User blog comment:Leader Vladimir/Mass Effect 3 Doubts/@comment-1221773-20110619191408

1. BioWare reps have explained that ME3 will be the end of Shepard's story, not the end of the franchise.

2. The Reapers appear to be attacking other planets aside from Earth. The Game Informer preview recounts a sequence where a thresher maw takes on a Reaper with krogan and turian forces around, so that's probably not on Earth. The E3 "Reaper Base" demo also doesn't look like it happens on Earth because of the giant geth facility that was built there; I'm thinking that mission may be set on Rannoch (Shepard does call for an orbital strike from "the fleet". The Migrant Fleet?), but we'll see.

3. This has been broadly touched on in various previews. I think I can summarize it like so: you'll be helping the various other races with their issues (Reaper-related and otherwise) and gathering enough support to build a fleet large enough to reclaim Earth. What you do to build this fleet can dramatically affect ME3's ending.

4. Probably, seeing as one of ME3's plotlines involves the quarians attempting to take back Rannoch from the geth. If that doesn't settle the conflict, I don't know what will.

5. Possibly. One of the decisions that's supposed to carry over from ME2 is if you saved Maelon's genophage research. The salarians are also in an uproar over what to do about the genophage in ME3.

6. The E3 demos may have cleared this up. There's a conversation between Liara and Shepard as they're fighting in that mission on Sur'Kesh in which Shepard remarks that the Cerberus troops are indoctrinated. ME: Evolution's revelation that the Illusive Man was exposed to Reaper technology may link to this somehow.

7. No news on this yet.

8. No more news about squadmates since the first five/six were confirmed. ME3 will have a smaller squad than ME2, though. I would guess that at least some of ME2's squadmates will be full-time.

9. No news about this. All we know is Liara is a squadmate in ME3, and whatever explanation BioWare gives for that will be fine by me.

10. No news here either. I don't think the answer will be all that exciting, just Ashley/Kaidan going above the call of duty, etc. Same general reasons Shepard was selected.

11. No news about the trial, if that's what you mean.