Well, it seems the logical explanation. Every last bit of the main quest up to that point was very well connected and thought out, but then the ending just comes and hits you like a freight truck. It's that fast, and is at huge odds with the pacing of the rest of the game. When the final quest come around, it's just a huge spike in the tension-o-meter. I, myself, thought there was room for at least one more segment between Raven Rock blowing up and the assault on Project Purity.
You know what could have happened? The Enclave could have assaulted the Citadel in retaliation for the loss of Raven Rock, and you, the player would be tasked with making your way through the facility under siege to find and activate Liberty Prime. From there, you would drive the Enclave out of the Citadel with the help of everyone's favorite communist-bustin' robot, and then the final assault would begin. Much better transition, and we get more Liberty Prime action in the bargain.
What we got in the actual game, to me, has "oh, crap, we gotta finish this NOW" written all over it. It felt like Bethesda was having so much fun developing everything else, the release date just snuck up on them, and they just cobbled together a quick ending just so the main quest ended with you achieving something. They were simply too focused on the world around the main quest, and forgot about the actual journey.
This post has been edited by Thomas Kaira: May 4 2011, 02:07 AM