The New Mass Effect Lead – Who Will it Be?

Fernando Blanco from Electric Avenue said - "Those who have played through BioWare’s Mass Effect games know that the story of Commander Shepard has apparently come to an end. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Mass Effect franchise itself is all over. We’re talking about one of the most popular game franchises available right now, so it would only make sense that BioWare would keep it going. However, BioWare will need to find a new lead character if they want gamers to explore the Mass Effect universe."

[NYC_Gamer]

I have a strong feeling that James Vega might be the new lead

[nrvalleytime]

You mean the Vega from Street Fighter, yeah? Because claws in space would be awesome.

Seriously though, just no. :-)

[fossilfern]

James Vega One of the most uninteresting characters in the entire ME universe ? That would be an awful game! even more than ME3

[Knight_Crawler]

They should hire Jade Raymond...she did a good job with AssCreed.

[Blacktric]

OH GOLLY I CAN'T WAIT FOR IT TO BE ANNOUNCED AND RELEASED.

I HOPE EA RELEASES TATTOO DLC FOR IT TOO. I just want to buy new tattoos for the guy for 5 bucks each.

[JBallerX]

I can't say how much I dislike the idea that Vega would be the new lead. That would be such a disservice to this franchise...

[Tr10wn]

No.

[coolbeans]

I think they'd shoot that down because of design purposes. It would be a bore for the player to see him work out before and during the beginning of each conversation throughout the entire span of the game. :P

[braydox21]

he already has in act for jersay shore (citadel editon)

[NeXXXuS]

no. it'll be female shepard for sure.
/lame joke

[Godmars290]

Feels like they're just spinning their wheels.

[fblan001]

I know this is out of topic but thats an awesome avatar you have, did you draw it yourself?

[Godmars290]

If I could draw like this I'd hardly be hanging out on N4G.

I'd be kickstarting my own game. With mechs. And Hookers. And booz. And gambling.

Actually, forget the booz and the gambling...

[fblan001]

toche....

[akaFullMetal]

good one bender.

[tigertron]

The following would be good:

- Shepard (seriously, I don't consider Shepard's story finished, there is plenty for Shep to do, providing it follows the destroy ending, which I consider cannon)
- Garrus (because he is awesome)
- Miranda
- Liara
- Tali
- The Illusive Man
- Ashley

[SpideySpeakz]

Shepard is dead. Move on.

[BigPappaPump]

Your Shepard is but mine isn't.

[tristanwerbe]

My Shepard always lives you must have picked the moron options

[SpideySpeakz]

Sign*.. What I mean is, if Bioware says he's dead, then he's dead. No need to whine and pus about it. Move on, losers.

[BigPappaPump]

Bioware confirmed that Shepard lives at the breath scene. There's no need for you to act like a bitch by insulting those who don't agree with you.

[aLucidMind]

Who is whining? Nobody, you're just insulting people for stating how they interpreted the Destroy Breath scene. The only "pus loser" in this thread is yourself, the only one in this thread acting like one.

[DOMination-]

It will be a new character Im pretty sure and hopefully a new trilogy. The illusive man back when he was Jack Harper and an alliance soldier would be a pretty cool spinoff single game though.

[jrbeerman11]

Yes but I am tired of prequels, they just don't work because you always know what it eventually leads to.

that being said, if it had to be prequel, then you nailed it.

[linkenski]

Just someone who isn't a character we already know please.

[Harmonizer]

Blasto obviously, duh

Seriously though, i would absolutely LOVE a game about Saren!

[fblan001]

Or they could go on the other direction and create a prequel, god forbade.

[Harmonizer]

Im not a big fan of prequels, but a Prequel involving Saren would definitely be of interest to me.

[Hydralysk]

If I had to make a guess it's just going to be a new blank slate avatar.

The problem with making a story about a specific ME character is that none of the BW protagonists have established personalities, because they need to have the ability to be good or evil. You can't take Garrus for example, because Garrus has a distinct personality and if you give control of his actions to the player, they probably aren't going to line up with his established personality.

So yeah, I'm pretty sure any new protagonist is going to be someone named Sergeant Herder with the same kind of blank slate personality Shepard had.

[MasterD919]

Surely, someone will replace the Illusive Man.

I'd like to play a borderline good or bad guy.

[RuleofOne343]

Question if Shepard is dead why the expanding chest plate moving at the end or why the hesitation by Lira to hang the name plate. also if a prequel is what is planned how about one that has to do with the creation of the Reapers or Javik particular seeing as he describe his race to be more evolved than the other races in the game .

[Irishguy95]

He's not, if you picked red ending.

[sarcastoid]

How about exploring the universe more? No reason they can't star wars this thing up. No need to make a current character spin-off game. Use some imagination.

[linkenski]

There are 2 problems.
1: Mac Walters is still the Lead Writer
2: EA stole their imagination.

[krazykombatant]

LOL you're still blaming EA for the massive crap that bioware took in your living room.

BioWare were given more than enough, freedom with their work. EA might have had a hand in the micro transactions bit in the multiplayer. but the rest was 150% BioWare.

[linkenski]

EA might not have creative control per se, but in a recent interview with Ray Myzuka, i think it was, he said that you couldn't present some experimental premise for a game (like some indie devs do) and have EA accepting it, because of the production values that are at risk.
I think EA might have suggested to Bioware that the last ME installment needed to reach a wider audience, and by doing so Bioware decided to make "action mode" and new-game for beginners to the story, and i think that's one reason as to why the Dialogue wheel got dumbed down in ME3.

Also both that game and Dragon Age 2 had only 1.5 years in development, and that's just unheard of when you're making the ending of an epic trilogy.

Mass Effect 3 got rushed and it's really apparent in the game when you look at how many bugs persist even in the latest version of the game, and how bad the writing is in some of the last missions.

EA might not have "creative control" per se, as i said, but them rushing Bioware will limit their creativity.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I don't understand? Bioware was under EA when they did Mass Effect 2, which is imho the best Mass Effect in the series (Mass Effect 1 is just GOD AWFUL) That is not a game I want to see ever again...EVER.

EA is doing a fine job, Bioware are the ones that are developing this game NOT EA! EA doesn't just walk in and say "oh by the way, we have an idea for the ending of Mass Effect 3"

I think some of you need to really google what a damn Publisher is.

[NumOnePS3FanBoy]

Yes! a million times yes. Although I have yet to play ME2 or 3, and please correct me if I'm wrong, but they can totally expand scope of the game to other galaxies not just the milky way. There is plenty of room to create an amazing ME game.

[Jek_Porkins]

It needs to be a totally new character, I'm not into the PI or anyone else that was a supporting character, I just don't think those characters are interesting enough, or strong enough to pull off an entire game, or possible trilogy.

[ginsunuva]

New IP please. Mass Effect is done. Even though it was awesome. Me3 ruined the ME universe, though.

More Mass Effect means we'll never get to see the potential of an even better game.

[legreffer]

Actually, they are working on a new IP.

[Godmars290]

A game with planetary exploration, starship combat, and alien/diplomatic interaction you mean.

Really can't see ME becoming another glorified TPS.

[Hydralysk]

Are you talking about ME there or are you talking about the hypothetical "even better game"?

Because no ME game has had starship combat outside of pre-rendered cutscenes, and planetary exploration disappeared after ME1.

[_-EDMIX-_]

"planetary exploration disappeared after ME1" because it sucked in ME1, the 360 just didn't have the disk space to make such a thing happen, same deal with space combat. The reason this game is as limited as it is has to do with the tech its running on, your asking of a game to allow plantary travel and space travel all in HD, and then add in its using the same disk space as GTASA did for PS2. Now your really not going to get such a thing with such limitations, had this had been a PC ONLY game or PS3 game etc I could see that really happening, ie Star Citizen (ever PS3 game).

The new IP they are talking about is NOT Mass Effect, Mass Effect NEXT GEN has already been confirmed to be in development and is running on Frostbite 3. (not sure if you guys read the news)

The new IP is not Mass Effect, Bioware is NOT just one team you know.

[Ogygian]

No. The Mass Effect universe, like the Star Wars universe has a limitless number of stories. How about a game letting us know what happened after the chaos of ME3. As long as they set it far enough in advance, they maintain full creative freedom. They left the universe broken, which is not how I want my last memories of that galaxy to be.

[Hydralysk]

Except they really can't do that due to the Green ending.

Red and Blue I could see them playing around with, but Green has all life in the galaxy (even plants apparently) remade into cyborgs at the genetic level somehow.

No matter how far you take the story into the future you won't get away from that huge of an impact.

[Ogygian]

@hydralysk

I googled a poll and found that a large majority of people seem to have chosen the destroy ending. It wouldn't be ideal, but It'd probably be for the best that destroy and control were canon and largely wind up in the same scenario, with minor easter eggs which might reflect which one the player chose.

Synthesis was probably the most cheesy ending of the lot anyway ( exactly how you said it, "somehow" becoming cyborg).

A prequel would be silly. Who on earth wants to play a prequel in which they influence the game world in ways which will become wholly irrelevant and completely overriden by the galactic mess which we comes at the end of ME3? Not only that, but they've pretty much covered all of their backstory, with ME3 lore, so any choices we make as a player will have little impact.

Besides, if they end up ever doing a prequel, refuse will not be canon, and so I don't see why they can't just extend that to synthesis.

[ginsunuva]

But say they chose to just focus on a new IP like they did in 2007 with ME, and it turns out to be 10x better than ME's universe.

Or we can have more stories in ME's now-boring universe (thanks to ME3) and never see the the parallel future in which they created the better new IP.
Or their new IP could suck but it's a chance.

[krazykombatant]

I don't want to be reminded of the garbage that ME3 was anytime soon.

I see too many people on here talking about what they would buy. Just this time last year everyone was raging on how bad the ending was and how we shouldn't buy another BioWare game.

Ohh how fickle bunch we all are.

I for one will need massive and massive amounts of persuasion and sweet sweet words and kisses to be lured to buy another BioWare crap.

[SpideySpeakz]

A prequel? Pff.. Then how will our choices matter if it already happened in the last ME games? Oh, that's right, our choices didn't really matter in ME3.

But I see why they're doing it. Because of those horrible "Blue, Red, or Green" endings. Especially the GREEN ending. They really can't deliver a sequel off the GREEN ending at all. It's just too off sync with the rest of the endings, and totally weird and stupid.

[Rhaigun]

Its "fans" like you that ruin message boards for the rest of us. Let it go already. The rest of us moved on months ago.

[aLucidMind]

How is he ruining it for anybody by stating their opinion on the ending? For all you know, he may be posting now after just now buying and finishing the game; not all people buy games at release or at their $60 tag. It is a fact that the endings were poorly presented and barely foreshadowed at all, plus the ending not having any detail that reflected prior choices. Both are out of character for BioWare and are worth mentioning and discussing.

Fans like you (note my lack of condescending quotations around the word "fan", as I'm sure you love the series as much as I do), ruin it for everyone by being disdainful towards those who state a negative opinion, regardless of civility.

[Rhaigun]

There was no civility in his response. And, you may be right. He may have just finished a game that came out almost a year ago. No matter how unlikely. However, he does not raise anything that hasn't been said a hundred times over. If he actually had constructive criticisms, it would be different.

I put "fan" in quotations, because he should be excited to be getting new stories from the franchise. Instead he decides to use the space to rehash old arguments that have no place here.

Don't get me wrong, I thought the endings were lackluster as well. I just know that at this point in time, it does no one any good in bringing it up. Its like continuing to argue bad calls in last years Super Bowl.

[djthechamp24]

people ask for new ideas and new ip`s but continue asking for the same shit and get angry when the developer dosent do what you ask.... gaming community is a fucking joke

[PooEgg]

I might agree with you if the title of this article was not 'The New Mass Effect Lead'... how does another Mass Effect game equal new idea or new IP? This is just BioWare milking the Mass Effect name.

[PooEgg]

I can't help but think it really is a shame that they put such a final ending on ME3. There really was no good reason to kill off Shepard, and some of his best crew-mates the way they did. They went the shock and sadness route and backed themselves in a corner. Now they are looking for a way to salvage the series...

I hate to say it, but the best bet is probably the clone route, because anything less then Shepard won't be good enough. Well, perhaps they could pull off a Shepard's grandchild if they use their imagination, but James Vega, and even the beloved Garris, are not strong enough characters to step into Shepard's shoes.

[Coolmanrico]

If the next Mass Effect is a prequel I'll pass.

[aLiEnViSiToR]

Q: The New Mass Effect Lead – Who Will it Be?

A: Shepard !!!!!!(or his/her child :D)!!!!!!!!

[Djinn]

I would really love to play a Mass Effect games as Kai Leng. He was one of the few good characters in the trilogy. Playing as a badass cybenetic sci fi ninja would be amazing. Make it happen, Bioware!

[PooEgg]

I thought Kai looked cool, but the moment he opened his mouth that went out the window. Plus Shepard killed him, so unless it is a prequel or a Kai clone he shouldn't be an option.

[jrbeerman11]

kai leng was awful, terrible, no good, very bad character.

[Hydralysk]

Kai Leng was one of the worst parts of ME3. Definitely the worst part outside of the ending.

They tried to fit a 'badass' anime ninja into Mass Effect and ended up with a terrible cheesy and nonsensical antagonist who is only effective because of his bull**** cutscene powers which causes Shepard to forget he actually has abilities or any weapons except a pistol.

[isyourhouseonfire]

Make a trilogy for Tali. Done.

[Rhaigun]

I would like the chance to play as another race. Salarian, Asari or Turian would be great. But, I'd absolutely love the chance to play a Drell.

[urwifeminder]

I never played the third game all the hoopla turned me off plus I moved from 360 to pc so my saves mean nothing,the 3 game pc box set is on my list once it gets to 20 bux.

[SJC]

I wonder if Bioware actually ever considered letting the character be one that the player would create and the story would revolve around despite what species he/she is. I personally would love to be a Turian or Quarian and the story should take place after ME3 in which the intergalactic civilizations are rebuilding and some New Enemy(possibly the remnants of Cerberus or the species outside of Citadel space) are trying to take control of the galaxy while most of the Citadel species and forces are severely weakened because of the Reapers. But that's just what I would like.

[WitWolfy]

OMFG... The game is dead, just let it be!!! BW wrote themselves into a corner with ME 3, sure it was a fun game but I can tell you now, A LOT of their fans wont be returning to the franchise anytime soon...

[Kos-Mos]

My milking brings all the boys to the yard.