In Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the trilogy's best ending is still available if you only play ME3
But you'll need to complete "almost all" content available.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition features BioWare's full trilogy in its most accessible form yet - but it also lets you pick and choose to play individual games.
Perhaps you just want to play Mass Effect 3? Or maybe you want to start with ME2, as the series fleshes out its roster of characters, and skip ME1's Mako?
Well, all of this - as it always did - plays into the trilogy's big finale. Avoiding spoilers, it's worth remembering that whatever Shepard's own individual choices might be, these choices are also affected by how many War Assets you've collected across the trilogy.
It was always the case that players with saves from ME1 and ME2 would be recognised with things they may have done or collected in those games. It was also previously the case that your preparations for the finale - your Galactic Readiness - could be influenced by ME2's multiplayer mode, which is not part of the Legendary Edition.
To better balance all of that, BioWare has tweaked the weighting of various War Assets, while also ensuring you can still reach the best tier of Galactic Readiness even if you skip both ME1 and ME2, and only play ME3.
But be warned, BioWare has said - if you choose to only play ME3, it will require a thorough playthrough.
"The Galactic Readiness scale has been rebalanced and now is solely influenced by the content you complete across the entire trilogy," BioWare said in a note provided with review copies of Legendary Edition. "If you jump straight into Mass Effect 3, you'll need to complete almost all of the content available if you're aiming for an ending that saves the most lives."
I don't know why you wouldn't do this anyway, but after speaking to Martin this week who blasted through ME3 in 15 hours and killed everyone, it's worth the PSA.
Finally, as with various other games, Microsoft will support save roaming between generations (Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S), while Sony does not between PS4 and PS5.
For more Mass Effect, I recently sat down with lead writer Mac Walters to discuss how BioWare began planning ME3 - read on for details of a cut Reaper boss, switched missions and more.