They took almost 3 years to do Mass Effect 2, Now they releasing Mass Effect 3 in 19 months... how do you guys think that would turn out?
Do you think Bioware is getting greedy? is this development cicle good enough to match the expectation (that sure its high) with Mass Effect 3
I know diferent studios works with the DA and ME franchise, but after DA2 let down I wonder..
Mass Effect 3
Game » consists of 19 releases. Released Mar 06, 2012
When Earth begins to fall in an ancient cycle of destruction, Commander Shepard must unite the forces of the galaxy to stop the Reapers in the final chapter of the original Mass Effect trilogy.
Mass Effect 3 going the way of DA 2?
Arguably they've been working on Mass Effect 3 since they started working on the first one. They always knew and planned for this to be a trilogy. I betcha it doesn't come out until late spring 2012 anyway, but even if they do pump it out in 19 months, that makes it a good decade or so they've been working on the Mass Effect franchise. I think they know what they are doing.
I think they spent most of that three years making the engine not terrible like it was in Mass Effect 1. Now that they have the core gameplay down to a science, they can put more time and energy into making a kick-ass story.
Besides, I haven't seen or heard any details about this game aside from that one trailer at the VGAs. Isn't it possible the game's going to get delayed or something?
Well, as long as they stop over-streamlining their games.
ME2 is a tad bit over-streamlined compared to ME1 in my opinion, though with a lot of improvements that helped it from looking that way to the general audience (DA2 went too far and a lot of people noticed it).
But if they try to streamline ME3 even more... Man, might as well make a 3rd person shooter with dialog options.
There's not much to dumb down from ME2, it was a third person shooter with story bits in between action scenes and dating sim parts (that gives you an idea of the eyes I look through). It has also had a longer development time than DA2 already, and even better, it has the ME team working on it and not the DA team. The only problem is the long wait for it to come out.
Both Mass Effect 1 and 2 run on Unreal Engine 3. For the PS3 release they've updated ME2 with a new engine, which, by the looks of it might just be a heavily modified Unreal 3 to the point where they no longer need to call it that. ME2 runs better than it's predecessor through optimization." astonished that no one has mentioned that with ME2 and 3 they had to build an entirely new engine which is in no small part a significant reason why ME2 was so long after ME1 and also why ME3 is coming along much swifter. "
I think the reason why they're releasing it relatively soon is because they won't need to depart much from ME2's art assets and they definitely need to release it fast to keep riding the Mass Effect popularity wave.
Also, let's not judge Bioware for making one game that doesn't appease the crowd as much as their other work (I haven't played DA 2 btw). They (Bioware and EA), have indulged in much more troubling practices, like the whole Dr Pepper bullshit, which in my opinion is far more worrying.
And yes, there is a chance ME3 will be a disappointment, but it won't be because of Dragon Age 2 and it's too soon to worry about it.
" astonished that no one has mentioned that with ME2 and 3 they had to build an entirely new engine which is in no small part a significant reason why ME2 was so long after ME1 and also why ME3 is coming along much swifter. "It is an updated Unreal 3 Engine, I am sure they used an updated Unreal 3 engine for ME2.
The team making Mass Effect 3 is separate than the one which did Dragon Age 2. And they said that Mass Effect 2 would be a lot more difficult to make compared to ME 3 because they it is very difficult to bridge a trilogy together.
DA2 pulled a ME2, so I don't see where you're going with this unless it's some crazy recursion.
That's the whole fucking reason I didn't like ME2 in the first place. Go read Dave's blog about it, he pretty much lays out most of the reasons I hated the game.
All these misinformed people pulling the "Unreal engine!" card... Jadeskye is right, they had to rewrite massive parts of the engine.
The lead dev (Hudson) even said so on the ME2 dedi-Bombcast. The reason for that is simple, ME1 engine wasn't designed for allowing DLC. In an age where DLC is extra revenue for cheap development costs, that is killer for an engine.
Sure, it might be based off of Unreal - but just using the Unreal engine doesn't give you Mass Effect...
" I'm sure it'll be fine. Like you said, different teams. Although it would be funny if they continued the trend of simplifying gameplay to the point where ME3 is just a 3rd person shooter and DA3 is just a hack n slash action game. And by funny I mean horrible... "
Took the words right out of my mouth.
I don't know,i think i might have finally come to terms with Mass Effect 2 gameplay changes, might give it another playthrough, in any case im sure it will at least be a great story with some interesting characters.
In terms of cutting corners? I doubt it. If they were ever intending to do that with ME3, I suspect the reception of DA2 will have convinced them to think again.
DA2 is just frustrating. There's a lot of good stuff about it, and for want of a little more thought and time it could have been a great RPG.
They pretty much rebuilt Dragon Age from scratch when it came to Dragon Age 2.
A lot of time spent making ME 2 was making the engine and getting the basic game play down. The devs said after ME 2's release that ME 3 would be much easier to make compared to numero dois, therefore it won't take as much time to finish. Also, remember that the dev time between 2 and 3 is pretty much 2 years anyway, so I don't think the gap is that small to begin with.
Even with the engine being pretty much sorted out, Bioware still have the issues that have plagued their sequels, such as linear corridor shooty bits, along with the fact that ME2 pretty much had them write themselves into a corner, with a last boss that was so pathetically weak and confusing, that its made me worried for ME3 for a while now. DA2 might have had a separate team, but that still doesn't mean that the heads of the dev and publisher teams haven't strong-armed the poor grunts working on the actual game into making something lackluster, just to make up sales. We can't be sure about ME3 until it comes out, but I for one am worried that the development cycle of ME has been shoehorned onto the same track as DA2. If ME3 is a disappointment, I'll have mentally prepared myself for it, and it'll be all good :D
Also they have enough time to make ME3 and they already had some plans since ME1. I'm sure it will be great.
One can only hope that ME3 takes ME2 and improves on it, and stays away from what happened from DA:O to DA2. If for some reason Mass Effect 3 did follow in the Dragon Age 2 footsteps, I'd have to say that it wouldn't be completely surprising, but it would be greatly depressing. I don't think I can go through the amount of letdown Dragon Age 2 gave me again with a franchise that had 2 successful entries already.
On top of that, ME3 doesn't have to be written with a sequel in mind. The outcomes of various missions don't have to be open ended and everything can have a sense of finality.
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