How to play Mass Effect 3: Special Edition on Mac

Game summary

Mass Effect 3 plunges you into an all-out galactic war to take Earth back from a nearly unstoppable foe – and how you fight that war is entirely up to you. Groundbreaking interactive storytelling drives the heart-pounding action in which each decision you make could have dire and deadly consequences. You are Commander Shepard, the only one who can save Earth from annihilation. BioWare makes its debut on the Nintendo console with the gripping blockbuster game of the year: Mass Effect 3 - coming to the Wii U console with brand new features and content that fully take advantage of the Wii U hardware. Command the battlefield like never before by using the Wii U GamePad to issue commands and unleash devastating attacks. Bonus content includes a new mission and squad member, an exclusive new weapon, the Extended Cut ending, and an interactive backstory experience detailing previous events in the Mass Effect universe.
First released: Nov 2012

Play Mass Effect 3: Special Edition on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play Mass Effect 3: Special Edition on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

Mass Effect 3: Special Edition installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install Mass Effect 3: Special Edition like you would on any PC.
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