Mass Effect Legendary Edition launches May 14 on PC (Origin/Steam), PS4 and Xbox One (with enhancements for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S)

[dgrdsv]

As a developer, I'll disagree. Gameplay, combat, and inventory absolutely contribute to a style. I've had so many long discussions on stuff like this.

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They don't contribute to visual style at all. If they do then you should have another discussion about that because your development process is broken.

And, yes, it's different, because Tidus is the MAIN CHARACTER and you see his face for the majority of your 100+ adventure. Not a single skybox seen for as shortly as 15 minutes that you leave behind.

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We don't know how many of these skyboxes will be out of style in the remaster. From three (I think?) screenshots of ME1 released so far all three have severe styling changes in them, in skyboxes and general lighting.
No idea where you got these "15 minutes" of yours because chances are that you will be staring at these changes for a much longer time than you'll be able to see the face of Tidus.
Because that's how style works. Face of Tidus isn't a part of it really.

 

[dyreschlock]

Do they plan on announcing some kind of Deluxe edition akin to the original 360 releases?

 

[Barnak]

Do they plan on announcing some kind of Deluxe edition akin to the original 360 releases?

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This IS the deluxe edition. Every DLC, except the shitty Pinnacle Station from ME1, is included.

 

[TheHunter]

I'm really looking forward to this, it's a shame the Pinnacle station dlc isn't in, but there's still so much content.

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No it isn't.

 

[KomandaHeck]

Sheploo is the only Shep for me, but this FemShep should've won that dumb poll.

 

[TheHunter]

Do they plan on announcing some kind of Deluxe edition akin to the original 360 releases?

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All the DLC including the collectors edition weapons and pre order bonuses are in.

 

[RR30]

MEHEM The Mass Effect 3 Happy Ending Mod

MEHEM is a reinterpretation of the endings of Mass Effect 3, which introduces quite a few changes to the game's finale and - as the title suggests - will result in a brighter outcome for Commander

www.nexusmods.com

Credit to texhnolyze for making me aware of it top of the last page.

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Thanks. That's certainly an interesting mod. Wouldn't mind trying it out on a second playthrough if it gets ported.

 

[Samiya]

As a developer, I'll disagree. Gameplay, combat, and inventory absolutely contribute to a style. I've had so many long discussions on stuff like this.

And, yes, it's different, because Tidus is the MAIN CHARACTER and you see his face for the majority of your 100+ adventure. Not a single skybox seen for as shortly as 15 minutes that you leave behind.

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As a developer, I find it weird to entirely dismiss "15 minutes" of the Eden Prime intro to the game as if it's insignificant or unimportant. It's the beginning of the game that lays the aesthetic groundwork for the player and propels them toward the central plot. The art style is a major part of this experience and making a drastic change from this means that it's altering the original experience to something entirely else. Remasters are supposed to pay respect to the original work, not change its aesthetic to such a degree that suddenly an important prologue section looks entirely different.

I don't understand why people find the need to defend or downplay the decision to make creative changes to an original game - especially changes that makes significant alterations. I get it, people are big fans, but the Eden Prime change is factually unnecessary and is drastically different from the source material. Of course some people are going to be against it, there's no need to defend the change by dismissing the level as "15 minutes" that we just leave behind and forget.

 

[anexanhume]

How so? I'm not sure I recall any references to it being different from the rest, other than basically being a Reaper 'scout' so to speak, to trigger the rest.

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Well Sovereign was a Capital class Reaper while most of the Reapers in their fleet were Destroyer class. Also he's the only Reaper that generally has that whole red lightning thing as I think it only reappears in the Destroy ending in ME3.

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Beyond that, I believe Reapers differed in the inherited or copied organism characteristics they took on. Hence the predominantly leviathan looking designs, but the collectors' work was contributing to their continued evolution. I don't think we know how 'old' Sovereign is compared to the others.

 

[AncientReptileBrain]

i never played ME3 but i can't believe they changed the default Shep and then they _back ported it_ in this?! who asked for this.

 

[shinobi602]

Beyond that, I believe Reapers differed in the inherited or copied organism characteristics they took on. Hence the predominantly leviathan looking designs, but the collectors' work was contributing to their continued evolution. I don't think we know how 'old' Sovereign is compared to the others.

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Fair but honestly I think the 'red lightning' was probably early artistic liberty for a first crack at a Reaper design more than any conscious design choice. But who knows.

i never played ME3 but i can't believe they changed the default Shep and then they _back ported it_ in this?! who asked for this.

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A lot of people actually lol...ME3 femshep is fairly popular. The old default femshep is still there too.

 

[seroun]

Jesus, looking at those predetermined FemSheps on ME1 and ME2.. that was bad, how did I even think about choosing them. Hopefully I can pre-order soon.

 

[CesareNorrez]

Good thing you can customize your character's appearance because all these "better" FemSheps that people are posting look worse than the ME3 default. I won't be using the default either, of course. I like to customize my own.

I'd really appreciate if they release the character creator ahead of release as a demo.

 

[AncientReptileBrain]

A lot of people actually lol...ME3 femshep is fairly popular. The old default femshep is still there too.

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oh, well that's fine

i don't expect you to take the time to explain when i can just google this, but man, it's just wild to me that were like "yo we don't think this character you've played as for two games is pretty enough, let's have a fucking fan waifu poll and replace them in the next game!"

like, i just... there must be something i'm missing here.

 

[Patitoloco]

oh, well that's fine

i don't expect you to take the time to explain when i can just google this, but man, it's just wild to me that were like "yo we don't think this character you've played as for two games is pretty enough, let's have a fucking fan waifu poll and replace them in the next game!"

like, i just... there must be something i'm missing here.

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That's not the reason. The reason was that for ME1 and ME2 Femshep was a regular default character from the character creator, extremely low quality in comparison to the facescan of Mark Vanderloo of Male Shep, and with 3 they decided to at least, create manually a face more detailed and worth of the character.

The poll was just to see what design people liked more, but the change had sense.

 

[Aprikurt]

I'm sure it's already been said, but the reasoning stated during the press call for excluding the multiplayer was due to prioritisation and their own expectations.

Single player was top priority, and they didn't want to port the multiplayer without being able to give it the same attention to detail in remastering, in addition to exploring things like cross play (which they consider an expectation) and progression transfer for players who sunk time into the ME3 build. They also would need to address if it would be ported as is, or if they'd explore continued updates.

They seemed genuinely positive about their thoughts towards the multiplayer, but ultimately decided to cut it as priorities for dev resources became clearer. Animation reworking was another factor; initially on the table, proved to be significantly more work than expected due to archaic tools that easily broke massive chunks of game from otherwise simple changes. Wasn't impossible, but proved to be too much work.

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Can you say "separate retail release"?

 

[EatChildren]

Can you say "separate retail release"?

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For the multiplayer? I doubt it. I don't think they'll bother to dig it up at all.

 

[OzPrime]

For the multiplayer? I doubt it. I don't think they'll bother to dig it up at all.

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The original ME3 miltiplayer still exists with a healthy playerbase to this day, so if people are really hankerin' for some, there's nothing to stop them from playing.

 

[Rover_]

A lot of people actually lol...ME3 femshep is fairly popular. The old default femshep is still there too.

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do you know if the ME1/ME2 default FemShep will work properly on ME3? back in the original importing her gave a very different woman haha.

 

[EatChildren]

The original ME3 miltiplayer still exists with a healthy playerbase to this day, so if people are really hankerin' for some, there's nothing to stop them from playing.

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Yeah of course. Only referring to the desire to see it re-released with equivalent engine/asset improvements and a new player base. I'm sure if they did release it it'd find a new audience, but I don't expect BioWare to bother in the long run.

 

[shinobi602]

do you know if the ME1/ME2 default FemShep will work properly on ME3? back in the original importing her gave a very different woman haha.

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Import bugs are definitely part of the things they paid attention to for this. I can't say for certain but I can't imagine they'd ignore it.

 

[Rover_]

Import bugs are definitely part of the things they paid attention to for this. I can't say for certain but I can't imagine they'd ignore it.

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glad ♥

 

[anexanhume]

Fair but honestly I think the 'red lightning' was probably early artistic liberty for a first crack at a Reaper design more than any conscious design choice. But who knows.

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Oh I absolutely agree. I think someone else in this thread mentioned Eden Prime changed for this reason. Just trying to provide context for why Reapers aren't all a single design.

I remember talking to Chris L'Etoile on the BSN forums and he said that the Normandy delivering the fatal blow in the battle on the Citadel was complete artistic license and a recon ship like that had no business in a dog fight like that (or the firepower).

 

[OzPrime]

Yeah of course. Only referring to the desire to see it re-released with equivalent engine/asset improvements and a new player base. I'm sure if they did release it it'd find a new audience, but I don't expect BioWare to bother in the long run.

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Yes. My comment was really aimed at the people unhappy it's not getting that. It wasn't meant as a jab against you. I've already preordered the digiltal version on XSX and I almost NEVER preorder games. Come to think of it, the last game I preordered was ME3.

 

[Barnak]

Do we know if we're going to have more screenshots or videos in the coming days or is that it until Bioware feels ready to show more in March or April?

 

[Rover_]

Oh I absolutely agree. I think someone else in this thread mentioned Eden Prime changed for this reason. Just trying to provide context for why Reapers aren't all a single design.

I remember talking to Chris L'Etoile on the BSN forums and he said that the Normandy delivering the fatal blow in the battle on the Citadel was complete artistic license and a recon ship like that had no business in a dog fight like that (or the firepower).

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it was very cool tho, it's one of good example of artistic license done right.

damn i remember how hyped i was with the notion and small possibility to have a quest on ME3 on which we control the Normandy on an space battle, a-la Halo Reach with that Saber mission.

 

[Samiya]

oh, well that's fine

i don't expect you to take the time to explain when i can just google this, but man, it's just wild to me that were like "yo we don't think this character you've played as for two games is pretty enough, let's have a fucking fan waifu poll and replace them in the next game!"

like, i just... there must be something i'm missing here.

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it's bioware, the same studio that turned the ship AI into a sexbot with a cameltoe and gave make-up, long hair, and heels to its scruffy soldier party member.

 

[EatChildren]

Yes. My comment was really aimed at the people unhappy it's not getting that. It wasn't meant as a jab against you. I've already preordered the digiltal version on XSX and I almost NEVER preorder games. Come to think of it, the last game I preordered was ME3.

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Oh I didn't interpret as a job. I think something was lost in text there haha.

Not gonna lie; all this discussion has me tempted to boot ME3 back up just for it.

 

[logash]

Sheploo is the only Shep for me, but this FemShep should've won that dumb poll.

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Getting Drummer vibes from The Expanse but that's probably cause I just finished watching the season finale.

 

[OzPrime]

Oh I didn't interpret as a job. I think something was lost in text there haha.

Not gonna lie; all this discussion has me tempted to boot ME3 back up just for it.

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I did that a few months ago when talk of the remaster collection started heating up last year. Aside from the issue I've always had with the ME3 controls (namely too many things mapped to the A button!), it still holds up very well.

 

[shinobi602]

oh, well that's fine

i don't expect you to take the time to explain when i can just google this, but man, it's just wild to me that were like "yo we don't think this character you've played as for two games is pretty enough, let's have a fucking fan waifu poll and replace them in the next game!"

like, i just... there must be something i'm missing here.

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It was mostly a response to fan outcry about the default Femshep in 1/2 being low quality compared to male Shep (Vanderloo's facescan), so they tried to do a more custom model and wanted to include players in the process.

 

[Rover_]

it's bioware, the same studio that turned the ship AI into a sexbot with a cameltoe and gave make-up, long hair, and heels to its scruffy soldier party member.

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such a cool plot point - AI getting a body - very poorly executed. i really love ME3 but it indeed has some big fuck ups.

 

[EatChildren]

It was mostly a response to fan outcry about the default Femshep in 1/2 being low quality compared to male Shep (Vanderloo's facescan), so they tried to do a more custom model and wanted to include players in the process.

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Yeah, this is why they did it. The issue was that default femshep was a stock standard character creator default, not a hand tailored model, unlike Sheploo's custom face and texture. Folk weren't unhappy that femshep existed, just that BioWare hadn't put the same attention to detail in a default femshep model. Hence ME3 femshep was born.

 

[KAMI-SAMA]

As someone who at the time just could not give the Mass Effect games their full attention when they first came out, this is a welcome edition. Now, I'll definitely make an effort to play them. I'll have to play them with breaks in between so I don't burn myself out lol.

 

[OneTrueJack]

In regards to FemShep, the last few pages of this thread have been an interesting example of the Resetera bubble popping up again. Red hair/ME3 Femsep is iconic. There's a reason they highlighted her in this trailer. Since ME3 she's easily become one of the de facto faces of the brand, on par with BroShep if not surpassing him.

Incorporating her design into ME1 and 2 is probably the biggest thing this remaster has going for it.

 

[Samiya]

Yeah, this is why they did it. The issue was that default femshep was a stock standard character creator default, not a hand tailored model, unlike Sheploo's custom face and texture. Folk weren't unhappy that femshep existed, just that BioWare hadn't put the same attention to detail in a default femshep model. Hence ME3 femshep was born.

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and honestly it wasn't the best "birth" in comparison to Sheploo. It seemed more of an afterthought or a rushjob compared to the detail that Sheploo got:

 

[braisbr1]

So the sky, which is kilometers above Sovereign, is red because it was attacking Eden Prime at surface level? That makes even less sense because the sky doesn't turn red like that. It never even looked like it was red because of Sovereign's attack, but rather because that was the planet's actual atmosphere. It was most likely a workaround for their technical limitation in regards to visual effects because they wanted to convey the colony was under attack, and in the remaster they can actually show what the sky looks like when there is a massive space ship attacking the surface: a regular sky, but with smoke, debris and dust.

It's fine to prefer the red sky for aesthetic reasons, but that doesn't mean the change doesn't make sense.

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Phellps, that's not it. Just look at this video, minute 19.25 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyKfsDes4Mw) It's a real shame I can't copy paste the image into this message, because you have the answer right there and everyone would be able to see it. The sky is red because there was fighting going on in the surface, and you can see the stark contrast between the regular atmosphere and the area where the fighting is happening. That frame shows things from outer space, so there's really no discussion. This fighting wasn't just due to Sovereign, it was happening because of everything that was going down at surface level (people getting massacred, turned to techno zombies and all that).

And it makes sense that the sky is red from attacks at surface level, because you can presume it wasn't just pew pew shots here and there, it's implied that something massive is going on. The red atmosphere adds to that. Judging from the only image Bioware has shown, it looks like the vibe has completely changed.

 

[Josh5890]

It would be really interesting to see how they redesign those statues to resemble the final design of the Protheans. It's kind of funny how the old statues resembled Husks, but BioWare has previously said they were indeed depicting Protheans and that the design was intentionally vague because they hadn't settled on what they'd look like yet. So it's quite a bit of a mess lore-wise, and since they've made new assets for the remaster, I wish they'd redesign these too.



No such thing, it seems. The best you can get is a discount on Steam if you have ME3 there.

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That is what I was thinking would be the case. Honestly I want to try this on PS5 instead of PC. I don't plan on upgrading my 1070 for quite a while so I'm better off getting the Playstation version.

 

[braisbr1]

So the sky, which is kilometers above Sovereign, is red because it was attacking Eden Prime at surface level? That makes even less sense because the sky doesn't turn red like that. It never even looked like it was red because of Sovereign's attack, but rather because that was the planet's actual atmosphere. It was most likely a workaround for their technical limitation in regards to visual effects because they wanted to convey the colony was under attack, and in the remaster they can actually show what the sky looks like when there is a massive space ship attacking the surface: a regular sky, but with smoke, debris and dust.

It's fine to prefer the red sky for aesthetic reasons, but that doesn't mean the change doesn't make sense.

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Oh, furthermore, just seconds after the moment I pointed in my previous message, Joker says - "someone was doing some serious digging here, captain". Serious digging as in Covenant-level type of destruction, ashes and dust blown into the atmosphere, volcanic eruption type of thing.

 

[spacer]

Thermal clip is superior so that's a shame

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Hard disagree. Thermal clips were retconned into the ME2, because they wanted to make the game more like a shooter. (This retcon still peeves me to this day, because I absolutely love/loved the lore from ME1 which clearly explains the lack of ammo for "modern" weapons in that universe) However, from a more practical stand-point, thermal clips were basically pointless since every combat arena in ME2 and 3 had so much extra ammo lying around. I've played through each game more than several times as pretty much every class, and I never once ran out of ammo in ME2 or 3. Their inclusion was not needed.

 

[Schlorgan]

I don't think there was much more to the red sky than creating an oppressive and intimidating atmosphere and mood.

It would be nice if they brought a little of it back in the final version of the Legendary Edition.

 

[Samiya]

I don't think there was much more to the red sky than creating an oppressive and intimidating atmosphere and mood.

It would be nice if they brought a little of it back in the final version of the Legendary Edition.

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Yeah, I'm hoping that they'll change the texture or lighting a little bit to accommodate the original art style. Still 3 months until its release, so it should be possible.

Otherwise, it's UE3 and modders might save us.

 

[Patitoloco]

god I wonder who I will romance this time

 

[Ivory Samoan]

i never played ME3 but i can't believe they changed the default Shep and then they _back ported it_ in this?! who asked for this.

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So many people....what fandom have you been watching?

Love the sound of the changes to gameplay and wow some of the new scenes looks stellar, can't wait!!!

 

[anexanhume]

I don't think there was much more to the red sky than creating an oppressive and intimidating atmosphere and mood.

It would be nice if they brought a little of it back in the final version of the Legendary Edition.

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For me, the pacing and music set the tone for me in that opening sequence. I don't necessarily mind an art change as long as it doesn't feel arbitrary.

 

[Poodlestrike]

They don't contribute to visual style at all. If they do then you should have another discussion about that because your development process is broken.

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Just to focus in on this... you're very, very wrong. Getting your visuals to work well with your gameplay systems is absolutely a part of design, and yes, art style is definitely part of that conversation. These are interrelated factors.

 

[Schlorgan]

god I wonder who I will romance this time

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Who did you romance last time?

Probably that character.

 

[Cross-Section]

Getting Drummer vibes from The Expanse but that's probably cause I just finished watching the season finale.

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Somebody will 100% make a Cara Gee Shepard (if one hasn't already been made) and I am here for it

 

[Persephone]

Gonna need JohnP's Alternate MEHEM, Citadel Epilogue Mod, the Recalibrated series, and the mod that straight up removes Diana Allers from the game ported asap 🙏

 

[Patitoloco]

Who did you romance last time?

Probably that character.

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Same decision as to be paragon or renegade.

Not sure who I'm trying to lie to lol