Re: I can finally read this thread. 
And I believe I'm in the "that was pretty good" camp. - Edit 1
And I believe I'm in the "that was pretty good" camp. - Edit 1Before modification by Werthead at 09/04/2012 01:02:51 AM
Secondly, yes, it's possible to get the Geth and the Quarians to work together, but it's also difficult. There aren't many paths that lead that way, and most players will see the attempt at resolution literally blow itself to pieces. You can just as easily argue that the theme there is that cooperation is unrealistic.
I disagree that 'most' players won't get to see this option. Based on BioWare's stats, it sounds like most players do take a Paragon path through the trilogy and also a completist one (doin missions as they arise and so on). To get the cooperation option you need to have rescued the Quarian admiral and to have a reasonable Paragon score (IIRC, your choice with the geth programmes in ME2 plays a part, but not a critical one).
Yeah, you do have to work at it, and Renegades won't get to see it at all, but the fact that it's a little bit of work to get it done simply points out it's worth it. And I don't think anyone would argue that getting the two races to cooperate (which, among other things, boosts your forces in the final battle) is not the best outcome.
This one is a lot easier to rationalize. Right before you go into the beacon, the radio chatter specifically says that the entire hammer was destroyed, and that no one made it to the beam. Says the team was wiped out to a man. So let's say you're Joker, sitting up there in your fancy ship and you hear that the attack failed, and Shepard is dead. What do you do? Well, you try to rescue whichever friends are left and get outta dodge. It seems totally reasonable to me that Joker and company were fleeing from earth.
Now, there is the thing about Hackett calling Shepard, but that's not a big deal. Either:
1) Joker was already gone
or
2) Hackett was addressing a private channel that joker didn't have access to.
Now, there is the thing about Hackett calling Shepard, but that's not a big deal. Either:
1) Joker was already gone
or
2) Hackett was addressing a private channel that joker didn't have access to.
This is okay as far as it goes, except that Hackett and the rest of the combined fleet clearly did not believe the mission was bust even after the failure of the ground assault (Hackett's warships had driven the Reaper forces from the Citadel and were able to secure a perimeter so they could dock the Crucible to it). Joker bailing on the other Earth forces (and Tali bailing on the Quarians, Garrus on the Turians etc) is out of character, even if he did assume Shepard was dead. In addition, it would probably take more time to land the Normandy, round up the other crew and then flee then it did for Shepard to stumble into the beam, have his talk with TIM and open the Citadel arms (and it is possible that communicaton was not possible until the arms opened, either as that was the first sign to the fleet that Shepard was alive or the closure of the arms was blocking transmissions).
The biggest problem is that it is simply not chronologically possible for Normandy to land, pick everyone up, get to the Mass Relay and then get to another system in the few minutes the ending spans.
Take Inception, for example (spoilers for those who haven't watched). The ending to that was very much the same. You don't know if any of it really happened, and no follow-ups were planned. Why hate on Mass Effect so much?
INCEPTION is presented as a weird, dream-like and offbeat movie from the start where the ending is well foreshadowed by earlier events and the premise.
MASS EFFECT, on the other hand, is a pretty standard space opera for 99% of its length and only turns into a vague, mystery-heavy and interpretations-required story in its closing minutes.