I'm not sure how I feel about the Day 1 DLC, but I would disagree that it's really optional. Having played it, I couldn't imagine having anywhere near the closure to my story without the information that Javik provides. After the way the Protheans were built up, I found it to be crucial to my own story. But thems just my thoughts, and I had the CE so I'm not really pissed off about it like others.

This is what happens when they make sequels for good games, they end up screwing the game´s ending, look at last levels of uncharted 3 that was a real joke.

*spoiler* I'm actually kinda curious about post game....what exactly happens it seems like you just go back in time to before the start of the final mission? because you're still shep and the mission is still there in the log

SPOILER****** The game itself is incredible and idc if the ending lacked i wish somehow it could have had one other option in which shephard could live but i love the game regardless and i cannot wait to see if theres going to be another game after the credits when the man says one more story maybe he means another mass effect

Just because the ending was ambiguous doesn't mean it's terrible. Was the ending the worse it could be? In my opinion, it was not. Was it the best it could have been? Probably not. However, the ending did not diminish just how great this game is.

There is nothing to discuss. The final mission and ending break the flow of the game, and on top of that, are freaking mediocre at best. Btw, if I want "interpret" something, I go watch gayass interpretative dancing. Interpretation is the laziest form of tool used in storytelling. Casey Hudson is moron.

People need to build a bridge, and get over it.

I understand all the view points listed below, and I do believe you don't have to love the ending or hate it to be right, but I do think you should just accept the game how the producers and developers wanted it to be.

Enjoy the precident this sets people. Have fun needing to buy DLC to get the ending that should already be in the game you paid $60.00 for in the first place. But we're just a bunch of whiners? Got it.

Bioware deserves every amount of criticism with Mass Effect 3 especially with the ending. Can't believe they dropped the ball when you have so many spectaular moments in the game like Tuchanka and Rannoch.

The only problem I have with the ending is that they could have made it a little bit more detailed. There are too many unanswered variables.

I wanted the ending of Mass Effect 3 to wrap up the trilogy while also pointing toward the future of the franchise. I'll say this: I'm fine with the way the story ended, but very disappointed in the future of the Mass Effect Universe.

People are too wrapped up in their delusional self-entitlement and warped perceptions of free-speech to realize that the game is the product of it's creator. Ultimately, it's theirs. They can do what they want with it. You don't own it. You just pay money to own a COPY of it. Customer feedback to improve a game only goes so far. When you start accusing someone's artistic vision as something you're entitled to dictate, you become the embodiment of arrogance.

Possible Spoilers Below.

Regardless of whether you liked the ending or not and were pleased with it or not, these fans making online petitions demanding the ending be changed are acting ridiculously, and here's why...

Hey Bioware, we don't like the creative decision you made, and have the right to make, as authors with an artistic vision, and we, self-entitled thinking fans, believe we deserve a better ending, what with all the time we've invested in this franchise, and so we are petitioning you to give us one, disregarding or ignoring how you guys (the games creators), feel the story should end. Disliking it is not enough, we demand you change and alter you're vision to suit our needs.

Now let me argue why I think ME3's ending, far from being a terrible dissapointment, is actually a stroke of brilliance. Moral ambiguity has been a central part of the Mass Effect series without being plainly obvious. Most people think the actions and decisions we as players make via the paragon and renegade system is a good vs evil like mantra: a moral dualism that is very black and white. This is most certainly true but with ME3 we are now seeing that many of the decisions we might have made in ME2 or even ME1 such as saving the Rachni, re-writing the Geth heretics or retaining the Genophage data, can have seemingly unforeseeable and negative consequences. Thus, whilst the actions we make might seem black and white, the outcomes and consequences of many of those far-reaching decisions are anything but. The ending to Mass Effect 3 takes this idea to the extreme, giving us three choices to choose from, none of them being either simply right or wrong.

Ideally, we're meant to as players really struggle with the choice because there is seemingly no easy or 'right' answer (or for that matter any wrong answer). It is this moral ambiguity which I think makes Mass Effect 3's ending really stand out in a good way from most other long-spanning series' of any genre, because it is ambiguous, it isn't just Commander Shepherd defeating the Reapers and saving the day. Instead, it's unpredictable, unexpected, and seems to intentionally challenge how we might have perceived all the events leading up to the final moment. Sure, you might validly criticise it for being tonally inconsistent or lacking a greater sense of closure or being poorly executed with the copy and paste cut-scenes but personally I think you’d be overlooking what it does achieve very effectively, arguably even profoundly; that of suggesting that sometimes there is no easy, straightforward answer, and sometimes events do occur beyond our control, but we must choose nonetheless.

My main complaint with the ending is that they didn't give you a choice not to choose any of those presented, if for instance, you felt like you were being manipulated or if you felt that all of the choices were terrible and that refusing to accept any of them was actually the right choice, even if it did mean the destruction of all life and the continuation of the reaper cycle.

I remember an article on this site mocking a Mass Effect 3 made by George Lucas. Say what you want about Lucas, but at least he can write an ending that makes sense and doesn't resort to illogical motivations and plot holes to create a "discussion."

It's interesting. I'm one of those people who was so enamored with Mass Effect 3 that I was devastated by the cookie cutter endings. I threw my controller. I played through ME six times and ME2 twelve. They were amazing. ME3 was too, up till the end. But I'm not sure they should change it. On the one hand I'd like more. I want a better ending. On the other hand, it's art it's hard to determine the distinction between maintaining an artistic vision and giving the consumer what they want. It's not much different from the Matrix movies. First one amazing. Second one more action, less story. Third one... well, not nearly as bad as Matrix 3, but both end so very poorly. I would hate Mass Effect to be remembered in a similar light.

Makes sense.

i actually liked the endings and think that people who don't like it should just get over it. it is biowares game not theirs what bioware wants do do with their game is their choice not the people who play it and all that people who complain are doing is ruining the game for people who havent played it yet.

1000's of choices boil down to three nearly identical endings. No, BioWare, this isn't a "discussion." This is a, "Please fix this."

My god... some of you people. This is not an opinion, this is a fact: You cannot make an entire series of games based on CHOICE, then have all those choices ultimately lead to nothing as the ending. This goes for every franchises. Some of you have absolutely floored me; I am absolutely stunned you don't grasp this simple, irrefutable logic.