Mass Effect: Andromeda

[Ike Turner]

Mass Effect 4 / NEXT

Didn't know where to post this but given that there's vastly more traffic in the console section I thought that it would me more appropriate to post here.
Anyway, its apparently common knowledge that there's new Mass Effect game under development right now according to Bioware's Casey Hudson here: https://twitter.com/CaseyDHudson/status/266612856517181440 . My guess is that this will most probably be a Q42014 release on 720/PS4/PC and run on Dice's Frostbite Engine like all of EA's franchises under the sun.

I personally wasn't sure about the engine being used simply because UE3 was perfectly fine for ME1/2/3 and the logic would have been to switch to UE4 or simply modify to heavily EU3 like Lucas Arts did for Star Wars 1313 (which BTW is apparently on hold/canceled following the Disney acquisition.... ). But it looks like it's Frostbite after all based on this PPT slide I just stumble up on in a DICE presentation date February 22 2013: http://dice.se/wp-content/uploads/Scaling-the-pipeline.pptx

You can see one of the Dragon Age 3 artwork on the left (has been confirmed to run on FB2) and Shepard on the right. I later found out that the FB Engine was confirmed to be powering the next ME game (http://blog.bioware.com/2012/11/12/an-update-from-bioware-montreal/).

Question is: Should EA really push/force all of it's devs to us FB even though this engine has some shortcomings compared to others (I have yet to see a FB powered game push as much polys as UE3 or CE3 for example and frankly NFS:Run, Army Of Two etc look like crap..) or should a developer be free to use whatever suit best its project?

 

[AlphaWolf]

Frostbite 2 has been confirmed.
Being developed at Bioware Montreal.
It's an ME story, but it won't be a linear successor to the trilogy. I doubt it will actually be called Mass Effect 4.

 

[Billy Idol]

ME4 + FB2...head explodes

 

[DieH@rd]

EA confirmed that they have 15 nextgen projects in the works currently, and majority of them [if not ALL] will be in Frostbite 2. I also think they will rename that engine into FB3 when they decide to start promoting BF4.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

They need to implement some serious technological changes, in particular the semi-procedural character animation system. They have been using canned mocap animations and automatic lip sync in the ME games but it won't be enough based on the quality we see even in current gen games like Last of Us.
They also needed to rebuild the gameplay systems because a lot of it came straight or slightly modified from ME1 so some of them could be 8-10 years old.

Now if they are going to rewrite so much stuff, they could just as well use a different engine


Also, the Shepard pic in that presentation is from our ME3 teaser trailer, so has nothing to do with Frostbite.

 

[Billy Idol]

I wonder if the story is a prequel or sequel to the trilogy. Nonetheless, I would love some more playtime in this universe...

 

[AlphaWolf]

I wonder if the story is a prequel or sequel to the trilogy. Nonetheless, I would love some more playtime in this universe...

I'm guessing sequel or lateral because they said something about wanting decisions made in the first three to matter. It'd be hard for that to be true if it's a prequel.

“ What Chris is saying is that thinking of the next 'Mass Effect' game as 'Mass Effect 4' would imply a certain linearity, a straight evolution of the gameplay and story of the first three games. Story-wise, the arc of the first trilogy has also been concluded, and what we will do is tell a new story set in the 'Mass Effect' universe. That doesn’t mean that events of the first three games and the choices you made won’t get recognized, but they likely won’t be what this new story will focus on. I apologize for being cryptic right now, but it’s early enough in development that we don’t have much to share – things still fluctuate quite a bit. ”
—Yanick Roy

Yanick Roy is head of Bioware Edmonton.

 

[MfA]

I wonder if the story is a prequel or sequel to the trilogy. Nonetheless, I would love some more playtime in this universe...

The ending/catalyst is basically a writer self-insert, a grand statement with intended finality (the fact that they talk about player agency shows a massive amount of self delusion). They are still in charge, I don't think they will allow that finality to be undermined by either a sequel or a parallel universe approach. Although there was a small crack in their delusion when they begged on twitter for people to please tell them a prequel was what people wanted, but I doubt that lasted.

I think the only thing their ego will allow is a pre/mid/interquel ... maybe they'll finally eat humble pie and bury the ME3 ending with a parallel universe or trivialize it by making a sequel, but I doubt it.

 

[function]

I can't adequately put into words how much contempt I have for Bioware after finishing Mass Effect 3.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I can't adequately put into words how much contempt I have for Bioware after finishing Mass Effect 3.

I can't adequately express how much contempt I have for people who crap in threads of games they have no intention of playing.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Mass Effect and Frostbite 2. Should be interesting. I really liked the Mass Effect trilogy, so I'd be happy to get another, even if totally unrelated to the first trilogy.

 

[function]

I can't adequately express how much contempt I have for people who crap in threads of games they have no intention of playing.

Good, then you might begin to understand how much contempt I have for Bioware.

Bioware turned the Mass Effect franchise into a Citadel sized toilet (complete with Star Child attendant) so this seems like an appropriate place to crap.

Galaxy redefining magic ending A, galaxy redefining magic ending B, galaxy redlining magic ending C, courtesy of a literal god-from-the-machine. Fuck. Fuck. I could spend a thousand lifetimes crapping in every thread in every possible universe and I still wouldn't have amassed as big a pile of digital shite as Bioware managed to with the Mass Effect 3 ending.

You can't fix it enough to return any kind of integrity to the series or the wider universe. They even tried to retcon their own damn ending while pretending they weren't and it went from appalling to just awful but also kind of embarrassing.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Good, then you might begin to understand how much contempt I have for Bioware.

Bioware turned the Mass Effect franchise into a Citadel sized toilet (complete with Star Child attendant) so this seems like an appropriate place to crap.

Galaxy redefining magic ending A, galaxy redefining magic ending B, galaxy redlining magic ending C, courtesy of a literal god-from-the-machine. Fuck. Fuck. I could spend a thousand lifetimes crapping in every thread in every possible universe and I still wouldn't have amassed as big a pile of digital shite as Bioware managed to with the Mass Effect 3 ending.

You can't fix it enough to return any kind of integrity to the series or the wider universe. They even tried to retcon their own damn ending while pretending they weren't and it went from appalling to just awful but also kind of embarrassing.

I'll make sure to shed some tears for you later.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

It should have been pretty clear from as long as the ending of ME1 that there was no way the galaxy could get out of the trouble without some deus ex machina. I've never played ME for the ending as it was inevitably going to be more space opera and less sci-fi...

 

[function]

I'll make sure to shed some tears for you later.

Perhaps you could focus on Mass Effect instead of posting badly misjudged snark about me?

The canned response you tried to use is for for people displaying self pity btw. Hmm, maybe you can retcon in a slightly better response and ask people to ignore the original one?

 

[Billy Idol]

I don't have any problems with the ending to be honest. I am a huge ME fan and just hope for some more ME gaming. It's going to be really interesting how they deal with the missing mass portals.

 

[DuckThor Evil]

Function we and other boards had pretty tough discussions on this matter last year shortly after the game was released and it might have gone a bit ugly at times. People probably don't want to revisit the subject too much. You'r definitely not alone with your comments though. IMO the patch and a fair bit of time helped me to pretty much get over the initial colossal disappointment I felt with the end game of ME 3.

Perhaps ME 3 thread would be more appropriate place to discuss ME 3 though?

 

[function]

It should have been pretty clear from as long as the ending of ME1 that there was no way the galaxy could get out of the trouble without some deus ex machina. I've never played ME for the ending as it was inevitably going to be more space opera and less sci-fi...

I disagree, there are many ways that Mass Effect could have avoided the annihilation of advanced intelligent life without having god turn the reapers off or give Sheperd a mulitpass to the control room. And particularly with 2 games lead time to introduce stuff.

It's all the more annoying because so much was handled well in Mass Effect 3. The reintroduction of old characters, the combat and levelling, the none linear feel (even though there were many restrictions in practice), the Citadel reintroduced as a place a some variety and interest. It took the gameplay improvements of Mass Effect 2 and added back in some of what had been lost from Mass Effect 1. I had really enjoyed it up untill the frikking Star Child elevator. I mean, even the FMV loading screens were really nice in Mass effect 3, and I say that despite my attachment to the streaming Citadel and Normandy in the first game!

The ending was an abomination, and all the worse because it damaged the potential for Mass Effect 4. The re-written ending was like Bioware saying "okay we don't care anymore, just please stop talking about how bad the original ending was".

Anyway...

Edit:

Function we and other boards had pretty tough discussions on this matter last year shortly after the game was released and it might have gone a bit ugly at times. People probably don't want to revisit the subject too much. You'r definitely not alone with your comments though. IMO the patch and a fair bit of time helped me to pretty much get over the initial colossal disappointment I felt with the end game of ME 3.

Perhaps ME 3 thread would be more appropriate place to discuss ME 3 though?

Yeah, I'll leave any further criticism of ME3 out of here. I've said me bit.

 

[function]

I don't have any problems with the ending to be honest. I am a huge ME fan and just hope for some more ME gaming. It's going to be really interesting how they deal with the missing mass portals.

They get rebuilt by the Reapers in the rewritten "control" ending. Haven't seen the rewritten synthesis ending.

I had to watch the redux ending on Youtube (as it wouldn't work in my game) so you should still be able to find them for whatever ending you had.

 

[Billy Idol]

They get rebuilt by the Reapers in the rewritten "control" ending. Haven't seen the rewritten synthesis ending.

I had to watch the redux ending on Youtube (as it wouldn't work in my game) so you should still be able to find them for whatever ending you had.

What??? Really??? That's weird! After finishing the game with synthesis, I did not care about all the discussion and fights going on as I thought that ending was okish...I knew there was something added with an update...but rebuilt of mass portal seems a massive change to me! A bit shocked at the moment...