Mass Effect Remastered coming soon and new Mass Effect Game in the Works

[Kish]

None of that actually answers the question, y'know, Zousha. You clearly don't want to play ME3, Remastered or otherwise, so...don't. I promise the mobsters will not send you to sleep with the fishes for your dereliction.

[Morty]

Sadly though, I did see it mentioned elsewhere that there will be no ME3 multiplayer in Legendary Edition. Apparently they decided that it would basically take more effort than it was worth when they wanted to do the updates that they're doing to ME1 as well, so they opted to keep the focus on the single-player. Pity, but oh well, I doubt I'd have gone back to it for too long anyway at this point, especially if past progress wasn't carried over somehow or the whole slow system of random boosters wasn't overhauled into something quicker.

That's a shame. Enough people still play the original ME3 multiplayer for me to find games, though not always. It was an unexpected success that Inquisition and Andromeda tried and failed to replicate.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

None of that actually answers the question, y'know, Zousha. You clearly don't want to play ME3, Remastered or otherwise, so...don't. I promise the mobsters will not send you to sleep with the fishes for your dereliction.

That's just it, I actually DO want to play ME3, but not without playing the first two games to take a Shepard all the way through the trilogy properly. And not just breezing through the main quest to get to the ending, I mean doing every single solitary sidequest to ensure the best endings possible. That's a big time investment not just in terms of gameplay, but research and reading and watching YouTube playthroughs of the spinoff mobile games I'm unable to actually play because they were pulled from app stores years ago and I don't have an iPad anyway.

[Gwynchan'rGwyll]

You know you don't HAVE to consume every single side-product and gather every single Mass Effect-themed lunchbox in order to get the full game experience. I guarantee you now that most people who've played the game through haven't checked out the mobile game tie-in or read the comics alongside their playthrough. It's simply unnecessary. You won't miss ANYTHING if you just... play the games. Just play them. That's all you need to do. Either play them, or... don't.

[warty goblin]

That's just it, I actually DO want to play ME3, but not without playing the first two games to take a Shepard all the way through the trilogy properly. And not just breezing through the main quest to get to the ending, I mean doing every single solitary sidequest to ensure the best endings possible. That's a big time investment not just in terms of gameplay, but research and reading and watching YouTube playthroughs of the spinoff mobile games I'm unable to actually play because they were pulled from app stores years ago and I don't have an iPad anyway.

I'm sort of getting ther sense that you don't so much want to play the ME games in the sense that you look forwards to sitting down and pushing buttons, as you want to have played them in this very maximalist checked all the boxes way.

To be clear there's nothing wrong with the do everything and read the tie-in comic approach if you in fact enjoy doing every single sidequests in a continuous run through and enjoy tie-in comics and mobile games and all the other ephemera. But since you haven't done it, I don't think you actually enjoy it, I think you've convinced yourself it is a thing you should do.

To be clear, if you don't enjoy doing the do-everything playthrough, you should not do that, and you should not beat yourself up for not doing that. There is absolutely no shame in deciding not to plow hundreds of hours into some video games and their associated marketing gimmicks. In fact there is only one reason to do that - the act of playing the games and reading the spinoff novels is an enjoyable way to spend your leisure time. This is a case of it really being all about the journey, because there isn't anything at the destination of "did all the Mass Effect stuff." No great treasure, or the answer to the sphinx's riddle, just a pile of pop culture stuff you have successfully consumed.

Oh, and whatever you do, don't read the novels. I read one once, it was an unpleasant and pointless mistake that worsened my life for its duration.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

How else am I supposed to prove that all the money I've already spent on the games, books and comics wasn't wasted if I haven't USED them? Along with the hundreds of OTHER books on my shelves and the over a hundred games in my Steam Library currently just sitting there? If I don't DO something with them, then all it proves is that I'm a lazy hoarder with out-of-control spending habits!

[warty goblin]

How else am I supposed to prove that all the money I've already spent on the games, books and comics wasn't wasted if I haven't USED them? Along with the hundreds of OTHER books on my shelves and the over a hundred games in my Steam Library currently just sitting there? If I don't DO something with them, then all it proves is that I'm a lazy hoarder with out-of-control spending habits!

You've already spent the money. Playing or not playing the game has no impact on that. Money's gone, and if you're outside Steam's refund window it ain't coming back. You can feel good, bad or indifferent about that, but it's a simple fact you have accept going forwards. Like Frodo with the Ring, you can wish none of this had happened and you hadn't spent the money.

But Gandalf had exactly the right of it, that's not yours to decide. You can't change the past by wishing. All you have to decide is what to do with your time.

And your options are, I think, pretty simple. You can play games you don't want to play, you can beat yourself up for not doing that... or you can forgive yourself for having bought some entertainment products that turned out weren't for you.

Option 1 is, I think, pretty clearly a bad choice. Throwing time after money just wastes the time to no benefit. Its like the pop culture image if the World War 1 general throwing wave after hopeless wave of men at the machine guns because to not do that would mean the last thousands were slaughtered for nothing. This is a textbook case of the sunk cost fallacy.

Option 2 also sucks. Sure it has the advantage of getting to feel virtuous because you're beating yourself up for your perceived failings, but it doesn't seem very healthy or pleasant to me. And it's never going to fix anything, because as long as you continue to beat yourself up, you aren't either playing the games or working on moving past feeling like you need to play the games. It's not even a path that goes nowhere, it's just beating your head against a brick wall because you feel like you deserve a headache.

I suggest that you just work on letting those feelings go. They aren't helping you accomplish anything, and are clearly hurting you. It's ok to have spent money on stuff you ended up not using. Its not great, and obviously you should try to avoid doing that, but, fundamentally, its ok. The useful action is to try to avoid doing it in the future. The ME remaster is a good opportunity to think about this. You already own the old games and feel you wasted your money on them because you haven't played them all in this super-extra-completionist way. Would buying the remaster make you feel that any less? Almost certainly not, since now you're spent new money chasing the old money you already feel you've wasted. So I recommend not buying the remaster. Congratulations, you have learned something useful (I don't get satisfaction from Mass Effect games) and applied it in a practical way.

Personal anecdote time. Being very bored and lonely last winter, I briefly got into Raid: Shadow Legends. This is less a game than one of those deep sea angler fish for the human brain, which uses the idea of a game as bait. You try to play it, then it eats you. The "game" portion is really just a crude number comparison engine dressed like a sexy dark elf. The actual beast is an endless host of things to upgraded and leveled and advanced - still dressed up as a sexy dark elf - so you feel like you're working on something and making progress. Oh, and all the really good stuff costs money.

So about $300 later I escaped that particular trap. I could have spent the last 12 months ripping myself a new one for that, or kept "playing" the horrid thing so I felt like I got my money's worth. Or I could have learned not get suckered in by sexy dark elf angler fish.

[Artanis]

sexy dark elf angler fish.

Now THAT'S a mental image that's going to haunt me for a while

[Calemyr]

For my part, I'm actually looking forward to the remaster. I've enjoyed all three games (including ME3, which was 95% beautiful, though the ending was really so game-breakingly bad that I have to mentally recast the Citadel DLC as the actual ending). I am also quite happy to hear that they're not adding anything to the games, because (if the Enhanced Editions have taught me anything) the seams between two decades of writing and design philosophy are painfully difficult to ignore. ME1 is getting a full upgrade with better interface and updated models/textures? That is excellent. If ME1 were on par with 2 and 3 gameplay-wise, it may well prove to be the best of the three simply by virtue of being a self-contained story that doesn't have to fight with the discontinuities the sequels introduced. Having the gun models actually function differently (as they did in 2 & 3) is a delightful addition as well. ME2 & 3 won't change much, but they'll be a bit prettier, so that's cool. And it sounds like the only DLC we're not getting in the mix is Pinnacle Station, which was not by their choice and frankly was pretty lackluster, so I won't be crying about that. They're also apparently not doing the multiplayer malarkey, so it doesn't strike me as such a naked cash grab. I mean, it almost certainly is one, but at least it retains some dignity, and I'm blatantly nostalgic enough to accept that.

A new Mass Effect game, however? Nope. Not excited at all. Andromeda had its moments, but was ultimately half decent, half bland. Just mentioning Anthem alone should be enough to demonstrate my dwindling faith in their ability to produce new content. Could it work? Maybe. Maybe the Anthem debacle was enough to shock their system and pull their heads out of whatever dark craters they'd been lodged in for quite some time. Maybe they now have something to prove and will do so by producing quality content and compelling stories instead of live service monetization and tell-don't-show narrative. Maybe they can even shake the stench of EA's production-line dogma. Not really expecting it, though. I only have any hope for the Legendary Edition because they're actively claiming they won't be adding any content, just updating systems and graphics. I wouldn't trust them with that even if they were going to rewrite the ending of ME3. No, I haven't forgiven them for that. Why do you ask?

It's quite frustrating, really. Every company I once thought capable of producing reliable quality has found ways of disproving that notion in epic fashion. I would absolutely love for one, even just one, of them to redeem themselves. I'll be rooting for Bioware to be the first, but I won't be preordering ME5.

[Forum Explorer]

That's just it, I actually DO want to play ME3, but not without playing the first two games to take a Shepard all the way through the trilogy properly. And not just breezing through the main quest to get to the ending, I mean doing every single solitary sidequest to ensure the best endings possible. That's a big time investment not just in terms of gameplay, but research and reading and watching YouTube playthroughs of the spinoff mobile games I'm unable to actually play because they were pulled from app stores years ago and I don't have an iPad anyway.

See I was with you until you mentioned the mobile game. Look, the trilogy is pretty much self contained. Play through that if you want. I sympathize with not having the time to do so, I've been meaning to play through Hollow Knight because it looks amazing, but I want to finish FF9 and my replay of Baldur's gate first. Which is taking me a very long time. Literal years as I get distracted by other must play releases.

But stuff like the mobile game, books, and comics? They are a lower quality product that add basically nothing to the base experience. You only get those if you are desperate for more Mass Effect material and it sounds like you aren't. So don't stress about not reading those, the majority of people haven't.

[Taevyr]

How else am I supposed to prove that all the money I've already spent on the games, books and comics wasn't wasted if I haven't USED them? Along with the hundreds of OTHER books on my shelves and the over a hundred games in my Steam Library currently just sitting there? If I don't DO something with them, then all it proves is that I'm a lazy hoarder with out-of-control spending habits!

I get the idea of wanting to get the most out of the games/books/whatever things you end up buying, but they're still not more than entertainment. I've bought my share of games that turned out to be awful, or books that i got 10 pages in before realizing "Oh god, this is actually awful/not my taste at all, why did I buy this". I've had some early cases where I soldiered on, in the belief that I might as well get my money's worth out of it.

Of all the times I soldiered on despite it not improving, only once was it worth it. And that's because the game became markedly less awful due to an update after several hours spent enduring it, so I essentially got lucky; I still feel I could've spent that time doing something more useful/enjoyable than that. For the others, it sucked that I already wasted money/time on it, and it sucked even more to realize that I wasted even more time on it just to make it feel worth the initial investment. It was classic sunk cost fallacy.

To put it shortly: It's entertainment. Nobody will judge you on not finishing/"properly making use" of a source of entertainment. It's sole purpose is to give you some fun and/or stress relief; Sometimes it'll manage that for the first 20 hours of the game before you stop enjoying it, and sometimes it'll take you about 5 minutes before realizing "why the hell did I even buy this thing". But if it doesn't give you that enjoyment anymore, you might as well switch to somethingthat you do enjoy. No sense in forcing yourself to do stuff you don't enjoy unless you're being paid for it.

EDIT: replaced scatological derogatives with other ones that don't give the impression of severe profanity by way of censure

[Psyren]

Any improvements to ME1 are certainly welcome in my book - especially since elsewhere I saw it mentioned that they've supposedly made the Mako more responsive, too. As for more appearance customization stuff, sure, why not?

Sadly though, I did see it mentioned elsewhere that there will be no ME3 multiplayer in Legendary Edition. Apparently they decided that it would basically take more effort than it was worth when they wanted to do the updates that they're doing to ME1 as well, so they opted to keep the focus on the single-player. Pity, but oh well, I doubt I'd have gone back to it for too long anyway at this point, especially if past progress wasn't carried over somehow or the whole slow system of random boosters wasn't overhauled into something quicker.

Also, apparently it will include all of the series' DLC, with only one exception - Pinnacle Station from ME1, which apparently has had its source data corrupted, and thus can't be included. So aside from that, anything anybody missed out on the first time will be there.

Sounds good to me. And the May 14th release date actually works pretty well for me to suggest it to people as a possible birthday gift, so that's convenient.

I'm hoping against hope that the fans get MP added back in at some point. Aside from cursing us with lootboxes in AAA games for nearly a decade afterward, it was probably the best horde mode in anything that I've ever played.

And I'm also looking forward to some of the DLC I never played the first time around, like Bring Down The Sky.

[Calemyr]

And I'm also looking forward to some of the DLC I never played the first time around, like Bring Down The Sky.

Bring Down the Sky is kind of a mixed bag. The voice acting is minimalist (don't think any of the crew speak outside of Shep), and it's pretty straight forward, but it's got some impressive vistas (for the time) and an interesting story with a couple tough choices and no "perfect" ending. It's also the biggest (and maybe only) baatarian related story in ME1. I don't think they even had a baatarian in ME1, otherwise. Definitely worth a play (especially if it's included in the price and has improved graphics and controls), but not on par with the story DLCs in ME2 and ME3, if that makes sense.

[Morty]

Bring Down the Sky is kind of a mixed bag. The voice acting is minimalist (don't think any of the crew speak outside of Shep), and it's pretty straight forward, but it's got some impressive vistas (for the time) and an interesting story with a couple tough choices and no "perfect" ending. It's also the biggest (and maybe only) baatarian related story in ME1. I don't think they even had a baatarian in ME1, otherwise. Definitely worth a play (especially if it's included in the price and has improved graphics and controls), but not on par with the story DLCs in ME2 and ME3, if that makes sense.

ME1 didn't have Batarians otherwise, no. I think their codex image actually changed when the DLC was released.

[LibraryOgre]

While I'm looking forward to ME:R, I'm probably going to wait. My game budget is small, and I've played them all several times (well, ME3 maybe twice or three times, at most).

[Zevox]

How else am I supposed to prove that all the money I've already spent on the games, books and comics wasn't wasted if I haven't USED them? Along with the hundreds of OTHER books on my shelves and the over a hundred games in my Steam Library currently just sitting there? If I don't DO something with them, then all it proves is that I'm a lazy hoarder with out-of-control spending habits!

Okay, there's a couple of answers to this, but probably the number one to be said: you don't need to prove that. At all. Sure, spending money on games you don't ultimately want to play, books you decide you don't want to read, etc is a bit of a waste, and you should preferably avoid doing it. But all that doing so means is that you made a mistake. Which is normal - everyone does. Heaven knows I've bought games I didn't end up liking, or in a few cases even playing, and I've been given many more as gifts. But as warty said, the money's gone, and nothing will change that; and the decision to spend it won't become less of a mistake if you keep telling yourself that you'll play the games/read the books someday even if it's not true, nor if you force yourself to do so but don't actually enjoy it once you do. Your best way forward at that point is to acknowledge the mistake (if that's what it was), learn from it, and move on less likely to make the same mistake again. And hell, some wasted money is hardly the worst thing in the world, unless you urgently needed it for something far more important, and if you did, it would've be a mistake to spend it on a video game even if you enjoyed it. Disposable income is just that.

That said, all that is predicated on the assumption that you taking this long to get to this means you don't really want to play those games/read those books, which may not be true. Barring the possibility that you have the busiest life ever and practically no free time for the past nine years, though, it is certainly true that something is making you less interested in doing that than in doing whatever else you've spent your free time doing instead. Perhaps it's the excessively completionist manner in which you say you wish to play them - you are turning what should just be a fun way to spend free time into a large task for yourself, especially with the mention of feeling like you need to plan things out and watch youtube playthroughs for whatever reason. Or it's possible that some parts of it hold less interest for you than others, and this mindset that you need to do all of them if you do them at all is getting in the way. Drop some or all of those extra prerequisites you're putting in your own way, and maybe you'll find things change for you. If not, and you still just find you'd rather do other things, then yeah, probably we're back to the "it was a mistake to buy these, accept that, learn from it, and move on" scenario. Which is fine.

[NeoVid]

Much as I loved the ME series, I'm going to pass on this one. I regret missing out on most of the DLC and the multiplayer back in the day, but if the multiplayer isn't in the remake, that means the biggest draw that I haven't already experienced isn't part of it, so it wouldn't be worth the time and effort.

I'll never forget the conversations right after ME3 came out, summarized by my favorite quote about the game: "Before we played it, who would have even imagined that the best feature of Mass Effect 3 would be the multiplayer, and the worst feature would be the ending?"

[KillianHawkeye]

How else am I supposed to prove that all the money I've already spent on the games, books and comics wasn't wasted if I haven't USED them?

You can't. Just accept it. Even if you played them now, after so many years, it wouldn't prove anything to anyone. That money has already been wasted.

Abandon your sunk cost fallacy and just enjoy yourself.

Along with the hundreds of OTHER books on my shelves and the over a hundred games in my Steam Library currently just sitting there? If I don't DO something with them, then all it proves is that I'm a lazy hoarder with out-of-control spending habits!

You're not the first person to buy something and not use it. I used to go to book shops and buy an entire series and then not read it. I eventually sold those books to a second-hand store when I was short on cash.

I've bought lots of games on Steam and never played them. Never even installed them. It's not a crime.

Focus on the present and the future and leave the past in the past.

[Morty]

I was pretty set on skipping the remaster as well, but honestly the ME1 gameplay changes sound pretty interesting. Buying the entire set for one game is a little much, though, so I could wait until it's on sale.

[Spacewolf]

Bring Down the Sky is kind of a mixed bag. The voice acting is minimalist (don't think any of the crew speak outside of Shep), and it's pretty straight forward, but it's got some impressive vistas (for the time) and an interesting story with a couple tough choices and no "perfect" ending. It's also the biggest (and maybe only) baatarian related story in ME1. I don't think they even had a baatarian in ME1, otherwise. Definitely worth a play (especially if it's included in the price and has improved graphics and controls), but not on par with the story DLCs in ME2 and ME3, if that makes sense.

Honestly it was kinda weird how Baatarian focused the various DLCs where. It got to the point in 3 where having played none of the DLCs I was held at gunpoint by someone who I'd never met before and who had no particular gripe with me in what was set up as meeting a recurring enemy with a valid reason to hate you. Honestly it was kinda funny.

[Kish]

How else am I supposed to prove that all the money I've already spent on the games, books and comics wasn't wasted if I haven't USED them? Along with the hundreds of OTHER books on my shelves and the over a hundred games in my Steam Library currently just sitting there? If I don't DO something with them, then all it proves is that I'm a lazy hoarder with out-of-control spending habits!

I hate to break it to you...but agonizing over how you absolutely have to play games, and in a particular super-completionist way, with fun having nothing to do with it, already proves that there's something thoroughly unhealthy going on there. Whoever you're trying to prove the contrary to, it's a ship that's sailed and gets more thoroughly lost at sea with each "oh no, how do I fit this into my compulsion?" post.

^Batarian. Three a's, not four. I think Calemyr's mashing the ME race together with Baator. And considering the Batarian War, an individual batarian having a grudge against Shepard doesn't actually require them to have shown up since the ME trilogy started.

[Morty]

I honestly figured Balak just didn't show up in ME3 if you didn't play Bring Down the Sky back in ME1.

[Zevox]

I honestly figured Balak just didn't show up in ME3 if you didn't play Bring Down the Sky back in ME1.

You'd think that, but no, he pops up regardless. Not sure if that was a bug or just an oversight.

[Spacewolf]

You'd think that, but no, he pops up regardless. Not sure if that was a bug or just an oversight.

It must be a design choice since he has special lines, and a wild mood swing between him introducing himself which felt like a common line and him giving you extra warscore the next sentence since you don't have anything against him. Although I do seem to remember Shepherd acted kinda like he knew him so that's abit of an oversight.

With people talking about how ME2 while a good game kinda goes nowhere I think they should have had the arrival DLC be the main thrust of the game with you trying to figure out what the reapers will do next, finding out about the relay then the game ending with you blowing it up. It could still have had the suicide mission part but the deaths would probably feel even worse as you know your squad mates died for afew months at best.

[Morty]

You'd think that, but no, he pops up regardless. Not sure if that was a bug or just an oversight.

My money is on "most people will have played Bring down the Sky so it'll make sense for them". When I got ME1, the DLC came with the copy.

[Sholos]

I utterly despised the decision to start ME3 with a court martial for something my Shepard never participated in. Not to mention how much a sham the trial was. The writers really had it bad for officials randomly trying to duck over Shepard.

[Gwynchan'rGwyll]

They really did need to make it much more obvious that they consider all the DLC canon, so a canon playthrough has to go through the DLC.

[Calemyr]

I honestly figured Balak just didn't show up in ME3 if you didn't play Bring Down the Sky back in ME1.

Could be intentional, just to give the baatarians a stake in the big fight when they otherwise didn't get the chance. Could also be a switchup in the code for the mission. Not unlike the one made Conrad Verner react made it seem like you made the opposite choice. Talk the man down kindly and he learns to be hardcore because he remembers how you... held a gun to his head... Um.... You have been taking your meds, right Connie? (This was ME2, at least ME3 addressed the bug in comedic fashion.)

I utterly despised the decision to start ME3 with a court martial for something my Shepard never participated in. Not to mention how much a sham the trial was. The writers really had it bad for officials randomly trying to duck over Shepard.

I like ME3 for the most part (specific exceptions aside), but I have to admit they made a LOT of bad choices in their rush to make an alternative storyline to the to the Dark Matter plot that got leaked through the Multiplayer demo. They didn't think through a lot of the things they opted to do. That said, the opening was clumsy, but I do think it was the right general direction. After ME2, Shep is unquestionably a Cerberus cyber-zombie who's been operating outside official channels for some time (and that's after the outright mutiny they pulled at the end of ME1), and their claims have always (since Eden Prime, anyway) been so outrageous that it's honestly hard to tell what could be legitimate intel and what is terrorist psy-ops - and Shep wouldn't even be in a position to know which is which themselves. Their closest allies are deserters, criminals, renegades, vigilantes, extra-legal intelligence brokers... What the brass did made sense, it just wasn't presented right - it should have had a tone of caution rather than hostile disrespect.

[Morty]

Dragon Age and Mass Effect both ended up with a major problem of putting plot-critical events and characters in DLC. Arrival, Lair of the Shadow Broker, the main villain of Inquisition first appearing in a DA2 DLC... arguably Witch Hunt in Origins, but then 90% of that one is irrelevant except for the final conversation. And then Trespasser. Jury's out on Descent - delving into that would require the writing to spend time on people who aren't mages or elves, so who knows if it'll come up again.

Regardless, the result is that either the DLC are assumed, which makes things confusing for someone who didn't play them, or their events are downplayed and replaced with something else, which makes them all around less impactful. Or both. Like Lair of the Shadow Broker, where no matter whether you did or didn't play it, Liara ends up in more or less the same place. But if you didn't play the DLC, she just shows up, with access to massive amounts of information, after being all but absent throughout the previous game.

[Sholos]

I always thought it was a bit weird that Liara of all people would get involved in high stakes espionage when just a few scant years previous she was a mostly naive scientist just looking to find out about an ancient, extinct civilization.