Really?

You need to at least start with 2, using some of the material out there (like video of the comic from the PS3 version) to catch up on 1 first. A lot of decisions from 1 and 2 carry into side stories in 3, but moreso from 2 (including the DLC, a couple of which are really good).

Some, with different opinions, my point isn't that they feel the same way, but that I'm pretty sure those two are in-touch enough to understand that just the fact that it wasn't a fairy tale ending isn't the crux of the issue.

You are assuming that it's the ending "they" wanted. Who's to say they didn't fight and bicker about it themselves (I'm sure there are people at BioWare that felt the same way or were as split as the fans), that one creative voice didn't override the others and chose and ending they saw fit because of internal power…

Um, I'm pretty sure that at least tycho and gabe realize that. It was just a good opportunity for a joke.

"The entire series has an over-arching theme of sacrifice."

I understand the ending was changed, but you do realize that nothing ever "ends" a sci-fi universe. Magic reset buttons are a magnificent asset of writing sci-fi.

But then all of the species in the universe die of acute diabetes.

I was a Holmes nut as a kid - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle raised Holmes from the dead on demand of the fans. Does that mean he violated his artistic integrity? Does that belittle the character? If anything it's become one of the talking points that has maintained the popularity of the character to this day (see the new BBC…

Which happens on regular occasion - many church murals like the ones Michelangelo painted are changed on request as the project progresses, and after it has been completed. You just paint over the top of some parts. Some have even been changed during restoration.

And you think they have a choice in that matter? The other way to look at it is that if they say anything at all, they spoil their plans beyond the ending and the experience for all players in the meantime. The only thing they could "acknowledge" is crappy writing, and since when would an author do that (at least…

"some of our most passionate fans"

I agree, the only way you could even count the theme of games 1 and 2 as sacrifice is if you played the game poorly and got yourself killed at the end (and all the sacrificing others that requires). The overbearing theme of the first games is success beyond all odds, which depending on how you play it, also means at…

Agreed, that was actually my point about saying it was "updated to practically match". From loose copying to being the same thing (aka, cloned). :)

Hey, I didn't say I wouldn't probably die a lot. :) But I think it would be kind of a twisted kind of fun :)

ME1 and ME2 did not have the same cover transfer, and it wasn't nearly as smooth (or "gears like") as 3. Yes I did play both, and I played the DLC for 2 right after finishing gears 3, which led to a lot of attempts to do things that don't work in ME. Then I played the ME3 demo and it actually took me a couple of times…

Irreparable rupture? I'm sorry, but have you actually paid any attention to the situation, and how Bioware is responding to it? I have never before seen a studio so actively and politely solicit negative feedback, and actually encourage thoughtful discussion about what the perceived problems are with the game, in…

Maybe not by Zynga, but they have been cloned by Gameloft on iOS. Also Gears has popularized its cover system so much, that even a roll-playing game has been updated to practically match it, down to the button mapping and on-screen indicators (ME3).

I was going to play a renegade femshep as a second playthrough, but never got around to it unfortunately.

Agreed, the backlash would be less if the ending made logical sense. That would at least fulfill the promise of a "definitive" ending, and make it easier to forgive the lack of variety.