Today is N7 day, BioWare’s annual celebration of its hit action role-playing series Mass Effect, and the topic of a current-gen remake is very much on the table.
Aaryn Flynn, general manager at BioWare Edmonton, took to gaming forum NeoGaf last night to get some feedback on what fans would like to see in a Mass Effect remake. He had some thoughts of his own, too, including making the three titles into a seamless experience: “The adventures flow into each other without having to go back to save import, menu screens, et cetera.”
Flynn also addressed the idea on Twitter, saying there’s no definite news on a current-gen remake … yet.
Looking forward to #N7Day14! Unfortunately we have no news about the Mass Effect Trilogy coming to new consoles. When we do we'll share ASAP
— Aaryn Flynn (@AarynFlynn) November 6, 2014
Ports of last generation titles to current gen consoles are everywhere this year — the upcoming PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC release of last year’s smash hit open-world action game Grand Theft Auto V being a prime example — and if game developers offer enough of an upgrade from the previous incarnation of their games, it seems fans will bite second time around.
Flynn’s full list of ideas for a remade Mass Effect trilogy include making it run at 60 frames-per-second in 1080p resolution with high-resolution textures, particularly on the older original Mass Effect game, first released in 2007. He also suggested Bioware could improve the shading in the games and include all the previously paid-for downloadable content as standard.
Responses so far include a suggestion to update the “clunky” combat mechanics of the first part of the trilogy.
Flynn countered this suggestion, saying it’s not something he’d personally want to do. “The ‘ME3 [Mass Effect 3] combat mechanics in ME1 [Mass Effect 1]’ comes up relatively often,” said Flynn, “but it’s not on my radar (again, speaking personally). First it would be a helluva lot of work. Second, I hate the idea of us being accused of ‘retconning’ [altering previously established facts in the continuity of a fictional work] ME1. Third (and I bet everyone on NeoGAF knows this), there are those who prefer ME1…
“So given that all that, it doesn’t feel like the right thing to do.”
You can watch a livestream of today’s BioWare developer round table celebrating N7 day at TwitchTV. It starts at 10 a.m. Pacific.