I might be a little late here, i guess. Like over a year late. But i just finished the game for the first time last month, so in my case it's pretty fresh.
Loved the whole Mass Effect series, but when i heard about this whole ending controversy last year, it kind of kept me from even touching the game. Fortunately i kept myself from getting spoilered, all i heard was, that something had really gone wrong at the end of the game.
Well i guess that was one reason, the other might have been, that i learned a little too late, through my friends, that you get a freaking Prothean with the pre-order. That was also a bit of a downer, especially since i heard how essential it is, to have him with you, all the stuff you would miss without him. Of course it was possible to buy him later as a dlc, which i did, but didn't know that one year ago. So i was like "oh great, so the ending seems to be disappointing, and i missed the chance to have a living part of mass effect history as a crewmember". Well, but anyway, as i said i was now finally able to do the whole thing last month.
And now i get it. I thought this whole controversy would have been about, maybe not having a happy ending, Shepard dying or something like that. But i would have never imagined this.
So there is this translucent Child, telling me he is the Catalyst. Well, i dislike important characters being introduced in the last minute of a game or movie (and i especially dislike children in movies or games), but that's ok, i get this amazing room with a panorama window of the whole battle for the fate of the galaxy, awesome stuff. So let's see. Oh, the big plan is revealed.
So, you are telling me you invented the cycle, killing advanced organic species, in order to save organic life, because organic life will always at some point create synthetics, and it's an unbreakable law of the universe, that synthetics will always try to kill organics
http://youtu.be/oXgaD4HY8kI
Are you kidding me? That's it? In all those millions of years, while you were doing your awesome solution, did you never come up with the idea to, i don't know, maybe talk to one the species and their synthetics? Let me tell you a funny story, i was just on Rannoch and ended a 300 year war between synthetics and their makers, and i didn't even need giant genocide machines. Actually i even had to kill one, because it was rallying the synthetics to kill their makers. Oh right, the one thing you always want to prevent.
Look out of the damn window! What do you see? The Geth fleet AND the Quarian fleet, synthetics AND makers, working together, fighting for their lives, against you and your brilliant "solution".
You are no solution. You are the fucking problem!
Unavoidable synthetics vs. organics war? Hell, my pilot is dating a robot! Maybe, i say maybe the problem you described, existed once in one of your cycles a million years ago. But as you can pretty damn well see, you just have to look out of the window, we can solve this "problem", even without galactic genocide. Or did i waste 4 hours of my life on Rannoch? A synthetic even died there, to make peace between his people and his makers. You know what, just... just go. Leave the galaxy. Go. Maybe they need a problem-fixer in Andromeda, i don't know. But everything is already fine here. WITHOUT YOU.
And that's what was going through my head, when talking to the Catalyst.
Now for the awesome endings.
First time i played this, i didn't use the extended cut. That's how my friends told my i should do it, to see the difference. Well, it didn't really change that much for me. The biggest thing that had bothered me was the Mass Relays exploding, that was akward, especially if you have played The Arrival in ME2. So that was nice to see that they explained that better in the extended cut, with the Mass Relays just being damaged.
But aside from that, all decision are bad. No matter if it's extended cut or not.
The control ending. I never did that. Watched it later on youtube. The whole thing was out of the question for me. So you choose to become, what you were always fighting against? Interesting.
It's nice that i'm writing this in a Berserk forum, because this way i can ask a question which came up on my mind, when seeing this ending. To the people who used this ending, would you also enjoy it if Guts would become a God Hand? Seriously?
So you become the immortal Catalyst God-being. You are, if i use warhammer terms, now the God-Emperor of the galaxy. Nice. But aren't you, well, pretty much a dictator now? Well of course not, Shepard is an honest man. And what in a hundred years, a thousand? What happens, when you have "lived" 10 or 20 times as long as an Asari. If i would take that "universal rule of synthetics will always kill their makers"-garbage for granted, that would mean that Shepard becoming the Catalyst never really solved this "problem". I just switched places with the Catalyst. And now? What if this problem will show up again and again? Will i eventually come to the same conclusion as the old Catalyst? I mean, he/it spent ages looking for a solution, and he/it was the all knowing god-child, right?
Yes, it is unlikely that this would happen. But is it 100% impossible? No.
So much power shouldn't be in the hands of one person.
But granted, the sequence itself, especially with extended cut, look really cool.
Synthesis. The "Space Magic" ending. This was actually the one i used first, and when i didn't have the extended cut installed. Yes, i said space magic, because that's how it feels to me. What the heck is going on now? Is iron no longer a mineral or steel an alloy? Has it now become a living breathing organism, because of some green energy wave? And another funny thing. Throughout the game, Javik tells me we how his cycle lost, because they were all more or less the same, and that our strongest point in this cycle might be our diversity. That's what the whole trilogy told me, by having a mixed crew of all forms of aliens (well unfortunately no Elcor, Hanar or Volus) working together. And what do i do in Synthesis? I destroy this diversity, magically making everyone in the galaxy into Husk 2.0, without asking them.
All in all a pretty stupid message, if you ask me.
Oh, and what would prevent organic-synthetic beings from making new synthetics, who would then again, according to the Catalyst's golden rule, again make war with them.
And be honest, the green eye thing looked really ridiculous, hehe.
Destroy. The red renegade wave of vengeance. That's what i used after installing the extended cut, and i guess that's what i would use again, when i will replay the series some day. It's disappointing, that i can't send those genocidal machines to hell with a big satisfying Guts smile, without losing my friend EDI and the Geth at the same time. But compared to Control, which i find dangerous, and Synthesis, which is crazy space magic with a stupid message for me, the Destroy Ending seems to be the only one working for me. Or lets say, the least bad one for me. And no, it wasn't about having Shepard survive, i didn't care about that, would have been fine for me if he would sacrifice himself in that one too. Well, but if i would take the Catalyst garbage serious, this Ending also wouldn't solve the great big problem.
Nice endings. Maybe in the future, people might use the term "Mass Effect ending", when refering to a game or movie ending, which has logical flaws contradicting with major elements of what the people have seen and experienced before.
Well, that said, i enjoyed pretty much everything else in this game. It really was awesome, and i wish i had played it sooner

Mordin, oh Mordin my love, singing "Krogan queen" for Eve/Urdnot Bakara. Or literally every scene with Wrex. Or being reunited with Grunt, even for just a short mission. And that mission, wow.. wow, really, i didn't realize it when i picked up the datapad from that dead Krogan soldier. But then i remembered, that Asari on the citadel, talking about her husband being Krogan, fighting in battle. And then when i gave the datapad to her and realized it was that damn Krogan poet guy! And that was her... he was her, that... argh! I had brought them together on Illium in ME2. That moment really hurt.
Or the story of that traumatized Asari Commando in the Huerta Hospital. That story alone was heartbreaking. But then, when Joker told me about his family, them being farmers on some backwater planet... took me a moment, but i almost fell from my chair. Ok their might be a lot of 15 year old farm girls on that planet with the same name, it's not necessarily the same girl the Asari killed, but still...
And i do think i almost had tears in my eyes during the Rannoch scene "Does this unit have a soul?" "Yes..." Such a strong moment.
Well, there were also disappointing things like the Rachni. Really? That's all i get? From the first game onwards, i knew there would be some scene at the end of the trilogy, when "everything pays off", all the people you helped in the galaxy coming to your aid, yes i already imagined a scene with fleet after fleet emerging from lightspeed. And i thought i would have a damn organic hive fleet like the Zerg or Tyranids at my command. Billions of Rachni, and dozends of living dreadnaught-size ships, fighting together for the races they once had a galactic war with.
But what did i get? A textmessage, they help building the crucible. Wow, thanks.
And the last mission on earth... that one felt like it was taken from a WW2 game with scifi weapons, or from Gears of War. It was just boring somehow. Nothing really worth remembering.
Oh, and the Purgatory... probably the lamest Club in the galaxy... at least in the Darkstar Lounge i could drink until the radiaton alarms went off, haha. Ok, waking up next to Aria was also fun, embarrassing, but fun.
Oh, and by the way
Griffith said:
Well, I did sell it pretty hard. I'm just glad you finally played it and enjoyed it. I would have liked your take on ME3 though, basically if you'd hate it or not, but oh well. Still, don't you want to join in the fun of ragging on it because it didn't end like this:
But I only ever made paragon "decisions."

It DID end for me like this

Well ok, without Mordin of course...
I can only encourage everyone to buy the Citadel DLC.
One of the best scenarios i ever played in Mass Effect. It's not just about the Party at the end, that some people might have heard about. The whole missions that come before that, this awesome "buddy-movie"-feeling. And one of the most dangerous enemies Commander Shepard ever faced.
It's the kind of goodbye i wanted to have from my crew. Not via some holo-screen down on earth. The DLC is probably nothing for someone, who just played the third game, but for people who enjoyed the whole series over the years, it's really the best way to have a last salute to everyone, before leaving the Mass Effect Universe behind.
Well, and if you don't want to buy it or don't have ME3 anymore, i recorded a video of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhK88lbHoJc *shameless self-advertise* don't hang me, hehe, i'm no "lets player", its just one video i made for myself and my friends
"Omni-ttoooooooooo!"