Mass Effect Andromeda

[Gorgon]

Strong shooter mechanics could make me overcome most things. A weak makeaface in the character generator and the terrible animations. Maybe not though, and there is not going to be be as much glorious ME shlock either iif it's going to be so combat intensive. I want to have my cake and eat it too.

 

Also there's no cover button. Fluid cover... nahh I've never seen that done well, but it's good that they have at least moved out of the cover based shooter trope. 

[MountainTiger]

my immediate impression was that Mass Effect just turned into a zombie horror game.

About half of the first game's quests involved zombies of one kind of another, so really nothing new

[Malcador]

The quality of the game will be visible already a long time before any official "full release" (if such a thing will ever happen anyway, as they are currently are just rolling out updates every once in a while).

 

Squadron 42 on the other hand, that's going to be interesting.

 

 

Truth told, the stuff going on with Andromeda now doesn't really surprise me. They didn't really presented a lot of the game before, and that's usually a sign of the publisher trying to hide things.

Oh don't mean that the game will be a gong show, just in terms of people wanting to pounce and tear into it as the release nears.

 

I still kind of hope Star Citizen is a disaster, but that's just spite for the...special fans it has.

[Agiel]

 

my immediate impression was that Mass Effect just turned into a zombie horror game.

About half of the first game's quests involved zombies of one kind of another, so really nothing new

 

 

I think that comment was more a reference to how those faces might provoke a "Jesus! F***! Kill it with fire!" reaction in those when first confronting them.

[ktchong]

 NOT SO MODEL BEHAVIOUR Bioware accused of deliberately making Mass Effect: Andromeda female characters ‘ugly’:

 

Fans have accused game developer Bioware of making all its female characters “ugly”.  Several have pointed out that the women in Mass Effect: Andromeda appear less attractive than the models they are based on.

 

But male characters look just as dashing as their real-life inspiration, it appears.

 

In the game, you can play as a male or female version of the same character, Ryder.

 

But the Bioware fansite Biofan points out that actress Jayde Rossi, who gave her likeness to the protagonist, looks quite different to her.

 

On the other hand, model Steven Brewiss looks almost identical.

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2017 by ktchong

[Bartimaeus]

 

"So the game isn't even out yet but you can already assure us that it's a "bad, poorly made game" and "a new low point for Bioware"?"

 

It is up to EA/nu BIO to convince us that the game is worth playing and buying. They have failed to do that. It looks awful. PERIOD.

 

Whether you are convinced by the marketing is a wholly different matter. Looks to me that, for the first time ever, you aren't, and it shows.

 

The game may be bad alright (mediocre is the vibe I've been getting, personally), but it won't be as bad as the collective circle-jerk makes it out to be, that's simply not possible. It's rather amusing to watch, really. It's as if all these people suddenly forgot the frequently cringe-worthy dialogue of previous ME titles, the Shepard Rape Face meme and the fact that he literally limps his way through the whole of ME2 -- not to mention the really bad bugs and ****ty consolified UI that plagued previous installments.

 

If I didn't know how the bandwagon mentality works, I'd be tempted to think that it's a directed thing.

 

But hey, I'm not here to piss in your corn flakes. You want to hate on a game you haven't even played? Have at it.

 

 

Well, I guess it's more fun to be negative on a game you never plan to play than to have just a measured or neutral reaction.

[majestic]

 NOT SO MODEL BEHAVIOUR Bioware accused of deliberately making Mass Effect: Andromeda female characters ‘ugly’:

 

 

 

Fans have accused game developer Bioware of making all its female characters “ugly”.  Several have pointed out that the women in Mass Effect: Andromeda appear less attractive than the models they are based on.

 

But male characters look just as dashing as their real-life inspiration, it appears.

 

In the game, you can play as a male or female version of the same character, Ryder.

 

But the Bioware fansite Biofan points out that actress Jayde Rossi, who gave her likeness to the protagonist, looks quite different to her.

 

On the other hand, model Steven Brewiss looks almost identical.

 

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StPjtfj-38s

 

 

 

 

Well, now we know where luzi's gotten to.

 

edit:

 

Spoilered the videos to make the post more readable.

Edited March 21, 2017 by majestic

[Malcador]

Come on now, don't link to the Sun.

[the_dog_days]

 

 

my immediate impression was that Mass Effect just turned into a zombie horror game.

About half of the first game's quests involved zombies of one kind of another, so really nothing new

 

 

I think that comment was more a reference to how those faces might provoke a "Jesus! F***! Kill it with fire!" reaction in those when first confronting them.

 

 

She was supposed to be a living, human NPC but she looked like a cheesy zombie.

[ktchong]

Well, the Sun's article does have a point: the female characters in Mass Effect: Andromeda is ugly.

 

IMO, BioWare seems to be pushing some kind of "ugly (women) acceptance" agenda.  Which is not entirely impossible because feminists and SJW have been pushing the "fat (women) acceptance" agenda for about a decade now.  The "ugly (women) acceptance" is the natural extension of fat acceptance.

 

Nowadays, BioWare seems to be more concerned with pushing some social justice agenda rather than making good games.

Edited March 21, 2017 by ktchong

[the_dog_days]

To be fair, with the exception of guy Ryder (these Ryder jokes practically write themselves and never get old), none of the human faces look good. It's not just the women.

[Darkpriest]

Well, I know I won;t be buying the game. Shooters are not in my alley that much. The entertainment art is supposed to be eye pleasing. Do we get  "ugly" actress for main roles of blockbusters in Hollywood? Fashion magazines? etc?

 

The whole outlook in Bioware game changed. Even the "male" protagonist model looks like a hipster on a lost trek to his coffee shop...

 

(and then women cry that there are no real men out there)

Edited March 21, 2017 by Darkpriest

[213374U]

^ I have no intention of playing the story until I can download and play with a Conrad Verner face.

[Raithe]

One thing that's somewhat disappointing is the music. Don't get me wrong, the music itself is quite decent in itself, however it is very subdued and understated and is very much minor background rather than sweeping space opera exploration.

It doesn't quite have the emotional kick/carry off that the music from the ME trilogy have.

[HoonDing]

Come on now, don't link to the Sun.

Third page will do.

[Bartimaeus]

One thing that's somewhat disappointing is the music. Don't get me wrong, the music itself is quite decent in itself, however it is very subdued and understated and is very much minor background rather than sweeping space opera exploration.

It doesn't quite have the emotional kick/carry off that the music from the ME trilogy have.

 

ME3 had some music problems, too - probably owing to the departure of their lead composer, which lead to them recycling tracks from previous games.

[ShadySands]

Was on the planet after Eos when I started getting some game integrity tamper error which keeps killing my game. Verifying all the files now and hoping that fixes that.

 

I've also just got my first quests of gather 20 elf root and 16 coal or whatever.

 

 

 

Solved murder mystery quest but the only options are to let the murder charge stand or let the guy go. I guess attempted murder isn't an actual crime in the future

 

 

[Orogun01]

I just realized how dumb the Andromeda initiative is; they send millions of beings into a new galaxy that hasn't been recon by a forward team and hope for the best. Is overpopulation such a big deal that they just decided "Sure, lets shoot people to unknown space where we haven't even established a colony."

[the_dog_days]

I just realized how dumb the Andromeda initiative is; they send millions of beings into a new galaxy that hasn't been recon by a forward team and hope for the best. Is overpopulation such a big deal that they just decided "Sure, lets shoot people to unknown space where we haven't even established a colony."

 

That's what I meant when I said that the premise didn't make sense. The initiative makes as much sense as a suicide cult. At one point someone on the Nexus said something about receiving later new colonist and I laughed involuntarily. (First time I laughed at anything in the game.)

[ktchong]

The best thing about Mass Defect: Androgynous is all the memes and satirical videos that are coming out...

 

 

P.S. Mass Defect is currently mediocre 75%-78% at Metacritic.... a BioWare game being hammered by the critics. 

Edited March 22, 2017 by ktchong

[teknoman2]

if it wasn't for EA's money it would probably be about 10% lower. most reviews i've seen so far feel like the reviewer is struggling to make some things look good to justify his inflated score.

[Azdeus]

if it wasn't for EA's money it would probably be about 10% lower. most reviews i've seen so far feel like the reviewer is struggling to make some things look good to justify his inflated score.

 

Yeah, when I read the Swedish PCGamer review I expected something in the area of 60-70 but definetly not 84%. A theory that I worked up though is that since the reviewer has bad hearing he spent more time reading the subtitles rather than seeing the horrid facial animations.

 

Does anyone know if the day 1 patch fixed any of the animations?

[Raithe]

I still went ahead and picked up a copy of the game (and technically I might have used VPN to start playing it Tuesday rather than wait till Thursday for the UK release).  Picked up from where I'd run through on the trial play and carried on.

 

I'm going to say outright that there are issues with it, it's got a fair few niggling flaws in the background, but it's also got a handful of interesting concepts and attempts. For what it is, I'm enjoying it and can see it being value for money. The main issue is that it doesn't actually feel like an AAA game, which is definitely at variance with the hype train they had running for the past year. It's the odd little flaws, and the lack of polish that seem to set this apart from previous Bioware games (heh, it does have a certain Bethesda feel to it in that matter). There's a few odd triggers that click in unexpectedly - you meet a companion npc on a planet and are obviously intended to complete that story branch that has them join you before returning to the ship, because if you return to the ship before they join you.. you can still end up overhearing that companion who isn't even on the ship having conversations with your other companions.

 

There is some fun dialogue and some god-awful ropey dialogue. The animation is.. what it is, and there do seem to be a bit of awkwardness with texture popping with characters. The planets and backgrounds are gorgeous and lush. The music, while not bad on its own is very subdued and unlike previous ME games, they don't seem to use it to add emphasis to any emotional moments. There's no really soaring tunes to carry you along when you step forth onto a new world, or suggest the beginnings of action.

 

But what is there is decent , standard action-rpg wander around and do stuff and explore lore, shoot things and talk to people. I'm wondering if it'll really open up once you've gotten the initial Angara thing dealt with. They talked much about the open exploratory nature, but so far it's still been fairly constrained in where you go. And the fact that 15 hours into a game and they're still introducing new gameplay mechanics does make you wonder on the pacing - but then it makes a certain sense that you're not going to deal with colony/outpost expansion until a point you can start establishing them.

 

The return to Eos after some time has passed and seeing how it's changed in that time, and how some of your earlier decisions have shaped it is nice, so I'll be looking forward to seeing how well that carries on in the future and with any other colonies established.

 

All in all, it's going to be an interesting journey as this game goes along. I'm pretty much expecting a lot of unpolished diamond and rough edges but to still be entertained as I ignore the occasional jarring animation and odd glitch.

[kirottu]

But if you buy it, Bio will never learn from their mistakes and you'll have doomed us all to mediocre sequels. Doomed us all I tell you!

[Keyrock]

I'm hoping for a day where BioWare be becomes self-aware and elfroot becomes the standard currency in all its games. You will have to gather elfroot in all their games, regardless of setting. Plus, they change BioWare Points, or whatever it is, to elfroot so you have to buy elfroot IRL with real money then use the elfroot to ger DLC.