I found the game overall to be lacking.

I'm at the very end with Marauder Shields and I can't kill him, this being on insanity and scripted 'cinematic moments' are total bullshit so fuck you Bioware. Eurgh. I just want my 75 points and then leave.

Unfortunately I did think the game was ruined, but not just by the endings. The endings were just a final nail in what was an oppressively mediocre game. They made the combat system the best of all the three, but I think they sacrificed just about everything else to get there (story, mood, continuity), and I was sorely disappointed.

Coped by clean sweeping ME3 and Origin off the ol' HDD, and installing Psychonauts again!

I really wish more people were over it. I was over it roughly 8 seconds after the credits rolled. I thought "Huh, that was a bit poo" and the realised it was just a freaking game and ate lunch. Never did understand all this palaver about the ending. Or the photo debacle.

Life's too short to rage at something as trivial as the ME3 ending.

dreadedcandiru99:
I fucking hated the ending. I despised it. I loathed it. On some level, I always will, and why not? I've never seen a game developer piss away five years in five minutes.

But I just skimmed a few lingering ME3 threads, and I realized that I'm not really that mad anymore. I haven't touched the game in a month and a half, so maybe time really does heal all wounds. (Now that I think of it, why haven't I traded it in already? I wonder if I can still get anything for it.) Or maybe posting that one-star review on Amazon was more therapeutic than I expected. It probably helps that I've been playing other games, too--mostly indie games, with stories created by writers who know what they're doing.

But whatever the reason, I think I'm finally past it. I can simply swear off EA games forever, file this experience away next to the Star Wars prequels, and move on. I probably won't even watch that Extended Cut thing on YouTube.

How about you? How did you cope?

Yeah, I was pissed with the ending. Extremely pissed, actually, but I haven't played it since I beat it a few days after its release. I'm over it and have largely forgotten about it, which is really sad considering right before the ME3 ending I had ME pegged as the greatest sci-fi saga of all time and then Bioware had to fumble the ball at the goal line.

The only thing of passing interest I noticed recently was the discovered audio files from your squadmates that indicated a much more substantial ending. I found a minute of audio from Jack(my ME2 romance) that was bittersweet considering I bought ME3 to conclude my relationship with Jack and had to listen to the audio files that were unofficially leaked to hear anything from her. Very very sad, indeed. Can't really put into words how greatly Bioware blew ME3, but oh well.

I've been playing a lot of Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City so I've moved on. RIP Mass Effect and RIP Bioware.

I got over it by playing a crapton of AirBuccaneers HD. :|

projectpinkx:
The only thing of passing interest I noticed recently was the discovered audio files from your squadmates that indicated a much more substantial ending.

I just read about that a few days ago, that and the uncut Shepard/Anderson death scene on the Citadel. I just...I don't get it. At all.

I think we should put together a team of experts, writers and programmers and so on, who can do a full-blown autopsy and find out exactly what went wrong, so that it will never happen again. Maybe we can set up a Kickstarter for this.

dreadedcandiru99:

endtherapture:

dreadedcandiru99:

Yeah, people keep bringing up Witcher 2 as an example of WRPGs done right. I got the first game a few weeks ago, though, and I was not terribly impressed. Which is frustrating, because I approve of everything I've read about CD Project (their stance on DRM, etc.)...

How far did you get? I reckon the game gets better the more you play it. I'm on my third playthrough now, and as well as mixing it up with different character builds and items etc. etc. I also make different dialogue decisions and you see how many actual meaningful variables there are. Plus the game is gorgeous to behold and there's hardly any horrible pixellated Mass Effect style textures.

Not very far; a couple of hours, I think. The combat boiled down to "click on the tiny indistinguishable bad guys till they fall down," the dialogue was clumsily written and awkwardly delivered, and the main character was just sort of lame. And at one point, the story felt like it skipped a few pages. I've heard that the second one is supposed to be way, way better, and I'm thinking of getting the console version because my computer sucks, but it seems like I'd be lost without finishing the first one.

if im correct, the second witcher is a prequel to the first.

Blunderboy:

StriderShinryu:
I coped by really enjoying ME3 even with being slightly disappointed by the ending.

This. To the fucking letter.

I coped with this method as well.

Everytime I replay it, I'll always be disappointed (especially knowing all the cut content), but enjoying the rest of ME3 is enough.

It also kind of helped going back to the first ME. Though I would advise to tread carefully with this one. It can be sort of be a double edged sword and send you into a spiraling depression instead. (Seeing as how the first ending was and always will be 1000x better than the ME3 ending.)

How did I "cope"? You've gotta be shitting me. People "cope" with dead loved ones, or terminal diseases. We're talking about a damn videogame here. I was over it about a day after I beat the game.

My process:

Day 1: bewilderment
Day 2: slight raging
Day 3: acceptance

And now I just don't care much anymore. It was like Neon Genesis Evangelion; it was such an incredible series up to those 5 minutes of shit that it never really bothered me too much. So we'll see where this "extended cut" goes (NGE's altered ending was trippy as balls, but at least it provided some semblance of closure), but no matter what it is my opinion of the series won't change much.

First world problems.
Where people need months to get over an ending of a game.

Srs bsns mon!

I did not buy Mass Effect, part 2 was sort of the end for me, then Dragon Age 2 was the nail in my heart. I cope by Not playing any more games, going outside and working two jobs and going to school full time>.>

Still can't do another play-through of the game... Just... the ending killed it.
The multiplayer is fun, but is in need of more game types. Gets old very fast.

I managed to get it out of my system through a combination of writing, playing Halo Reach and eating out with my parents.

Cope? I loved the game. Still love the game. And I just put in my time to help with Operation: Exorcist. I'm still having fun and don't see myself stopping.

for me it was the fact that 99 percent of the time i played mass effect I cherished
staring down horrors of lovecraftian proportion, putting my life on the line time and time again for my crew, the horror and fear that washes over you when they do the same for you.
Genuine tears, more than i thought a game could ever bring me when mordin runs across the shroud tower.
The stubborness of grunt despite all odds, the undisputable charm of garrus, the greatest ally ever placed by your side.

yes the ending sucked, and yes there are rumours of a free DLC ending that was planned since december when the endings were leaked but i dont mind. I thank Bioware for what they gave me

Paladin2905:
Unfortunately I did think the game was ruined, but not just by the endings. The endings were just a final nail in what was an oppressively mediocre game. They made the combat system the best of all the three, but I think they sacrificed just about everything else to get there (story, mood, continuity), and I was sorely disappointed.

Coped by clean sweeping ME3 and Origin off the ol' HDD, and installing Psychonauts again!

i think the game had a few decent parts here and there, but it was overall mediocre compared to me1 and me2, and i constantly told myself "the ending will be great and it will make all these decisions infinitely badass and worth it with an amazing conclusion" and low and behold, it was the complete opposite, the motherload of shit upon broken shit ending (not saying endings, it's the same damn thing with a different color)

it was a definite last nail in the coffin indeed.

OT: well witcher 2 being an amazing game, i currently am doing a run through of that and doing some occasional multiplayer on me3 with friends, otherwise that game will probably be erased on my HDD pretty soon...have zero motivation to touch the single player ever again.

porpoise hork:
I didn't let the ending bother me in the first place.

Completely this, the ending is not so bad, it lets you think a little and while some people may not like that, it is still a very good game and I am happy to have played and enjoyed the game series and look forward to what is next in the Mass Effect universe.

I just play the ME3 MP....and I'm trying to slowly get back to the SP.

I coped by reflecting on the overall game and realizing that I found the entire thing to be kinda "meh", not bad, but not great either, just good. So now I just look at the ending as just being one more flaw in a deeply flawed, but still decently enjoyable title.

RatRace123:
I coped by reflecting on the overall game and realizing that I found the entire thing to be kinda "meh", not bad, but not great either, just good. So now I just look at the ending as just being one more flaw in a deeply flawed, but still decently enjoyable title.

What did you dislike? If you don't mind my asking.

El Danny:

porpoise hork:
I didn't let the ending bother me in the first place.

This.

The game was still amazing, and the ending really wasn't that bad.

That's the way I see it. I finished it then started a new game a week later when I transferred my old hard drive and ft the DLC. with my first Shepherd

Vuliev:

porpoise hork:
I didn't let the ending bother me in the first place.

Samesies. I don't know why people let this stuff really get to them--then again, my suspension of disbelief seems to be quite a bit stronger than most peoples'. :V

I actually think it just seems that way because angry people are more vocal. I know plenty of people who were disappointed with the end, but still recommended the game itself for doing a lot of other things right...

I haven't bought the game myself yet and I'll think I'll wait to see how this "clarified" end turns out... or at least until all the DLC is sorted in to one easily purchased bundle.