I agree, the more difficult and polarizing the choices, the better. I love the “grey area” choices that ME forces you to make. And the side character development was key – when I played Citadel, I felt like I was reuniting with old friends. Love that aspect.

Multiplayer was a huge part of my ME3 experience and it was great!!! There had better be another multiplayer for ME4, and we’d better be able to carry over some of our stuff from ME3 multiplayer since I invested so much time and effort into it! I know a lot of people hated that multiplayer affected your EMS rating but I’m with you – I thought it was a great mechanic to really get you more invested in the game.

Maybe even seeing Liara in the future as a VI like if you get the bad ending in ME3 …

Ha! That would be awesome. I’d play that game ;)

Yeah, I think if they take the future route it will be more difficult but also more satisfying. Maybe if they went so far into the future as to blend all the endings together like in Deus Ex: Invisible War, it would be possible to do a game set in the future for everyone. It would be even better if there were flashbacks to the events before ME1-3 that were playable … then it would be the best of both worlds!

Continuity would be hard since the endings are so diverse, but I feel like if Mass Effect 4 doesn’t build on the continuity, it will make the game much less satisfying. What kind of next-gen console design restrictions are you talking about? Like the XBox One limitations?

2) IMHO ME2 was the best of the series b/c you had to work with an unsavory ally to accomplish something for the greater good, but those decisions were a little too stark. I would like to see more nuanced, consequential, and meaningful moral, ethical, and political uncertainty in the available character choices to pursue. I always played the Paragon b/c the Renegade options made you feel like such an a**hole. The distinction between what the “best” or “most” moral ethical and politically favorable choice should be less distinct, more uncertain, and more agonizing. Who is to die Ashley vs Kaiden, which one is the best choice right now vs the long term, perhaps neither choice is best.

3) Old worlds vs new worlds, ME4 must be about moving forward, and while it needs to pay homage to the past, the focus should be on new worlds and new experiences.

4) ME3 was great b/c we had more in depth side character development. For me the Citadel DLC was one of the best DLC’s released, no I did not particularly care for the main story line, what I loved was learning about my favorite side character’s and seeing them in a non-combat situation.

5) More multiplayer! More multiplayer! More multiplayer! With team based C0-Op PvP, and Co-Op PvE. Also I liked having my multi-player activities have an impact on my solo game play, don’t lose that aspect.

6) Despite what I say in item 2 above, a non-ambiguous ending for the protagonist is a must for me. I, like most people disliked ME3’s ending; after investing so much time and effort into my Sheppard only to have an unclear ending really disappointed me. I want the choice to know if my Sheppard got married, had lots of blue babies with Liara, and lived happily ever after on Eden Prime.

As for the actual game content, I would love to play the events that lead up to Mass Effect. The First Contact War, Krogan Rebellions, Rachni War, etc. I think it would be so cool to see the things you learned about first-hand. Playing as another race is always a plus (Khajiit!)

Id prefer they not continue in the future of the current Trilogy simply because theres no defining canon for every player. Take KoToR for example, in KoToR2 Atton mentions Revan was a woman (mine was male). With a little dialogue you can explain it away or agree and that always bothered me. Revan was a pivotal figure in that universe and it just seemed like a way to get around technological hurdles for that time. Also look at destroying or keeping the Collector Base in ME2. It literally made ZERO difference to the story while Saving or Killing the council did. And if those can cause enough problems, lets not even go to ME3 where there are at least 4 different endings -_-

I loved the RPG elements of ME1, the roster and mission variety of ME2 and the speed of ME3. Combine those and Im there in a heartbeat :)