Switch Lights

The lights are on

What's Happening

GI Show 104: Mass Effect Controversy, Review Round-Up

It's not often that we revisit a recently released game on the GI Show, but with the furor over the ending to Mass Effect 3 raging throughout the Internet, we thought we should weigh in on fans' complaints about the game's ending, the recently filed FTC complaint, and BioWare's statement that it will be addressing player concerns with new content. Sitting in on this segment with host Matt Helgeson is Phil Kollar and Joe Juba, who have some strong opinions about these recent events. In the second segment, Dan Ryckert, Tim Turi, and Jeff Cork stop by to talk about a trio of new releases: Kid Icarus: Uprising, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, and Ninja Gaiden 3.

Attachment: http://media1.gameinformer.com/media/audio/theshow/ep104/theshow-ep104.mp3

Email the author , or follow on , and .

Comments
  • ME3 was a 10 to me until the ending. I hated the ending, but instead of wanting a new ending, I just want explanations. I fear bioware will use this as an excuse to charge people for a "new ending

  • you guys are a bunch of spoiled brats that is the vision that bioware wanted us to see regardless of what u do that is the ending the story is shaped up until the ending comes in play if you created something like a painting or a game its ure product what right do i have to change it if i have a problem i wouldnt buy it simple as that my opinion is simple high five bioware for a great series the i for one am satisfied the company should know who their real fans are and i believe u shouldnt fall into the spiral that all these crybabies expect you to take its ure story fight for it. Hopes that the ending dont change. and if it does i will still support but it wouldnt be the same
  • all the characters hold hands and....Care Bear Stare at the Reapers!!! i am still laughing at that...probably one of the best comments that I've EVER heard on the GI Show (and I've listened to every one)... you guys just ROCK. thank you, that was awesome!

  • ****SPOILERSS******

    I hated the ending, it left me feeling depressed, sad, unfulfilled, confused, bewildered, even angry. What more can you ask for?! An ending to a massive story that brings out so much emotion as that?! Look at movies like "The Fog" who actually LIKED that ending? This end wasnt about liking or disliking it, it wasnt about closure, it wasnt about fixing or saving everyone! Look at how many people died throughout this series? Or could have died? Wrex, Tali, Mordin (While singing scientist salarian if you were lucky), This game has been about death, loss, and sadness from the beginning. Most of your closest friends have died, you had to even choose some of their deaths, (KAiden/ashley). You want a carebears ending? go play the carebears game, Mass Effect is a game for adults. I will however lend credence to those who says certain things dont make seance, such as the mass relays, True: arrival DLC did mention that hurling an asteroid into a mass relay causing a violent explosion releases so much energy that the entire solar system would be wiped clean, HOWEVER! The cruicible did not do that, the crucible released the energy the way it was meant to be released, likely causing little or no damage to the solar system at all. Also certain other aspects to the ending (such as joker and the normandy) still make no seance and thats sad, it also leave allot of room for more content, either in DLC or in another game. I am truly sorry to all those people who felt unfulfilled because this game didn't hold your hand through every detail, but thats not what they are there for, thats what imagination is for!

    In closing, stop whining about the damn ending, if you hate it so damn much let them know with your wallet and dont buy the dlc or play there games! And sell back mass effect 1,2&3, also dont forget your copies of KNOTR 1&2 dragon age 1&2, aw hell why dont you just show how angry you are by making a new gamer tag with none of the bioware achievements or dlc so that way you can claim you NEVER followed bioware at all! So thatway you can boycott them for good!

  • I love you guys and I have always enjoyed your podcasts and reviews. I have never before questioned your credibility, but I have a lot of trouble imagining how someone can be so "forgiving" of the Mass Effect 3 ending (specifically Joe who I am a fan of). Personally I am able to forgive a lot more of the supposed nonsense in the ending than others seem to be willing to but a good portion of what is presented is quite plainly impossible in ME fiction. Not just unlikely, not just strange or "interesting" choices, flat out impossible and crazy based on what we know about the fiction of the world. I think that is the main issue here. I would like to think some theories are right about the ending being only a dream or indoctrination because there are a lot of interesting things presented to support it.

    At the very least whatever it is worth, I have no desire to replay Mass Effect 3, or even try to see all the endings myself which is a 1st of the series for me. Instead I watched a 6 shot picture in picture youtube vid of all the endings, all of which are in large part (at the very least 85% being generous) indistinguishable from each-other. Youtube it if you don't believe me and please do try to disagree. Changing the color pallet does not count, sorry.
  • I do agree with you on one point though, the rest of the game before the ending is pretty good. The character interaction changes were different to get used to at 1st, but undoubtedly rewarding. As in past Mass Effect games the NPC relationships you are able to form are the largest draw of the game and if I do play it again, I will only play for those segments. Fortunately I made precision saves throughout the narrative specifically for that purpose.

  • I completly disagree, I usually agree with the staff but .... listen up, bioware you made a bad ending ... and we are not " Fan's" , they are trivalizing it to like we are pissed cause our favorite sports team lost ... We are their customers ! What was promised was not delivered ... Im not saying that the FTC guy was right thats overboard and just childish ... but it makes me think twice about buying their next game ... First Dragon Age 2 and now this ... and honestly I didn't even like Dragon Age: orgins to me there was nothing special about it just a generic fantasy game. Mass Effect 2 on the otherhand is in my top 10 favorite games of all time. The sad part about it is the rest of Mass effect 3 was great. I don't care about a happy ending I want one that makes sense and shows all the trials and tribulations that the game characters underwent. I want a choice were shepard says * MAJOR SPOILERS * F U to that little god child and that we made it this far and we are gonna fight and kill the reapers on our own, I want Wrex Shottgunning down husks with garrus yelling you arent gonna take my planet or my children ! I want to see tali leading a squad of geth. Through out the series the main theme was defy the odds, diversity leads to great things. The reason why the galaxy had a chance was because of each species diverse skill set. What makes them special now that * MAJOR SPOILERS* they are all pretty much universly  the same ? You know what it would of been better if they just ended it with shepard and Anderson looking at the battle while they both died.... END OF SPOILERS

  • ***SPOILERS AHEAD***

    To everyone saying the ending makes "perfect sense," I want to point out one thing. In the Arrival DLC for Mass Effect 2, it is said that the destruction of a mass relay would destroy it's entire system, causing every living thing in the system to die. The ending in ME3 does not make sense because Shepard just killed everything in the universe. All those people fighting at Earth should be dead, based on Bioware's own universe. It's like they completely forgot what they wrote about a year before.

    I'm not entitled to a better ending. I'd like one, but Bioware/EA can do what they wish. I respect that. But this idea that the ending makes sense doesn't apply, unless Bioware expects us to overlook this huge detail.

  • I loved Mass Effect 3. It's only the ending I didn't like. The by the time you get to the (spoiler) talking to Shepard where the reapers are explained, it doesn't make sense. Then when you get the ending, it's the say. It's A. You fail, B. You succeed with color "x" where x is your choice's color. The end video with the Normandy doesn't make sense. I  have gone on youtube and watched 2 suppose to be different endings side by side at the same time and it was the exact same ending. NOTHING changed. (Next sentence spoiler)

    Basically the hologram says we didn't want to be destroyed by synthetics so we made synthetics to destroy all of civilization every 50K years... logic doesn't make sense.

  • No disrespect, but I feel like GI is just catering to BioWare on this one. Is there some rule that says if an artistic work is subject to change, it's no longer art? How is it not my right, as the consumer, to be dissatisfied with the product I purchased, and "demand" it be changed? I have no interest in whether or not I am tarnishing the integrity of gaming as an art-form, I just want to get what I paid for. If BioWare released the game with a warning that said, "Hey, lookout guys, the ending is terrible," it would be a different story. When an automobile has a major flaw it is recalled, why should this be different for video games? Especially when the issue can easily be rectified. It's also important to remember just how many people were unsatisfied with the ending. If that many people have an issue with the game, why shouldn't it fall on the developer's shoulders?

  • ***Spoilers and explanation of True ending***

    The ending pretty much has to be an indoctrinated dream past the point Shepard gets shot by the laser. There really is no other possible option it could be based on the established fiction of the Mass Effect universe. As such if you know this and view the ending as an indoctrinated dream state, the dream makes little sense (when do dreams ever make sense?) but lets Shepard rest in peace thinking he saved the galaxy. This also means there is only ONE true ending, that is choosing to destroy the reapers (thus denying the indoctrination) and waking up from the indoctrinated dream in the ruble of London. This true ending of course still ends in the combined galactic forces presumably losing the fight due to Shepard's death and inability to reach the Citadel due to the Illusive Man's betrayal. They of course could have won after you die, you just don't get to see it.

    The child speaking with his grandfather after Shepard's dream could be interpreted in 3 ways, a continuation of his dream thereby fake, A look at the next cycle that had been warned/told of Shepard's story by Liara leaving Glyphbox on planets all over the galaxy, or they beat the reapers without Shepard and that sequence shows 2 surviving humans telling his story. I say without Shepard here because the BaconShep that is you after you wake up doesn't look like he will be returning to action any time soon, they have worked around that before however (see ME2).

    When you view the ending in this way I can understand that it is a decent ending at best, as far as "It was a dream" write offs go. Shepard finds peace and everyone is finally united and stands to fight together in one last blaze of glory and they are able to warn the next cycle so that that cycle can finally finish the job Shepard's cycle got the closest ever to completing. That said this view does not make the ending a good ending by any means, just decent/meh. It is also not what was promised by bioware in the "multiple endings that are effected by your choices" department.

    If Bioware comes out and denies that the ending was meant to be an indoctrinated dream, and you are instead supposed to take it at face value as is with some God-Child space-magicing everything all better at the cost of Shepard's life, then we are back to square one with it being a very, very bad, ill planed poorly executed and just a plain cop out ending. This really isn't debatable for anyone keeping up with the lore of ME unfortunately.

    P.S. Please do a SPOILED segment on Mass Effect 3 soon, a podcast without spoilers debating the conflict over the ending is no offense, pointless. If you can not fully address the issues and discuss them due to fear of spoilers you do your listeners a disservice. As such I look forward to Spoiled coverage and more in depth opinions from the staff on the matter if you guys have the time/resources. I would genuinely like an explanation as to how any of you can think the ending was good if taken at face value as well (which is impossible).
  • The ending of Mass Effect is a piece of art, the hole series is. We as gamers have no right to tell them that they made their art wrong. It may be flawed, but no matter how flawed it is, it is still an amazing piece of art.

  • No matter what they do they botched this ending.  Now I have to pay more for their ephuck up?  Wow ... that's awesome!

  • No matter what they do they botched this ending.  Now I have to pay more because they suck?

  • Ok, So no I wasn't happy about the ending, but who wants such a great series to end like that? With saying that it is not my place to say "hey guys change the ending cause I don't like it." All I really want is closure to what happend to everyone. I would also like to know what all of my decisions in the other 2 games did to change the out come. Did they change it at all? I saved the Geth heretics, I rallied the terminous fleets, I cured the genophage, I did so much that I only wish to know how any of that helped, hurt, or did anything to change the ending. Why only make 3 different endings? Why not make 7, 8, or 9 different endings to help show how your choices throughout the galaxy changed the universe? Keep the 3 endings that you have now and just add some more.

    I feel very sincere about this but if anyone from Bioware is by chance reading this, don't let my displeasure with the ending fool you. I'm such a huge fan that it probably isnt healthy so keep up the good work and please make a game that is based around the same mechanics and choice based system. And please don't make it an MMO!
  • Couple of comments.

    First, with a game, we do not know what we are getting before we buy. You said something like, if it SEEMS like it won't be that don't buy it. Well, we had no way to know other than what we learned in the previous installments and what they advertised it as. All of that pointed towards us getting to choose from many (16 I believe they said) endings based on our choices. That wasn't what we got at all.

    With other games I would agree that they should keep the artistic choice in tact but ME is a different animal. If people were asking for Ubisoft to change AC ending (to come) or Rockstar to change RDR end I would agree but ME is different.

    I guess just one point as of now (15mis in) as it ties into the first point. Which is, the whole point of ME was choice and creating our own story. Which is what they advertised and what we based spending our money on. They pretty much threw that out the window along with most of the story so far in the last minutes of the game.

    Choice choice choice (or rather, lack thereof)

  • Ok second point (21mins in).

    I think every single person (or damn near) that's part of the retake movemnet would agree that the majority of ME3 was excellent and possibly one of the best games if not stories (also depending on choices made) of all time. Problem is, the last thing you see and the thing most fresh in your memory is the end.

  • I'm surprised that Ninja Gaiden 3 and RE:ORC didn't lived the expectations. Meanwhile, I will be interested to see what BioWare do to the " disappointing " ending of the third chapter.

  • I personal felt the ending was just fine, But i felt the game itself was needing of more detail. it felt way too short and the abscess of mini games like hacking and stuff is way too short. i didn't like the way all the effort i put in was reduced to math.

  • let me say this to get this off my chest: if you liked the ending, you probably had low as crap expectations about it and that's fine. but the franchise deserves better than that hunk of shyte. the rest of the game hit it out of the park so we expected it to keep the same level of "QUALITY" all the way to the end.