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[GarandMarine]

O_O

[LeeC]

I'm really hoping no more Shepard, Reapers, or old Crew.  A brand new storyline with new characters and adventures.

[Blue Kitty]

It's pretty, but it doesn't really show much

[94ssd]

I've never been a Mass Effect fan, so the most exciting part about this for me is the end of "Mass Effect 4 confirmed" jokes.

[Pilchard123]

Mass Effect 4 confirmed?

That's 19 letters, 1 digit, 3 spaces, 4 words in total!
19 + 1 + 3 + 4 = 27
27 = 3^3

Half-life 3 confirmed!

[LeeC]

I've never seen mass effect 4 confirmed jokes, only half life 3 jokes. 

[94ssd]

I've never seen mass effect 4 confirmed jokes, only half life 3 jokes. 

Oh, whatever. I don't internet good.

[Blyss]

Fallout 4 confirmed is a running gag though.

Mass Effect 4...  Man I don't know.  I recently played through all three of the games to finally save everyone, and get everyone through the third game as well as was possible.  And I honestly thought I was done at that point.  I don't know if I have another Mass Effect in me - though I suppose a new storyline could work.  I guess I'll wait and see, but I'm not incredibly excited.

[LeeC]

I'm with you Blyss.  If they brought Shepard back again I would feel like its jumped the shark and probably wouldn't play it.  New protagonist, crew, planets, etc would be really refreshing.

[GarandMarine]

I am down for new Mass Effect universe games.

[RedWolf4]

I would love to have the ability to choose any race though. Mostly because I want to do the most hilarious paragon Krogan anyone will ever see.

Headbutt Salarian Diplomat?
Headbutt Salarian diplomat.

[94ssd]

Fallout 4 confirmed is a running gag though.

I have limited hope that Fallout 4 will ever exist. It isn't at E3, and the teaser site and "leaked information" was a hoax.

Also, Half-Life 3 does seem to have been confirmed, at least unofficially.

[Neko_Ali]

They would be blind and stupid fools to not make another Fallout game. Unfortunately, so many rumors and false trails have been put out that short of an actual announcement by Bethesda, we'll never know what might be a legit rumor, and what is just someone pulling everyone's collective chains.

[Edguy]

[Blue Kitty]

Almost one year to the date. Looks nice

[BenRG]

Almost one year to the date. Looks nice

I wonder if the game will establish a 'canon' ending to ME3?

My money's going on 'Control'. Getting access to the Reapers' billions of years of harvested technology and science via Shepard literally ordering them to hand over the data is the best way to explain how the Citadel Alliance has found its way to the Andromeda Galaxy. I just think that everyone having glowing green eyes and sub-dermal circuitry would just make the characters look creepy.

[maxusy3k]

The Bioware blog post about the game has a few more details regarding basic plot and setting.

My initial thoughts from the trailer were that it might conjure the "space western" feel by setting the player up as an explorer of some kind charting a new frontier - the Andromeda galaxy itself, which doesn't seem to be a million miles from what the post says. We'll presumably get more details about the role and background of the player character as it develops.

It's a bit of a shame the player is still bound to playing as human, but all in all I'm really looking forward to a return to the ME universe.

One of the interesting things I noticed from the trailer is that FTL travel now seems to not require the use of the mass relays, so I wonder if that's a hint towards a more synthesis / control style canon ending to the original trilogy than the straight up "destroy" option. I suppose it's also confirmed that, being set "long after" the original games, it's unlikely many (any?) of the original cast will appear in anything but name only.

[BenRG]

I suppose it's also confirmed that, being set "long after" the original games, it's unlikely many (any?) of the original cast will appear in anything but name only.

Liara may be mentioned in passing ("The Shadow Broker has passed us intelligence that..." or "Matriarch Liara personally vetted you for this assignment, Commander. She said that you reminded her of someone in her past who would have also been ideal for it. You don't need me to explain what that means, do you?"). Naturally, the ghost of Shepard would be everywhere, one way or another. I can see some odd background details like the top biology research college on Sur'Kesh being the 'Mordin Solis Memorial Institute' or something similar.

That said, I'm sure that some fans would be pissed off beyond imagination at the Destroy ending being de-canonised even by implication.

[Edguy]

I'm gonna assume the new player character doesn't have the rank of Commander, just to differenciate them from Shepard. Probably Captain?

I think it's a good idea to limit the player's choices when creating their character. Too many makes it impossible to give the character a coherent, fleshed out backstory, and makes interactions with the characters you meet less personalized. Quality content > quantities of content. That's the main reason I never really got into the Elder Scrolls games.

[Neko_Ali]

Well the Elder Scrolls origins have always been seemingly random people who were thrown into jail, but turns out were exactly the right person in the right place and time. Just as the Elder Scrolls predicted.

[de_la_Nae]

My theory on Mass Effect and Humanity thereof is that some people that worked on Advent Rising were hired into Bioware.

[Detachable Felix]

mass effect has always been my favourite video game series.
I AM SHIVERING WITH ANTICI-

[Detachable Felix]

-PATION


about the next game.

Also
FUCK YES THE MAKO IS BACK.

[SubaruStephen]

Well, at least I'll have a year to save up for an Xbox One.

[ev4n]

I love Mass Effect so much.

I am so ambivalent about ME4.  I loved the characters,  but I can't help but wonder if ME4 is going to feel like flogging a dead horse

[Neko_Ali]

Well, new storyline, new characters in an entirely new area and new time. That's about as good as it can get and still maintain the Mass Effect branding. At least they are not further drawing out the adventures of Captain Shepard and the Normandy crew. But hey... It can still work. I mean Borderlands is on 4 games now, still with most of the original but now greatly expanded cast.

[BenRG]

I'm calling 'reboot' and EA isn't going to let the writers do something as stupid as predestine the lead character to death again, no matter how good a story it is!

[LeeC]

[Edguy]

It's been awhile since I've played or thought about Mass Effect now, never got around to a second playthrough of ME3 (even though I've played ME1 like 4-5 times). But recently I've been catching up on Mass Effect Andromeda, and I'm remebering how much I love Mass Effect. getting pretty hyped for a new story. Hope it comes out this year!!

[TheEvilDog]

Well, I know that for their annual November 7th event last year Bioware produced a video where Fem!Shepard offered encouragement to the new protagonist about their mission.

But considering that one of the main writers for Andromeda has jumped ship to Bungie and Destiny (not to mention David Gaider has left to join Beamdog), it does make you wonder about the quality of the game we're going to get. Well, we'll find out in nine months or so.

[BenRG]

Well, I know that for their annual November 7th event last year Bioware produced a video where Fem!Shepard offered encouragement to the new protagonist about their mission.

If that wasn't just a marketing exercise and appears in the game, then the Destroy ending becomes canon.

[TheEvilDog]

Well, I know that for their annual November 7th event last year Bioware produced a video where Fem!Shepard offered encouragement to the new protagonist about their mission.

If that wasn't just a marketing exercise and appears in the game, then the Destroy ending becomes canon.

Not necessarily, while Andromeda is taking place quite some time after ME3, it doesn't preclude that Destroy was the canon ending. Supposedly the time difference is enough that any and all damage done by the Reapers has been repaired.

I imagine that Bioware might go with a feature similar to Dragon Age Keep (if I remember in a pre-ME3 release interview, Bioware said that there was nearly 1000 points of information between ME and ME2 to account for). Using a Keep feature will reduce the number of choices to the key points and possible accommodate player choices.

But if a player did go for Destroy: Citadel space has been rebuilt, but the damage has been done. Like so many after major conflict, the explorers to the Andromeda galaxy are those volunteers who have either grown up in the rebuilding process or have lost too much to stay.
If a player went for Control: Shepard/Reaper probably realises that the galaxy will become stagnate without some injection of fresh ideas (The knowledge from the Reapers might span billions of years and countless cycles, but theres no way they could know everything in the universe).
Admittedly, Synthesis is the most difficult one for me to work with because I just find the concept of that ending so disturbing.

[Edguy]

I imagine there will be no import feature in ME:A, but simply a short intro section where you decide major choices. Just like in The Witcher 3, or Mass Effect 2 if you don't import a save.

Although it might be that no choices carry over at all, given how distanced, both in time and space, the new story seems to be to the original games.

[BenRG]

Although it might be that no choices carry over at all, given how distanced, both in time and space, the new story seems to be to the original games.

Unless this is a solid reboot with an unspecified but different outcome to the Reaper War (or, one where the Reapers never invaded, as difficult as that is to imagine), then there would be significant differences to the base of the game.

(click to show/hide)

If you select Destroy, then there is a measured possibility that Cmdr Shepard survived the war and may also be a significant post-war political figure. Additionally, the Geth would be extinct (possibly the Quarians too, as the destruction of the Geth would have made re-inhabiting Rannoch a lot more difficult). If you select Control, then familiarity with the Reapers as the 'troubleshooters' of the galaxy (as worrying as that is) would be a routine part of life for a galactic citizen. If it's Synthesis then all of the Milky Way-origin characters are fully-blended biomechanisms, as much synthetic as they are biological.

The difficulty of implementing three different starting conditions for the Milky Way-originating characters would mean that it would be somewhat simpler for Bioware to select a 'canon' ending for ME3 and go forward from there. Simpler technically; in terms of fan reaction, it would be a can of worms.

[Edguy]

I'm pretty sure they'll let any connection to the ending of ME3 be intentionally vague. The green ending will definitively not be mentioned or acknowledged. I'm sure they'll just sweep up the ending as "galactic civilization devastated". It also seems very unlikely that they'd enforce the destroy/control implications of no AI or Shepard being robot God(?!?).

Anyways, the choices I could see carrying over are the ones such as Geth/Quarians conflict and what happened to the Krogan. Some other things like if the Council was saved or if the Reaper base was destroyed could probably return, but likely just as a codex entry.

In the end tho, I doubt choices from the original trilogy will have heavy implications. It might be some things like a Geth/Quarian/Krogan squad member/character liking you/humanity/Shepard more or less based on the relevant choices, but that will probably be it. The rest will be codex entries at most, imo.

[RedWolf4]

Yeah, that'd be the best option. The implementation of those endings was painful to say the least, and they should be given the exact right amount of shrift that they deserve. Which is to say none.

[TheEvilDog]

Of course, it might actually be a moot point. While it might be an extremely outside chance, we know that Andromeda takes place years after Mass Effect 3, but it could have its origins sometime before or during the events of Mass Effect 3. For all we know, Andromeda could be an Ark project similar to Javik and the Protheans; set up a colony of those Citadel species to ensure their survival, thus allowing to tie into Shepard and Mass Effect 3 without having to deal with the mess that were the endings.

Again, this seems quite an unlikely scenario and I wouldn't put much stock in it.

[Edguy]

One thing I hope they "fix" in ME:A is more logical outfits for you alien crew members. The humans, and Shepard of course, had normal clothes on while on Normandy etc, combat armor while on mission and then the combat armor with a space helmet when in vacuum or other hazardous environments.

The alien crew members, on the other hand, wear their combat suits everywhere (or in Liara's case she wears her normal(?) clothing to battle). And also without a hazard suit/helmet. Sure, a breathing mask will help you suvive vacuum. (Yeah, yeah, something something biotic protection. That's stupid.)

Anyways, considering they have casual clothes for at least turians, asari and salarians I don't see why they all walk around in combat armor 24/7. At least for quarians they have an excuse, and korgan I don't believe they made any non-combat outfits?!

[ChaoSera]

By my mighty necromancy powers, I revive this thread!

So, what I'm seeing/hearing so far about MA:A seems pretty neat. The combat trailer looks really fun and they said that dialog options won't be restricted by skills or Paragon/Renegade points, which I like. What does everybody else think?

[BenRG]

I'm not sure but I'm getting the impression that the Arks left the Milky Way before the Reaper War, given that all equipment we've seen so far is ME1 vintage (or even before like the M7 and Mattock rifles and the Locust submachinegun). That's one way of dancing around it - You don't know what is the canon ending of ME3 because the Andromeda Expedition is totally cut off from home and don't know what has happened back there.

[Neko_Ali]

I am cautiously looking forward to it. What I've seen so far is impressive, to be sure. But the same was true for the first three Mass Effect games. The setting, story and characters were interesting. I liked most of the walking and talking parts. Combat in the game I found dreadfully dull, especially in part 1. It got better with part 2, and I never have played 3. Kind of the same way I feel about the Dragon Age series too, if I must be honest. I love the stories Bioware tells, but the gaming parts I find mostly dull, which means I've never finished a Bioware game.

[TheEvilDog]

As much as I'm not really a fan of Mass Effect, I do have to say that for all my misgivings about the series, 3 gets really fun when you get the Scorpion pistol. Its essentially a sticky-mine pistol in a game that allows for headshots. You get the picture.

[RedWolf4]

I like how they haven't gone all hype train on it. Instead of doing it for us, they've let us do it for them. That just says good things to me on their thought processes.

[Blue Kitty]

[tweet]835712768678506499[/tweet]

[tweet]835722814376259584[/tweet]

[Neko_Ali]

hmmmm alien wang.

[RedWolf4]

I'm just imagining the conversations the devs would have had.

"Great, so now we have think about what a Quad actually looks like."

[BenRG]

I like how they haven't gone all hype train on it.

As a general rule, especially in games published by EA, the amount of hype is inversely proportional to the quality of the product.

hmmmm alien wang.

Yeah, it looks like Bioware learned all the wrong lessons. The Shepard Trilogy was successful because it was a brilliant and engaging progressive story that set several industry benchmarks for player choice affecting later game structure. It was not a success for being space porn, even though they desperately attempted to market it on that basis.

[LTK]

Bioware fans have a reputation. The space porn romance quests are a significant amount of the appeal for a large number of them.

[RedWolf4]

Honestly I don't think they went pure fanservice soft space porn on us. It's probably just how it ended up rolling along. I sincerely believe that we'll get decent writing (They did damn well with DA:Inquisition and ME3).

(click to show/hide)

. . . As well as all the azure you can shake a quad at. . . >_>

[LTK]

I doubt the role of sex is going to be substantially more or less pronounced in Andromeda than in the trilogy. I think now that nudity is becoming more commonplace in games (see the Witcher series) Bioware knows they can get away with showing more than some alien sideboob.

Calling it now, they're going to put nipples on aliens who have no physiological reason to have them.