Personally I think the only sense you can make out of it is : "our original ending script leaked on the Internet so we have to come up rapidly with something else but we have neither the budget nor the time to do it correctly so the first crazy idea that comes to our minds will have to do..."

I mean I never considered Bioware to be the pinnacle of video game plot writing, far from it, but to do something like those they must have been pretty desperate.

What really baffles my mind is not the ending itself. It's poorly done, but this is hardly the first piece of shoddy writing in games. What I have a harder time to swallow is that Bioware insists this was writing to be proud of, and it would be betrayal of artistic integrity to change it. Also anyone complaining about it is "entitled", or as one of the ME3 writers said on Twitter, a "basement nerd".

I'm just used to expect better from Bioware.

Origin? No thanks

This never made any sense to me. The leaked ending, while not great, was substantially better than the published ending. Why, exactly, did they have to change it simply because it was leaked? Some people knowing about it beforehand does not affect its quality in the slightest. Anyone who saw the leak intentionally spoiled themselves, Bioware was under no obligation to change the whole thing on account of them. I just don't get it.

I think they simply ran out of time and rushed the ending regadless if it was leaked or not. I know they took more time to finish the game than originally released but there seems to be certain things lacking or not well explained (Collectors base for one). I have a feeling they can turn around and just say one thing DLC and they will attempt to fill in the gaps by letting you pay for it.

The first thing I thought about the ending was that it was lacking closure and had so many unanswered questions because they intended to sell us the ending separately as DLC. I don't think EA would be above something like that. In fact, I think it sounds like exactly something what EA would do.

If you use Steam and said this then gtfo. Origin has less DRM and actually scans less of your computer than steam does so don't cry privacy issues either.

Would you mind highlighting the differences between the leaked and final script?

This gamestop ad is very right. I lol'ed.

I'm very much interested in this also!

Heh, nice try. Maybe the White Star Line could have adopted that as a slogan after Titanic sank? :-)

Actually, from what I've gathered the differences are minimal. There have been several leaked scripts too, at least three different versions.

This one is the oldest I could find, uploaded on november 2011; it doesn't have the conversation with the Catalyst (wich was called GUARDIAN back then) but the destroy-control-merge options were already outlined.

A more recent version included a conversation with the Catalyst, wich is a slightly better written and more elaborated version of what we've got in the actual game. I can't find the pastebin link anymore, but it's been referenced in several threads at BSN, for example,here and here, they are worth a read.

The main differences with the final product do not concern the ending:

- In the intro Shepard was supposed to actually face a trial.
- Javik was supposed to be included in the main game. In one script he is also referenced to as the Catalyst (although later, in the same script, the Citadel is also revealed to be the Catalyst. Whether this was a mistake or a simple plot advancement it's unclear).
- The battle at Thessia was a lot more dramatic, Kai Leng was actually dangerous, and Shepard would end up severely wounded. Kai Leng could also turn the Virmire survivor against Shepard.
- There was a "retake Omega from Cerberus" mission. This is where the rumors of a future Omega DLC came from, I suppose.
-The battle on Rannoch had an additional outcome, with Admiral Xen enslaving the Geth.
-The encounter with the Illusive Man was different.
-Zaheed had his own mission.
-etc etc, you have the links, enjoy the read!


The "Dark Energy" ending everyone is talking about was NOT in the leaked scripts. If it was scrapped, it happened way before then. Bioware did NOT change the ending due to the leak.

*FacePalm*

I don't even....... why did they.......

Interesting, thanks for posting Avogadro.

Yeah, the lack of that was a little odd... though I can see why they'd change it to get the story moving faster. Having next to nothing dealing with it was weird for returning players who'd played Arrival, but for new players it would have been a bit of an off-kilter introduction to Shepard.

Wow, that last is surprising. Maybe that got moved/compartmentalized into the Citadel coup? Or was that always an additional point where the VS could betray Shepard?

That, and I've heard there's still evidence of it in the shipped game's files. Either way, it does seem like a good guess for DLC.

Interesting. That sounds like a good addition. Cut for time, I suppose.

I know he was supposed to be a traditional boss fight at one point. I wonder if anything else was different. I'll have to take a look myself.

And there's the $1 million question. Thanks for taking the time to answer it. :)