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 Melissia wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Despite what that article said, I'd have loved a prequel to the trilogy like for instance during Saren's and Anderson's timeframe. Please note that doesn't mean I want a carbon copy of ME1 with those characters but rather something in that time frame (preferably with the option of playing alien characters like Turians and Krogans interacting with the NPC humans for the first time).

Eeeh. I wouldn't have if it forced me to play as Saren or Anderson. Maybe as a subordinate under them perhaps.

A subordinate? like, I don't know, XO Sheppard?

 PsychoticStorm wrote:

 Melissia wrote:

 warboss wrote:
Despite what that article said, I'd have loved a prequel to the trilogy like for instance during Saren's and Anderson's timeframe. Please note that doesn't mean I want a carbon copy of ME1 with those characters but rather something in that time frame (preferably with the option of playing alien characters like Turians and Krogans interacting with the NPC humans for the first time).

Eeeh. I wouldn't have if it forced me to play as Saren or Anderson. Maybe as a subordinate under them perhaps.

A subordinate? like, I don't know, XO Sheppard?

I don't think Shepard was XO under Anderson for that long.

She wasn't. Also, if you want to explore other parts of the history of the setting you'd have to go before shepard.

 Melissia wrote:
She wasn't. Also, if you want to explore other parts of the history of the setting you'd have to go before shepard.

Indeed, unless we have a 3 year old Shepard running around in the First Contact War

She was enouph for them to spin it as a game, I do not think they should do it, but if they do a prequel they will be extremely tempted to have a "young Shepard" trilogy.

ME world is done around Shepard and until Andromeda stabilises and we see how this direction develops, I can see them been tempted/ intimidated into safe-zoning any prequel attempts around the Shepard saga.

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
She was enouph for them to spin it as a game, I do not think they should do it, but if they do a prequel they will be extremely tempted to have a "young Shepard" trilogy.

ME world is done around Shepard and until Andromeda stabilises and we see how this direction develops, I can see them been tempted/ intimidated into safe-zoning any prequel attempts around the Shepard saga.

The issue with that would be fitting it into the timeline. For example the different events surrounding Shepards past all take place at slightly different times. The Skyllian Blitz in 2176, Akuze in 2177 and Torfan in 2178. And as those events were Shepards greatest and most well-known feats you have the issue of being hamstrung in the story with it not being able to really overshadow them as that would make those events being Shepards defining moments prior to ME1 kinda weird.

I'd hope the Bioware writers could see these potential issues, which would only get progressively worse the more "young Shepard" games they made as the stakes and the threat needs to increase over the course of a story in order to carry the momentum and keep testing the characters.

Agreed, but I am not sure they can or will identify such issues, given they made (and how they made) ME 2 and 3.

MEA gave for me at least an opportunity to shed the rose tinted glasses and scrutinise the original trilogy, ME 2 is a masterpiece of a game in isolation, but as part of the trilogy it is out of place and out of character, if it was a side story from a different crew or was in place of ME 1, with some tweaking and ME 1 was ME 2 they it would make far more sense than as it is now.

ME 3 was a complete disaster, nice compilation of stories, nice moments, lets not touch the ending, but makes no sense whatsoever especially with Cerberus taking such an important role...

I am not sure they can do it, it seems after 1 each ME has problems with running out of time and money to be produced (for example Cerberus been the main enemy in ME 3 in order to reuse the assets).

They really need to rethink what they are doing but for me Andromeda is where they should be heading, for all its faults the game is enjoyable to play and coherent and can be expanded into a great game.

It wasn't really running out of time that caused trouble for Andromeda. I was bad project management practices spending the time they had badly.

http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

In short, very bad project management practices.

I was more talking about 2 and 3 but MEA falls into this category and on top of that bad management.

As for the article and the reporter, I have my doubts, he seems to have a good reputation from some people as a "true game journalist" ectr, but his writing is sensational and the timing he releases the articles always coincides with any good development for MEA like important patches or the recent deniability of Sinclair networks involvement, seemingly ready to kick any positive development back to the despair pit and he plugs his upcoming book about similar disaster stories.

Even if he is right and frankly I guessed as much, his journalism is at the very least unethical and self promoting, on top of leaving the option for his article to be of no effect "you will not see a DLC, but things change so you may see one"

I really did not like his latest article though, "there are only 3 people who would know and I asked them about it, but do not reveal their names to protect them" so wait if you know there are only 3 people who would know that means their employers know it, I mean Bioware and EA should know there are only 3 key people and who these people are, so not revealing their name is kinda moot, you already killed your sources career if what you write is true?

New update to the multiplayer will be adding Batarians.. somehow.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-07-05-mass-effect-andromeda-multiplayer-is-getting-a-surprising-new-race

And there's also a campaign to get Bioware to rethink their apparent 'no single-player DLC' choice, but I doubt it'll reach any sort of critical mass and achieve anything sadly.

Well an insignificant number could have came along with any of the Arcs, or most probably the nexus, not enouph to really matter or count for colonisation efforts but enouph for one or two to appear in Apex squads.

True. I thought they were mentioned as tagging along with the Quarians like the other minor races, but I could have just inferred that from the fact the Drell/Hanar/Volus ect did.

 Paradigm wrote:
New update to the multiplayer will be adding Batarians.. somehow.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-07-05-mass-effect-andromeda-multiplayer-is-getting-a-surprising-new-race

And there's also a campaign to get Bioware to rethink their apparent 'no single-player DLC' choice, but I doubt it'll reach any sort of critical mass and achieve anything sadly.

Well, Yeah, of Course it Wont....

Maybe Because there is no actual OFFICIAL Confirmation?

While Bioware haven't said anything officially, I sadly think all the rumours that DLC isn't happening are pretty much true at this point. The fact they didn't mention it at all at E3, and the fact that Bioware Montreal has been so stripped back are not good signs. They could outsource to another studio to put something together, and that'd be great, but I'm not holding out much hope that this point.

It's possible, and it'd be fantastic if they can put something together, even if just to wrap up a few of the dangling plot threads, but I think this is a case where there's no smoke without fire, and Bioware's silence is telling.

 Paradigm wrote:
While Bioware haven't said anything officially, I sadly think all the rumours that DLC isn't happening are pretty much true at this point. The fact they didn't mention it at all at E3, and the fact that Bioware Montreal has been so stripped back are not good signs. They could outsource to another studio to put something together, and that'd be great, but I'm not holding out much hope that this point.

It's possible, and it'd be fantastic if they can put something together, even if just to wrap up a few of the dangling plot threads, but I think this is a case where there's no smoke without fire, and Bioware's silence is telling.

You dont Announce DLC at E3, pretty much No One Announces DLC at E3

I expect players will continue to get the occasional multiplayer content that takes minimal effort (like the Batarian added character and platinum difficulty just announced) and maybe a single forgettable DLC cobbled together from whatever they had done prior until the release and then tweaked by the remaining skeleton staff into something playable. Not having any single player DLC for a supposedly flagship studio title just looks bad so I'd expect some lip service being done just to check that box.

 commander dante wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
While Bioware haven't said anything officially, I sadly think all the rumours that DLC isn't happening are pretty much true at this point. The fact they didn't mention it at all at E3, and the fact that Bioware Montreal has been so stripped back are not good signs. They could outsource to another studio to put something together, and that'd be great, but I'm not holding out much hope that this point.

It's possible, and it'd be fantastic if they can put something together, even if just to wrap up a few of the dangling plot threads, but I think this is a case where there's no smoke without fire, and Bioware's silence is telling.

You dont Announce DLC at E3, pretty much No One Announces DLC at E3

Didn't Xcom 2 have some dlc announced at e3? Or is it a full game?

I think I have to remind that this "skeleton crew" is the one that brought "the citadel" DLC for ME 3 and handled the entirety of ME3 multiplayer.

 Mozzyfuzzy wrote:

 commander dante wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
While Bioware haven't said anything officially, I sadly think all the rumours that DLC isn't happening are pretty much true at this point. The fact they didn't mention it at all at E3, and the fact that Bioware Montreal has been so stripped back are not good signs. They could outsource to another studio to put something together, and that'd be great, but I'm not holding out much hope that this point.

It's possible, and it'd be fantastic if they can put something together, even if just to wrap up a few of the dangling plot threads, but I think this is a case where there's no smoke without fire, and Bioware's silence is telling.

You dont Announce DLC at E3, pretty much No One Announces DLC at E3

Didn't Xcom 2 have some dlc announced at e3? Or is it a full game?

It's... kind of both, I suspect. It's technically an add-on. You have to have XCom 2 to play it. But it appears to be even more ambitious than Enemy Within for the previous game, and appears to completely overhaul the game. It's not just an extra mission and class, like Shen's Legacy.

Eumerin wrote:

 Mozzyfuzzy wrote:

 commander dante wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:
While Bioware haven't said anything officially, I sadly think all the rumours that DLC isn't happening are pretty much true at this point. The fact they didn't mention it at all at E3, and the fact that Bioware Montreal has been so stripped back are not good signs. They could outsource to another studio to put something together, and that'd be great, but I'm not holding out much hope that this point.

It's possible, and it'd be fantastic if they can put something together, even if just to wrap up a few of the dangling plot threads, but I think this is a case where there's no smoke without fire, and Bioware's silence is telling.

You dont Announce DLC at E3, pretty much No One Announces DLC at E3

Didn't Xcom 2 have some dlc announced at e3? Or is it a full game?

It's... kind of both, I suspect. It's technically an add-on. You have to have XCom 2 to play it. But it appears to be even more ambitious than Enemy Within for the previous game, and appears to completely overhaul the game. It's not just an extra mission and class, like Shen's Legacy.

So more of an "Expansion" than a DLC

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I think I have to remind that this "skeleton crew" is the one that brought "the citadel" DLC for ME 3 and handled the entirety of ME3 multiplayer.

So you know the exact studio population at both times as well as the detailed makeup of each individual department? Wow... if you have such detailed insider knowledge, you should get into contact with that Kotaku article writer and share it with the rest of the world. I suspect though that you're just basing it on the studio name "Bioware Montreal" and assuming the rest. While some of the skeleton crew left there after the Kotaku reported gutting probably worked on ME3, it's not accurate to just assume that the studio makeup now is remotely similar now given the information reported.

 warboss wrote:

 PsychoticStorm wrote:
I think I have to remind that this "skeleton crew" is the one that brought "the citadel" DLC for ME 3 and handled the entirety of ME3 multiplayer.

So you know the exact studio population at both times as well as the detailed makeup of each individual department? Wow... if you have such detailed insider knowledge, you should get into contact with that Kotaku article writer and share it with the rest of the world. I suspect though that you're just basing it on the studio name "Bioware Montreal" and assuming the rest. While some of the skeleton crew left there after the Kotaku reported gutting probably worked on ME3, it's not accurate to just assume that the studio makeup now is remotely similar now given the information reported.

It's especially inaccurate because BioWare's Edmonton and Montreal studios rotated responsibilities. One would work on a MP DLC while the other would do a SP DLC.

Remember that the MP stuff for ME3? It wasn't anywhere near the same release schedule as we're seeing now.
Balances were tied to big patches rather than done on an "as needed" basis(partly because the tweaks would be things that needed full coding changes and therefore need a patch submitted to cert for the consoles, which can cost money) and instead they can just tweak stuff from their end(that's why sometimes you'll see "X character is out of orbit. Points have been refunded" for MP now) and bring weapons and characters live.

 warboss wrote:

So you know the exact studio population at both times as well as the detailed makeup of each individual department? Wow... if you have such detailed insider knowledge, you should get into contact with that Kotaku article writer and share it with the rest of the world. I suspect though that you're just basing it on the studio name "Bioware Montreal" and assuming the rest. While some of the skeleton crew left there after the Kotaku reported gutting probably worked on ME3, it's not accurate to just assume that the studio makeup now is remotely similar now given the information reported.

I am not even close I am afraid, but that "kotaku writer" is held as the authority on the subject, while what he does is generate drama to promote the preorders of his books about, surprise, train-wrecks in game development.

I am not sure how "skeleton crew" the Montreal studio is, the patches so far reveal more work than what would be done by a few employees working on minimal support, voice actors are been called back for more voice acting and all main game developers of the game are still there working on it, I believe the initial more grounded to reality report the Kotaku Writer did about Bioware Montreal scaled down to their former DLC creation and patch support strength after completing the game and not needing a full production development team.

My personal theory is they are working in bringing the game to a state it should have been released before they work on DLC or other important cosmetic changes like giving Asari more than two faces one unique to only one member of their species... 1.08 and today's 1.09 are huge patches that have some cosmetic fixes but are mostly under the hood work, things that should be working before a DLC is ever released.

Now, I wish I had the insider knowledge to say a DLC, or several, will or will not be released, but I base my assumption that there is a big probability to have some one a few facts, they work on the SP part of the game and not superficially, actors have been called back for voice recording and DLC is the modus operati of EA, other games that had the same troubles got a few.

The 10-hour free trial of MEA is now available across all platforms even without an EA Access/Origin membership, so if anyone was waiting to give the game a go then now is the time. Same rules as before, you get unrestricted multiplayer access and can play the story up to a certain point (4-7 hours depending on how thorough you are), and can split the 10 hours however you like.

Well the game now is patched to a state that is what it should have been at launch, so it is a good time to try it.

Bioware Montreal has apparently been merged with another non-Bioware but EA owned studio in Montreal, Motive.

http://www.pcgamer.com/bioware-montreal-is-being-merged-into-ea-motive/

For those interested, EA Motive's history:

Motive Studios is a Canadian video game development studio owned and operated by Electronic Arts. Founded in July 2015 by Jade Raymond, a former Ubisoft executive and Assassin's Creed producer, Motive Studios was created to specialize in action-adventure games as well as incubate new intellectual properties. Their first announced project is to work with Redwood Shores-based Visceral Games on an upcoming Star Wars video game.

They're also listed as having worked on Battlefront II.

To be entirely honest the bandwagon of hating MEA has become irritating.

I understand it is fashionable to hate MEA and Bioware and it generates clicks but all I see is people using footage of things patched months back and it is not eve theirs, as if the game has not changed dramatically from its (awful admitted) launch state.

Personally I still hope for DLCs for this game.

 BaconCatBug wrote:

That video is wrong on so many levels

Only Bioware Montreal was absorbed, not the whole of Bioware.