Mass Effect 4
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To me, it looks like the place where Shepard had the last fight. Remember the spot?
So what if, after all these years, they will indeed go the Indoctrination Theory route? In that place, Liara will be finding our favourite captain. The question is: how did Shepard survive for such a long period? Maybe the talk with the Reapers lasted for hundreds of years? A bit like Einstein's relativity and the Black Holes?
So what if, after all these years, they will indeed go the Indoctrination Theory route? In that place, Liara will be finding our favourite captain. The question is: how did Shepard survive for such a long period? Maybe the talk with the Reapers lasted for hundreds of years? A bit like Einstein's relativity and the Black Holes?
Urdnot_Wrex
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One of the shapes in front of the ship definitely looks Krogan!
I've seen people claim the form of the crater hints at geth, but given the sheer size of it, that seems a bit far-fetched to me. You never know, however.
The explanation in spoiler tags in the post above sounds more likely, considering everything.
I've seen people claim the form of the crater hints at geth, but given the sheer size of it, that seems a bit far-fetched to me. You never know, however.
The explanation in spoiler tags in the post above sounds more likely, considering everything.
Liara definitely looks older in the video, and together with that wistful smile and the N7 symbol, it's quite likely they are at the site of the ME3 showdown. If the Indoctrination Theory is not an issue, it could simply be that they took ages to get back from the Normandy crash site, without the relays, and now the ones old enough to be still alive try to figure out what happened. Unlike us, they weren't there. Maybe they bring back Shepard, maybe they don't.
If Shepard lives, through some anomaly in space time or whatever, maybe so does the Illusive Man and we'll finally learn more about his background?
I'm also really curious if the Leviathan will play a role in the future of the galaxy. I can't imagine them simply fading back into oblivion if now, after eons, the Reapers are gone for good.
If Shepard lives, through some anomaly in space time or whatever, maybe so does the Illusive Man and we'll finally learn more about his background?
I'm also really curious if the Leviathan will play a role in the future of the galaxy. I can't imagine them simply fading back into oblivion if now, after eons, the Reapers are gone for good.
Eternal
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My theory:
The Red ending + the Indoctrination theory are canon, not because I like them but because Electronic Arts need to draw old fans back. This is a pretty nice way to flatter the community, inject hype, and explain why other endings are not canon. I’m almost completely ignoring the teaser and the poster (apart from the time skip and the presence of Liara), because I know trailers are often created by third parties while the story of the game is still being rewritten and corrected. (Developers themselves often laugh at this phenomenon because it is so ubiquitous. Here is a great ironic example – The Outer Worlds 2 trailer, check it out if you haven't watched yet - link - an exhaustive 1.5 minute funny video covering the realities of game development).
I love Mass Effect but there are several reasons why a direct sequel is worrying me. However, all of them are subjective and do not claim to be true.
The “Big Evil” issue. Usually, the evil that we confront develops from chapter to chapter in order to finally challenge the main character and all his allies (we move from the “rats in the basement” fight to an ancient deity threat). In the Mass Effect trilogy, we literally have united different species of the galaxy to prevent their total annihilation. Now the story is over and any writer can fall into the following trap: they need to create some new Evil. From the writing standpoint, it simply cannot happen that after the incredible galactic threat we will be engaged in something like a petty merchant war (who are fighting for the right to become Commander Shepard's only favorite store on the Citadel). It will be boring, and silly, and not epic. But if something threatens the galaxy again, it will feel like a repetition. This story was conceived as a trilogy where the highest note was a galactic war. The only way to add scaling to it is to threaten the universe, life and matter in general, but hey, this is really difficult to write. (One would need physics, mathematics, astronomy and the ability to talk about all that in an understandable and interesting way). To summarize: I don't want to stop another boring psychopath or a race of the Milky Way invaders.
Personality changes to our favourite characters are possible. A new author, or an old one returning to the story after many years, they can easily forget the essence of these characters so they can change in an unexpected direction.
Devaluation of the victim. I definitely don't want to see Shepard alive or resurrected with the help of Lazarus. I love the Commander, but without his/her sacrifice, we would lose the beauty of the moment.
I love Mass Effect but there are several reasons why a direct sequel is worrying me. However, all of them are subjective and do not claim to be true.
The “Big Evil” issue. Usually, the evil that we confront develops from chapter to chapter in order to finally challenge the main character and all his allies (we move from the “rats in the basement” fight to an ancient deity threat). In the Mass Effect trilogy, we literally have united different species of the galaxy to prevent their total annihilation. Now the story is over and any writer can fall into the following trap: they need to create some new Evil. From the writing standpoint, it simply cannot happen that after the incredible galactic threat we will be engaged in something like a petty merchant war (who are fighting for the right to become Commander Shepard's only favorite store on the Citadel). It will be boring, and silly, and not epic. But if something threatens the galaxy again, it will feel like a repetition. This story was conceived as a trilogy where the highest note was a galactic war. The only way to add scaling to it is to threaten the universe, life and matter in general, but hey, this is really difficult to write. (One would need physics, mathematics, astronomy and the ability to talk about all that in an understandable and interesting way). To summarize: I don't want to stop another boring psychopath or a race of the Milky Way invaders.
Personality changes to our favourite characters are possible. A new author, or an old one returning to the story after many years, they can easily forget the essence of these characters so they can change in an unexpected direction.
Devaluation of the victim. I definitely don't want to see Shepard alive or resurrected with the help of Lazarus. I love the Commander, but without his/her sacrifice, we would lose the beauty of the moment.
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A new speculative detail about the next Mass Effect game is that they might not use the Frostbite Engine for it, preferring the Unreal Engine instead. This is good news if we want to get an RPG first, shooter second-- because the Frostbite Engine was heavily criticized regarding its use in Andromeda.
gamerant.com
Recent Job Listing Seems To Confirm That The New Mass Effect Won't Be Using Frostbite
A new job listing is suggesting not only that the latest Mass Effect game will not be using the Frostbite engine, but that it will also be using UE4.
Urdnot_Wrex
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According to some more discussions about the teaser poster, it seems the heap of debris between the ship and the crater is a destroyed geth.
Also, there seems to be a humanoid body lying on the slopes of the crater, which may or may not be someone we know. (I got a bit distracted because my eyes saw a shape instead, in the grey middle of crater, which looks like a crude sketch of some comic animal with huge eyes and a big nose. Therefore I've drawn a circle around the body)
But my favourite theory by far, found on Reddit, is that the subtitle of the teaser poster means the new protagonist's name is "William Continue".
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Mass Effect 4 Merch Has Fans Talking About Commander Shepard’s Return - Kotaku
A BioWare promo got fans speculating, but the next game's project director quickly shut rumors down
"Since-deleted text for an N7 Day poster sold on BioWare’s store suggested that the hard-to-achieve, 3.4-second long cinematic (a cutscene of Shepard taking in a single breath) was canon. As pointed out in a recent video by MrHulthen, a YouTuber who specializes in covering Mass Effect, the flavor text initially read: “While Shepard and the survivors are left to pick up the pieces, fans are left wondering what’s next.”
That text was revised—see if you can spot the difference—to “The threat of the Reapers might have been ended, but at great cost including Earth itself. While the survivors are left to pick up the pieces, fans are left wondering what’s next.” And currently, the poster’s product page doesn’t contain any reference to plot details regarding Mass Effect.
Representatives for EA, which publishes Mass Effect, did not respond to a request for comment. Mike Gamble, Mass Effect’s project director, said on Twitter that the original text mentioning Shepard’s survival was put out in error. But if it’s even the barest indication of what the next Mass Effect is about, the potential ramifications are flummoxing, to say the least."
Urdnot_Wrex
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I'm not sure what to think about this. It could either have been an honest mistake, because someone who doesn't know about the details might post teaser texts, but to actually have a poster in a store without noticing someone put in a completely wrong information seems unlikely.
The mistake could actually be that they accidentally spilled more real information than they should have. If that's the case, I'm not particularly happy about it.
We all have our reasons why we disliked one or the other thing about the Mass Effect 3 ending, but bringing Shephard back to fix it doesn't seem the right way, it seems tacked on artificially, and also too much like fanfiction.
Bringing Shepard back would diminish the importance of all those hard choices that made ME so special.
Let Shepard rest. Give us something fresh and unique.
(If they don't, I guess I'll play it anyway, but still)
The mistake could actually be that they accidentally spilled more real information than they should have. If that's the case, I'm not particularly happy about it.
We all have our reasons why we disliked one or the other thing about the Mass Effect 3 ending, but bringing Shephard back to fix it doesn't seem the right way, it seems tacked on artificially, and also too much like fanfiction.
Bringing Shepard back would diminish the importance of all those hard choices that made ME so special.
Let Shepard rest. Give us something fresh and unique.
(If they don't, I guess I'll play it anyway, but still)
Urdnot_Wrex
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Shepard is alive and well in my game... so are all AI life forms we came to respect and trust and became my friends during the game... That's what I believe, at least
Of course, in my headcanon it went a similar way too, but that doesn't mean I want the next game to be based on that... especially because my Shepard probably adopted 10 Krogan children with Garrus.
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Good news from BioWare, for a change.
www.videogameschronicle.com
The writer behind Deus Ex has joined BioWare | VGC
Mary DeMarle led narrative on modern Deus Ex games and Guardians of the Galaxy…
www.videogameschronicle.com
Urdnot_Wrex
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Good news from BioWare, for a change.
The writer behind Deus Ex has joined BioWare | VGC
Mary DeMarle led narrative on modern Deus Ex games and Guardians of the Galaxy…
That's cool, if the narrative of Guardians of the Galaxy is as good as they say.
I don't really agree with this view though, at least not in an RPG:
“For many, many years working in this industry, I’ve known that story is often subservient to gameplay,” DeMarle said. “But if I understand the game and what is the feeling I’m trying to evoke for players, then I can understand that gameplay is trying to do it this way, and story is here to support that or bring it forward. How can the things I write help to emphasize the things the gameplay needs, etc.?
“As long as you always know the game you’re trying to make and understand why, then it just comes down to constant communication between narrative and gameplay, and constantly looking and understanding it from that point of view.”
But I suppose opinions vary on that one. I could overlook or live with gameplay mechanics I'm not too happy with if the narrative is good and the main driving factor of the game, but I find it hard to imagine following through with a boring story for the sake of cool gameplay. Unless it's a short game to be played for fun as a light snack, maybe.
Others on the other hand love tinkering with gameplay mechanics and might disagree.
Anyway, it seems she's definitely a win for Bioware, so we can hope!
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O.G. BioWare folks discuss how Mass Effect was created. A very insightful read.
The best part for me (from Mark Meer): "Full credit to Jennifer [Hale] and Bioware, female Shepard is in a lot of ways a very groundbreaking character. Female Shepard set that standard of, ‘No, I'm not going to be wearing a skimpy version of the armor, I'm going to be wearing the same armor that the male version wears, and I'm going to have the same animations that the male character has.’ And so I think in many ways that was very influential. Fem-Shep is definitely a seminal video game character."
Happy N7Day everyone!
Urdnot_Wrex
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Thanks for sharing that article.
Hell yeah, female Shepard was so badass and perfect in her role, thanks mainly to amazing Jennifer Hale, that nobody would have dared to call her a token character, a fan service or whatever. She was just 100% convincing, same as her male counterpart, and yay for realistic female armour too. (I'm female. And I don't want to fight in "armour" that's only suitable for a day at the beach.)
I have the impression she was still written mainly with male (and straight male for that matter) players in mind (see Mass Effect 1 romance scene: Male Shepard with Ashley, you see naked Ash. Female Shepard with Alenko, you see naked Shepard), but I still think she was and is awesome, because after the Mass Effect trilogy, I doubt anyone ever doubted again that giving choice between a male and a female main character in otherwise identical roles had any influence on credibility and coolness of said character.
A happy N7 day to you all, too!
Hell yeah, female Shepard was so badass and perfect in her role, thanks mainly to amazing Jennifer Hale, that nobody would have dared to call her a token character, a fan service or whatever. She was just 100% convincing, same as her male counterpart, and yay for realistic female armour too. (I'm female. And I don't want to fight in "armour" that's only suitable for a day at the beach.)
I have the impression she was still written mainly with male (and straight male for that matter) players in mind (see Mass Effect 1 romance scene: Male Shepard with Ashley, you see naked Ash. Female Shepard with Alenko, you see naked Shepard), but I still think she was and is awesome, because after the Mass Effect trilogy, I doubt anyone ever doubted again that giving choice between a male and a female main character in otherwise identical roles had any influence on credibility and coolness of said character.
A happy N7 day to you all, too!
Urdnot_Wrex
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Liara and a Geth?
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They're continuing to tease Shepard's return.
We’ve asked ourselves many of the same questions you’ve asked us over the years! What happened to everyone you know and love in the games? Who really died? Who had kids with whom? What does a baby volus sound like? What about all the galaxies? The endings! What the heck is going on with our asari scientist-turned-Shadowbroker? What about S— nevermind...you get the idea. And of course, to those questions, there are answers, but you’ll have to wait to hear them.
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Full video
We’ve asked ourselves many of the same questions you’ve asked us over the years! What happened to everyone you know and love in the games? Who really died? Who had kids with whom? What does a baby volus sound like? What about all the galaxies? The endings! What the heck is going on with our asari scientist-turned-Shadowbroker? What about S— nevermind...you get the idea. And of course, to those questions, there are answers, but you’ll have to wait to hear them.
Full video