User blog comment:The Milkman/No Love For Leviathan?/@comment-5038903-20120916134142/@comment-24174486-20120918231509

If you don't want me to view your arguments with condescension, then don't make arguments that are worthy of condescension. Simple as that.

"3 is not exactly what I call several"

It's more than two, which is what ME1 and ME2 did.

"Oh, and the ending didn't take any previous choices into account. The final choice is separate from all the others, and all past decisions boil down to an EMS score."

ME1's final major choice was completely independant of specific choices and the ending was only based on that major choice and your Paragon/Renegade meters. ME2 did have specific choices have more of an impact, but to be honest, the concept of "do a mission so Squadmate X isn't incompetant" is a little cheesy in my opinion. In the end, the final choice for the Collector Base is completely unaffected by your choices.

Whether you can say if your previous choices affected the ending of ME3 depends on what you consider to be the "ending". Myself, I see the entirety of Priority: Earth as part of the ending. And if you don't narrow your view to just the last ten minutes, your specific choices do affect some events—for example, the conversations with squadmates both current and old, Cortes's survival, whether you can convince the Illusive Man to commit suicide.

Of course, I did say that it's a good thing that the ending of the final conflict wasn't based on specific choices. I think it's better that the ending takes into account how good your choices were throughout the series rather than specific good choices in the series.

"Another problem however, is that is doesn't just resolve the main conflict, it also more-or-less resolves the one it just introduced."

It's up to the player to decide whether or not the Catalyst's stance is a conflict to be resolved.

"You don't introduce new characters and conflicts at the climax."

I've enjoyed many acclaimed stories that introduce new characters and conflicts at the climax of the story. Like, say, "Shepard, will you save or abandon the Council?" or "Shepard, will you destroy or preserve the Collector Base?"