Mass Effect 3

[Reznor]

Readiness, or Total Effectiveness? The last number is what really counts.

[Jakanden]

I cannot recall which is which. I have done nearly every quest I have come across and have most systems 100% scanned.

[Reznor]

Total Military Strength is the total "War Assets" that you have collected. This is then multiplied by the "Readiness Rating", resulting in the Effective Military Strength total.

If you never touch the multi-player portion, your Readiness rating will ALWAYS be 50%, meaning that your Total Military Strength is effectively halved. You want as high of a Effective Military Strength rating as you can get. It IS possible to get the "best" ending in Single-player only, but you really have to bust your ass to do it.

Exact way ending is determined below (Spoiler, but no actual endings described)

The ending you get is determined by two things: Whether or not you destroyed the Collectors' base in Mass Effect 2, and your Effective Military Strength. There are sixteen possible endings, each happening at the various levels of Effective Military Strength. I won't say exactly what the endings are, but here are each ending "Tiers"

Less than 1,750 ("Worst" Ending)
1751-2050
2051-2350
2351-2650
2651-2800
2801-4000
4000-5000
More than 5,000 ("Best" Ending)

Whether or not you destroyed the Collectors' base determines endings at the middle of the tiers, such as the ending for 2,350 Effective Military Strength is completely different based on the Collector base alone.

The "best" ending does not make me happy. I'll leave it at that.

[Jakanden]

Well shit I can go get the best ending right now then

[Reznor]

Ugh. It is quite hard not to go on a complete, scathing rant about the ending(s) right now.

I will say, however, Mass Effect 3 is like the best sex you will have in your lifetime, enjoying every possible moment during it, slowly building up towards the climax and ending... and just as you come, the person you are with quickly turns and bricks right in your mouth.

[Ekkebus]

Just make a spoilerrific thread in the General forum for it.

I'm already tired of hearing people complain about it, and I don't want it to color my opinion when actually do wrap the game up. I'm at 27 hours and I still feel like I have quite a bit left since I've been pretty meticulous about my sidequesting and exploration.

[Jakanden]

I should have it finished tonight. The only questline I missed was Grissom Academy as I didn't realize there was the aformentioned time limit. As such, I missed out on seeing Jack which kind of pissed me off, but I did watch it on YouTube to see what I missed.

[Jakanden]

Finished the game and I am going to be the asshole who says I have no problem with the ending. It made sense to me and while I can see why it would upset some people, I thought it fit.

[Ekkebus]

Had another pretty big emotional moment on Rannoch tonight. If it weren't for Tuchanka that would have easily been my favorite Bioware mission. I should be able to finish the game with one more decent sitting, then I can finally see what all the goddamn fuss over the ending is all about.

[Ekkebus]

FINISHED!

And I really liked the ending. Sorry internet.

[Jakanden]

Holy shit, someone agrees with me about the ending? Didn't expect that.

[gobbleskat]

This is very encouraging to hear.

Just started the Quarian mission before I stopped last night. Short as it was my man date with Garris was one of my favorite moments in the series so far.

[Ekkebus]

Obviously I'm not going to go into details about the ending in this thread but frankly there was nothing about the ending I got that justified the level of vitriol emanating from certain corners of the internet. It's also worth noting that the people I know on a personal level have all liked it as well. Except Rez anyway. Honestly I don't think I could be happier with this game, it delivered for me on every level. The shooting was fun and fast paced, the story was emotional and dramatic and the characters were as charming and funny as they've ever been.

I do have a couple of beefs with the game but I'd say they're relatively minor. First, I was definitely bummed by the limited squad size. At most you have 6 characters to choose from (7 if you buy the DLC) but potentially you could only have three depending on who died in Mass Effect 2 and if you even care to let Ashley/Kaiden back on your ship. On top of that the only biotic character you have available is Liara, everyone else is either pure soldier, pure engineer or a half soldier/half engineer. I suppose if you had Kaiden instead of Ashley, you'd have some more Biotic but then you'd have even MORE engineering. It's not a huge deal but it definitely feels limiting after the bigger, more varied cast of Mass Effect 2.

I'm also slightly miffed at how the multiplayer plays back into the single player. Yes, you can get the 'best' ending without playing any multiplayer but it takes a lot of work in this game, and also is dependent on your decisions in past games as well. I hoenstly wouldn't have broken the magic number if I hadn't been suckered into some matches with JoeCam and Kat a few days ago. Now, I actually do appreciate the fact that it does have an effect, and I like it there as an option to help give your forces a boost if you miss stuff but I think the numbers are a bit too harsh. It just bugged me that I was basically only getting half-credit for all the recruiting and exploring I was doing because I hadn't touched the multiplayer. Honestly I'd say just have the number default to 100% and then have that number increase to 150% as you play multi. It's more psychological than anything, and again I don't think its necessarily that big a deal but it did bug me a little.

That said though, the multiplayer is actually pretty damn fun. I didn't find it as engaging as something like Horde or L4D but those are the best of the best. I liken it more to how I feel about Gears 3 Beast Mode where it's fun to just jump in with a bunch of friends and wreck shit for 20 minutes. The booster pack style unlock system is unique among multiplayer modes that I've played, plus it's just really cool to be able to check out other classes and powers without having to fire up a whole new character for single player. Overall I'd recommend at least giving it a go, you might be surprised how much you actually like it.

[Reznor]

Just curious, how many people have actually viewed all of the possible endings?

If you haven't, (Spoiler below)

Your "choice" does nothing more than change the color of the explosions. Oh, and some different text. So all of the various decisions you made through the past three games doesn't amount to a bag of dicks.

That's pretty much it.

My beef isn't with the endings themselves. My gripe is with how the ending(s) were presented. The whole thing reeks of the "Choose your own Ending" that was at the end of Deus Ex: HR. I'm completely fine with ambiguous, somewhat vague endings to games. Makes for salivating for a possible further sequel.

Tim edit - arguably spoilers. I took it out.

[Jakanden]

Maybe BioWare considers Mass Effect 3 to be one giant "ending" in and of itself?

I know I do, as do some others. Also, yes I have watched all the endings.