RANDOM VIDEO GAME NEWS

[Mamoulian War]

Well it's easy, do not buy games, which contain microtransactions, and they will go away, like multiplayer passes...

 

It just needs that you start apending your money more wisely. Give your money to a smaller company, even if their game is not "Teh Best Evah" or trendy, but treats customers as a customers and not walking wallets, and the bigwigs will notice their revenue to fall and change their ways.

 

It happened already with MP passes, it can happen again. Just stop falling for their hype, and be prepared to miss some AAA stuff. You will still have enough fun, there are more games made each month than ever before... Just be resillient about this...

Edited March 15, 2017 by Mamoulian War

[213374U]

Not even 'Bioware Points' that can be used across games? I guess at least they're selling in sensible block sizes, though it's probably a forlorn hope that if they're used for DLC purchasing that the DLC won't cost just a little bit more than the nearest single increment of points.

It wouldn't be a very good scam if you could use leftover points that you could never spend before, to buy other products, I guess.

 

 

It's John Walker and he's a big Bioware fan. He fairly regularly suffers from (and makes his readers suffer his) jilted lover syndrome, so if he does get disappointed by Bioware there will be tears before bedtime.

I don't know who this John Walker person is, but here's a video some other guy I also don't know made in response to the points raised by the former. He does praise the combat which Walker himself rated as the high point of the game with a meh/10, so there's that. Bonus points for unwittingly showcasing the incredibly creepy looking face animations, and noting long ass load times (grr!).

 

Edited March 15, 2017 by 213374U

[Luridis]

Not really interested in anything a company makes that seemingly does nothing when members of their team display open bigotry on social networks, regardless of which group that hostility is pointed at. No interest in MEA here. I mean, if the person in question didn't involve their prominent position as a game developer within a triple A publisher in said statements I'd be much more inclined to cut EA some slack but, that's not what is actually happening.

[213374U]

Not really interested in anything a company makes that seemingly does nothing when members of their team display open bigotry on social networks, regardless of which group that hostility is pointed at. No interest in MEA here. I mean, if the person in question didn't involve their prominent position as a game developer within a triple A publisher in said statements I'd be much more inclined to cut EA some slack but, that's not what is actually happening.

He no longer works at Bioware, fwiw...

[Luridis]

He no longer works at Bioware, fwiw...

 

Wasn't really important to the point. My feelings are that a company cannot claim zero tolerance and then tolerate... regardless of circumstance. And, I'll say nothing more since I'd rather spend my time on more civil points. Like... free games! Here's one:

 

 

They seem to need  a better sound designer though...

[Bartimaeus]

 

https://webmshare.com/Dm0Nz

 

somebody said the characters kinda look like they'd been shrek-ified

 

I don't know what they're talking about

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by Bartimaeus

[Fenixp]

https://youtu.be/lPu2a8fyuZg

 

Their faces are just tired, that explains everything

[kirottu]

Tired Face looks like a boy who raided moms make-up kit.

[Keyrock]

Was there no one at Bio to say to the character artists "These faces look creepy as ****. Guys, is that really what we're going for?"

[the_dog_days]

^ Because the BioWare of old have all either retired or moved on. ME:A wasn't made by the B-team, but by the C-team who happen to share the same name.

[Gorgon]

Dead eyes. 

 

That's actually pretty cringy. 

[the_dog_days]

https://youtu.be/lPu2a8fyuZg

 

Their faces are just tired, that explains everything

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VUuH4TEmgLo Edited March 16, 2017 by the_dog_days

[Azdeus]

Atleast Fallout 4 doesn't look as bad anymore.

[Valmy]

I play Bioware games now primarily for the voice actors and their performances these days. For whatever reason they seem to do a really good job at getting great performances and I really enjoy it.

 

But damn DAI was a chore. So much filler stuff I had to put up with. I am going to get and play Andromeda eventually, with EA games you have to wait awhile to get past all the promotional stuff and for all the DLC to come out so you get the whole game, but I cringe when I hear they are bringing in more open world concepts. I hope it is not as sprawlingly full of boring stuff like DAI was. 

Edited March 16, 2017 by Valmy

[Zoraptor]

Was there no one at Bio to say to the character artists "These faces look creepy as ****. Guys, is that really what we're going for?"

 

They've taken outsourcing art assets too far this time, and got aliens to design their AI skins based on a verbal description and a few photos? Or perhaps only the females, since most of the males seem to be relatively fine.

 

To be fair to ME:A though, ME as a series hasn't exactly stayed away from the uncanny valley when it comes to women before, both Miranda and Ashley v2 had issues and comical animations have been a persistent problems as well. The running animation in ME3 was... Prosperous and in real life could only come from someone who had most of their spine and hips fused yet was the one animation you'd see most often in the entire game, and Shep's amusing facial animations are still used as a meme.

[HoonDing]

"Atleast Fallout 4 doesn't look as bad anymore."

 

It looks worse than Failout 3.

[Raithe]

Okay, having sat down and played about 2 hours of ME: Andromeda now... I am strangely getting deja vu feeling for the original Mass Effect.

 

The whole opening sequence, first planet/mission on a linear track (with mild exploratory stuff), and then finally reaching the point it will start to open up and branch out galaxy wise. Is very much the whole Eden Prime / Citadel run through until you get your title as the special one. And not to put any serious spoilers to it, but yes, you do become special for... reasons.

 

The graphics seem to bounce from quite lushly nice planetary stuff and then bizarrely odd facial looks (as shown by old tired face Addison).

 

The combat is more pew-pew but with motion , so more the bounce around and dodge fire rather than just hunker down behind one piece of cover. The enemy will move and try to flank you and throw grenades and pull stuff like that rather than just come single file down a corridor.

 

Once you try interacting with the UI in the sense of accessing the inventory menus, the codex, the journal, then it all gets a bit messy.  Its very layered rather than within a few clicks. And while you get the "Your codex has fresh entries" exclamation mark showing up, it doesn't always highlight where the damn things are in the file structure, so you can end up clicking back and forth a whole heap of times to find that new one.

 

Haven't had much exposure to the inventory management or research side of things yet. Just mostly the grabbing stuff and holding it because you can't do much with it during that opening.

 

Also, no quick save button. And you cannot save the game during any Priority Missions. Which is basically the entire two hours of the start. It will do some autosaving, but beyond that, you're screwed. Once you get outside of anything titled a Priority Mission, you get saves as normal.

 

The dialogue and writing are the typical space opera cheese fest of ME, so your mileage will vary depending on how entertaining you can find that. Haven't made up my mind about the new dialogue choices yet, have to wait and see how they pan out over time I think. On a certain level, they are very much more the subtle variations and tones rather than outright differences. The rational response compared to the emotional compared to the professional or the general humorous attempt. I think the differences will come out when you have npc's that (hopefully) react differently to the tones you take rather than what you're actually saying.

[the_dog_days]

^Are there options to turn off parts of the HUD? Say what you will about how horrible the Witcher 3's HUD was (I certainly have), at least you could turn on or off all the HUD settings.

[Orogun01]

I play Bioware games now primarily for the voice actors and their performances these days. For whatever reason they seem to do a really good job at getting great performances and I really enjoy it.

 

But damn DAI was a chore. So much filler stuff I had to put up with. I am going to get and play Andromeda eventually, with EA games you have to wait awhile to get past all the promotional stuff and for all the DLC to come out so you get the whole game, but I cringe when I hear they are bringing in more open world concepts. I hope it is not as sprawlingly full of boring stuff like DAI was. 

I play BW games for the same reason people gave a damn who Lindsey Lohan was, trainwrecks are amazing.

[Chilloutman]

"Atleast Fallout 4 doesn't look as bad anymore."

 

It looks worse than Failout 3.

and Failout 3 looks worse than Fallout 1

[Katphood]

After googling a bit I came to a decisive conclusion: do not bother with ME: Andromeda.

 

The trailers didn't impress me, the impressions are all over the place and as one of the users noted earlier, Persona 5 is just around the corner. My time is more precious than another Bioware/EA game! 

[Raithe]

For a few interesting points on the nature of open-world gaming.

 

Gamesraddar - Middle--Earth: Shadow of War might solve open world gamings biggest problem

[Bartimaeus]

Not really, because such "dynamic events" feel more like random RNG baloney bullcrap rather than anything genuinely interesting. But, I mean, I guess there's not much else of a solution for that particular issue in open world games.

[Guard Dog]

Were you guys aware of this? http://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/gaming/dungeons-and-dragons-app-enters-open-beta-next-week/ar-BByi25G?li=AAfq3b1&ocid=spartandhp

[Bartimaeus]

Yeah, I heard about it a while ago. The general consensus (elsewhere, not here) was basically "wait and see, because WotC has been unbelievably awful in catering to an online audience in every prior attempt".