Mass Effect 3 just felt like a cheap and lazy finale on the masterpieces that were ME1 and 2.  If they’re considering the whole game as an ending to the series (therefore giving us the 16 different endings) even these were lacking.  There was virtually no difference if you saved/killed rachni, saved/killed council, recommended Anderson/Udina, saved/blew up collector base, re-wrote/destroyed geth heretics.  Most characters you worked so hard to save from ME2 hardly did anything.  And there were a lot of setups for stuff in ME3 that were never realized (ie. take back Omega, the sun on Haestrom, stories in Cerberus News Network etc.).  We can only assume that these are reserved for DLC which will cost an arm and a leg – if realized at all.

For those who say, “Ya but that costs money and time and resources, etc. etc. etc.” they should have thought about that before they bit off more than they could chew.  And if the issues were time/money/resources they shouldn’t have put all kinds of work into a multiplayer add on that wasn’t necessary and pissed everyone off who plays Mass Effect for the story (basically, 90% of Bioware’s fans).  But resources weren’t likely the problem – tons of material was recycled from earlier installments (textures, guns, armour, objects, characters, backstory, codex, galaxy map, etc.) and it wasn’t in development as long as ME1 or 2.  Not to mention this game would sell more than ME1 or 2 given the fact it’s now available for PS3 and already has a loyal fan base.

FANS know this isn’t just “entitled gamers.”  They know Bioware HAS done better and COULD have easily done a lot better.  Something’s seriously fishy here and the fact that Bioware’s now owned by EA doesn’t help.

Other evidence that quality control on the Mass Effect series is lacking in latter days: the latest novel in the series: Deception.  There were so many lore contradictions Mass Effect Wiki sent in a complaint saying they didn’t know how to update their databases.  Bioware even said they’d revise the book.

It’s not that Mass Effect 3 was total crap either, it’s just when you set the bar so high, you’re going to take more criticism.