I'm going to do myself (and all of you) a favor and just stay the fuck out of this thread until the game comes out.

I've put hundreds upon hundreds of hours into the Mass Effect universe, and could speculate forever on what ME4 will be like, but Bioware's recent history doesn't speak very highly when it comes to honesty.

If you're in this thread, then chances are that you're aware of the controversy around ME3, so I'm not going to go over it again.

But Bioware, despite having an amazing history (Baldur's Gate, NWN, KotOR, Jade Empire, ME1&2, DA:O) have screwed up so badly of late that many people have lost complete faith in them.

I think they know that Mass Effect 4 is going to make or break them for a lot of gamers, and it'll be interesting to see how they respond to it.

Will they bring Shep back? Possibly, it would make a lot of people very happy, but it would also mean that they're complete and utter liars whose word can never be relied upon again.

Fun stuff.

 

Explain to me why you think they aren't that already, after ToR, Mass Effect 3, and Dragon Age 2.

Is it five? They have to fuck up and lie about five games in a row for you to not trust them, but four is still forgivable? Because that's some oddly specific criteria.

Also, I hope your PM wasn't important, because I deleted it because of space reasons.

 

I really like the Mas Effect 'verse and thought the majority of ME3 was great, so I'm really looking forward to this. As long as the standard character-driven focus with quality atmosphere in the background is there, I think I'll enjoy this game a lot.

 

Well, that's what I was thinking (and btw agree about ME2 being the best of the series). The relays are being rebuilt and so we might even be limited to one solar system rather than dozens of them (tbh I wasn't a fan of so many systems to explore and yet so little depth or "character" for most of them).

I was thinking of Kotor 1 & 2 and how satisfying they were even though limited to one solar system and a handful of planets. Each planet had its own character and memorability. I can see a new ME story being spun out of one solar system with the relays being rebuilt and there being a lot of fear and decisions regarding the control of relays and what they will bring. First one could hang on a cliffhanger of what the (re) connection to the rest of the universe might mean.

Would rather not see Shepard again except in holos and myths and inside references\jokes that only the player gets.

Obviously, while neither DA or ME (or Fallout) were perfect (you know like any relationship you're in) they weren't horrid either. ME3 without DLC was a serious downer but with the DLC (yeah it shouldn't have to be DLC but hey everyone makes mistakes) it was a better play experience.

On the other hand while I slowly die of not having a decent mainstream RPG games to play (and tired of replays), I would appreciate any recs for smaller games I might have missed that have story\choices\characters\not overly complicated mechanics.

EDIT: I meant solar systems not galaxies. I think.

 

Uh, Mass Effect only ever took place in one galaxy. Our galaxy. The Milky Way. So did KotOR for that matter, though that was "the galaxy far far away."

 

Look, lets face facts that just about every game platinum has made is pretty much gold of one kind or another. I still play vanquish from time to time and dear god do I want to play revengeance on PC when it isn't limited by the fact that consoles would catch fire if they allowed you to switch weapons without going into a pause menu. Seriously, I can go on for hours on just about any of the games platinum and by extension clover have made.

Back on topic. I kind of want a Republic Commando style shooter to come out of this. Maybe revisit the gang wars on Omega with Garus before ME2 and do something more small scale. Enough of this whole saving the galaxy bullshit, I would prefer a few smaller scale attempts at exploring the mass effect universe without all the universe trotting that the previous trilogy has been about.

Also, keep Shepard the fuck away from ME4, I am so tired of dealing with that self-insert in the ME universe. Compare him/her to any of the more interesting characters that had dedicated writing meant to give them an actual character and Shepard just falls short.

 

The first Mass Effect gave us one of the best boogeymen ever: Reapers. I mean, giant, ancient supermachines from dark space? *shudder*

ME2 vastly improved combat and had arguably the best storyline, but it also introduced the skyrocketing DLC trend to the franchise.

ME3... had great combat. I bought it a year after release for cheaps and hammered in almost 400 hours of multiplayer. It was very well done, IMO. I haven't touched the singleplayer.

As for ME4. Shepard is done and they need to not touch him/her, unless they make a kind-of-sequel or a parallel story to Shep's and just mention him/her. Beyond that, I expect a ton of DLCs, half of which will be just stuff cut from the vanilla game, a quarter will be aesthetics and the rest, equipment that will render anything in the vanilla game obsolete, essentially firepower for money. I'm more hopeful about DAI than ME4.

In short, I'm kind of with Raine on this.