It was, and still remains, just okay. There was some bad editing/camera shots/dialogue/scriptwriting in those last few minutes, for sure, but in the end I did what I came here to do...destroy those damn sexy Reapers. At least, in the 'prime canon' version of my playthrough of the series.

I can only forgive EA if they buy me off with FREE GAMES!!!

The fact that it wasn't that bad. I thought it was supposed to be like 2001 but it made significantly more sense.

I didn't buy any DLC past From Ashes, and I probably wouldn't play another ME game. I feel like that ship has sailed. I'm not still mad about the ending, or anything, just didn't give them any more money. Same with Dragon Age, stayed well away from 2.

Bioware steals fans idea and make Shepard indoctrinated, then I would forgive it, "star child" is a rather broken idea.

Man, I hope you got a trust fund because you aren't ready for the world.

Because I just figured they were making one giant 2001 reference.

That's still my justification.

So, I finally played this game and beat it just a week ago. I've only seen the extended cut ending, so take that into consideration when you read this.

One of the biggest problems I had with the ending is the introduction of holo-kid right at the end. It was just duuumb. Now, had it been Harbinger you spoke with, that would have been more compelling. That's what it seemed to be leading up to in the first place: a final confrontation with the Reapers. Have the Illusive Man pull a Sauren and be controlled fully, have that creepy voice say exactly what the conduit did, and you've got something I would have enjoyed more.

Also, why not make playing since the first game unlock a couple of specialty endings? I was kind of sore when I learned that ultimately the ending didn't really depend on what I had done outside of ME3. Maybe make it so that the fought can be won without the conduit's help if you had done 80% or so of the missions in ME 1 & 2?

Mass Effect series spoilers throughout the entire post. You were warned.

The original ending seemed fitting, keeping in mind what Mass Effect considers roleplaying to be. Renegade, Paragon, or something in the middle: that is what the series has always been about.

Also, Bioware's never been overly concerned with continuity between Mass Effects. Off the tip of my mind: big choices in 1 mean nothing in 2. Most of 2 makes no sense if you have a specific background from ME1. Mass Effect 3's face import feature from 2 to 3 was broken for weeks after release. The Mako in 1. Planet scanning in 2. War score (or whatever it's called) in 3. That entire sidequest that is auto-Renege for the entire series regardless of your choices in ME1. Massively bad design decisions or gross negligence that Bioware decides "will be enough."

That Mass Effect 3 lived up to its name was all we could truly expect.

Everyone would do well to heed this example. Citadel tempts me nonetheless. :(

Take out star child and add in Xzibit

The real ending would have been better, with the dark matter/energy sci-fi techno-babble. Instead of pretty much jacking Deus Ex human revolutions ending verbatim.

But to be honest, my real gripe with the game wasn't the ending but the over all gameplay. Sure the combat was the best in the series, but side missions were fucking terrible, conversations were toned downed and streamlined (getting non interactive speeches from crew members was the most unsatisfying thing in the entire series), and the overall pace was bad. ME was a good experiment with lots of flaws, ME3 was alright but felt like a more lackign version of ME2, but ME2 was a damn near perfect combo of combat, story, and roleplaying.

The way to that ending was great. I got hours upon hours of high quality entertainment from the game, so just having one not-what-I-wanted hour of content isn't so bad. And the ending wasn't all that bad. It wasn't what I wanted, but I still think the ME trilogy is one of the best things to happen to this generation.

Bioware did try to forgive the ending, it's called the Citadel DLC.

There's nothing to forgive. It was a weak ending. It hit me in waves, how weak it really was. There's really no crime here to forgive. Failure is acceptable.

What I cannot forgive is how 'effed in the bee the mystery box unlock scheme for its coop multiplayer is. I loved it. I played the shit out of it. And increasingly, I felt like I'm getting disrespectfully slapped in the face with the exploitative nature of it all - EA/Bioware's massive boner for free 2 play monetizing hooks. Mystery boxes are a crime, especially if they support redundant rewards to the point of breaking the game. I guess that's semi-acceptable with pure free 2 play games, but I put down 90 bucks to play the game. So really - fuck you EA/Bioware.

I'll never get tired of repeating that phrase in the context of ME3's mystery boxes. One last time. Fuck you EA/Bioware!

1-With the DLC they put out it turned from awful to ok. Although that really doesn't excuse the original ending it's at least better than nothing.

2-The citadel DLC was some of the best mass effect content they ever made so, as far as I'm concerned, it's a good enough apology.

3-Their original ambition for the franchise was somewhat fulfilled and that's quite impressive when you think about it.

Ending wasn't the problem. The disappointing game that it was attached to was the problem...

I'm just gonna leave this here...

http://www.pcgamer.com/2013/06/20/mass-effect-3-series-former-lead-writer-reveals-original-ending-ideas/

Taking in consideration the plot depth, the ending is justifiable. Either Shepard kills all the Reapers, or decides to take control of them, or fuses every living being with technology. In a hundred or thousand years, there is no way of knowing how effective the options would be or the best to defend humanity and life. So the ending is justifiable considering the plot scope.

The ending per se is short, and gives a little information about what happened to some main characters, dismissing the secondary characters and even the races plights. It's serviceable, and anti-climatic to such a long and varied journey.

I thought endings blue and red were perfectly fine, but the ending was rushed in the original and better in the extended cut.

Ending Green though. Beyond retarded.

I forgave it halfway through ME1, where the story became a giant cliche, then again in ME2, when they threw the RPG into the garbage along with the two best characters in the series, then again in ME3, where I just didn't care at all about single player. Oh well, multiplayer continues to be really sweet.

Because I wasn't that invested in the Mass Effect story or characters anyway. Shepard is a boring character because he's designed to be an empty shell. All the other were forgettable too.

Maybe I just don't like Mass Effect.

I don't like Mass Effect.

Still haven't played it. I'll admit the backlash against it turned me off of it at the time and I just haven't gone back yet. At this point, I can't imagine I'll care about it when I do, though.

Did I enjoy the ending? Not really. Did I have a blast getting there? You bet.

I thought it was not that bad, I mean its not great but how else are you going to end a series like that?

@believer258 said:

What kind of sandwich was it? This is important.

I just ate another Game Boy /obscure age-old joke.

I guess as this is bumped again, I'll say I don't think it's a case of me "forgiving" the ending. Whatever Bioware do with their other games and content, the quality of that ending is going to remain as it is, nothing's going to change it. But, on the brighter side, I'm also not going to just treat this as some huge betrayal on Bioware's part or refrain from playing whatever else they're going to make because I didn't like how Mass Effect 3 ended.

Indoctrination was the original storyline, and the Starchild a hallucination.

It's documented in the "Final Hours of Mass Effect 3" they scrapped indoctrination at the last moment, then ran out of time to make a decent ending.

ME3 ending was the biggest record scratch moment in my gaming life.

Up till that point I was in it. I loved the combat, loved the scenery and loved the lore. But after the light beam nothing made any sense.

Perhaps its a failure on my part, but I had no idea about the repercussions of each of the choices, or really how they fit with the Paragon/Renegade system. The "good" choice was labelled as the bad one and vice versa. In the end I went with the "green" option, as that required the most galactic readiness.

Confused by the outcome I reloaded my save and completed each of the three endings. I then discovered how little they had bothered to flesh out the epilogues and that left me in a very disappointed state.

My favourite game series of all time had come to an end. But I all I could think was "What the fuck?!".

The DLC's patched the wound somewhat, but it will never take away the original depressing feeling.

I used to be a Bioware fanboy, but DA2 and ME3 has me reading (many) reviews before doing next purchase from them.