Great blog man. I can agree with this. While the ending wasn't what we wanted exactly, the ride still rocked. Great way to look at it Apozem.

Honestly, the ending really did, at least to me, make it hard to go back and play Mass Effect (3 anyway). I always just have that lingering feeling of "crap, I'm about at THIS part again" syndrome. That said, I think the Extended Cut did a great job of giving at least some type of closure, no matter how lacking a lot of it was. I at least felt like I got an ending. At any rate, did you happen to hear about the new "Leviathan" dlc? It supposedly about the Rogue Reaper that's been controlling a colony for a decade and is a traitor amongst the Reaper ranks. This dlc will have Shepard visit an Indoctrinated facility and eventually get a Reaper as a war asset. A. REAPER. WAR. ASSET 0_0

I actually thought that the Synthesis ending was cool. But since I haven't played any of the Mass Effect games (don't tell me to go and play them. There is no way to torrent hardware. And I cannot financially afford a PC), I have really no idea if I should feel amazed or not.

Double post first time in my life in this community. That was weird...

While I respect everyone's opinion about the ending, The Extended Cut was perfect to me. I loved that it answered the questions I had. And Hackett's closing was great.

I loved the original and extended cut endings =)

hm, well I enjoyed the synthesis ending, and the elaborated synthesis ending. the ending didn't focus much on the here and now, which irked a lot of people, the ending focused on what your actions did for millenias to come, and I think thats exactly the way it should be.

I haven't seen the new endings yet (something about not wanting to replay that whole final sequence again), but I was ok with the original ending anyway. I wasn't a big fan, but I was ok with it. So I have a feeling these would be fine for me too.

And yes, a hearty thank you to Bioware for a fabulous series, even if the ending did create some controversy. In hindsight, such controversy was inevitable, considering all the build-up to it.

One thing is for sure, Gaming studios will be hard pressed to try anything as unique and epic as the ME series. It's impossible to create the 100's of different endings It would have taken to satisfy everyone. For their trouble Bioware was boycotted, sued and picked apart by a vocal portion of their "fans". Your opinion piece even referred to the ending as "Bad", "Awful", "Terrible", "Weak", and "Disappointing". The last few hours of the trilogy I got to witness how my choices through the 3 games played out. Everytime that happened I smiled and thought how amazing that this could even be done. I along with you want to thank Bioware for creating such a wonderful universe to visit after a long day working my ass off. I hope Mr. Hudson understands that a large number of fans appreciate what his labor of love means to us. It's a lot easier being an armchair quarterback than it is being a visionary. It takes a lot of guts to stick your neck out and be the first to do something. Whether he will stick his neck out again remains to be seen (and could you really blame him if he doesn't)? I for one hope he does.

I personally liked the ending, but even if I wouldn't like it, I would still agree with what is stated here. Sure the end may not be what everyone wanted, but I think all the people who consistently complained should've stepped back and said...

"Wow, what an amazing adventure Bioware took me on. I've been across the galaxy, fought Geth, stopped Saren, beat the odds of a suicide mission, Took down multiple Reapers, the greatest foes in the galaxy, saved several races from extinction, and more. Why am I so mad about a bad ending?"

Again, I liked the ending. I was a little disappointed in the vague-ness of the characters and the plot holes. (Which is why I loved the Extended Cut, thanks for clearing up practically everything I had a problem with.) Still though, I really enjoyed the original endings, and thought that it was appropriate to end shepard's story.

Great blog!

Well done sir.

I love mass effect. Love them. So much I still play one and two and have gotten almost every scene. When I hit the end of mass effect three I was disappointed. I have been really into the relationship part and was hoping to see a baby quarian or asari. To see the future home of a retired commander. I was mad at first. I even liked the retake mass effect movement on Facebook. It then...I realized that maybe mass effect 4 will explain some stuff.

Anyway I was going to put mass effect aside. All three of them. Tuesday morning I awoke to try the extended cutscenes. Last time I felt nothing. You know, another game beat. But this time, idk what happened...I teared up when it showed tali putting my name on the wall of the dead....I was like, my Sheperd has died...did all this for 3 years...and saved the galaxy. Now I'm shaking for excitement for four.

Great blog. I'm glad that someone out there can see past a bad ending and accept that this is a fantastic trilogy of games. I doubt we'll see anything on this level for a long time, and I for one am glad I got to experience it, ending and all. Personally, the EC kinda fixed my biggest gripe with the ending, so I'm ok with it now.

The new extended ending did help me out, I thought. *SPOILERS* After choosing the blue ending and seeing what the others were, I felt like I had really done the wrong thing, when faced with the thought of knowing that the Destroy ending was the goal that Shepard had been "working" for the entire trilogy. With the new extended scenes, they gave closure to the Control ending that made you feel like it could have actually been an appropriate and viable choice.

OK, I am personally tired of hearing about the Mass Effect 3 ending stuff. Let it go. I personally had no problems with the ending myself. A lot of my questions were answered through the game's story itself and since all of my questions were answered, the ending did not have to be a grand spectacle. Take for example, the original Star Wars trilogy and yes I mean the ORIGINAL. Before any of that post-CGI, money-grab stuff got involved. Epic story and grand character development throughout the entire series. However, the ending to each Star Wars movie is 5-10 mins long IF that. All of the action and story development was during the actual movie, not the end.

However, I can also see where people would want a long, end-it-all ending since this is supposedly the last of the trilogy and franchise. A long, crazy ending can be justified if this is the last we will ever see of Commander Shepard just as Serenity did for the Firefly series. I am pretty sure we will see another Mass Effect though. With the way gaming execs, especially EA, play the money game, it is probably already being discussed. Halo 3 and Gears of War 3 were supposed to the be last of those franchises and we all see what happened there. Leaving the ending of Mass Effect 3 open gives them more opportunities to return the franchise down the road if nothing else works out.

Bottom line: Just be glad you got to experience such an EPIC tale and pray to the gaming gods that it doesn't get ruined in the future for the promise of more money.

I'd say the extended cut endings to Mass Effect 3 are still stupid as all hell, but at least it deserves the term "ending" and a plural form.

Couldn't be worse than Ewoks. Nub-Yub!

Agree 100% on your sentiment about the series being fantastic regardless of whether or not you liked the ending. I personally don't mind the ending, warts and all. It also didnt' stop me from immediately pulling ME1 in after the final credits rolled and starting over. Just an amazing series overall and it shouldn't be tarnished because people disagreed with the last 10 minutes of it.

I am honestly not surprised in any way that so many people are still disappointed with the ending.

Fortunately there are some who understand that the series itself shouldn't be judged by the conclusion.  I appreciate such a view.

I actually loved the endings. In my eyes, a vague ending is better because half the fun of the series was making choices knowing that you didn't have all the information. To just wrap things up with "The Reapers were defeated. X lived happily ever after, Y fell down an elevator shaft." would have made me feel cheated. For me, the fun of a good story, especially science fiction, isn't getting answers but having questions.

That said, I have not gotten to try the EC endings (razzafrazzin' open tray error...) but from what I've heard, they still keep what I liked.

EDIT: I got impatient and watched my preferred ending (control) on YouTube. It's pretty much exactly what I imagined happening afterward, but still kept it open. And it made me cry manly tears. I was content with the original ending I got; now I am well and truly satisfied.