What were your issues (I didn't read that thread) ?

Edit: oops

Tempy wrote:

Gosh, I can't recall. Lack of impact the War Assets had and uh, Harbinger not really appearing. I mean, he does, but he was so great in ME2 that I really wanted the Reapers to have a voice in 3. Minor things like Joker flying away and all that, not too fussed. Tis only a game ending, I was reconcilled with it due to the fact that it had been FUCKING EXCELLENT for near on 60 hours through ME2 and 3 so a few guffs at the end didn't really bother me. Disliked them out right denying the ambiguity of parts of the ending with that "The Final Houes of Mass Effect" thing, especially when it turned out they had no idea what they were doing. Up until then it all looked awesome. I view that cock up as a totally seperate thing though, I was pleased with how it ended. If I recall correctly. It has been months.

What was the Final Hours thing? Kind of with you on some of the Reaper stuff, but I don't think that affected the ending for me at all. I liked how things developed on the Synthetic / Organic lifeforms deal - reminded me also how Matrix totally ballsed up the potential brought in the Animatrix on that lovely Sci-Fi obsession - and how the final conversation was how things ended. The Geth storyline led really nicely into the ending, I thought. It also had a big heap of 2010 in it, which I felt they were leading up to. With the higher beings wiping shit out for the good of everyone. The ending was really from the Cerebrus base on til you get beamed up - that bit is super atmospheric - and I thought all the conversations and video logs did a good job at putting enough of a light on what this Illusive Fellow was up to. 

The Joker being somewhere else, or what happened exactly with specific characters seems nearly completely irrelevant. I like the feeling that there is some uncertainty as to what has happened in Shepherd's absence, and what will happen in the future. There was nothing that jarred me into thinking "OH what happened with that plot point?" The through line was about getting folks to work together, and I can't think of a better conclusion than what the Reaper dude lays on you at the end. Do you want to keep killing, or do you want a solution? Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. It is not the job of this game to tell you one way or the other.

The assets thing I can see, but I thought they did a really good job at making it appear as if it did have a big impact, story wise. The final-ish scenes of all the groups working together were excellent. I don't think that it was as good a game as Mass Effect 2. It felt a little unfinished in parts, and I loved the loyalty missions, and what felt like deeper interaction with the characters. Still, as we talked about before, the pay-off for a third game in a series bringing up decisions made two games ago is awesome. When I saved the weird engineered Rachni, my crew was very surprised, seeing as I killed the original one. I can't think of another game that has done that kind of thing.

I won't base my philosophy on his teachings so.

You're a sharp one.

I'll jump straight to the conclusion

Don't do me any favours.

monkey wrote:

Plus there's the circular logic of creating an army of super robots to kill everyone so that armies of super robots don't kill everyone.

The Reapers don't think they are merely killing them, they are "ascending" them (some of them anyway). It doesn't give much explanation of what that actually means, and their reasons for doing it made more sense in the original ending. But I can see how they would think they're doing something good.

The Reapers seem to believe that each generation of galactic life yeilds some knoweldge or understanding that is worth preserving, thus when Organic/Synthetic life threatens to collide and balls everything up, they intervene and start harvesting them or 'ascending' them into some collective conscious in the Reapers.

Why?

Who knows, that is the beauty of SciFi, puroposes beyond mortal knowledge, understandings so vast that we can't comperehend them, deus ex machina that provides a nice thing to hide in and pretend it all makes sense. Glorious, glorious SciFi.

Bugchet, The 'Final Hours' was an iPad app thing that had exclusive interviews and stuff wtih key staff who essentially said they wrote the conclusion on the back of a paper towel. A scan of that very towel is in fact available to view in that app. It appears that they had no idea what they were doing, but sometimes a head long rush into crunch can form jewels.

Whatever the opinion, Bioshock reneging on their decisions was a massive mis-step in my opinion.

I know you're baws deep in DS9, but given your appreciation of Synth vs. Organic in this, The Matrix and OTHER, I totally implore you to watch Battlestar Galactica. DO IT MAN.

ChattinWithChet wrote:

Whatever the opinion, Bioshock reneging on their decisions was a massive mis-step in my opinion.

Huh?

Otherwise YES.

Er, Bioware. Haha.

BSG is amazing, I reckon you'll love it. I need to do DS9 at some point, or Babylon. Whichever has held up better is cheapest.

@Tempy: Haha!

DS9 is my favouritest Star Trek. They probably pilfered a good bit of the set-up from Babylon 5, but we'll forgive them for being so terribly good.

Bollockoff wrote:

I still think the split second scene of a broken Sheperd taking a sharp breath means this DLC was always planned anyway and all the moaning did was announce it earlier.

?

Little Franklin wrote:

Watched the first series of BSG, have no desire to watch any more. Is the organic vs synthetic stuff interesting? If so, please sum it up for me in a short paragraph.

Without explaining too much:

Mortality and such is toyed with, notions of superiority between man and machine are introduced, the ability to 'break programming' and the background of that very programming and its values are mused upon.

Here go some mild spoilers. Avoid if you plan to watch:

By not watching it i'd say you are denying yourself some of the best TV that has ever been made, especially if you are a SciFi fan. At only 4 seasons, it doesn't outstay its welcome. It is also about much more than Robots Vs Humans.

Tempy wrote:

Why? Who knows, that is the beauty of SciFi, puroposes beyond mortal knowledge, understandings so vast that we can't comperehend them, deus ex machina that provides a nice thing to hide in and pretend it all makes sense. Glorious, glorious SciFi.

It didn't make sense because it was badly written. Nothing to do with the inherent vagaries of its genre, or the subject matter. 

Anyway, it's a good game.

I think I missed it. It's not the scene of the dude giving the story to his granddaughter?

@Chat it's shown right at the end of the credits if I remember. I saw it anyway. Basically you see Sheperd's body surrounded by rubble, presuming him dead and it lingers long enough to see and hear him take a sharp intake of air. Before the game cuts.

One of the biggest parts of the indoctrination theories. In that the whole little boy blue thing happens in your head during/after your run to get into the Citadel. And that it's your Sheperds final mental resistance against indoctrination.