-Deus Ex: Human Revolution-
This ending was just the worst kind of anti-climax I've seen for a game that's been so awesome up to that point (whine about the boss battles elsewhere. I've beaten them just fine without using any specific aug or suped-up weapons).
However, I didn't let the ending ruin the rest of the game for me (so yeah...why did I bother posting this in this topic?...Uh, LOOK AT THE PRETTY PONY!! STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT I JUST SAID!).
Honestly: It's a great game, and one I'm going to replay again later...but seriously, I won't ever push those fucking buttons again. Awful. LAZY...
-Fallout 3-
Unlike Deus Ex, this game really had nothing going for it by the time I got around to finishing the story. (well, barring certain non sequitur events, and the one cool scene where you get stuck in Norman Rockwell-ville. I admit, that was cool.)
The story has gaping plotholes.
Now, there's stretching my sense of disbelief, and then there's putting out obvious contradictions one segment after the next.
How did the "villain" resurrect himself from getting microwaved with absolutely no explanation?
Why does the McGuffin start its effective "self-destruct sequence"?
(besides being an artificial, and VERY sloppy way of generating tension)
Why does the Conclave even care about the Water Purifier? IT HELPS THEM IN NO WAY!
Why are you forced to make a heroic sacrifice in light of one (and potentially more) GLARING contradictions or be rendered as an absolute prick in the ending sequence?
This game crashed on me more than I anything I've played (and that is saying something, coming from a DOS-era PC gamer), but I held onto hope that it would get better.
But no. It didn't. Combat bored me, I didn't give a fuck about where my character points went, as long as I had "MURDER, TALK," and "HACK".
Exploration felt more like Island-hopping, rather than being adventurous and interesting like Oblivion.
But it was the main quest and its ending that ultimately broke me. I watched as the speeding train of a plot fly straight off the rails and crash; Its smouldering remains an analogy for the $60 and hours of my life I won't get back.
(And months later, Bethesda charging $15 in DLC to "fix" their shitty ending. Fuck that.)
Later, Fallout 3 was heralded as "Game of the Year". Contradiction of the fucking decade, as my experience testifies. In reality, it was a shiny, buggy, unfinished piece of shit.