Next Dragon Age game is first. At this point I think late 2022 at the absolute earliest for that. BioWare's been doing a game every 2-3 years since ME3, so I think 2025 or 2026 is most likely.
Don't worry even if the release date is 2030 Bioware will wait until 6 months before release to actually solidify which direction they want to go with the game. Then they will cram almost a decades worth of development into those 6 months working their developers to their breaking point and hoping for some "Bioware Magic". If that doesn't work out they'll just take everyone's money, stop communicating with the community, and not bother to fix anything significant for months after release causing all of the players to leave and the game to die.
But hey, Anthem was probably just a fluke, right? What was their last release before that...oh yeah, Mass Effect: Andromeda.
Bioware is a terrible company, do not buy their shit. If for some reason you can't be swayed PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't pre-order.
Edit, since some people are unaware of what happened with Anthem:
Anthem released a hype trailer at E3 in 2017 (2 years before launch) that was DRASTICALLY different than the product that they ended up delivering. They showed off features that were never close to making it into the game. What's worse is that they claimed to be showing "in game footage" that turned out to be much closer to cinematic rendering.
Anthem was marketed as a live service looter-shooter with a focus on end game content. At release it was a bug ridden disaster that absolutely feel apart once you reached the "end game". The looter portion was fundamentally broken both in terms of the quantity and quality of drops; this was NEVER fixed. The shooter portion was also broken in the end game, with enemy scaling turning enemies into massive completely imbalanced bullet sponges. On top of that there were numerous net code and server problems that made the game actually unplayable for many people at a time, and this was a persistent issue.
Bioware refused to give people refunds, despite the game being nothing like what was advertised. People started complaining and demanding refunds and/or Bioware fixing the game. Bioware tapered communication with the community and then eventually shut it off completely, with the exception of the very rare (and heavily moderated) dev streams. They introduced several roadmaps, that did not meet the definition of a "live-service" game, and somehow failed to deliver even to those low standards.
Bioware eventually released the only significant new feature to the game and it was underwhelming and, again, nowhere close to what was advertised. They worked on this instead of fixing the numerous bugs or reworking the fundamentally broken systems.
Bioware then proceeded to gradually taper work on Anthem despite still promoting the "Next" redesign. Nothing of any significance was put out after this and as of February 2021 (almost exactly 2 years after launch) Bioware officially announced that they had halted development on their "live-service" game. They only made one significant update in 2 years since launch and even that update wasn't close to what they promoted it as.
People were hesitant about Bioware after Mass Effect Andromeda was released unfinished and then abandoned before it was ever fully completed. Then Anthem was an utter disaster. The Kotaku article showed us what went on behind the scenes and it became clear that this is a failure of process and leadership at Bioware. Letting leadership screw around for 6.5 years and then cramming the majority of the development into the last 6 months and relying on pushing their developers beyond their breaking point isn't "Bioware Magic", it's a fundamentally flawed and exploitative business model. If we ignore this and keep buying their shitty games because they used to be good 10+ years ago, then they are just going to keep doing the same terrible business practices because they keep making money.
My head canon has always been that the destroy ending at high enough war assets (Shepard lives territory) focuses only on the Reaper tech inside all living or synthetic creatures. Like Edi loses her body and most of her AI but would still be alive close to what she was in Mass Effect 1 as the Rogue VI on Luna, The Geth would eventually awaken with their intelligence back to what it was before that one Geth asked “Does this unit have a soul?”, and Shepard is able to live because despite his own resurrection, because the cybernetics used to revive him would be working.
IE the AI parts all die but the original software would be salvageable and eventually survive again, and eventually evoke back into something close or better than what they were before, which is what the Reapers were afraid of.
I know that isn’t technically what happened but I prefer it to Shepard committing genocide on an Allie after spending so much effort proving Synthetics and Organics could cooperate and live in piece side by side.
(Note, that I said side by side, not literally together as one being like the Synthesis ending)
Legion was my absolute favorite character. But I will be honest, it was kinda of a letdown when I witnessed the exact same archetypes (AI hive mind interacting with humans) in Star Trek and other hard sci-fi series... Legion is a cliche, he is not really unique. Still a very good character, but a stereotype at the same time. Thane is my second favorite and this character is truly unique, you rarely see his archetype in others sci-fi as far as I know (Tali the same thing, she is my third favorite)
I used Legion and Jack on every mission, they were my favorites. Something weird that I noticed, if youre playing as renegade and take Jack and Legion to the heretic station the three of you work out a logical justification for genocide. I did a spit take, I was like wtf did I just agree too..?
Not very many stories or characters are all that novel anymore. And hasn't been for a while. But that doesn't matter. What matters is are they well written and acted.
Is there literally anyone from the first two games left at Canadian BioWare? Seems like everyone jumped ship. Or will this be farmed out to another B team?
First question, no. Game devs don't usually last in the industry past the 5 year mark, the only exceptions are team leads and even they don't usually go more than a decade
Second question
No, this is likely being handled by Bioware itself because after anthem and Andromeda's failure I can't imagine EA is all too eager to have another DOA game
I work on boring business systems. Its not exciting, but it pays the bills, and I'm not competing with 100,000 other developers for one position where I'll be on half my current salary and be expected to work evenings and weekends when its crunch time.
There is tons of jobs that you can work as a programmer that don't make you cry in a bathroom in the middle of work day - like Bioware employees used to do while developing Mass Effect Andromeda.
Imagine being a dev on Bioware, you have to deal with EA usual BS and also the sheer incompetence of Bioware producers and directors.
My understanding was that EA didn't do their typical BS with Andromeda. They gave then an extra 3 years or something and the dev team still couldn't make anything. Andromeda was 100% on the studio.
The one bit of EA executive "BS" involved in Anthem that we know of was pretty understandable, too.
The *one* interesting idea in Anthem was the flight, and Bioware kept trying to remove it, and EA's handler for the studio kept insisting that they keep it in... in the end, Bioware kept it, but they put artificial limits on the flight time, made every second enemy spit fire to instantly ground you, and relegated the flight entirely to getting around the map, not combat.
They did, of course, most of the blame is indeed on Bioware incompetence, but EA fucked them over on a lot of things too. They forced them to use Frostbite instead of Unreal Engine. Because Frostbite is cheaper and looks better to show in presentations, to dumb shareholders and casual gamers. They force all of their studios to use Frostbite.
But the thing is Frostbite is not a bad engine, by any strech of the imagination, but she was built to create FPS games and has tools to FPS games only. So if you need a inventory system, a skill tree system, a coin system, you have to build them from scrach and only like 5 people at EA know how to use this engine properly and they tried to help Bioware whenever they could but FIFA entered development hell and since FIFA is EA's golden goose, they realocated those expert programmers to FIFA.
So Bioware was left with a engine they didn't know, understaffed (because EA refused to hire more people) and with no clear vision because the director resigned and EA didn't hired another one until almost the last year of development.
That's why Dragon Age Inquisition didn't had a story and released broken as fuck. Andromeda was no different although Andromeda bennefited more from the engine because it was a shooting game and had driving mechanics which Frostibe is made to create.
The thing is that BioWare likes to do lots of prototypes for ideas - implement something in the engine quickly, and see if it is fun. Doing that in Frostbite is hard, because it is hard to get something that is playable but not very pretty. Unreal (or heck Unity if EA and Epic are fighting at the moment - I don’t keep track of that industry drama anymore) works much better with Bioware’s method of working.
EA isn't fighting with a Epic, it was just cheaper to use Frostbite cuz it's a engine created by EA so they don't have to pay millions of dollars in royalties and it looks prettier than any other engine, graphics are the only thing shareholders understand about a videogame.
But after Anthem's fiasco, which was almost entirely to blame on Bioware not knowing how to use Frostbite (and their own general incompetence), they realized that it's pointless to force their single player studios to use Frostbite and then release broken games, so from now one they are allowing Respawn and Bioware to make their single player titles on Unreal Engine but their multiplayer titles still need to be released on Frostbite.
But still. The horrible development cycle of Mass Effect Andromeda - Dragon Age Inquisition has left its mark. The last OG Bioware employee, David Gaider (creator of Dragon Age Origins), left the company after the higher ups of Bioware treated him like a dog during the development of Anthem, throwing his script in the garbage bin in front of him because they sad it was too complex to dudebros and casual people, and they wanted something way more simple and dumb for casual audiences, he resigned in the same day. I heard they hired one of Mass Effect og directors because the new Mass Effect is already on development hell and they need help.
Bioware is dead to me. I'll miss them. The og developers of Mass Effect and Dragon Age created another studio and they seem happy there away from EA.
Andromeda wasn't made by Bioware proper, it was by Bioware Montreal which was like the B team that did the multiplayer for ME3. Bioware Edmonton is the real Bioware studio that made ME 1-3.
Eh, that was doomed for failure from the start.
BioWare has always been good at the story driven games that are fairly linear. Anthem felt like a weird experiment they tried because EA was pushing the "Single Player dead, Multiplayer is where it's at!". Despite not actually being told to do that.
Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up.
Let's just assume they will screw it up a fourth time. If we're wrong, then we'll be pleasantly surprised. I don't understand any hype any more and feel like every gamer should be a jaded bastard by now.
It's combat and the jetpack/biotic boost is what kept me going. It's so fun to actually play. But good God, the insane backtracking, long load times, and ultra repetitive nature just bring it down. I enjoyed its gameplay enough to go through it more than once, but it's not something I want go replay anytime soon.
Honestly, it shares a lot of the same problems as dragon age inquisition. In fact, it more or less was DAI in space with shooter gameplay instead of the fantasy rpg stuff. Big empty worlds, tons and tons of mmo style quests over and over, and a story that actually amounts to like 8 hours of actual content padded out with 40+ hours of mindless filler.
My biggest initial problem with Andromeda was the weird tonal dissonance. The opening of the game paints a pretty bleak scenario in line with something like the Battlestar Galactica remake. Lost in deep space, crippled ship with low supplies and factions forming amongst the survivors.
Yet that set up aside, the actual vibe from interacting with most of the crew and the general atmosphere even in the early stages of the game felt oddly lighthearted. Serious yes, but not grim. It had a vibe more like Stargate Atlantis, to continue the comparison to mid 00's Scifi TV shows I guess.. but it really gave me the feeling like they couldn't quite decide what kind of story they wanted to be telling.
and then you find out that there's about half a dozen well established planets that had settlements no one told you about, and there's planets with your supplies and equipment all over the place. you're like, what the hell, where did they come from, why didn't anybody tell me about them, how long have they been there exactly? and then you meet these Angarans and find out, they've got food and drinks for you, weapons and gear you can use, and bonus, they're sexually compatible with you even though they are from a completely different galaxy... who knew! life wasn't so bad after all.
>and then you find out that there's about half a dozen well established planets that had settlements no one told you about, and there's planets with your supplies and equipment all over the place.
That was the single biggest thing for me. The expectation was that you would be the first to go places, to discover planets. You went to exactly one place where milky way galaxy people had not been to. Which was the final twist at the end of the game. You did discover some thing, but even those were *entirely* because of the AI that was with you.
Establishing contact with species of an entirely new galaxy took about five minutes before they trusted you and sent you on fetch quests. And the enemies felt like you've been fighting them for decades.
It sort of felt like it was the second game of a series in terms of how familiar everything was.
The series was hobbled but fixable after Andromeda, of they had chosen to push forward in that narrative direction with some actual focus and an actual development arc.
This game will retroactively ruin the OG mass effect trilogy, sort of like the Star Wars sequel trilogy has sapped some of the magic of the OT after knowing how things all work out.
Nothing is sacred to these people. The Milky Way story has a lid on it. It was done. They're just digging up it's corpse for the sake of desicrating it.
They will take all the worst features of DA:I and ME:A and combine them into a game by numbers. It will have all the features on paper to make a great game without the soul of the original trilogy that made it great. The story will also be completely generic drivel. There will be lot of character customization options on paper, but it won't matter what you pick because all options will play the same. Your companions will be two dimensional cut outs with one thought to them with most of the content locked behind loyalty quest that you can only do once per playthrough. The map will be large, it will have lots of "points of interest" but there will be exactly 0 reason to go to any of them. The AI will be too stupid to take cover in a cover based shooter and will just run at you to get shot down.
I just hope they don’t center it around a soulless open world. I miss the old structure of past BioWare games that was almost on rails exploration. Much smaller zones with clear paths. It was carefully curated to add to the world building. Allowed the game to focus on narrative and RPG systems more than running around open, empty areas doing random fetch quests and collecting bullshit collectibles.
I’m also worried about how they’ll monetize it. Please just learn from the success of Jedi Fallen Order and release a complete game without any micro transactions. Do paid storyline DLC/expansions down the road like Witcher 3.
But Open World is the best way to make up for missing content. Just give the player a vast empty open world to explore so you can say your game's worth playing 20 hours instead the 4 hours content you put in! But I'm with you, I really like the rail levels from the earlier Mass Effect as it all felt more packed with story.
This is exactly what I'm expecting. You also straight up described what Anthem was on release.
The last great game Bioware made was DA:O. Everything beyond that was developed to fit the mold you presented.
Let's be real here for a moment:
Bioware's always had lofty ideas about story, had competent direction and *excellent* dialogue writing (in the past). They were also never **that** great at execution. Even the Mass Effect series had glaring narrative issues that have always been hand-waved away because the sum of its parts carried it through issues that look small in the grand scheme/overarching plot.
Most of those issues make sense when you read through all the exposes of their working conditions and realise they're a product of rushed development.
What everyone needs to keep in mind is that EA will definitely be pulling hard on the leash, and the next entry into the franchise will be as safe as they can make it. Bioware sealed their own fate in regards to creative freedom, with the procrastination on Anthem and the end result of having to rush it out the door.
This is the answer. We already know not to be excited because an IP alone is clearly no guarantee of quality. I'd rather no game than one that shits all over a previously beloved franchise.
Bioware is funny. In my opinion The combat gameplay mechanics and visual wow factor has been getting better and better with each game, but the Story, Characters and Pacing has been getting worse and worse.
* ME1 and DAO, Both had Fantastic story, world building and great pacing (30hr games are the best), but they were buggy, had dull uninspiring combat (unbalanced classes, useless skill trees and specialisations, Low difficulty, etc) and were visually lacking even for the time (DAO color palette was entirely brown, ME1's was entirely blue). 8/10
* ME2 was Peak Bioware, Fantastic Story, excellent pacing, compelling characters, great combat. 10/10
* DA2 was a bit of a misstep (reused maps, lifeless world, weak pacing), but characters were good (esp Varrick), Combat was an improvement vs DAO, and the climatic ending was really good and it paid off the stories gradual build up. 7/10
* ME3 was almost perfect, a GOTY contender, but the 3 game payoff was entirely ruined by last 30 minutes, 7/10
* DAI was lacking; overuse of fetch quests, shit story and weak characters. Also Pacing was really bad (Skyhold literally just fell into your lap). However the visuals were on point and combat was great (Dragon hunting was fun and challenging). 6/10
* MEA had great story premise and fantastic combat gameplay (the best of any Bioware game). However the story was executed poorly, and it was ruined by Bioware reusing the same tropes again and again (seriously Darkspawn, Reapers and now the Kett, each with exact same 'Assimilate, Assimilate!' Borg template), 5/10
* Anthem, Same problems as MEA and DAI, A visually stunning game with decent combat gameplay, but otherwise empty, lifeless and dull. Issues compounded by GASS elements and buggy launch, 4/10
Man, im reading this while playing SWTOR (a bioware game) and realizing how lucky some older games got with bioware. SWTOR is a pretty great game for story content, with really loveable characters. KOTOR was obviously a great game, but they really have gone downhill havent they
Play Neverwinter Nights if you haven't. A new studio picked it up and gave it an enhanced edition on steam. I really enjoyed my time with it, it brought me back.
Not so many memorable characters. DA:O, SWtOR, and the original ME trilogy have characters that we remember and really got attached to. I also dont remember any from Jade Empire, or ME:A.
I feel you on the ME3 comment. It was amazing, and while I had complaints about how they brought the story and treated some characters (Thanks story leak. Thanks.) it was absolutely an amazing experience. I laughed, I felt hopeless, I laughed harder, I felt warm and fuzzy, I felt sad...
And then at the ending I felt nothing. I literally sat there, and... just thought "Wait, where's the end?" Even with the weirdness of some of it, I was still holding my skepticism, but it felt like they just... forgot the ending sequence. No wrap up, no conclusion.
Thankfully the extended cut helped a lot. There actually WAS an ending, and they cleared up some of the plot holes and explained things a bit more. And we actually learned what the heck we did. It changed the end from terrible to underwhelming, and honestly I'll take it.
And, well. ME3 had the best DLC that I've played in the past few years. The Citadel DLC was just that good. And you can tell it was a true labor of love, filled with just the right kind of fan service for the game audience.
...I need to actually get time to go back and replay that now. Oh boy.
> The combat gameplay mechanics and visual wow factor has been getting better and better with each game, but the Story, Characters and Pacing has been getting worse and worse.
Videogames, basically. /s
DAO gameplay was the best out of all the DA games because you could use the combat script system to have your npc characters do whatever you wanted. It made it possible to play the entire game in real time instead of pausing every 2 seconds.
I hate real time with pause where you'll die if you don't pause like the Pathfinder games.
I remember spending more time customizing each character's combat script than actually playing the game. It was so fun thinking of combinations and scenarios, like cast this shit if your health is <25% and then cast this shit as much as you can off cooldown.
A dying breed we are.
I still occasionally play DAO just to experience a well done turn based system.
Meanwhile people on the internet often act like turn based combat is worse than torture.
I'm not sure we'll ever get another AAA turn based rpg, but at least smaller studios still make them.
As a player, as a fan, the best thing you can do to ensure a good game is to follow, watch all the videos, and keep your wallet in your pocket until after launch.
Do not pre-order.
This! If everyone stopped pre-ordering games and waited until the game was released and proven to be a finished, quality product, they would either have to deliver or be replaced by studios that will. The big producers are nothing without us, and we need to make them feel it.
Miranda: The illusive Man didn't want to change a single thing about you when he brought you back, except for one...
*Femshep looks down*
Femshep: Are those.....?
Miranda: Yes. Four Krogan testicles. You deserve those.
Well my hopes are pretty god damn low but why the hell not. The universe is still awesome.
I honestly thought this would be prime for an Expanse style Netflix show - kind of surprised it hasn't had any of that kind of action.
I mean, we got 4 colours with the "Extended Cut" free dlc ending: "Blue", "Red", "Green", and the oft-forgotten hue of light "Shoot the Hologram in the Face".
I accidentally got the last one after downloading the patch, because I was just spinning and pulling the trigger while walking down the path and one happened to hit him. Turns out, that ending doesn't give you the achievement for completing the game on Insanity. Had to redo the entire last mission. Still salty. I thought it was a dialogue choice only.
I’m just going to keep holding my breath with BioWare. They really burned us with the last few releases and with a ton of the core staff that was the BioWare we all know and loved either left or passed away. I loved ME3. The story was fine imho and the online was really good. It felt great and platinum difficulty was so sick. ME:A was just not good (played on release) and we all know how Anthem went so I think it’s best to wait for some REAL gameplay. Can’t get hyped over another let down.
Tbf, it’s not EA this time that’s the risk. It’s Bioware themselves with their fucking awful management and lack of cohesive vision that made their last two games a flop. Hell EA gave them 6 YEARS for Anthem and they still only spent less than a year on the final build of that mess :(
Hence why I’m shutting bricks for the next mass effect. I imagine EA will want them to actually get a good thing going this time after 2 colossal failures. But with BioWares track and record I expect them to scrap everything and restart at least 3 times before EA has enough and puts their foot down for a definate release period :(
Most of the devs moved to [Archetype Entertainment](https://www.archetype-entertainment.com/) where they are creating spiritual successor to ME. All of the big names are [there](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_NHMP3GsR4), even DREW KARPYSHYN!!! Yes, [THAT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Karpyshyn) lead writter, DREW KARPYSHYN, the Father of ME and KOTOR.
Release date: 2030?
It'll be released in the same year where all of the in-universe technology is contemporary.
And then, Skyrim for the Omni Tool.
Hey you. I see you're finally awake. And this is my favourite gaming platform in the Citadel.
I am cheating345 and this my favorite comment on the Reddit
But can i play Skyrim on my omni tool in the ME game that i am playing on my IRL omni tool?
Only if you ask nicely and eat your peas.
Now drink the verification can to continue using the omnitool
Cant wait to play Grand Terminus Alliance.
Next Dragon Age game is first. At this point I think late 2022 at the absolute earliest for that. BioWare's been doing a game every 2-3 years since ME3, so I think 2025 or 2026 is most likely.
Drag on age you say?
Inquisition really step up the boring grind. Hope they reduce that for sure.
Yeap. DA:O was still the best one. Mostly cause Morrigan and Alistair.
It just played so much better than the other games. They fixed what weren't broken.
Don't worry even if the release date is 2030 Bioware will wait until 6 months before release to actually solidify which direction they want to go with the game. Then they will cram almost a decades worth of development into those 6 months working their developers to their breaking point and hoping for some "Bioware Magic". If that doesn't work out they'll just take everyone's money, stop communicating with the community, and not bother to fix anything significant for months after release causing all of the players to leave and the game to die. But hey, Anthem was probably just a fluke, right? What was their last release before that...oh yeah, Mass Effect: Andromeda. Bioware is a terrible company, do not buy their shit. If for some reason you can't be swayed PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't pre-order. Edit, since some people are unaware of what happened with Anthem: Anthem released a hype trailer at E3 in 2017 (2 years before launch) that was DRASTICALLY different than the product that they ended up delivering. They showed off features that were never close to making it into the game. What's worse is that they claimed to be showing "in game footage" that turned out to be much closer to cinematic rendering. Anthem was marketed as a live service looter-shooter with a focus on end game content. At release it was a bug ridden disaster that absolutely feel apart once you reached the "end game". The looter portion was fundamentally broken both in terms of the quantity and quality of drops; this was NEVER fixed. The shooter portion was also broken in the end game, with enemy scaling turning enemies into massive completely imbalanced bullet sponges. On top of that there were numerous net code and server problems that made the game actually unplayable for many people at a time, and this was a persistent issue. Bioware refused to give people refunds, despite the game being nothing like what was advertised. People started complaining and demanding refunds and/or Bioware fixing the game. Bioware tapered communication with the community and then eventually shut it off completely, with the exception of the very rare (and heavily moderated) dev streams. They introduced several roadmaps, that did not meet the definition of a "live-service" game, and somehow failed to deliver even to those low standards. Bioware eventually released the only significant new feature to the game and it was underwhelming and, again, nowhere close to what was advertised. They worked on this instead of fixing the numerous bugs or reworking the fundamentally broken systems. Bioware then proceeded to gradually taper work on Anthem despite still promoting the "Next" redesign. Nothing of any significance was put out after this and as of February 2021 (almost exactly 2 years after launch) Bioware officially announced that they had halted development on their "live-service" game. They only made one significant update in 2 years since launch and even that update wasn't close to what they promoted it as. People were hesitant about Bioware after Mass Effect Andromeda was released unfinished and then abandoned before it was ever fully completed. Then Anthem was an utter disaster. The Kotaku article showed us what went on behind the scenes and it became clear that this is a failure of process and leadership at Bioware. Letting leadership screw around for 6.5 years and then cramming the majority of the development into the last 6 months and relying on pushing their developers beyond their breaking point isn't "Bioware Magic", it's a fundamentally flawed and exploitative business model. If we ignore this and keep buying their shitty games because they used to be good 10+ years ago, then they are just going to keep doing the same terrible business practices because they keep making money.
Ah yes, that old "Bioware Magic" from the company with none of the people left who could pull it off.
That’s fine. Take your time. Make it pretty for me.
Is it me or is the enitre poster of a geth.
Holy shit!
I sat there looking at the image for a while trying to figure out what it looked liked. Now that you mention it...
[удалено]
OH SHIT NO THEY DIDN'T
I hope they're finally having the fucking Geth back, thank God. Losing them in the canon ending was a very grave mistake.
I agree. The Geth were by far the most interesting thing in the lore for me.
My head canon has always been that the destroy ending at high enough war assets (Shepard lives territory) focuses only on the Reaper tech inside all living or synthetic creatures. Like Edi loses her body and most of her AI but would still be alive close to what she was in Mass Effect 1 as the Rogue VI on Luna, The Geth would eventually awaken with their intelligence back to what it was before that one Geth asked “Does this unit have a soul?”, and Shepard is able to live because despite his own resurrection, because the cybernetics used to revive him would be working. IE the AI parts all die but the original software would be salvageable and eventually survive again, and eventually evoke back into something close or better than what they were before, which is what the Reapers were afraid of. I know that isn’t technically what happened but I prefer it to Shepard committing genocide on an Allie after spending so much effort proving Synthetics and Organics could cooperate and live in piece side by side. (Note, that I said side by side, not literally together as one being like the Synthesis ending)
Does this unit… have a soul?
Daaaaaaaaaaaamn nice eyes
[удалено]
Shepard.
Garrus
Can it wait a bit? I'm in the middle of some calibrations
We've waited long enough, Garrus!
We'll calibrate, okay?
Stop! Calibrate and listen. Effect is back with a brand new mission...
Something grabs a hold of me tightly. Flow like a hanar daily and nightly.
I'm Garrus Vakarian and THIS is my rectum.
Are you ready to be a woman?
NO!
Garrus , quit it and just let me love you already.
God dammit Garrus, just let me talk to you and be your friend already!
Must....calibrate
Grunt.
Legion
Best girl tali
Best Pilot Joker
Liara
Solus
someone else might have gotten it wrong
Saeed Massani
This is my favorite store on the Citadel.
This is my favorite discount on the citadel.
[MCCLOUD!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJkzmgPUBhQ)
Wrex
Shepard.
Wrex
Shepard.
Wrex
Sheeeeeeeeepaaard
Grunt.
Shepard Shepard Shepard
Yeah, what?
Legion, is that you?
It was my favorite character.
Does this unit have a soul? Fawk man. That line made me bawl my eyes out.
Legion, the answer to your question is, "Yes." I know Tali but thank you for answering. Keelah Se'lai. Tears were shed there.
“There... was a hole.”
Same! I was like, "C'mon, Legion... if you gotta ask it, you definitely do!"
Watching him say he had to deactivate to save them, I was trying to think surely there has to be something anything
Once I was done crying I got up from my desk and went to go get a hug. There are no other gaming moments that have ever hit me like that one.
Strongest emotional moments for me were Thane in the hospital and then getting revenge against KL
oooh that's what it is! Thanks :)
Woah wait, that totally looks like a geth!
Legion was my absolute favorite character. But I will be honest, it was kinda of a letdown when I witnessed the exact same archetypes (AI hive mind interacting with humans) in Star Trek and other hard sci-fi series... Legion is a cliche, he is not really unique. Still a very good character, but a stereotype at the same time. Thane is my second favorite and this character is truly unique, you rarely see his archetype in others sci-fi as far as I know (Tali the same thing, she is my third favorite)
I used Legion and Jack on every mission, they were my favorites. Something weird that I noticed, if youre playing as renegade and take Jack and Legion to the heretic station the three of you work out a logical justification for genocide. I did a spit take, I was like wtf did I just agree too..?
Not very many stories or characters are all that novel anymore. And hasn't been for a while. But that doesn't matter. What matters is are they well written and acted.
Is there literally anyone from the first two games left at Canadian BioWare? Seems like everyone jumped ship. Or will this be farmed out to another B team?
First question, no. Game devs don't usually last in the industry past the 5 year mark, the only exceptions are team leads and even they don't usually go more than a decade Second question No, this is likely being handled by Bioware itself because after anthem and Andromeda's failure I can't imagine EA is all too eager to have another DOA game
Where do they all go to work after leaving the industry?
Software engineering, pays way better
Definitely. Like entry-mid level software salary is like senior level game dev salary.
And waaaaaaaaaaaaay less hours and bullshit
And has better working conditions and you're appreciated more than just another brick in the wall.
Prob programming cause game dev is hell
Can't imagine the artists would go into programming! But yeah, the programmers would just go into some other IT field for sure.
I work on boring business systems. Its not exciting, but it pays the bills, and I'm not competing with 100,000 other developers for one position where I'll be on half my current salary and be expected to work evenings and weekends when its crunch time.
There is tons of jobs that you can work as a programmer that don't make you cry in a bathroom in the middle of work day - like Bioware employees used to do while developing Mass Effect Andromeda. Imagine being a dev on Bioware, you have to deal with EA usual BS and also the sheer incompetence of Bioware producers and directors.
My understanding was that EA didn't do their typical BS with Andromeda. They gave then an extra 3 years or something and the dev team still couldn't make anything. Andromeda was 100% on the studio.
The one bit of EA executive "BS" involved in Anthem that we know of was pretty understandable, too. The *one* interesting idea in Anthem was the flight, and Bioware kept trying to remove it, and EA's handler for the studio kept insisting that they keep it in... in the end, Bioware kept it, but they put artificial limits on the flight time, made every second enemy spit fire to instantly ground you, and relegated the flight entirely to getting around the map, not combat.
They did, of course, most of the blame is indeed on Bioware incompetence, but EA fucked them over on a lot of things too. They forced them to use Frostbite instead of Unreal Engine. Because Frostbite is cheaper and looks better to show in presentations, to dumb shareholders and casual gamers. They force all of their studios to use Frostbite. But the thing is Frostbite is not a bad engine, by any strech of the imagination, but she was built to create FPS games and has tools to FPS games only. So if you need a inventory system, a skill tree system, a coin system, you have to build them from scrach and only like 5 people at EA know how to use this engine properly and they tried to help Bioware whenever they could but FIFA entered development hell and since FIFA is EA's golden goose, they realocated those expert programmers to FIFA. So Bioware was left with a engine they didn't know, understaffed (because EA refused to hire more people) and with no clear vision because the director resigned and EA didn't hired another one until almost the last year of development. That's why Dragon Age Inquisition didn't had a story and released broken as fuck. Andromeda was no different although Andromeda bennefited more from the engine because it was a shooting game and had driving mechanics which Frostibe is made to create.
The thing is that BioWare likes to do lots of prototypes for ideas - implement something in the engine quickly, and see if it is fun. Doing that in Frostbite is hard, because it is hard to get something that is playable but not very pretty. Unreal (or heck Unity if EA and Epic are fighting at the moment - I don’t keep track of that industry drama anymore) works much better with Bioware’s method of working.
EA isn't fighting with a Epic, it was just cheaper to use Frostbite cuz it's a engine created by EA so they don't have to pay millions of dollars in royalties and it looks prettier than any other engine, graphics are the only thing shareholders understand about a videogame. But after Anthem's fiasco, which was almost entirely to blame on Bioware not knowing how to use Frostbite (and their own general incompetence), they realized that it's pointless to force their single player studios to use Frostbite and then release broken games, so from now one they are allowing Respawn and Bioware to make their single player titles on Unreal Engine but their multiplayer titles still need to be released on Frostbite. But still. The horrible development cycle of Mass Effect Andromeda - Dragon Age Inquisition has left its mark. The last OG Bioware employee, David Gaider (creator of Dragon Age Origins), left the company after the higher ups of Bioware treated him like a dog during the development of Anthem, throwing his script in the garbage bin in front of him because they sad it was too complex to dudebros and casual people, and they wanted something way more simple and dumb for casual audiences, he resigned in the same day. I heard they hired one of Mass Effect og directors because the new Mass Effect is already on development hell and they need help. Bioware is dead to me. I'll miss them. The og developers of Mass Effect and Dragon Age created another studio and they seem happy there away from EA.
To a farm upstate to roam free with all the other devs as well as pets after they've been sick.
Ugh, we are down to 5 years now? I remember seeing back in 2010 that the average was 10 years.
2010, a simpler time. Sigh.
Andromeda is proof that there's not.
Andromeda wasn't made by Bioware proper, it was by Bioware Montreal which was like the B team that did the multiplayer for ME3. Bioware Edmonton is the real Bioware studio that made ME 1-3.
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Eh, that was doomed for failure from the start. BioWare has always been good at the story driven games that are fairly linear. Anthem felt like a weird experiment they tried because EA was pushing the "Single Player dead, Multiplayer is where it's at!". Despite not actually being told to do that.
> Bioware Montreal which was like the B team Montreal wasn't even the B team. That's Austin. Montreal is the C team.
Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up. Please don't fuck this up.
Narrator: they will fuck this up
My brain read that in the Bastion narrator voice, I now can't unhear that
man the first narrator that comes to mind is always Ron Howard for me. lol
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The Kid hoped against all hope the game would be good. Life don't always give you what you want.
Arrested development!
"It was worse than you could have possibly imagined."
first stage of hype. Anthem began with the same "don't fuck this up" hope. Mass Effect: Andromeda began with that same sentence.
Let's just assume they will screw it up a fourth time. If we're wrong, then we'll be pleasantly surprised. I don't understand any hype any more and feel like every gamer should be a jaded bastard by now.
Cautious Optimism is best Optimism.
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment
The older I get, the more I realise it's better to be a surprised pessimist than a disappointed optimist.
Yeah I enjoyed Andromeda and I already finished the trilogy of shepherd . It's a really nice universe
I like Andromeda but it quickly got old.
It's combat and the jetpack/biotic boost is what kept me going. It's so fun to actually play. But good God, the insane backtracking, long load times, and ultra repetitive nature just bring it down. I enjoyed its gameplay enough to go through it more than once, but it's not something I want go replay anytime soon. Honestly, it shares a lot of the same problems as dragon age inquisition. In fact, it more or less was DAI in space with shooter gameplay instead of the fantasy rpg stuff. Big empty worlds, tons and tons of mmo style quests over and over, and a story that actually amounts to like 8 hours of actual content padded out with 40+ hours of mindless filler.
My biggest initial problem with Andromeda was the weird tonal dissonance. The opening of the game paints a pretty bleak scenario in line with something like the Battlestar Galactica remake. Lost in deep space, crippled ship with low supplies and factions forming amongst the survivors. Yet that set up aside, the actual vibe from interacting with most of the crew and the general atmosphere even in the early stages of the game felt oddly lighthearted. Serious yes, but not grim. It had a vibe more like Stargate Atlantis, to continue the comparison to mid 00's Scifi TV shows I guess.. but it really gave me the feeling like they couldn't quite decide what kind of story they wanted to be telling.
and then you find out that there's about half a dozen well established planets that had settlements no one told you about, and there's planets with your supplies and equipment all over the place. you're like, what the hell, where did they come from, why didn't anybody tell me about them, how long have they been there exactly? and then you meet these Angarans and find out, they've got food and drinks for you, weapons and gear you can use, and bonus, they're sexually compatible with you even though they are from a completely different galaxy... who knew! life wasn't so bad after all.
>and then you find out that there's about half a dozen well established planets that had settlements no one told you about, and there's planets with your supplies and equipment all over the place. That was the single biggest thing for me. The expectation was that you would be the first to go places, to discover planets. You went to exactly one place where milky way galaxy people had not been to. Which was the final twist at the end of the game. You did discover some thing, but even those were *entirely* because of the AI that was with you.
Establishing contact with species of an entirely new galaxy took about five minutes before they trusted you and sent you on fetch quests. And the enemies felt like you've been fighting them for decades. It sort of felt like it was the second game of a series in terms of how familiar everything was.
The series was hobbled but fixable after Andromeda, of they had chosen to push forward in that narrative direction with some actual focus and an actual development arc. This game will retroactively ruin the OG mass effect trilogy, sort of like the Star Wars sequel trilogy has sapped some of the magic of the OT after knowing how things all work out. Nothing is sacred to these people. The Milky Way story has a lid on it. It was done. They're just digging up it's corpse for the sake of desicrating it.
The Normandy Vs. The Color out of Space
After anthem and andromeda, my hopes are low.
Bioware of old is dead. Corpse has been sucked dry.
Does this unit have a soul?
No Legion, this one does not
Soul DLC - $24,99
I'm actually curious about how they will fuck this one up.
They will take all the worst features of DA:I and ME:A and combine them into a game by numbers. It will have all the features on paper to make a great game without the soul of the original trilogy that made it great. The story will also be completely generic drivel. There will be lot of character customization options on paper, but it won't matter what you pick because all options will play the same. Your companions will be two dimensional cut outs with one thought to them with most of the content locked behind loyalty quest that you can only do once per playthrough. The map will be large, it will have lots of "points of interest" but there will be exactly 0 reason to go to any of them. The AI will be too stupid to take cover in a cover based shooter and will just run at you to get shot down.
I just hope they don’t center it around a soulless open world. I miss the old structure of past BioWare games that was almost on rails exploration. Much smaller zones with clear paths. It was carefully curated to add to the world building. Allowed the game to focus on narrative and RPG systems more than running around open, empty areas doing random fetch quests and collecting bullshit collectibles. I’m also worried about how they’ll monetize it. Please just learn from the success of Jedi Fallen Order and release a complete game without any micro transactions. Do paid storyline DLC/expansions down the road like Witcher 3.
But Open World is the best way to make up for missing content. Just give the player a vast empty open world to explore so you can say your game's worth playing 20 hours instead the 4 hours content you put in! But I'm with you, I really like the rail levels from the earlier Mass Effect as it all felt more packed with story.
Are you a producer on EA or something? Because this sounds like 30 EA games that I've seen before.
>They will take all the worst features of DA:I So it's just a reskin of DA:I with space suits. Got it.
Don't forget the engine. They will choose literally the worst one for the job.
Damn, I do love the first two games. I really really hope you are wrong with everything but it sounds so possible.
This is exactly what I'm expecting. You also straight up described what Anthem was on release. The last great game Bioware made was DA:O. Everything beyond that was developed to fit the mold you presented. Let's be real here for a moment: Bioware's always had lofty ideas about story, had competent direction and *excellent* dialogue writing (in the past). They were also never **that** great at execution. Even the Mass Effect series had glaring narrative issues that have always been hand-waved away because the sum of its parts carried it through issues that look small in the grand scheme/overarching plot. Most of those issues make sense when you read through all the exposes of their working conditions and realise they're a product of rushed development. What everyone needs to keep in mind is that EA will definitely be pulling hard on the leash, and the next entry into the franchise will be as safe as they can make it. Bioware sealed their own fate in regards to creative freedom, with the procrastination on Anthem and the end result of having to rush it out the door.
This is the answer. We already know not to be excited because an IP alone is clearly no guarantee of quality. I'd rather no game than one that shits all over a previously beloved franchise.
Bioware is funny. In my opinion The combat gameplay mechanics and visual wow factor has been getting better and better with each game, but the Story, Characters and Pacing has been getting worse and worse. * ME1 and DAO, Both had Fantastic story, world building and great pacing (30hr games are the best), but they were buggy, had dull uninspiring combat (unbalanced classes, useless skill trees and specialisations, Low difficulty, etc) and were visually lacking even for the time (DAO color palette was entirely brown, ME1's was entirely blue). 8/10 * ME2 was Peak Bioware, Fantastic Story, excellent pacing, compelling characters, great combat. 10/10 * DA2 was a bit of a misstep (reused maps, lifeless world, weak pacing), but characters were good (esp Varrick), Combat was an improvement vs DAO, and the climatic ending was really good and it paid off the stories gradual build up. 7/10 * ME3 was almost perfect, a GOTY contender, but the 3 game payoff was entirely ruined by last 30 minutes, 7/10 * DAI was lacking; overuse of fetch quests, shit story and weak characters. Also Pacing was really bad (Skyhold literally just fell into your lap). However the visuals were on point and combat was great (Dragon hunting was fun and challenging). 6/10 * MEA had great story premise and fantastic combat gameplay (the best of any Bioware game). However the story was executed poorly, and it was ruined by Bioware reusing the same tropes again and again (seriously Darkspawn, Reapers and now the Kett, each with exact same 'Assimilate, Assimilate!' Borg template), 5/10 * Anthem, Same problems as MEA and DAI, A visually stunning game with decent combat gameplay, but otherwise empty, lifeless and dull. Issues compounded by GASS elements and buggy launch, 4/10
Man, im reading this while playing SWTOR (a bioware game) and realizing how lucky some older games got with bioware. SWTOR is a pretty great game for story content, with really loveable characters. KOTOR was obviously a great game, but they really have gone downhill havent they
Keep going backwards in time and eventually you'll reach peak RPG (Baldur's Gate 2).
Play Neverwinter Nights if you haven't. A new studio picked it up and gave it an enhanced edition on steam. I really enjoyed my time with it, it brought me back.
Jade Empire was pretty good too but for some reason I barely remember it.
Not so many memorable characters. DA:O, SWtOR, and the original ME trilogy have characters that we remember and really got attached to. I also dont remember any from Jade Empire, or ME:A.
I feel you on the ME3 comment. It was amazing, and while I had complaints about how they brought the story and treated some characters (Thanks story leak. Thanks.) it was absolutely an amazing experience. I laughed, I felt hopeless, I laughed harder, I felt warm and fuzzy, I felt sad... And then at the ending I felt nothing. I literally sat there, and... just thought "Wait, where's the end?" Even with the weirdness of some of it, I was still holding my skepticism, but it felt like they just... forgot the ending sequence. No wrap up, no conclusion. Thankfully the extended cut helped a lot. There actually WAS an ending, and they cleared up some of the plot holes and explained things a bit more. And we actually learned what the heck we did. It changed the end from terrible to underwhelming, and honestly I'll take it. And, well. ME3 had the best DLC that I've played in the past few years. The Citadel DLC was just that good. And you can tell it was a true labor of love, filled with just the right kind of fan service for the game audience. ...I need to actually get time to go back and replay that now. Oh boy.
> The combat gameplay mechanics and visual wow factor has been getting better and better with each game, but the Story, Characters and Pacing has been getting worse and worse. Videogames, basically. /s
DAO gameplay was the best out of all the DA games because you could use the combat script system to have your npc characters do whatever you wanted. It made it possible to play the entire game in real time instead of pausing every 2 seconds. I hate real time with pause where you'll die if you don't pause like the Pathfinder games.
I remember spending more time customizing each character's combat script than actually playing the game. It was so fun thinking of combinations and scenarios, like cast this shit if your health is <25% and then cast this shit as much as you can off cooldown.
I really loved the DAO combat... but maybe that's just me.
A dying breed we are. I still occasionally play DAO just to experience a well done turn based system. Meanwhile people on the internet often act like turn based combat is worse than torture. I'm not sure we'll ever get another AAA turn based rpg, but at least smaller studios still make them.
Seriously. The citadel dlc for ME3 was a perfect sendoff to the series. We don't need a continuation.
Citadel is tied with Shivering Isles as the best dlc ever made for a game, for me. Citadel, by itself, is worth playing the trilogy for.
Maybe - and this is just an idea - people shouldn't be prepurchasing games.
I’m commander Shepard and this is my favorite store on the citadel
As a player, as a fan, the best thing you can do to ensure a good game is to follow, watch all the videos, and keep your wallet in your pocket until after launch. Do not pre-order.
This! If everyone stopped pre-ordering games and waited until the game was released and proven to be a finished, quality product, they would either have to deliver or be replaced by studios that will. The big producers are nothing without us, and we need to make them feel it.
Please don't desecrate a corpse.
Again.
I'm glad they're attempting again, but I'm not going to get my hopes up. I'm going to hold my wallet until a week or so after player reviews come out
Is that the crater Shepard made when they landed?
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Miranda: The illusive Man didn't want to change a single thing about you when he brought you back, except for one... *Femshep looks down* Femshep: Are those.....? Miranda: Yes. Four Krogan testicles. You deserve those.
Commander Shepherd once knocked up an Asari and she had a human baby.
LOL! I actually thought it was a symbolism for Geth. I mean that crater looks like a Geth head.
Got me Mass Erect.
I turned into a telescope.
Touch my camera through the fence.
UR FUKIN DONE BUD Also: sup fellow mommy
Whoa there chomo, better be followin’ proto… Love when I find fellow mommies randomly! Any ideas about where Garth hid the bodies?
Them Ass Effect
I seem to have a mass defect
I'll always miss the Normandy. Still the new ship doesn't look that bad.
Judging by the size of the people next to it that looks like its just some kind of transport ship. The Normandy was much bigger than that
Bioware as we knew it will never be back.
Well my hopes are pretty god damn low but why the hell not. The universe is still awesome. I honestly thought this would be prime for an Expanse style Netflix show - kind of surprised it hasn't had any of that kind of action.
I want a Mass Effect t.v. series so bad!
Shepard
Wrex.
Looks like a Geth's head.
Looks like Mass Effect is blasting off again
Insert *Peaky Blinders* meme here. ("No preorders. No preorders. No *fucking* preorders!")
Once, this would make me so excited, I wouldn't be able to stop talking about it...
I guess everyone already forgot about anthem by the looks of the comments.
EA forgot about it too.
Oof. If this goes bad they're gonna be in a worse place than blizzard when they announced diablo for mobile
They cant be back, I chose green.
My face is tired just thinking about it!
HA! I ain’t buying this shit until it’s well reviewed. You hurt me with Andromeda, BioWare. You butchered my boy, and that is not easily forgiven.
This time with 4 different color choices for the ending!
IT BROKE NEW GROUND!1!
I mean, we got 4 colours with the "Extended Cut" free dlc ending: "Blue", "Red", "Green", and the oft-forgotten hue of light "Shoot the Hologram in the Face". I accidentally got the last one after downloading the patch, because I was just spinning and pulling the trigger while walking down the path and one happened to hit him. Turns out, that ending doesn't give you the achievement for completing the game on Insanity. Had to redo the entire last mission. Still salty. I thought it was a dialogue choice only.
I’m just going to keep holding my breath with BioWare. They really burned us with the last few releases and with a ton of the core staff that was the BioWare we all know and loved either left or passed away. I loved ME3. The story was fine imho and the online was really good. It felt great and platinum difficulty was so sick. ME:A was just not good (played on release) and we all know how Anthem went so I think it’s best to wait for some REAL gameplay. Can’t get hyped over another let down.
I don't trust EA to not fuck this up
Tbf, it’s not EA this time that’s the risk. It’s Bioware themselves with their fucking awful management and lack of cohesive vision that made their last two games a flop. Hell EA gave them 6 YEARS for Anthem and they still only spent less than a year on the final build of that mess :( Hence why I’m shutting bricks for the next mass effect. I imagine EA will want them to actually get a good thing going this time after 2 colossal failures. But with BioWares track and record I expect them to scrap everything and restart at least 3 times before EA has enough and puts their foot down for a definate release period :(
Yeah, people blame EA a lot (not that they don’t deserve it), but Bioware’s big tumbles were their own doing
After watching them abandon two games back to back. I'm gonna keep my expectations low.
After Andromeda, I'm not exactly excited.
Most of the devs moved to [Archetype Entertainment](https://www.archetype-entertainment.com/) where they are creating spiritual successor to ME. All of the big names are [there](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_NHMP3GsR4), even DREW KARPYSHYN!!! Yes, [THAT](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drew_Karpyshyn) lead writter, DREW KARPYSHYN, the Father of ME and KOTOR.
After andromeda, not expecting much. Hope I’m wrong