Mass Effect New Mass Effect confirmed

[Yosharian]

Well that was a whole load of nothing

 

[J1M]

For ME2 you spent a lot of time outside of council space, and also got a lot of benefit of the doubt and free reign from your actions in ME1. From the highest levels. Really it was because you were a player in a video game, but I felt that was a meaningful narrative justification that held up.

By ME3 they really leaned into it how Commander Shepard was in real time becoming a mythologized figure in the ME universe. And I think that is going to be a big part of the plot for this next ME game.

Apotheosis (as in the mythologizing of a real person, not actual ascension to real godhood) has always been a theme I have found interesting, but it isn't that common a theme is most forms of media. Seeing if they do anything with that theme is one of the reasons I am interested in seeing what they do with the next ME.

I feel the exact opposite. Mythologizing the player character destroys my SoD and I consider it a cancer on storytelling in general. I want believable down-to-earth stories, not more cookie-cutter "superhero saving teh universe" for the gazillionth time. It's narcissistic as hell and I get enough of that from social media.

That's not what I'm talking about at all.

Players being over the top larger than life action heroes has to do with action games wanting players to do over the top larger than life action stuff in the video game. It works with some games, it doesn't work so well with others. But that is not what I am talking about or what interests me.



I am talking about the process in a society where individuals are elevated to a mythological status. Often to the point of being deified. It can happen organically, with folk heroes and such, but also can be deliberate efforts by governments or those in power. It could be to increase the authority and popularity of political figures, such as why some of the Roman Emperors claimed godhood or the Kim family in North Korea, or it could be to create a unifying figure to try to help unify society in troubling times or to publicly elevate certain values. War heroes are often be mythologized for that purpose.

What is interesting is that mythologizing is almost never accurate. Whether by not including negative or derogatory details, by exaggeration, or by making up events that never occurred at all. That gap between the myth and reality, and why it exists, is something I find interesting.

The process of how a person who is relatively normal (although in most video games the protagonist is extremely abnormal to the point of it being very unrealistic, as you note) become a mythologized figure and how that impacts society and them, if they do happen to still be alive.

Shepard was just such a mythologized figure by the end of Mass Effect 3. It has already been hinted that Shepard's legacy, and possibly the character himself, will be an important part of the next Mass Effect. And exploring how his mythologization has impacted society and how it is used hundreds of years later has some room to explore some interesting ideas.

It could be badly done, for example:

Imagine them going full Church of the Children of the Atom except with Shepard, as preach by Pontiff Verner I.

Would be a quite dumb take on it, and I don't expect that is anything Bioware would do. But any idea or concept can be badly done.

More interesting takes would be how groups and individuals in the Mass Effect universe may try to claim Shepard's legacy to further their own agendas, especially as some of those individuals may be those that actually associated with him to bolster their claims. And also how they have chosen to shape the mythology and legacy of Shepard over the years, probably with competing mythologies that don't agree with each other. Especially since the player would have the perspective of being aware of the truth of those events to compare to whatever distortions there are in the mythologized version.

So I am curious to see if Bioware does anything interesting with that or not.

Apotheosis as a theme for Mass Effect 5 is unfortunately better than anything Bioware will come up with.

I think it's a good pitch, and there's room to even bring the man himself back for another layer of exploration of the concept via a Demolition Man scenario.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

There's a code in there.

edit:

BioWare celebrated N7 Day with a blog post and teaser trailer for Mass Effect 5, hinting at the title and exciting fans. A seemingly mundane merchandise list in the post contained hidden binary code spelling "Epsilon," potentially representing the fifth game in the series.

 

[Yosharian]

For ME2 you spent a lot of time outside of council space, and also got a lot of benefit of the doubt and free reign from your actions in ME1. From the highest levels. Really it was because you were a player in a video game, but I felt that was a meaningful narrative justification that held up.

By ME3 they really leaned into it how Commander Shepard was in real time becoming a mythologized figure in the ME universe. And I think that is going to be a big part of the plot for this next ME game.

Apotheosis (as in the mythologizing of a real person, not actual ascension to real godhood) has always been a theme I have found interesting, but it isn't that common a theme is most forms of media. Seeing if they do anything with that theme is one of the reasons I am interested in seeing what they do with the next ME.

I feel the exact opposite. Mythologizing the player character destroys my SoD and I consider it a cancer on storytelling in general. I want believable down-to-earth stories, not more cookie-cutter "superhero saving teh universe" for the gazillionth time. It's narcissistic as hell and I get enough of that from social media.

That's not what I'm talking about at all.

Players being over the top larger than life action heroes has to do with action games wanting players to do over the top larger than life action stuff in the video game. It works with some games, it doesn't work so well with others. But that is not what I am talking about or what interests me.



I am talking about the process in a society where individuals are elevated to a mythological status. Often to the point of being deified. It can happen organically, with folk heroes and such, but also can be deliberate efforts by governments or those in power. It could be to increase the authority and popularity of political figures, such as why some of the Roman Emperors claimed godhood or the Kim family in North Korea, or it could be to create a unifying figure to try to help unify society in troubling times or to publicly elevate certain values. War heroes are often be mythologized for that purpose.

What is interesting is that mythologizing is almost never accurate. Whether by not including negative or derogatory details, by exaggeration, or by making up events that never occurred at all. That gap between the myth and reality, and why it exists, is something I find interesting.

The process of how a person who is relatively normal (although in most video games the protagonist is extremely abnormal to the point of it being very unrealistic, as you note) become a mythologized figure and how that impacts society and them, if they do happen to still be alive.

Shepard was just such a mythologized figure by the end of Mass Effect 3. It has already been hinted that Shepard's legacy, and possibly the character himself, will be an important part of the next Mass Effect. And exploring how his mythologization has impacted society and how it is used hundreds of years later has some room to explore some interesting ideas.

It could be badly done, for example:

Imagine them going full Church of the Children of the Atom except with Shepard, as preach by Pontiff Verner I.

Would be a quite dumb take on it, and I don't expect that is anything Bioware would do. But any idea or concept can be badly done.

More interesting takes would be how groups and individuals in the Mass Effect universe may try to claim Shepard's legacy to further their own agendas, especially as some of those individuals may be those that actually associated with him to bolster their claims. And also how they have chosen to shape the mythology and legacy of Shepard over the years, probably with competing mythologies that don't agree with each other. Especially since the player would have the perspective of being aware of the truth of those events to compare to whatever distortions there are in the mythologized version.

So I am curious to see if Bioware does anything interesting with that or not.

Apotheosis as a theme for Mass Effect 5 is unfortunately better than anything Bioware will come up with.

I think it's a good pitch, and there's room to even bring the man himself back for another layer of exploration of the concept via a Demolition Man scenario.

Haha imagine thinking the next main character will be a man

Foolish! The age of men is over

 

[J1M]

Is this push for female Shepard because the likeness contract they had with the male model ran out?

 

[Morpheus Kitami]

Here we are three years later and still there's nothing. What is it, a poster and the confirmation that the story is taking place hundreds of years after ME3? Modern development is so ass.

Irrespective of this, I'm interested to see what they do with this three years or so from now when they post something that didn't take an intern 5 minutes to whip up. Probably said this before, but I want to see where they go with this. On the surface, ME3 put the franchise into a position that can't easily be recovered from. So they have to pick one of three very different paths. If they had any balls they'd go for their preferred ending, synthesis and stick with it. Sadly, they'll probably end up picking control and recycling the premise of the first trilogy, by having the Reapers under Shepard secretly turn out to be up to their old tricks, and you have to gather all the galactic races together to stop them again.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

A teaser:

They made the character look like Daft Punk and they still won’t go back to the synth score of the first game.

 

[frajaq]

Where did they get the stupid inspiration for that jacket? Was it Cyberpunk 2077 or Destiny's Warlocks?

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

And I hope that the woman from the poster isn't EDI in a costume...

Too small of a ass and lacking in curvature.

 

[Modron]

I can't wait for the MC reveal to be a Joker/EDI synthesis and you can only play as Seth Green.

 

[Silverfish]

are you chinese?

Allow.

 

[tritosine2k]

Unreal 5 = muh cinematic checkpoint save, dumb followers, stutter, 30fps, ridiculous "time of day" with nearly always sharp shadows thats overblurred for distance (no manual shadow cache, crap VSM), overboard TAA and streaky motion blur

Tacticool falloutlike mobile game with balls to walls precompute better than this shit = anytime soon

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

Here we are three years later and still there's nothing. What is it, a poster and the confirmation that the story is taking place hundreds of years after ME3? Modern development is so ass.

Irrespective of this, I'm interested to see what they do with this three years or so from now when they post something that didn't take an intern 5 minutes to whip up. Probably said this before, but I want to see where they go with this. On the surface, ME3 put the franchise into a position that can't easily be recovered from. So they have to pick one of three very different paths. If they had any balls they'd go for their preferred ending, synthesis and stick with it. Sadly, they'll probably end up picking control and recycling the premise of the first trilogy, by having the Reapers under Shepard secretly turn out to be up to their old tricks, and you have to gather all the galactic races together to stop them again.

Destruction it's the cannon ending, synthesis was a gay option then gave on the remake ending.

 

[Hellraiser]

Here we are three years later and still there's nothing. What is it, a poster and the confirmation that the story is taking place hundreds of years after ME3? Modern development is so ass.

Irrespective of this, I'm interested to see what they do with this three years or so from now when they post something that didn't take an intern 5 minutes to whip up. Probably said this before, but I want to see where they go with this. On the surface, ME3 put the franchise into a position that can't easily be recovered from. So they have to pick one of three very different paths. If they had any balls they'd go for their preferred ending, synthesis and stick with it. Sadly, they'll probably end up picking control and recycling the premise of the first trilogy, by having the Reapers under Shepard secretly turn out to be up to their old tricks, and you have to gather all the galactic races together to stop them again.

Synthesis changes the setting too much to be viable, in addition to being a gay kumbaya "happy ending" implying everybody lives in peace and harmony.

Destruction and a few centuries of relative isolation while alternatives to mass relays are developed to slowly reconnect the galaxy has way better worldbuilding potential, and is the only sane choice if the game is supposed to be after ME3. Of course the problem is that bioware would need to utilize that potential properly, I wouldn't bet money on it.

 

[Jonathan "Zee Nekomimi]

This looks sick as hell. I know that Bioware's been chugging dicks by choice for years now, but being unable to appreciate a space ninja with a longcoat and a gun is levels of jaded I can't even comprehend.

Kasumi Goto called.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

https://www.pcgamer.com/biowares-en...n-age-arent-just-frustrating-theyre-arrogant/

BioWare's endless cryptic teases for Mass Effect and Dragon Age aren't just frustrating, they're arrogant​

lul they've lost the little goodwill they had left

 

[Falksi]

https://www.pcgamer.com/biowares-en...n-age-arent-just-frustrating-theyre-arrogant/

BioWare's endless cryptic teases for Mass Effect and Dragon Age aren't just frustrating, they're arrogant​

lul they've lost the little goodwill they had left

Good piece, but I did lol at the general "Bioware have been shit for years! They're well past their peak....of Mass Effect 2"

The drop between Mass Effect 1 & Mass Effect 2 is as big a drop in quality as from DA:O to DA2. Trading planetary exploration for a mining mini-game has to be one of the single worst gameplay decisions made in the history of gaming.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Dunno man, I liked driving around in Mako myself, but I remember that there were tons of people shitting on this aspect of ME1. On the other hand the mining mini-game was very meme worthy.

 

[Hellraiser]

Good piece, but I did lol at the general "Bioware have been shit for years! They're well past their peak....of Mass Effect 2"

The drop between Mass Effect 1 & Mass Effect 2 is as big a drop in quality as from DA:O to DA2. Trading planetary exploration for a mining mini-game has to be one of the single worst gameplay decisions made in the history of gaming.

I managed to replay and finish ME1 and ME2 this year (ME3 is kind of on pause*), after probably 10 years or close to that since the last time. I would probably also cut out planetary "exploration" in their place after ME1, unless I would get some super great idea on how to make it better and not just "drive clockwise around the map" busywork interrupted by some very annoying steep mountains. It was plain shit, I fully replayed ME1 I think at least 5 times and endured the "exploration" somehow, and I loathe the "exploration" utterly. There's no navigational challenge, you can't find hidden shit accidentally, it's just busywork to mark off minerals/insignia/writings on a checklist.

The only thing ME1 had better regarding the side quests you could find on planets was the occasional mako combat set piece that made use of the open map, although besides thresher maws it was almost always the same snipe+drive vehicular popamole. It's a real shame that the hammerhead wasn't ready prior to release and integrated into ME2 sidequests proper, but in any case those are still better than the copy&paste filler ME1 had.

For me ME2 is more of a "did half things wrong half things right" game when compared to ME1. Like the combat where the shootan is better, enemies aren't as spongy, it feels more tactical, tech powers are better, but biotics got overnerfed and heatsinks got retconned into pseudo-ammo. Or the itemization where the awful level scaled loot is gone making exploration/mission sequence better as far rewards go, but there's too little gear variety and the simple but fun equipment mod system went out the window. Side quest locations are a clear improvement with no more copy&paste interiors, but the skill system got too simplified and removed all the nice passive bonuses (in general Shepard doesn't feel like he's much more powerful as the game progresses and you get levels). Hub locations look more alive and less sterile, but the walk&talk to everyone to fish for sidequests is gone and they're just glorified malls for gear/upgrades. There's great additional worldbuilding of the universe not to mention being able to visit Tuchanka or the Migrant Fleet or Geth Space for some lore dumps, but the main quest writing is rather lackluster compared to ME1 and leading into the clusterfuck that is ME3's conclusion of the Reaper arc.

*BTW whoever decided the Red/Blue tinted visual design bullshit for ME3 should be banned from making artistic decisions of any kind for life. It's as bad as the "brown is real" meme from that time period, fucking ugly as sin. ME2 might have tinted things orange, but it seemed way more subtle and prettier. Also fucking bullet sponges and the combat is just such a slog compared to ME2, even after toning down the difficulty (I beat ME2 on Hardcore and it was fairly easy and fast).

 

[Falksi]

Good piece, but I did lol at the general "Bioware have been shit for years! They're well past their peak....of Mass Effect 2"

The drop between Mass Effect 1 & Mass Effect 2 is as big a drop in quality as from DA:O to DA2. Trading planetary exploration for a mining mini-game has to be one of the single worst gameplay decisions made in the history of gaming.

I managed to replay and finish ME1 and ME2 this year (ME3 is kind of on pause*), after probably 10 years or close to that since the last time. I would probably also cut out planetary "exploration" in their place after ME1, unless I would get some super great idea on how to make it better and not just "drive clockwise around the map" busywork interrupted by some very annoying steep mountains. It was plain shit, I fully replayed ME1 I think at least 5 times and endured the "exploration" somehow, and I loathe the "exploration" utterly. There's no navigational challenge, you can't find hidden shit accidentally, it's just busywork to mark off minerals/insignia/writings on a checklist.

The only thing ME1 had better regarding the side quests you could find on planets was the occasional mako combat set piece that made use of the open map, although besides thresher maws it was almost always the same snipe+drive vehicular popamole. It's a real shame that the hammerhead wasn't ready prior to release and integrated into ME2 sidequests proper, but in any case those are still better than the copy&paste filler ME1 had.

For me ME2 is more of a "did half things wrong half things right" game when compared to ME1. Like the combat where the shootan is better, enemies aren't as spongy, it feels more tactical, tech powers are better, but biotics got overnerfed and heatsinks got retconned into pseudo-ammo. Or the itemization where the awful level scaled loot is gone making exploration/mission sequence better as far rewards go, but there's too little gear variety and the simple but fun equipment mod system went out the window. Side quest locations are a clear improvement with no more copy&paste interiors, but the skill system got too simplified. Hub locations look more alive and less sterile, but the walk&talk to everyone to fish for sidequests is gone and they're just glorified malls for gear/upgrades. There's great additional worldbuilding of the universe not to mention being able to visit Tuchanka or the Migrant Fleet or Geth Space for some lore dumps, but the main quest writing is rather lackluster compared to ME1 and leading into the clusterfuck that is ME3's conclusion of the Reaper arc.

*BTW whoever decided the Red/Blue tinted visual design bullshit for ME3 should be banned from making artistic decisions of any kind for life. It's as bad as the "brown is real" meme from that time period, fucking ugly as sin. ME2 might have tinted things orange, but it seemed way more subtle and prettier. Also fucking bullet sponges and the combat is just such a slog compared to ME2, even after toning down the difficulty (I beat ME2 on Hardcore and it was fairly easy and fast).

It certainly wasn't perfect, but just being able to explore, get a taste of those planets, and do that busywork fleshed out the whole thing far more and fed into the whole space-jock/Star Trek side of things more for me. It should have been fleshed out more and improved for 2, not removed.

And the mining game they replaced it with was 100000000000000000x worse in terms of busywork and filler.

 

[Hellraiser]

And the mining game they replaced it with was 100000000000000000x worse in terms of busywork and filler.

Disagree, ME2 I also replayed fully about 5 times and there I just ignored everything without an anomaly unless I needed resources for a specific upgrade, took way less time. But it is true that it was still busy work.

I will give you that I did miss some of the prettier alien skies ME1 had that gave that star trek vibe you mentioned, like that ones with the oppressive blue and red giants (I think it was a binary system) and intense radiation. Surfaces were mostly crap, but there were probably a few decent ones in there I just forgot about.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

ME2 was a big ball of nothing, I literally remember nothing of it. The series could've been ME1->ME3 and it wouldn't make a difference in my eyes. In fact, during my playthrough of 3, I felt like there were more callbacks to 1 than 2.

 

[Elttharion]

Where did they get the stupid inspiration for that jacket? Was it Cyberpunk 2077 or Destiny's Warlocks?

School shooters. Its funny, if you remove the N7 symbols I would have guessed that they meant that the chatacter is going to shoot up that nightclub.

 

[9ted6]

ME2 was a big ball of nothing, I literally remember nothing of it. The series could've been ME1->ME3 and it wouldn't make a difference in my eyes. In fact, during my playthrough of 3, I felt like there were more callbacks to 1 than 2.

1 was the only good ME game. ME2 felt halfassed and uninspired, it was only half decent, and ME3 was a disaster all around, not just the insultingly stupid endings.

 

[BosanskiSeljak]

ME2 was a big ball of nothing, I literally remember nothing of it. The series could've been ME1->ME3 and it wouldn't make a difference in my eyes. In fact, during my playthrough of 3, I felt like there were more callbacks to 1 than 2.

The only half decent missions in that game were extensions of ME1 storyline. Nothing from ME2 except fan service.