardy

Exactly!! I'm stuck trying so damn hard to understand the ending, my head just keeps hurting. What was the point of the whole alliance gathering and soooo much developing over the series for it all to end like that? It doesn't make any sense.

*thumbs up*

They will be changing/adding an ending (source: http://blog.bioware.com/2012/03/21/4108/) so it won't always be this crappy.

For Tali's face, I'm convinced it's an epic Bioware troll. They originally said they were never going to show her face. In just about every interview I've seen they were asked about her face and they always said no. To see Tali's face (SPOILER WARNING HERE!!!)...



You have to kill her entire race off and then she kills herself. The photo is a stock internet one and was turned into her with about 5 minutes of Photoshop editing. With the rest of the production values of the game being so ridiculously high, I can't imagine that they just screwed up with something the community obviously cared so much about. I think the entire kill Tali to see Tali is a very thought out and intentional troll for the fans pestering them for years about her face.

She puts a picture of herself without her mask on your night stand if you maintain a relationship with her throughout ME3. You can pick it up and look at it and see her face.

Hopefully, all I saw in that article was we love our product, understand some fans dislike it, play it yourself, tells us what you think, and we'll weigh our options.

Interesting, didn't know that. I still think it's a troll as it's hard for me to see how a game they put -so- much time into with all the dialogue and other options is going to have such a crappy selection of endings and the face reveal shown that way. I'd be happier with no reveal as it stands.

Well, the real problem is that they started with one concept and ended with another. Originally it was going to be "the player's story" so we expected endings that would reflect the choices we made. For those that liked EDI and unified the Quarians and Geth? The 3 options of destroy all machines and space travel really goes against those stories. However, Bioware wrote a single story and made all three ending jive with that story. If you want the most War Assets you have to follow their story which involves killing Wrex, choosing the Salarians, and killing the Geth. I know some people who decided all machines are bad from the beginning and didn't notice any holes in the story thanks to it.

You do know you can also save both the geth and quarians, and get a picture that way, right?

The ending isn't going to be "Changed" persay as they are going to elaborate more on it according to IGN.

oh! SO I see that Tali was your Shepard LI... Well... I played as a female Shepard & went with Garrus... for me, Thane was too emo assassin & Jacob is a jerk... Also I can't stand Kaiden or Ashley & forget the noob character in ME3... but Garrus had the voice, the humor & he was "Archangel"! How bad-ass is that? Sooooooo BAD-AsserY! I was so pissed at the ME2 with just a head-bump but the romance in ME3 soooo made up for it. Besides Garrus wants to make Turrian/Human babies with Shepard! Aaaaawe or....maybe it's more....AAAAH!

But if I was playing MALE Shepard in ME then I would go with Liara... she helped bring Shepard to life & stuck with him & never let him down. She is even the Shadow Broker... how hooked up is that ?!?!? So awesome! Need some juicy gossip? She can hook you up! Want to find that A-Hole in high school & kick his ass? Need to find a Kardashian to flour bomb? She has got that!
Besides Liara likes...glows when you do her... no need of a night-light!

lol at the Kardashian joke xD

Thumbs up to this.

Best fan ending thus far I'd say.

Yours ending beat ME3's flat ending every day!

ahhh, tali, good man

Shepard: "Thank you Legion Jr."

I always liked Tali, she's deffinitly strong as a person when it counts, but in formal moments she's just so cute. I was glad when they gave you the option to start a romance with her in ME2 and when they said you could continue it in ME3.

this is my ideal ending but with femshep instead, i wish femshep could romance tali.

That's assuming too much and robbing a character with a set personality of the concept of free will just for the sake of you having more choice, therefore making her a slave to your will. Can you live with that on your conscious?

so your saying haveing a character be bisexual or pansexual wouldn't be that characters choice? you sound just as bad as all those asshole opposing same sex marrage.

No, I'm saying forcing your expectations on Tali's sexuality would make you a horrible human being.

you do realize that kaiden was straight in ME1 and bisexual in ME3 there is no reasion why they can't do that to tali.

Well besides the fact that what's done has already been done, there's one good reason why they didn't, because like what they did with Kaiden it would have been a rather sudden and unexplained change in an already developed character. Besides, if they offer you too many choices they hurt their time constraints, and from how the end turned out they were obviously rushed... because there's no other sane reason why they would end it that way besides A) Being rushed or B) Hoping to bleed the IP dry with DLC after DLC.

really dude!? fuck off!

Victory, the witch is slain!

b(^w^)7

You, sir, win a cookie. And a Desert Punk virtual helmet.

Why thank you.

She's not even real, thus you make yourself sound retarded.

Clearly her character isn't real, but given her responses were all too human, she or rather it, is clearly real. Besides the conversation is finished, and it didn't even involve you to begin with.

Don't care

Neither do I

But but, he promised Garrus that they'd have beers on a beach outside a vacation resort they both owned.

So my question to you is, where's the vacation resort? Where's Garrus?

The resort is behind them and Garrus is at the bar. The Geth is a give-away. Shepard and Tali just needed a moment together is all.

Sounds good to me.

There are rumors that the writing staff had nothing t do with the endings. This comes from Penny ARcade posts made from the account of one of the series writers, Patrick Weekes. Here's a link to the story. http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/.....ersial-ending/

Excellent pic although you need to re-do the colouring so you have 3 different colours!

I am one of the many people who are engaging in "feedback" sessions with BioWare, seeing as they claim to be listening and have opened the dialogue themselves so long as it remains civil and constructive, which is fair enough.

A lot of us are reassuring them that, on the whole, Mass Effect 3 was awesome on so many levels and that, aside from the last ten minutes, we all had fun with it. I think the fact that the ending has fallen so flat (as well as being a multiple promise-breaker) has cast a pall over the whole series and thus killed the desire to play through again with a different Shepard (as they prompt you to do more than once) and that bloody pop up that urges me to get DLC means I NOT be doing that UNLESS they fix the ending and give us one that is worthy of the series.

I'm not demanding anything...just asking (begging)

Wardy

i see you romanced Tali too <3

Tali is all love <3

You were right, Tali does have a very nice ass.

Also, bonus points for Dapper Geth.

Definitely better than the game ending, that was very depressing and disappointing. Was hoping for a Paragon/Renegade save in the kids bullshit speech about synthetics, but no, nothing like that :/

This is cute though, Tali is definitely one of my favourites :)

Thumbs up for hybrid quarian-human!

Please, they don't even have the same amino acids, maybe a turian-quarian.

Who cares about the acids? This is science fiction!

It's in-universe canon that their bodily fluids are toxic to one another.

This made my inner ME fan boy and inner Tali fan boy squee all over perhaps just a little too much. I must say, I do approve, and would love to see an ending along these lines sometime.

On that note actually, I keep hearing rumors that Bioware may be releasing Epilogue DLC to 'improve' the ending, though it's mainly rumors through friends and such. What's your thoughts on this if it ends up being true?

And, now if you'll excuse me, I need to go change my pants, I nerdgasmed a bit.

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Mass.....s-260084.shtml

Actually, speak of the devil, and a few minutes of searching later, I suppose here it is. No real details, just hints and whispers.

Needs more coconuts.

I wish something like this would have happened instead of what we did get. Hell I wish the Reapers would have won, at least it would have actually been different.

I pretty much did the same and outright rejected the ending, making up my own which accounted for my decisions and didn't look like the ending of Lost

Headcanon accepted.

I don't think Bioware had given us the true ending yet, considering the "Indoctrination" theory and what we get when we do the Destroy option.

Tali is my favorite girl as well. You are the first I've seen to draw her with her hood down.

So what did you think of the "Emergency Induction Port" bit. XD

that had my laughing so hard

Emerrrrgency innnduction porrrrrrrt.

Eeemergency induction straw.... port... dammit

Tali is everyone's waifu.

ME3's ending causing so much rage is proof of how effective indoctrination is...

Rawr-Rawr-rawr-"change the ending"-rawr...

---

!! Warning !! Spoiler Rant !!

---

...you'd think that the millions of fans that have played such an expansive and in-depth series; where each and every decision affects every aspect of the later games; where you're challenged left and right to keep to a certain morality (or not) would anticipate the possibility of something that's everyone's been telling you about throughout every game to have the ability to F*CK WITH THEIR MIND.

Seriously; the ending sequence is Reaper indoctrination, and a battle in the mind of Shepard. This is fact; and the game has been TELLING you this, all over the place. You know; all the 'weird' moments where things just didn't make sense... people acting out of character... being stuck in essentially a no-win situation... where the OBVIOUS path out (Destroy the Reapers) is shown as RENEGADE?

So chill; if you picked 'Destroy', then no; Shepard is not dead; and the Mass Effect Relays have not gone supernova and just wrecked the universe. The Reapers are big enough dicks to make you think so, though.

Funny how a gamer's defense against a subtle and effective plot device aimed solely at attacking the disambiguation between Shepard and the Player is to attack 'lazy' writing. The ending is the same on all three options for varying reasons; The first two happening because Shepard has succumbed to the Indoctrination, thus it happened; and the 'Everything is all wrecked and Shepard is killed in the attempt to defeat the Reapers' is aimed at the both of them, but more towards the Player, in a last-ditch effort to bring Shepard back into control. The Reapers were basically saying "Well; we lost, but let's make them think we still win..."

Bioware is not 'fixing' the ending; they are giving you the 'ending' ending. ME3 stopped on a cliffhanger (which in it's own right was annoying enough) It also irritates me that they would have the cajones to charge extra for a DLC which is the true ending. Kind of a way to stick it to the players, and milk just a 'little bit more' out of the series.


And; if for any reason you still doubt further, watch this rather compelling video laying everything out in a nice and rather straightforward manner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck

/Spoilerrant



Other than that; nice pic ^^ Hopefully when the DLC comes, we may yet see closure such as this.

This is probably the best argument to the ending(s) I've ever heard. Bravo good sir, bravo.

Makes a helluva lot more sense than "Oops; our writer just blew up everything; w00t.", eh?

First few lines from the codex on Reaper Indoctrination was that jarring realization that there was something FAR more wicked going on ^^

The sad thing is, Bioware had their hands tied, thanks to EA. EA gave them a deadline, and they were struggling to reach it, so they had to cut things out...
~Chloe

I liked the ME3 endings (well, the two of three I've seen) :D But I can see how this would be a preferable note to end on and thank you for sharing it :)

So, Shepard survived, Quarians no longer need their suits and they have Geth butlers.

Improved version of the "control" ending?

Spoiler.much? Lol

this isn't the actual ending lol

I ment tali unmasked ^^

oh yeah, that's not really much of a spoiler either, they barely show her face lol, and it's optional, you don't have to see it if you don't want

Yay Tali! I romanced her as well, she's my second favorite character (only second to Garrus lol)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck

All i could find but makes alot of sense even if it feels like ending was rushed.

Hmm, better....

From the thumbnail i thought it was something smexy between the two and the towel of the robot looked like an arrow pointing down at its genitals p,n,q

hell yes, nicely done!

...Is it weird that i find the idea of the geth being the waiter racist?

Sounds pretty racist to tell a geth he can't be a waiter.

I know this isn't really connected but I just had to laugh :) because it reminded me of this postcard.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-image.....e1570x630.jpg/

(just so were clear this is a joke descussion. i'm not acutally calling you racist)

No ones saying a geth can't be a waiter. I'm just saying that in your happy ending where you beat the reapers and there pawns, the geth. you now have sheaprd chilling with a girl and a geth in servant role. "Thank you Sheaperd for freeing us from the Reapers. let me freshen your drink".

It still has nothing to do with racism.

The Geth butler actually kind of fits. If you save both races and talk to Tali, she mentions how the Geth are helping the Quarians however they can, including uploading into the environmental suits to work on turbo-boosting the Quarian immune systems. And Shepard-Commander is their hero. :)

Aww, tali has her helmet off on the homeworld...much better ending >.>

Yes

So happy to find another Tali lover! ^.^

I am ashamed that Bioware was not willing and able to make a better ending nor willing to give us a Model of Tali's face other than a picture that barely can be seen. *sighs*

Adored the series, adored Mass Effect 3 all the way until the last 15 minutes....

Maybe the "ending amending" DLC they're promising will fix that? I too wasn't satisfied to see her face outside of the photo.

I'm Commander Shepard and I approve of this image!

I'm commander Shepard, and this is my favorite picture on the citadel.

Geth waiter? Yes please!

Two words: "Thank you!"

Several more words: This turned out pretty nicely, and I do agree with many others in how disappointed I was with the ending of ME3. I find it really cool that you drew something like this up. =3

I'm Commander Shepard, and this is my favorite picture on the Citadel.

damn, you beat me to the punch.

Your post made me think of it. xD

well, considering you posted before me.... *giggles* but thanks.

Tali<3

That's how I was hoping it would end. That Shephard and Tali would live happily ever after on Rannoch. But NOOOO!!!! I have to wait for DLC to do that

Haven't quite finished the game just yet, but I am disappointed about how they went about Tali's face, especially with all the hype and anticipation about it. I think it would have been much better to have her moving character's face shown sometime during that ending instead. That would have been much more of an impact for the person playing. A Photoshopped stock photo is definitely lazy, but that's why I keep my own version of her stuck in my head. :P
Also like the robot reference in the comics too! I'm assuming it was intentional to be a reference to the game :P

Tali indeed

"Dat ass"

But wait, haven't you heard of the Indoctrination Theory? I makes the ending make perfect sense now because shut up it does :O

Yes. But I'm not going to get all hopeful over rumors and speculation.

Me neither. I wouldn't mind it so much if every time I say I don't buy it I get some desperate fanboy screaming "YOU R A IDIOT! IT'S TOTALLY WHATS HAPPENING!!!" :P

*shrugs* Maybe if we had less idiots screaming how the ending makes no sense and they need to "retake mass effect" like babies when there is very clear evidence that is whats going on, especially when this is not the first science fiction story to go down this route, we wouldn't be calling these retake mass effect people idiots and yelling back. In other words, spoonys response http://www.twitch.tv/spoonyone/b/312765460

I'm sorry, did you mistake me for someone who cares?

Ending approved

So far the best explanation of the ending I've heard is that pretty much the entire thing is a dream sequence/hallucination. Isn't that just plain sad? That the best they can do to help justify the conclusion to their trilogy is to say that it didn't really happen?

It did happen but did not at the same time. After you are hit with Harby's beam the reapers try to indoctrinate Shepard in his weakened state. So technically yes it was a Hallucination but one with very real consequences if you made the wrong choice.

You do realize the whole point of the last 10 min was the reapers final push to indoctrinate Shepherd right? Listen to what the rachni queen says in ME1 then go through the dreams in ME3. notice something she said?

Rumor and speculation. I hope you're right.

As i'm sure you've already heard, there is a large amount of evidence that supports the view that the last 10 minutes were all an indoctrinated mind trip Shepard went through. I will say that there is some evidence to disprove this, and it could very well be just fans grasping at straws.

Of course the Indoctrination theory still isn't a good thing. As if Bioware did intentionally do this, than they withheld the actual ending to the game so it could be made into DLC. And if the Indoctrination theory is a false...well than it's just Bioware's team falling flat and failing horribly.

Honestly I think they're going the way of Blizzard. They've made a MMO and now any single player game they make will never measure up to previous works.

I like this pic. It's sweet, and it's something I can agree on. Kudos to you.

ive got to admit i was so excited to see talis face. btw if you wanna play some galaxy at war my xbox id is jessez83

10 paragon/renegade for tali romance.

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!

I am SOOOO totally agreeing to this! Bioware Ruined ME3 with that horrible ending! Give me back my dreams, bioware you bastards!

This exactly how it should have ended. Thank you Fisk this slightly heals the wound that bioware had imprinted.

Tek

thats epic

funny... that's the ending I was hoping for too... except with a beach house and a child that looks really familiar...

Aw, you romanced that Cerberus bitch? I hated her.
Tali is best romance. Well... until you get a lame photoshop of her "true self." *shudder*

That is Tali. Look closlier.

yeah. someone else romanced tali.

wish this was the endings. so cute.

The Ending is actually Understandable... if they just Never put so much promises in the game! The Future vision, the Romance, the Anticipation of some events and peace and... so much, SO MUCH there,

yet the ending is like, No matter what you do, it's all same, Worked your ass for all these years to perfect your choices and see the fruit result of your labor is same like those who JUST played Mass Effect and finished it, same ending no matter what... THAT'S the rage to me, like, I know Shepard dies, love if he lives, we all expected that, but... like I said, no matter what, ending is same.

Then again, Wasn't Joker on Earth's Space? how the heck he caught up in Fast Traveling? was he Bailing On Shepard? I had Garrus with me in the battle, how the heck he end up in there As well? lol

and ` or something of the Galaxy's fleet are stucked on Earth's space with no way to return... it's like "Let them all die ANYWAY, they'll never restart their Lives again! Mwahahahaha" haha, So Sad

Ending it with "Oh we all planned for it, the better ending will be for those who... pay... In the new Downloadable Content!" Ffffffff,

other than That, Awesome Piccie! Love the Geth, I made a Female Geth myself X3

I don't know how you add downloadable content that takes place after the ending of ME3, given the cut scene at the end of the credits. Few things could put the "cap" on the ME universe like that.

They did it with the "Day One" Downloadable Content, which is by Cropping a part of the Game and label it as "Separate" part, because we all know the game is rushed beyond beliefs, how the heck they had time to even make a Downloadable Content? lol

He does live in one of the endings.

You mean the Chest breath? psh even if so, his/her lover is now trapped in a remote planet with no way of communication or travel, relays destroyed, I guess it's the end anyway, See?! All Same >=3

They can still repair the ship, don't loose hope.

Lose it, the Relays are all destroyed, they can't fast travel without one, they could be in the other side of the Galaxy XD

I suppose this means there is going to be a mass increase in the number of fuel stations in the galaxy.

And Traveling between each Solar System Doesn't mean it actually takes minutes or hours, it takes Much more than that, heck ever heard of Light years, because so many people keeps thinking Shepard did all these from the start of the game in few days, when it's actually few months, that's with the Relay's help, without them, it could take lifetime by far to reach the other side, plus in the ending, the destruction of the Relays MEANT to be for That specific reason, unable to contact or travel at all, it's called "Getting back to the Dark Ages" XD

It's possible the mass relays weren't destroyed. That info if I remember right came in the final choice sequence of the game which if the Indoctrination theory is correct could mean that it was false evidence given to try to control Shepard.

... SOMEONE ASSUMED DIRECT CONTROL WITH THIS ONE HERE!!

Intrusting. So if they weren't destroyed then it's back to business then.

A good ending, but I would have added more girls.

Tali and Shepard ftw <3

The ending to ME3 made me want to punch puppies. PUPPIES DO YOU HEAR ME BIOWARE?!?!?!

Yay for romancing Tali. She's by far the cutest of the potential ME2 love interests. Adorkable, she does science, and she's got the whole mysterious mask thing going on.

Plus, y'know, Miranda's a fish, Jack is crazy, and the asari is a damn paladin.
Plus, alien mind-sex is kinda wierd.

Says you! Liara is also a good choice, or Garrus for all the Fem Shepperd's.

Agreed to the flat ending oh MEstatement... even if I like how the synergy thing came out, I mean Joker and EDI.. hmm, who would have thought that. Maybe there are lots of little Normandies on the way :P
I am a bit disappointed that Bioware made it like this, and I think yours is better *chuckle*

I'm not to much into commenting, but as a mass effect junkie I got something to say. If you never played any of them, spoilers ahead

I played though the ME3 and was let down by the ending, no last battle, no ending's to any teammates and etc. So I started to re-play 1-2. Then I got to thinking, not about just ME3, but all 3 and the DLC as ONE story. So I re-started 3 and noticed something, that Anderson doesn't see the kid at the start, he should have head him talk at any rate, nor do the solders help him in the shuttle. So I got to the end once more an noticed that thing's don't seem right after you get hit with the laser beam, the tree's and bush's from your dreams are there now (they were not before) why would the reaper fly off? why would they only send one to defend it? how did anderson and the iluesive man get there before you? How and why would Hackiet contact you if he was told NO ONE made it inside? Then I tryed out all 3 endings and it hit me, only one ending has the reapers destroyed, the other two are what other people have tried and become indoctrinated in the end. Think about it,
1. Control ending: It's what the Ilusive man tried to do
2. Merge: What Sarien was trying to do, (and more so if you merge with them wouldn't you get the things you shot at the whole game?)
3. Destroy: the ONLY ending that does not turn you gray nor your eye's blue like indoctrinated people. As well the only ending that show's you take a breath after.

I looked on line, a lot of people think as I do. Take a look at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ythY_GkEBck . It might be true or not but it is something to think on.

Yeah, I saw that video, too.

The problem is all that hopeful speculation has to overcome the cut scene that occurs after the credits, where it's very much set in stone that galactic civilization has reverted to pre-FTL.

I guess that everything up to the breath is all in your head,the crash landing of the Normendy, mass relay's being taken of line and all. It symbolizes your resolve and hope....or something so I'm told lol. But it would be kinda awesome if it were true, and we all got tricked on a mass scale like that. I still like the game, ending sucks as it is, but the game play itself was good. Just now I wonder, if Boiware is going to use this as a cop out to hide the fact it was a crap ending, or did they intend this to happen and it was part of the plan? Or are they planing something deffrent, or anything at all? I never had much time to really look into it, but i still find it fun to think about.

Well...they haven't lost all FTL. Their ships can do FTL with their ME cores. They just can't go near as fast as they can with a relay.

If their ships couldn't do FTL at all on their own, they would really be boned. If Bioware keeps the ending, I suspect that the basis of a game in the ME universe post-Shepard would be trying to reunite the galactic civilizations and building new relays from what information they had on them.

Awh... this is a nice pic! Love the toast and the robot waiter.

BTW, just read today's "Original Life" and LMAO at Abby; All that, ".., five pounds of fur and skin,.." and his reaction. I love the humor dude. NICE.

Tali <3 So glad to know I'm not alone in my Tali romancing :)

Fool.

Everybody is space gay for Tali!

true... a so amazing universe, and a so.. well... lame ending.. erf

Yeah, this was pretty much the exact ending I was hoping for...

And then the Catalyst laid out my options...

this. this ending is perfect, and it is now my headcanon. although my shepard's the default one, so i'll have to mentally add hair, but i'm sure it'll take less effort than repressing the hell out of my memory of the original ending.

You imagined it this way too huh? This is going up as my desktop back ground. Hope you dont mind but.

Win, just pure amazing win

Here's something I watched that was interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZOyeFvnhiI

I still can't believe that people actually held charities in response to this. I believe they were called "If you hated the ending donate to..." They did raise a lot of money though so I guess the ending was good for something. XD

Tali looks awesome with hair, though I feel her stock photo was a gigantic oversight. It was dissapointing how this amazing alien galaxy started homogenizing closing into the last game to human focused with 3/4ths of the squad being human and the focus point being earth.

The alien fan-art of Tali was far more satisfying then the 2 minute photoshop job we got in the game.

now that´s the end I was hoping for all the time.

Do you actually get to see Tali's face? o.o God I gotta get this game

I think Mass Effect 3's main problem is that it was rushed threw production and not given the necessary tweaks.

What have EA think be This ¿?¿
I have me the Collector's Edition buyed and have it Days long played ^^
Not real End-BOSS and not Chance to survive, this all !!

The End is bad, but the Story anself can i play ever again ^.^

This makes me not hate life as much. Thank you.

Choose your ending red green or blue colors? Buy the ending as dlc in April thats going way too far an ending as dlc wtf. After that prepare to buy characters for 10 dollars lol Javik was already on the disc why did we pay for him.

Insanity is a joke stasis with 325% damage boost armor 60% weapon damage 55% head shot damage Sniper barrel 25% Time dilation mod 25% alliance training 15% weapon damage and a black widow lvl x 1 hit kills everywhere.

Or just use an adept warp and throw spam lol this game is a joke you dont need a team on insanity or gold difficulty on multi player. Biotic explosion spamming ftw.

I agree that the ending was as flat and lame as you can imagine.

Just got back on to FA from a 1 month absence playing Mass Effect 1, 2, and 3... I finished 3 yesterday and thought the ending was terrible. I didn't like any of the presented choices and was wishing for something just like this! Funny how I find this in my recent watches while thinking about it!

Thumbs up!

Bit ironic that you negate ME3's godawful ending with a revision that accepts one of the game's laziest design decisions.

Cutting corners in a brief and washed out image of a character's face that most players will never see pales in comparison to being blind to the need for closure and emotional payoff at the end of a gigantic interactive video game trilogy.

The former hardly bothered me.

I see it more as being five-plus years of fanservice cockteasing about an entire species' appearance only to resolve it in a five-minute lazily-photoshopped rush job that doesn't even make sense in the universe's canon. I could let it slide if the ME games were big dumb shoot-em-up kind of games that didn't take themselves seriously but when Bioware endlessly masturbates about how much thought they put into their IP's universe and their nauseatingly-mediocre writing it implies a need for some kind of empathy in the background material, which ends up being conspicuously absent when such a brushed-off approach is taken. It's not even about cutting corners since they had tons of concept art for potential appearances that they universally rejected. It hasn't been as...notorious as the endings were but it reeks just as badly of how lazy and contemptuous for their customers Bioware has become since they got assimilated into EA.

I guess that aspect about Tali just didn't bother me as much. Wasn't nearly as important as the ending for the entire series.

Fair enough

I always like Tali though she is just cute in my opinion personality wise anyway.

Or I guess people did not like the ending because the game was simply... y'know, ending?

Besides the ending the worst disappointment in the Mass Effect series was the lack of FemShep/Tali romance.

Awesome picture!

Hmm, that the ending shown in me3 is influenced by indoctrination seems more true then the other choices.
For all we know, the waking up shep is waking up to a still ongoing war.

Did i understand something wrong, or did not the renegade ending that leaves him alive, kill all synth, but are not shep him/herself a synth now too?
Shep did get rebuilt, and has a lot of tech in, and died.
But still get left from whatever it was that kills all synth life?
I know my knowledge is -way- spotty on the whole thing, and that sheps survival may have no issue with that geth killing magic weapon.

Well the fans have been heard! Head of Bio were heard that there was allot of disappointment about the ending and lack of closure so there going to send out new downloadable content called Mass Effect extended cut were we get more endings based on how we played the trilogy and closure.

Even in fan fiction Tali doesn't have a face XD

mass effect 3; whats your favorite color?

shepherd is like captain kirk, he gets all the alien girls

It's got less movement.. less talking.. alot less money for anything.. but that single picture. <.< is so much more viable as the ending for mass effect three than the actual one was... v.v makes me sad... all the same. :3 good work.

I love this, Tali was my romance character as well ^^. Is you're version of the Geth in this ending more subjugated or is that platform a willing 'butler' of sorts?

This is EXACTLY how I pictured the game would end. Instead, we got three Trollface endings!*pouts*

I got her to jump off the edge, BLAYUM. Loved the ending very deus ex invisible war incredably similar games.

i approved sooo hard my thumb fell off XD

ACTUALLY

The geth do serve drinks, but only if Tali dies in Mass Effect 2.


Admiral Xen says this during the dreadnaught mission.

"The geth invaded the bridge but they were quite susceptible to my hacking routines. They're doing a lovely dance right now, and in a moment, they're going to serve refreshments.

the geth needs a bow-tie.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE!