The ending was awful. Completely in love with the Mass Effect series. Beat ME1 and ME2 3 times each. I won't be beating this one again. All the alliances you created, all the relationships with different characters, the different decisions you made meant shit. I don't know whether Bioware was just incapable of delivering the ending they promised cause of time or something but it was a complete let down to anyone who played. Everything they promised they through out the window. The game was actually great until you went up on the platform to god knows where. Sure there was things that you could point out that makes it seem like they were rushing the product but the idea was sound, turn a once hostile galaxy into one cohesive unit along with the help of all the previous cycle organic species in a big giant mega weapon to defeat an enemy that could be slowed but not defeated without the weapon. Then you have the illusive man who has been indoctrinated for a good amount of time, i dont know if it ever pinpoints when, and hes fighting against you as well and the idea oh Kei Lang? of beings shepherds match who was suppose to be better than shepherd at 'getting the job done' was a great side story(even if KL was a little corny at times). This all could have been improved but it worked and there wasnt much more you could ask for. Then that goddamn ending with the "countless" number of choices. (countless if ur under the age of two)

I ended up choosing the what would appear to be renegade option by destroying all synthetics because i was fed up with this synthetics cant cooperate with organics crap that my shepherd had fought against the whole time so they deserved to die. I dont think that the boy was a magical or godlike form. I think he was the mobile platform of a synthetic because he refers to the reapers and all synthetics as "us". Im just trying to piece the unknown together but it seems like he was actually a massive AI created by the most advanced civilization ever because they had endless time to become that advanced. The reapers in a much less advanced form presumably worked for this AI for whatever the suppose goal of it was (war machine, peacekeeping, transport, whatever). Then like what happened with the geth and quarian the AI rebelled. But unlike the geth the AI destroyed its creator (geth allowed quarians to escape). So since this AI had no other experience it presumed all synthetics will try to rule their creators, because it is blind to other alternatives. So it re purposed the reapers to wipe out all organic life advanced enough to make AIs so the other organics can live. But theres holes in that theory, it would have seen the geth and their peace with the quarians. But then you could say the only thing separating the geth from taking over is time so i dont know.

This is why it sucks too many questions. Also although i guess I dont mind shepherd dying the way he goes out leaving behind his everyone in a complete fallout of technology (how about a fallout: mass effect lulz). What did he actually accomplish then? Not much so many will die. Any technology left working will breakdown within a hundred years because people won't have the resources, because theyre almost isolated, to keep them working. Certain species will die out on some planets because not the correct food, etc.. Ontop of this slap in the face bioware didn't even give us different endings. You made the color change one + fucking robot disappear??? God damn. All i wanted was for my shepherd to settle down have some blue babies with liara, have garrus be his best man maybe and all that good stuff. Think about it too the DLC could have been crazy, Bioware would make a ton of money. If shepherd lives and lets say the game ends with IM killing himself then you turn on the weapon and byebye reapers there would be so much to be done. If you cured the genophage you could work on keeping the krogan pop in check. Help the salarians not be such assholes. Or help with rebuilding Thessia. They could have even incorporated the reaper control kid into as well. Imagine shep going up there and this kid is trying to stop him, you learn those dreams are this reaper controller has been using to get to shepherds head trying to create sympathy. So the reaper controller uses this form in their encounter and shep has to walk get to the controls while this controller is trying to indoctrinate him or just simply tries to convince him that theyre right and he's wrong. So you have the option of killing the demon child and the reapers just collapse when he dies (possibly along with all other synthetics), you can try to control the reapers, or you can leave the cycle as it is.

My rant is done now. And just for shits and giggles

Bioware, no

Did they really need a twist that badly? I mean why can't the Reapers just be machines harvesting genetic material to make new Reapers? I doesn't have a twist or much depth, but they're a race of gigantic robot space squids! Can't they just be evil, people eating, douche bags from space? It's not much, but it's a thousand times better than star kid god or what ever the fuck that was.

So much potential just thrown out of the goddamn window, in 5 minutes they took away 5 years. I'm incredibly disappointed to say the least. They could have gone with some kick ass endings instead we got this!? I don't even, just speechless at the amount of full retard BioWare went with the ending.

@LordXavierBritish: I feel exactly the same way. They killed any amount of affection I had for that series and the company.

All i wanted was for my shepherd to settle down have some blue babies with liara, have garrus be his best man maybe and all that good stuff.

That is all they had to do to keep me happy. Just replace your Liara with Tali. I loved everything in that game until the last ten minutes. I'm sure there are exceptions, but I just haven't played them.

Why couldn't my Shepard just live with Tali? :(

To be honest I, and i think alot of people as well, generally were positive shep would save the day, destroy the reapers, and everything would be right in the universe. The thing is everyone was okay with that and the game would have been a success and people were still going to buy it. Mass effect isnt about the end its how you get there and some decisions u make may affect the ending. When you played ME1 you knew by the end you were going to stop Saren and the Geth and possibly Sovereign a couple missions into it. You knew two missions into ME2 you were going to defeat the collectors. The question was how and the different relationships and decisions along the way. The fact that bioware strayed from this formula of success really makes me question who's running the show over there. They tried to make mass effect have deep meaning and a terrific twist to the plot, but thats not why ME1 and ME2 were successful and thats why people are soo disappointed in the ending. To be perfectly honest Bioware should apologize. And (wishful thinking) they should come out with DLC that offers an alternative ending or something because the series feels unfulfilled for me and so many others

I really want to believe there aren't people who would willingly pay for DLC with a new ending. I want to believe  that no one would actually pay Bioware for shitting all over this series, that no one would reward a developer for fucking up this badly.
 
I really, truly want to believe that.

I just finished and I really liked the ending. Or maybe "admire" would be a better choice of words. Fucking ballsy is what it is.

Also, after the silly giant Terminator from the last game, I love that the series doesn't end with a boss battle. Unless you count those three Husks and a Marauder...

NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND WE HAVE TO KILL YOU ALL OR YOU WILL DIE!

So fucking dumb.

Thinking about it for awhile, I would be happier if shephard died before meeting god-kid, together with Anderson watching their world burn. It would atleast given some closure.

Internet, someone rewrite this ending please.

I think what's bothering me the most is that, no matter what ending you choose, the mass relays would be destroyed, so modern galactic civilization would cease to exist. Sure some characters live on, but everyone that had gone to Earth to fight were stranded there, and your friends get stranded on some uncharted planet.

I guess I thought, through the previous two games, I was fighting for the galaxy, and while the galaxy was saved, it would be forever altered - either mass relays are destroyed AND you control the Reapers, mass relays are destroyed AND all technology no longer works, OR mass relays are destroyed AND everyone is now a synthetic-enhanced thing.

In the end, I expected a self-sacrificing Shepherd, and maybe my entire crew, but I never even imagined that there is no "returning to normal" within the galaxy. A sequel is still technically possible, but it'll be fetch quests of "Joker's leg is broken again, find some branches to make some splints for him" and "use spears and rocks to fight off pygmies."

I really, really liked this game, but the endings were awful, and it really sullied my overall experience with the game. There are so many ridiculously stupid things in the last 10 minutes that i can't even list them all.

the best part about this topic is, I bought ME3 (I was bored, wanted to trade in 13-2 and I am weak shut up) but I know not to expect closure and also there will be some really dumb story moments so I don't become utterly disappointed.

@Kevin_Cogneto said:

I just finished and I really liked the ending. Or maybe "admire" would be a better choice of words. Fucking ballsy is what it is.

Also, after the silly giant Terminator from the last game, I love that the series doesn't end with a boss battle. Unless you count those three Husks and a Marauder...

That Marauder killed me 3 times. :( He also killed the tension of the scene. Seriously though, The ending is a travesty of the highest magnitude, and killed the meaning of the entire series in the span of 5 minutes.

@LordXavierBritish said:

Okay game is finally out, fuck NDAs, fuck everything we're doing this up real.

Fuck everything. Fuck everything ever.

The Reapers were synthetic-organic monstrosities created by a race of advanced organics to wipe out advanced organic life so that they wouldn't create a race of synthetic monstrosities that would wipe out organic life.

WHAT. WHY.

WHY.

IF THE CITADEL WAS A SPIRIT CHILD WHY DID THEY NEED THE KEEPERS TO COME BACK FROM DARK SPACE.

WHY DID THE KEEPERS EVOLVING OUT OF THEIR PROGRAMMING MATTER AT ALL.

WHY DID SOVEREIGN WORK WITH THE GETH.

WHY DID SOVEREIGN EVEN NEED TO EXIST.

WHY DON'T THEY JUST WIPE OUT SYNTHETIC LIFE.

You know maybe they explain the fucking space child shit, I guess I'll never find out, but here's the thing:

Why is it even assumed that synthetic life would wipe out organic life. How high do you fucking have to be. Are you seriously fucking trying to convince me that that the mother fuckers who were able to create LIVING SPACE SHIPS were stupid enough to not realize that AIs, by the very definition of being fucking AIs, have no predisposed morals or outlooks besides what the original creators programmed into them.

The Geth only fucking rose up because they were SLAVES. And they weren't even a galactic threat until Sovereign made them.

SOVEREIGN MADE THE SYNTHETICS TRY TO WIPE OUT ORGANIC LIFE SO HE COULD KILL THE ORGANICS TO STOP THEM FROM CREATING SYNTHETICS THAT WOULD WIPE OUT ORGANIC LIFE.

And while we're on the topic.

ALL OF THE ENDINGS ARE FUCKING THE SAME.

Oh man guys, all these choices. Holy shit I can't believe all this freedom and choice I get.

So I can destroy everything and the Reapers, destroy everything and send the Reapers away, or destroy everything and turn all life into sythetic-organic hybrids that won't try to create synthetic life because that makes sense BECAUSE THE REAPERS ARE ALREADY PART ORGANIC.

This is a solution to a real problem.

Actually now that I think about it. How do ANY of those endings actually stop organics from creating synthetic life again?

Let's pretend, just for a minute, that this is actually a legitimate concern. How does this actually stop races from creating snythetic life? Even with the Mass Relays gone that doesn't fucking stop the scientific advancement, hell, the old races that made the fucking Geth and all that other shit are still fucking around.

FUCKING

THE REAPERS CREATED THE MASS RELAYS AND THE CITADEL TO EXPEDITE THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE RACES SO THAT THEY COULD DICTATE THE MANNER IN WHICH THEIR TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPED.

WHY DON'T YOU STEER THEM AWAY FROM BUILDING SYNTHETICS.

WHY DON'T YOU FUCKING TRY TO TALK THIS SHIT OUT INSTEAD OF KILLING EVERYONE.

WHY WOULD YOU PAY SOMEONE TO WRITE THIS.

WHY WOULD YOU SHIP THIS OUT IN A TRIPLE AAA MILLION DOLLAR BUDGET TITLE.

WHY WOULD YOU OKAY THIS PLOT HOLE STREWN BULL SHIT THIS FOR THE ENDING TO YOUR CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED TRILOGY.

Video games are over, everything is over.

No one can be happy ever again.

He mad

Great ending. I was not expecting ME3 to be this audacious in changing the nature of Universe, but it fully embraced the idea of rebirth by destroying mass relays and essentially ending space travel. I expected Shepard to die in order to save everyone else. And that did occur. But what did Shepard die for? He died for the same reasons that protagonists in hollywood "end of the world" movies die for, getting rid of all the complexity, all social hierarchies, and giving people a chance to start their lives from the beginning. Shepard did the same thing except at the galactic level. Different alien life forms are all intermingled but now stranded on different planets. This is a hopeful rebirth because it assumes that intelligent life forms can get along.

Oh, and space child was not that big of a deal for me. Shepard was having nightmares throughout the game about not saving that one innocent life, and the catalyst appeared to him as a child in order to represent the catalyst's own innocent nature. The catalyst was neither malevolent nor benevolent entity. It was an entity that facilitated destruction for the sake of rebirth. Shepard wanted the same thing, albeit in a different form.

@Make_Me_Mad said:

@Animasta: I can all but guarantee that this will never happen. In fact, I imagine they'll do the exact opposite- they're going to love it, and they'll hold it up as the pinnacle of good storytelling. They will claim that anyone who doesn't like the ending only does so because they can't handle an ending where everything isn't perfect, and indeed they'll go so far as to praise the 'realism' of an ending where even after you win the galaxy is fucked up. It will make me want to claw out my own eyes.

Hi, Mass Effect die-hard here. My main thought during all the "space child/'we have to kill you so you don't kill you lulz'/suddenly, elderly guy" kerfuffle was "Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK. YOU." While I love all three games, and I thought ME3 was amazing in a number of areas, you'll never hear me say that the ending wasn't fucking stupid.

Not every Mass Effect fan is as you describe.

@LordXavierBritish said:

I really want to believe there aren't people who would willingly pay for DLC with a new ending. I want to believe that no one would actually pay Bioware for shitting all over this series, that no one would reward a developer for fucking up this badly. I really, truly want to believe that.

I'm sorry I ever doubted you. I just finished the game literally ten minutes ago, and I feel like the entire series was retconned into oblivion by the last ten minutes.

And to answer your initial comment, I would literally pay money to have a new ending because the endings that exist are so bad.

What went wrong? What happened? Like, was this their grand scheme at the end of this series for it to be this crazy plot twist? The Reapers returning every fifty-thousand years (in Mass Effect) is enough of a revelation that I just... I don't... what? All I wanted to do was have a nice relationship with Jack. I saw her twice in the entire game and I didn't at least get a romance scene in before the final mission.

I will literally pay any amount for them to retcon this series back to what it was originally. I am crazy, but I am so bonkers for Mass Effect that I am willing to do that. I want them to make it right because the series deserves better.

I wasn't a believer, but dear god.

The hatred being generated for this game seems to closely resemble the Star Wars fan who loses their shit because Han fucking shot first or because the prequel trilogy ruined the entire goddamn series! They hate the shit out of it because they loved the shit out of it and then someone went and just fucked it all up. It sucks the series ended up the way it did, but instead of losing your damn marbles, just be happy with the parts you did enjoy and move on. The game did something pretty crazy. More branching paths than I'd have thought possible and over the course of 3 games at that. I also thought the endings were pretty sorry but I had a damn blast up until that point running through a massive choose your own adventure book with pretty fun gameplay to boot.

Damn shame about that ending. . . . but I've got bigger things to get all upset about. Not even upset, but more like. . . I dunno, things that bug me. Like taxes (which I get why they're necessary but still. . .) and not having enough time to do all the things I want to do (like play more Mass Effect). If this game's ending is so big a deal to some people that they're up in arms needing to shout about it, I don't know what to say other than "sucks to be you".

Finally finished ME3 and read through this thread. I ignored all spoilers, kept up any and all hope that it wouldn't be bad, and even enjoyed the game a lot up until the ending.
 
Holy motherfuck, that ending was completely stupid and unnecessary, and has ruined any future for the Mass Effect universe, as well as completely deflated the fiction up until this point. I had braced myself for something bad before going into the game, but I never expected Bioware to complete fuck up the ending to this series to that degree. I can't think of anything more they could've possibly done badly. What bugs me the most, though, is just that it made no sense whatsoever. Literally none. I can't stand endings like that. It's one thing to throw sand in my eyes with a bad and enraging ending, but it's another to end on something that is completely illogical.
 
I've been holding a candle for Bioware, but I think I'm done loving those people now. I had hoped DA2 was a bump in the road, but they have clearly just lost it in general.

It's always super disappointing to me whenever I run up against the hard limits of video game writing.

From the beginning, or at least since ME2, the Reapers were always the weakest part of the ME lore. But Christ, guys, I had no idea it was this weak. Game was amazing until those last few minutes, but when it turned, it turned hard.

I'm of the opinion that most game stories turn screwy when gods get involved, and its just the most disappointing thing to see ME fuck up in precisely that way. The fiction is so rich already with all these cool alien races that hold centuries-long grudges against each other. Why couldn't Mass Effect just be about them fighting each other?

It's 4am. I just beat this game. I feel horribly depressed after being shown an ending that basically says "We know what you wanted, but fuck you" which seems a little strange, considering that up to this point Mass Effect has been about Shepard always finding a way to save the universe. I was looking forward to another few playthroughs, and couldn't wait to see what the DLC would bring... Now I just never want to play the game again. Even the multiplayer mode, everything about that fiction seems worthless in the face of that ending now.

I've also been watching some of the renegade choices. In past games they've just been kinda of a rude, take no shit kind of response to situations; now they're just some of the darkest things I've ever seen.

I don't think I'm going to bed tonight. I need to sit down, and think for a bit about what would drive a studio to actively go out of their way to make an ending that will have this kind of effect on so many of their fans. Were they tired? Were they angry at everyone and everything? Did the team experience a bunch of deaths in the family? Did no one see the problem with having this kind of ending to a game where you embody everything about humanity? Hope for the future, a chance to try in the face of adversity, the strength of will (where there's a will, there's a way); they're all just thrown out the window in a last moment plot twist. Seriously, I wouldn't expect something this bad from M. Night. Did someone realize it, and they were just to lazy to correct it? Looking at the rest of the game, it sure does feel that way. The great side missions from the second game are missing, dialogues with characters feel empty compared to last game. Hell, that picture of Tali is a Photoshop of a free stock photo, the earth looks pixelated as shit in the ending, all the endings are just the same ending with different colors, and my favorite part? The very last shot in the game... well just do a google image search for "space winter".

I feel weird being this effected by a game, and I probably need to reanalyze my life because of it, but it's still such a shitty thing to do. Ballsy, but damn.

yeah i was hoping for a more in depth ending to what happened to all my crew mates at the end... even a small write up like Dragon Age's ending gives a small summary of what happened to said main characters in the aftermath of the game.   But I got none of that... just the same 3 endings with a different coat of paint....  I liked the game though.

@ShaggE said:

@Make_Me_Mad said:

@Animasta: I can all but guarantee that this will never happen. In fact, I imagine they'll do the exact opposite- they're going to love it, and they'll hold it up as the pinnacle of good storytelling. They will claim that anyone who doesn't like the ending only does so because they can't handle an ending where everything isn't perfect, and indeed they'll go so far as to praise the 'realism' of an ending where even after you win the galaxy is fucked up. It will make me want to claw out my own eyes.

Hi, Mass Effect die-hard here. My main thought during all the "space child/'we have to kill you so you don't kill you lulz'/suddenly, elderly guy" kerfuffle was "Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK. YOU." While I love all three games, and I thought ME3 was amazing in a number of areas, you'll never hear me say that the ending wasn't fucking stupid.

Not every Mass Effect fan is as you describe.

I am actually aware of that, but as a natural pessimist laying out the worst-case scenario beforehand allows me to not be as depressed when later on that thing happens, but not to the degree I was expecting. And that natural defense still didn't keep me from being pissed off and disappointed at the ending of this game.

@Encephalon said:

It's always super disappointing to me whenever I run up against the hard limits of video game writing.

From the beginning, or at least since ME2, the Reapers were always the weakest part of the ME lore. But Christ, guys, I had no idea it was this weak. Game was amazing until those last few minutes, but when it turned, it turned hard.

I'm of the opinion that most game stories turn screwy when gods get involved, and its just the most disappointing thing to see ME fuck up in precisely that way. The fiction is so rich already with all these cool alien races that hold centuries-long grudges against each other. Why couldn't Mass Effect just be about them fighting each other?

Being forced to rely on an ill-conceived deus ex machina as the only means to end the Reaper threat is one thing, but the whys (synthetics killing humans so that they aren't killed by synthetics) how the whys are explained (space child), and the consequences of using the deus ex machina (destruction of the Mass Relays, thus fucking over the Mass Effect universe; a planet of inbreds with Joker's DNA) were all huge mistakes.

Gods can be involved in video game narratives when done right (see: Asura's Wrath), but by making the Reapers into nigh unstoppable killing machines capable of only being stopped by a convenient superweapon, Bioware wrote themselves into a corner and chose to escape it in a manner that could best be described as asinine.

@Napalm:   

When they gave me the choice I tried to turn around and walk away from all three choices. When I couldn't do that I put a couple rounds into the Catalyst.

When they gave me the choice I tried to turn around and walk away from all three choices. When I couldn't do that I put a couple rounds into the Catalyst.

@LordXavierBritish said:

@runcrash said:

When they gave me the choice I tried to turn around and walk away from all three choices. When I couldn't do that I put a couple rounds into the Catalyst.

I've heard if you wait long enough the Reapers just blow the fucking Crucible up and you get a Game Over. I don't know the legitimacy of these claims, but currently its the best ending in the game if true.

I love shit like that.

@LordXavierBritish: People have gone through all the datafiles and looked at every ending cutscene file. If there was anything else it would be on youtube by now. There's only the 3 endings plus the extra half second of Shepard taking a breath at the end if you got your galactic readiness up high enough by playing multiplayer or the iOS app.

@LordXavierBritish: People have gone through all the datafiles and looked at every ending cutscene file. If there was anything else it would be on youtube by now. There's only the 3 endings plus the extra half second of Shepard taking a breath at the end if you got your galactic readiness up high enough by playing multiplayer or the iOS app.

Not even Mass Effect 3 can escape the Hitler Downfall meme:

what if everything after you get blown up by the reaper at the end is a dream? I mean look at the rubble on the pre credits screen where shepard takes a breath, it's the same color of all the rubble in london. you never reload, there is only one entrance to the console yet somehow both anderson and the illusive man are both there. space boy looks like vent boy who has been dogging you in dreams.it looks like your in space but no helmet. the crew members you chose to fight with on london somehow wind up on the normandy and dont looked all fucked up like shepard. i know this theory doesnt help with all the reaper shit but when you look at the ending as this "dream" i find it easier to swallow it. but if this was intended now what, because then the game still isnt over. will this become a fallout 3 broken steel where they rewrite the end and then say "no this is how it ended", or will they say "eh let them squirm till the next one".

@Hailinel: The Gainax Endingone is classier.

@dOm_CaTz: The only problem with this theory is that it would mean the trilogy basically ends with absolutely no resolvement what-so-ever. It would basically be 100 hours leading to "and then he died and had some fucked up visions".

no it doesnt mean that they were planning to release ending dlc cause you only get the shepard breathing stuff after you reach a certain point with galactic readiness. I mean modern warfare 2 had a cliffhanger ending and IW basically said "wait 2 years just to finish this" when they could have just tied it up. I just think with the dream stuff it's too layer'd to figure out wtf they were trying to do and hopefully someone from the writing team comes out and explains some shit.

@Encephalon said:

@Hailinel: The Gainax Endingone is classier.

Classy, indeed. That gave me a good laugh.

@Ares42: as much as i dont want to say it but the game just came out, if they did intend the dream stuff we could be looking at some dlc that clears shit up. i mean look at fallout 3, people complained and complained until they said ok enough we will fix this. hopefully bioware can do the same and fix this.

@dOm_CaTz said:

@Ares42: as much as i dont want to say it but the game just came out, if they did intend the dream stuff we could be looking at some dlc that clears shit up. i mean look at fallout 3, people complained and complained until they said ok enough we will fix this. hopefully bioware can do the same and fix this.

How would that do any good? The addition of any new endings at this point would just be an acknowledgement on their part that the endings already in the game were terrible. People did not buy Mass Effect 3 with the expectation that they would have to pay an extra $10 for an ending that isn't garbage. They payed with the expectation that the game would serve as a proper conclusion to the trilogy and that any DLC to come forward would simply add side-content to the game.

@Hailinel: i didnt say it would be good, hell it is still pretty shitty that i have to go to great lengths to alter an ending that might not have been intended. i just say wait till all the post mortem(sp) stuff comes and starts to get explained. wont be long since everyone is throwing hissy fits about this. i mean like i said this game just came out, the ng+ ending hasnt been out so maybe that has more answers in it. no need to get all up in a tizzy just yet.

@Hailinel said:

@dOm_CaTz said:

@Ares42: as much as i dont want to say it but the game just came out, if they did intend the dream stuff we could be looking at some dlc that clears shit up. i mean look at fallout 3, people complained and complained until they said ok enough we will fix this. hopefully bioware can do the same and fix this.

How would that do any good? The addition of any new endings at this point would just be an acknowledgement on their part that the endings already in the game were terrible. People did not buy Mass Effect 3 with the expectation that they would have to pay an extra $10 for an ending that isn't garbage. They payed with the expectation that the game would serve as a proper conclusion to the trilogy and that any DLC to come forward would simply add side-content to the game.

After five years of hype, I think we're all just desperate for some closure. I hate the fact that I would want it, but that ending just really left a bad taste in my mouth.

@Make_Me_Mad said:

@ShaggE said:

@Make_Me_Mad said:

@Animasta: I can all but guarantee that this will never happen. In fact, I imagine they'll do the exact opposite- they're going to love it, and they'll hold it up as the pinnacle of good storytelling. They will claim that anyone who doesn't like the ending only does so because they can't handle an ending where everything isn't perfect, and indeed they'll go so far as to praise the 'realism' of an ending where even after you win the galaxy is fucked up. It will make me want to claw out my own eyes.

Hi, Mass Effect die-hard here. My main thought during all the "space child/'we have to kill you so you don't kill you lulz'/suddenly, elderly guy" kerfuffle was "Fuck you. Fuck you, fuck you, FUCK. YOU." While I love all three games, and I thought ME3 was amazing in a number of areas, you'll never hear me say that the ending wasn't fucking stupid.

Not every Mass Effect fan is as you describe.

I am actually aware of that, but as a natural pessimist laying out the worst-case scenario beforehand allows me to not be as depressed when later on that thing happens, but not to the degree I was expecting. And that natural defense still didn't keep me from being pissed off and disappointed at the ending of this game.

Yeah, sorry, I had just come off of finishing the game when I posted that (note how I had immediately run to the forums in disbelief, haha), and I was overly sensitive to the idea that this "ending" was something we'd champion.

I just don't understand how a story could nosedive THAT hard. Scenes like Tali seeing her homeworld, or the utter chaos of London, or the whole story behind Sanctuary... so many wonderful scenes and setpieces tell me that Bioware did want to do right by the fans, but the copypasta endings and fucking space child tell me that the game probably wasn't anywhere near done, and I wouldn't be shocked if EA pressured a deadline again so Bioware scrambled and whipped up whatever they could at the expense of the story.

I'm not saying Bioware is without fault, of course... the game has some big issues with biotic balancing and basic features missing, but I refuse to believe that their writers are suddenly inept.

Aaaand I'm rambling. Sorry.

@ShaggE: Quite alright. The ending has more people angry and disappointed than not, but I have seen a fair share of people shooting down anyone upset with said endings as having wanted some kind of storybook 'everything is sunshine and puppies' ending. I was just preemptively warning that it would happen, because of course it would.

And I wouldn't say Bioware's writers have become suddenly inept. I think everyone still remembers the ending of Dragon Age 2, which was a travesty even if you completely ignore Anders and the crap that is pulled on his part. I think it's not a case of becoming inept, but perhaps they've just become too proud to compromise or second-guess anything they write. Or perhaps the people who normally would do those things haven't been. There has definitely been a change, but I don't think you can blame EA or rushing for the mess they made of the plot in this game.

@Hailinel: is that meme ever not funny?

@Make_Me_Mad: (don't know why I'm not getting reply notifications... hey, Top Men? Shit's jacked, yo.)

Wasn't DA2 openly a rush job, though? I can't sort the hearsay from the facts in my memory, and I don't have time to look it up right now, but I could have sworn Bioware or EA admitted that it wasn't given enough time in development.

@Animasta said:

the real question is if mass effect fans will admit the ending is terrible or not

Bioware forum polls, notorious for having ridiculous biodrone fanboys, is currently at 97% disliking the ending

@Animasta said:

@Hailinel: is that meme ever not funny?

Not that I've seen so far.