Dark One

That headstone was granite or a granite-lookalike. It didn't show a date of death, iirc, only an age at death. Given the appearance of the headstone, it could've been there for 100 years without showing appreciable wear. Had it been a limestone headstone and still had such crisp lines in the carving, I would agree with you, since that stuff wears away fairly quickly.

I hate endings like that. It reminds me far too much of Serenity and the punk move done to Wash.

What's the alternative? Rush off before being ready and get yourself killed? As much as it pains me to say, sometimes the few have to be sacrificed for the many. Thousands die now such that trillions can be saved later. It's not just Earth that's in jeopardy, it's the entire galaxy.

And so long as there are some humans left in the galaxy, we can rebuild. It's what we do. We face down crises and come back stronger for it.

With what airplanes? Strap a couple of pea shooters onto civilian planes? Great way to get killed while accomplishing nothing of import. They have to wait for the Crucible to be finished before they can do ANYTHING anyways. Those fetch quests you deride also can help said Crucible be finished faster and/or more thoroughly which could result in more lives being saved rather than slapping it out as fast as possible with as minimal of defenses/building.

You're also confusing a human war with a war against creatures that are old enough (presumably) to have been around with the dinosaurs. You don't just charge them like a berserker and hope for the best.

Then that's a glitch on your end. Did you play with or without the Extended Cut? There is supposed to be different endings based upon your EMS, like a low EMS wouldn't get your the ability to do the Synthesis ending. A low EMS also has the two squadmates with you dying before you reach Marauder Shields, rather than them getting picked up by the Normandy. The Destroy ending, with low EMS, also results in everyone on the Normandy dying rather than crashing on that alien planet and surviving.

Also, did you play the multiplayer? If not, then that is why you wouldn't get over 50%. You needed a very high, something like over 4-5000 to get the "best" endings. Look 'em up on Youtube because I know my Destroy ending was different than what is shown there for a low EMS. I had something like over 7000 EMS once I got my Galactic Readiness up to 98 or so percent.

Finally, there is only so much one can program for before they have to round things off. There is no conceivable way they could program for every permutation of what a person did. Maybe if I played it before the Extended Cut, I'd feel different, but I didn't.

Is the ending what I wanted? Nope, not by a long shot. I wanted the chance at an actual happy ending without having to sacrifice either myself, or EDI & the geth. THAT is the only thing that truly irks me about it.

The autodrive would be perfect for the drive home from Vegas...if one has spent their time in Vegas correctly...

Any time a game developer promises something, you need to take what they say with a massive grain of salt. As far as I'm concerned, I judge a game based on what it presents, not what one of the dev staff (or marketing or whoever, I don't know who Casey Hudson is) says will be in it. Expecting everything to turn out like a dev promises is no better than believing when a guy or girl says they're going to rock your world, IMO.

Which, in the context of the universe, makes sense. It's not like the people that went on the suicide mission were completely unreplacable. And some, like Kelly Chambers, makes sense for the replacement even if she survives.

You can ignore those missions, but you'll pay for it. The fetch missions end up with people helping on the Crucible or providing other assets to help with the war effort.

If all the people are doing is fighting, then they'll get burnt out and not be as effective. They all need at least a little bit of down time. It's not like they can do much else when you head to the Citadel.

Also, keep in mind the timeframes involved. For the Protheans, it was a matter of centuries before they were wiped out. The Reapers have no need to hurry because they've never really had to in the past. There's also the amount of time spent in travel that we don't really see. I prefer a game that moves on my schedule as opposed to stuff like Dead Rising.

Vega wasn't that good, true, and I found it funny that Samantha showers with her underwear on, but I did like the bit with Kasumi and her reaction to being asked to join.

In regards to choices...think about this...they did matter, in a sense. It mattered who showed up at the end, who was there, and what support you had. To the end of those choices actually MATTERING in the bigger sense of the finale, does eating a donut or a bowl of cereal matter in the overall scheme of things to your day?

As for whatever promises were broken, well, one has to take that with a grain of salt. How many things have been "promised", but end up not happening the way one thinks they will? There's no way that the ending could have lived up to everyone's expectations. Maybe it's just because I wasn't invested as much in the series, but the Extended Cut (can't speak to the original as I never saw it) was a nice wrap up.

Also, there is a comic series on DeviantArt that is a really good alternate ending to the game. Finally, this.

There's something to be said for playing the originals. I mean, sure, I joined the Kickstarter for the remake of Leisure Suit Larry 1, but it wouldn't mean as much to me if I didn't play the original.

How about making it quad or eight times xp. Or as previously suggested, just giving a level bump to 50 for all existing characters ala Test.

Heck, I thought it got cancelled. Don't recall anything of a season-ending nature.

And yet, it's another 6 months or so till new Venture Brothers. Over 2 years for new episodes of that show. At that point, why even bother?

No, no. I have high standards. I would've went for the Ashley/Miranda/Liara/Tali/Kelly/Samara combo platter. Having all squad members available (including same-sex pairings) would make for some rather hilarious dialogue trees and responses. I, personally, don't get the whole Shepard/Garrus thing, but apparently fangirls squee over that for some reason.

Mordin alone would be worth it.

Dunno, but I'd guess "no".

Link.

MMOs, anymore IMO, have far too much of a lead time and are trying to compete in an already saturated environment. Granted, the scifi/spacey type doesn't have much competition, but I don't think they'd try to do another one.

Well, you know that they're making another Mass Effect, right?

I think part of it is how they are just dragging out the inevitable leaving of the two. Either leave or not, don't do this half-***** trying to have both lives.

Eh, I was going for %age and my fingers got away from me.

But yes, hot alien babeage would be a driving motivator for a good number of people. There's always the possibility that said alien babeage would consider pudgy nerds to be the epitome of smexy!

I'd like to think I'd survive for at least a bit, but I think at some point I'd take the easy way out. I mean, what's the point of continuing on in such a situation?

We'd never get back to what we were and there'd always be that thought of everything that was lost. What would there to be to look forward to? Another year of backbreaking labor just to be able to eat? Telling our kids that humans used to be able to peer back to the beginning of time? That we could talk to anyone on the planet instantaneously? That the accumulated knowledge of humanity was at our fingertips on a daily basis? That our machines could harvest in a day, with little actual labor (comparatively), the same amount of land it would take the entire village a week to do?

I mean, sure, there's always the possibility that the power will turn back on, but it's not something that'll put food on the table.

I imagine there'll be a nice archive on Mars just waiting to be found. Pluto is wobbly because it's finally interacting with the mass relay...