It's November 7th, better known to Mass Effect fans as N7 Day (named for the special forces unit in that universe), and as in years past developer BioWare is provided some tantalizing teasers. This year, however, BioWare is giving Mass Effect fans their first look at the next ME game.

Granted, most of the concept art and images are hard to make heads or tails of or obstructed from full view, but they are still a fitting surprise for N7 Day. Check out the five images above, and read on to find out the significance of each.

Thus far, BioWare has released five images, four of which include a brief blurb about the next Mass Effect. Strung together the phrase reads: "The next chapter of Mass Effect is upon us with new characters to fall in love with, new enemies to encounter, and new worlds to explore."

So, presumably, three of the four images provide gamers a closer look at one of the new Mass Effect's companion characters (or is it a player character?), a new enemy or enemy base, and a new planet. Again, it's hard to ascertain much detail from the images, but it does appear the "new character" image is that of a Turian.

Also, it appears that dark grey is the color du jour in the game thus far. Maybe that's because this next Mass Effect is striving for a darker tone? Either way, we can't wait to see how the game looks with the power of Frostbite 3.

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Eagle-eyed Mass Effect fans have begun to dissect the images further, and there is much debate over the first image, which features a Mass Effect dev "playing" the game. We say playing with quotes because it's hard to tell if the developer in question is actually interacting with the game, or making it appear that way. Some seem to think that's a toolbar at the bottom of the screen, suggesting the image is just a piece of concept art, while others believe the toolbar is part of a developer console.

Whatever the case may be, this is our first solid look at the next phase of the Mass Effect franchise, which will continue on without its intrepid Commander Shepard. We're sure that speculation will abound over the next few days as fans pour over these images, but just knowing that a new BioWare game is on the way is sure to whet plenty of appetites.

What do you think of the five new teaser images for BioWare's next Mass Effect? Are there any details you can glean from the images?

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Source: NeoGAF