it all depends on the game really. the same could be said about movies.

if a game purely puts the game play before the story they get a sub par impact from the story.

Man, you're right nothing else sucks more thena shitty ending to a game.. I think if your gameplpay is going to be good, then your ending should be top fucking notch.. That is why people play a games..

but now I think we are coming back to the point where devs have become comfortable with the graphics, and they are no longer the driving force in development so studios are freer to experiment with alternative styles, and I think good writing is around the corner. there have really been only a couple good games that have even approached real intellectual or emotional stimulation. but maybe I'm just a cold bastard

actually a good counterpoint is chrono trigger. Now there's a game where you WANT to get all the endings. and it's awesome. how sad is it that the pinnacle of game endings occurred in 1995?

also backflip, not your fault, but thanks for ruining the ending of saints row for me. actually that's not that cliche. what other games can you think of kill off the main character?

Most game endings have always sucked. I remember reading a letter to EGM back in 1993 that bitched about the same thing -- that there were sucky endings to games. Honestly, this issue has nothing to do with developers focusing on graphics over story as Bahmut Zero just said. It's just the way things are in videogames.

did video game endings ever matter?

my guess is that 90% of game endings suck.

"Bahamut, it's cliche in the sense that it's the simplest, easiest way to end a story. Honestly, they might as well have just been like, "AND THEN I WOKE UP!""

This brings to mind an excerpt by Margaret Atwood:

"You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not downright sentimentality. The only authentic ending is the one provided here: John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die.

So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with."

Game endings once resulted in as much as logging your score and a fat The End. I guess endings clearly depand on the type of game you are playing, and how likely the capacity for a decent deep story is. Then there's the sometimes burdenous license games out there.

One of my SNES favourites is shoot em up UN Squadron (Area 88) based on the Area 88 manga. Because it wasn't linked to the Area 88 series in the west, and having completed it I wonder if I got the correct ending the japanese version might have got. The ending wasn't anything special, but the game was blinding fun. That's why I play games now, for fun. If I get a good story and ending that's a bonus to that primary fun.

Chrono Trigger goes on my list too. A great story, told through great characters. With 12 endings to the game, its one of the best value for money games, I have in my games collection. They don't make them like this anymore unfortunately. All good endings too.

So yeah, it depends on the game genre and if its non-license or not. Developers need to build their scripting departments to progress and so improve games that need a good story.

The endings for A Link to the Past and Super Mario World were two of the best endings ever. I think that MGS 3 had a pretty amazing story overall and a badass ending to boot. I think endings do matter, to us at least. Not all game developers are concerned about endings, especially if there'll be a sequel, which there usually is to everything nowadays.
Fighting games though...... dear god....... someone needs to help those fighting games with their stories. It would actually be nice to have some cut-scenes or something in between fights, other than the talking at the beginning of the match, that explained what the hell was going on.