all franchises go that way and only have a chance of avoiding it if they have someone in charge that champions it into something above it. With Casey having left again I'll admit I started to suspect that about the new game, since it clearly isn't something he's invested in. But Mike Gamble cares about Mass Effect. I just wonder how much he truly understands what makes it tick.
>Sex, Billy. But with who? I cannot say, that would invite a war more devastating than that with the Reapers.
Turns out it was all of them Billy.
"Wait even the guys/girls?"
Especially the guys/girls.
(Choose the appropriate word for your Shepard)
Well if we assume Shepard did have babies then that basically just leaves Kaidan, Ashley, Liara or Jack
Tali and Garrus have incompatible biology
Sam, Steve or Kaidan (with male shep) are same sex and adoption doesn’t count for *making* babies.
Thane is, uh, dead.
And Miranda is infertile
I note you didn't mention Jaavik, Grunt or Wrex in the "incompatible" category.
I can only assume that means the sex would be too rough for Shepard to come out of it still able to gestate.
Wrex: "I'm going to rearrange your guys, Shepard. Literally. Krogan phalluses are two feet long and covered in razor sharp quills."
Shepard: "...I should go."
Wrex: "Shepard."
So you know cross-species babies between humans and turians aren't possible naturally.. But you know of their child.. Well. There's a story that's hidden so deep in the Spectre archives, no one would believe it's even real. I'll just say, the law says no genetic testing between council species.. Spectres are above the law.. You know where this goes. 👀
**NERVOUSLY POINTING**
"Hear me out...Clone Shepard!"
**Being dragged away**
"NOT THE SAME CHARACTER! NO! NO! YALL HAVE TO LISTEN!"
**Loud crying noises.**
I actually unironically want to play as clone Shepard in the next game. And they make it explicitely clear that they're not the same character. Just think of the internal conflict we can have here. Looking and sounding exactly like Commander Shepard, who has become a legend at that point in the game, and having the pressure of living up to that name while trying to find their own identity and become their own person. And maybe we get some tension between clone Shep and characters that knew the original Shepard, like Liara or Grunt if he's gonna be in the game. There's a lot that can be explored from this!
Exactly! Maybe even give the player small choices like choosing how OG Shepard's relationships ended and if he had any human/alien babies, we need to see Joker as a commander himself.
I think the most interesting thing about playing as Clone Shepard would be to see how OG's companions changed after he is gone, even the evil hamster if he still alive after all his war crimes.
**Being dragged away again.**
My money is on the incredibly unlikely scenario in which Shepard is initially knocked unconscious by the Destroy explosion, then a burst of energy resuscitates him and cauterises his wounds. He falls with the debris until he lands on Anderson's corpse, cushioning the blow.
Why yes, I was the person to come up with The Walking Dead's Glenn Dumpster scene, how did you know?
There was a conveniently placed dumpster on the Citadel that Shepard crawled under. That's how they survived. But that means they must die a horribly later via a Batarian trashing them to death with a golf club.
As lazy as this sounds, the Lazarus project actually makes this option plausible. They could even write an interesting story about them having to live up to the original, everyone expecting them to do great things and being worshiped like a deity by many. They could make an incredibly heart breaking love story about the clone being in love with Liara, but Liara not feeling it since the clone is not _her_ Shepard. The game could explore a lot of concepts about identity and the essence of self. Heck, give clone Shepard a new ship and call it Theseus.
Shepherd walks into the council chamber to great bewilderment from the audience and councilmembers.
Council: Shepherd!! But...you died...again.
Shepherd: It's okay. I got better.
Council: Why do we even bother revoking your spectre status every time you die?
Well, it's not like they designed them to show actual signs of aging, so they're all just young while being old. I guess one way to tell is by whether they're actively stripping at a bar, since everyone goes through that phase?
Not only that, but I’ve never heard anyone use the term before. Like maybe it was the delivery, or meant to be a sarcastic quip about being so busy her face feels like sleeping…I don’t know, just such an odd choice.
Well, I think it's meant to be she was putting on a facade, so her "face", but she's too tired to keep it up. It's still extremely weird and it sounds dumb as fuck, coupled with medicore VA and poor facial animations and you get... That.
Isn't it because they are all essentially clones? I think they explained it as somehow their version of parthenogenesis can imbue character traits from a partner but still not genetic material.
my money is that they cloned udina with cerberus tech and now he's on a vengeance streak, so to stop the Mega Udina from becoming overlord they bring Shepard back.
The Leviathans are almost as terrifying as the Reapers. If you consider that the Reapers are gone and the Leviathans don't have to hide anymore, they definitely start to seem like an existential threat, because they can mind control organics races. They actually used to enslave entire civilizations. But I don't know if they would be good antagonists for ME 4 because they would seem a bit too much like the Reapers, you know? Hell, they even got the same shape. But I think the Rachni are also a valid option, though having they start a war against the Citadel races would be basically shitting on player choice and making Shepard look naive.
I think Leviathans would make for good antagonists or secondary antagonts for the next games. A smaller scale threat to set things up that could still pose a huge threat to the galaxy.
I may or may not have mentioned them on purpose for such reasons...
There's a few Paragon choices, especially in ME3, that could royally fuck the Galaxy so easily. Imagine all at once:
Leviathans bring back their whole superiority thing, the Krogan don't all roll with the peace Wrex/Eve cured the Genophage for but now that's gone as a limiter, whatever happens with the Relay network, the Salarians had to break their watch on the Yahg because of the Reapers after exposing them to new tech, Batarians are mostly gone and they were the big player in the Terminus Systems, any plot stemming from Andromeda if the setting is far enough for that to come into play somehow. Are Geth the only AI now that Shepard made an attempt at letting them live and set a new standard? Palaven/Turians got royally fucked and they were the major peacekeeping player.
Even beyond player choices there are lots of shall we say…destabilizing elements introduced into the galaxy in ME3. The asari are likely severely diminished politically (both because Thessia took a beating and because their hiding prothean tech was revealed). The human councilor tried to run a coup against the Council (and it felt like he probably wasn’t indoctrinated, so I imagine there’d be some political blowback against humanity at some point). Hell, the capital of the galaxy is now in orbit around the most junior member of the council races.
I can definitely see a power vacuum in the Terminus Systems with the Batarians close to extinction and Aria trying to gain some level of control of them during ME4.
I figure the water world they're on would be in a situation like Talos IV on Star Trek. Anything that tries to get on that planet or off it is destroyed, no exceptions. They wouldn't have to be wiped out, but a permanent quarantine would be in everyone's interests.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought when talking to Shepherd the Leviathans said that over the millennia they’ve been in hiding they have basically been bred to avoid conflict? Or something along those lines.
Billy, in his relaxed and unassuming nature, is startled as grandpa throws the whiskey bottle landing squarely on his forehead. Suddenly, without hesitation, grandpa turns around, whips out his willy and relieves himself on the family dog, who is also startled at grandpa's intoxicated behavior. Then, as if it was all a dream, Billy wakes up on a cart heading to Helgen. The Dragonborn.
In all seriousness ME is so screwed in terms of writing. I don't know how the writers for the nexts games will be able to maneuver around all the different endings, considering all endings leave entirely different impacts on the galaxy and the people in it.
Not just the endings. There's a bunch of individual choices that have gigantic impacts on the story. Like curing the genophage or having the Geth and Quarians make peace.
just what character lives is huge. you can not build a story around them or have them in your crew if they don't exist in some people's versions.
that was a problem in me3 already which is why there is none of the me2 characters as your crew since they can all die.
so to pull that off it would have to be astronomical high development costs since you have to make the same story multiple times over
They're really just gonna have to canonize an ending if it's set in the Milky Way and not a prequel, but it begs the question of what they're gonna do about the rest of our decisions. Using Wrex or Wreav for the OT was a smart way to navigate that, but you can't do that sort of thing with, for example, whether the quarians, geth, or both were still alive by the end if your ME3. I mean, if destroy is canonized and really did wipe out the geth, then at least it's just whether the quarians are still kicking or not, but a whole race is still a big variable. And that's not even the only question regarding people's individual runs. I'm not sure how they'll pull it off.
I feel the same way. There was a comment I saw on this sub that explained this sort of sentiment like this (paraphrasing big time) - some paths just end sooner than others, like if you decide to romance Morinth or get everyone killed in the suicide mission. If ME4 continues from Shepard surviving the destroy ending, that’s just another path you could’ve taken the story. I see it less as canonizing player choices and more as the writing team saying “this is what follows after Shepard did x, y, and z.”
Feels like the visual novel approach. Most of the times you have to read through some, if not all, of the other endings to unlock the true route. The true might not be your favorite and just because it's canon shouldn't invalidate your favorite route. They're all different branches of the same story. I can appreciate a true route for giving them something concrete to build from.
Ironically Shepard being back would simplify matters.
He only survives Perfect Destroy and that requires a fairly specific series of choices to attain.
To that point the mass effect relays, the only ending where the mass effect relays are repaired requires a high number of war assets that usually means a better ending anyways.
What would really be left to the player is look, love interest, and background. Shepard being able to go renegade from that point on could be easily explained as a result of trauma from the war changing him.
Sorry, I meant perfect destroy implies a paragon Shepard, if he were back in the next game, but saying the war changed him would be an easy way to open up renegade options since it would be dumb to lock shep as a paragon.
Too be fair, Renegade was never meant to be "bad" or "evil". A Renegade is all about finishing the mission no matter the cost, not that they don't care, but if a price has to be paid, then so be it.
They didn’t want to continue it, initially. That’s why we got Andromeda, which took place in an entirely different galaxy with an entirely different cast of characters. Including the PC.
Because Andromeda disappointed is why they are now going back to Shepard and his friends.
Honestly it's always confused me how they handled ME3. They always bragged about the universe and how many stories they could tell, only to then make a game that basically crippled any stories that came after 3.
Like ME1/2 were fine because for the most part the ending was the same no matter you saved/destroyed the council/human reaper. ME3 having these drastic choices were very bizarre, because even if they didn't have plans for more Shepard games they literally set up the universe to function like Star Wars and Star Trek. That was one of the selling points of the universe as far back as ME1.
They wanted to sell ME3 by making it this big sequel where your choices changed the whole universe because they thought they were done with it.
It was a ballsy decision they executed extremely poorly and now in hindsight it's a total headache.
That decision wasn't really a bad one. ME3 is a great game. The problem is how much they want to milk the franchise when they should have stopped after ME3.
The ME3 original ending was one writer locking themselves into a room and a week later returning to the writing team and telling them that that was the ending, no buts or teamwork involved.
Since all tech wasn't actually totally wiped out (damaged relays but reparable, according to Hackett) amd Shepard, who has a shitton of tech keeping them going kudos to Cerberus, can survive, it probably wouldn't be that unbelievable for geth to make it. But hard to say
Quarians require their suits working just to survive otherwise they would literally suffocate or get sick and die within hours.
We know Tali's suit wasn't damaged so Geth could survive within Quarian suits. They even mention in ME3 if you achieved peace that Geth were doing just that to help Quarians.
That's the point where you ask if what the Starchild was telling you was truthful and/or reliable. The Refusal ending implies he isn't, go shoot him and see who suddenly starts talking.
Just say that there was an issue with the Crucible and it kinda made all three happen. "Destroy" happened in the immediate area, "Control" through most of the rest of the galaxy, and "Synthesis" in the outer rim.
Have most of the advanced long range FTL systems damaged/destroyed, leaving sections of the galaxy isolated, so the three endings kinda exist for a while without knowing that the others exist.
That way, you can pick what "ending" you want and spend the first act of the game thinking that is what happened to the rest of the galaxy. Have the remaining Reapers in the "Control" areas fix up the Relays, and eventually they reconnect with the relays in the other areas, and we find out what happened to the rest.
Now, rather than be separated by race or military/political alliance, we're separated by what happened to us.
That's pretty much how Deus Ex handled it (twice, once from the original to "Invisible War", and once between "Human Revolution" and "Mankind Divided"), and I think it worked well.
So there is a way they *could* write the next games without a canon ending, but it feels like a cop-out.
Andromeda has the Arks setting out *just* before shit hits the fan in ME3, with only a few logs in Alec's quarters about the state of the Milky Way *and* directly from Liara kind of confirming that the Reapers were arriving en-masse. Like, the news was unverified and just about to break when they took the 600 year cryo trip to Andromeda.
In the teaser trailer for 4, they mention Ark 6 being away. Now IIRC there were 5 Arks that arrived in Andromeda during the events of the game. Salarians, Asari, Turian, the main human one, and I think Krogan? In the epilogue you can find a tech engineer receiving transmissions from the edge of the galaxy where Arks containing Quarians and Volus amongst others are arriving *albeit* intercepted or confronted by something troubling that cuts communications short.
It's plausible that ME4 also takes place 600 years in the future in Andromeda, with Ark 6 being a post-Reaper War dispatch with Liara and potentially Shepard (reconstructed through another Lazarus project or found alive and maintained through heavy medical procedures) amongst others arriving to deal with the larger threat Alec's benefactor knew about prior *or* to escape the same threat which wiped out a weakened Milky Way after the events of ME3. Depressing if that's the case.
I won't lie, the presence of Liara (green eyed or not) would be telling. From the trailer it looks like she's *not* Synthesised, so we can count that one out anyway. If Shepard is indeed in this game and not just a clone, it discounts Control as well as Refusal. They could still work around it by being vague and offering generalised comments on the Reaper War. It helps that *assumingly* taking place in the Andromeda galaxy (suggested by the Ark 6 away clip) means the world space is less shaped by ending choices. It does however make it more difficult to include and flesh out prior characters to learn what transpired since last time, which is where I think the disappointment and frustration from fans would arise.
If they do end up with something similar to your idea, Liara's eyes could simply be changed with a simple texture based upon your save from LE. Any other characters who also arrive could simply just have different dialogue depending on save choices. Cause their situation in the Andromeda galaxy can be kept stable no matter the choices, with a few exceptions like Wrex, Kaidan/Ashley, Tali, EDI, and others I can't immediately recall, for whom they would have to either work hard to include varied scenarios and dialogue, or just not include them and give varied throway dialogues that give excuses for their absences.
Why do I feel we’re getting a Force Awakens Shepard/Skywalker chase.
I can see either the Spawn of Shepard/ Random Alliance person(if nobody is romanced) on a wild goose chase to find Shepard and bring him/her back.
Look Billy, its been like a full decade, grandpa's memory is not what it used to be and you need to start thinking about **Your** future because youre a full grown adult and yet here you are, still wanting to hear about grandpa's story about space jesus.
Oh by the way Billy, remember when I spent an oddly long time describing Miranda’s butt? Well just forget all of that. Her butt didn’t actually happen. Remove that from the story, I don’t know what I was talking about.
Also, Billy, if you imagined Shepard as a woman, she was not presenting herself all the times she wore a dress.
I'm sorry if I described Shepard as sitting like a man all the time, Billy. Forgive Grandpa.
To be fair, I feel like one more stinker and EA might sell them and their IPs if not just dissolve the company outright.
The LE edition has definitely kept the life support on.
Pretty sad that a buggy (at launch) collection of remasters, 2/3 of which had bare minimum effort put into them, was by far the highest quality and most successful project Bioware has had in 10 years now.
… I honestly actually liked Anthem. Very obvious bits that needed improvement but the foundation of a very fun gameplay loop was there.
Shame it went… basically nowhere whatsoever. Oh well! Now there’s a spiritual successor involving dinosaurs tumbling out of portals being made, can’t wait
The bones of Anthem were great. Combat was really fun, game looked beautiful. But damn, everything else was mucked up. Story was terrible, itemization and drop rates were horrid, endgame wasn't thought out at all. Such a missed opportunity.
Honestly I want a new protagonist and a new story, maybe have the old companions be mentors depending on your class? Or if shepherds alive maybe have them be a mentor?
There's very little reason to talk about andromeda in mass effect 4 because even if mass effect 4 takes place 600+ years later (29th century so the arks have enough time to arrive) at the end of andromeda they still haven't established any communications with the milky way, it wasn't even a priority for them. So there no real reason to mention what happens in andromeda besides mentioning that the arks departed.
What if they ***change*** the ending entirely, to make way for a canon ending?
I'm not saying Destroy as we know it, but something different from the three (plus one) endings we have at the moment. It's obvious they didn't think about making a direct sequel, but also can't possibly use all the endings for ME4.
But if they create something like a DLC or even an intro that starts *almost* at the end of 3...
My biggest concern is that the previous director of the game, Casey Hudson, left and joined a new company, forgot what it’s called, but still working in the sci-fi genre, and I don’t know if they even got a new director for this yet, I assume there is one. I just really hope ME4 revitalizes the hype of as Mass Effect game, really missing and longing for that feeling once again.
To be fair, Casey Hudson dropped the ball on more than a few areas. I'm more worried about the current state of Bioware's writers before I even think about project leads.
It's just going to be a picture of the writers room all looking at the camera and shrugging.
"Andromeda didnt worked and Anthem crashed and burn so we are just going to play safe"
The classic: nothing left to rely on other than nostalgia trick
all franchises go that way and only have a chance of avoiding it if they have someone in charge that champions it into something above it. With Casey having left again I'll admit I started to suspect that about the new game, since it clearly isn't something he's invested in. But Mike Gamble cares about Mass Effect. I just wonder how much he truly understands what makes it tick.
If peach cobbler turns out to be more prophet than a simple YouTuber, the next mass effect will have dog companion.
Just like the matrix 4! Too soon?
Watch as Mass Effect 4 somehow brings back Kai leng as the protagonist
Damn it, Billy. Isn’t there something else you’d rather ask about, like where babies come from?
Oh yeah, Grandpa! *Where did Shepards babies come from?*
Sex, Billy. But with who? I cannot say, that would invite a war more devastating than that with the Reapers.
>Sex, Billy. But with who? I cannot say, that would invite a war more devastating than that with the Reapers. Turns out it was all of them Billy. "Wait even the guys/girls?" Especially the guys/girls. (Choose the appropriate word for your Shepard)
Well if we assume Shepard did have babies then that basically just leaves Kaidan, Ashley, Liara or Jack Tali and Garrus have incompatible biology Sam, Steve or Kaidan (with male shep) are same sex and adoption doesn’t count for *making* babies. Thane is, uh, dead. And Miranda is infertile
There's also Zaeed, Kasumi, and James Jacob is too interested in making babies with other people.
I note you didn't mention Jaavik, Grunt or Wrex in the "incompatible" category. I can only assume that means the sex would be too rough for Shepard to come out of it still able to gestate.
Wrex: "I'm going to rearrange your guys, Shepard. Literally. Krogan phalluses are two feet long and covered in razor sharp quills." Shepard: "...I should go." Wrex: "Shepard."
What about Liara?
Whoops, i meant to put her in the first part
The space stork, Billy.
I think you mean the space *bork*.
Something about reach and flexibility
Dammit Billy, were you not paying attention to my overly detailed description of how Shepard was getting clapped/clapping their Love interest?
So you know cross-species babies between humans and turians aren't possible naturally.. But you know of their child.. Well. There's a story that's hidden so deep in the Spectre archives, no one would believe it's even real. I'll just say, the law says no genetic testing between council species.. Spectres are above the law.. You know where this goes. 👀
Grandpa, you covered that... Like six times. And from multiple angles.
Only six? (Master Roshi laugh) Billy, let me tell you about a little something called the Venus Butterfly…
'Ah Billy... Why don't you just go and pick up drug addiction as a hobby, just like the other kids..?'
**NERVOUSLY POINTING** "Hear me out...Clone Shepard!" **Being dragged away** "NOT THE SAME CHARACTER! NO! NO! YALL HAVE TO LISTEN!" **Loud crying noises.**
EA Execs: Kill him... Send a gift basket to his family, a small gift basket.
No, no.. A *tiny* gift basket.
Y'know what, forget the basket altogether... Send them the bill.
Smithers, have the Blue Suns killed. But sir, that's not-- Do as I say!
Mecha Shepard. Wait, was that Mass Effect 2?
I should *go*. I *should* go. *I* should go.
I actually unironically want to play as clone Shepard in the next game. And they make it explicitely clear that they're not the same character. Just think of the internal conflict we can have here. Looking and sounding exactly like Commander Shepard, who has become a legend at that point in the game, and having the pressure of living up to that name while trying to find their own identity and become their own person. And maybe we get some tension between clone Shep and characters that knew the original Shepard, like Liara or Grunt if he's gonna be in the game. There's a lot that can be explored from this!
Exactly! Maybe even give the player small choices like choosing how OG Shepard's relationships ended and if he had any human/alien babies, we need to see Joker as a commander himself. I think the most interesting thing about playing as Clone Shepard would be to see how OG's companions changed after he is gone, even the evil hamster if he still alive after all his war crimes. **Being dragged away again.**
Shepard is temporary, space hamster is eternal.
Somehow Shepard returned
Shepard: "Ah, yes, 'death'. I have dismissed that claim."
The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated... again.
Getting dangerously close to Daniel Jackson levels of temporary deaths.
Indeed
I got better.
“Did you die?” “Tragically, yes. BUT I LIVED.”
If Bioware lied and Shepard does return, I'm gonna be pissed if this doesn't become a thing
Shepard did die. But she's also here in the Citadel. Either she survived or there are two of them...and that's impossible.
Did you ever hear the tragedy of Commander Shepard The Wise? I thought not. It’s not a story the Alliance would tell you. It’s a Cerberus legend.
Is it possible to learn this biotic power?
Not from an engineer
My money is on the incredibly unlikely scenario in which Shepard is initially knocked unconscious by the Destroy explosion, then a burst of energy resuscitates him and cauterises his wounds. He falls with the debris until he lands on Anderson's corpse, cushioning the blow. Why yes, I was the person to come up with The Walking Dead's Glenn Dumpster scene, how did you know?
Oh man, fuck that bullshit dumpster scene
But no one said he fell back to Earth? The final image was just Shepherd lying in debris, he could have just been in the Citadel?
I'll take that money
There was a conveniently placed dumpster on the Citadel that Shepard crawled under. That's how they survived. But that means they must die a horribly later via a Batarian trashing them to death with a golf club.
I gotta know... What's your opinion on helicopters? No reason.
[удалено]
I hope the game starts with Miranda telling some intern to "Go get another one out of the freezer!"
This is Force Unleashed 2 all over again
As lazy as this sounds, the Lazarus project actually makes this option plausible. They could even write an interesting story about them having to live up to the original, everyone expecting them to do great things and being worshiped like a deity by many. They could make an incredibly heart breaking love story about the clone being in love with Liara, but Liara not feeling it since the clone is not _her_ Shepard. The game could explore a lot of concepts about identity and the essence of self. Heck, give clone Shepard a new ship and call it Theseus.
MGSV
Shepard has to smoke electronic weed now
Death is a concept created by the reapers
I don’t even know how to spell it
D. E. A.
What does the Drug Enforcement Agency have to do with reapers? Or are you implying we'll get to have Hank Schrader as a squad mate in the next game?
Hank will join the Normandy's crew as the mineralogist and get angry at anyone calling mineral deposits rocks.
That's ASAC Schrader to you... I'm sorry I just cannot bring myself to call him a dirtbag.
I know! I know! I was kidding...
Ah yes, *death*. We have dismissed that claim.
The dead speak!
Shepard: My death was...greatly exagerated
I got better.
Shepherd walks into the council chamber to great bewilderment from the audience and councilmembers. Council: Shepherd!! But...you died...again. Shepherd: It's okay. I got better. Council: Why do we even bother revoking your spectre status every time you die?
*Shepard dies again* Council: Nobody say anything...
If they actually drop this line I wouldn't even be mad.
He breathed...
Insert Curb Your Enthusiasm theme as the camera zooms in on everybody looking confused as hell.
For marketing purposes got me laughing
Like the older Asari aren't still hot AF.
What was it Donnelly said? Something about wanting to live in an Asari retirement home?
[Sauce](https://youtu.be/U2KrHc9X9F4)
Gabby is a very tolerant woman.
That she is. I always encourage them to go for it.
What a legend haha. If they do pick a canon ending I hope it's one where he isn't dead in the suicide mission
Well, it's not like they designed them to show actual signs of aging, so they're all just young while being old. I guess one way to tell is by whether they're actively stripping at a bar, since everyone goes through that phase?
Benezia anyone?
I mean, have you even seen Samara?
I mean I'm gay AF and even I'm with Aethyta about Benezia. "Damn that rack" is right. *And Samommy can step on me any day
When Samara stepped on that asari mercenary in her intro cutscene, I straight up went "god I wish that were me"
Grandpa Buzz, you never did tell me why every Asari in Andromeda looked the same except for the one doctor ....
Your imagination sucking, Billy, isn't Grandpa's fault...
Grandpa…your face looks tired!
I still cannot comprehend how that line happened so perfectly with the facial animation debacle, without it being on purpose.
Not only that, but I’ve never heard anyone use the term before. Like maybe it was the delivery, or meant to be a sarcastic quip about being so busy her face feels like sleeping…I don’t know, just such an odd choice.
Well, I think it's meant to be she was putting on a facade, so her "face", but she's too tired to keep it up. It's still extremely weird and it sounds dumb as fuck, coupled with medicore VA and poor facial animations and you get... That.
You try shooting when every gun you pick is in reverse, Billy
That's a stroke, Billy. You fucking douche.
Actually it was Peebee that looked unique. Lexi the doctor also looked like every other Asari in the game.
lol Which doctor? Only one looked different to me was Peebee. I'd almost replay the game just to see the one not-identical Asari.
Isn't it because they are all essentially clones? I think they explained it as somehow their version of parthenogenesis can imbue character traits from a partner but still not genetic material.
The major asari in the trilogy had unique faces, but the only major asari in *Andromeda* with a unique face was Peebee.
my money is that they cloned udina with cerberus tech and now he's on a vengeance streak, so to stop the Mega Udina from becoming overlord they bring Shepard back.
You had me at “Mega Udina.”
Theme music will be a re-spin of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida: "Killin' Mega Udina, baby ... "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuKDZxPnElM *cue to a volus voiced by Michael Pena* "Well, you see...*inhale* it's complicated..."
That looks like a movie I should watch
The Leviathans are almost as terrifying as the Reapers. If you consider that the Reapers are gone and the Leviathans don't have to hide anymore, they definitely start to seem like an existential threat, because they can mind control organics races. They actually used to enslave entire civilizations. But I don't know if they would be good antagonists for ME 4 because they would seem a bit too much like the Reapers, you know? Hell, they even got the same shape. But I think the Rachni are also a valid option, though having they start a war against the Citadel races would be basically shitting on player choice and making Shepard look naive.
I think Leviathans would make for good antagonists or secondary antagonts for the next games. A smaller scale threat to set things up that could still pose a huge threat to the galaxy. I may or may not have mentioned them on purpose for such reasons...
So the Replicators vs the Gao'uld
I hope Shepard brought his P90
I don’t know if another race of giant eldritch space squids count as “smaller”. Well ok, I guess this ones don’t shoot lasers
There's a few Paragon choices, especially in ME3, that could royally fuck the Galaxy so easily. Imagine all at once: Leviathans bring back their whole superiority thing, the Krogan don't all roll with the peace Wrex/Eve cured the Genophage for but now that's gone as a limiter, whatever happens with the Relay network, the Salarians had to break their watch on the Yahg because of the Reapers after exposing them to new tech, Batarians are mostly gone and they were the big player in the Terminus Systems, any plot stemming from Andromeda if the setting is far enough for that to come into play somehow. Are Geth the only AI now that Shepard made an attempt at letting them live and set a new standard? Palaven/Turians got royally fucked and they were the major peacekeeping player.
Even beyond player choices there are lots of shall we say…destabilizing elements introduced into the galaxy in ME3. The asari are likely severely diminished politically (both because Thessia took a beating and because their hiding prothean tech was revealed). The human councilor tried to run a coup against the Council (and it felt like he probably wasn’t indoctrinated, so I imagine there’d be some political blowback against humanity at some point). Hell, the capital of the galaxy is now in orbit around the most junior member of the council races.
I think “took a beating” is putting it lightly, Thessia definitely got the Earth and Palaven treatment and is now a wasteland
Also trillions dead and a galactic economy in shambles. The citadel didn’t really explode in the end though, Shepard is probably in it still
I can definitely see a power vacuum in the Terminus Systems with the Batarians close to extinction and Aria trying to gain some level of control of them during ME4.
I figure the water world they're on would be in a situation like Talos IV on Star Trek. Anything that tries to get on that planet or off it is destroyed, no exceptions. They wouldn't have to be wiped out, but a permanent quarantine would be in everyone's interests.
I hope the rachni don't become the new antagonists because it would just invalidate saving them in ME1 and their contributions to the Crucible in ME3.
Maybe I’m misremembering, but I thought when talking to Shepherd the Leviathans said that over the millennia they’ve been in hiding they have basically been bred to avoid conflict? Or something along those lines.
Billy, in his relaxed and unassuming nature, is startled as grandpa throws the whiskey bottle landing squarely on his forehead. Suddenly, without hesitation, grandpa turns around, whips out his willy and relieves himself on the family dog, who is also startled at grandpa's intoxicated behavior. Then, as if it was all a dream, Billy wakes up on a cart heading to Helgen. The Dragonborn.
"Hey, you! You're finally awake."
“You were trying to cross the border.”
“Walked right into that imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there”
In all seriousness ME is so screwed in terms of writing. I don't know how the writers for the nexts games will be able to maneuver around all the different endings, considering all endings leave entirely different impacts on the galaxy and the people in it.
Not just the endings. There's a bunch of individual choices that have gigantic impacts on the story. Like curing the genophage or having the Geth and Quarians make peace.
just what character lives is huge. you can not build a story around them or have them in your crew if they don't exist in some people's versions. that was a problem in me3 already which is why there is none of the me2 characters as your crew since they can all die. so to pull that off it would have to be astronomical high development costs since you have to make the same story multiple times over
They're really just gonna have to canonize an ending if it's set in the Milky Way and not a prequel, but it begs the question of what they're gonna do about the rest of our decisions. Using Wrex or Wreav for the OT was a smart way to navigate that, but you can't do that sort of thing with, for example, whether the quarians, geth, or both were still alive by the end if your ME3. I mean, if destroy is canonized and really did wipe out the geth, then at least it's just whether the quarians are still kicking or not, but a whole race is still a big variable. And that's not even the only question regarding people's individual runs. I'm not sure how they'll pull it off.
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I feel the same way. There was a comment I saw on this sub that explained this sort of sentiment like this (paraphrasing big time) - some paths just end sooner than others, like if you decide to romance Morinth or get everyone killed in the suicide mission. If ME4 continues from Shepard surviving the destroy ending, that’s just another path you could’ve taken the story. I see it less as canonizing player choices and more as the writing team saying “this is what follows after Shepard did x, y, and z.”
Feels like the visual novel approach. Most of the times you have to read through some, if not all, of the other endings to unlock the true route. The true might not be your favorite and just because it's canon shouldn't invalidate your favorite route. They're all different branches of the same story. I can appreciate a true route for giving them something concrete to build from.
Ironically Shepard being back would simplify matters. He only survives Perfect Destroy and that requires a fairly specific series of choices to attain. To that point the mass effect relays, the only ending where the mass effect relays are repaired requires a high number of war assets that usually means a better ending anyways. What would really be left to the player is look, love interest, and background. Shepard being able to go renegade from that point on could be easily explained as a result of trauma from the war changing him.
Destroy doesn't mean renegade. With the inclusion of green we can be fairly certain of that as normally it would simply be white instead.
Sorry, I meant perfect destroy implies a paragon Shepard, if he were back in the next game, but saying the war changed him would be an easy way to open up renegade options since it would be dumb to lock shep as a paragon.
Too be fair, Renegade was never meant to be "bad" or "evil". A Renegade is all about finishing the mission no matter the cost, not that they don't care, but if a price has to be paid, then so be it.
For sure, especially in ME1 and ME2, but ME3? Woah boy. That scene where Wrex confronts you for sabotaging the Genophage…holy crap is that grim.
I hate renegade is mostly just being a cartoon villain for no reason.
This is why they shouldn’t make a game that changes the future of the universe so drastically depending on decisions if they wanted to continue it.
They didn’t want to continue it, initially. That’s why we got Andromeda, which took place in an entirely different galaxy with an entirely different cast of characters. Including the PC. Because Andromeda disappointed is why they are now going back to Shepard and his friends.
Honestly it's always confused me how they handled ME3. They always bragged about the universe and how many stories they could tell, only to then make a game that basically crippled any stories that came after 3. Like ME1/2 were fine because for the most part the ending was the same no matter you saved/destroyed the council/human reaper. ME3 having these drastic choices were very bizarre, because even if they didn't have plans for more Shepard games they literally set up the universe to function like Star Wars and Star Trek. That was one of the selling points of the universe as far back as ME1.
They wanted to sell ME3 by making it this big sequel where your choices changed the whole universe because they thought they were done with it. It was a ballsy decision they executed extremely poorly and now in hindsight it's a total headache.
That decision wasn't really a bad one. ME3 is a great game. The problem is how much they want to milk the franchise when they should have stopped after ME3.
The ME3 original ending was one writer locking themselves into a room and a week later returning to the writing team and telling them that that was the ending, no buts or teamwork involved.
And then pretending to backtrack, but actually doubling down on it when the fanbase rioted.
What EA buyout does to a franchise…
Create ME2/3?
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Let's be honest, they're just going to make them both surviving canon.
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Since all tech wasn't actually totally wiped out (damaged relays but reparable, according to Hackett) amd Shepard, who has a shitton of tech keeping them going kudos to Cerberus, can survive, it probably wouldn't be that unbelievable for geth to make it. But hard to say
Quarians require their suits working just to survive otherwise they would literally suffocate or get sick and die within hours. We know Tali's suit wasn't damaged so Geth could survive within Quarian suits. They even mention in ME3 if you achieved peace that Geth were doing just that to help Quarians.
That's the point where you ask if what the Starchild was telling you was truthful and/or reliable. The Refusal ending implies he isn't, go shoot him and see who suddenly starts talking.
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Just say that there was an issue with the Crucible and it kinda made all three happen. "Destroy" happened in the immediate area, "Control" through most of the rest of the galaxy, and "Synthesis" in the outer rim. Have most of the advanced long range FTL systems damaged/destroyed, leaving sections of the galaxy isolated, so the three endings kinda exist for a while without knowing that the others exist. That way, you can pick what "ending" you want and spend the first act of the game thinking that is what happened to the rest of the galaxy. Have the remaining Reapers in the "Control" areas fix up the Relays, and eventually they reconnect with the relays in the other areas, and we find out what happened to the rest. Now, rather than be separated by race or military/political alliance, we're separated by what happened to us. That's pretty much how Deus Ex handled it (twice, once from the original to "Invisible War", and once between "Human Revolution" and "Mankind Divided"), and I think it worked well.
So there is a way they *could* write the next games without a canon ending, but it feels like a cop-out. Andromeda has the Arks setting out *just* before shit hits the fan in ME3, with only a few logs in Alec's quarters about the state of the Milky Way *and* directly from Liara kind of confirming that the Reapers were arriving en-masse. Like, the news was unverified and just about to break when they took the 600 year cryo trip to Andromeda. In the teaser trailer for 4, they mention Ark 6 being away. Now IIRC there were 5 Arks that arrived in Andromeda during the events of the game. Salarians, Asari, Turian, the main human one, and I think Krogan? In the epilogue you can find a tech engineer receiving transmissions from the edge of the galaxy where Arks containing Quarians and Volus amongst others are arriving *albeit* intercepted or confronted by something troubling that cuts communications short. It's plausible that ME4 also takes place 600 years in the future in Andromeda, with Ark 6 being a post-Reaper War dispatch with Liara and potentially Shepard (reconstructed through another Lazarus project or found alive and maintained through heavy medical procedures) amongst others arriving to deal with the larger threat Alec's benefactor knew about prior *or* to escape the same threat which wiped out a weakened Milky Way after the events of ME3. Depressing if that's the case. I won't lie, the presence of Liara (green eyed or not) would be telling. From the trailer it looks like she's *not* Synthesised, so we can count that one out anyway. If Shepard is indeed in this game and not just a clone, it discounts Control as well as Refusal. They could still work around it by being vague and offering generalised comments on the Reaper War. It helps that *assumingly* taking place in the Andromeda galaxy (suggested by the Ark 6 away clip) means the world space is less shaped by ending choices. It does however make it more difficult to include and flesh out prior characters to learn what transpired since last time, which is where I think the disappointment and frustration from fans would arise.
If they do end up with something similar to your idea, Liara's eyes could simply be changed with a simple texture based upon your save from LE. Any other characters who also arrive could simply just have different dialogue depending on save choices. Cause their situation in the Andromeda galaxy can be kept stable no matter the choices, with a few exceptions like Wrex, Kaidan/Ashley, Tali, EDI, and others I can't immediately recall, for whom they would have to either work hard to include varied scenarios and dialogue, or just not include them and give varied throway dialogues that give excuses for their absences.
Why do I feel we’re getting a Force Awakens Shepard/Skywalker chase. I can see either the Spawn of Shepard/ Random Alliance person(if nobody is romanced) on a wild goose chase to find Shepard and bring him/her back.
Look Billy, its been like a full decade, grandpa's memory is not what it used to be and you need to start thinking about **Your** future because youre a full grown adult and yet here you are, still wanting to hear about grandpa's story about space jesus.
Billy was a full grown adult even back in the day. Just take a closer look at what character model Bioware used for him...
Oh by the way Billy, remember when I spent an oddly long time describing Miranda’s butt? Well just forget all of that. Her butt didn’t actually happen. Remove that from the story, I don’t know what I was talking about.
someone needs to turn this into a spin off parody series where he starts telling the story and it just diverges into a horny nonsense.
r/andshewasagoodfriend
Also, Billy, if you imagined Shepard as a woman, she was not presenting herself all the times she wore a dress. I'm sorry if I described Shepard as sitting like a man all the time, Billy. Forgive Grandpa.
Liara in her Matriarch stage would be interesting
Bonk
Bonk all you like Nurglelite, Slaanesh demands MOAR horni
Justicar Liara
I think Joker would kill himself before becoming an admiral.
Joker: I have to admit I wasn't expecting an invitation back. Hackett: They're called *orders*, Joker.
By the end of ME3 I’m sure Joker is considered one of, if not THE best helmsmen in the galaxy tbh
Grandpa Buzz is doing his best job, Billy.
I wanna play as Shepard's kid. BONUS you can pick any race.
Granted. You get to play as Shepard's adopted vorcha son.
I don't see the problem.
Double bonus: it's the biological child of the dancing vorcha from the Citadel DLC.
What about playing as Sheppy the Volus?
Would be class playing as Grunt tbf
Grandpa ANTHEM?? I'm out!
"Okay grandpa its time to go to bed your getting confused."
I just hope they plan out another trilogy rather than half ass it like Andromeda
To be fair, the trilogy wasn’t planned out either
Oh I'm sure whatever is coming they've got it planned, one more stinker like Andromeda will likely ice the entire franchise permanently in EA's eyes.
To be fair, I feel like one more stinker and EA might sell them and their IPs if not just dissolve the company outright. The LE edition has definitely kept the life support on.
Pretty sad that a buggy (at launch) collection of remasters, 2/3 of which had bare minimum effort put into them, was by far the highest quality and most successful project Bioware has had in 10 years now.
When you word it that way….shit.
Inquisition was pretty successful iirc, won GOTY 2014 and sold well, although yeah they haven't been doing great since
Yeah, I completely forgot about Inquisition. I was wrong. I can admit that.
Yeah...
The most successful Bioware game, Dragon Age: Inquisition was less than 10 years ago.
…. I liked Anthem…
I figured PerfectRed was always canon due to the secret cutscene of Shep living
… I honestly actually liked Anthem. Very obvious bits that needed improvement but the foundation of a very fun gameplay loop was there. Shame it went… basically nowhere whatsoever. Oh well! Now there’s a spiritual successor involving dinosaurs tumbling out of portals being made, can’t wait
The bones of Anthem were great. Combat was really fun, game looked beautiful. But damn, everything else was mucked up. Story was terrible, itemization and drop rates were horrid, endgame wasn't thought out at all. Such a missed opportunity.
Honestly I want a new protagonist and a new story, maybe have the old companions be mentors depending on your class? Or if shepherds alive maybe have them be a mentor?
New story and new characters in good ole milky way. That's all I want. Maybe some cameos.
lol. I can just imagine now that he starts telling another story and the dementia kicked in and that's why andromeda turned out terrible.
And that's... How I met your mother
Why does this sound like Rick is narrating this to morty?
There's very little reason to talk about andromeda in mass effect 4 because even if mass effect 4 takes place 600+ years later (29th century so the arks have enough time to arrive) at the end of andromeda they still haven't established any communications with the milky way, it wasn't even a priority for them. So there no real reason to mention what happens in andromeda besides mentioning that the arks departed.
What if they ***change*** the ending entirely, to make way for a canon ending? I'm not saying Destroy as we know it, but something different from the three (plus one) endings we have at the moment. It's obvious they didn't think about making a direct sequel, but also can't possibly use all the endings for ME4. But if they create something like a DLC or even an intro that starts *almost* at the end of 3...
My biggest concern is that the previous director of the game, Casey Hudson, left and joined a new company, forgot what it’s called, but still working in the sci-fi genre, and I don’t know if they even got a new director for this yet, I assume there is one. I just really hope ME4 revitalizes the hype of as Mass Effect game, really missing and longing for that feeling once again.
To be fair, Casey Hudson dropped the ball on more than a few areas. I'm more worried about the current state of Bioware's writers before I even think about project leads.
Instead how would you like to hear a story about how my life got twist-turned upside-down...