All of your choices culminated in to one huge moment of choice. That part I loved. So then you take each of these choices to see what the ultimate different endings are. You get three different colored explosions. What a huge load of horse ****. I would have preferred one good ending over the three crappy ones.

The only thing that is ever different is the color of the explosion and if you complete everything under the sun you can get a gasp of air at the end. To me Mass Effect is nothing but a multi-player game. The writers gave all of their fans a big middle finger and I for one resent it.

Which I think makes things worse because the game takes you to such a high place and you have these huge expectations making it one of the biggest disappointments in gaming history.

That game benefits from having people that know how to design fantastic combat systems with creative enemies and interesting graphics.

It suffers from poor story writing one a massive scale. The ending is so bad it almost makes you regret all the good stuff that came before it.

Well if you feel the topic has been beaten to death that is your prerogative. You are under no obligation to take part in this conversation.

I do not see how you could come to the conclusion that the ending was fine but to each their own. The ending was one of the most anticipated in video game history. Gamers turned out in droves not only expecting to like it based on the past history of the franchise but also wanting to like due to all the loyalty they had to the title. It was the disappointment heard round the world. They dropped the ball big time and to this day it serves as an example of what not to do in a video game where you claim your choices will matter.

Mass Effect had powerful story lines in its past that were pretty much universally loved so I do not understand how you could possibly come to the conclusion that no matter what it was people would have hated it. On its release day there were Mass Effect 3 parties for Pete's sake.

One of my fav games..

I wanted an ending that included the following things, and in terms of story/choice completely unforgivable that they didn't include this:

1) Boss fight
2) The choice to have Shepard live. Not a choice that includes the character dying in all 3 of them. And no, the little breath of air at the end of the destroy doesn't count.
3) A good monologue

It had none of those, and that's why I hated it. Had it had those things, I wouldn't have hated the ending. It's that simple.

Apparently the writers were frozen from being able to do anything with the end. The executuve producer and leader writer had their own "creative vision" and didn't allow any other writers involved in the whole serioes to provide input. This is why the story seems to take an abrupt change of pace from the rest of the series. And production of SW:TOR supposedly clashed with ME3's production. The endings are pretty rough and Sheperd's final fate is lame. But I'm sure Bioware will find some way to continue the series and maybe retcon what happened. They did it with Revan, we only had to wait 10 years for it...

This. The highlight of Mass Effect 3 (in terms of writing, gameplay design, choices/ramifications, etc) is Priority: Tuchanka. This is especially true if Mordin survived ME2, making some of the choices in that game resonate more powerfully in this one. Tuchanka was a collaborative effort, writing-wise. Contrast this mission with the rushed quality of Priority: Earth, and the Epic Tri-Colored Explosions of Non-Awesomeness it ultimately leads to, and you would think you were playing a different game, by a different developer.

By all accounts, you were: the ending of ME3 was brought to you by EA and the ego of Casey Hudson.

By all accounts, you were: the ending of ME3 was brought to you by EA and the ego of Casey Hudson.

Sounds about right. Fortunately it's probable Bioware will make a new ME and retcon Shepard's death due to the massive amount of revenue it would make.

As much as i hate the ME3 ending, if they do this, i'll lose even more respect for them. Accept your ending, regardless of the outcry, and move on from it hopefully not making the same mistakes going forward.

As much as i loved my Shepard, if they do that then i'll be done with the series.

Here was my problem:

This is a quote from Casey Hudson (the writer)

"Hudson: "Yeah, and I'd say much more so, because we have the ability to
build the endings out in a way that we don't have to worry about
eventually tying them back together somewhere. This story arc is
coming to an end with this game. That means the endings can be a lot
more different. At this point we're taking into account so many
decisions that you've made as a player and reflecting a lot of that
stuff. It's not even in any way like the traditional game endings,
where you can say how many endings there are or whether you got
ending A, B, or C.....The endings have a lot more sophistication and
variety in them."

Ultimately we got ending A, B, or C.

/sadtrombone

People are quick to say any topic that they are not interested in is a dead horse. I would suggest you ignore them and diagnose your own dead horses for yourself. A topic that might be considered completely trite and fruitless to one person might be completely brand new or unresolved to you.

The reason others are so fast to say someone else is beating a dead horse is because they don't want that topic discussed anymore and to that I say. "Get over it." obviously this topic was new to you or you felt this topic was something worth discussing and that is enough justification for me.

This is an internet chat forum and we are in a group to boot. You are free to post whatever you want and nobody is obligated to take part in any thread. This does of course mean that they have every right to ask people to stop talking about a topic but it also means that we have every right to ignore them.

MassEffect3 is new to you and that is all that matters. Congrats on getting to 100% and there is an ending change that you get for achieving that and I am sure you will be just as disappointed as so many others were when you see it. While the game makers did not see it necessary to give an appropriate reward for that achievement it does not diminish the coolness of the accomplishment.

I was really disappointed with the original ending, but happy with the DLC they put out. I even have a shirt that says, "Marauder Shields, INC. Saving you from a disappointing ending". Haha! I wore it into Game Stop one time and the employee thought it was a club.....O_O .

Anyways, Mass Effect is my favorite game, I also play MP, so feel free to add me! eraynea

I'll try to add anyone that posted their gamertag.