via Dualshockers

Yet another supposed leak. The next Mass Effect game will be called Mass Effect: Contact, and it will be shown in some capacity at E3. Certainly sounds like it'll be a prequel set during the First Contact Wars with the Turians. Not exactly sure if prequel is really a fitting term to describe what it is, since it'd have nothing to do with the original Mass Effect Trilogy.

I guess it could be really cool. Honestly though, I just really want the Mass Effect universe to move forward - timeline-wise. I felt like ME3's endings killed my beloved Mass Effect universe, because they destroyed most of the core pillars of its lore, like the Mass Effect Gates, and so I fail to see a future for it - which made me real sad and a little angry. While setting the game in a time prior to the great ME3 ending calamity does circumvent this issue, I want Bioware to rip the band-aid off and allow me to yet again look forward to a future in the ME universe - even if that's a small-minded way of looking at it. I guess Bioware has the right of it. It's too soon to retcon ME3's endings. Give it a half a decade, and then move forward.

What do you think? Does the idea of a Mass Effect game during the Contact wars excite you? Or do you think it's going to be something else entirely?

dating sim.

prepare to jizz.

That's a stupid name

It's a trend. Case and point - Dragon Age: Inquisition. I'm not saying it isn't a stupid trend. I'm all for more long-winded and flowery titles.

I would be 100% ok with a first or third person Mass Effect shooter with online Versus components. In fact, I would prefer that over yet another miserable pile of "WRPG".

Add some Mako variants, touch up planets from the first game, done.

Mortal Kombat 10 is also rumored to be announced at E3. But yeah I'm all for another sci-fi gears of war! :D And they're spending much more than 1 year on it which means it will most likely be very good!

I'm kinda disappointed that it's a prequel.

Also, I don't know much about the contact war but I hope there are more species that Turians and Humans in it. Hopefully Contact doesn't mean First Contact War and is about a new race of aliens. They did say that there would new aliens.

I'm still hoping for my dream game.

Mass Effect: Retcon

I'd rather it not be set before the trilogy. I really want to see the state of the universe now that the Reapers and Shepard are out of the way. Earlier there were rumors of Bioware trying out new alien species ideas, I want to see that!

It definitely doesn't sound like a C-Sec cop game.

If its definitely not C-Sec cop game, than I'll have to see it before I know if I really want it. First Contact War sounds like WW2 game of the Mass Effect universe.

Wait, huh? Was the "source" tweet changed or something?

I like the idea of Mass Effect: In SPACE!

I am significantly less excited for a prequel than a sequel.

I understand the reason behind going for a prequel, since a true sequel would have to take into account the decisions in 1-3, and address the three different endings.

But I am less interested in a prequel, specially one focused on the contact war. The main draw of Mass Effect to me are the characters, in particular, the non-human characters. During the contact war, we only have the humans, and the Turians would be depicted as the mysterious and murderous alien race. Given all that we learn from the sequels, it would be a disservice. It is a similar situation as Halo Reach, or watching Star Trek TOS after seeing the klingons in TNG...

Going into Mass Effect 3, the ending was not what I was excited for. I cared more about everything else that happened beforehand; the Genophage, the Geth, etc. and I thought that stuff did not disappoint. So yay!!! More Mass Effect, in whatever form it takes, is something I can get excited about. :)

As long as it's not the All-Story again, I'm fine with whatever the next Mass Effect has to offer.

I loved the original Mass Effect series so I'll be interested to see what this is.

I don't want any more ME after 3, thank you.

I'm more interested in a prequel than a sequel.

I concur

You know, this could actually be really cool if it is indeed a prequel. Getting to see the first interstellar war, not to mention the first time the humans interact with the Citadel and the various races that make it up. The more I think about it, the more interesting it seems, and could make for a much more "human" story.

That's the way I feel as well.

What would be cool is if we play from the point of another rather than humans which would allow for way more exploration than if we were restricted to playing as humans. Even better if it was like the DA: Origins system where we could choose the races we could play as and see the First Contact war from several different perspectives.

One thing that I really hope does not come back is the paragon renegade morality system. Good or bad should exist, it should be ambiguous and based on what individual characters think rather than characters either exist on the paragon or renegade end of the spectrum.

FUCK prequels! I'm so sick of them, and I knew that this was going to happen (OK, so its not actually happened yet) It seems like every big series goes down this route. Make a big popular trilogy then make a disappointing / unimaginative prequel, see Gears of War, God of War and Halo.

Everybody knows the outcome of the first contact war and in the grand scheme of the Mass Effect universe, its not particularly interesting. It just seems like the most lazy, obvious place to take the series. Wouldn't it be way more interesting to see the state of the universe after the events of Mass Effect 3? But that would probably be way too much work due to the way they wrote themselves into a corner with the Mass Effect 3 ending.

All I can say is I hope that this is a mistake because the Mass Effect universe is too cool to waste time developing a lame, redundant prequel.

Hmm... there had better be more than just humans on your team. That would be pretty weak. Also, wasn't the Contact War between the humans and turians pretty much covered by the books already?

- Mass Effect: Mass Effect

- Mass Effect: Retcon

- Mass Effect: The Cash Grab.

The First Contact war was a total of like, two battles, and the story in general isn't very interesting: Humans meet Turians, fight them in a couple of battles, and then they stop fighting once they realize they're all just good guys. They would need to do a lot more to make the story interesting.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: The next Mass Effect needs to basically just be Firefly and follow a team of space outlaws and smugglers.

Well seeing as how the arrival of humans changed the universe, if we can see how the universe was before humans really started taking charge through the eyes of another race like the Salarians, Asari, or some other race I would find that very interesting. If they force players to play as only humans in single player, that would really suck. Now if direct combat due to the First Contact War was restricted to multiplayer PvP that would be kind of cool.

I don't think we need some grand, universe changing story like they did in the first trilogy. I much rather have them create something more intimate and focusing on interaction of the characters. Focus more on the exploration aspect and not have that looming threat of Reapers dictating the pace of the story. At least this is what I want, the Star Trek or Firefly feeling of exploring different worlds in my own ship with my companions.

A prequel is a cop-out because they don't have to acknowledge any of the consequences of the original trilogy.

I too would like to see a post-Reapers universe, and I dislike prequels out of hand. Though I can see BW wanting to avoid the ME3 ending controversy and having to explain which one is canon.

A sequel would be radically easy to write with such a fantastic foundation. Let's give it two min to think of a way to rationalize a future for that universe.

Several hundred years after "the shepards" sacrifice. The races of the galaxy have grown into their own individually governed microcausems. One of these single solar powers has discovered the secrets of FTL travel once held only by the Reapers and thier creators. They have expanded their reach to most of the formerly colonized galaxy. Now the inevitable in fighting between governments and religions which have been separated for centuries begins. The blood of all races will be split in what will devolve into the inevitable struggle for power and dominance.

Boom. An easy starting point for a forward facing new sequel in the mass effect universe that uses the existing time line without and prequel bull. Written on smoke break in about three min.

I hate prequels.

Man, so much negativity. Whatever, I'm excited to hang out with young Keith David, and "Contact" seems like the perfect subtitle if that indeed is the setting.

Hey, that sounds like a Mass Effect game to me!

I really hope that isn't true. I freaking hate prequels. I can't think of a single one I've liked.

Do you get play as Jodie Foster in search for extraterrestrial life only to find your dad?

Well it's perfectly in line with how some of the Mass Effect community has been since the end of 3.

The twist is going to be that Mass Effect is going to be like Dark Souls where the chosen Shepard's choice at the end doesn't really matter and the cycle will continue. In this new Mass Effect we will explore the essence of the Reapers in-depth.

I also want the franchise to move forward time line wise. I don't really care for prequels and want have the story move forward. I'd like to see the game take place in the aftermath of Mass Effect 3. I'd like to think "Contact" means contact with a new threat. But I know if it is called Mass Effect: Contact it's almost certainly going to be set during the First Contact Wars. I don't really like this setting for the game since humans wouldn't have been established with the citadel and the rest of the galaxy. Turians are awesome and it would suck to have them as the main enemies. We already know what the outcome of those events are also. I mean a prequel leaves no room for new alien race party members and new tech. Also would LOVE to see a new spacecraft in place of the Normandy for you to command but how can they justify an improvement to the Normandy set during the Contact Wars.

I don't know I feel like a prequel just leaves no room for improvement and we will have to suspend our love for the lore of the universe to realize any new things they add to the prequels. At least it feels that way.

I see it as a partial reflection of Bioware and what happened with the franchise. I also see it as a partial reflection of the fatigue in the genre where people aren't excited to see another space marine shooting more evil aliens with a goofy story though Bioware will use a more complex.

I want Bioware to do something else. Build a new franchise in some other setting and even using new game design ideas. Part of the issue with doing a "prequel" is that we already know what counts and what doesn't in the "final battle" because it already happened. It gets more dubious with something like Mass Effect where having some human say "We all need to work together regardless of species" or "Screw those alien bastards!" will ring hollow.

On one hand, yeah, I'd be super impressed to see the creative teams take a more courageous look at a post-Shepard Mass Effect universe.

On the other, Bioware learned a lot of lessons with Mass Effect 3 from a sheer playability perspective. I'm extremely excited to see how they further refine and augment their gameplay systems.

Firefly Mass Effect or Detective Mass Effect game are the only acceptable choices as far as I'm concerned.

My only issue with the idea of presenting The First Contact War in a game setting, is that I can't see them working to the series' strengths of introducing intriguing alien characters and exploring a galaxy. Most of the fighting in the First Contact War was skirmishes, except Shanxi - which is the planet Ashley's grandfather surrendered on. After that the council stopped the fighting to keep it from spreading. Unless they're retconing that stuff like they did to remove the dark energy storyline, it just doesn't work for the scale of an entire Mass Effect game.

Canadian-ass RPG-maker Bioware-ass Bioware has at least 3 teams that we know of. The Dragon Age team. The Mass Effect team (which supposedly is a newly formed team ). The guys that created the Mass Effect universe in the first place are working on an all new franchise.

Looks like EA wants Bioware to churn out one big Bioware-style RPG a year, with 3 dev teams and a 3 year dev-cycle - at least one of which will be a new IP. I really hope EA will allow the guys at Bioware to do one original IP every 3 years, rather than establishing a third franchise and then rolling with that.

Edit: There has to be a forth team. The Bioware RPG with a Star Wars setting is likely too in development as we speak.

I really hope its not a prequel. I hate prequels.

Reach was the best Halo game though.

That said I can't think of a way to do a Mass Effect prequel well while still maintaining what makes ME good. You can't introduce a ton of alien races and show a vast universe full of unexplored potential and then be like "nah just two races and the war between them for this one." Unlike most trilogies, I wouldn't mind going back for more ME, since it has such an expansive universe, so going back to a point where the universe is *smaller* makes no sense to me. Then again, it's only a rumor for now and I imagine we will know for sure at E3.

Another prequel to fill in the time between the next game. Seems to be common trend lately.

Just set it 3000 years after the events of mass effect 3. It would be like going from 1000 BC to 2000 AD but in space, and since technology advances in an exponential fashion the technology available in 5180 AD would be completely crazy.

But what I'd really like is a new franchise from Bioware, give me the same feeling people had in 2007 when mass effect came out.

Yeah I would expect them to go that route. I just hope it doesn't turn into a dime-in-dozen shooter.

And it's supposed to run on Frostbite.

I am excited for a game whenever it is set in the Mass Effect universe. I had issues with the series but it is still great.

@bones8677 said:

Whatever this game ends up being (good, bad, mediocre) it will be an RPG, not a shooter.

Source: lot of Bioware employees including that Aardvark Maneater or whatever his name is.

I guess unlike most people I'm more interested in the journey than the destination. Probably why I enjoyed ME3 so much.