It was actually my first playthrough, as I was holding out for the extended cut to (hopefully) get a better ending. Suffice to say, I'm glad they fixed a lot of the more illogical stuff from the original cutscenes like the mass relays blowing up and giving the normandy a reason to be fleeing.

I wasn't so big on the whole idea of the normandy just showing up in front of a reaper and airlifting your squadmates so nonchalantly, but it creates a nice moment of dialogue for the romantic interest if you bring them along.

I love that you can convince the illusive man to commit suicide. That's two villains I have literally talked to death. The whole starchild thing/explanation was not as disappointing as people made it out to be. That's not to say the explanation was particularly original or compelling, but I think it kind of speaks to the arbitrarily evil and faceless way the reapers have been portrayed throughout the series. It would make sense that a vaguely lovecraftian race of machines would be run by some creepy toddler version of HAL 9000.

I ended up going with synthesis ending. Of the choices, control seemed kind of risky given all the stuff the series shows about indoctrination, and destroy honestly seemed dickish for a paragon Shepherd. Also, EDI is one of my favorite characters and committing genocide against the machines seems like a bad idea after brokering peace with the quarians.

All in all I'm pretty happy with the synthesis ending. Seems like the most heroic option, and honestly makes Shepherd's death worthwhile, as it bring peace and possibly immortality to everyone else in the universe.

Also lol at the fandom getting so mad over the fourth option, Hackett says throughout the game they can't win a straight up military battle, WTH did people expect to happen? Even then, I'm glad they managed to give everybody's failure a positive spin on things.