might be a bit extreme

Because of the first DYK Gaming that showed up on front page a few days ago, I keep expecting to see George Bush as one of the sprites at the side.

He's an over-achiever.

you have a point

but in the end our decisions don't matter

Beat me to it bro.

this shit always blocking my links

www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_652836&feature=iv&src_vid=ZoKCkSC-Os4&v=oeJkR683Sas

It's too bad that theory got overruled by their new free DLC ending... That was 'slightly' better. It sucked that the new DLC overruled that theory, because that theory would have been AMAZING if it was true!

But its still "oooh, choose our favourite color and watch a cutscene with consequences of your actions that still give the same result!"

Yeah, the DLC was what really messed it up and blocked the very interesting interpretation of the actual ending. It's good to have a headcanon in this case.

I still loved the rest of the game though and the ending did give me a 'feel' (IF your shepard dies and you had a love interest with Ashley, it is so sad to see her touch your name plate on the ship..)

But it could have been so much better...

I have a headcannon where the Indoctrination theory is correct and Shepard wakes up after being indoctrinated, and somehow he just kicks collective reaper ass, loses a leg and retires with Tali on Rannoch. I don't care if it's cheap and cheesy, but Mass Effect never shied away from a super good ending before. I know it's not "in" to make super happy endings, but I'd like a winning story for once. No grit, no drama, just victory for the characters you've known and loved.

well, the beauty from the previous mass effects is that HOW YOU PLAY decides the ending of that game. So you can get this very sad or gruesome ending depending on the choices you made, but you can also get this amazing heroic ending.

Mass Effect 3 on the other hand... You had neither... Both 3 endings came to one weird conclusion that didnt make any sense with the entire lore. But then I saw the indoctrination theory video and I was flabbergasted, really thinking "If this is true, then bioware writers are sick geniuses!" so a DLC was announced to explain the ending and it just made it worse for the indoctrination theory, but made it slightly better for the rest of the characters future.

EVEN if the ending was 'sad', as in, no matter what you did, the reapers would win, which will always be so because of the 50.000 year extermination cycle, they could make this fantastic sad story around it in which some members of your crew survived, ran away, or even get killed, but with killed together like brothers/crewmates in arms. There were so many possibilities around the ending and they decided to choose the worst one "middle in outer space, choose your favourite color, only one has a logical ending, the rest is utter shit". *sigh*

Exactly what I thought when I played the ending the first time. I was sad, but then I thought about it and I was like "What the fuck is this shit?". Then I stumbled upon the Indoctrination Theory and I was completely convinced that all the hints spread throughout the games were completely intentional. Then they tried to back down on it.
I'll always remember Mass Effect as amazing, they can't ruin it for me, but damn I wish they would have done the third ending better.
It's all about the choices, no matter how cheesy it would be, there really should have been a Super Good End, it's supposed to be fulfilling almost no matter how you wanted the game to end. It felt like they really cheaped out on the variance of the endings.

Supposedly, or how the story goes, is that they had to rush the ending because of EA policies. EA was pushing them to finish it because they wanted the bioware team to work on another project. But thats the rumor.

The other rumor is that they did not have enough time anymore because they focussed to much on Multiplayer rather than the fully refined singleplayer.

Because of that they really, REALLY neglected their fanbase and own lore...

Mass Effect will still be one of the best series I have ever played (the first and second games with the DLC's were so damn good and well written!) It's just so sad that the series went out without a great 'bang'.

I completely agree. And might I add, the gameplay of Mass Effect 3 is still pretty good, and the idea behind the multiplayer is pretty nice too. It's still a fun game, just too bad the story didn't hold up, yeah.
Also, Tali~

I agree with all that. It's an awsome game and although I was upset when I saw the ending (WARNING, MILD SPOILER: mostly because it took me a lot of effort to save Tali, the Geth and everything) and I wanted something on the line "everything went alright". I had a romance with Tali and the last scenes were touching and I wanted Shepard to save everything and to live happily with Tali for the rest of his life. Then, I thought a bit more of the ending and I didn't dislike it that much. I think it's a mature ending (I came to the conclusion that the ending I wanted probably wasn't possible because of the situation and Shepard's personality) and although I didn't enjoy it much, I think it isn't such a bad ending as many people say.

The ending itself isn't that bad, it's more the fact that it's completely unfit for a Mass Effect game. It's the final ending. It's supposed to be shaped after your actions and how good you were at them. It's supposed to have bad endings, good endings and maybe even neutral endings. As it was, all the endings were pretty much the same level of tragic.
As I've said, it's very modern with tragic endings like that, and they might be more "mature", but I'm pissed that we didn't have the option for a super good ending if we wanted one, that's what Mass Effect has been about all along. Fulfillment due to your actions.

True. I don't mind bad endings but a super good ending with everyone being happy and all that would have been great. I'm sure that you, same as me, did everything to get the happiest ending possible (getting all the forces you could, saving everyone you could, getting all the resources you could, etc) and yet the only ending you had was a meh one. It's a shame that all that effort was for nothing.

That's exactly what it is! But no matter, I've got my own headcanon, mixing in the indoctrination theory. Also, my Commander Kairyuka "Headhunter" Shepard. It's a longer story, maybe I'll write it down one day.

I'd like to read it.

Nah, it's a cheesy and sappy story, and obviously a bit too much self-insert. It would be fun to write, but not much fun to read :P

Shame but I understand, I've got several short stories I've written for myself. Cheers and enjoy.

The Extended Cut DLC didn't overrule the Indoctrination theory. Watch the video

Just because there's a connection doesn't mean it's true.

Also, BioWare made a new ending.

That doesn't mean it's true? Of course it's not true, it's fiction silly. Which means that the story is as true as you make it.

The guy I answered claimed it was true.

He just called it canon.

he said 10 ?

what did he say?

something around the lines of "I REGRET NOTHING! Nah, I kid, but I did put everyone at the company with a shock collar until they manage to not repeat such a fuck up. Thankfully we have some very understanding fans, since they know we at least try to listen to them aboot these matters". (and yes, I say "aboot" because he has a very rough canadian accent xD)

He explained that they have a "no play, no say" policy, so every game they create is played by the entire staff, including himself to test it out first and from what I understood, it was the only game he didn't finish through to the end, so he wasn't even aware how bad it was until after he released it and THEN finished the game. But it was too late to pull out by then so he had to take it. It didn't affect Bioware's image that much, though.

Because once you blow up the building, you find the writing department, force them to put suicide vests on, and blow them up on live television.

well i did