Im really excited for it. The negative feedback for ME3 has been so massive, i dont think they would make the same mistakes again. They have already stated that they will stay true to the franchise core values such as the rpg aspects and dialogue. Lets just hope they take more cues from ME1 than the sequels when it comes to the rpg elements.
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BioWare Montreal's Studio Director talks about the next Mass Effect
- Thread starter Nibel
- Start date
Mass Effect: Off to the side Warfare
So... because a story was disappointing for you, they should just abandoned a popular franchise?
Dat logic. You would do well in this business.
"This Resident Evil's story sucks. Again. Abandon!"
"Assassin Creed's story? LOL. Abandon."
"Mario STILL have to save the princess? Wtf. Abandon!"
Deadly Cyclone
Pride of Iowa State
I want a game set when humans first find the relays and discover life. Bioware plz.
For a porn parody I guess.
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
None of those franchises are really story driven, though. Mass Effect is.
Still, a developper shouldn't stop making popular story games just to please some people who raged on the internet because the story didn't go the way they wanted.
SuicidalSteve
Member
Mass Effect 3's Ending was doing a Disservice to the whole franchise
Pretty much this.
I mean, at the end of the day, I'm not one of those fans that actually felt like - they owed me something. Or that they needed to change anything. The damage was already done, as the issue with the ending was MUCH broader. It wasn't just the last 15 minutes. It was the entire plot in the third game - and how it connected to the rest of the story. It was the overall story they were once telling, and what they eventually decided was being told. The incoherence of the overall plot, as it all caved in on itself.
This to me, was no different than watching a TV show you are let down in - in the final season. A book you read, that flails in the last book of the series. Or a film, that falls apart in the last half. Basically, I've just come to learn that, I think Casey Hudson and Mac Walters, are hack writers/ lead producers. Just like any other medium, I'm not willing to put in an investment again in any project they are apart of, the same way I wouldn't watch another TV show by a writer/showrunner that ended up unraveling the show they created.
I think the fact that people were so upset says two things: I. How different Video Games are than other mediums. TV shows allow people to get more invested in characters. But games make you even MORE invested, because you are actually participating in the story. II. The original idea/world/concept/characters of Mass Effect, really was really great, and resonated with people.
I just have such a dislike for these guys. And anytime I read something they have to say about the game, it just comes off as delusional to me. But I also know that, my opinion is shaped by the fact that I think they are hacks. So.
meltingparappa
Member
If they are doing anything but this, they should start over and go for it. Have it be a reboot that subverts your expectations.
Ship it? I've already got the label printed and the UPS truck is outside. LET'S GO!
Pop-O-Matic
Banned
You know what? They should start off the next game with a complete note-for-note remake of the ME1 opening. Then, when you get to the beacon, Garrus and Tali arrive in a time machine.
"It's your kids, Shepard!"
"It's your kids, Shepard!"
semiconscious
Member
still of the opinion that this series should've just been episodic (ie, each entry telling a complete story) rather than formatted as a 'trilogy'. waaay too ambitious for its own good...
I doubt they will try the trilogy thing again. Way too easy to mess up and break promises of "your past choices will matter!" Sure, some choices mattered, but most of them were minor, they weren't able to change the story of ME2 and ME3 in any major way depending on past choices, which is what people were expecting.
Like, for example, if your choice of having Udina or Anderson as the human councilor actually mattered, ME3 story would have been quite different depending on that choice alone. They wouldn't have done the whole
"Udina is a traitor and he used his councilor powers to let Cerberus attacked the Citadel!"
Randolph Freelander
Member
BioWare knows an awful lot about disservices these days.
From the wording of that release, I'm half expecting this. I'm guessing that Montreal has looked at the state of the universe post-Mass Effect 3 and have now realized just how badly Edmonton fucked them over.
So they'll throw in some mentions of the Reapers or whatever, but they're going to set the board up however they want. My guess is that they're going to go forward
as if the Reapers were destroyed, but the Geth are still around and are back to being antagonists.
Basically, the Halo 4 solution. When in doubt, go back to the well even if it doesn't make sense.
Also expecting it to be almost a straight shooter. I'm thinking, as others have predicted, for it to be Uncharted but with dialogue options.
RedWaltz79
Neo Member
Mass Money: The Effects of Greed
You're right in a sense. Most of the people who are still ME fans don't care about good writing or stories anyway so Bioware can just put whatever out.
Actually, the 2nd quote is from another Bioware guy. I think Chris said that guy is a director or something at Montreal. I went to BSN this morning to check the thread, and that's where i saw those comments.
Are there other examples of his lies?
Tyrone_Biggums
Banned
As long as they can actually realize fully populated, fleshed out worlds to explore like they attempted in the first ME, then I'm game to jump in and give it another shot. There is no other game that comes close to giving that deep space epic feeling like the Mass Effect universe does.
Ah, Yanick Roy.
Yeah he's the founder/head of BioWare Montreal, so his comments are the most useful:
Yannick Roy said:Hi guys,
It’s my first time posting on the forums, so I hope I’m going to do it right!
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. But because we are switching to a new engine and need to rebuild a bunch of game systems, we have an opportunity to rethink how we want these systems to be going forward instead of just inheriting them from the previous 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.
In other words, because the game takes place before of after the first trilogy does not mean it necessarily is a straight prequel or sequel.
I’m not a big fan of analogies because the images you use always mean something different to different people, so they are inherently flawed. But let me use one anyway.
If you had three games centered around a group of key soldiers in the US army during World War I and then decided to make a game about another group of people during the second World War, the games could have many points in common and feel true to one another, and you likely would have to recognize how the events of the first war influenced the ones of the second, but you would not necessarily think of it as a sequel. Again, the analogy is
not great, but what I’m trying to say is that the ME universe is so rich that we are not limited to a single track when coming up with a new story.
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. As I have posted on Twitter though, the overall feeling of what you are discussing and asking for is very much aligned with what the team intends on delivering, and that makes me feel very good about where we’re heading!
I hope this helps clarify why we’re not thinking of the next ME game as ME4 internally!
Yannick Roy said:What makes it Mass Effect is indead the alien races, the technology, the lore, history, etc. You can safely expect those in the next Mass Effect.
Yannick Roy said:While getting a Mass Effect MMO at some point is not impossible, you'll be happy to hear that this is not the game we're talking about when we talk about the next Mass Effect.
Yannick Roy said:
Yannick Roy said:By the way, thank you all for making me feel welcome here. I don't know how regularly I'll be able to stop by the forums, but given that today is the first time in the 7+ years I've been with BioWare, it should not be too hard to improve my batting average!
Yannick Roy said:
Yannick Roy said:Yes, you want a game that happens after ME3, that makes perfect sense
Yannick Roy said:
Yannick Roy said:
This is definitely the most specific request I've gotten so far!
There was the Steam DA2 collector's edition debacle, some Game Informer cover lies, and primarily that kind of thing.
Yanick Roy said:What makes it Mass Effect is indead the alien races, the technology, the lore, history, etc. You can safely expect those in the next Mass Effect.
Yeah, between this and the talk of having to rebuild gameplay systems, I am now 100 percent convinced that Mass Effect: Whatever will not be an RPG. It'll be a TPS through and through.
The Mana Legend
Banned
Core values? RPG aspects and good dialog haven't been core to the series since the first one.
Sapphire Dreams
Member
I really don't think I can take Bioware seriously after all the lies they fed us these past years, I mean I don't even have the will to purchase a product from them anymore unless some drastic changes to the way they deliver games.
shinobi602
Member
Oh hell no. Please no prequels.
Yeah, I have to take anything they say with a large grain of salt.
To be fair, this is made by the people who made Mass Effect 3's multiplayer, which actually overdelivered!
And uh the Arrival and Aria DLCs...
partyphone
Banned
just get Platinum to make a character action game starring Samara and set it like 500 years before the events of Mass Effect 1.
Yeah, but those comments are from someone who never spoked to the public before, so who knows.
Nirolak said:
Omega was a good DLC. Just 5$ too expensive and a bit too much combat focused. Although... the story of the DLC kinda didn't give them much choice for that. We weren't going to dance and argue with aliens in Afterlife while Cerberus is controlling the whole place after all.
Thanks, interesting stuff!
Yeah seriously. Nothing even happens really during that point. It'd be a horrible game lol.
Complistic
Member
well none of that made any sense at all.
I'm noticing a trend at bioware.
I'm noticing a trend at bioware.
WrenchNinja
Member
They will just retcon it.
TacticalFox88
Banned
Spin Off Game playing as Javik, during the Reaper-Prothean War.
Oblivionmancer
Member
I'm going to have to correct you both. Glossing the response to Me3's ending as "didn't go the way they wanted" is some hardcore revisionist history, my (and so many other people's) disappointment was because the ending was terrible in so many ways, that have been expounded upon so many times, and the reasons (whether you agree with them or not) are far more robust than 'I didn't like it!'
In spite of that, I'd still consider myself a Mass Effect fan even in the wake of that colossal disappointment, because the world that those stories exist in is so well realized and cool, and ripe for the telling of further stories. The fact that a new team is working on the next game is enough for me to be excited to give it a chance. Basically ME3 didn't put me off playing any more Mass Effect games, it put me off playing any more games where Mac Walters is the lead writer. For that matter Casey Hudson signed off on his nonsense, so count him out too.
So yeah, ME3s ending was probably the biggest letdown I've ever experienced from a game story, but that doesn't negate all of the great work that was done on a universe that I'd love to revisit.
Unless it's a prequel; that would be pointless and lame; as stupid as the narrative that leads to the state of the galaxy at the end of ME3 is, the next interesting thing to do with the story is to deal with the question "what happens next?" Failing that, jump it far enough into the future to tell a completely new story, but don't try to sell me a filler story about a world that simply doesn't exist any more, because ME3 so radically changed it regardless of the color you chose at the end.