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The Mass Effect Community Thread
- Thread starter shinobi602
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EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
It's not coming out this year, of that I promise you. I doubt it'd be out Q1/Q2 next year. That leaves Q3/Q4. And the delay has to happen for tradition.
Keep in mind that there's a lot of factors involved in ME4's development that weren't present for ME2 and ME3.
Montreal is a relatively fresh studio that prior to ME4 hadn't lead their own project beyond the Omega DLC. They contributed significantly to ME3's development, but even by the end of that weren't a fully formed studio. They were and I suspect still are hiring. And I'm fair certain they helped out on Inquisition to some capacity. This is different to Edmonton leading, as they so often do, and doing the bulk of work. Previously Edmonton swapped between Mass Effect and Dragon Age. After ME3 they moved on to Inquisition, and now primarily the new IP.
As far as I'm aware, based on what I've been told and what BW has said publicly, the goal of Mass Effect 4 is not to do a straight evolution of the Shepard trilogy formula. Obviously distinctly a Mass Effect game, but at the same time introducing new concepts and ideas integral to the scope and structure of the design. Depending on how deep this goes, this would require a lot of fresh planning, prototyping, testing, balancing, etc. Compared to ME3 which despite its changes shared the exact same core formula as ME2.
Additionally, lore is a fresh start. BW has been vocal ME4 is a new direction for the narrative and as distant from the Shepard trilogy as they can make it. Fans tend to tether themselves to the familiar because that's all they know, but I really believe this is more or less a reboot without being a literal reboot. I suspect the narrative is doing whatever it can to work with as much fresh material as possible, meaning while being in the Mass Effect universe a lot of the familiar faces, places, and lore of the past will be left to the Shepard series. Penning this new adventure from top to bottom would require a lot of work, rather than continuing known concepts in the Shepard trilogy.
And finally, technology. Mass Effect evolved with Unreal Engine 3, and if I'm remembering correctly BW did not that the production of ME2 and especially ME3 sped up as the team became more familiar with the tools, their own tweaks, and what they knew the engine was capable of on hardware they were familiar with. Meanwhile Mass Effect 4 is the first in the series on Frostbite 3, an engine that BW has been working on too to update with game systems and functions (Inquisition is the prime example here), adjusting to a new set of tools and workflow, and working with a hardware ceiling that eclipses the previous generation.
I don't deny that the game is taking an awfully long time to make, but I can see why. And even though I'm more desperate for Mass Effect 4 than most people in this thread, the longer they feel they need to get their new vision and adventure in the most robust, high quality state then the longer I'm happy to wait.
I'm hoping the combination of a strong new vision, big new gameplay concepts, fresh setting and narrative, adjusting to the possibilities on much better hardware than before, and a very long development time to nurture all these things, will result in Mass Effect 4 giving me a similar feeling to what Mass Effect gave me back in 2008.
In engine is nice. Would still be pretty great to be introduced to the new game with a Blur cinematic.
Would making it current-gen only lead to faster or slower development, though? It sounds like a lot of Inquisition had to be scrapped or scaled down for it to work on the PS3/360 generation, which can't be cheap. I suppose the liberating feeling of being current-gen only might lead to some feature creep temptation?
EatChildren
Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
Not so much faster or slower but a factor for the team to consider given they probably want to use the hardware to the best of their ability in asset quality and game design. We've already seen snippets of the larger uncharted worlds, which will probably be a major focus and a nice way to show of the hardware, alongside gameplay that accommodates the scale.
It just gives the team something new to explore and design, rather than go "Okay this series has a template functional and kinda restricted to X hardware level, so I guess we'll go with that again and throw in some new ideas". Not being shackled to the old design while also intending to do new things opens up a lot of doors.
You stole my schtick. I'm the one who's been saying Q1 2017 for a while now.
Audible Phonetics
Member
My Goodness 2017.
Kill me now please.
Kill me now please.
Yeah, Eat's pretty well nailed the rationale up there. It's what I've been saying on the BioWare forums for a year and a half or more, and he hammered all the logistics out fairly soundly in that post.
That said, I've always said Q3-Q4 2016. But "a delay is tradition" would certainly suggest Q1 2017. Either way, I don't see this game dropping prior to ~October '16.
That said, I've always said Q3-Q4 2016. But "a delay is tradition" would certainly suggest Q1 2017. Either way, I don't see this game dropping prior to ~October '16.
crazyrabbits
Banned
Several people here were saying 2017, including myself. I'm expecting it.
I did intentionally get Tali exiled, but she was the one who asked for it though.
"Shepard, we can't tell people about the treasonous acts my father was committing on this ship"
"Girl, you's daddies dead, focus on getting your own ass saved"
"No, I can't and won't let my father's name be tarnished. I would rather face exile"
"Oh hell no, I didn't put my ass in the line of Geth fire to let you your dumb ass exiled. Screw your daddy."
"No, this is want I want, and I will never forgive you if you tell the rest of my people about this."
"Aight then, it's your own funeral, I ain't gonna use the insta win charm/intimidate dialogue to save you, so don't come crying to me if this comes back to bite your ass in the next game."
ME3 comes along and Tali flings herself off a cliff because she wasn't an Admiral and I chose to rewrite the Geth in Legion's loyalty mission.
"Told ya!"
Nah, it's more like making a good film, then cutting out the crappy parts in order to turn it into an award winning film.
Wreave is a much better representation of the Krogan.
H8's gonna h8.
Honestly, the only thing that really makes me hesitate about thinking 2017 is that EA is probably counting on ME4 being a 2016 game. I think they'll try to move heaven and Earth to keep it that way.
However, on the other hand, I think Dragon Age: Inquisition just showed them what happens when you give a game the time it needs.
However, on the other hand, I think Dragon Age: Inquisition just showed them what happens when you give a game the time it needs.
anexanhume
Member
Can you please become a mod again so I can demand your mod status be stripped?
The Artisan
Member
yeah, I think that's what should happen as well. the remaster should release before the year is over though. only thing is, I think they said the next game wouldn't be title Me4 but I could be mistaken about that.
hm, a lot of the animations look recycled throughout the ME cutscenes though.
The Artisan
Member
what?
Yeah, their idea of what a single game needs may be closer to 4 years than 5, though.
Inquisition's overarching concepts, its follow-through on previous installments, hell, its broad ideas having been in Gaider's brain for a very long time -- this all points to an easier project to approach than the next Mass Effect. I liken ME4's early development to ME1's. There are wallpapers for ME1 dated 2004. Getting the gist of where a trilogy of games would potentially go took long enough that this is why BioWare's developers often speak of how Shepard's journey was "close to a decade" in the making. Fans frequently double-take at that line, but that lore was being worked on months prior to America's Bush-versus-Kerry election night.
Even under EA's allegedly evil gaze (can I make a joke about it being beneath the Shadow of Mordor? Would that be a bad thing to type?) BioWare still prides itself on at least attempting to spend ample time brainstorming. It's undoubtedly a huge part of why that new IP has been Mystery Game X for years now. Having to tackle ME4 not just with a new engine, an enhanced philosophy, a newer studio making up the brunt of the workforce, and several new lead developers, but also without the trilogy-spanning foundation with which ME2 and ME3 benefited from mid-2000s literary sweat and tears... well, the game's still taking forever, but five years since ME3 really wouldn't surprise me.
Something can be mocapped and recycled too. And god knows that ME is the perfect example of recycled animations.
The Artisan
Member
okay yeah, now I get it.
If they are smart this is what they are doing. Big if tho. It pretty much allows them to not be tethered to any one concept, character, location, idea, etc. from the previous game, and just be ME in spirit.
Going by this thread not a lot of people like that idea, and Bioware might feel compelled to listen to them because that is what they do
to a fault
Battlefront will be.
Mass Effect
Member
This will most undoubtedly happen. God, it's going to be a long wait.
I did intentionally get Tali exiled, but she was the one who asked for it though.
...
H8's gonna h8.
You are a terrible person.
Star Wars Battlefront
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
In otherwords, it has goods and bads. The good is that they are not being held back and are free. The bad is that they might get a bit too ambitious with their new found freedom.
The bad reason I listed above is one of the reasons why I feel that some times having the main development team port a last gen game (remaster) to a new system can be advantageous. That is not likely going to be relevant to a Mass Effect trilogy port (since it would likely use the unreal engine and be handled by a separate studio), but I do feel that it probably helped studios like Naughty Dog and 4A games (Metro Redux) get familiar with the PS4/X1 hardware. That was off-topic but I felt worth mentioning.
prag16
Banned
The Artisan
Member
neither can I. I still say q1/q2 2016. release date will be close with Uc4 I predict.
Why do you think this? UC4 has already had extensive gameplay demos.
Meanwhile, we've basically just gotten target renders for ME4.
This continues to strike me as overly optimistic. I'd love to be wrong, so long as the game doesn't feel half-cooked as a result. But I don't see it.
DOWN
Banned
The comforting thing about the thousands of words of speculation written in the last couple of pages about 2017 is that none of us actually know. So there's still high probability of a 2016 release as far as we know. Let's not jump to disappointment without actually having real info.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
Yeah, considering how little information we have about the game, I fail to see anyone can make statements as to when it will come out, but its a very safe assumption that it will not be out this year.
I don't want it this year. Because honestly, given what they're showing in terms of where they are, it would be a rushed mess in 2015.
The Artisan
Member
it's just random guessing on my part. I'm not saying there is any evidence to point towards this becoming real, I only believe this for myself because all previous installments had coincidental close release dates. Me1/Uc1 released in november 2007, Uc2/Me2 released in Q409/Q1'10, and Uc3/Me3 released Q411/Q1'12.
I understand that, but with full confidence in bioware I don't think it will take them over 3 years to develop this game. that being said, when did production officially begin with Me4?
The Artisan
Member
I don't want it this year either but if the remaster is real, I do definitely want that this year.
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
That, on the otherhand, there is no reason they can't get that out this year, unless they decide they want it to have a Metro Redux or Halo MCC level of overhaul, which (IMO) is absolutely not needed.
The Lamonster
Member
The Artisan
Member
i thought the halo collection's only problem was the multiplayer.Agreed, I hope they don't decide to break all the games and kill the franchise
Poodlestrike
Banned
There's some campaign issues, nothing on the same scale as the multiplayer though.
The Artisan
Member
ah, well I wouldn't know about that then.
DOWN
Banned
I played DAI for 8 hours yesterday. It's been a while since new BioWare stuff was exciting to me since Mass Effect has been off the field for a few years and wasn't getting the most positive expression after it ended. Production values make me weep with joy (I just recently quit right in the middle of DA Awakening after finishing DA O because they were so grossly dated and tedious compared to even Mass Effect 1, which was 2 years older). I'm really looking forward to what Frostbite can do on current-gen only.
This gen has shiny metal and dimensional effects down beautifully, from the gilded gold paint in AC Unity interiors, to armor in DAI and The Order, to the marble floors in all three. The metallic future should reflect neon lens flare stunningly and with Frostbite, the exploration should be huge.
This gen has shiny metal and dimensional effects down beautifully, from the gilded gold paint in AC Unity interiors, to armor in DAI and The Order, to the marble floors in all three. The metallic future should reflect neon lens flare stunningly and with Frostbite, the exploration should be huge.
prag16
Banned
But that's just it. How little information we have about the game seems to be a main factor in what is causing people to jump to the 2017 conclusion. Some people seem to be assuming it must not be very far along since we don't have a lot of info.
They may be right, they may be wrong. I thought shinobi had said from what he gathered they had NO intention of missing 2016 (but of course delays can happen).
I think most of us saying 2017 envision it as a delay scenario, not something they're targeting.
prag16
Banned
They also went "full production" around DA:I launch. If the game was allegedly "halfway done" significantly before that, needing another 2.5 years to get less than half the game done with a much larger team... that just seems excessive unless they run into major problems.
I wouldn't even say Q1 is completely out of the question (other than shinobi seeming to indicate it's not likely); we should know more about what state the game is in after E3. But as of now I'm expecting 2016, with 2017 seeming unlikely (I let go of the 2015 pipe dream months ago).
JohnnyFootball
GerAlt-Right. Ciriously.
This. What Bioware game hasn't been delayed?
shinobi602
Member
2015 is out of the question because the schedule was for Shadow Realms to supplement DAI DLC releases this year. It was never planned for this holiday.
EA's big tentpole launches for next year's Q3/Q4 (that I know of) are Battlefield 5 and Mass Effect. There are high expectations for ME, they won't let it (and BF5) slip past the fiscal year, that ends in March 2017, but internally 2016 calendar year is the target.
I know the ME series had a history of delays, and it's not impossible here, but they've been in full prdocution for quite a bit now, and their learnings of Frostbite with DAI has helped immensely. An individual shared with me that they're practically fully self sufficient in FB now.
EA's big tentpole launches for next year's Q3/Q4 (that I know of) are Battlefield 5 and Mass Effect. There are high expectations for ME, they won't let it (and BF5) slip past the fiscal year, that ends in March 2017, but internally 2016 calendar year is the target.
I know the ME series had a history of delays, and it's not impossible here, but they've been in full prdocution for quite a bit now, and their learnings of Frostbite with DAI has helped immensely. An individual shared with me that they're practically fully self sufficient in FB now.
razzmahtazz
Member
Eh, this sounds what idealistically will happen. But when EA comes knocking, I doubt Bioware will be able to avoid answering. 3 years and probably a delay like DA:I
The Artisan
Member
I don't think anyone expected for Me4 to be released in 2015. I just don't think it is unreasonable to believe that it could release next year, even early next year.
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