A lot of people hated the ending, but I was really happy with it after the Extended Cut ending. It was one of the few times I really felt like I came to the close of a really amazing story I'd been following for years and I could only think about all the good memories I had with it. It's still satisfying in subsequent playthroughs, although it obviously lacks the impact from the first time through.
I'm going to join the chorus of praise for RDR. That game was unflinchingly some of the most incredibly realized and believable characters set in a very memorable setting. You actually came to care about John Marsten and his family, and I wish I didn't have the ending spoiled for me, but it still hit hard.
The Telltale Walking Dead games were absolutely incredible and the ending of the first game just left me sitting there staring at the credits for like 5 minutes coming to terms with how goddamn sad it was. So good!
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will forever go down in history as one of, if not my favorite endings for any game I've played. Edward looking back on everything and everyone he lost while saying goodbye to the only friends he had left after finding out his wife had died back in England but had a daughter was really, really well done. The final scene at the theater with his family was great, and it alluded nicely to the introduction of III.
I don't care what anybody says, I fucking love Gears of War and the series is special to me because my best friend and I played the shit out of coop when the games came out and we really became invested in the characters, and honestly, they're great. The ending of 3 was a really a great way to wrap things up, and the events leading up to it were memorable. Even something as simple as Marcus removing his armour and doo rag before collapsing with grief with the sunset really was powerful in showing how much of a toll the past 14 years of constant war against extinction had taken on him. He just found out his father was alive after thinking he was dead for that time, which doubly sucked because he was given a life sentence for going AWOL to try and save him at the cost of a key location and several soldiers, and then his father dies to save the world because he had infected himself with the imulsion to study how to cure or kill it. Throw that gut punch up with his best friend and closest thing he had left to family sacrificing himself to save his friends after suffering for years after having to euthanize his tortured and broken wife he spent years looking for and Marcus is having a very bad day. He helped save the human race, but dispairs to think at what it cost and if there's anything left. It's actually really layered the more you think about it.
And finally, Halo 3 was such a goddamn phenomenal ending for the trilogy and the excellent musical score really gave everything such an emotional weight. It wrapped up the Flood and Covenant threats rather nicely and the final Warthog sequence was such a nice allusion to the ending of Halo CE that I really can't think of anything that could have made it better. I did love Reach and ODST, but if Bungie stopped at 3 and left the story there I would have been perfectly happy. I tend to pretend Halo 4 isn't a thing because it just felt really wrong, although that could largely be due to the baffling Covenant redesigns. It's almost like you're fighting different aliens altogether and seriously, the whole Forerunner returning shit was awful. One thing I hate in sci fi and fantasy is when you talk about a mysterious all powerful race that disappeared without a trace and then suddenly, you bring them back. Lolnope.
