*Sad slide-whistle sound*

Mass Effect: Andromeda was met with disappointment, and, in the worst parts of the internet, harassment campaigns. The game had Mass Effect in the title but it didn't quite feel one. But Mass Effect: Andromeda deserves to be remembered as more than just another hyped AAA game that failed to meet fan expectations and corporate sales goals.

In 2012, as work on Mass Effect 3 came to a close, a small group of top BioWare employees huddled to talk about the next entry in their epic sci-fi franchise. Their goal, they decided, was to make a game about exploration -- one that would dig into the untapped potential of the first three games. Instead of visiting just a few planets, they said, what if you could explore hundreds?

A picture is worth 1,000 words and a good Simpsons picture is worth one quijibo. An intrepid Twitter user is turning still from The Simpsons into wonderful summaries of 2017's top video games.

November 7 marked two important milestones for Mass Effect. It falls in the same month as the first release of Bioware's sci-fi role-playing game series, which came out on November 20, 2007, giving fans a good excuse to celebrate its anniversary. And, more importantly, it can be contracted as N7, an alphanumeric designation belonging to elite soldiers within the game, like protagonist Commander Shepard. For years now, November 7 has been a celebration of all things Mass Effect, a time for news, announcements, and excitement all around.

But this N7 day kind of sucked.

An update today from BioWare confirmed that Mass Effect: Andromeda will indeed not be getting any new content. Kotaku reported as much back in late June, when sources familiar with BioWare's plans said that Andromeda would receive no single-player DLC, a huge departure from every previous game in the series.

If all the problems and videos online stopped you from giving Andromeda a go, fair enough. But if you'd like to get a taste of the latest Mass Effect nonetheless, you can now play the game for free for 10 hours.

Today on Highlight Reel we have appropriate music, For Honor roars and Battlegrounds fight club!

Yesterday, a widely shared Facebook post claimed that BioWare had canceled Mass Effect: Andromeda's downloadable content. The good news: That Facebook post was a hoax. The bad news: They guessed correctly. Mass Effect: Andromeda will indeed not be receiving any single-player DLC, three people familiar with BioWare's plans have told me.

Anthem was one of the biggest reveals for both the EA and Xbox conferences this E3, with its slick graphics and flying mech gameplay. The short demo has been widely well-received, with most of what was shown marking a big departure from what Bioware is usually known for. For some fans, however, it's too big of a departure from the Bioware formula, judging from the responses on the studio's social media pages.

On this week's episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, Jason Schreier and I spent some time discussing his lengthy reported story covering the troubled five-year development of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Mass Effect: Andromeda's next patch has the sort of improvements you might expect, like expanded character creation options. It also has something very unusual for a video game patch: It adds another gay romance route for lovesick space adventurers.

Here is a nice looking rendition of everyone's favourite Mass Effect: Andromeda's Krogan, Nakmor Drack. The difference with this take on Drack is that he's very, very edible.

Today on Highlight Reel we have vikings out the door, Andromeda drink trouble and Battlegrounds grenade failures!

Alas, some glitches are too good for this world.

In the wake of BioWare's polarising Mass Effect: Andromeda, fans have wondered where the lauded sci-fi series will go next. The answer, according to people familiar with the studio, is nowhere -- at least for the time being. BioWare has put Mass Effect on hiatus and turned Andromeda's developer, BioWare Montreal, into a support studio, according to four sources close to the company.

For all its flaws, Mass Effect: Andromeda at times can be a bloody pretty game. But it's not just the final product - the concept art is pretty damn gorgeous too.

Former BioWare UI designer Eric Bellefeuille posted a large gallery of his work this week, and it offers a fascinating look at some early versions of Mass Effect: Andromeda.

Today on Highlight Reel we have exploding cars, surprise kills, bottle flips, an incredibly depressing Nier clip, and much more!