I would like a CHOICE about it.
I would like it as a POSSIBILITY, but not the be all and end all.
Variation and impact, to see it, from seeing your squadmates and companions, LI to hated, survive or mourn or be mourned.
I would like the CHOICE to have Shepard live or be buried and mourned, or even not at all. I would like the choice to be able to see the Reapers win, I want to see this cycle and characters in it in their last acts of defiance as much as I want to see those acts of defiance turn into the killing blows against the Reapers.
I want to see Hackett plough his flagship straight into a Reaper, or blow it to pieces in a coordinated attack at range with a ruthless barrage of Thanix fire, live or die, win or lose, I want to see the Destiny Ascension show why its such a cornerstone of the Asari Fleet, I want to see it either disintegrate in flaming defeat despite its strength, or sledgehammer a capital ship into hell on its own.
I want to see the fleets show just how many Reapers they can cut to pieces before they run out of slugs or run out of ships and lives. I want to see the groundforces, spearheaded by those characters we know and love or hate, from Grunt to Kaiden, to Ashley and Wrex, to Tali and Garrus, to Jack and Zaeed and Major Coats (but mainly those we're attatched to, those that can represent their races, from the still living, to the doomed to the ghosts of the past, (Javik)) and everyone in between make their last stands or make their triumphant charges, I want to see them all at their best whether they fall or whether they stay standing.
And most importantly, I want a CHOICE of how these events all unfold. WIN OR LOSE.
Ambitious and costly to develop, but Mass Effect's success as a series should brook nothing less in its finale, it deserves something like this, or better made and more succinct but certainly something that will convey the same impact.