Sotc had a great ending so yea.

I wish more games had great endings

well a good ending is opinion oriented mostly but if you need an example inFamous is a good example...

Ending/story etc all help to create a great game...sure there are cases where few aspects are so good the rest doesn't really matter but it's hard to argue that a good ending would have made such games even better..

God of War 1 had one of the most epic and satisfying endings I have ever seen in a videogame. That's not the only reason why I think it's a great game. It's a game that did everything right: gameplay, story, graphics, sound...etc. sometimes endings do matter if a game has a lot going for it. that's how I see it.

Definitely not.

An ending like noname21212341241 pointed out is like an ingredient in a cake, a minor one. Like say a cherry on top of a cake, or raisins (eww) on top of a cake.

It had a rubbish final boss battle but the "good" ending actually delivers a satisfying conclusion to the story. If you're talking about the "bad" ending then yeah I agree with you.

God of war did have a decent ending but it really could have had Kratos pooping on a stick as the ending and it still would have been amazing.

But I guess with narritive based games like God of war it ads a level of completion...

However i still claim that a great playing game is great without a great ending.

Im not saying that all games should have good endings to be great. Definetly not.

What I'm saying is that sometimes good endings can elevate a game to greatness. Like let's take Silent Hill 2 for example, the game had frustrating camera and combat and the first two hours of the game consisted of you running around silent hill and fighting the same armless zombie over and over again. But it had a lot of redeeming qualities like a terrifying and moody atmosphere, great story, memorable cast of characters and a shockingly amazing ending.

Why are people only talking about story? The ending of a game consists of more than just an epiologue, end cinematic and/or credits sequence. The last act consists of the final boss battle and its buildup, and that's a design matter. Many games are not particularly good at this, I agree - just think of how many forgettable and easy end bosses there are - though what is 'good' from a theoretical standpoint is, as of now, a matter of dispute.

It certainly adds imho.

It's almost like your reward for all your hard work. A good ending makes it feel all worth it...more. A bad ending is like "all that for THAT?"....but doesn't necessarily take away from all the fun you had while actually playing the game.

Well if you get a nice achievement or trophy then ok =]. But not really.