PAX East 2012 Bioware and Mass Effect3 panel coverage, continued from part 4

Chris Priestly: My favorite two characters in the game are The Illusive Man, and Tali. We are going to talk about Tali.

Patrick Weeks: Tali'Zorah nar Rayya. Tali and Garrus were the first two people I got the "they were with you all the time achievement" in Mass Effect 1.  So they were my favorites. Not that we have faves, we are completely impartial to all of our characters. So Mass Effect 2 I got to take her on a journey and share a little bit more on Quarian culture. In ME3, if Tali is alive, and you are not a monster, she is the lens through which you see the Quarian culture. Tali is my favorite because she is flawed. People say she is perfect. But she is not. I know, because I wrote her. She is racist. She grew up in a very racist society, that had several centuries to tell its version of what happened with the Geth. And it doesn't mean she is a bad person, it means that's where she grew up. She has an unrealistic willingness to sacrifice herself for the fleet, by human standards. She has a father that even by death she is trying to prove herself to. And that's what Quarian culture is. The Geth are fun to fight. But we wanted to show you that the Quarians are flawed too, so that you have a reason to side with the Geth. That they were deeply spiritual people that cared about their home world. So coming down to that, the Tali story, even Tali Romance - she doesn't have a big date on the Citadel. Your date is getting her to the homeworld.

Chris: We are running out of time, we do want to open the floor for some questions

Fan #1: When the Citadel was moved, what happened to everyone on it?

Patrick Weeks: One of the things that we have established, in the Citadel codex, is that the Citadel has emergency seals, and exterior areas have the same barriers. So even even in the ending in which it was destroyed - and in the control ending it was not destroyed - there is definitely going to be casualties, but it is not like the entire Citadel will be blown up. Some people may well still be alive.

Fan #2: Shouldn't you withstand all sorts of criticism, not just constructive criticism?

Mike Gamble: Whenever you create a piece of art, you are never going to be able to keep everyone happy. Constructive criticism helps make the game better, give the team feedback that they can take action on

Fan #3: The scene with Mordin is really really well done. Beautiful and sad, very nice.

John Dombrow: The first time the Cinematic designer showed up, there was some bug where the scene went to slow motion. I told him, that's not a bug, keep it!

Fan #4: About Extended Cut, the Ending DLC. Is there going to be just cutscenes, or will there be actual gameplay included?

Mike Gamble:  Currently we are working only on extended cinematics, but cannot say anything else about this right now.

Chris Priestly: Keep giving us your feedback

Fan #5: If you could throw one character other than Commander Shepard into the Synthesis ending, who would it be? (from audience someone says "Marauder Shields")

Panel: We are going to go with that one.