I just discovered this amazing mod last night. I've been reading this forum and looking to the details so much that I can't even remember how I found it.
I'm not a long-term Mass Effect player. I only bought the games a month ago. I loved them so much, that I'm on my third replay of the trilogy. I didn't take as much of an issue with the endings as a lot of people have. That isn't to say, though, that those people are wrong in wanting something more. I actually agree that the endings, even after Extended Cut, could have been improved upon.
I worked my butt off in my first playthrough of Mass Effect 3 collecting assets and doing missions to get my EMS maxed just to see a half second of Shepard breathing. That's how much these games can affect their players. Choices matter to them. It shows that the story was effective in making the players care about who they spent so much time with. No matter how you feel about the endings, you can't say that BioWare neglected to make you care about Shepard. You care enough to where you want to see him succeed, whether he lives or dies in the process. At least, I would hope you do, and didn't just rush through the game in five hours.
The arguments over whether the endings were good or bad originally is trivial, because both anti-enders and pro-enders loved Mass Effect, and they loved Shepard in their own way. With that said, I'm an honest promoter of the idea that how players want Shepard's tale to end should be their choice, and I don't mean which color variation they pick.
I liked the Destroy ending in Mass Effect 3 with the Extended Cut, because sometimes I like things to be left open for interpretation. There are many good things the Extended Cut did. I never saw the original endings without it... but I heard it was pretty rough. The fact that BioWare did try to include extra scenes with the LI showed me that they care at least a little about how we felt regarding our Shepards' friendships, romances, and choices.
With that said...
The endings were also a little lacking. While I did like seeing my LI hold Shepard's name plaque and smile with hope that he's still out there, it felt like I was getting a little cheated. I didn't necessarily hate it or beg for more, or claim that this made the original endings terrible, because they were far from "terrible". I've seen worse endings in other games. I didn't like the ending to Dragon Age: Inquisition, for example, and I'm sure others agree or disagree. When I first saw the Catalyst, I was too busy wrapping my mind around this sudden plot device to make any sense of what it was saying. I like a little exposition, don't get me wrong, and I liked that it told you where the Reapers originated, but I also felt that it could have been done in so many other and better ways. This ethereal child waddling up to you and telling you to pick how you die was a bit jarring, in my personal opinion.
I'm not always a promoter of Happily Ever After. Some stories just have to end in tragedy to get a point across, and some are even better because of this. Mass Effect's previous two games had a record of giving a "save everyone, including Shepard" ending. I don't see why the third game couldn't also include it. It could have been an optional choice the player could make, whether they wanted to see any of the Catalyst endings, or see another separate from them that involves Shepard's survival. I still would have played through the game multiple times to see every ending.
To those who say this mod is pointless and placates to "crybabies" and whatnot, I think that it's really up to the individual whether or not they want to use it. This is a free mod, made available from someone's hard work, and completely, one hundred percent optional. There is no reason to hate on anyone who wishes to use it if they want to, because it's a choice for them to make. It doesn't affect you, or the original endings if you want to keep the Extended Cut the way that it is. A person installing it on their game doesn't affect your game. If the mod makes you bitter, it says more about you than it does the people who download it. No one's forcing anyone to download and install this.
I'm going to try it out and see it for myself, because I will try anything once and give it a chance. Everyone has a right to their opinion, whether they like or hate the original endings. Not everyone is going to agree on what's good or bad, and that's what makes the world so great. No one is right or wrong in how they reacted to what they saw. They're just being human.
So, many thanks to the author of the mod. Whether I end up liking it or not, this was something that gave people an option they didn't originally have, and having more options in games is sometimes for the best. Whether you agree with people who use the mod or not, the mod has apparently pulled a lot of people back into the Mass Effect universe, and to me, that's quite an incredible accomplishment. More people should be experiencing Mass Effect, because it's one of the greatest gaming experiences I've ever had. Anything that gets people back into the stories is worth doing, because they're more than games.
They're a journey.