I found it! Props to CasbynessPC for writing this


I reject your reality, and replace it with my own:

Conditions - 5,000+ assets/readiness, Game+ mode only.

[the game plays out as normal, up to the point where Shepard is left to begin staggering to their chosen fate]

[As Shepard approaches their choice...]

Female voice: STOP.

[Shepard turns slowly, looking tired, hurt and dazed. Behind them, behind the Catalyst child, is the translucent form of a Keeper]

Keeper: Commander Shepard. There is another option.

Shepard [weakly]:What...?

The Catalyst [turning]: Keeper. Do not interfere. The Crucible has been completed, a solution must be chosen to begin the cycle anew.

Keeper: No. That is now...uncertain.

Shepard [confused]: A keeper...you can talk...

Keeper: Catalyst, as you fulfil your programmed function in this cycle, we Keepers must now fulfil ours.

Commander Shepard, human of Earth. What the Catalyst has told you is true. However, its’ knowledge, the boundaries of its' function are narrow, it knows only what is was programmed to do.

Millions of years ago, when the first organic space-faring species merged with their synthetic superiors and exiled themselves to spare more primitive races, the Catalyst was not the only creation they left behind.

The Catalyst: I am the Catalyst. You Keepers are merely caretakers, drones crafted to maintain the Catalyst and trigger the return of the Reapers.

Keeper: We are that. But we are also something more. In their wisdom, our creators installed us on the Citadel...as observers. Silent, watchful, we studied each galactic civilisation since the creation of the Citadel. Programmed to assess...to wait for when the time was right. We...I believe...that time is now.

Shepard: What do you want? Can you help me?

Keeper: That is our function. Catalyst – you are created to maintain the cycle, or begin one anew. To preserve order, saving the organics from themselves, from their synthetic creations.

But...the Keepers have been waiting, waiting for a moment in history when the probabilities shifted. A moment when organics and synthetics broke the cycle for themselves and found another way.

This Commander Shepard, this human, has achieved something no other organic has achieved before. The civilisations of this time, by resolving differences between organics and synthetic, by cooperating to build the Crucible, have achieved something no other species has done before. Something that the Keepers have been waiting for. Waiting for aeons to be accomplished.

Shepard: Keeper...what are you saying?

Keeper: The fate of the galaxy remains in your hands, Commander Shepard. But the Keepers offer you a fourth option, one perhaps less certain than the others.

Shepard: And that would be...?

Keeper: Possibility. Hope. Make this choice...and the Reapers will depart the galaxy.

Shepard: That’s it? I give the word, and no more Reapers?

Keeper: No. The Reapers will leave, peacefully, but the cycle will continue. 50,000 years from now, Harbinger shall return...return to evaluate your progress, which remains far from certain.

Shepard – PARAGON: A chance to prove ourselves?
Shepard – RENEGADE: That sounds like a stay of execution...

Keeper: Precisely. The probability of stable coexistence between organic and synthetic has reached a critical point in your cycle. We offer you the chance, with no certainties, to resolve this probability to its natural conclusion.

Shepard: And if we fail? If we can’t control AIs and synthetic life?

Keeper: Then you will be doomed...and the cycles will continue...

[Cue main ME3 theme]

[cut to player control – a glowing pillar emerges behind the Catalyst and Keeper]

[Shepard staggers to the pillar, reaching out to touch it]

[The Citadel opens – emitting a pulse wave of white light]

[Shepard is enveloped by the white light]

[ending sequence scenes play – the Reapers depart, unharmed. The Relays light up the Galaxy, but are not destroyed. The Normandy flees the pulse wave...]

[Joker departs a crashed Normandy – on Earth, in London. All the Reapers' foot soldiers lay inactive around the ship]

[Squad mates walk/run up to meet the Normandy crew]

[Everyone gazes up at the incandescent Citadel, a glowing ball of light]

[Shepard’s LI, or Joker, points up towards the light, seeing a shuttle flying downwards]

[The shuttle approaches, lands. As the Normandy crew watch, the door opens]

[Commander Shepard exits the shuttle]

[the music transitions slowly from the ME3 main sad theme, to the ME triumphant theme]

EDIT: After the credits roll, Liara reads out your entry from her time capsule, summarising what you did afterwards, what happened to your squad mates, what happened to each major civilisation/homeworld, and finally how everyone is now working hard together to prepare for the next Reaper visitation (Paragon = working for galactic peace, Renegade = tooling up for Reaper WAR...)

Or just play mp.

Synthesis is considered the "best ending" and you still get St Elsewhere'd at the end of the credits.

Old man shep and a little boy are staring up at the stars and the kids basically asks him to tell him another good story blah blah blah.

In short, it was all just an old man's story about to a little kid.

Or you can get artsy and imagine it's something else, but they left little wiggle room in the after credit roll.

I was talking specifically about Rannoch, not the overall ending.

He didn't die in the book.



Yup.

The ME series was one of my favorite game series of all time. Approximately 90 hours for each character build across three games. And they fucked it up in the last 10 minutes. That is especially depressing, because IMO they hit a home run with the entire rest of the game. I had a great time playing it.

For me, the endings had two glaringly massive faults.

- The endings were generally sucky for everyone involved. Shepard, even if he lives, is separated from the normandy crew permanently. Earth is at least partially fucked, the relays are destroyed. Now, this ending wouldn't necessarily have been bad because it helps bring home the idea of how bad the war was (other than the Normandy thing, which was pure bullshit no matter how you slice it).

The problem with the endings though are that they simply DON'T FIT the general flow of the series. In the previous two games, the endings are triumphant and hopeful. In ME1, you defeat Saren and Sovereign, and though you know that the reapers are coming you get the sense of "I can do this." Ditto on ME2. You survived a suicide mission! Thus, the ME3 endings which are all basically siting on the bad-to-terrible scale seem to come completely out of left field. Fucking terrible. And some people say "well, you didn't complain about Deus Ex." True. But Deus Ex made it very clear from the very first scene that the game was going to be extremely dark and was probably not going to end on a high note, and it reinforced those ideas throughout the game. With Mass Effect, it wasn't like that AT ALL. For the entire first two games, the theme was generally "we can triumphantly win this if I make the right choices." Even for most of the third game that idea was reinforced. Then in the last part they pull the rug out. Plus to top it all off, there is very little actual closure. The endings are poorly written on top of being out of character for the series.

- The second problem is the simple lack of choice presented in the endings. This is a game which supposedly champions choices. So why do I just get three different colors of poorly explained space magic in my endings, with everything else the same? The relays are ALWAYS destroyed. The Normandy is ALWAYS stranded. Your two companions in the final mission on earth ALWAYS die and you see their bodies (though they then miraculously get resurrected and warped to the Normandy in time to land on Gilligan's planet). Nothing you did in the game for side quests or anything else really affects anything except whether you survive the destroy ending. Even that only happens in one case.

Whatever, it's just a game. If they release some "Broken Steel" type of ending DLC I'll buy it in a heartbeat; if not then I simply won't be doing any more replays of the game. But still, what a letdown after putting so much time and effort into the entire series.

Fuck you, Bioware. How could you think this was a good idea?

Around the time ME1 came out, someone at BioWare said they'd like to do an MMO in the Mass Effect universe.

edited for clarity

I haven't beat it yet, but I will probably pick the merge ending so I don't kill EDI. I just had to replay the Reaper mission on Rannoch because I forgot to rescue the damn Quarian admiral first and ended up losing the Quarian fleet.

Mucho lulz in this thread. Bioware fucked the pooch good huh. Was thinking about picking up ME2 and the new one. Played about half of the first one.

Think ill pass, moar monies for ammo!

It's also a pain in the ass to get the different endings. Almost like Bioware INTENTIONALLY wants to discourage you from finding out that all the endings are pretty much the same, and that we were MASSIVELY screwed over on the endings.

This is what EA seems to do for games that are parts of a series. They always figure they can rely on the hardcore fans to buy the last game... so they fucking take dumbass shortcuts, and cheat us out of a massively awesome experience that we deserve. They figure they can milk us of our money, but in the end still screw us over. They did THE SAME DAMN THING with Command and Conquer 4. Gave us a pretty crappy ending, crappy gameplay, etc. So crappy, I beat the NOD campaign and didn't even bother playing the GDI campaign. The game was THAT shitty. They figured, "Meh, we've pleased them for the past 20 years, we can take it easy on this last game. They'll trust us to give them something good, we'll just give them a ton of shit, and roll in the big bucks from all the die hards who will buy our piece of fuckign shit game".

Ok that works... I'm going to pretend this was the ending.... and not that shitty one that EA crapped on us.

That's a much more straightforward ending. It makes more sense, too. I will say though that I don't think the endings were EA's doing. This was Bioware all the way, wanting to be "edgy" and dark.

EA has a tendency to screw the pooch on the endings of epic series... and screwing up the last of the game series. Command and Conquer 4, for instance, was a complete abortion of a game. COMPLETELY BORING. And they were COMPLETELY Cheap about it. The ending of the game took place in a fucking white background.... with a lame ass "portal" that looked like a piece of clip art. Seriously, I've seen MS Paint drawings here on ARFCom that were better looking than that shitty ass ending. Not only that, they chose the LAST Game, to completely change the genre of the game from Real time strategy, into a piece of shit "tactics" game. Did away with bases, did retarded crap with "Rock Scissors Paper" concepts. And all sorts of retarded crap.

Fuck EA!