I think many fans were hoping that Bioware would recognize that the ending, or endings, was awful, and that they would do something to placate the fans. It's becoming clear that this will probably not happen. The writers thought they did good with the ending. Need I say more?
Casey Hudson and others have also made it very clear that they don't feel they can respond in any form of specificity while the game has only been out for two weeks, which I think is an entirely reasonable position. BioWare can't help it if other members of the community spoil the story for people who haven't picked the game up yet, or just haven't had time yet to finish it, but they can make sure they don't ruin it.
I am holding onto my game until I know for certain Bioware's answer to this mess. I would like to believe that the people responsible for this game may want to fix this mess; however, I am skeptical. I felt the ending was wrong. A professional screenwriter, who wrote his opinion of the ending at BSN forums, is better able to explain my feelings than I am. Here is the post: http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/355/index/10022779/1
After all this bad press overshadowing the launch, I hate to say this, but our best hope might be the corperate devil known as EA. Some bean counter is taking note of all this and seeing the reviews on Amazon (2 stars) and in probably about to have a heart attack. They will want the problem solved and force Bioware to fix their mistake. Plus, lets face facts. They will see an opportunity to make one hell of a tidy profit should they release a new DLC ending, which we all know will sell.
If this matter was confined to the BSN and other like forums, than Electronic Arts may not become involved. However, this matter has now spread to major outlets such as Forbes which has been covering the debacle since it erupted. Electronic Arts stock has been declining for the past two months, and for a major release to have this type of backlash doesn't help the stock price of the company. I don't know what the writers of Bioware were thinking, but what they did didn't help them or their parent company.
Just finished. Not a big fan of the ending. Less about the ending itself, and more about a very limited ending, despite the promise of influential choices. The character moments and stories are what saved the game. And completes the parralel to Star Wars, the OT. First movie/game, great, sets the stage, establishes a universe and characters you care about and want to follow. 2nd, darker, grittier, adds to in every way important. Third, a still great story marred by some unfortunate choices, but still saved by really great character moments.
I don't really buy the indoctrination theory (especially since the recent revelations seem to have put the kibosh on it), but this is still an extremely interesting video: [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tbghjn7_Byc[/yt]
What is missing from that video is the existence of trees on the battlefield. These trees weren't visible until after Shepard regains consciousness. The trees have importance for the fact that they existed only in Shepard's dreams. As for the theory that this set of endings is the result of leaks, the latest revelations show that the writers were still struggling with the ending after the leaks. In the late winter of 2011, they had Martin Sheen recording dialog for the TIM that would later be heard in the ending, and the writers were debating whether or not to have one ending show Shepard being indoctrinated. The biggest question for me that I would ask them is, why did they decide to abandon the original concept and forge a new concept when they were clearly ill-prepared to take this franchise into the new direction?
It's a shame that they struggled so much with the ending. The rest of the game was superb, and they should have just gone with their gut feeling. I'm just not convinced it's all over though. If they were struggling so much then wouldn't it therefore make sense to buy themselves some time by releasing a later DLC? Though I think I would have preferred another delayed release date. supercommander posted that image from the codex which is very interesting, as is the indoctrination entry that I've seen before now. These great big glaring alarm bells are just sitting there, going off throughout the game. Surely the writers haven't forgotten this by game's end? It's also in this argument's favour that Bioware can't just come out and say if anything like this has happened, as it's still only recently released; esecially in Japan. There will still be people only just buying it now, or maybe still playing it if they work a lot, or they might not play on it for a silly number of hours at a time. I'm really setting myself up to get hurt when it really does turn out that it's all just a botched ending, but it helps that there is in-game evidence of something more suspicious happening. It makes the ending more tolerable that way.
They already had a massive delay, plus they wound up releasing in a high advantageous time (during or before Spring Break for several colleges). Delaying again would mean pissing off the fanbase even more and risking a debut in a less than ideal time period.
My Guess was that EA was firm with the 2nd deadline, and Bioware basically had to scramble to get the ending out..which is a reason why the ending feels disjointed.
Amazingly it has been Forbes, a non-traditional site for gaming news, that have been pretty much on side with those that are upset. Perhaps its because Forbes deals with Business/Finance, and they see this as a 'consumer' issue and for Bioware/EA a bad 'business practice' issue.
I've just finished the game this morning and i'm apparently one of the very few who didn't go apeshit over the ending.. i chose synthesis as i felt it was the best possible end for my Shepard and i'm satisfied because i sat there for a few moments speechless and that's all i really want from a game.. to leave me with a good impression. Reading through this thread and some links provided i can however see why others are displeased.. it is a very controversial ending and thinking about it i believe Bioware ran out of time. I don't like that some events are inevitable no matter how many war assets you have and what you chose.. the destruction of the Relays is one but there you go. What i don't know how to take it are the rumors of a DLC with a "true", i.e. intended ending.. i just don't know if that will fix it or even improve it. As it stands my ME3 experience is complete and over the course of 3 games it was one hell of a ride.. maybe the best in gaming i ever hadwhen it comes to story and epicness (maybe Halo comes close but it's still a bit away). I will always remember the little moments from the game.. friendly competition shooting with Garrus on Citadel, getting Joker and EDI together (or at least giving them a little push in the right direction), Shepard's walk in the base on Earth where he gets to talk to everyone who's been with him on the ride (it actually had me choke a bit.. it was quite emotional) etc.. this is what i remember and take from the game.
Here's a fairly well written article that I think does a good job of summing up what a lot of people have been saying: Mass Effect 3 Ending-Hatred: 5 Reasons The Fans Are Right Most counter arguments I've seen so far seem to just entierly miss the point of all the upset. Personally, I wouldn't say I've gone apeshit over this. Indeed when I first played the ending I was more stunned and confused than anything. It took a few hours to sink in and only then did I fully grasp why it all felt so...wrong.
I finished the game last night. After several days of hearing of the overwhelmingly negative reaction to the ending, I didn't think it was too bad. The execution was clearly off, especially the stuff about the Normandy undergoing a relay jump in the middle of the battle to end all battles, but I kinda admired the idea behind the ending. Then I read the indoctrination theory and realised that I preferred that interpretation. It just feels "right" to me, there was so much about the star child stuff that felt off and the indoctrination theory explains that. I'm not holding my breath for Bioware to release some DLC confirming that, but for a game series that has given me so much choice over the years I am choosing to imagine that that's the "true" ending. Other than the ending, the game is truly exceptional. The majority of the game exceeded my wildest expectations, I nearly broke into tears on a few occasions (but I didn't because I'm a real man ) and I laughed quite a bit. Most importantly, the bromance between Shepard and Garrus was perfect, and I love that Garrus hooked up with Tali at the end of the game.
I think one of the things that have been raised and that bugged me was that I was not given a option in regards to dialogue to show that synthetics and organics could live side by side.