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Mass Effect 5 director hints that the sci-fi RPG series' notorious lens flares will be back in the next game, as BioWare apparently goes head-to-head with JJ Abrams
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Mass Effect 5 won't be dropping the RPG series' penchant for one of sci-fi's most notorious visual effects, according to a hint from its project director.
Last week, Twitter user Gray commented that "Mass Effect 5 better stick to tradition and have an excessive amount of lens flare." As any good sci-fi project with its roots in the 00s should, the original trilogy makes plenty of use of lens flaring - a visual effect that occurs when light is scattered by passing through a lens.
In filmmaking, lens flares were once avoided but became so popularized by directors such as Steven Spielberg and particularly J.J. Abrams that they eventually became ubiquitous in sci-fi. Clearly, the original Mass Effect trilogy didn't have an actual lens to aim that light through, but that didn't stop BioWare from creating them in its series.
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And it sounds like that's not likely to change. Mass Effect 5 project director Mike Gamble - who served as a producer and project manager across Mass Effect 2, 3, and Andromeda - responded to Gray's tweet with an affirmative 'ok' emoji. It's a minimal clue, but it's one of still relatively few that we've got to go on when it comes to the next Mass Effect game. If nothing else, it's evidence that the sci-fi visual language that the Mass Effect team has spent nearly 20 years nailing down isn't going anywhere immediately.
I'm GamesRadar's Managing Editor for news, shaping the news strategy across the team. I started my journalistic career while getting my degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick, where I also worked as Games Editor on the student newspaper, The Boar. Since then, I've run the news sections at PCGamesN and Kotaku UK, and also regularly contributed to PC Gamer. As you might be able to tell, PC is my platform of choice, so you can regularly find me playing League of Legends or Steam's latest indie hit.
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