Mass Effect 3

Mass Effect 3 is the upcoming sequel to Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 and final game in a planned Mass Effect trilogy.

Release
Mass Effect 3 does not yet have an announced release date, though release timing will be based on maximising both "quality" and "commercial success". Project Director Casey Hudson has stated that development will be along the same kind of time frame as Mass Effect 2. As Mass Effect 2 was released 2 years and 2 months after the release of the original Mass Effect, this would suggest a late 2011 or early 2012 release.

Platforms have not been officially announced yet, however Casey Hudson has said that the intent is for the entire trilogy to be finished within the Xbox 360's lifecycle, and following the announcements of Dragon Age 2 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and the announcement of Mass Effect 2 for PlayStation 3, BioWare CEO Dr Ray Muzyka called the possibility of a multiplatform release for Mass Effect 3 a "good guess", while noting the lack of an official announcement.

BioWare is considering an "uber-collector's edition" of the game and are currently taking suggestions for a very exclusive and pricey item to include. Community Coordinator Chris Priestly used the working night vision goggles included in the 'Hardened Edition' of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 as an example of the type of item they're looking for. This edition would be targeted at the most hardcore collectors and is not the usual type of collectors edition, such as those released for the first two Mass Effect games.

Plot
The plot for Mass Effect 3 is not known in detail. What is known is that the story is the 'epic conclusion' to the story started in Mass Effect and continued in Mass Effect 2 as well as the conclusion of Commander Shepard's story. The tone of the story is expected to continue to get darker, yet also bring back some fun and lightness and include a lot more humor.

The player's choices in the previous games are expected to have a much more significant impact on the plot than the choices in Mass Effect had on Mass Effect 2. As Mass Effect 3 is the end of the planned trilogy, the developers are not constrained by the necessity of allowing the story to diverge, yet also continue into the next chapter. This will result in a story that diverges into wildly different conclusions based on the player's actions in the first two chapters.

The story between Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 is planned to be told through DLC for Mass Effect 2. The Lair of the Shadow Broker downloadable content is the first piece of DLC to begin to expand the story in preparation for Mass Effect 3.

Gameplay
As Mass Effect 3 is still early in development, only gameplay development goals have been outlined publicly, and these are subject to change.

In a presentation by Lead Gameplay Designer Christina Norman, at the Game Developer's Conference in March 2010, titled ''Where Did My Inventory Go? Refining Gameplay in Mass Effect 2'', Norman outlined her goals for Mass Effect 3. These included:
 * Richer RPG features.
 * More combat options.
 * More complex enemies.

While Norman also noted that "nobody liked" the mining mechanic in Mass Effect 2, Casey Hudson later stated in an interview that mining will not be abandoned completely in Mass Effect 3, but acknowledged concerns about its speed and that the game relied upon it too heavily in parts of the story.

In an interview with PC Zone magazine in August 2010, Casey Hudson stated that Mass Effect 3 will continue, with adjustments, the approach of Mass Effect 2 by focusing on "an awesome sense of exploration, intense combat, a deep and non-linear story that's affected by your actions, and rich customisation of your armour, weapons and appearance" instead of an approach where the player "(equips the) hero by sifting through an inventory of hundreds of miscellaneous items and spend hours fiddling with numerical statistics", noting the "overwhelmingly positive" response Mass Effect 2 received for its approach.

Vehicle based exploration may make a return in Mass Effect 3. Casey Hudson has indicated that the vehicle exploration segment of the Mass Effect 2 DLC pack Overlord was an attempt at addressing issues players had with the exploration segments in the original Mass Effect, and lessons learned from its implementation will be used to implement similar segments in Mass Effect 3.

Save File Transfer
As with Mass Effect 2, Mass Effect 3 will allow the player to import their save file from the previous game, carrying over their decisions from both Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, totaling over 1000 variables. As Mass Effect 3 will import decisions not just from Mass Effect 2, but the original Mass Effect as well, some of the player's decisions from Mass Effect that did not have impact in Mass Effect 2 could potentially have an impact in Mass Effect 3.

If Commander Shepard died in the player's Mass Effect 2 playthrough, however, the player will be unable to to import their save game. Mass Effect 3's story is a continuation of Shepard's story and if Shepard died in Mass Effect 2 that death is considered final. Similarly, any squadmates who did not survive the suicide mission at the end of Mass Effect 2 will not return in Mass Effect 3.

Also known to have an impact in Mass Effect 3 is any romance the player has pursued. If Commander Shepard had a love interest in Mass Effect, yet pursued a new love interest in Mass Effect 2, this could have negative repercussions for Shepard's relationship in Mass Effect 3.