Mass Effect News Thread

And in March, we'll be talking about how it most definitely will be out sometime in 2022, with the 10 year anniversary since ME3. It's all so tiresome, at this point. I wish sites would stop with the clickbait.

800 pages... I could use a new doorstop. 

Re the click-bait, same with The Expanse season 5, so many articles titled Expanse season 5 release date and the article just talks stuff already covered and that the release date hasn't been announced.   

From Resetera:

Garlador

Wake me in November.

SofNascimento
I believe Shinobi said it would be revealed before then.

shinobi602
Correct.

Personally I'm stil not convinced but tbh I don't think I'll be byuing the remaster anyway given my origina lcopies work just fine.

Jonathan Warner @bio_Warner
@biomarkdarrah is it true that you built @gamblemike out of a kit? Asking for a friend.

Michael Gamble @gamblemike
you know what else started from parts? Skynet.

Mark Darrah @biomarkdarrah
I found a dark mirror in the forest.
He followed me home.

Jonathan Warner @bio_Warner
Well that makes perfect sense. I’m sure everything will be fine...

There's a few problems with the remaster.
1. XBOX Smart Delivery and backward compatibility
You can play all games as far back as the original XBOX. That means that the games you already own will be playable on your brand new series X regardless. Navi has a few goodies that will allow for MET to be played in higher rez, better frame rates, and RIS for higher texture fidelity. All these are enabled on the driver level, so no software implementation per game will be needed.
2. Fanbase numbers
Realistically, this might be a hit in the PS userbase. But the PS was not the home of ME. As such, it makes sense that most of the ME fanbase will be on the XBOX. Meaning it might be a hit on the PS5, but the result may be inferior to what EA/Bioware would want.
3. PC Mods
There has been some fantastic support by the PC community, especially for ME3. Besides the fact that the games are already "remastered" on PC and can be run on a potato laptop from 2012, the new version will definitely be incompatible with the mods. It will take time and effort from that community all over again that may or may not pull through for the game.
4. Franchise interest I
The remaster may be made for the intent to re-ignite interest in ME. While it is a noble sentiment, it may not have the effect EA/Bioware desire, i.e. it may underperform. As such, execs may come to the conclusion that it isn't worth the investment to try and save ME and instead shelve it for good. If it falls short of projections, why would they?
5. Franchise Interest II
It may be more beneficial for Bioware to stoke the userbase, until something just explodes, in a natural, non corporate stoked way. A fan sentiment. Something like the Snyder-cut movement. Not saying you should rent a plane that flies a "Release the Mass Effect Trilogy Remaster" banner ... but I'm not saying you shouldn't either. Maybe start tweeting #ReleasetheMETR where METR is the Mass Effect Trilogy Remaster. Getting it trending will reassure Bioware of the interest and the desire for the title.

I'm just saying that perhaps abstaining has more to offer than making. Since the data isn't available to us, not directly at least. And we can still discuss. You can disagree. But also keep in mind; plans change, if you change the data. This right here, me, you, we are data. You have more power, just by being here, than someone who isn't. And Bioware has, indirectly, told us we're being monitored. Bioware is waiting for you

Assets would get no work at all. Textures would be hit or miss, as they'd just get put through an upscaler, like the nvidia one, which has a name too weird to remember, or Gigapixel or the like.


In every remaster that tampered with the lighting, it made it worse. For every game.

The only thing that remasters have, largely, achieved, is to be more resource hungry, performing worse and more unstable, while actually looking worse than the original. The only thing that could work, would be Dynamic Resolution Scaling, but that works on the driver level of the console, as well. So I don't know.


I ... I don't know if I'd buy the remaster for a sound pack of 1 game.


It's going to sell. It may even make some charts, depending on competition, but it will most likely sell a couple hundred thousand copies and then fizzle out. I don't see it being the hit Bioware wants it to. Like, if this is the thing to gauge interest in the franchise, or even the setting/location, Bioware should communicate it.

This is all just speculation. I’m simply suggesting that a remaster has the capacity to have alterations on top of improvements over the fidelity of character models, improvements that may be beyond what you’d get by merely upscaling. Whether or not this would actually happen is anyone’s guess, if any kind of remaster is happening at all. 

The Last Of Us remastered is simply superior to its earlier iteration in terms of graphics, and has improved lighting. I don’t think it could get any less stable than ME1, a game that always leaves me wondering if that auto save will result in it freezing and crashing. An overhaul of the trilogy should be no more taxing to any system than the current batch of next-gen titles.  

The sound design is just an example, not some sort of cornerstone of a remaster’s improvements. However, sound design in any kind of shooter is more impactful on gameplay than one might think. 

Perhaps I’m giving the wrong impression about how much I care that the trilogy remaster sells. I don’t. All I care about is that I’d be a prime target for it. My PS3 is on its last legs, I have no intention on ever buying a PC to game with, and I have no interest in buying into XBox’s ecosystem, especially after their lackluster games showcase. 

To be clear, I’m simply speculating on what a hypothetical product could entail to differentiate itself from its older iteration. As someone judging this purely from the type of product I would like, the potential profits of that product only matter insofar as to my expectations on how likely that product is to actually be available for me to buy. If they made it, I’d buy it, and if it was a total failure commercially, I’d still have something I like, so I’d be OK with that. If I haven’t been clear enough, my expectations are rather low, but it’s fun to speculate in a bit of a dry spell. 

I have no high expectations for any remakes either, but at least the former doesn’t require much effort on BioWare’s part.