Want the best Mass Effect 3 ending? Don't worry about Galactic Readiness

OXM: Quick refresh for the late-comers: your job in Mass Effect 3 is to mooch around a war-troubled galaxy, approaching representatives of key races and factions and saying things like "hey kids, why not put aside your stupid centuries-old sectarian differences so we can all concentrate on giving Johnny Reaper a jolly good stuffing". Once they're on board, races and factions contribute their warriors, fleets and so forth to your War Assets total, which in turn feeds into your Effective Military Strength. The higher the EMS, the more likely you are to administer said jolly good stuffing.

[FrankDrebin]

Shhhhh, I'm still playing this game.

[Philoctetes]

I'm enjoying this game, but parts of it are still leaving a bad taste in my mouth. First you have day one DLC feauring story-driven content that was cut from the retail release. And now you have the single player experience being polluted by the multiplayer. This is almost a parody of what's wrong with this generation of games.

[jrbeerman11]

the multiplayer can help the single if needed but not necessary.

I like this idea, as my first playthrough will consist of thoroughly going through game; completing all side missions, talking to everyone, trying to experience as much as possible.

In subsequent playthroughs i will then utilize multiplayer in order to skip the more forgettable side missions (get quest citadel, scan, return to citadel). allows me to get a better experience by changing it up and picking WHAT I WANT TO DO, in order to get best ending.

Everyone that says that the multi is affecting the single player negatively because IT CAN make it easier, is jumping to conclusions.

[MarkusMcNugen]

Why is this even in the hottest bar? This same type of article was on N4G days ago... with the same exact quote.

[snipes101]

I was wondering the same thing. It is beyond me how you got even one disagree.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

So if the ending i got was their best ending then i dont know what to say. My EMS was about 5625 and i didnt do 3 side quests because i forgot to collect something during the quest. I chose bad and good ending and their basically the same no matter how you try to spin it. I have 0 hope for Dragon Age 3 after they fucked up ME3 ending.

[PersonaCat]

I have yet to play ME3, but by this description it sounds EXACTLY like the plot from dragon age. Can't help but remember that graph that was floating around a few years ago that had basically the plot of all Bioware games being the same.

[Simon_Brezhnev]

I remember that chart. Had the baldur gate games on there 2.

[SneeringImperialist]

I got the best ending possible, but it still sucked lol.

[Rowland]

when's Mass Effect 4 coming out ?

[CyrusLemont]

[FREE OF SPOILERS]

What a load of s***, you actually do need to have the galactic readiness to be above 50%, otherwise it only gives you 50% of your total military strength. You need to have 5000+ EMS for the perfect ending (The one with the scene after the credits) and the total military strength you can get is only about 7000, which means 3500 EMS, this is with a perfect import from ME1/ME2. I'm so angry right now, just spent $130 getting a game without a proper ending which requires an extra $70 (Xbl Gold). Not to mention the Prothean DLC which I can't even access because of my slow net, which would be another expense for this game. I was such a faithful Bioware fan up until this point.

What was even worse is that they lied about the Prothean DLC being made after production, it apparently came on the PC discs hidden deep within the files.

F**K YOU EA! You've destroyed what once was a brilliant videogame developer. Someone needs to shoot them down.

[SneeringImperialist]

EA are the reapers they wipe out all decent game franchises every 5 years... lol

[Jormungandr]

sounds to me like your mistake was buying the game for a system that requires you to pay twice to play online.

Hence why I still don't own a 360. The only game I would want that I cant get on pc or ps3 is Halo3... and I beat the sp campaign for Halo3 at a friends house... and I'd sooner drink raw sewage than pay a second time to get microsoft to stop preventing me from playing online.

Btw... the multiplayer in me3 is actually pretty damned good... I was very surprised. Perhaps you should avoid buying multiplayer games for the 360 in the future?

[CyrusLemont]

I never planned to play Xbox live multiplayer games, only single player but as it seems online has become an integrated part of the experience which I just can't afford.

I did own a PS3 but it broke lol, so I got a 360 instead.

That's just it! Mass Effect wasn't supposed to be a multiplayer game, it was supposed to be a massive single player trilogy. Bioware said that the multiplayer in the game wouldn't effect the main story, but it in fact does and its the ending as well.

After playing through a trilogy, putting in all that time and money, do you think that's fair for me or anyone else who doesn't play live or doesn't have access to the net to not being able to see the whole ending? It's just frustrating.

[Jormungandr]

I dunno what this joker is smoking... but... while you can "win" without playing the multiplayer... you can NOT get the best ending.

I'm 300 points shy of the best possible military strength rating, have a perfect me1 and 2 playthrough, and yet at 50% galactic readiness the best ending is not even close to being available.

Good thing i didn't make the mistake of getting it for 360.