[Megathread] Mass Effect 3

[Snakes on a Plainstrider]

A few thoughts on ME3 endings (inb4 "Not that crap again")

THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR PRETTY MUCH ALL KINDS OF GAMES AS WELL AS A COUPLE OF BOOKS

First of all, I think that INDOCTRINATION THEORY (caps lock makes everything sound more intimidating) does make sense and has some interesting points, but I'm not going to get into that discussion as there are already enough people brainstorming it over and over again. Instead I am more concerned with what really happens while we're hallucinating in London and when (if) we come to our senses.
So yeah let's say it's all a lie, Shepard-Commander is high on stuff, Reapers are messing with his/her head, the Catalyst is not a random creepy god child and Harbinger is Jon Snow's mother (because every good theory needs that part). But then what is the Catalyst and what really awaits us past Marauder Shields? I've come up with a few theories:

Theory One: Bolvar is the Catalyst
Well, that's a pretty much obvious one. Once on top of the Citadel, you get a cutscene where the Catalyst encases Anderson in stasis, and then you fight it (it's easy, just don't stand in Indoctrinate and watch out for Harvesters trying to grab you) and eventually it insta-kills once it's health drops low enogh. Anderson then goes all deus ex human revolution machina and breaks free, and Illusive Man's ghost casts Project Lazarus on you (make sure to accept ressurretion). The three of you finish the boy off, and then there's another cutscene:
ILLUSIVE MAN'S GHOST: Without their master's command, the restless Reapers will become an even greater threat to this galaxy. Control must be maintained. There must always be... [dramatic explosion] a Reaper King Catalyst!
SHEPARD: The weight of such a burden... it must be mine! For this sounds like a Paragon op-
BOLVAR: The Reapers' death rays... sealed my fate. The world of the living can no longer comfort me. Place the Crucible...
ANDERSON: That SOB looks like a husk, I say we kill him.
And then you are presented with a choice of:
No random creepy guy, I can not. (which results in him becoming the Catalyst anyway and Shepard vowing not to tell anybody and then uploading a holo-vid of what happened there to teh extranets)
[Kill him]
and
I have to go.
And regardless of your choice ME4 focuses on pandas being uplifted by salarians to become a dominant race in the galaxy. Deal with it.

Theory Two: Make Love Not Crucibles
When the Catalyst tells you that you have to sacrifice yourself in order to defeat the Reapers and end the Bl invasion, Liara emerges with another solution. All you have to do is impregnate her (or EDI - now that would be the true SYNTHESIS ending) and then kill the Archreaper err I mean Harbinger with her around. If you don't like the idea or if Shepard is female, you have the opportunity to make Joker ("You'll have to forgive me if I close my eyes and think of EDI"), Garrus ("You'll have to forgive me if I close my eyes and think of calibrations") or the Illusive Man ("You'll have to forgive me if I close my eyes and think of Shepard") do the job for you. And then the game pits you against the Harbinger and waves of husks, and you can summon krogan, rachni, geth or thresher maws to help you in that battle. Should be pretty trivial since none of them can shoot fireballs that knock friendlies down (damn you, Irving!)
But that doesn't really matter since ME4 focuses on adventures of some random guy on some random remote colony and the last boss is a pissed-off permanent PMS justicar indoctrinated by a pistol made of red eezo. Anderson merges with Javik and blows up the Citadel, Dumbledore dies and pandas are uplifted anyway.

Theory Three: Reaper Men / a Song of Synthetics and Organics
Shepard is actually not hallucinating somewhere in London, but rather lies in coma since the blast that destroyed the first Normandy and dreaming. With a little help from Cerberus and the Shadow Broker (who is actually a bald eunuch) he/she recovers, beats ME2 again and is court-martialed and executed in front of the crew and the terrified players because, you know, you shouldn't have trusted Petyr Bae the Illusive Man. But don't worry, there's still ME4, and ME5, and all the way to ME7. Liara marries Harbinger and hatches three little Protheans from seemingly inactive lifepods, and names one Shepard. Pandas are still uplifted but then betrayed and slaughtered during a wedding feast because nobody's safe out there since BioWare's got a new writer.


Theory Four: Thank You Shepard But Our Catalyst is in Another Citadel
Self-explanatory. ME4 is the same as ME3 except there are pandas.

[Deleted]

<SNIP FOR HUGE TEXT>

... What the heck did I just read? :'D Hahah. Thanks for ending my evening in a huge burst of laughter. <3

[FlawlessSoul]

<SNIP>

If I didn't have a throat and chest infection I would have laughed my ass off. As it is, I chuckled and gurgled a bit.

Wonderful stuff.

[crazysmacker]

Wall o' Text

My car alarm just went off, i laughed THAT hard.

[Daverid]

SNIP

BAHAHAHAH I DIED WITH LAUGHTER.

Side Note .. I SO CAN'T WAIT FOR PAX EAST... The QUESTIONS BioWare is going to receive on that Panel on April 6th is GOING TO BE AMAZING. I can't wait to watch them all SQUIRM when (Hopefully) the Crowd asks some hard-hitting questions.

[looopy]

Sure its been linked but i cant get over this picture
KINDA SPOILERISHHY


oh and

[Kaelwryn]

Yes the game is great but I'd love it more if they kept the same quest tracking system as in ME2. The journal in ME3 is close to useless.

100% agree. My friend and I were talking about that yesterday actually! We really don't understand why they changed it. :\

[Dayon]

ME3 made a lot of things worth it, ending being balls or not. I bought a three-monitor gaming setting with which I wanted to do surround gaming. I hoped it would put me in the zone.

It so did.

I could go on and on about how the buzz I was getting from the rum I was drinking put me, like, there, man.

[Duncanîdaho]

ME3 made a lot of things worth it, ending being balls or not. I bought a three-monitor gaming setting with which I wanted to do surround gaming. I hoped it would put me in the zone.

It so did.

I could go on and on about how the buzz I was getting from the rum I was drinking put me, like, there, man.

Earth must have been wild like that, especially the final assault. I don't know about you but I play on Insanity. There were so many guys to kill, they just keep coming. As I said, must have been wild with a setup like that. It had my heart pumping on my not even HD big box TV. The only other two times I was that zoned into the game was probably the first time I did the suicide mission, and surviving the entire time solo on the Arrival DLC.

[Deleted]

FFS, stupid woman toying with us D:

@JessicaMerizan Also, we don't see a wound on Anderson after Shepard shoots him, another bug.

@JessicaMerizan
@SomeRandomGuy82 bug or intentional by the devs?

[Kaneiac]

FFS, stupid woman toying with us D:

She's just a CM. She also thought that the Normandy crashed on Earth before like 40 people jumped on her about it.

She's just trying to placate people. But, that is her job.

[Deleted]

She's just a CM. She also thought that the Normandy crashed on Earth before like 40 people jumped on her about it.

She's just trying to placate people. But, that is her job.

Don't really see how posting something like that is placating

[Scorage]

Earth must have been wild like that, especially the final assault. I don't know about you but I play on Insanity. There were so many guys to kill, they just keep coming. As I said, must have been wild with a setup like that. It had my heart pumping on my not even HD big box TV. The only other two times I was that zoned into the game was probably the first time I did the suicide mission, and surviving the entire time solo on the Arrival DLC.

Insanity playthrough was mindblowing for me. I just hated those Engineers who recharged shields, fixed mechs, placed turrets then when I take a shot at them a centruion rushes in and smokes my ass so the engineer can go on about his merry way, but then I move around to get a clear sight, but then again all the covers I'm moving into gets a grenade surprise thanks to those assault troopers and centurions and when I use my talents to get rid of their shields, WHAM goes the actual shield onto my face and TA-DAAAAAAAA goes the guardian who flanked my back and then I go "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

I first did the Eden Prime for Javik, and I died sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many times until I got used to Cerberus' tactics. AI is good, sure they have their dull moments but they protected each other so well. I got stuck on a few places thanks to Cerberus. Husks I could handle no problem thanks to my powers but since 1 red grenade indicator means you are dead on insanity, Cerberus gets the cake. (Seriously I had 1100 HP and 1200 Shields as a Sentinel on Insanity LVL 60 and 1 grenade is still overkill.)

I've got a Logitech Z5500 with a G19, while my monitor is just 23', the sound was good enough to get me hooked. Combat was so fast paced. I could easily hide it out in ME 2 insanity since only Mechs and Vanguards tried to get into my face, but ME 3 was a whole different story. (Revenant with 5.1 setup. MOAR DAKKA!)

I only wish they did an ultra cool space fight scene for Normandy like in the first 2.

[Deleted]

Insanity playthrough was mindblowing for me. I just hated those Engineers who recharged shields, fixed mechs, placed turrets then when I take a shot at them a centruion rushes in and smokes my ass so the engineer can go on about his merry way, but then I move around to get a clear sight, but then again all the covers I'm moving into gets a grenade surprise thanks to those assault troopers and centurions and when I use my talents to get rid of their shields, WHAM goes the actual shield onto my face and TA-DAAAAAAAA goes the guardian who flanked my back and then I go "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

I first did the Eden Prime for Javik, and I died sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many times until I got used to Cerberus' tactics. AI is good, sure they have their dull moments but they protected each other so well. I got stuck on a few places thanks to Cerberus. Husks I could handle no problem thanks to my powers but since 1 red grenade indicator means you are dead on insanity, Cerberus gets the cake. (Seriously I had 1100 HP and 1200 Shields as a Sentinel on Insanity LVL 60 and 1 grenade is still overkill.)

I've got a Logitech Z5500 with a G19, while my monitor is just 23', the sound was good enough to get me hooked. Combat was so fast paced. I could easily hide it out in ME 2 insanity since only Mechs and Vanguards tried to get into my face, but ME 3 was a whole different story. (Revenant with 5.1 setup. MOAR DAKKA!)

I only wish they did an ultra cool space fight scene for Normandy like in the first 2.

Yeah between Easy/Normal and Insanity are WORLDS. My first playthrough was on normal and it was a walk in the park on my sniper infiltrator. I oneshot all mobs except the brutes and other big guys with the Javelin. My companions where just standing there and doing nothing because I killed everyone. The grenades did no damage and you could just ignore them at all. The only dangerous thing was Phantoms when they reach you and brutes/banshees when they get into close range. That is the only insta kill at all.

Insanity .... If feels like a totally new game after playing normal and a bit of madness. So much things to consider, like your team mates and their powers, positioning and stuff. The other modes are simply not comparable to insanity because they are a so easy.

[Duncanîdaho]

I first did the Eden Prime for Javik, and I died sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo many times until I got used to Cerberus' tactics. AI is good, sure they have their dull moments but they protected each other so well. I got stuck on a few places thanks to Cerberus. Husks I could handle no problem thanks to my powers but since 1 red grenade indicator means you are dead on insanity, Cerberus gets the cake. (Seriously I had 1100 HP and 1200 Shields as a Sentinel on Insanity LVL 60 and 1 grenade is still overkill.)

I have nightmares of those damn grenades. Cannibals shoot them too, but not to the extent Cerberus uses them. Half the fight against Cerberus on insanity is moving from cover to cover dodging those things and making sure you don't get shot in the face in the process or flanked. Biotic charge saved my ass so many times.

I swear 9/10 of all my deaths on insanity was because of those grenades. That and banshee's mixed with other troops, god damn that's a nightmare. Also, I figured out that if you completely go for gearing your shield, and you have Javik's 20% shield squad bonus ability, Shepard's shield building abilities in fitness, and defense matrix from EDI, you can survive if your on the very furthest range from the grenade if you have full health and shield and are moving away. Just barely.

I always rolled with Liara and Javik, they work amazing with my vanguard, biotic explosions everywhere.

[Scorage]

Thankfully grenades were not as rage inducing as they were in CoD 5. Anyone who played it on Veteran knows that Japanese have more grenades than sperms. ME 3 Insanity was usually 1 grenade if I stick to same cover, otherwise they would try to grenade my squadmates or flank me rather than just spam grenade like in CoD.

[Duncanîdaho]

Thankfully grenades were not as rage inducing as they were in CoD 5. Anyone who played it on Veteran knows that Japanese have more grenades than sperms. ME 3 Insanity was usually 1 grenade if I stick to same cover, otherwise they would try to grenade my squadmates or flank me rather than just spam grenade like in CoD.

They must like you then lol. I had to get into the habit of always looking for two covers nearby I could cycle between to deal with grenade spam.

[Scorage]

Yea I always kept as mobile as I could once I figured Cerberus doesn't like to wait you to pop out of cover, they like to pop you while you are in cover.

[Nerraw]

FFS, stupid woman toying with us D:

And now I had just calmed down regarding wanting new stuff! /rage

I need April 6th!

[Deleo]

SNIP

A part of me just died and it was a happy death.