I was afraid I'd feel the same way, but I managed to block it out and just enjoy the game. Then I saw the ending and joined the chorus of booing voices.

I hope you learned your lesson: never visit the internet ever. It's terrible.

@CosmicQueso said:

I agree with you.

All these clowns saying don't look at negative threads and that you're an emo baby are idiots. No matter what site you look to it's covered with nonsense about suing Bioware and taking them to the FTC. Apparently you're not supposed to look at your favorite gaming sites for weeks.

It's all just so completely ridiculous.

This, the hate for the game is widely known at this point, I think even people that have never heard of Mass Effect before know that people hate the ending for ME3. Opinions are not completely independent of each other. Unless you talked to no-one about the game and saw no articles or even thread titles about it, you're opinion will be influenced somewhat.

I know that if I'm watching a movie by myself and I talk to a friend later about it, we may have completely opposite opinions of it, but every movie I've seen in theatres with friends we've pretty much all swayed the same way of whether it was likeable or not.

@bartok said:

I've had the game since it came out and I just have no motivation to play Mass Effect 3. I'm only ten hours in and I am lucky if I do a mission or two every other day. What I've played so far has been very enjoyable both in terms of gameplay and story. It is just seeing negative thread after negative thread and article after article of people's disappointment and anger with the game has sapped all motivation for me to play. I haven't stopped playing games all together, in fact I have beaten two games and found every Riddler trophy in Arkham City since Mass Effect 3 has been released. I was so pumped for Mass Effect 3. I went so far as to replay 1 and 2 so my decisions would be fresh in my mind. I beat every fucking side mission in Mass Effect 1 and I hate the Mako with a fucking passion just in case there is a call back in 3. That first night I stayed up and and played non stop for 6 hours and then web became inundated with Mass Effect 3 hate and it felt soul crushing. Has anyone else had the experience? Please no spoilers since I have been lucky enough so far to avoid them.

Luckily I completed the game before I looked at any of the threads. Still I'm telling you that Mass Effect 3 is a magnificent game. All those who are complaining in my opinion are being completely idiotic.

@bartok: That sucks having all the negativity bring the experience down for you. Like others have said it really is an amazing game up until the last 10 minutes and it's well worth your time. The post-game save is right before the Priority: Cerberus Headquarters mission so if you don't want to experience the ending just yet (perhaps being hopeful that BioWare will make it right) that's a good place to stop and wait.

The spoiler is just the name of the mission from the journal.

Edit: to correct the mission name.

No because I make up my own mind about these sorts of things.

Mass Effect 3 ruined my enjoyment of Mass Effect 3.

It certainly taints your viewpoint. I couldn't go in to the game without looking for the bad things Jeff was hinting at and the internet were crying over. I love the game, and am playing it through a second time but I spent the first time going in to the ending expecting the worst. Over analysing everything.

Sorry if reading these made it less alluring, but those were some of the best 30 hours since, well, Mass Effect 2. Hope you enjoy what you can though.

I've avoided the drama and I'm actually enjoying it more than Mass Effect 2 which was just a huge disappointment after ME1. I'm an hour away from the end so maybe this will all change.

@Jost1 said:

@briangodsoe said:

Play it. You may be missing out on a GOTY experience because the last 10 minutes may or may not be all that great.

I honestly don't think it's a GOTY experience. Speaking as someone who thought both 1 and 2 were.

Side quests aren't good, scanning is worse, plot holes abound. It's a very good game but it could have been so much more. It falls short when it really counts. The saving grace is that the story missions are mostly really excellent and the voice acting is better than ever.

ok

@bartok: No..while I'm sick of seeing all the whiny "DUH ENDING SUX!" threads everywhere, I'm knockng out sidequests, scanning systems and enjoying the game about as much as I did ME2, which to say is not as much as ME1. Don't let the negativity get you down, man.

Ok just finished the game and without spoilers I was enjoying the ending up until a certain point and then everything just slowly turned to shit.   So everyone was right the ending sucked but it was a fun ride while it lasted.  It's not like video games have a rich history of fulfilling and satisfactory endings.  I am not going to go so far as to sign a petition to change the ending but if I have to pay for DLC for the true ending I will be more then a little perturbed.  
Here are my thoughts on the ending:

I too was ridiculously excited for this game and also played through 2 again to max out the achievements before 3 dropped, but for me it wasn't the negativity that bummed me out but the game breaking bugs. I struggled with the face import glitch at first but eventually forgot what my shep looked like since my new one was fairly similar, but once I got to Tuchanka for the Turian general mission and couldn't complete it because of a bug that causes the final wave of enemies not to spawn and therefore no way to finish the mission I decided to stop playing until a patch comes out. It's just sloppy that game breaking bugs like this exist in such a hyped up game. The texture pop in from ME1 is almost more acceptable.

The ending is not even what I dislike about ME3, even though I agree it's not good.

Play through it and decide for yourself. Remember people on the internet overreact and its easy for the good in the game to get lost in such negativity.

Maybe you'll be like people, just as myself, who truly enjoyed the game and not think badly of the ending at all.

who knows?

Ending sucked sure, but the other 99% of the game still make it the best game I've played this year so far.

And just for the hell of it, I'll say that I still think that (minus the ending) its better than Mass Effect 2 in every possible way. :) (Glad you had fun with the rest of the game at least).

@DonChipotle said:

Hey maybe don't look at negative threads or something.

Thread got finished in one reply.

OP, you have the game, say that you're enjoying it, but you don't want to play it because random dudes on the internet have deemed it the worst game ever. That sounds like some oddball internet peer pressure and is totally your own fault. The only response I can think of is stop being a bitch man up.

All of the rubbish sprouted upon Mass Effect 3 and Dragon Age 2 on message boards lowered my expectations.

So I'm having an absolute ball with them! :)

The game was good. It has some fantastic moments, but it isn't anything great.