Mass Effect: Andromeda

Last year's much-maligned Mass Effect Andromeda now has a shiny Xbox One X patch.

Anthem is still causing image problems for BioWare. Each time we see more of the game, debate swirls around the studio's departure from single-player storytelling, for which it is so well known, into cooperative multiplayer action games.

Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare has acknowledged the demand for further games in its two biggest series.

For a while, Elon Musk was the chosen one.

The nerdy billionaire not only talked the talk, but walked the walk. On Twitter, he'd reference video games, quantum mechanics and space travel - three things I absolutely adore - while splashing outrageous sums of cash trying to make my childhood dreams a reality. I thought he might, one day, actually crack it and send someone to Mars.

How things can so quickly change.

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BioWare has celebrated a decade of Mass Effect by releasing a new video featuring developers involved in the much-loved, now much-missed space franchise.

Mass Effect Andromeda's dangling plot thread surrounding the quarian ark will be resolved in an upcoming novel, due next summer.

Gameplay designer Manveer Heir spent a long time - seven years - working for Electronic Arts at BioWare Montreal, making Mass Effect 3 (mostly multiplayer) and then Mass Effect Andromeda, and he had some illuminating information about the company's mindset to share with Waypoint at the weekend.

EA has announced a new selection of titles and trials coming to its Origin Access and EA Access on-demand subscription services between now and the end of December, including Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dead Space 3.

EA executive Patrick Soderlund sees no reason why Mass Effect shouldn't be revisited in the future, but said if it was, it would have to be in a fresh, exciting and relevant way.

Mass Effect: Andromeda's single-player campaign has reached its final form as BioWare will no longer release any updates for this main mode.

"Our last update, 1.10, was the final update for Mass Effect: Andromeda," BioWare said in a statement about the game's fate. "There are no planned future patches for single-player or in-game story content."

BioWare will, however, continue to add more multiplayer content.

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Mass Effect: Andromeda's price has been significantly reduced at the moment on both Xbox One and PC.

BioWare Montreal, the studio behind this year's much-maligned Mass Effect Andromeda, will be fully merged with EA Motive.

One of BioWare's lead designers, Corey Gaspur, has passed away.

Mass Effect Andromeda came out at the end of March, with launch week sales stuffed into EA's 2017 financial year. As such, it was too early to tell how well the game would sell over time.

BioWare's general manager Aaryn Flynn is leaving the acclaimed RPG studio after 17 years with the company.

His departure comes roughly four months after the launch of Mass Effect Andromeda, a game that debuted to lackluster sales and disappointing critical reception. Our Edwin Evans-Thirlwell called it "probably BioWare's worst RPG yet" in his review, and the tepid reaction to the game has put the sci-fi series "on ice".

Interestingly, Flynn's role will be replaced by the Mass Effect series' project director Casey Hudson, who left the company back in 2014 and accepted a position as project director at Microsoft Studios the following year, where he was to work on HoloLens projects.

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The 10-hour Mass Effect: Andromeda trial once offered on EA Access on Xbox and PC has returned and is now open to people on PS4 as well.

Mass Effect: Andromeda launched back in March to fierce criticism of its facial animations. Four months later, BioWare is still issuing patches to fix them.

The worst animation bugs were fixed quickly - that gun being the wrong way round, for example, along with Foster Addison looking like a shop window dummy and some of the weirder Ryder gurns.

Now, patch after patch, BioWare is combing through the game to tweak more subtle differences.

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Mass Effect Andromeda will soon add an unexpected new race to its multiplayer mode - batarians.

Last week, an Austrian developer hit the headlines when it revealed Mass Effect Andromeda's much-anticipated single-player DLC had been cancelled.

Mass Effect Andromeda's multitude of development issues have been detailed in a new report.

BioWare's latest Mass Effect Andromeda patch improves the game's character creator and expands the male romance options for main character Scott Ryder by making squadmate Jaal available for him to romantically pursue.

The latest in a line of monthly updates, patch 1.08 includes some of the last major points of fan feedback BioWare previously pledged to address. It's set to roll out imminently.

Dialogue for trans character Hainly Abrams has now been "adjusted", BioWare noted in the patch's full notes, "to change the flow of personal information she discusses with Ryder".

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Mass Effect fans were left excited by a fresh tease that Andromeda's missing quarian race is still coming to the game.

EA has put the Mass Effect series "on ice" following the Andromeda disappointment, according to Kotaku.

BioWare's big new game has been delayed into EA's next financial year.

The details of Mass Effect 3's ending controversy need not be recounted, as it remains one of gaming's most pervasive disappointments. The damage it did to BioWare's reputation is still, rightly or wrongly, part of the ongoing conversation about the developer.

Another gallery of Mass Effect Andromeda concept art has revealed yet more of the game's early ideas.

This latest batch of imagery comes from Eric Bellefeuille, who worked at BioWare Montreal as a Lead UI Artist. Now at Eidos Montreal, Bellefeuille has posted some of his BioWare work to a portfolio on Artstation.

Andromeda had a mammoth five-year development - it is no surprise things changed a lot behind the scenes. This is a great look at some of those details which were tweaked.

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Mass Effect Andromeda begins as a fairly slow-paced story of colonisation, but its plot soon blossoms into something far larger - a backdrop of warring races, an invasion force on a galactic scale, a missing colonisation ark broadcasting a warning signal and a giant conspiracy behind the Milky Way races even being in Andromeda at all.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands took the top spot in US sales for the month of March, according to analyst firm NPD Group.

The stat-tracking company noted that Ghost Recon: Wildlands had the best launch of any Ghost Recon title and the second-best launch of a Tom Clancy game, after The Division.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came in second, even though it shifted 1.3m units in its launch month, making it the fastest-selling Zelda title ever. Over 900k of these were on Nintendo Switch, a system that's seen stock shortages since its 3rd March launch.

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Mass Effect Andromeda had a mammoth five-year development, so it's no surprise that over time various visual designs changed.

Last week's big Mass Effect Andromeda patch made faces look better, fixed some shonky animations plus all sorts of other things. And, quietly, it also updated the game's Denuvo anti-piracy protection.

Andromeda made headlines for being pirated in just 10 days - an incredibly short amount of time for a game using Denuvo's famed anti-tamper tech, coupled with EA's own Origin protection.

How was Andromeda cracked so quickly? It now appears the vanilla version of Andromeda launched with an outdated version of Denuvo - one which had already been cracked (thanks, DSO Gaming). Oops.

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They say the trick to applying makeup is to make it look like you're not wearing makeup at all. By the same token, the trick to animating faces in a video game is to make them not look like horrifying ventriloquist dummies. Mass Effect: Andromeda's facial animations failed this test, with its eerie peepers offering a constant reminder that you're venturing through a simulated universe. Yet developer BioWare wasn't about to let this common criticism go unaddressed and in its latest patch it's added a new eye shader that goes a long ways towards humanising its humanoid cast.

As you can see in the following video by Push Square, the new shader makes eyes less glossy. They now look noticeably more natural.

The difference is arguably most pronounced with director of colonial affairs Foster Addison. You can see her around the 56 second mark in the video above, or here's a still image comparison by Redditor jizabo.

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BioWare received a lot of criticism over its portrayal of a transgender character in Mass Effect: Andromeda and the developer has taken this feedback to heart as it's issued an apology for its judgment and will tweak the character's interactions in a future patch.

Mass Effect Andromeda has received a lot of criticism since its launch last month and BioWare has been listening. The studio just announced its plan to address the game's most damning flaws.

BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn noted on the Mass Effect blog that updates over the next two months will improve the lip-syncing, as the game's facial animations have left something to be desired.

Furthermore, BioWare will tweak the dialogue with Hainly Abrams, a trans character with a tone-deaf expository method of introducing themselves.

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We've lost count of the amount of PC comparisons we've done where the only tangible enhancements amount to arbitrary resolution support and higher frame-rates. Sure, higher quality effects - such as higher resolution shadows - also usually form part of the mix, but significant graphical improvements are few and far between. Mass Effect Andromeda is different: in common with several titles based on DICE's excellent Frostbite engine, the PC really is the natural home for this game.

Coming from the PS4 and Xbox One versions, the upgrade is immediately clear. Yes, of course, you can boost pixel-count and break the console-standard 30fps lock, but the upgrades throughout the experience are impressive: the core assets are embellished with increased geometry and higher resolution normal maps and textures, giving a richer-looking, smoother presentation. Environments are fleshed out using tessellation to add extra geometry detail to rocks and mountainous terrain, leading to an uneven surface that appears more rugged, while increased texture quality further brings out more intricate information across both character and landscape assets.

Additional plants and foliage better populate the landscape too, and when backed up with higher quality HBAO ambient occlusion, higher resolution shadows, and more refined post-process effects, the alien worlds on display appear more striking, boasting extra depth and detail beyond the console versions. Character modelling is also more refined with improved asset quality allowing for more fine details to resolve across clothing and facial features.

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One week on from its North American release, Mass Effect Andromeda continues to generate a mountain of feedback - positive and negative.

It could totally have been them. Talk to game developers about the clips of Mass Effect Andromeda's dialogue scenes that have been circulating for the past couple of weeks and you'll get a thousand-yard stare. The kind you see from a soldier who's just been left unscathed by a shell that hit a platoon-mate right beside them. Many of Andromeda's dramatic issues are common to narrative-heavy games, and all developers know they could've equally been victim to the indefensible attacks that have been directed at BioWare and EA's staff.

To be frank, Mass Effect Andromeda's trans representation is bad.

Mass Effect has been defined by its storylines charting the conflict between human and AI. Now, the series has caused one of its own.

Mass Effect Andromeda sold fewer physical copies than Mass Effect 3 during its first week on sale in the UK.

That's despite an extra day to rack sales up, as well. Andromeda launched here in the UK last Thursday. Mass Effect 3 launched on a Friday, back in March 2012.

But, five years ago, the sales picture was very different. Physical PC copies (the only kind counted by UK numbers company Chart-Track) counted for 10 per cent of Mass Effect 3 launch sales. For Andromeda, physical PC copies counted for just four per cent. Many more will be digital - purchased through EA's Origin service.

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BioWare has published patch notes for Mass Effect Andromeda's day one update, as well as a previous patch which landed for Early Access players.

If you buy the collector's edition of Mass Effect: Andromeda (fair warning: it'll set you back £250), you'll get your hands on a remote-controlled Nomad. It's got a camera on the front, can be controlled using your phone and I think it's quite a cool toy. Am I allowed to say that? It's expensive and daft, but yeah, it's a good toy.

There's enjoyment to be gleaned from Mass Effect: Andromeda, but in order to discover it, you might need a guide. No, not SAM, your cranially implanted AI assistant. SAM is awful - a toneless bore who doubles as a cautionary tale about leaving work notifications active on your phone, forever bleating at you to mine things, scan things, check your email, take vidcalls and spend your Andromeda Viability Points. As the vehicle for much of Mass Effect: Andromeda's more tedious content, he makes a far more convincing nemesis than the story's actual villain, who at least puts you through a few decent firefights en route to some scenery-chewing monologues about racial supremacy.

The latest episode of gaming's favourite space opera is mere days away from general release - and it's safe to say that the buzz surrounding Mass Effect Andromeda is mixed. As a game, acknowledging the issues its scope may bring, the response from Eurogamer has been positive. However, PC and Xbox One owners sampling the beginning missions via Origin/EA Access have encountered a number of glitches, bugs and issues that are receiving plenty of attention. For this article, our attention is on performance and scalability between PS4 and Xbox One, where BioWare has had to work a little harder to scale visuals between the two consoles' different levels of GPU power.

After the success of Dragon Age Inquisition, BioWare has chosen to continue development on EA's internal Frostbite engine, transitioning away from the Unreal Engine 3 powerhouse that formed the technical underpinnings of the last-gen Mass Effect trilogy. It's a good match: with Andromeda, there's a stronger emphasis on larger, more open worlds - bread and butter for Frostbite - while at the same time tapping into the engine's strong visual feature set. On top of that, BioWare is able to utilise the latest iteration of the engine. Of course, the brilliant physically-based lighting seen in Battlefield 1 and Star Wars Battlefront is implemented here, but new features - like Frostbite's full HDR support - are included in an EA title for the first time.

However, there is a curious sense that some aspects of the presentation are somewhat at odds with Frostbite's state-of-the-art feature set. Animation in particular looks very stilted, and almost last-gen in nature. Applying the very latest advances in motion capture (particularly facial) is going to be tough when you can define so many aspects of your character's appearance, but there's still a general sense that it's lacklustre across the game. The same can be said for character modelling as well.

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EA/Origin Access subscribers can now play Mass Effect Andromeda's opening hours - though the early access trial is getting a mixed response.

Just like Mass Effect 3, Andromeda has a mobile companion app so you can keep track of your progress in the game's online modes.

Ask a Mass Effect fan to pick their favourite mission from the trilogy and you'll probably hear a range of responses. There's the Virmire level in Mass Effect 1, for example, where BioWare unexpectedly forced players to choose between two squadmates' lives. Then there's the superlative Suicide Mission finale of Mass Effect 2, perhaps the most intricately-plotted episode of the whole series. There are whole flowcharts to explain that one.

BioWare has released a detailed look at Mass Effect Andromeda's four-player co-operative multiplayer mode.

Mass Effect Andromeda is an enormous game, and while we're not yet ready to share our final opinions, we can now get talking about its opening missions. Starting this Thursday, these will be playable to anyone with an EA or Origin Access subscription on PC or Xbox One.

On the eve of Mass Effect Andromeda's EA/Origin Access trial and just a week out from the game's launch, we decided it was time to refresh our memories of gaming's greatest sci-fi trilogy.

There's some space stuff in Mass Effect games, but let's be clear: real fans know it's all about one thing.

Mass Effect Andromeda is a brand new start for the series - but developer BioWare is including plenty of Easter eggs for fans of the original trilogy.

Mass Effect Andromeda won't include all of the familiar races from the Milky Way - we've known that for quite some time. But BioWare has been coy about the role - if any - of the quarians, the most high-profile race not along for the ride.

Mass Effect Andromeda's 10-hour trial for EA/Origin Access members will let you play a limited amount of the game's story campaign.

BioWare has abandoned plans for a Mass Effect Andromeda multiplayer beta.

Players were invited to sign up for the test last year, which was expected to take place around a month before the game's 23rd March arrival.

Now, with just weeks to go before the upcoming EA Access trial comes out, BioWare has called the beta off.

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After so long under wraps, finally getting to play Mass Effect Andromeda gave us a whole heap of information to sift through - not least how it plays, looks and feels.

Mass Effect Andromeda has largely avoided replicating the big-name voice cast of the series' original trilogy - until today, as BioWare has revealed Game of Thrones' Natalie Dormer as one of your new crew.

After years of development we've finally got our hands on Mass Effect Andromeda and posted some detailed impressions of the game's first few hours. It's positive stuff, although one big change to the game's combat came as a bit of a surprise.

Cards Against Humanity will get an official Mass Effect expansion pack made up of 14 new cards, co-written by BioWare.

The 18-rated card game, if you're not familiar, tasks players with offending/amusing their pals by creating question and answer combinations.

With the Mass Effect pack, you can now ask the question "What ended my last relationship?" and answer "Totally fuckable aliens" or "Space racism", the pursuit of ME squadmate Ashley.

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Mass Effect Andromeda has been in development almost five years but it's not until now, one month before release, that BioWare has let us play it. To say some fans are cautious is an understatement. Conspiracy theories abound as to Andromeda's shortened marketing cycle, or the reason why its release date was only set in stone last month. A product of BioWare's untested Montreal studio (albeit with help from the Edmonton mothership), Andromeda has been the subject of concerns over its lengthy development - not to mention the narrative leaps needed to continue the series after its original trilogy was so definitively tied off. And, while Dragon Age: Inquisition was generally well-received, Mass Effect fans want a proper Mass Effect game - not just a Frostbite-powered Hinterlands in space. Recently, fan suspicion bubbled over when a gameplay trailer included a small animation bug. BioWare's fans are some of the most loyal - but also some of the most critical.

Romance has always been a key part of Mass Effect for fans, many of whom still champion some of the series' more unusal pairings.

Mass Effect Andromeda takes the bold step of leaving behind an entire galaxy of characters in favour of a fresh start and all-new faces. So, who are your new space friends and enemies?

Mass Effect Andromeda's new angara race are shown in detail within the game's new cinematic trailer.

The video does a good job of bringing together all the elements of Mass Effect Andromeda we know so far: you're on a mission to a fresh galaxy to find a new home for humanity, there's an antagonistic race (the kett) lead by a chap named the Archon, and you will of course be able to romance (and snog) your crewmates.

Sounds like Mass Effect to us.

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EA plans to release a 10-hour trial of Mass Effect: Andromeda for Access subscribers.

The hefty trial of BioWare's sci-fi action RPG comes out on 16th March - five days before the full game comes out on 21st March in the US (it's 23rd in the UK). It'll surely let you make a decent dent in the game before it launches proper.

Access is EA's subscription. You get early access trials such as this one as well as a number of games to download from the Vault (EA recently added Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3 to the Vault). Origin Access is available on PC via Origin, and EA Access is available on Xbox One only.

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You can craft and name your weapons in Mass Effect Andromeda - a first for the series.

BioWare's latest Andromeda Initiative video gives us a tour of the Tempest, your new Normandy-esque spaceship.

UPDATE 5/1/17 8.30am: Last night's CES opening keynote brought two minutes of brand new Mass Effect Andromeda gameplay footage.

This trailer is perhaps our most detailed look yet at the game's combat customisation - you can see how you'll be able to customise the skills loadout of main character Ryder in battle, and switch between skills previously locked into individual classes.

It's also another chance to gawp at the Tempest, your sleek new Normandy.

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Remember that moment in the last Mass Effect Andromeda trailer, when Sara Ryder disarms a turian but also sort of looks like she's stifling a sneeze?

Some cracking games came out in 2016 - this year we've spent hours screaming about onions in Overcooked, contesting the payload in Overwatch and, of course, going on overwatch in XCOM 2.

Just a few months from release, and despite a round of recent reveals we still know surprisingly little about Mass Effect Andromeda - despite it sounding like the biggest and most ambitious game in BioWare's beloved series to date.

We still don't know a firm release date, other than Mass Effect Andromeda's vague "spring 2017" launch window - why is that? Should fans be worried the game might slip?

How much has changed? What has happened to the Milky Way races not included in the game (quarians! geth!) and could they still appear? Then there's your squad members - essentially your family in Andromeda. How many will there be, and what's that we hear that one was cut?

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Mass Effect Andromeda is set in a completely different galaxy to the series' original trilogy, but that won't stop one minor character from returning.

You may have seen Mass Effect Andromeda turn up at The Game Awards with new gameplay footage, but BioWare hid plenty within the trailer you might have missed.

There's a new alien race, the angara, for example. They are neutral, unlike the antagonistic kett race, and look a bit like Lilo & Stitch's Captain Gantu.

In the video below we take a detailed look at Andromeda's combat system and dialogue options, delve into some of the history of Andromeda, and take a better look at your latest squadmates to be revealed: male krogan Drack and female turian Vetra.

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Three top Mass Effect developers have moved to reassure fans concerned by the quality of animation and lip-syncing shown in last night's new Andromeda trailer.

Response to last night's gameplay reveal was mostly positive. Fans loved its reveal of two new alien squadmates: female turian Vetra and krogan badass Drack.

But it was the animations for human characters, and in particular Andromeda's female Ryder main character, which caused some to question whether the trailer was showing final-quality gameplay.

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The Game Awards has brought us nearly five full minutes of Mass Effect Andromeda footage, featuring our first extended look at proper gameplay - and some new squadmates.

Footage shows our heroine Ryder exploring one of the game's planets - Kadara - with a female turian and krogan buddy. The two aren't named, but previous leaks put the krogan as being called Drack.

(If you're counting, we now know of at least five squadmates - asari Peebee, humans Liam and Cora, plus these two new guys. There's also been word of a squadmate from the Andromeda races).

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It sounds like Mass Effect Andromeda has a bit of a metagame going on, as well as the main campaign where you run around as Ryder, land on planets and make cool alien friends.

Mass Effect Andromeda is a fresh start for BioWare's sci-fi series, and far removed from Mass Effect 3 - so much so it's set in a different galaxy and 600 years into the future.

After a hard day's space questing, every Mass Effect player knows there's only one place to head back to - the Normandy: your ship, your home and a place to catch up with your crew.

In the most recent Mass Effect Andromeda trailer we saw the game's antagonistic kett race for the first time. We saw presumably the game's main baddie, back turned, approaching our heroes restrained before him. He had a high collar, bald head and a halo-shaped horn protruding from it. In a different clip he hovered. Cool!

Yesterday, Mass Effect's annual N7 Day brought us several dollops of new information on Mass Effect Andromeda.

Mass Effect Andromeda's new Andromeda Initiative website has laid out exactly when the events of BioWare's new game take place - and how it skirts around that whole Mass Effect 3 ending.

BioWare has kicked off this year's Mass Effect N7 Day celebrations with a new Andromeda cinematic trailer, and detail on the game's two sibling stars.

There's actually little new in the trailer we haven't seen before - alien worlds, a big space worm, a slightly clearer look at your salarian crew member.

Perhaps the biggest reveal is a look at Andromeda's new baddie race - from previous leaks, these would be named the Khet, or Kett.

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UPDATE 8th November 2016: The Mass Effect Andromeda Collector's Edition - the one with the remote control Nomad - is exclusive to GAME in the UK, and costs £279.99.

UPDATE 2/11/16: Overnight, Mass Effect boss Mac Walters has confirmed a fresh tidbit of information on the voiceover for yesterday's trailer - and fans have been speculating about who's behind that gravelly voice.

Now you can roleplay a Mass Effect character for real - BioWare is letting two fans voice NPC roles in the upcoming Mass Effect Andromeda.

Mass Effect Andromeda's male and female main character options are both canon choices - and they're brother and sister.

BioWare has showcased a section of Mass Effect: Andromeda gameplay running on the newly-announced PlayStation 4 Pro, and a huge information blowout for November.

The clip stars male Ryder for the first time, as he explores a vault left by the mysterious Remnant alien race, who look like advanced floating squids.

Previous leaks have pegged the Remnant as the more peaceful of the main two Andromeda races, and with an ancient history to uncover - (a little like the Protheans of our own galaxy, although not dead).

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EA appears to have decided against releasing a Mass Effect trilogy remaster.

That's according to EA exec Peter Moore, who has poured cold water on the prospect in a new interview.

"Could we make an easy buck on remastering Mass Effect? Yes," he told IGN (around the 1hr 16 mark). Have a thousand people asked me that? Yes they have. Do we have... No."

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The Mass Effect series will be getting four new spin-off novels bridging the gap between the trilogy we all know and love and the highly anticipated fourth entry, Mass Effect: Andromeda, due in Q1 2017.

BioWare didn't show much of Mass Effect Andromeda at E3 2016, but one thing it did reveal was Ryder, the game's protagonist.

BioWare has decided to leave behind Mass Effect 3's controversial ending choices, rather than let them impact the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Mass Effect: Andromeda's protagonist finally has a name: Ryder.

Like Commander Shepard, Ryder is a surname which will fit for either male or female versions of the character. And you'll be able to customise your first name, too.

Mass Effect producer Michael Gamble confirmed the name via Twitter, along with an image of the female human character seen at the end of yesterday's EA E3 press conference video.

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EA has again teased Mass Effect: Andromeda with a new teaser trailer, although firm fresh details are sparse.

It was however our first look at the game's new Normandy-esque ship, rumoured to be named the Tempest.

The game is designed around the question of how far humanity will go in its ambitious expedition to find a new home, beyond the Milky Way, in the Andromeda galaxy.

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The new Mass Effect ride, in California's Great America park, is open for business.

Greetings, Eurogamers, and welcome to another weekly dispatch from Outside Xbox. Here are another three videos guaranteed to give you a warm, fuzzy sense of satisfaction when you get to the end of them.

UPDATE 11.16pm 4th April 2016: As predicted, the ad in question has now been removed from Donald Trump's Twitter account due to a copyright strike.

Early footage of Mass Effect: Andromeda has appeared online.

The brief snippets of gameplay are taken from a build of the game which dates back to 2014, All Games Delta reported. The footage popped up online as part of a BioWare artist's showreel.

Despite the age of the footage, it illustrates several concepts we know will be present in the upcoming sci-fi sequel - such as open world traversal on foot, aided by a jetpack.

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An EA marketing survey detailing Mass Effect: Andromeda has leaked online.

Mass Effect: Andromeda's main character has been shown off in a new level of detail, thanks to a BioWare artist.

No Mass Effect: Andromeda this year. EA has said in an investor call that the fourth main Mass Effect game will be released during the first quarter of 2017, which spans January to end of March.

Christopher Schlerf, former lead writer of Halo 4, has joined Destiny developer Bungie.

EA has confirmed that a new Titanfall game and Mass Effect: Andromeda are slated to launch before 31st March 2017.

Eagle-eyed Mass Effect fans think they have pinned down the name of Andromeda's mystery main character.

UPDATE 2.45pm: BioWare Montreal boss Yanick Roy has now confirmed to Eurogamer that Shepard's unexpected appearance in today's trailer is just the Commander signing off - plans have not changed regarding the character's lack of involvement in Mass Effect's future.

ORIGINAL STORY 1.30pm: Mass Effect Andromeda's new teaser trailer includes, rather surprisingly, a voice over from Commander Shepard.

It's an odd thing for Mass Effect maker BioWare to do because it has so far made clear that Andromeda, due autumn 2016, will move the franchise on past its Shepard-focused era.

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Nintendo's doing theme park rides. Ubisoft's doing them. Now there's going to be a Mass Effect theme park ride.

It's hard to believe it's already been a week since E3 2015 - mostly because my weak, spongy body gave out the moment I got home and I'm still not back to full health. Anyway, enough of my problems, we've got a perfectly good show to watch.

Last week, EA finally revealed the full name and release window for Mass Effect 4 - which we'll now have to remember is actually named Mass Effect: Andromeda.

It's due out "holiday 2016" for unnamed platforms, but we'll take a guess and say that means November next year on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

EA opened its E3 2015 press conference with this in-engine look at Andromeda, which showcases some of the locations, characters, aliens and gameplay mechanics that you'll be exploring/meeting/shooting in just less than 18 months time. Take a look:

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Mass Effect and Dragon Age developer BioWare has turned 20 today, but it doesn't look a day older than 19.

A new marketing survey for Mass Effect 4 has leaked online and claims to reveal detailed descriptions of the game's setting, story, missions, online multiplayer and more.

BioWare has played down suggestions that fantasy role-player Dragon Age: Inquisition will share a "template" with the upcoming Mass Effect 4.

I'd love to visit BioWare headquarters in Edmonton, Canada, and now I sort of can. And I don't even have to leave my desk.

BioWare has shown off a selection of new concept images from Mass Effect 4, including the homeworlds of two new alien species.

Happy N7 Day, Mass Effect fans! BioWare is set to reveal more information on Mass Effect 4 this evening at 6pm GMT as part of its annual 7th November celebrations.

BioWare executive producer Casey Hudson has left the renowned studio after 16 years.

BioWare took to the San Diego Comic-Con stage over the weekend to talk about its upcoming Mass Effect game and show a first glimpse at its vehicle exploration.

Mass Effect developer BioWare has issued a new survey for fans of the series, which asks for your input on what elements the next Mass Effect game should highlight.

Sci-fi fans have spotted a familiar face in the BBC's new Doctor Who - an alien who looks a lot like Mass Effect squad member Garrus.

The next Mass Effect game will reference the series' existing trilogy, BioWare has said, although there's still no clear confirmation of when the new title will be set.

BioWare has just shown off a sneak peek at Mass Effect 4, currently in development at its Montreal studio.

The title will be set in "a whole new region of space", but looking at concept art and in-engine visuals, familiar elements remain.

A helmeted human character in an N7 uniform was shown, as was a krogan warrior.

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BioWare Montreal's gameplay designer Manveer Heir received a standing ovation for his rousing "Misogyny, Racism and Homophobia: Where Do Video Games Stand?" talk at GDC yesterday.

BioWare has discussed internally the idea of remastering the Mass Effect series for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

A fan asked BioWare boss Aaryn Flynn on Twitter what he thought about a next-gen, 1080p, high-resolution texture, 60 frames-per-second version for PS4 and Xbox One.

Flynn's response: "We have discussed that internally. If we can put solid plans together we'll share."

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BioWare has released the first images from its next Mass Effect game, which is currently in development at BioWare Montreal.

Mass Effect developer BioWare has suggested that the next entry in its sci-fi RPG franchise will not relate to any events in the existing Commander Shepard-lead story.

Chris Wynn, a key member of the Gears of War team at Epic, has quit the company to work on BioWare's Mass Effect series.

Update: BioWare general manager Aaryn Flynn - he who took over when Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka left - has confirmed that both Dragon Age 3 "and the next Mass Effect" will use Frostbite 3.

BioWare does not want you to refer to the next Mass Effect game as Mass Effect 4. Doing so would imply it was a sequel to Commander Shepard's story.

BioWare has asked fans whether Mass Effect 4 should be a sequel to the existing trilogy or take place before, Phantom Menace-style.

Mass Effect overlord Casey Hudson canvassed fans via his Twitter account last night.

"Parsing through your thoughts on the next #ME game. Would you be more interested in a game that takes place before the trilogy, or after?", he wrote.

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Mass Effect 4 will run on DICE's Frostbite engine, the latest version of which was used in Battlefield 3.