Mass Effect Andromeda

[213374U]

1.06 patch notes (if anyone cares about this game anymore, at this point...)
 

Mass Effect: Andromeda Patch 1.06 Notes

Fixed issue that caused singleplayer difficulty to impact multiplayer

Improved performance and stability

Various improvements to cinematic scenes

Fixed issue where SAM would mistakenly tell Ryder they have new email

Conversation options will no longer appear “greyed out” if new content is available

Improved legibility of subtitles

Maximum Nexus Level increased to 29

Single player balance improvements at higher difficulties.

Fixed issues with player animations getting stuck when jumping or changing direction repeatedly

Increased the number of autosaves allowed

Special items will not carry over into New Game+

Fixed issue where subtitles would not appear while waiting at the dialogue wheel if subtitles were disabled

Fixed issue that could cause AVP to reset to zero for all planets except Kadara

Weapon and armor vendors now carry inventory once player reaches Level 61

Chest armors now have level restrictions

Bonus items—such as Pathfinder Armor—can now be deconstructed

Fusion Mod of Resistance no longer continues to apply evade damage once unequipped

Improved responsiveness of control sticks

Fixed clipping issue on Sara Ryder’s casual jacket

Added graphics options to toggle Motion Blur and Depth of Field

Fixed issue where Remnant VI would stop attacking

Turbocharge will not deplete spare ammo when used on a weapon with the Vintage Heat Sink augmentation

Fixed interaction with datapad in the Search for the Remnant Drive Core mission.

Fixed issue where squadmate could not be revived if killed by a fiend at Site 2

Swapping a dead squadmate at a loadout will not cause them to die permanently

Nexus tram now operates during Nexus Reunion mission even if player has not completed Prologue

Fixed issue where player could romance both Cora and Peebee

Fixed issue where player could romance both Vetra and Peebee

Taking the left path in the Havarl dungeon will not block progression on Remnant Scanner mission

Fixed issue on H-047C where enemies could get stuck inside a rock, making them unkillable

Fixed issue where player couldn’t hide Ryder’s helmet after completing Ark Natanus mission

Fixed broken Nomad Shield Crafting mission

Fixed health issues with Architect’s leg that prevented completion of the fight

Frequency mission on Voeld is no longer blocked if player leaves the area after scanning the meteorite.

Missing Science Crew mission no longer blocked if Ryder kills the Architect before finishing objectives

Leaving the Nomad while falling out of bounds no longer results in infinite loading screen

Fixed issue where Nomad jump control was not remapping

Fixed issue where Cora slowly fell back to the ground after charging an airborne enemy

Improved performance on Eos when approaching or fast travelling to Prodromos

Loading auto-save will not block progress after kett encounter near Site 1 power relay station

Eliminated player fall through on Tempest after loading autosaves in space

Reduced the cost of Strike Team equipment and improved its effectiveness

A default Ryder name can now carry over to New Game+

PC – Fixed issue where dialogue choices would auto-select when using mouse and keyboard

PC – Improvements to display when running at different resolutions

PS4 – Fixed a crash that occurred when sitting in main menu for more than two minutes

PS4 – Fixed crash that occurred when moving from multiplayer back to the main menu

Multiplayer

Fixed issue where player would crouch repeatedly while interacting with device

Player’s deceased character no longer falls through the floor after an Ascendant attack in the extraction zone on Firebase Icebreaker

Improvements to reduce lag for players and hosts

[Amentep]

 

 

Fixed issue where SAM would mistakenly tell Ryder they have new email

 

Yay!

[GhostofAnakin]

Yeah, SAM constantly telling me I had new email and finding out I had none made me want to deactivate him permanently (yeah yeah, kill me too, semantics).

[Zoraptor]

Game shipped 2.5 million copies per EA's quarterly report. That's specifically sold to retailers though, not sold through (ie not sold by the store to end users) and in places it's already being sold at discount which suggests sell through numbers are sluggish. OTOH it also does not include any digital sales on PC or the consoles' online stores.

 

For perspective, DAO shipped 2.2 million and ME2 1.6 million, though it's easy enough to make and ship additional copies if you do undership the initial orders for a company like EA.

[GhostofAnakin]

Now that I've had time to digest my experience with ME:A, the best thing I can think of to describe how it felt to me was "watered down".  Everything -- from the quests, to the story, to the characters -- seemed like watered down versions of what we got in the previous ME games.

 

At least that's how I feel about the game and why I've had a hell of a time playing through a second time (I'm usually good for at least two play throughs of these RPGs).

[Amentep]

I actually didn't have much issue with a second run other than I find Kadara kind of tedious.  It actually feels a good bit like DAI (for better or worse) to me from a game standpoint (although less polished in many ways).

 

Still I had fun with it - but then I tend to find most Bioware games fun to a degree.

[the_dog_days]

I'm going to rock the boat a bit here, but I actually like MMOs. The problem MEA's knickknacky quests is that many of them require you to travel in between multiple zones to complete the quest. DAI's knicknacky quests were largely contained within the zone in which it was found.

[GhostofAnakin]

I actually didn't have much issue with a second run other than I find Kadara kind of tedious.  It actually feels a good bit like DAI (for better or worse) to me from a game standpoint (although less polished in many ways).

 

Still I had fun with it - but then I tend to find most Bioware games fun to a degree.

 

I think that's the problem.  I thought DAI was disappointing because of its attempt to have both open world AND story driven, but both ended up falling short.  And I think MEA is simply a very watered down version of DAI.

 

So if DAI was a, say, 7 out of 10 for me, that would put its watered down version (MEA) as a 4 or 5 out of 10.

[Belle Sorciere]

So with each of the first three Mass Effect games I played marathon sessions with them as soon as I got them and finished each in under a week (I'm not saying a week is fast, just providing a benchmark). I played six hours of Andromeda before the game was officially released (thanks to Origin Access) and I have yet to get back to it.

 

It wasn't the eyes or expressions or really any bugs. I'm not sure what it was, but it didn't hold my attention the way the other three did.

[ktchong]

-

Edited June 4, 2017 by ktchong

[213374U]

I'm basically done with this game, and while this is a Kotaku piece, it's well worth the read (I know, I'm not quite over the shock myself, yet):

 

http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

 

In other news, patch 1.08 is now live. The takeaway: we can finally bugger Jaal.

Edited June 8, 2017 by 213374U

[Darkpriest]

garbage game with writers having zero integrity....

[GhostofAnakin]

I'm basically done with this game, and while this is a Kotaku piece, it's well worth the read (I know, I'm not quite over the shock myself, yet):

 

http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

 

In other news, patch 1.08 is now live. The takeaway: we can finally bugger Jaal.

 

It's too bad MEA did so poorly (compared to what they were aiming for) and resulted in EA basically shelving the franchise.  If they'd learned from their mistakes this time around, MEA2 could have been back at the level of the previous ME games.

 

The "bare bones" were there in MEA.  It just was so watered down and lacked polish.

[Hurlshort]

I seriously doubt EA shelves the franchise. Were the sales figures even bad?

[Belle Sorciere]

I seriously doubt EA shelves the franchise. Were the sales figures even bad?

 

They were disappointing, I believe.

[the_dog_days]

The sells weren't bad for an rpg, but nowhere near what they were aiming for. More importantly, two out of the four titles in the franchise have been poorly received. That might be enough for EA to put an end to it.

[Belle Sorciere]

Mass Effect 3 was heavily criticized, but it was by any economic measure a success.

[Hurlshort]

It seems pretty unlikely that they will drop ME or DA. Those are basically their core franchises. They may go back to the drawing board like they did between DA2 and DA:I, but they've invested way too much in that IP. The sales would need to be abysmal, critical reception is not enough to axe a franchise.

[Zoraptor]

It's shelved only in the sense that they don't have a team available with B: Edmonton working on [NewIP] and Dragon Age and B: Montreal getting a time out- and it's probably a good idea to give MEA some space anyway.

 

MEA had actually shipped nearly a million more copies than ME2 at a comparable time, but it's a bit of an open question as to whether they sold through to customers or if there have been any additional shipments. Probably no to both, but then you'd also have to add download copies which for obvious reasons aren't included in 'shipped' totals and they'd likely again be more than ME2 managed at a comparable time. Probably decent sales numbers overall and certainly not a turkey, but equally probably disappointing for 5 years investment in a solid franchise, and its critical reception was genuinely poor.

[Belle Sorciere]

Regarding sales, this video has some interesting analysis:

 

[213374U]

It seems pretty unlikely that they will drop ME or DA. Those are basically their core franchises. They may go back to the drawing board like they did between DA2 and DA:I, but they've invested way too much in that IP. The sales would need to be abysmal, critical reception is not enough to axe a franchise.

 

They may be Bioware's core franchises, but as far as I know, EA makes most of their money off sports games. The Sims, assorted Battlefields and especially the "additional content" scam are all bigger chunks of their business than DA or ME.

 

The recent studio downsizing doesn't sound like the game was doing so well at release, but I guess that the amount of DLC the game receives will be the best indicator. So far, at least in the MP department, the comparison to ME3 suggests it's a flop.

[Belle Sorciere]

The studio wasn't downsized, though? People were transferred to other teams.

[213374U]

As I understand it, the studio (as in, Bioware Montreal), was downsized back to a "support" role -- as it was before work on Andromeda started in earnest. It's just that apparently there were no layoffs, with people being sent to work elsewhere within EA.

 

Other than letting contractors go at project completion, I don't know how standard this practice is.

[the_dog_days]

http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

 

Nowhere in any of those high concepts detailed in the article is there a description of anything that sounds like a Mass Effect tittle. I see constant downsizing of what was originally supposed to be an exploration game with who-knows-what plot goal.

[marelooke]

I'm basically done with this game, and while this is a Kotaku piece, it's well worth the read (I know, I'm not quite over the shock myself, yet):

 

http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428

 

In other news, patch 1.08 is now live. The takeaway: we can finally bugger Jaal.

 

Well that confirms my suspicions about Frostbite. But basically it all boils down to massive mismanagement...