BioWare - Mass Effect Spin-offs

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OXM has an article from their magizine with Casey Hudson, Mac Walters, Dusty Everman, Mike Gamble and Preston Watamaniuk. One of the topics included more Mass Effect games that might be spin-offs.
The clear favourite for Shepard's replacement appears to be our old Turian chum Garrus, despite his insidious penchant for calibrating things. "There's so much that could be told in the Mass Effect universe," Hudson began. "It'd be cool to do something completely unrelated to the larger storyline, like a story about a private investigator on the Citadel. Or maybe something detailing Garrus' time in C-Sec."

Everman's also carrying a candle for the G-Man. "While being one of Shepard's most loyal friends, Garrus has also had some of the most driven personal goals. He's a hero in his own right, as Archangel and beyond. Who wouldn't want to see the further adventures of the bold, charming Garrus Valkarian (there's a lot of guns out there to calibrate)." Watamaniuk, however, reckons "a game centred on brutal Krogan combat with more of a melee focus could be pretty exciting". I'm sure Grunt would be up for it.

Walters can't make his mind up. "Aria. The Illusive Man. Kai Leng. Any henchman. The list goes on. I think most of them could have successful spin-offs of their own in some fashion." Aria, it's worth remembering, got storefront billing in Mass Effect 3's Omega DLC - on the strength of your adventures together, would you say she's got leading lady potential? And what about Mr Illusive? I reckon he'd do rather well out of a prequel set during the First Contact War.

Gamble, finally, thinks there's more to be told about Javik - the galaxy's sole surviving Prothean, introduced by the From Ashes DLC. "Following the story of Javik a little bit more would be pretty cool. As the last remaining member of a lost race, I think that we could tell a lot of stories about his adventures in the Milky Way, and coming to terms with his place in the new Galaxy."
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"adventures in the Milky Way"?
Milky Way or milking customers?
 
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Stay away from prequels is something I agree with.
I don't care what Garrus did before ME trilogy. I want however to see what he sniped after!
 
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Star Wars prequels should show how bad an idea this is.

I didn't care about Anakin becoming Vader, and I won't care about Garrus in C-Sec.

BioWare shot themselves in the foot with how they ended the Mass Effect trilogy if they had intended to carry the property forward. How do they do games set in the future without gamers who DID like the end of ME3 (the sizable minority they are) complaining about which ending becomes canon? Answer - they can't. So they want to go BEFORE that.

The problem with prequel stories is the knowledge of what is going to happen ruins suspense. The problem with prequel games is the overpowering sense of powerlessness - things have already happened, you aren't going to change them.

You CAN get around those problems - sometimes a prequel can look at events so removed from the established story that they aren't tied to known lore. Or you can go so far back in time that it might as well be an alternate universe. Knights of the Old Republic kind of fits both descriptions, although I'd also say it's a weak argument that wants to define KotOR as a prequel.
 
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which ending becomes canon?

I said that already in some other news, but this is no problem at all. You can easily merge or ignore the different endings. In the end, gamers did not complain about them being only the same thing in different colors without reason. And there's still the option of going "but it was all a dream/illusion/whatever". Or some deus ex machina kind of thing. Again.

I guess, with the ME3 ending, Bioware has proven that they can find a silly excuse for just about anything. Thus, writing a sequel should be a piece of cake. They have the power over their creative work, and they dont mind to abuse it. Count on it. Depend on it.

They might still write a prequel tho. People will buy that, too.
 
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Bioware always has a cannon despite offering players choices. They backed themselves into a corner, and I can see them doing more prequels instead also.
 
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Hmmm... I don't know if I would say they are creatively trapped with the franchise. It's sci-fi... they could technically have a new game/series that takes place in the distant future that mostly sidesteps the events of the original trilogy, other than a cursory mention here and there. Any new game will likely involve a storyline that does not require previous knowledge of the franchise.

I think the reason they are throwing prequel ideas around is because the whole "origin story" is still the rage these days. Personally, I'd rather move forward than go back.

I do like the idea of a Mass Effect game that takes place from the perspective of one of the other races though. Could be a nice change.
 
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Personally, I'm not a huge fan of prequels either. It's like reading a story knowing how it will end. Another reason I'm not enjoying ME3 - I already know the ending!

I'm undecided about the story of other characters after ME3 ending. There are some very interesting characters, yes, but I also don't think it makes sense to make a story of someone who may have possibly not survived through ME trilogy, depending on player's decision. Also, for me, Shepard a HUGE part of ME, I just can't imagine ME without Shepard. Going along that line, I also can't imagine Garrus without my Fem Shep (yes, I was a huge sucker for this romance).

I reckon the universe and the characters Bioware introduced in ME is interesting enough to get my attention but like someone pointed out they really shot themselves in the foot with the horrible and drastic ending.
 
I'm more concerned about the actual gameplay than whether it's a sequel or a prequel. I'd like to see a return to ME1's style as opposed to it being more like the later games. I won't be buying any spin-offs if they end up just being third-person shooters.
 
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Space is a big place and Sheppard was so exceptional they can do a new game only loosely connected to the Sheppard arc.

It shows again that ME is the SCI FI franchise of these days. Not only they plan to make a new game set in the ME universe but without direct connections to Sheppard's story but they also investigate the possibility of producing games directly connected to Sheppard's arc.

Very few SCI FI franchises affords such exploitation. SW maybe and yet.
 
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