Well.....Thank you EA and Bioware for ruining the rest of my day to completely fell flat on the ending. Even though I could replay another class or try to complete a perfect game from ME1 through ME3.
After reading some online forums, people are debating if there will be further ME franchise and speculating on the story. Many believed no further story is possible since space travel will be nearly impossible due to the destruction of mass relay network.
IMO, space travel would still be possible if the ME universe discovers technologies to manipulate man-made wormholes or utilize the natural wormholes.(Like jumps in other sci-fi). Since the species in ME franchise relied on mass relay so much, they did not bother to develop such technology.
SO, I think the next franchise could include multiple galaxies and took place couple hundreds of years after the event in ME3. In the beginning of the story, the main character(Shepard's direct descendant, assuming Shepard did not go homosexual in ME3, or maybe he/she is a descendant of Shepard's siblings, since there is no background information on Shepard's family except where he/she was born, military record, Shepard's mom. Plus EA said to keep your ME3 saves) joins an exploring vessel, for the rediscovery and recolonization of deep space. And along the way, each new species encountered could add a little bit of Shepard's legends that was pass down through the generations and build a timeline of events from ME1 to ME3 (Which can be like an achievement thing). And eventually the main character would discover a capsule made by Liara which raised the interest of the main character to find out more about Shepard(Or other pieces of information left by Normandy's crew). And the story will continue of piecing together what happened to the Normandy crew and to locate Normandy as a relic. And the enemy will be anyone who stands in your way or trying to acquire the Normandy relic to gain influence in the rediscovered galaxy.
And they could really add in more element such as a real economy by making money through trading or bartering, tech development/research, etc. that you can do with your crew on the vessel and new technologies acquired through other species through trading or by force (Or espionage). I think a combination of A-RPG and strategy would be great.
The sky is the limit when it comes to imagination and human ingenuity.
P.S. I wouldn't mind a game that is like 200GB on my hard drive and takes days to install as long as the story is good and quality is excellent.
Even with the Relays destroyed, FTL travel is still possible, but is limited because of the strength of the mass effect field a ship can generate based most likely on the size of its Element Zero drive core. So that does leave some room, story-wise for another game based on the ME universe. Which hopefully will be set in the future after the events of ME3 instead of anytime during the three games.
I think they might use the saves from ME3 as a set-up to the game world, like they did with being able to import your save from Dragon Age: Origins to Dragon Age II. But hopefully better implemented.
If anything, a game set in the future based on the ME universe would probably be heavily based on the ending you chose in ME3 and might revolve around the re-establishment of galactic civilization, either with the discovery of a new means of FTL travel, or discovering the means to build Mass Relays, since the Protheans managed to reverse-engineer them.
The best we can hope for is a game set in the future, and not one set during the events of ME1 - ME3.
There's already a few threads in here about that, this one
Link being the most popular. Feel free to vent there.
We know its the end of shepard, or so they claim, they could always pull a Halo.
[Edited by Lizml86, 3/13/2012 4:03:09 PM]
It's a bit of a slim hope, but I'm hoping that the "One more story" line from the after-credits video is a hint for another Shepard game.
There's already a few threads in here about that, this one
Link being the most popular. Feel free to vent there.
We know its the end of shepard, or so they claim, they could always pull a Halo.
[Edited by Lizml86, 3/13/2012 4:03:09 PM]
It's a bit of a slim hope, but I'm hoping that the "One more story" line from the after-credits video is a hint for another Shepard game.
I thought that was just a reference to being able to play the game after you have beat it, and do any DLC stuff, or possibly assignments you had missed.
But you never know what Bioware has up their collective sleeves, as long as EA keeps from telling them they have have to go sleeveless.
[Edited by ZZGashi, 3/13/2012 5:02:51 PM]
[Edited by ZZGashi, 3/13/2012 5:10:25 PM]
There's already a few threads in here about that, this one
Link being the most popular. Feel free to vent there.
We know its the end of shepard, or so they claim, they could always pull a Halo.
[Edited by Lizml86, 3/13/2012 4:03:09 PM]
It's a bit of a slim hope, but I'm hoping that the "One more story" line from the after-credits video is a hint for another Shepard game.
I thought that was just a reference to being able to play the game after you have beat it, and do any DLC stuff, or possibly assignments you had missed.
But you never know what Bioware has up their collective sleeves, as long as EA keeps them from telling them they have have to go sleeveless.
[Edited by ZZGashi, 3/13/2012 5:02:51 PM]
The reason I think it may allude to another Shep story is that you can continue the game after the credits roll, but only through re-loading a save prior to starting the point of no return mission. So you're basically going back into the same story.
Then again, DLC would technically add a new part to the story. On the other hand, it wouldn't be a new new story.
Argh, it's enough to boggle the mind. Like you say, who knows.