Mass Effect 3

[Crazy Eddie]

Jeyl wrote:

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But... he said what Shepard did changes nothing.

Yes he did. By which point the Collectors had already been focusing on humans for a year and a half.

Why are you so hung up on the human-centered emphasis of Mass Effect 3 when we already started down that road in ME2?

[Reverend]

Yeah, and it's not as if Earth was the sole focus of the reaper invasion, nor the first target. Remember they tor through Batarian space first and by the time you get back to the Citadel they're already at Palavan, were scouting Tuchanka and probably Rannoch too.

Indeed the "humans are special to the reapers" argument falls rather flat when you consider that human husk are the weakest husks of this cycle...unless you count the scions...

[Crazy Eddie]

^ Come to think of it, the only thing the human husks have going for them is that there's a bazillion of them and it apparently takes about five minutes to convert them. I cannot recall the exact population statistics for the Asari or the Turians, but I almost wonder if the the real "special" thing about humans was high population density and ease of conversion.

That's probably what the Collectors had in mind, now that I think about it. Humans were there target of choice because 1) they had ALOT of colonies 2) those colonies were poorly defended 3) human gene-goo is probably easier for the Baby Reaper to digest.

That sort of goes back to my unfulfilled wish in Space Opera conflict premise: humans come into conflict with a hostile alien species simply because the aliens think humans are weak, numerous, and delicious.

[Reverend]

On the other hand, part of what supposedly made humans distinct (though not superior) was their wide genetic variance. The other races were more specialised, with a narrower focus on how they adapt.

Perhaps that's why the human husks are so weak. They're not good at any one thing to make it a significant tactical advantage. Indeed, maybe the same was true of the protheans, which is why the collectors are also generalists. Who knows, if this cycle's war went on for a few centuries, perhaps the human husks would continue to be refined and develop along similar lines.

[Angel4576]

Bizarre news item yesterday;

Mass Effect 3 producer Mike Gamble has told Gamer Syndrome that more on the next Mass Effect game will be revealed next year, and the current plan is to launch the game “late 2014 to mid-2015.”

Gamble said an exact date couldn’t be provided because “full development on the game [only] started a month or two ago.”

The producer also said the team originally planned for multiplayer to be incorporated into Mass Effect 2, but once work started, they found it was going to be “too much.”

“We had actually wanted to do multiplayer in Mass Effect 2,” said Gamble. “We started working on it and found out that it was just going to be too much, so we had to take it out of Mass Effect 2 and put it into Mass Effect]. As far as the style it had, like I said we wanted it to be different from other games. It needed to have something that drew people into playing multiplayer over and over again. It had to be something that looked and felt like playing a mission in Mass Effect, except you had 3 other players from around the world with you.

“This style of multiplayer was something we wanted to do since Mass Effect 2. Regardless on how people felt about the ending of Mass Effect 3, alot of people still play multiplayer.

Gamble also said a mission idea for Mass Effect 3 which was scrapped saw players going to the Turian home world of Palaven.

“One of the mission ideas that got scrapped was actually going onto Palaven, the Turian home world, and being able to see what their world was like,” he said. “We also scrapped the original ending for Mass Effect 3. We were gonna have it as a “boss battle”, where Commander Shepard would go up and fight The Illusive Man who has been transformed by The Reapers. We scrapped that idea because way too many [games] have that as their ending, some final boss fight.

“Ultimately, we are proud of the finished products in the Mass Effect series and stand by them.”

Gamble also said there are more plans for Wii U at the studio but there was nothing more to announce at this time.

“We have a terrific company in Australia [Straight Right] who did a good job putting Mass Effect 3 on Wii U,: he said. “Again, I can’t really comment on rumored speculation about the game or the franchise. Wii U is a console we feel is really cool and that more Mass Effect would look great on it, so we do have plans for Wii U but nothing to announce at this moment.”

Since then however;

Apparently, the “late 2014 to mid-2015″ date for Mass Effect 4 is “inaccurate,” according to an EA spokesperson.

An EA spokesperson has told G4 that “at no time did EA or BioWare provide any answers to questions from Gamer Syndrome.” The interview has since been removed as you can see here, along with the following message:

“The information provided previously by the author of this post was deemed to be obtained from an inaccurate source and NOT an official Bioware or EA interview response. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

Things get even more tricky when you look at Eurogamer, which was our go-to source for this article:

“Eurogamer checked this out and EA confirmed the comments as belonging to Mass Effect 3 producer Mike Gamble. [UPDATE: The EA representative who organised the interview (and whom we previously spoke with) has now told Eurogamer that the speaker in fact wasn't Gamble, but another BioWare team member. We've asked again for information on the speaker's identity and will update when we hear back.]”

VG247

[Reverend]

From Mike Gambles's own twitter account:

So, in case you were wondering. I never gave that gamer syndrome interview. There was a lot of untrue stuff in there. http://gamersyndrome.com/2012/video-games/gamersyndrome-talks-with-bioware-about-the-mass-effect-series/ …

Whatever is going on, it looks like the confusion is originating from EA.

[NrobbieC]

I'm a little late to all this and don't mean to resurrect a thread but I recently bought Mass Effect 3, it's just amazing. I'd never heard of the Mass Effect series before but found it so easy to get swept away in it, I'm not a gamer at all, I'm only interested in games as like interactive movies. I loved the cinematic cutscenes, the soundtrack, m/m romance between Shepard and Kaidan, the characters, the writing, the cast. And I guess if you can play a game for 20 hours straight and also wind up crying at the end, it's a success.

[Reverend]

^I seriously advise you to go on a media blackout until you've finished the game. A lot of people will try to spoil the ending for you and it's something you really ought to experience it for yourself.

Actually, what I'd really advise is to go get ME1 & 2 and play through them first so you can import you saves. Starting an new game on ME 2 or 3 from scratch is a shadow of the experience you get from developing your Shepard across all 3 games. I'm pretty sure they're both on sale on Steam right now, so there'll never be a better time.

[Deranged Nasat]

I'm not sure whether I should start a new thread, but since I've not been in the gaming forum before now, I'll start by asking in here. I know there are a lot of Mass Effect enthusiasts on the board, and I wondered if any of you participate on the Cerberus Daily News rpg forum? If not, would anyone be interested in joining? We always need new members.

[Jeyl]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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Cerberus Daily News rpg forum

Why would I want to join those human supremacists?

[Deranged Nasat]

Jeyl wrote:

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Why would I want to join those human supremacists?

You'll be pleased to know the forum is not actually affiliated with Cerberus. A long story. I play three minor characters - a hanar pilgrim, an elderly salarian and a shady depressed elcor.

As a serious note, the forum's eager for new members, and I said I'd put out word here, seeing as there are quite a few ME fans on the board.

[Skywalker]

How's it work over there? Is it just a freeform play-by-post thing with an ongoing storyline?

[Kestrel]

Deranged Nasat wrote:

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...and a shady depressed elcor.

Morosely, hey kids you wanna score some weed?

[Deranged Nasat]

Play-by-post, essentially. There's a forum for the extranet site that all the characters frequent (where everyone just posts as and when they want, basically it's just like here ), and another forum for the actual plotlines. Players start their own arcs, or get together in groups to do so. Some threads are open, and anyone whose character could realistically show up can, others are arranged between whoever's contributing to a given arc. Plus of course arcs overlap, the extranet forum and the plots reinforce each other, etc. Everyone follows as few or as many characters/arcs as they're interested in.

There's a shared fanon that everyone agrees to, naturally, which is now playing in a post-Mass Effect 3 setting, so of course they had to clarify what happened to the major factions, etc. There's a series of articles on the site that explain the current state of things. Other than having to conform to the shared vision and the various forum rules, there's a lot of freedom. I'm greatly enjoying myself (as you can probably tell...), and since they're eager for new members I thought I'd see if I can lure anyone in. The site's been up and running for several years, but after playing through the events of ME3, there was a reboot/timeskip, perfect for newbies like myself to join.

[Skywalker]

Huh, interesting. I might have to check it out.