end of an era

>>ATTENTION: mild spoiler alert! i won't go that much into details, but if you haven't played ME3 yet you should probably wait with reading until you finished it, for the sake of your experience<<

so, everything has to end at some point. or so they say. well, that's life, but there are certain things where you just don't want it to end. one of these things is the greatest experience i've ever had with anything remotely related to computers:

Mass Effect

yes, the series is at an end. at least shepard's story. a story that has accompanied me for four years, a story full of memories, happy and sad, with people i grew to really care for. unique personalities, saints and sinners, friends and assholes, and right in the middle the most authentic protagonist i can imagine. authentic, because i decided the direction in which she developed (yes, i am a proud and fierce advocate of the FemShep-community), triumphed over her victories and was downcast over her defeats, suffered her losses, and more than once just wanted to hug that person and tell her everything's gonna be alright.

bioware created a masterpiece, a game filled with emotion, thrilling until the end (which caused some heavy flaming and hurrdurr-ing among the community, but i actually kinda like it), all in all a fitting end to one of the most epic gaming experiences of the last years.
i still remember picking up mass effect 1 from the store. it was an impulse purchase, i haven't heard of it before (and at that time also didn't know what bioware was all about), but i daresay that this was one of the best decisions of my life. i was literally blown away after my first playthrough, seven or eight more followed (partly due to my harddrive going berserk and erasing pretty much everything on it. stupid fucker). i enjoyed every last second of it.

and now, i'm here, with the story at an end. a sad end. and end where i was just sitting there, before making the final decision, just delaying and thinking about everything i experienced with commander shepard. an end that made me shed manly tears. no, actually, i cried like a little bitch.

a big huge thanks to bioware, drew karpyshyn and especially to jennifer hale. i couldn't imagine anyone whose voice would have fit better for my commander shepard.

so, only one thing is left to say: "i'm commander shepard and this is my favourite game on the citadel"
over and out