'Mass Effect: Andromeda' release date, news: EA unveils eye-popping gameplay footage featuring new weapons and environments

During Thursday's Game Awards, a new gameplay footage featuring the much-anticipated "Mass Effect: Andromeda" video game has been released.

In the eye-popping clip, fans are given a first real look at how BioWare's biggest project to date will look like when it arrives next year. The footage features some interesting environments and areas gamers should watch out for, as well as the game series' famed branching dialogue. Complete with new abilities and sets of weapons, it also showcases lots of space shooting action.

600 years following the events that transpired during the original "Mass Effect" trilogy, "Mass Effect: Andromeda" takes place in a completely different galaxy from the Milky Way. Taking the role of the Ryder siblings, players serve as the Pathfinder who has a number of responsibilities. To help colonists searching for a new home in the Andromeda galaxy, a Pathfinder works as an explorer, a soldier, and a guide.

The role-playing third-person shooter video game is initially slated to arrive spring next year, but an executive from EA said in an interview that it could delay the release if need be. "Right now, Mass Effect is tracking extremely well," EA CFO Blake Jorgensen told Gamespot. "The game looks beautiful. And we're really pleased with its progress. However, as you've seen, we are willing to make moves in launch dates if we feel it's necessary to deliver the right player experience," the executive went on to say.

Jorgensen added that if the gameplay quality is still not where the developer wants it to be, the delay could be as short as a week or it could be "three or four or five months."

Developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts, "Mass Effect: Andromeda" is expected to be released in March 2017 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows PC.