Mass Effect 3 Extended Cut Released On Xbox 360
By George Denison on June 26th, 2012 (37 comments)
After a fan outcry over the endings of Mass Effect 3, Bioware promised to release free DLC that would extend the ending and offer some closure to the game's final moments. That DLC was released on the Xbox 360 today. Does it improve what was for many a disappointing conclusion to the trilogy?
You can judge for yourself by watching the endings below.
HEAVY SPOILERS AHEAD
The DLC gives players a more comprehensive explanation of the consequences of their final choice, and the option to tell the starchild to go stuff himself if you fancy watching everything burn in the name of personal freedom. Nice as it is to have closure, I don't think the DLC will solve the central problem many had with the ending, which was that a trilogy that involves thousands of choices and variables gets boiled down to three colour coded endings.
Personally, though I thought the ending was flawed, and still is with the added DLC, it didn't ruin my overall enjoyment of Mass Effect 3. I'm glad Bioware went for something bold and thought provoking, and not a big, noisy boss battle. Yet I think the opportunity for something even more daring has been missed here. What if the Reapers had simply won? What if Shepherd and his cohorts, even with their skill and courage, had to succumb to the inevitable cycle and simply died on earth, guns blazing, in a futile attempt to prolong the existence of humanity?
Perhaps that would have been slightly too dark a direction to take the series. What really hacks me off, though, is the 'destroy' ending, where we see the possibility of Shepherd's survival. I don't want a sequel. I like the finality Shepherd's death represents. It's the end of a story; I don't want to see it being dragged out further than it needs to be.
What do you think of the extended cuts? Do they improve the Mass Effect 3 experience, or are you still disappointed with where the series has ended up?
George Denison
George Denison is a writer, editor and occasional podcaster for 4player. He has spent an unhealthy amount of his life playing Just Cause 2 and the Mass Effect games. Besides videogames, he likes words, cheesecake, and music. You can follow him on Twitter.
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I'm not gonna lie, I was rather content with the original endings, but I'm glad to see that the expanded endings clarify a ton of things. The refusal ending is a nice added chuckle. That said, I still absolutely love the Synthesis ending and hearing EDI narrate it made me smile.
Link / ReplySame here, hope this new dlc expands upon the consequences and choices you've made up to that point, I've heard positive buzz about how this DLC plays out but I kinda wanna play it myself, seeing my character and choices play into it and stuff.
Link / ReplyHonestly, I'm glad they changed the message at the end from blatantly "buy our stuff" to "thanks for playing" with a hint that you can go buy DLC or they might do something else. Still a lot more effort put into these. The new fourth ending is triggered in the best way but is still kinda lackluster, yet it still kinda sets up a neat little alternative that I don't think they'll expand on. I wonder if they still have the super-secret game over not ending?
Link / ReplyWell, it's an improvement. But why the fuck keep the colour code?
Link / ReplyBecause choices have been color coded for the entire series up to that point.
Link / ReplyEven though this was a pretty good 'wrap up' and it made me feel glad that at least shepard MIGHT have survived with my decision, it didn't even explain the results of the other decisions I had made, as well as results of the final decision (destroying the reapers) Another Krogan Rebellion perhaps? What happens to the billions of people who are biotics? But anyway, after watching the extended versions, my opinion actually changed, which I didn't really expect. Even though I destroyed the reapers and I kept it that way, synthesis is probably the overall better choice.
Link / Replyits basically bioware doing the bare minimum in order to shut ppl up. They didnt even do a good job, i mean there are still plotholes..for example they never explained why your whole crew got back on the normandy and also did they show the fleet warp out of there without needing to go through a mass relay? (in destroy video) Overall its not well done, it even kills any hope the "indoctrination" fans were holding on to. Basically these endings sets it up so that Bioware can make more Mass Effect games, its like a bulletin board was up and they was like. okay reapers destroyed with harbinger...super easy and no real climax...check Shepard lives...check (yes he lives u need enough points to see him take a lil breath at the end) anderson dead...check crew lives...check fleet lives....check mass relay....damaged (not destroyed..even though the choices were saying it gets destroyed and in the original it blows up to pieces) check and then cut to montage of slideshows... I mean i thought they were gonna at least add some nice cutscenes of the assets u acquired for the big fight....that was my main disappointment. i spent all this time gathering the forces for this big huge war, u know where are the rachni and all the other assets? also that refusal option is basically a big "fuck you" to ppl complaining u had no choice to refuse any of the 3 options...basically saying god child is god, no real way to win...even tho a good number of reapers have fallen over the course of the game...u know once u get into the crucible, no fight left, no choice..we give u ohh everyone died here is a archive.
Link / ReplyThe truth is...most people can only see the artistic value of things merely skin deep. In the Mass Effect case, they needed every detail wrapped up in a bow-tie rather than left up to the imagination of the beholder. The series wrapped up just fine originally. It left room for discussion, which is the point! It led to Indoctrination Theories, and rants, and...that'skind of brilliant. Pulp Fiction is one of new-era cinema's greatest films, yet so much is left unsaid. Those who hated Quentin's classic, needed a bow-tie finish. As for the new ending, I was touched in the memorial sequence and noticed Liara DIDNT put Shepards name up, which is great! More discussion!
Link / Reply...but... my Shepard never took that last breath, leaving me to believe he didn't make it. In my mind Liara hesitated to put his name up, but my crew and I know the truth.
Link / ReplyThat's fine and all in most genres of games, but this is an RPG. Or at least it once was. It's centred on the players' choice, both story and gameplay wise. What's the point of making these decisions if you don't know their results? One of the best endings I can recall for an RPG were those of DA:O and FO3. Even though they were a slideshow, god it was good to see your decisions actually mattered.
Link / ReplyRPG does not always mean your decisions "matter". Lets look at other RPGs where decisions really do not really matter in the story at all. Pokemon Lord of the Rings: The Third Age World of Warcraft (I think?) Kingdom Hearts etc. Dialogue choices really does not make an RPG the gameplay does. Dialogue choices just forward the story forward and if developers want to put meaning to those dialogue choices then they will.
Link / ReplyAs I said, a game can let you roleplay in different ways. There are story choices, and then there are gameplay choices (stats, attributes, equipment etc.). The games you listed do not offer story choices, though Mass Effect did. In the cases above, it's fine to have no closure since you never made those decisions anyway. In ME, however, it's an entirely different case.
Link / ReplySo if Mass Effect never even had Dialogue choices and all it was was a straight up TPS from the get go and the story ended the same way it did then would you be perfectly fine with that? Or would it just be another shitty cover based shooter?
Link / ReplyThis game just isn't that good, period. Adding an "improved" ending doesn't change that one bit, especially since the game had far bigger flaws than its lazy ending.
Link / ReplyI never realized until today that you can replay the final sequence without having to replay the whole final two missions... so yeah, I'll be downloading this and playing through it (both Destroy and Control endings, my galactic readiness wasn't high enough to garner me the Synthesis option). And then I'll watch the extended Synthesis ending. I just wish the DLC wasn't almost 2 GB.
Link / ReplyIt didn't really help that much. Too little, too late, and too defiant. Between this, ToR and DA2, Bioware is dead to me. Expect news of another Mass Effect sequel within 2-3 years under the ever-so-overused "200 years later" guise. The only reason they "ended" this game the way they did was to create sequel bait, they aren't done milking this franchise. They'll probably roll with the synergy or destroy endings as cannon and retcon other major events to be more in line with a new continuity.
Link / Replyanother whiny fanboy gone from the bioware forums you wont be missed
Link / ReplyExcuse you, but I'm not a fan of Bioware or Mass Effect as a franchise at all. The only entry to this series I truly enjoyed was the first one, which happens to be the last product I've purchased from them. And to my knowledge, you couldn't join their forums without a registered copy of the game. Or maybe that was for ToR? Who cares. Anyways, maybe instead of resorting to a personal attack by calling me whiny fanboy, you could add something constructive to the conversation.
Link / ReplyDon't worry aged milk as I am also a "fanboy". The mass effect train stopped at two for me. I feel like a spinning record, but I wasn't offered the same experience in the later games that I was in ME1. This series is such a shame since it held so much promise in the first installment. That's bioware for you I guess...killer IPs and "streamlined" pandering. The fork has been placed
Link / ReplyIf this were the ending on disk then there probably would not have been as big a shit storm as there was. And the ironic thing is that now the Indoctrination Theory fans will brew up another shit storm because the new endings completely glossed over most of the things they cited as evidence. Still I never really hated the old endings, and the new ones are much better in terms of closure and as actual endings, but it makes me really sad that no matter what Bioware, once one of the greatest developers in modern gaming history, does, there is always going to be a sizable group of people who want nothing to do with them. First it was the people who wanted a new ending and now it's going to be the people who wanted a "Indoctrination Theory" ending. I may not agree with every thing they do (fuck you ToR), but I honestly hope for the best for them.
Link / ReplyAlso I wonder how many people accidentally got the "Refuse" ending because they shot the star child.
Link / ReplyI just did. I've gotta redo the whole ending now, damn it.
Link / ReplyAfter spending six hours downloading, preparing and going back through the final mission, I've come to the conclusion that BioWare is a moronic pile of kittens. All they did was address the plot holes that were the largest, and then turn a blind eye to the rest hoping their audience would do the same. This team had the chance to embrace a narrative that held a value far larger than their current one (the indoctrination theory), and just let it slip right through their fingers. I guess, in the end, the of Commander Shepard was just as disconnected from the plot, as the developers were from their fans. What a disappointment.
Link / ReplyAgree with you 100%
Link / ReplyBioware had stated before had the endings would expand but not replace the original endings so my expectations were considerably low. Despite that they did what they said they would so I'm not that disappointed in the endings I just wish Bioware took a different direction where all the choices you made shaped the ending rather than "hey pick a colour."
Link / Reply@Moom You treat the dialogue choices like they are a very small part of the ME experience, the dialogue was one of the main attractions because honestly the TPS in ME is pretty shit, I looked forward to getting past this stupid linear cover based segment so I could get back into the story. If ME was a linear cover based shooter (like GOW) it would still probably successful because of the GOW dudebro's but for people like me who enjoy a rich universe with a complex story and interesting characters this game would be wholly ignored.
Link / Replyinsider tip: whatch out for bioware agents
Link / Replyinsider tip: watch out for bioware agents
Link / ReplyIs there new cheevos?
Link / ReplyNo. v-v
Link / Reply0/10
Link / ReplyI love the way you think, Doofman.
Link / ReplyIndoctrination theory till the end!! I am still a firm believer in the indoctrination theory. I just makes so much more sense. Still, I thought we would be getting a bit more than just a slideshow. But thank you, BioWare, for making me cry several times. Rest in peace, Mordin.
Link / ReplyThing is i want another game, not with shepard, if they did that i would probably suicide bomb casey hudson, but just more from the mass effect universe, you could be a turian/asari/salarian trying to help rebuild a broken galaxy, hell bioware likes giving us unimportant choices why not have a game where you pick your species and do something along those lines. But if they are keeping with these endings i do hope shepard stays dead or at least in the control ending only comes back as a hologram
Link / ReplySo... Did anyone else notice that, in all off the stargazer scenes at the end, the little kid want one more story about the Shepard? This may lead to one of two things: 1. An expansion pack that is not directly aimed at multiplayer (in the case of the destroy ending) or 2. A new game about Shepard in his/her past (before the Mass Effect series took place) Just sayin'
Link / ReplyChances are that if they do a prequel involving Shepard, it'll probably be a linear single player tps campaign with heavy emphasis on multiplayer. If not already being focused on MP altogether. It probably wont have much to do with Bioware either, EA may just outsource it to someone like Obsidian or an off-shoot team from DICE.
Link / ReplyI feel better with the EC. There are still a couple of fundamental issues I have with the endings, but this does a markedly better job of handling things. It's light years ahead of the godawful original version. I chose Destroy and, having seen the others now, I'm bloody happy with that choice. Although Refuse is pretty awesome (that IS the Reapers winning ending).
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