Mass Effect 3 ending bug? Insanity trophy bug? PS3 version

The ending you describe is the synthesis ("green") ending, and it's only available if you have a lot of EMS. If the green ending is available, the red and blue endings should also be available. You can only see the dead bodies of your squadmates if you barely have a military, so that's pretty strange.

Normally, if you have barely any effective military strength, you only get one choice, but that's either the blue ending (control) or the red ending (destroy) depending on your choice at the end of Mass Effect 2. To have only the green ending (synthesis) available should be impossible.

And as far as I'm aware, having 4000 EMS without playing multiplayer or the ipad game should also be impossible. Are you sure you have over 4000 effective military strength, or total military strength?

Note that if you have the free Extended Cut DLC, you should be able to get all endings with their best variations at 3100 EMS, which can be achieved with single player alone. It also gives you a fourth ending ("refusal").

Yes, I have 4,000 EMS without having played MP or iPad. I played all the DLC though.

As I understand it, I had choices I could make at the end of the game but the problem is they weren't

signalled effectively. I.e. I just went the shortest route to get the Synthesis ending without realising that you

could take different paths. Why aren't the different choices sign-posted? I.e. SHOW which path leads to which

choice outcome? Just really annoying. 

"Red" and "Blue" endings? Where is that sign-posted in the game? I saw no "Red" and "Green" cues.

I assumed that my squadmates on the Earth mission died because...Anderson (I think), told me so, right?

And at the end of the game, I only saw Joker, EDI and Garrus come out of the Normandy.

It is really, really bad game design that the "choices" the game offers you aren't signalled.

Which path leads to which outcome in the game, so I don't pfaff about wasting any more of my time?

When I first played ME3, I also assumed my squad in London died because Major Coates said the entire squad had been "decimated". The Extended Cut should clear that up, however. It's free DLC and I think it's essential, so I strongly recommend you download it if you haven't already. It fixes the many plot holes this ending is rridled with.

As for the three different endings, the Catalyst explains what each choice entails and the camera zooms in on the path you have to take to get there. There are brief cutscenes that show Anderson using the destroy (red) ending and The Illusive Man using the control (blue) ending. These are color coded for your convenience.

They could have made it more clear by putting the final decision on the dialog wheel, but I think they chose not to it that way because of "action mode", which removes all dialog wheels from the game.

Playing with the Original ending first time round, I do remember the boy mentioning all the options. I just assumed that you'd get the dialogue wheel to choose. Can't say that I remember the camera zooming in anywhere at the time. You did mention a 4th option before...there are only 3 paths...so how is the 4th option signalled?

Are you saying that the colour coding only comes into force with the Extended Cut ending?

On my first play through, Illusive Man killed himself. I did go walkabout for the final walk, looking for goodies, but the game always timed out and I had to reload, so I just skipped exploring that way and went the shortest route...Synthesis.

Again, at least on the Original ending, this was all handled really badly. Got the impression that I had no choice...it was given to me and I was none the wiser

about WTH just happened...including those squadmates I thought had died.

Replaying from my last save - a Hell of a long way to go to reach this spot again - just didn't appeal, re trying the other two paths to see what happened.

Hopefully you're right about the Extended Cut signalling things better, but I might want to complete my current Insanity run on Original ending first, then play the last two missions on Extended Cut ending.

* So, on original ending, what are the three paths' outcomes, re Left path, Middle path (Synthesis),  Right path? And how does that 4th option work? 4th option work with the Extended Cut ending only?

I'll mark your last response as a solution to my OP even though I haven't verified it myself...I'll trust you!

The only question that remains about your solution is the outcome for the 4th option you mentioned...i.e. who/what lives/dies when you

choose that option?

* Ooh...forgot this question...I have seen advice online that your final EMS score is halved IF you haven't played the online components

and improved your Readiness rating there. Getting conflicting advice re this. Also, are there some solo online challenges you can do

for this game apart from the Galaxy At War map one? I thought I saw one the other day but if I did, I can't find it again now. Link?

Unrelated matter...I've got the Collector's Edition of ME3...I can't access the soundtrack that that is supposed to come with.

I've tried following the advice from this page as to how to access that music but it doesn't work for me. I've got a PSN account...

tried both inputting my code there and here. Still no Soundtrack appearing on my profile here for me to download...I've only been

able to download the Extended Cut Soundtrack. Can you help with that? The Support here is pretty appalling...when I do connect with

a person, I can't type anything in the field where text is meant to go!

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@deefleece wrote:

The only question that remains about your solution is the outcome for the 4th option you mentioned...i.e. who/what lives/dies when you

choose that option?

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@deefleece wrote:

* Ooh...forgot this question...I have seen advice online that your final EMS score is halved IF you haven't played the online components

and improved your Readiness rating there. Getting conflicting advice re this. Also, are there some solo online challenges you can do

for this game apart from the Galaxy At War map one? I thought I saw one the other day but if I did, I can't find it again now. Link?

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There was a game on iPad called "Mass Effect Infiltrator" that gave extra war assets, but I don't know if that still works. Other than that, it's just the galaxy at war game and multiplayer.

To furhter clarify, EMS is the value after your war assets are reduced. EMS is Total Military Strength modified by galactic readiness. The lowest possible value of galactic readiness is 50%, so EMS would be only 50% of your war assets. Multiplayer games increase galactic readiness and you can promote your multiplayer characters so they become war assets.

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@deefleece wrote:

Unrelated matter...I've got the Collector's Edition of ME3...I can't access the soundtrack that that is supposed to come with.

I've tried following the advice from this page as to how to access that music but it doesn't work for me. I've got a PSN account...

tried both inputting my code there and here. Still no Soundtrack appearing on my profile here for me to download...I've only been

able to download the Extended Cut Soundtrack. Can you help with that? The Support here is pretty appalling...when I do connect with

a person, I can't type anything in the field where text is meant to go!

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The soundtrack should be on the user entitlements page once you've registered the code: https://social.bioware.com/user_entitlements.php

However, if your code isn't accepted, I'm afraid you'll have to try official support again. The support site can be buggy on some browsers. I've read that Opera works best. Chrome might be fine as well.

re Spoiler...yeah, sounds about right!

I managed to 100% my Galaxy at War map and I saw that prior to that, my EMS was ALREADY halved in those figures I quoted previously.

I.e. my EMS with 50% readiness was about 4,000+. With 100% galactic readiness my EMS jumped to around 8,000+, which answers my own question.

I must say, what a brain dead activity that GAW is! Will have to see how quickly my galactic readiness declines...as I'm not envisaging starting the final mission for possibly weeks. However, it's a good thing that your galactic readiness rating - if gotten to a 100% - applies to ANY Career you might want to play with. I.e. not just limited to whatever game you are currently playing...you switch your Shepards or start a new game and have the GAW stats apply to that as well. Glad that they didn't multiply the brain deadness of it all by making you do it for every Career!

re Collectors' Edition soundtrack...don't see it. I'm wondering if this relates to the problem (just on PSN?) of the game NEVER completing the "Checking download content" search prior to the start of the game? I CAN  press Triangle on my PS3 controller to connect to the EA servers and that updates my GAW stats, but the "Checking" bit is another matter entirely.

Like I said, I've entered my CE promo code multiple times on PSN, I've redownloaded the DLC for N7 recently again and even tried entering the promo code on my PC. Still nothing coming up.

I would LIKE to be able to email someone to resolve this issue..maybe redeem my soundtrack via that method. Their current system sucks.

P.S. I just noticed that there is an email resolution service. Tried it now. If that doesn't work, then that just shows you how bad their customer service is. I paid for their product and I can't even get the product that I paid for onto my PC!

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@deefleece wrote:

I must say, what a brain dead activity that GAW is! Will have to see how quickly my galactic readiness declines...as I'm not envisaging starting the final mission for possibly weeks.

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How far in the game are you now? Your EMS score gets locked down once you start the mission on Cronos Station before going to Earth. If it's 100% when you start that, then it doesn't matter if it goes down to 50%.

Can't help with your soundtrack woes. I'm very unfamiliar with the PS3. The last PlayStation system I used was the PS2, and while we have a PS4 in the house, I never played on it. If you have Spotify, you can find the soundtrack there, but that beats the point of buying the soundtrack to begin with.

Normally EA's support is really good, but you can be unlucky and get a less skilled support agent. You should ask them to link the soundtrack entitlement to your account. Maybe send a tweet to http://twitter.com/askeasupport with your support ticket and they can escalate the issue.

Fred_vdp wrote:

How far in the game are you now? Your EMS score gets locked down once you start the mission on Cronos Station before going to Earth. If it's 100% when you start that, then it doesn't matter if it goes down to 50%.

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   I just started my DLCs for the first time last night...Leviathan. Left them til last...after the DLC, I'll do Attack Cerberus HQ mission. Good to hear that the EMS gets locked in, in any case. Oddly - and I"m not sure whether this is due to a glitch or perhaps a time-lag issue between PC play and PS3 play, but my EMS on PC was 100% with more % stewing on the stove but on PS3 it was at 99%. Be interesting to know what EMS is on my 1st completed playthrough Shepard...hopefully I won't have to keep switching to that to update it. Good to see though that the Galaxy At War stats apply to all Careers though. Left the DLC to last because I'm dreading having to face Shepard in the final fight in Shore Leave as well as that final fight in Omega...really doubt that I'll make it through those on Insanity! Might get some weapon DLCs to help with that...hopefully.

Fred_vdp wrote:

Can't help with your soundtrack woes. I'm very unfamiliar with the PS3. The last PlayStation system I used was the PS2, and while we have a PS4 in the house, I never played on it. If you have Spotify, you can find the soundtrack there, but that beats the point of buying the soundtrack to begin with.

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   Fortunately EA did get back to me via email and I've downloaded the soundtrack. Hopefully no glitches with that, although I don't see my Extended Cut soundtrack download option on my profile on PC...maybe because I've already downloaded it? The EC s/t was in WAV form...not sure how high the audio quality was in that though...hopefully at least CD quality. I did reply to EA's email but not sure if that will get through...which would be annoying, i.e. having to go through the whole process again via their website only.

   My first console was the N64...which I thought actually looked to have better graphics than the PS2, which was my next console...e.g. the shiny, reflective floorboards on NBA Hangtime or whatever it was called on N64.  Having bought a PS3 and for the most part - mostly the first year or two with the games that I played - not loving the games, I did think that maybe I might have enjoyed the 360 more..."grass is greener" and all that. Not a big FPS fan, but Halo and Gears Of War were well regarded, it seems. I do have an XBone. Unopened. Got a pile of unplayed PS3 games still! At least the Mass Effect trilogy is off that "to do" list  now! My XBone came with the Master Chief collection. The games I liked best on PS3 were not exclusive to the PS3...e.g. I quite liked the first two  Bioshock games (I do own Infinite, but not played that yet) but the Uncharted series was something that I didn't fall in love with. However, I did get to play Metal Gear Solid 4 late in the piece and got my first Big Boss rank in that series, so that made PS3 worth getting. Hopefully it won't be tied to one console anymore in any case.

   re Support via Twitter...maybe I'll have to create a Twitter account...better, you think? The Support did provide a link to the soundtrack on my profile here, which was good...once I located my profile! Hate having 3 accounts here!

P.S. the Support guy on email mentioned My Cases as a way of reviewing my issues...not sure how interactive that is and whether you can further communicate with Support via that...now I'd have to find where the Hell that part of the system is! Think I looked at it a while back and not sure that it was interactive.

P.P.S. Argggh! Tried installing the soundtrack and got the message: "Can not open file 'C:/Users/...' as archive".

This is a massive PITA! Didn't have this problem with the Extended Cut soundtrack either.