I beat this. Quite enjoyed it! it was definitely Bioware doing well what Bioware does best.
Regarding the endings: [spoiler]Talking the Illusive Man into suicide was not as awesome as when I did it to Saren. But it was still better than the Human Reaper Embryo.
The final choice seemed kind of... arbitrary. Kill all robots, or take control of the Reapers, or forcibly combine all life into a new form and blow up the Mass Relays, apparently. How the hell do those choices make any sense, or have anything to do with what led up to the decision? The part where all synthetic life is exterminated struck me as particularly dumb because some of my best friends are synthetic life, and synthesis struck me as not particularly different from what the Reapers were already doing.
Perhaps they rung hollow because they never really sold me on the basic theme of the setting, namely, that there's any damn difference at all between organic and synthetic life. I could only roll my eyes when this almighty transcendent life form that's so powerful that the writers didn't even deign to tell us what it is insisted that the fundamental question about which the galaxy spins is whether the electrons of consciousness are surrounded by metal things or squishy things.
Anyway, I chose to control the Reapers because that seemed like the least objectionable. Maybe I'd be able to tell them to kill some synthetic life, namely themselves, and then the galaxy could go about rebuilding itself, y'know? But all that seemed to happen as a result was that the Normandy crash-landed on some planet and then the credits rolled.[/spoiler] But then the game crashed to desktop during the end credits, so if there was anything after that then I'll have to go through it again. I wonder when my last save was.
I easily maxed out the war assets bar even though the readiness rating never stopped being 50%; I assume multiplayer had something to do with this. Would having it lower or higher have made a difference?
Well, despite any misgivings one might have about the destination, it was a hell of a journey. Characters and scenarios are always the high point of a Bioware game, rather than overarching plot, and this was no exception; I might be able to be more lucid about some specifics after I've had a chance to track down some answers.
Regarding the matter of [spoiler]the stock photo[/spoiler], I didn't see it at all. I mean, I know what it looks like, but it didn't appear in my game. Do you have to [spoiler]bone Tali[/spoiler] or something, or is it just an elaborate prank, or what?