[SDBurton]

I'd take that over the ending we got.

It's a damn shame we're willing to pay for endings that should've been in from the fucking get go. There better be closure (blue children ) in that DLC or Bioware and the rest of their works can go eat a fat one. I'm so tired of this shit. /rage

[Uriah]

"Hey the media loved our ending, shame you thought it was shit. Buy DLC please"

[RoboPlato]

The demands to change the ending are simply forms of criticism within themselves, regardless of how much you may or may not agree with actually changing the endings. It is the request itself that speaks volumes about how some fans feel. BioWare can do whatever they want. It's their game. But that wont change the fact you have many people so frustrated with the ending they'd knowingly pay for a new one. As a criticism, that says quite a lot.

I guess it's just more obnoxious since everything that Bioware has done or said since DA2 has been automatically considered the worst thing ever. I personally liked the ending and was extremely satisfied with the entirety of ME3. It had a great story, much improved gameplay, and choices made in the previous games had decent ramification or at least had call backs to them. I thought it was by far the best in the trilogy, even if you take my stance on the ending out of the equation. So many people seem to forget that even if they didn't like the last 10 minutes that there was still a great 35+ hours of game.

[kswiston]

It's problems have been massively enlarged, but basically the 'ending as created by Hudson / lead writer' - not sure which one- could have been cut entirely and nobody would have been the wiser. They might as well just do a patch that moves in certain cut dialogue and cuts out everything on the last few minutes. DLC is not required. This issue is inherent to the way this game "solves" the struggle / conflict between player narrative and forced narrative. In particular considering Mass Effect's unique structure in terms of consequential player narrative, they could not have made a poorer choice in chosing forced narrative instead.

People still would have hated it, but I personally would have ended the game with Shepard dying along with Anderson after their final conversation. That moment where he shut his eyes content that he did what he came to do was a better ending to the series than the part with God/The Catalyst and the final choice. Show a few scenes of the reapers leaving Earth if you must, but end it there.

[EatChildren]

I guess it's just more obnoxious since everything that Bioware has done or said since DA2 has been automatically considered the worst thing ever. I personally liked the ending and was extremely satisfied with the entirety of ME3. It had a great story, much improved gameplay, and choices made in the previous games had decent ramification or at least had call backs to them. I thought it was by far the best in the trilogy, even if you take my stance on the ending out of the equation. So many people seem to forget that even if they didn't like the last 10 minutes that there was still a great 35+ hours of game.

This I will agree with, but I also feel the disappointing ending hurts all the more due to how much people enjoyed the game up until that point. Higher you are, harder you fall, etc.

I mean fuck, even Derrick was enjoying it. Derrick!

[First Name]

People still would have hated it, but I personally would have ended the game with Shepard dying along with Anderson after their final conversation. That moment where he shut his eyes content that he did what he came to do was a better ending to the series than the part with God/The Catalyst and the final choice. Show a few scenes of the reapers leaving Earth if you must, but end it there.

I've seen that suggested quite a bit in the spoiler thread. I think a lot fewer people would have had a problem with the ending if that occurred.

[Lone_Prodigy]

Movies release alternate endings when they're released on DVD/Blu-Ray. DLC is no different.

[blind51de]

So is this in response to the Forbes guy?

Why don't they just blame 4chan like they did with DA2.

[XiaNaphryz]

[RoboPlato]

This I will agree with, but I also feel the disappointing ending hurts all the more due to how much people enjoyed the game up until that point. Higher you are, harder you fall, etc. I mean fuck, even Derrick was enjoying it. Derrick!

I guess it's just one of those things that I wish I could discuss without being jumped on for liking it. Hopefully people will calm down about the ending and will remember the game itself for as great as it is.

[Salvadora]

I guess it's just more obnoxious since everything that Bioware has done or said since DA2 has been automatically considered the worst thing ever. I personally liked the ending and was extremely satisfied with the entirety of ME3. It had a great story, much improved gameplay, and choices made in the previous games had decent ramification or at least had call backs to them. I thought it was by far the best in the trilogy, even if you take my stance on the ending out of the equation. So many people seem to forget that even if they didn't like the last 10 minutes that there was still a great 35+ hours of game.

I think the problem is that I can't forget the last 10 minutes.

[Mindlog]

We always intended that the scale of the conflict and the underlying theme of sacrifice would lead to a bittersweet ending—to do otherwise would betray the agonizing decisions Shepard had to make along the way

"Vacuum."

That doesn't include the liberty to randomly change the main character's personality during the most crucial agonizing decision of the series.
I would have been happier with:
The dongle appears sending the reapers into a frenzy. Every reaper available begins jumping to the Citadel.
The dongle destroys the sol relay taking the bulk of the reaper fleet along with it. (and earth)

Mordin: Reapers stopped. Earth sacrificed. Allied fleet no more. Cycles broken. Bittersweet. Impressive Shepard. Agonizing decision.
Shepard: Had to be me.

[PsychoSoldier]

I guess it's just more obnoxious since everything that Bioware has done or said since DA2 has been automatically considered the worst thing ever. I personally liked the ending and was extremely satisfied with the entirety of ME3. It had a great story, much improved gameplay, and choices made in the previous games had decent ramification or at least had call backs to them. I thought it was by far the best in the trilogy, even if you take my stance on the ending out of the equation. So many people seem to forget that even if they didn't like the last 10 minutes that there was still a great 35+ hours of game.

Without going into spoilers, a great deal of what frustrates people about the ending is that the last ten minutes, hell, even 5 minutes, has the potential to make a lot what you did beforehand pretty insignificant.

That, plus the lack of clarity and the enormous plotholes that are introduced.

[FunkyPajamas]

Is it me or does Bioware have a problem with their endings in general? I seem to remember the final boss fight for KotOR being kind of anticlimactic, and the cutscene afterwards not so rewarding either (still loved the game though, definitely a "journey not destination game"). Something similar happened with Jade Empire if I recall correctly.

[The Anti-Monitor]

In 3 weeks: BioWare claims fans didn't understand Mass Effect 3's ending.

Is it me or does Bioware have a problem with their endings in general?

I dunno, I think most people would say Mass Effect 1's final sequences are what made the game.

[RoboPlato]

Without going into spoilers, a great deal of what frustrates people about the ending is that the last ten minutes, hell, even 5 minutes, has the potential to make a lot what you did beforehand pretty insignificant. That, plus the lack of clarity and the enormous plotholes that are introduced.

I get that point but I do disagree about the choices. Sure, for down the line they are marginalized but in terms of what you get to do and interact with over the course of the game they were handled much better than I had expected. The lack of clarity is a bit annoying but I think it's fun to speculate about.

[bigboss370]

i for one enjoyed the mass effect 3 ending, except for the bittersweet part. i really wanted Shepard to live on happily with whichever love interest you chose.

i really appreciate what the bioware team did with the series, it really has some amazing stuff, from the decision making (and decisions carrying over games) to the cool biotic powers gameplay and beyond. one of the best game series ever.

[Bisnic]

The only way to get a decent ending is to turn off the game once Shepard reach the mysterious elevator, get on Youtube and play the Faunts credits music.

[Zeitgeister]

Worked for Fallout 3.

wasn't that just the result of a gameplay addition fucking up a (presumably) previously determined ending though?

As far I could tell, there was very little significantly 'shit' about the Fallout 3 ending, aside from the last possible action itself. And the fix was very easy.

Fixing ME3 will not be possible in that same sense.

[SerArthurDayne]

Re-Re-Repost:

WITH SPOILERS!!!!!
Made the whole thing a spoiler to be safe. Sorry if I messed with anyone. It was not my intent to fuck you over, unlike Bioware.

Casey Hudson

How is it not bittersweet (Shepard dead or alive), that thousands of years of Galactic society are in ruins (relays destroyed or not), and that every single homeworld is in ruins (Salarians? I don't think it is ever made clear that the Reapers are there, but they are everywhere at the end, so I assume so), and billions of people are dead. Everybody must rebuild. There is certainly no sweet when you cut everybody off from their people, and essentially strand everybody with no way to rebuild the relays, and no way to return in anything but an Asari or Krogan lifetime, if they can even survive.

Mordin's sacrifice was bittersweet, legions sacrifice was bittersweet. The ending is more analagous to the annihilation of the Quarians and Tali jumping off a cliff. There is no sweet there.

And, ah, that is where the endings were. They were scattered throughout the game, rather than at the end of it. I don't really consider those endings, but I guess we might have gotten sixteen endings that way. Unfortunately, because of the above, they are now essentially meaningless, since you know, galactic civilization doesn't exist anymore.

Where was the uplifting part of the ending? Space Magic gives you warm tinglies as it magics your insides away?

New York Times and Penny Arcade like the Game? Wow, so did I, until your ending fucked the whole thing up. Who the fuck liked and was profoundly moved by the ending? I am pretty sure that I haven't heard from anybody who genuinely loves the ending. Mostly everyone hates it. There are those who accept it. And even if people were okay with it, it is full of so many holes that it is impossible to resolve. And it provides no sensible conclusion to the stories. But I guess that our stories were already ended in London, so we don't need to know what happened after the actual ending.

This is quite aside from the failure to implement any consequence of choice, even at the most basic, illusory level. This is aside from the A, B, C, (B,G,R) ending.

And thanks for not answering the fucking question. You have taken feedback into consideration in the past? Fantastic. And I can play as Shepard again? Well ... I don't want to, knowing what's coming.

[FunkyPajamas]

I dunno, I think most people would say Mass Effect 1's final sequences are what made the game.

Nice, will keep that in mind. I'm just starting to play the series on PC :D

[mercenar1e]

creating games to please the NYT = FUCK OFF

[B.K.]

There's a controversy? What's wrong with the ending?

[Derrick01]

This I will agree with, but I also feel the disappointing ending hurts all the more due to how much people enjoyed the game up until that point. Higher you are, harder you fall, etc. I mean fuck, even Derrick was enjoying it. Derrick!

It's true I was. But it was all a trap to get them back into my goodwill only to bend me over again at the very end when I least expected it.

I'm still sorta depressed over the ending. It was only yesterday that I was finally able to start up ME1 again and I haven't made it past the Citadel yet because I can't play for too long.

[Rebel Leader]

There's a controversy? What's wrong with the ending?

Oh dear...
FRESHMEAT!!!

[Escape Goat]

Nice, will keep that in mind. I'm just starting to play the series on PC :D

I'm trying to play ME1 but its just so raw and clunky after having just finished 3. I hate the dune buggy sequences and my targeting feels very inexact and lazy. I'm just playing it for the story sequences now but damn I don't care much for the gameplay. A little too much RPG in my peanut butter if you know what I mean.

[JoeBoy101]

As I said in the spoiler thread (now bigger than the game's OT by the way), he wrote a lot to give a non-answer. They're just going to keep saying we're listening to get everyone to shut up.

Yup. Didn't say one thing besides defending themselves as listeners and promising to listen more. Not act, but listen.

[SketchTheArtist]

Didn't finish it, not really interested, to tell you the truth, but I liked Mike's analogy he made this week on Penny Arcade:

Again if ME3 is the “ending” then I was making choices the entire time right up until the last second. I chose the “green” ending and I picked that out of three options. Were the other options similar to mine? I don’t know, I didn’t pick them. I made my final choice and put the cap on MY Mass Effect story. Obviously I can go online and look at all the other options but now we’re talking about sausage making. I imagine that once you look behind that curtain a lot of “choices” in Mass Effect will break down. I think what Bioware does is make incredible games that give the illusion of real choice. I mean let’s be honest. Mass Effect is a very cool choose your own adventure book. “Do you kill the Geth? If so turn to page 22.” The book has been written and you can change the way you read it but don’t pretend you’re the author.

[EmCeeGramr]

There's a controversy? What's wrong with the ending?

Poor editing and continuity that lead to confusion and nonsensical scenarios, illogical convoluted plot twists in the last few minutes, a complete thematic 180 on several fronts, very very similar ending "choices" that don't at all reflect what kind of character you've been playing or path you've taken over three games and five years, all endings suddenly introduce an aspect so huge that it practically trivializes most of the major choices you've made, an uncharacteristic amount of bleakness if you stop to think about the implications that BW may or may not have fully considered, and an almost complete lack of closure.

[PsychoSoldier]

I get that point but I do disagree about the choices. Sure, for down the line they are marginalized but in terms of what you get to do and interact with over the course of the game they were handled much better than I had expected. The lack of clarity is a bit annoying but I think it's fun to speculate about.

I'd say more like obliterated, honestly:

Congratulations on getting your homeworld back Quarians.

....Oh, by the way you might not ever see it again because we destroyed the relays.

Congratulations on becoming sentient Geth.

....Oops in order to kill the Reapers we have to kill you too. Sorry fellas.

[Bisnic]

So where do we go from here? Throughout the next year, we will support Mass Effect 3 by working on new content. And we’ll keep listening, because your insights and constructive feedback will help determine what that content should be. This is not the last you’ll hear of Commander Shepard.

Considering the popularity of Marauder Shields.... DLC confirmed? :lol

[Rebel Leader]

Didn't finish it, not really interested, to tell you the truth, but I liked Mike's analogy he made this week on Penny Arcade:

But it is not a book... it is an interactive media .

Fallout new Vegas had a better ending

[AJTsuki]

The game is awesome, just don't finish it.

Where should we stop?

[FunkyPajamas]

I'm trying to play ME1 but its just so raw and clunky after having just finished 3. I hate the dune buggy sequences and my targeting feels very inexact and lazy. I'm just playing it for the story sequences now but damn I don't care much for the gameplay. A little too much RPG in my peanut butter if you know what I mean.

Oh, that's too bad. I've played until I get to the Citadel and I've enjoyed it so far. I read about the Mako and I know there are mixed feelings on it, but I've always been a sucker for exploration so I don't think it's going to bother me. One thing I'm not liking so far are the Biotic powers. I loved the Force powers in KotOR and I thought these were going to be similar but to be honest I don't like how they work (or they haven't clicked with me yet), so I'm thinking of re-rolling my Shepard to be a Soldier instead.

[Almighty]

Without going into spoilers, a great deal of what frustrates people about the ending is that the last ten minutes, hell, even 5 minutes, has the potential to make a lot what you did beforehand pretty insignificant. That, plus the lack of clarity and the enormous plotholes that are introduced.

Potential?

From what I can see once you get on the mysterious elevator it ignores anything you did before hand. Which came as a shock to me since ME3 did a much better job with choices and consequences then ME2 did I thought. Anything you did in the three games previously has very little if any effect on what ending you do or don't get all that matter was your EMS score. Was very annoying and really ruined the game(maybe even the series) for me.

[Uriah]

Where should we stop?

Mass Effect 3 ending spoilers: When the giant light elevator starts to lift Shepard up.

[SirPenguin]

Didn't finish it, not really interested, to tell you the truth, but I liked Mike's analogy he made this week on Penny Arcade:

barf. No one bought that sausage making bullshit when Heavy Rain tried to use it either.

[IJoel]

There was nothing sweet in that ending; all bitter (and sort of nonsensical in a way - unless you subscribe to the indoctrination theory). I wonder why they couldn't have done something similar to Dragon Age's endings.

[Kyou]

Was anyone upset that ME3 had kind of a morbid end? I thought everyone disliked it because it was, you know, poorly written and pretty stupid. That's a nice strawman Gabe is building.

[Rebel Leader]

Mass Effect 3 ending spoilers: When the giant light elevator starts to lift Shepard up.

Then go to YouTube

[DTKT]

Was anyone upset that ME3 had kind of a morbid end? I thought everyone disliked it because it was, you know, poorly written and pretty stupid. That's a nice strawman Gabe is building.

Pretty much. The entire argument behind most of the "You have no right to complain" crowd is that we just want a happy ending.

They are wrong but heh.

[JoeBoy101]

Didn't finish it, not really interested, to tell you the truth, but I liked Mike's analogy he made this week on Penny Arcade:

I'm sorry but the whole 'the entire game is the ending' is a weak damned response. The game has its own story arc with its own ending that is supposed to cap both the game it is tied to and the franchise. On both counts, it fails.

As for the choose your own adventure analogy, I'll simply say this: Pull out some of those old CYOA books and tell me how many of them end the same way, or even similarly. I agree with his statement on illusion of choice, but if the end of ME3 is the end of the trilogy, why in the hell would you NOT have the freedom to provide disparate outcomes. You don't have to worry about the consequences right?

Unless of course, you were ginning up some DLC.

[Rebel Leader]

Was anyone upset that ME3 had kind of a morbid end? I thought everyone disliked it because it was, you know, poorly written and pretty stupid. That's a nice strawman Gabe is building.

Red dead redemption proves morbid endings are great when done well

[TheSeks]

Was anyone upset that ME3 had kind of a morbid end? I thought everyone disliked it because it was, you know, poorly written and pretty stupid. That's a nice strawman Gabe is building.

You mean Tycho. Tycho's the one that writes the comics. Gabe just draws the WORDS WORD WORDS Tycho does.

[cj_iwakura]

Boy, I'd hate to see what people griping about this think about Corpse Party's ending.

You don't know what bittersweet is.

[inky]

You mean Tycho. Tycho's the one that writes the comics. Gabe just draws the WORDS WORD WORDS Tycho does.

Nah, that fragment up there is from a post by Gabe. And I would say it's a rather stupid analogy he's making there.

[Pachterballs]

Worked for Fallout 3.

I don't remember this. expand?

didn't the dad die in the processing plant etc. The father son journey ended on a good note.

I played the DLCs but I didn't walk away from vanilla FO3 angry

[br0ken_shad0w]

And I won't spend another dime. Going to youtube the new content.

So what will the gaming press say now when the new ending comes out? 9/10 another great DLC from Bioware! something something entitled fans

[Ken]

Guess I better finish ME3 before they stealth release a patch that changes this ending everyones talking about.

[MCD]

We totally needed the RT button during the choices.