Mass Effect 4 - New Concept Art & Information

Aarynn Flynn has updated the Bioware Blog with info on the new leads for the next
Mass Effect game. The Lead Writer, Chris Schlerf, has written for Halo 4:

He moved into game writing with 343 Studios, where he worked as lead writer for the critically acclaimed Halo 4. And though writing for an interactive medium requires a different approach than writing for the screen, Schlerf says the heart and soul of his work remains the same. "As a writer, I write for characters," Schlerf says. "To me, it's always about what makes my characters tick and what stories I can tell through those characters that will actually engage people about their own lives. It provides a mirror to that player's experience [so that they are] not just sitting back in an armchair."

Polygon has this comment on the news:

Halo 4 featured a more human, interesting story than past games in the series, which is quite the trick when you're writing for a faceless soldier and an AI construct. The new Mass Effect game seems to be in good hands.

Producer for this game wil be Mike Gamble:

One of his primary roles is to represent the voice of the fan, and advocate for what the player wants and expects from a Mass Effect game. As such, Gamble is heavily involved with gathering feedback from the community and then sharing it with the team. He also closely watches the video game landscape as a whole, monitoring how other games are received, what they do well, and what they could improve on. Combining these perspectives through what Gamble calls a bit of a "black art," he's then able to advise the teams as to what players are looking for, while ensuring they stick to the core tenets of the franchise and maintain the vision of the game.

You can watch concept art for the game here.

Polygon brings news on the game:

The next Mass Effect game will introduce new alien races and species for players to encounter, BioWare announced during a Mass Effect N7 Roundtable. According to Mike Gamble, these new alien races will have their own special worlds complete with unique architecture. Producer Fabrice Condominas added that the game's new focus on exploration extends to these new characters. "That entire aspect of exploration is not only about the geography," Condominas said. "It's really about discovering other species, human species and yourself."

More information.

:drooooooooooooooool:

Halo 4 is critically acclaimed? can't say I agree with that, Halo 1-3 is critically acclaimed for sure though

So I should I expect a more FPS based game this time then? I seriously hope the game isn't diluted further with more RPG features cut out of the game.

Maybe Blizzard and Bioware should get together and share their brain cell to innovate some gameplay.

Sounds cool. Keep the info coming!

Originally Posted by purpleblob
Halo 4 is critically acclaimed? can't say I agree with that, Halo 1-3 is critically acclaimed for sure though

The interesting thing about being "critically acclaimed" is that it's what the critics think, not what gamers think, so yeah, it's critically acclaimed.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
Maybe Blizzard and Bioware should get together and share their brain cell to innovate some gameplay.

I'm not sure Blizzard has ever innovated anything. They refine. Even Overwatch is just TF2 with a pinch of Pixarl.

Ha! They stole from Elysium!

Originally Posted by Morrandir
Instead of "ME4" we should simply call it "4ME".

Originally Posted by Couchpotato
That's actually a clever name change Morrandir. I'll start calling the game 4ME from now in.

…

Originally Posted by Morrandir
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This isn't my news-post this time. We have two other news-posters who post news-bits occasionally once, or twice a month. I still like your acronym.

Oh, my bad. I just got used to your omnipresence.

gematsu.com says, that one of the artworks shows a new area in the citadel. So if this is true, it most likely will take place in the same galaxy.

Well now, that's actually a very interesting find, as it has a few implications. After all, the Citadel was captured and used as a human grinder to create a human reaper. If we're seeing a re-built, shining Citadel, ME4 must be quite a few years after ME3. Either that or before the Cerberus attack in ME3, so roughly at the same time as ME2 + parts of ME3.

In either scenario, it'll be hard to ignore Shepard. So far, everyone has simply expected ME4 to be written in a way that lets them more or less ignore all that, as it would be a bit of a mess to try to include all the choices Shepard made (Quarians vs Geth for example).

Is the citadel mentioned in the Twitch stream? Or did gematsu just guess this to be the Citadel?

No idea. Maybe I should check it out.

Happy to hear about the new emphasis on exploration (even if I take that with a grain of salt), but I'm not pleased to hear about the Citadel being in the game. I was really hoping for a different timeline or a region that was far removed from where the first trilogy took place.

Originally Posted by Maylander
Well now, that's actually a very interesting find, as it has a few implications. After all, the Citadel was captured and used as a human grinder to create a human reaper. If we're seeing a re-built, shining Citadel, ME4 must be quite a few years after ME3. Either that or before the Cerberus attack in ME3, so roughly at the same time as ME2 + parts of ME3.

If Bioware manages to sell that stuff, they live up to their king of marketing status.

The citadel existed for previous cycles, so ME4 could take part in far in the past.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
The citadel existed for previous cycles, so ME4 could take part in far in the past.

No, because Bioware says that the the trilogy's events will be referenced in the upcoming game. So it has to be in the future.

Originally Posted by Morrandir
No, because Bioware says that the the trilogy's events will be referenced in the upcoming game. So it has to be in the future.

Or a concurrent timeline.