- A complete guide to EA’s devaluation. It even has pretty graphs.
- Can Origin become better than Steam?
- Is your body ready for games as microtransaction playgrounds? EA and Kotaku are ready!
- Criterion are making the next Need For Speed, and there is a movie in the works.
It hurts so bad to know that you’re gone.
- Gaikai is looking for a buyer. Although Sony is having a tough time, they could buy the company.
- The Last Guardian is still alive. And they still aren’t finished. At this rate, it will be the greatest game of all time.
- Coma is a new indie game from Coma Studios. The abstract imagery has me intrigued, and you can see gameplay here.
- Metal Gear Solid 5 was casually confirmed by Kojima. It will feature Solid Snake returning (?), and will have conversations like Deus Ex.
- An interesting article about how filmic games like The Last of Us are lacking creativity. Very controversial, Roger Ebert agreed with his sentiments.
- Meet The Pyro is coming Monday night on Adult Swim. Make sure to make jokes about tonight being the night.
- Athene raises a million dollars…for charity!
- Meanwhile Curt Schilling talks about how he lost all his money.
- You can download the new Mass Effect 3 ending on July 26th. I predict that it will be “what really happened”, like The End of Evangelion.
I highly, highly doubt it will be ‘what actually happened’ / indoctrination, as Bioware stated the new ending will contain no new gameplay. Even if it IS the Indoctrination theory, it’s most likely Bioware adopted it. There’s no way they can have thought it out from the get-go for several reasons, both in-universe and in terms of a business strategy.
I highly doubt BioWare would regain their formerly beloved fanbase with a extended cut DLC, that provides “clarity” and “context” to an ending that’s completely FUBAR.
As excellently stated by MrBtongue why this DLC won’t work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT_x64921ls
If the Extended DLC does prove the Indoctrination Theory, there’s perhaps some glimmer of hope left within them. But I don’t buy the theory, because Mac Walters isn’t as subtle as Drew Karpyshyn. Their reputation may hinge on this DLC alone, but it’d be hard to regain their old reputation during the current state they’re in. BioWare are now just puppets to their mightly overlord EA, the worst video game company in America.
Its not like this DLC will address the other issues that plagued Mass Effect 3. I mean the game was pretty good up until the last ten minutes, but it wasn’t the only major flaw in the game.
It won’t be indoctrination. End of.
Let me summarise the situation: two writers take it upon themselves to pen the ending without the company’s peer review process the rest of the trilogy’s writing went through. Said trilogy and (for the most part) said company’s writing hinges less on twists than characterisation and emotional investment on an interpersonal level, and using familiar tropes to great effect (Canderous VS Wrex? My money’s on the brutish, chaotic one who’s part of a dying proud warrior race with plenty war stories to tell while on your ship).
These people are known, from interviews, to have high artistic ambitions but their opinion and definition of ‘art’ is…sketchy at best (well, mainly Casey Hudson. Walters just goes along with him). What happens?
Is it:
A: They pen a twist ending that projects a set psyche onto a character that’s supposed to be a blank slate, littering clues to its true nature in a game where we don’t even know why the Reapers didn’t blow up the Crucible, enraging fans and having us wait five months for the truth as a real-life metaphor for Reaper Indoctrination, in an ending that people who don’t browse forums or their system’s stores frequently won’t know about and those without the internet can’t even access?
Or is it…
B: They dun goofed?
Besides – the indoc theory isn’t even airtight in itself.
“Besides – the indoc theory isn’t even airtight in itself.”
Agreed, for reasons excellently put by MrBtongue once again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ5qPIcuMZA&feature=plcp
That aside, there’s also tons of other little things that stacks up against the IT’s evidence.
- Vendetta detects no indoctrination (admittedly he’s not infallible)
- Surely TIM’s control is just Reaper-fuelled biotic powers?
- Gameplay and story segregation / plot railroading
- third person omniscient cutscenes in destroy
- Instances where only control and destroy are available
- his suit’s still melted
- why indoctrinate a dying guy?
- brain turned to mush
- he runs in synthesis
- synthesis is the ‘best’ ideologically going from EMS counts
- his dreams can represent earth, not indoctrination
It’s like two stacks of info piled up against one another.
I like how you guys probably know more about the ending than Bioware and none of you give a shit.
I beta tested the Extended Cut. They doubled the Catalyst’s lines; he summarizes the story in excruciating detail, to the point where it’s out of character, but at least the denizens of online forums will now have a slightly higher chance of understanding ME3′s hilariously simple story and ending.
They removed the existing Renegade, Paragon, and True Endings and replaced them with:
Renegade = All existing tech is destroyed. EDI dies and Joker kills himself (I’m serious). Shepard ends up in a wheelchair (half of his brain got destroyed), but he has kids at some point, even if you never romanced anyone. In the distant future, you see his descendants battling the Reapers and then it cuts to black.
Paragon = Shepard attempts to control the Reapers, and he fails: they indoctrinate him. He becomes the new Catalyst. Surprise! The “Catalyst” wasn’t originally a Reaper/part of the Mass Effect Relay System–like Shepard, it was an advanced organic who tried to control the Reapers, and it failed and was transformed into the Catalyst. Shepard, as the Catalyst, proceeds to wipe out all organic life, bringing eternal peace to the cosmos.
True Ending = Organics and tech are fused forever. Joker and friends crash land on a new planet, the new “Garden of Eden”. Shepard is dead. Civilization rapidly advances because of the organic/tech fusion. “5 years later”, you see pans to different part of the galaxy. Each surviving character gets their own unique cutscene depending on what you chose during your game. For example, you might see Wrex’s krogan children running around his legs as he and his mate overlook the regenerated Tuchanka. Another cutscene shows Legion helping Tali build her house on Rannoch. Javik goes on a journey to find any other surviving Protheans, but in my import, I never saw him find any others. The weirdest part about this ending is that, at the very end of it, EDI and Joker have a child who they name “Shepard”.
I recently saw the Extended Cut ending. It’s better, but still shitty. It basically brought score of the ending from a 1/10 to a 2/10. Well, I guess people should throw in the towel and just give up over the petitioning for a new ending. The best we can do is boycott their future games, I’m sure as Hell I’m not going to purchase anything from BioWare at this point. All hope is lost for BioWare, fucking EA fucks up every great game studio.
Seen the endings, and quite frankly, the worst one is definitely ‘refusal’ despite the fact *that’s one of the main damn themes of the franchise*.
Hopefully soon all variants will be released, because I want to see the extended version of ‘Destroy Bad’ where everyone died and Earth was turned into a ball of ash.