Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

You can blow up the Earth if you suck.
There's this many permutations on the ending:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings

Depending on your level of cynicism you my see it as 18, 7, 3 or even 1 ending.

In the art book it's explained TIM was going to turn into a giant hideous monster and you'd fight him as the final boss but they felt that wasn't really what TIM was about. He was always a thinker and you should beat him with your wits. You could argue that some "wrong" dialogue should result in him shooting you but I'm not sure how much that adds especially if a low reputation score results in you being stuck there.

Here's the thing and this is a cliche but its not the ending but the journey. I feel like this whole game is my ending not just the final cutscene. Javik tells me what happens to him. He said he's going to find the graveyard of his ancestors and shoot himself in the head. (that sucks but that's what he wants). Wrex becomes the most powerful Krogan in the galaxy and directly helps in curing the genophage. Mordin, a chipper but guilt stricken fellow (and hell of a singer) sets his conscience free at the cost of his life. Ashley becomes a Spectre and Jack: Jack becomes a great teacher. Didn't see that coming. I know what happens to everyone, everything I need to know.

LordofHats wrote:Just The Renegade Ending: The concrete objects are also hand wavable, as slabs also appeared in the Citdel both in ME1 and ME3 when it was attacked by the Geth and Cerberus respectively. EDIT: Or he somehow managed to survive atmospheric reentry, again...

).

Thats what I intiially thought until you realise that Shep isn't actually even on the Citadel but is on the Crucible surrounded by nothing but space.

They did have more than one Cain since they blow up more than one of those giant cannons. Thing is that those aren't regular destroyer reapers. Bioware was simply lazy and used the same skin for something thats actually just a large reaper drone. The destroyer needed a full sized warhead. I admit it is ridiculous that one of your several thousand dreadnoughts cannot simply blast the thing from orbit.

Oh I know the Hydra is smaller, but I mean, come on. If one of the mini-Nukes can take out a Hydra, surely six, seven, ten? Could kill a destroyer which then causes me to beg two questions: Why is no one using these in the big fight against the destroyer (Looking at you Turian with a grenade launcher! Get a real gun!) and why do the Reapers only have one anti-air unit and a destroyer guarding the Citadel? Better yet, why are they even giving us a means to get onto it at all

But that may be a little overly nitpicky

@Canuck. Nice endings chart, though going through and unchecking all the spoilers wasted ten seconds of my life lol.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:You can blow up the Earth if you suck.
There's this many permutations on the ending:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings

Depending on your level of cynicism you my see it as 18, 7, 3 or even 1 ending.

In the art book it's explained TIM was going to turn into a giant hideous monster and you'd fight him as the final boss but they felt that wasn't really what TIM was about. He was always a thinker and you should beat him with your wits. You could argue that some "wrong" dialogue should result in him shooting you but I'm not sure how much that adds especially if a low reputation score results in you being stuck there.

Here's the thing and this is a cliche but its not the ending but the journey. I feel like this whole game is my ending not just the final cutscene. Javik tells me what happens to him. He said he's going to find the graveyard of his ancestors and shoot himself in the head. (that sucks but that's what he wants). Wrex becomes the most powerful Krogan in the galaxy and directly helps in curing the genophage. Mordin, a chipper but guilt stricken fellow (and hell of a singer) sets his conscience free at the cost of his life. Ashley becomes a Spectre and Jack: Jack becomes a great teacher. Didn't see that coming. I know what happens to everyone, everything I need to know.

I don't pay money to use my imagination. Thats a dreadful thing for a story driven RPG to do. The lack of an epilogue was the main problem with the ending. Its not just that they made a bad ending its that the game just ends without giving any justice to the fact that Shephard just sacrificed himself. It leaves you thinking 'he died for that'. I disagree with your view since the game builds up this final confrontation and its resolution is important. ie 'did we win son'. Without that sense of closure then its pretty moot to just kill off shephard without acknowledging it. They gave Anderson a 'Good Death'. They didn't give Shephard a 'Good Death'. You actually know nothing about what becomes of your team. They could all die on that planet for all we know. Wrex might have died during the final battle. How would you feel if somebody wrote a book where they left all that hanging in the air at the end as to what happens. Lord of the RIngs doesn't just end with Frodo and Gollum at Mt Doom for example. Tolkein specifically says Arithon becomes King, Legolas+Gimili go travelling, Faramir and Eowyn get married, hobbits go back to Shire and Frodo leaves Middle Earth with the ring holders. Thats a good example of how you comprehensively address what happens to your characters when you've put a lot of involvement and work into your characters. You don't just leave it all hanging.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

LordofHats wrote:Oh I know the Hydra is smaller, but I mean, come on. If one of the mini-Nukes can take out a Hydra, surely six, seven, ten? Could kill a destroyer which then causes me to beg two questions: Why is no one using these in the big fight against the destroyer (Looking at you Turian with a grenade launcher! Get a real gun!) and why do the Reapers only have one anti-air unit and a destroyer guarding the Citadel? Better yet, why are they even giving us a means to get onto it at all

But that may be a little overly nitpicky

@Canuck. Nice endings chart, though going through and unchecking all the spoilers wasted ten seconds of my life lol.

Yeah the games massively inconsistent on how tough a reaper is. The codex says that just 4 dreadnoughts can destroy a reaper capital ship. Yet we see a Turian Armada of several hundred ships get owned by six soveriegn-class reapers. Whilst on Rannoch, Shephard has 50,000 Quarian ships fire at one destroyer. Considering that each of those weapons is meant to have the kinetic energy equal to a hydrogen bomb capable of levelling a city you would think the Quarians would have shattered their own planet with that much firepower (lol ); not injure one single destroyer.

I suppose that for dramatic effect they wanted the only capital ships to start blowing up when you get the mother of all fleets. Even then we only specifically see one get badly damaged. TBH I was slightly let down I was actually expecting the whole front line of reapers to explode after that first volley. I mean if you're going to start killing reapers en masse at any point then it should have been then and I think that it should have been more spectacular. Yes, that wasn't epic enough.

I'am not entertained!!!

Totalwar1402 wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:You can blow up the Earth if you suck.
There's this many permutations on the ending:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings

Depending on your level of cynicism you my see it as 18, 7, 3 or even 1 ending.

In the art book it's explained TIM was going to turn into a giant hideous monster and you'd fight him as the final boss but they felt that wasn't really what TIM was about. He was always a thinker and you should beat him with your wits. You could argue that some "wrong" dialogue should result in him shooting you but I'm not sure how much that adds especially if a low reputation score results in you being stuck there.

Here's the thing and this is a cliche but its not the ending but the journey. I feel like this whole game is my ending not just the final cutscene. Javik tells me what happens to him. He said he's going to find the graveyard of his ancestors and shoot himself in the head. (that sucks but that's what he wants). Wrex becomes the most powerful Krogan in the galaxy and directly helps in curing the genophage. Mordin, a chipper but guilt stricken fellow (and hell of a singer) sets his conscience free at the cost of his life. Ashley becomes a Spectre and Jack: Jack becomes a great teacher. Didn't see that coming. I know what happens to everyone, everything I need to know.

I don't pay money to use my imagination. Thats a dreadful thing for a story driven RPG to do. The lack of an epilogue was the main problem with the ending. Its not just that they made a bad ending its that the game just ends without giving any justice to the fact that Shephard just sacrificed himself. It leaves you thinking 'he died for that'. I disagree with your view since the game builds up this final confrontation and its resolution is important. ie 'did we win son'. Without that sense of closure then its pretty moot to just kill off shephard without acknowledging it. They gave Anderson a 'Good Death'. They didn't give Shephard a 'Good Death'. You actually know nothing about what becomes of your team. They could all die on that planet for all we know. Wrex might have died during the final battle. How would you feel if somebody wrote a book where they left all that hanging in the air at the end as to what happens. Lord of the RIngs doesn't just end with Frodo and Gollum at Mt Doom for example. Tolkein specifically says Arithon becomes King, Legolas+Gimili go travelling, Faramir and Eowyn get married, hobbits go back to Shire and Frodo leaves Middle Earth with the ring holders. Thats a good example of how you comprehensively address what happens to your characters when you've put a lot of involvement and work into your characters. You don't just leave it all hanging.

If you choose the "paragon" ending you basically become "that kid" you control the reapers. That's a pretty good death. Shepard is the one guy you know for sure death has an impact. He has a good death. As for everyone else they all go on to become domestic I guess because the galaxy doesn't have the long range space travel anymore. There's no Shadow Broker or anthing like that. Maybe Joker and EDI have babies or something but I guess they didn't feel that part of the story was needed in the game. Galaxy trekking is over for everyone. Time to start a farm.
Return of the King has been criticised for it's never-ending ending. The movie ends like 6 times I remember people laughing in the theatre. The book's appendices are as big as another book. Much of it totally boring. Some people like that approach some don't.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:

Totalwar1402 wrote:

KamikazeCanuck wrote:You can blow up the Earth if you suck.
There's this many permutations on the ending:
http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/Endings

Depending on your level of cynicism you my see it as 18, 7, 3 or even 1 ending.

In the art book it's explained TIM was going to turn into a giant hideous monster and you'd fight him as the final boss but they felt that wasn't really what TIM was about. He was always a thinker and you should beat him with your wits. You could argue that some "wrong" dialogue should result in him shooting you but I'm not sure how much that adds especially if a low reputation score results in you being stuck there.

Here's the thing and this is a cliche but its not the ending but the journey. I feel like this whole game is my ending not just the final cutscene. Javik tells me what happens to him. He said he's going to find the graveyard of his ancestors and shoot himself in the head. (that sucks but that's what he wants). Wrex becomes the most powerful Krogan in the galaxy and directly helps in curing the genophage. Mordin, a chipper but guilt stricken fellow (and hell of a singer) sets his conscience free at the cost of his life. Ashley becomes a Spectre and Jack: Jack becomes a great teacher. Didn't see that coming. I know what happens to everyone, everything I need to know.

I don't pay money to use my imagination. Thats a dreadful thing for a story driven RPG to do. The lack of an epilogue was the main problem with the ending. Its not just that they made a bad ending its that the game just ends without giving any justice to the fact that Shephard just sacrificed himself. It leaves you thinking 'he died for that'. I disagree with your view since the game builds up this final confrontation and its resolution is important. ie 'did we win son'. Without that sense of closure then its pretty moot to just kill off shephard without acknowledging it. They gave Anderson a 'Good Death'. They didn't give Shephard a 'Good Death'. You actually know nothing about what becomes of your team. They could all die on that planet for all we know. Wrex might have died during the final battle. How would you feel if somebody wrote a book where they left all that hanging in the air at the end as to what happens. Lord of the RIngs doesn't just end with Frodo and Gollum at Mt Doom for example. Tolkein specifically says Arithon becomes King, Legolas+Gimili go travelling, Faramir and Eowyn get married, hobbits go back to Shire and Frodo leaves Middle Earth with the ring holders. Thats a good example of how you comprehensively address what happens to your characters when you've put a lot of involvement and work into your characters. You don't just leave it all hanging.

If you choose the "paragon" ending you basically become "that kid" you control the reapers. That's a pretty good death. Shepard is the one guy you know for sure death has an impact. He has a good death. As for everyone else they all go on to become domestic I guess because the galaxy doesn't have the long range space travel anymore. There's no Shadow Broker or anthing like that. Maybe Joker and EDI have babies or something but I guess they didn't feel that part of the story was needed in the game. Galaxy trekking is over for everyone. Time to start a farm.
Return of the King has been criticised for it's never-ending ending. The movie ends like 6 times I remember people laughing in the theatre. The book's appendices are as big as another book. Much of it totally boring. Some people like that approach some don't.

I admit I skipped over parts of that book. A better example but one I doubt you'll know would be any of the first three Books of Shannara. Usually they wind up with the main characters back in their home village where it started with everyones life getting a fair enough description about what happens to them. This is important since one of the themes was that usually the kids of the previous heroes end up having there own adventures. Shephard doesn't have a good death. You need to see the reaction of his squadmates/ the galaxy for it to have any meaning. Its not that you as the third person viewer can't also judge your characters death but its much more meaningful if the character doesn't commit suicide on his own in dead space. Compare that to Andersons death where his protege Shephard gets to witness his death and he is able to say his final piece and how he was proud of him then it really is a much better death than Sheps. One is dramatic the other anti-climatic and felt incredibly hollow for me. Another example would be

@Totalwar. I definately can not agree that Anderson's death was better than Shepards! Shepard's death ends The Reaper War. Anderson's death is completely pointless. That is the way I gauge it anyway. Even if you go by the how many people witness it metric then I think people know Shepard saved the galaxy. They phone you on the crucible iirc.

As for a text epilogue. That would be nice but doesn't make or break the game for me. I don't know your example but I think what you and many want is the Fallout approach. They really do tell you evrything that happens when you beat a DLC for example. They'll have still frames rolling while a narrator says things like: "and the citizens of Crackton were finally free. Aliens caused portapotty 487 to explode, Uncle Bob died of dysentary. Sadly, Harry was never reunites with Sally."
To which I usually say "Who the hell is Uncle Bob?"
I like that too and it would have been nice but I feel like the good things Bioware did are being lost in the nerd revolution. I wouldn't trade any of that stuff for the cataclysmic assault on Earth by the assembled fleet. That scene was friggin' awesome and one of the coolest battles I've seen anywhere.

KamikazeCanuck wrote:@Totalwar. I definately can not agree that Anderson's death was better than Shepards! Shepard's death ends The Reaper War. Anderson's death is completely pointless. That is the way I gauge it anyway. Even if you go by the how many people witness it metric then I think people know Shepard saved the galaxy. They phone you on the crucible iirc.

As for a text epilogue. That would be nice but doesn't make or break the game for me. I don't know your example but I think what you and many want is the Fallout approach. They really do tell you evrything that happens when you beat a DLC for example. They'll have still frames rolling while a narrator says things like: "and the citizens of Crackton were finally free. Aliens caused portapotty 487 to explode, Uncle Bob died of dysentary. Sadly, Harry was never reunites with Sally."
To which I usually say "Who the hell is Uncle Bob?"
I like that too and it would have been nice but I feel like the good things Bioware did are being lost in the nerd revolution. I wouldn't trade any of that stuff for the cataclysmic assault on Earth by the assembled fleet. That scene was friggin' awesome and one of the coolest battles I've seen anywhere.

Why does everyone take my words out of context? The game was awesome; I have never denied that. I'am just a little peeved off at there being no epilogue. We are discussing the ending as per the topic. Doesn't the fact that I say Anderson had a good death not indicate that I have good things to say about the game. Just because something is great doens't mean it can't be better. Biowares crime was that it made an outstanding game with an inexplicably bad ending. It wasn't like Dragonage 2 where you can overall say the game was average or poor. This ending spoilt the experience and it did so in ways that just lacked common sense.

I mean good death in the dramaitc Shakespearian sense where the death encapsulates everything that character was and expresses their sacrifice in a meaningful way. Rather than Shephard literally fizzling out. I'am not asking for every little detail to be hammered out just the companions reaction would be good enough. I mean we already knew Shpehard was going to be remembered for this and that we were going to do something immensely important. But the actual act itself doesn't have the intended outcome. They just kill him and then leave it. You think that good death equates 'well I did something important there' thats quite a 2D way of thinking about it I mean any character can do heroic sacrifice. I mean Noble Six had an important death in that he basically got Cortona off reach and by extension saved humanity; but its moot because we never got to know who Noble Six was or more importantly what his relation was to everyone around him. We are thus prevented from feeling for Noble Six because hes just a faceless grunt. Shephard, in the end, becomes Noble Six. We aren't given any reason to give a feth about this guys death; he does something really important but the event overshadows the man; which is not how a good death should be. A good death is about the character, not the actual sacrifice. You could have changed Shephard for any joe and that scene would have worked perfectly fine. You couldn't have put anyone other than Anderson in the postion he was in when he died next to Shephard.

Look, is it really that impossible for you to understand that even a two minute scene with the survivng characters meeting up and discussing Shephard and the galaxy would have been fine. Just like they did with the first game where you speak to the Council. Or like in Dragonage one where you can talk to everyone. Thats not a massive or incomprehensible want; they already did it in other Bioware games.

Actually I like that Noble 6 guy. I don't like the ending to Halo 3. It's a little he's kinda dead oh, not really maybe he'll be back later under a different developer. I'd rather he just be completely, for sure, dead. Apparently the renegade ending has a bit of that going on too though.

Anyways, I was talking in generalities not about you specifically. I think that's a fair point about how you should see the crew's reaction and that's great we can debate this game. In fact, most games have crappy endings but the game is also crappy so no one cares. It's a back handed compliment that fans care so much but that's not what's going on here: http://www.gamespot.com/news/bioware-fans-continue-mass-effect-3-protest-with-cupcakes-6368474
This has become some sort of Bizzare WORST ENDING EVAAAR!!!! Die BioWare Fethers! internet meme now.

This is why I hate MLPFM...

Though, under different circumstance I'd find a cupcake protest eerily hilarious.

I'm not sure if I really want Bioware to change the ending. People who are smarter then me have already talked about this.

But IMO, the ending as it is, is pretty terrible.

I just want moar. Plain and simple. There will be more DLC, they said that... and truthfully anything they can tack on to the end... or adjust elsewhere... that would be awesome.

I want more Multiplayer maps, more characters, and more shooty-things, but first and foremost I want more Mass Effect. I love it for the story, and they've shown me they can release bitchin' DLC that I want to give money for... yeah, I'm talking about you Lair of the Shadow Broker and Project Overlord.

Hell, I even had fun with the Kasumi DLC. It was different, and the vista was fun.

I gotta agree with Totalwar though... that ending battle with the fleets blasting each other... there needed to be more Reapers going down. All you seem to be doing is bothering them, not actually hurting them. I wanted to see a bunch of those squiddies go down in flames.

There is a wild disparity in the 'power' of the weaponry during all of this and it always bugs me. It's the concept of The Cinematic Bullet and it always ALWAYS bugs the hell out of me. The Uncharted series is the worst for it... you'll wade through hordes of machine-gun toting minions, then you'll get to the 'boss' and he'll pull a pistol on you, and all of a sudden you're like, "Oh ****! He's got a gun!"

...sigh.

Same thing with these big capital ships that throw around NUKES worth of Kinetic Energy. Shepard should've been pasted on Rannoch just from being so close the CAPITAL SHIP ROUNDS smashing into a Reaper that is literally yards away from him.

Seriously, where did that Reaper learn how to Aim? Playing Duck Hunt?

Ughh...

Sorry, I'm done. I know our Heroes have Plot Armor in spades, and I'm okay with that. It's what makes the story move along and makes you feel awesome... but how am I supposed to be scared of something called a Dreadnaught when it acts like a Star Trek phaser.

That's the one thing I give the HALO series. They did Ship to Ship combat perfectly. Particularly the way the human 'brute force' application of MAG weaponry is described (and demonstrated).

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Seriously, where did that Reaper learn how to Aim? Playing Duck Hunt?

They were invited by Palpatine to attend the Stormtrooper Academy as part of an officer exchange program

That's the one thing I give the HALO series. They did Ship to Ship combat perfectly. Particularly the way the human 'brute force' application of MAG weaponry is described (and demonstrated).

I also like the depiction of space combat in HALO. It manages to depict a much more technical and imo realistic (you know, as realistic as the idea can get) concept than is common in most science fiction universes.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:I want more Multiplayer maps, more characters, and more shooty-things, but first and foremost I want more Mass Effect. I love it for the story, and they've shown me they can release bitchin' DLC that I want to give money for... yeah, I'm talking about you Lair of the Shadow Broker and Project Overlord.

Hell, I even had fun with the Kasumi DLC. It was different, and the vista was fun.

Shadow Broker and Kasumi were better than most of the regular ME2 missions. They weren't needed for the main plot, yet had good story arcs of their own, introduced new gameplay elements and set pieces. Shadow Broker is pretty much the perfect DLC.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:I just
That's the one thing I give the HALO series. They did Ship to Ship combat perfectly. Particularly the way the human 'brute force' application of MAG weaponry is described (and demonstrated).

Oh Lord please tell me you mean the video game and not the books. Ghosts of Onyx ruined Halo space combat for me. There is no way that the humans could almost KO the elite fleet that easily when it was repeatedly described in other books that four UNSC vessels were required to blast a single covenant vessel a size category below it since covenant ships were so much huger than UNSC. I'll grant you that the early chapters get it spot on where a destroyer is only able to cripple a single crovette barely; with the vessel surviving a nuke. But from the fall of reach battle onward they just roll with humans are awesome and UNSC awesome. I mean to my mind when I played Halo 2 for the first time and you see a whole UNSC fleet (including cruisers) being annialated by a single covenant carrier its explicitly clear that the UNSC cannot win the space war; not even remotely. Yet in ghosts of Onyx we are shown the Covenant only able to scrape away with a bloody pyric victory.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Anung Un Rama wrote:

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:I want more Multiplayer maps, more characters, and more shooty-things, but first and foremost I want more Mass Effect. I love it for the story, and they've shown me they can release bitchin' DLC that I want to give money for... yeah, I'm talking about you Lair of the Shadow Broker and Project Overlord.

Hell, I even had fun with the Kasumi DLC. It was different, and the vista was fun.

Shadow Broker and Kasumi were better than most of the regular ME2 missions. They weren't needed for the main plot, yet had good story arcs of their own, introduced new gameplay elements and set pieces. Shadow Broker is pretty much the perfect DLC.

I noticed that for a lot of Dragonage 2 DLC (which I watched on youtube admitedly ). Both the one with the Archmagister and the one with the Qunari (mispelled Quarian lol laziness) woman were surprisingly well done with their own environments and quite dramatic boss battles. I admit I was not expecting an actual arch-magister to pop out of the ground.

Yeah, the games.

The with Cortana running the MAG cannon on the Pillar of Autumn she was able to cause some serious hell. But that was a pretty big ship.

I like how the ship is basically built around a giant cannon. Function over form wins.

Couple of things,

Did joker make it through the Sol relay before it collapsed? or was he just using the FTL drive on the Normandy?

Second, did the pulse that killed the reapers break down all technology like starships and such? or just the synthetic life, and if so what was the destinction it made between non sentient technology and sentient technology... if any.

Third, since it is possible (and in my playthroughs 100% certen due to my compulsion to have absolute completion) to have Shepard survive, should it be taken as cannon that Shepard survives or dies?

bibblles wrote:Did joker make it through the Sol relay before it collapsed? or was he just using the FTL drive on the Normandy?

I honestly find that the most confusing thing about the ending.

Second, did the pulse that killed the reapers break down all technology like starships and such? or just the synthetic life, and if so what was the destinction it made between non sentient technology and sentient technology... if any.

The pulse will do a) destroy all synthetic life in a massive EMP pulse (limited to the reapers or wiping out the fleet as well based on war assets), b) turn everyone into the Terminator, c) give Shepard control of the Reapers.

Third, since it is possible (and in my playthroughs 100% certen due to my compulsion to have absolute completion) to have Shepard survive, should it be taken as cannon that Shepard survives or dies?

There probably is no 'canon' Shepard. If we were to guess, the default Shepard is probably the closest to a canon Shepard. One thing I'd note about the endings is that the universal destruction of the Mass Relays is probably going to play into ME4.

bibblles wrote:Did joker make it through the Sol relay before it collapsed? or was he just using the FTL drive on the Normandy?

It looked to me like he jumped through a relay, and they exploded mid-jump which is what caused him to come out near a random planet in some backwater part of the galaxy.

bibblles wrote:Second, did the pulse that killed the reapers break down all technology like starships and such? or just the synthetic life, and if so what was the destinction it made between non sentient technology and sentient technology... if any.

It specifically destroyed synthetic life, from what the Star Child said. Most tech would have survived, and all of the ships would still function, but the Geth, Reapers and all AI's like EDI would have been wiped out. Of course, that assumes the blast from the exploding relays didn't just annihilate everything important within a few hundred light years.

bibblles wrote:Third, since it is possible (and in my playthroughs 100% certen due to my compulsion to have absolute completion) to have Shepard survive, should it be taken as cannon that Shepard survives or dies?

This one is harder to speculate on. If we assume literal endings, then I think the canon would be Shepard dying, since having him survive would be a reward for high levels of completion, but not necessarily the standard ending. However, If we assume the Indoctrination Theory is correct, then the only way for a DLC ending to make sense is if Shepard lives. If you botched the final mission in ME2 and killed too many party members, it was possible Shepard might not survive, and any save file with that outcome cannot be imported to ME3, but the canon is that Shepard successfully completed the mission, leading to the events of ME3. With that in mind, it's possible that the canon would be Shepard's survival since he has to live to finish the fight.

Of course, it's all hearsay and speculation at this point anyway, until BioWare releases an official statement next month as they promised. What that statement will be is anyone's guess, as is whether or not it will really answer any questions.

@ Lordofhats - I would be VERY surprised if we see a "Mass Effect 4" per se, or any game set in the universe after the events of ME3. Something is telling me we will either see a game revolving around the First Contact War, the Geth Rebellion (in which case we might FINALLY see an actual depiction of Quarians outside their suits), or something concurrent with Shepards timeline but taking place elsewhere in the Galaxy (Maybe something taking place during the 2 years after he was spaced in ME2, prior to being resurrected by Cerberus). Definitely something to speculate on since BioWare said they for sure want to do more games in the universe, but not involving Shepard.

Aldarionn wrote:@ Lordofhats - I would be VERY surprised if we see a "Mass Effect 4" per se, or any game set in the universe after the events of ME3. Something is telling me we will either see a game revolving around the First Contact War, the Geth Rebellion (in which case we might FINALLY see an actual depiction of Quarians outside their suits), or something concurrent with Shepards timeline but taking place elsewhere in the Galaxy (Maybe something taking place during the 2 years after he was spaced in ME2, prior to being resurrected by Cerberus). Definitely something to speculate on since BioWare said they for sure want to do more games in the universe, but not involving Shepard.

It's just an assumption I guess. AFAIK EA has never recanted their desire to continue the series past 3 games, though I don't think they've brought it up for a very long time. I do remember back when ME3 was first being showed that they were saying it would be the end of Shepard's journey so I doubt we'd see him again. I'm honestly laying my money on a a time jump forward. With the Relays destroyed and reapers out of the way (regardless of the actual ME3 choice players make) they're free to do new story lines.

Ok, just finished another playthrough, and only two questions remain.

Where was joker going, how could he have possibly already been out of the sol system rideing the relay network by the time the relays were coming apart.

How did shepard make it off the citadel in one piece, his body is clearly on earth after the citadel blows up.

bibblles wrote:How did shepard make it off the citadel in one piece, his body is clearly on earth after the citadel blows up.

No one knows about Joker. As for Shepard, he's survived atmospheric reentry before It was suggested earlier in the thread though that you can see stars in the background and that he's still in space.

LordofHats wrote:

bibblles wrote:How did shepard make it off the citadel in one piece, his body is clearly on earth after the citadel blows up.

No one knows about Joker. As for Shepard, he's survived atmospheric reentry before It was suggested earlier in the thread though that you can see stars in the background and that he's still in space.

In my ending, I believe Joker was the first to walk out of the crashed Normandy, followed by Ashley. My first thought was 'Whoa, are Joker and Ashley going to go Adam and Eve -style and reboot the human race?!'(don't ask).

Aldarionn wrote:

bibblles wrote:Second, did the pulse that killed the reapers break down all technology like starships and such? or just the synthetic life, and if so what was the destinction it made between non sentient technology and sentient technology... if any.

It specifically destroyed synthetic life, from what the Star Child said. Most tech would have survived, and all of the ships would still function, but the Geth, Reapers and all AI's like EDI would have been wiped out. Of course, that assumes the blast from the exploding relays didn't just annihilate everything important within a few hundred light years.

Actually, the Starchild says that the red option would destory all synthetic life and "most technology they rely upon", so it could also have destroyed the Mass Effect-based weapons and starships.

The think is, unless the explosion that destroys all Element Zero, they can still just make more Mass Effect weaponry and drives.

Just creating the actual Mass Relays would be significantly harder.

I for one can certainly see a Mass Effect game set into the far future... we've had a Game Reset without having to Retcon, and that's awesome. There's plenty of stuff they could do with it, changing and adjusting the world while still having a Mass Effect feel.

I'll hold onto the hopeful optimism.

They don't know how to make the relays though. If they make a ME4 it would probably be hundreds of years after the time of Shepard. Maybe a thousand just so no old characters can reappear.

Well, Liara might still be around, she's only a hundred and something in the series.

And the Asari were close to figuring out how to build their own Mass Relays. After all, the Protheans figured it out as well, that's how they managed to get their team of scientists onto the Citadel to reprogram the Keepers.

Now, after the spanking Thessia took, we have no idea how much of their information was lost, but considering how long-lived the Asari are, there's a good chance they could recover from this and get things rolling again, but with a different sort of direction.

I'd be cool with an ME4 taking place a thousand years later where relay technology has just been rediscovered and is just being deployed. An ancient NPC Liara is the only tie to the past who sometimes reminisces about the good ole days.

Yeah, that would be pretty cool. Or maybe she's sort of an Easter Egg sort of thing where you discover her meditating on a planet somewhere.

You know, that whole 'All my friends are dead' thing.

Or maybe something much more useful.

I'd just like to find the book her and Javik write or something. That'd be cool.

It'll be titled - I Really Hate Making Up Titles

That would be good.