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Mass Effect: ANDROMEDA

Also the thing with Origin is that since it's EA specific, I only ever use it if I'm playing a Bioware game, since I'm generally not interested in anything else EA publishes. GoG is probably the gold standard as there's zero DRM, no fuss and fast easy downloads.
 
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Well I'm hyped. Plus more proof the leak awhile back was 100% on the level.
 
Hope the hype train doesn't disappoint.... I'm waiting to see what people actually think of the game rather then follow the youtube shills.

BTW I hate the idea that this game will be loaded with microtransactions.... Geez like they didn't get enough money when you buy it.
 
Not very much one can gleam from that clip, though you can definitely tell it's the same engine used for DAI. Indeed, if you squint and turn your head you could easily pretend you're looking at some freaky part of the deep roads.

Not sure about the jet-jump thing. It's tough to tell from it's use in this context, but it seems like it's not an open world gameplay mechanic, but just an animation that plays where you hop over pre-determined gaps. Not unlike the climb, vault and leap function in ME3.

Also, call me picky but does it strike anyone else as a bit odd that everyone is sensibly wearing sealed environment suits in the alien environment...except the adorable Asari who's walking around with an exposed midriff? Hopefully they'll have more appropriate armor options for her.

The actual news to come out of this is that according to Mac Walters, the male and female version of the protagonist are actually two separate people. Siblings, specifically. So pretty much like how Fallout 4 handled it (and DA2, kinda/sorta), except apparently the other sibling isn't immediately killed off and continues to exist in the world. Clever way to make sure you get your money's worth out of both voice actors.
 
The actual news to come out of this is that according to Mac Walters, the male and female version of the protagonist are actually two separate people. Siblings, specifically. So pretty much like how Fallout 4 handled it (and DA2, kinda/sorta), except apparently the other sibling isn't immediately killed off and continues to exist in the world. Clever way to make sure you get your money's worth out of both voice actors.

Hmm, wonder if they end up making the sibling the opposition in the game?
 
^I rather suspect it'll be the father, who apparently is the guy we saw in the initial E3 teaser last year.
 
Well judging by all the trailers it's going to still be fairly linear...
Where the hell did you get that impression? Nothing we've seen gives *any* indication whatsoever as to the overall structure of the plot. We haven't even had a full trailer yet, just teaser footage and some talking heads.
 
Where the hell did you get that impression? Nothing we've seen gives *any* indication whatsoever as to the overall structure of the plot. We haven't even had a full trailer yet, just teaser footage and some talking heads.


I got that impression from the videos, discussion on other forums and other people who are following EA on this.
 
I got that impression from the videos, discussion on other forums and other people who are following EA on this.
And where specifically in any of that is there ever *any* mention of overarching plot mechanics? We barely know what the plot is, let alone how it's structured or how much freedom we'll have in exploring it.
 
Isn't it supposed to happen just after the ME 3 endings, or around that time that the arks are launched? That is what I have been reading online over the last year or so.
 
Isn't it supposed to happen just after the ME 3 endings, or around that time that the arks are launched? That is what I have been reading online over the last year or so.
Yes, the implication so far is that the prologue will start with the ark(s) leaving the milky-way at some point prior to the ending of ME3 (possibly right after Harbinger wipes out the ground team and before Hackett gets confirmation someone actually made it through after all.)

But that's just the start point. How could it possibly indicate how linear or non-linear the plot of MEA will be?
 
I think the Ark will have had to leave much earlier in the ME3 timeline. Prior to resolving Tuchanka, otherwise there'd be issues to resolve with the Genophage and the Quarian/Geth war. If there's any Krogan, Quarian or Geth crew, those would be crucial points for those characters.
 
I'm guessing they bug out right as the Reapers are detected in the Sol System. I'm imaging a very hasty exit where tge arks "make the jump" with seconds to spare.
 
^That'd be way too early for an undertaking of this scale.
At that point half the top brass on Earth don't even buy Shepard's "Reaper" story and the other council races are busy with their own agendas.
It'd take months just to get enough people together and sort of the logistics in the middle of a galaxy wide war. All the while it'd be competing for resources with the Crucible project. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if there would be some heated discussion up top about picking one or the other rather than dividing resources. That may play into the plot if Ark launched with a less than optimal load-out of personnel and supplies.
Realistically it'd have to be late on in the war and if the leak is accurate, it's *very* late on. Like literal 11th hour. Makes sense because bugging out en masse should not be a first recourse but a last resort.

There's actually a line in ME3 that might suggest exactly when Ark gets moved from back-burner to front. After the fall of Thessia Shepard tells the Asari councillor's flat-out that they've failed and they don't know how to finish the Crucible.
She responds with : "Plans...must be put in motion...continuity of civilisation has to be considered."

Now you can very easily take that at face value as someone thinking more in terms of hidden vaults of knowledge and culture, even something like Jaavik's project attempted, but it fits nicely with the idea that up until this point they'd put all of their hopes in the Crucible but when Thessia fell, they activated Ark as their prime contingency while the Crucible was relegated to a Hail Mary. Sure, it's a retcon but I think it's a fairly tidy one.

I think the Ark will have had to leave much earlier in the ME3 timeline. Prior to resolving Tuchanka, otherwise there'd be issues to resolve with the Genophage and the Quarian/Geth war. If there's any Krogan, Quarian or Geth crew, those would be crucial points for those characters.

The Genophage is certainly a problem one way or the other. The Krogan were already going extinct, mostly due to the psychological effects so an even smaller population loaded onto the Arks isn't going to last very long on the other side. On the other hand, if they're now fully fertile you're back to the post-Rachni/pre-Rebellion problem of super-rapid growth and overpopulation.

I can see two possible solutions to this: -

1) All Ark Krogan are either tank bred like Grunt but genetically modified to naturally reduce the clutch sizes and fertility cycles to more manageable levels, or are normal Krogan who have been injected with a modified version of the Genophage (regardless of Shpards actions) which does the same as above.
2) All Ark Krogan are cured of the genophage on embarkation (even if Shepard sabotaged the cure on Tuchanka) on the condition that the females tightly regulate their own birth rates and keep the males in line.

The second option is my preference as it carries on Eve's ideals of a return to a more civilised Krogan culture.
 
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Yeah, I remember the Asari Councilor's quote. It just that at that point in the game alot of big decisions have already been made and that is precisely what I think Bioware is trying to avoid. Throw in the fact we know from the Citadel archives that they knew Sovereign was no Geth dreadnought and that the EA Play trailer showed us shuttles evacuating Earth for the Arks while a large military presence was in orbit points to them leaving sometime before the Reapers hit Earth.
 
Most of the decisions Shepard makes isn't likely to have much of a direct impact on MEA's setting so I don't see it as a major stumbling block. Really, the Krogan genophage is the only big one and that's going to be a problem no matter if they left before or after the cure was released (or not).

As for those shuttles: we have zero context for that shot so it could mean one of many things. For example: there's no reason to assume that was even Earth. It could just be some random earth-like colony world they were using as a rally point before the evacuation.
 
I do find myself agreeing with your points except for the fact it was Earth. You could make out the North American continent pretty clearly with all the cities right where they should be.
 
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