Electronic Arts and Bioware held a Comic-Con panel for the next part in the Mass Effect series in which the companies shared the first information about it. First and foremost, this new Mass Effect game will not be called Mass Effect 4. Not only that, but this new Mass Effect game will see the return of Mako. Yes yes and yes; Mako is back with a punch.
Contrary to the Mako that was featured in the first Mass Effect, this new Mako will be faster and won’t be as frustrating as the first Mako was.
From the looks of it, the timeline of the new Mass Effect game will be during Shepard’s lifetime but won’t involve Shepard. Which is something most of us already knew. After all, Bioware was crystal clear that this is not Shepard’s story and that this story is brand new.
Last but not least, this new Mass Effect is focused on exploration of planets and some old characters may appear.
Electronic Arts and Bioware have also revealed some renders for the new Mako and the Hero of this new Mass Effect that can be enjoyed below!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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Meh.
How about a Mass Effect HD Trilogy instead? It may have escaped the all-important BioWare’s attention, but Mass Effect (1) has aged terribly, & is in dire need of an update.
while they’re at it I also want a “enhanced edition” for Kotor as well. It sucks that I have to use a third party program to play the game in widescreen.
yeah, i love some Kotor remake, actually Kotor 1 & 2 with some frostbite 3 love. without any changes but graphics.
Mother of God, I would pay full price day one.
KOTOR graphics aren’t really the problem. An HD version would have you running and questing in mostly empty areas with HD textures.
it’s not the problem, yes but we are wishing here, so we go big 😀 lets add stuff then, Frostbite 3 remake and more content and more alive enviroment filled with NPCs that yo can intract with,Side Missions,etc…
Would be great to experience KotOR 2 with the Restored Content Mod built right in, along with updated Graphics etc.
Really, it would be nice just to see BioWare give some of their older Projects some real, badly needed love, instead of appearing all like “oh well, we finished Development, Patching, we’ve moved on, so should you. Here, take a look at our latest “wonder” instead!”
Plus it can happen since EA has Exclusive Rights to all Star Wars Games for the better part of a decade still.
Seriously, more Publishers & Developers alike need to have their eyes opened to the strong Fan Service & quick, low-budget-high-income possibilities that HD Remakes are.
Old Republic isn’t even canon anymore. No one will do anything except modders.
Who cares if its canon or not, its an amazing game.
Yes it was but since it’s not cannon anymore, Disney will not let anyone remake the game. We might get another Bioware Star Wars RPG at some point… But it will be based solely off of the new J.J. trilogy.
How unfortunate… but let see how things will go.
Tell this EA or Disney.
“Mass Effect (1) has aged terribly”
I disagree. It still looks good. Nice models, nice colour palettes for each environment. What would they upgrade exactly? Textures?
The Mass Effect fanbase is generally divided into two major “groups” – The people who think Mass Effect is the best & ME2 was a step down, & the people who take issue with the tediously dated shit & considering ME2 to have “fixed” everything that was wrong with ME1.
Personally I stand by the fact that ME1 was a great RPG in its time, but today it simply falls behind in Gameplay, & yes, even Graphics. Would I still recommend it? Of course, but I would also say get a Graphics Mod, because it’s seriously needed, for starters.
As I mentioned, Gameplay falls behind. The Combat Mechanics in ME1 were THE most clunky in the entire Series, & were dated even in 2007, nevermind today. Weapons were nearly copy/paste with different Skins, & Morality & Dialogue Wheels also got a vast improvement in ME2.
A HD Trilogy would also give BioWare the opportunity to fix ME2’s issue with its extreme focus on Action, at the expense of dumbing down the RPG elements to almost nothing, which they already know how to fix (see ME3).
But then that’s not really a HD upgrade. That’s a pseudo remake. A HD remake would simply entail increased resolution, textures and maybe lighting if it suited it. The graphics are still great. No overuse of shadows that completely hide details in the environment, character models that at least portray some intricacies in the facial structure and animations that flowed properly. The environments already look aesthetically pleasing.
Also based off your anecdotal dichotomy, there wouldn’t be enough demand to spur this undertaking if they do want to change things up. What’s the point if there isn’t a consensus and which might instead incite controversy?
There wouldn’t be enough demand? What? ME3’s ability to choose between different Playstyles (Action Mode, Story Mode, RPG Mode) ensured that there’s something for everyone, even with that Ending….
If they brought this over to at least ME2, rather than controversy they’d be doing it a favour, they’d be satisfying the fans that think it’s fine as it currently is, while also pleasing the fans that hated how they dumbed down the RPG Elements, & bringing it to ME1 would only make the whole Game better, regardless of how you like to play – Action, Story, RPG,
The Gameplay changes for ME1 already exist, they just need to “port” them into ME1, & update the Graphics. There was seriously little that was aesthetically pleasing about much of ME1. The Citadel & a handful of other areas looked great, sure, but most everything else needed serious work. Older Games look dated yes, that’s something that comes with progress, but ME1 wasn’t exactly pushing Visual Boundaries even in 2007.
And I told you, that’s not a HD upgrade, that’s a pseudo remake. Again with the demand. What proportion do you think care enough that these changes would make a meaningful difference to a game (we’re talking about ME1, not sure why you brought in ME2 when I specifically said ME1 in my original post) that has nary criticism on mainstream media. Do you realize how costly changes are, to redistribute, especially on consoles? With hardly much criticism against ME1 on mainstream outlets and not much hype surrounding the first trilogy given the abysmal ending and fan outcry, the opportunity cost would be in favour of moving on, a la ME4.
And seriously? Action/Story mode? Modes that essentially played the game for you? That is completely antithetical to the ME1 roleplaying agenda. I don’t think people would care. So in the end, what you want is a remake, not a HD upgrade.
What are these gameplay mods exactly? A quick google search comes up with nothing but a texture overhaul.
“Pseudo remake”, “HD Remake”, “HD upgrade”, whatever you want to call it, sells. Here’s a perfect example – Halo. Halo Anniversary was cheap to make, it brought the original Game to the X360, & it sold so bloody well that they’re not only making an X1 version now as well, but Halo 2 is also getting the Anniversary treatment.
You think the money-grubbing Suits at Microsoft would have ever greenlit the Master Chief Collection if Halo CE’s Anniversary remake hadn’t sold? Speaking of, the CE Anniversary Edition was actually criticized for having the same Level Deign issues as the original Game, regardless of how they upgraded not only the Visuals, but also the Audio.
But hey, you want to bring in Console costs, & Microsoft doesn’t pay a penny to release their own Games on their own Consoles, sure, that is very true. Doesn’t change the fact that Halo Anniversary sold, & it sold damn well, so there’s really no reason a Mass Effect HD Trilogy couldn’t do the same, even after costs.
Action Mode was a “continuation” of the Mass Effect 2 Gameplay Direction, for those who actually enjoyed it & considered the Action focus to be a step up from Mass Effect. BioWare would ae had issues with ME2 fans being alienated without it. Story Mode was a bit too faceroll though, I agree.
The Shepard Storyline ended on a bad note, yes, but the rest of it was just fine (aside from the Gameplay issues that plagued the first two Games). It would be stupid to let the entire Trilogy be forgotten just because of the bad ending choices some dumb twat made at BioWare/EA before stuffing his ears & screaming “LA LA LA LA LA” at the top of his lungs until after ME3 went Gold, was Shipped, & Launched.
HD Re-releases serve the dual purpose of breathing fresh life into an aging Game, & bringing the older Games in a Series to newer Platforms. Sometimes they’re straight Ports without even a High-Res Texture job, other times they’re really & truly updated with more than just new Visuals & Audio. Regardless of what you want to call them, or if you even see a point to their existence, the fact is, they sell, because there’s real demand for them.
“Doesn’t change the fact that Halo Anniversary sold, & it sold damn well, so there’s really no reason a Mass Effect HD Trilogy couldn’t do the same, even after costs
“The Shepard Trilogy ended on a bad note, yes, but the rest of it was just fine (aside from the Gameplay issues that plagued the first two Games). It would be stupid to let the entire Trilogy be forgotten just because of the bad ending choices
These two are interconnected. The final ending and consequent fan outcry create the negative network externality trending for the series as a whole. This also affects the demand for producing a ‘remake’. And you can’t infer the success of one series and automatically assume others will have the same success. That’s a fallacy. You have to speculate these products independently. Not to mention the Halo series would drastically have a much different demand curve than Mass Effect, especially considering it has had compounding positive network endogenous effects from the huge franchise (now branching into a TV series). Mass Effect doesn’t have that. You could also bring into the fray the Tomb Raider games. Why would they make a HD upgrade a year after it was released on consoles? Easy, use the PC port. Done. Close to no costs. No need to bring in new artists, modellers or engineers. Now look at Mass Effect. Game looks good. But you seem to want them to redo environments to the extent that the HD remake would be worthwhile and marketable. So bring in new environment artists and modellers for characters and environment props. Costs are higher. Is it worth it given the current state of demand with no hype? Probably not, considering they’re making a new Mass Effect game.
” I simply said if they ported over the Action/Story/RPG Modes thing to ME2 & not to ME1″
But is it a marketable feature? Would people want to buy the game just to experience not playing it? Having seen those atrocious game modes in ME3, I would assume most people do not care given the nature of choice and consequence in the series.
“Regardless of what you want to call them, or if you even see a point to their existence, the fact is, they sell, because there’s real demand for them”
No one here is contesting the viability of a HD remake. No one. Re-read the posts if that is what you got from this. In order for Mass Effect to have an appreciable upgrade over its already decent predecessor, it would need to have a large difference in quality brought in by staff working on it (hence higher costs). Bioware might probably choose not to considering these factors. They might do it if Mass Effect 4 is translatable enough to Mass Effect 1 and there is enough of a graphical difference to justify it, but it would have to be welcome changes. Considering Bioware’s previous statement on ‘artist integrity’, I’m not so sure they’d be so willing.
Hi, sorry, got dragged into a new Game I finally got around to trying.
You make a good point that most of the Action Mode fans wouldn’t particularly care for the Story behind ME1, & on the last paragraph – yeah, apparently we got mixed up somewhere on that.
I’m too lazy to go back through all the Posts, so I’ll try to say it differently; ME1, while a great Game, did have its issues, as did ME2, & ME3. ME4 will as well no doubt, considering the direction BioWare is heading in these days. Anyway, whether they pull another ME3-ending stunt or not, it’ll have something to it, just as DA3 will, but again, anyway.
I (personally) see HD remakes a bit like Movies – Director’s Cuts, Extended Cuts, Redux Cuts, Anniversary Cuts, Ultimate Cuts, [whatever] Cuts, etc. They give a Team an opportunity to go back & revisit the Game. Obviously people will always have problems with the new changes made as it’s impossible to ever make everyone happy, but I believe that if HD remakes are treated right, they can be a solid upgrade from the original experience.
You probably don’t play Quake 3 so you don’t know Quake Live. QL is basically a F2P HD remake of Q3, with an Updated UI, rebalanced Weapons, etc. id Software took some liberties that overall turned the remake into a better Game (in some ways, in others… it totally failed, but only due to braindead Developer decisions in annexing some core Q3 features, Maps, etc.).
Regardless, I’d like to see the same happen to Games with issues like ME & ME2 (nothing that can be done for ME3 at this point, since re-writing Lore goes a bit too far unfortunately), since their issues aside, they don’t deserve falling into the pages of History without being remembered.
I agree, they could wait longer before they made the remake, allowing for a greater Graphical Difference between that & the Original, they could do a 10th Anniversary Pack (Halo again), or whatnot, or, idk. They might opt not to do anything, since they’ve moved on from the days when they licensed Unreal 3, & I doubt they’re particularly interested in porting the Shepard Trilogy from Unreal 3 to Frostbite, since that would be an even more Herculean task than doing a HD Trilogy remake with some adjusted Gameplay features in the first couple of Games.
Anyway, yeah… Off to post about Crytek next 😉
That image is sexist DSOG . Why you didn’t put female Shepard image.?
-Message from mainstream media .
As a counterpoint, i cant wait to play as a generic white bald dude in his mid 30’s this fall. What game you ask? ALL OF THEM.