User blog comment:The Milkman/Extended Expectations, Part II/@comment-68.8.14.28-20120701200530

Wow, this is a really well written blog. I do agree with a lot of it; about not getting my closure with Tali, especially after such a well done goodbye scene at the beam, the endings (except Destroy) still come out of nowhere, and the goddamned Starbrat still being there still makes no sense.

I have my own criticisms about it too, though: chief among them is the Synthesis ending. Despite the fact that you essentially raped everyone's DNA at the insistence of the biggest mass murderer int he history of the universe, apparently everything turns out peachy. Everyone gets along fine, no one commits suicide, the Reapers help rebuild, and dead people come back from the dead. What!? It's not just that; the new Refusal ending seems like a giant middle finger to everyone who hated the Catalyst, since it results in an instant and pointless non-standard game over. To make it extra pointless, one of the developers said that the new cycle just chose one of the Catalyst's solutions anyway. So what's the goddamned point?

But I did like a few other things about the endings: mostly, the fact that it actually changed a lot of stuff. The mass relays are no longer destroyed, the Citadel doesn't blow up, the Normandy's engines don't blow up, the crew are seen escaping, et cetera. This makes me think that with the Destroy ending, this universe isn't completely dead, like it was in the vanilla endings. I also liked the slideshow somewhat, even if I would've preferred a more in depth, Fallout New Vegas style slideshow.

Overall, the Extended Cut was better than I thought, but it could've been a whole lot better if: one, Bioware would get their head out of their ass with that artistic integrity excuse. And two, is that five minute closure cutscene you mentioned was added. I would've preferred for the Catalyst to be completely excised, the Synthesis ending being completely excised, the Reaper's motivation being kept a secret, and the Catalyst being replaced by Harbinger, but I always knew that Bioware were too prideful to actually do that.