Yeah, Bioware is about half full of **** on this one. The only way to do it without multiplayer is to make very specific decisions throughout the entire series. It is technically possible to get the "good ending" without multiplayer, but it's very difficult. I have completed nearly every side mission in the game and I'm nowhere near getting the required amount of war assets to have the good ending since my readiness rating is stuck at 50%. I'm going to go through and complete the remaining side quests today just to see where it puts your effective military strength... but in order to get the absolute "best" ending, you have to have an effective military strength of 5000. Mine is only at ~2800. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's not possible to get that, since I only have about 10 side missions left.

And yeah, CM, you get an "I told you so" on this one, because even with the proper amount of war assets the endings you can choose are still terrible.

I'm only now reaching Tachunka and I'm nearing 3000 EMS without a single multiplayer match.

I do believe that a RENEGADE shepard gets it really rough though, compared to a paragon.

But then, you expect full on support from allies when you've been an ******* the whole time?

I don't see it being a big deal that you have to do a lot of work to get the best ending. Reserving the best ending for what roughly equates to "100% completion" isn't a new concept in games.

Sure they have jobs.

They just don't have lives.

I'll be honest, I'm not a big fan of the "You are prepared!" meter. I'd have prefered victory to be based on strategic and moral decisions rather than at how good I am of doing everything.

It's not about doing a lot of work to get the best ending, it's about them pigeonholing you into making specific choices throughout the game(s). Also, I'm currently getting an error that says "the Mass Effect 3 server is down", and it won't even let me play single player, because it says it's unable to verify DLC.

And the thing is, I've gotten the full support of all of the other races. I got full support from the Krogan, Turians, Quarians, Asari, Geth, Rachni, Salarians, Batarians, all three Merc groups, in addition to having every minor character who can possibly survive, and I've still only got an EMS of 2880.

I'm going to be screwed for the ending it seems, since I don't have Gold access on Live.

Oh yeah? Well my original saves from 1 and 2 are trapped on a dead xbox, so I'm stuck with some idiot Krogan named 'Wreav'.

Don't worry. The "good" ending is still terrible.

oh no wait i read that wrong never mind

Does ME3 get better? I just met Liara on Mars and I'm not liking it...the guns seem really weak and inaccurate, I'm getting killed a lot, and there isn't enough action. There's too much sitting around and watching cutscenes - it seems like what would have been an interactive conversation in ME2 is just a scripted cutscene in 3.

There's a hell of a lot of action later on. The cutscenes generally have less choices, but the choices are more specific. Be sure to let people know about things, otherwise the odds of those people being killed later on increase dramatically. So always try to keep the other characters informed. None of this will stop you from getting a terrible ending, though.

Side note: A little while ago I was thinking about how much this game pissed me off, and I thought about the fact that there's that area outside where the Normandy docks at the Citadel where you overhear the same conversations like 400 times on your way through there.

Pay attention to the conversation where an alliance soldier is telling one of her subordinates about how the research project he's being assigned to is important because "FTL travel without a Mass Relay is the biggest discovery in the history of the galaxy" or words to that effect. Yeah, it's not hard to imagine what they're going to do with that in the DLC. It's pretty easy to see that we're going to get a seriously retconned, Broken Steel-style DLC on this one. Knowing EA/Bioware, they probably left the ending deliberately ambiguous and without closure to make people want a different one so much, that way everyone will buy the damned DLC when it comes out.

Some of you may doubt this, but gbk can tell you how smart it is to bet against me in terms of predicting where a story is going once I analyze the hell out of it.

I'm sad to say that Anthony was right.

Its practically impossible to get the right amount of EMS for the "best" ending.

I couldn't believe Bioware would stoop this low, but they did. I gave them the benefit of the doubt through Dragon Age 2, through SWTOR... but this... it just confirms once and for all that they've caved to EA, and that their "doctors" are completely out of touch with their fan base.

I loved Mass Effect 3, it had some incredibly powerful moments. **** I even loved the ending. But this is just depressing.

I liked DA2.

You were the only one.

So let me get this straight... you need a 'completionist' playthrough of all three games in order to have a big enough amount?

If that is the case, I'm good to go. I always do everything.

It's not that you have to do everything in the previous games, it's that you have to make specific decisions in the previous games. I still think it's bs, though, because I made all of the choices they talk about, and it's still only possible for me to get an EMS of 3000 or so after doing every last side mission.

You have to be doing something wrong. I didn't import a save (Meaning I have all the 'canon' decisions) and I've got like 4k.

Effective, or total? I'm stuck around 3000 as well, and will probably be grinding MP most of the day to get the best ending.

I finished with 3408 EMS.

6816 TMS, with 50% Galactic Readiness

Honestly, though, I like the ending without sufficient EMS better than the one with. Better closure, and just a bit less depressing.

My big issue with the ending is how deep a whole they've dug themselves. As it stands, Mass Effect 4 will practically have to be set some 100000+ years in the future to work out.

I thought they're calling it a trilogy and ending it?

Yeah. This is the end. There'll be more games in the same universe, but this is the Shepard trilogy, so to speak. Last I heard, anyway.

Hey, I figured out the reason I didn't like Mass Effect 3: I was playing on insanity.

Oops.

dammit tracer

Insanity? Seriously? That's insane.

I could understand it if the game was any good as a shooter, but it's not. Honestly 3 seems like a step down from 2 in that regard.

Yeah, just playing on Normal, this seems like it would be an absolute chore on Insanity.

Yes, I was super-frustrated by the second firefight on the Mars mission. I was all WHY AM I DYING SO MUCH???!!!? THEY RUINED MASS EFFECT!!!!!

Anyway now I'm about 8 hours in. My thoughts:

• Journal is less useful and doesn't really update you on quests/direct you where to go
• Map is more useful (tells you who is where)
• The redness that covers the screen when you get shot is a lot less annoying than it was in ME2
• The cover button is the same as the roll button, which is irritating
• Gunfights are fun
• Love the weapon mods system
• EDI's look is really weird and IMO doesn't fit in with the rest of the game

Just finished. I don't even know what to say about that.

Is ME3 so much harder than ME2?

I play anything on at least 'hardcore' setting, otherwise it's too easy.

I've been itching to discuss this with you.

Finished earlier today. Not sure what people are saying about the endings; I couldn't tell you my exact EMS off-hand but the readiness bar was fully green and I got the choice, the end cutscene, and a little scene after the credits. How does the multiplayer affect it? I know it brings up the Galactic Readiness percentage but it seemed I saved everyone anyway. I even thought it was a good ending, fit in well with the really desparate feeling of the game. And being honest, I did feel quite heartbroken at times playing it. The first conversation with Thane in the hospital for example, or the scene with Mordin at the end of Tuchanka.


Edit: Sorry Antony, I'd skipped most of this thread to avoid spoilers while I was playing. Just read your post and now I see how it goes.

Got to say though; that ending scene after the credits? I didn't get a "bedtime story" vibe. That's a "passing down the story" scene. It's supposed to be set way into the future after the events of ME3 as far as I can tell. Just because the guy says he'll tell one more story even though it's late doesn't mean it was a made-up fairy tale. Remember, Liara made a record of it all and seeded it on multiple planets (if you remember, the scene where she asks Shepard how he'd like to be remembered).

Also; the choice to kill all synthetics also kills Shepard because of his implants apparently. I didn't pick that ending but that's what the Catalyst said.

Yeah, I know it's not literally a bedtime story. And there's a very popular theory about the ending that makes a hell of a lot of sense. They say that the reason why the destroy ending is painted as being such a bad option to take is because it's the only one that kills the Reapers, and that they're attempting to indoctrinate Shepard. That also explains why the other two are portrayed as much more viable options, even though they kill you. Popular belief is that it will eventually be revealed that the final part of the game is the Reapers making a last ditch effort to try to save their asses by feeding Shepard a bunch of bull**** to try to convince him that he shouldn't destroy them.

The other two options are essentially the viewpoint of Saren and TIM. TIM wants to control the reapers, and Saren wants to try to live alongside them. Both of them got those ideas by becoming indoctrinated. It seems obvious at this point why both of those options kill Shepard, while the destroy ending is the only one that can end with you alive.

Personally, I think that a large amount of what they tell you about the destroy ending is deliberately dishonest, as I said before, as a way of trying to fool you into thinking it's the wrong move. It would also explain why it has the typical renegade color of red, and why the only way to survive your conversation with TIM is to choose renegade options (unless you have 100% paragon). The opposite of what you would have done before is now the right move, because you're under the influence of the Reapers at that point, and they're obviously trying to get you do to their will.

That's why destroy is the only way you survive. Because that's how the story is going to pick up afterward. If you chose control or synergy, you let the Reapers win, but if you chose destroy, even though it's portrayed to you as the evil ******* way to end the game, you did the right thing and didn't bend to their control. You won, and survived. And they lost.

After some serious thought about it, I don't hate the ending nearly as much as I did at first.

You talk as if the ending will actually connect to anything else Bioware may/may not make in the future. It totally won't. People are just trying to come up with BS things to come to terms with the **** deck they've been dealt by Bioware.

Or they've been dealt a fantastic deck and are just obtuse.


The biggest complaint I've seen is that everyone is stranded in Sol System now. Except, they aren't. The Normandy, a relatively small frigate, can cross huge nebulae in seconds. I think the Turians can deal with the few weeks it will take to get to Palaven. My only gripe with the ending was that the destroy option kills the Geth. I made Tali commit suicide for them. I mean, seriously. I liked Tali, but the Quarians were genocidal ****s. I'd rather have saved them if the Geth were going to die anyway.

Also it seems likely that, assuming you romanced her, Liara is carrying Shepard's child. There's the sex scene, of course; but that's not how Asari mate. Once on earth, before the final push, you can talk to Liara and she does something that IIRC is just the thing that the evil Asari does in ME2, right before you die.

Uh, using FTL travel they said it takes like 100 years to get across the galaxy. I hope they have enough suitable food for the Turians and Quarians, not to mention enough fuel.

Also, it doesn't take seconds for the Normandy to travel across a nebula. That's how long it takes in the game's interface.

How many times do you get a call for help from some people in desperate situations, and ignore it while you do a bunch of other missions, and then still arrive there just in time to save everybody? The game makes it pretty clear that travel time is irrelevant in this universe.

Regardless, it makes the control ending more important since, if there is any chance of building new mass relays, the citadel will be key.

A game making concessions for playability? Why, that never happens!

Doesn't mean it fits the story, JM.